Developing your niche
Submitted by karenlb on Tue, 05/06/2008 - 14:34.
Hi Jeremy and Everyone
Really enjoyed the webinar last night (it starts at 11pm for us in England). And once I had got used to the idea of it being called a nitch (in England it's pronounced neesh) I was able to concentrate!! :-)
Jeremy talked about spending a year developing and tweaking his online dating niche, finding new areas to exploit etc.
I'm curious as to what the best approach for that would be? Using golf as an example, because that's all I can think of to use, would you either:
A) have one site that focuses only on one brand of golf equipment eg Callaway clubs, balls, bags etc, and then develop another site for another brand and so on
or
B) have one large site that is versatile enough to retail all brands, so that you can have a page for each brand e.g. callaway, ping, nike, but then also "all brands of golf ball", "all brands of bag" pages.
Not sure if that makes sense? I'm not for one minute suggesting that I view golf as a niche (nitch/neesh) market - but as I was up to 12:30 to finish the webinar, and then spent another hour discussing with my husband and getting up at 6am - I'm all out of inspiration!
I look forward to hearing your views.
Karen
I always think there is indeed a mutual exclusivity between PPC and natural search strategy.
For A, it is for natural search. However you can only have limited products as keywords for your PPC campaign.
For B, you can test for many keywords and try out many products, it is for PPC. However, since it is not focus, you lose out at SEO.
This is from my limited experience. I like to build store like B and therefore very unsuccesful at A.
I may be wrong and wish to listen to those with more experience.
CT
Option B is your best choice. Don't limit yourself to just one brand of equipment. Do some research and find the top 3 or 4 brands and promote those.
Actually use / test drive the equipment so you can post honest reviews of each.
Dan
Start with B and use A to bring your site to the next level. Write posts or categories on your large "general" site that include all the specific brands and types. Then use PPC to send traffic to your specific targeted posts or categories.
In my opinion this is the best advice. I should put a rating system on the comments where people can say most helpful/least helpful like Yahoo! Answers.
Does anybody know of a module like that for Drupal?
I thought all the replies had valid points, but by starting small she'll be able to test quicker and will have more success building out a bigger site later.
The answer isn't black and white though, so chime in with your opinions ;)
Jeremy,
I think the Karma module for Drupal is what you're looking for.
http://tinyurl.com/6a29g5
Cheers,
Jason Woods
Follow me on Twitter
Thanks for the 411 on the Karma module. I'll be checking this out.
I fully understood this first module, and have been looking forward to the assignment. But, I haven't received the email, or the assignment. Though I understand that a project, of this magnitude will have an occasional slow spot, and I don't expect Jeremy to go 24-7. I look forward to the assignment. And thanks again, for the learning opportunity. Robert
I have a little secret to share. I didn't sleep a wink before the first webinar. I've presented in front of audiences with close to 500 people and still get anxious before I get on stage. By the end of the webinar my battery was completely drained and I managed to get a full 8 hours of sleep last night.
Now that I'm fresher things will move faster. Be patient and bear with me. Testing out a new platform and doing a course that's never been done before. Expect a few hiccups, but they'll all be ironed out very quickly.
actually jeremy.. i guess all of us really appreciate you doing this project together with us... i guess you are really creating a history in affiliate marketing online....
maybe a book can even be written about this!
anyway i thought ur delivery was pretty good today and yesterday... even though i had to wake up at 5 plus in the morning to watch the webminar in singapore..
look forward to the rest of the series!! great job!
And I hardly slept a wink afterwards - my head was buzzing with new ideas!
After Tuesday's session however we came down to earth with a bump - unsure how we are going to be able to work in the US market whilst based in the UK.
You are being so generous with your time though - we should be paying a lot of money for training like this.
I hope your future nights are more restful
K
Trust me, UK itself is a big market.
Learn from all the US examples and focus on UK. You will save bank's foreign exchange rate conversion spread.
No harm taking US market also, off course.
Jeremy,
You could have fooled me my friend. I have been around the block a few times in this world, albeit not in Affiliate Marketing. What you are undertaking is: ambitious, noble, unselfish, extraordinary, exceptional, exhausting, time consuming, dutiful, and of great stewardship. Thank you!
Kevin
I came across this project just a couple of days before the launch (lucky me).
I just actually developed a website in a niche that I find interested and it went live May 7th...wait, that was yesterday. Brain is very fried.
Of course, this is my first real and ambitious project. I messed around and experimented before, but this time I felt I did it right and tried to focus. It is FAR from perfect, but I'm comfortable with having it out there.
Anyway, while I am working through the (why haven't I made a sale yet) pulling my hair out, I decided I will have one other website I will work on straight up following Jeremy's Black Ink project.
I'm not ditching my current one. Far from it. But I'm wondering what else I'll need to tweak and adjust along the way. I have had a few sign ups for my newsletters (7 so far in the past 24 hours) and a plan for revamping it just a little as I wonder if my affiliate marketing links are buried in the free stuff. Not to mention if the keywords on my ppc are bringing me the right sort of buyers. I'm getting cheap phrases, but does someone searching for 'free x' really want to buy? This is stuff I'm figuring out.
Anyway, the secondary niche I want to focus on to stave off burnout seems more competitive than the one I have now. It's 'Pets' and we know that can be rather large. But it seemed less hair pulling than 'health' which is another big interest of mine. But I haven't quite decided yet. Gotta do the litmus test to decide between the two.
Anyway, long story short...glad to be here ladies and gentlemen.
Nikki