The Two Biggest Reasons Why Most People Will Never Make a Full-Time Income Online...
It all starts when some well-meaning (yet misdirected) person encourages a budding internet entrepreneur to "start in a niche they know alot about", or base their business around "something they're passionate about"...
As horrible as it may sound - they've unknowingly sent the hopeful entrepreneur down a path of false expectations, poor results and eventually - failure. In fact, the myth of "do what you love and the money will follow" has been responsible for more failure than likely any other influence - perhaps even more so than laziness or a lack of perseverance.
Because the simple truth of the matter is that the only way you're going to make real money on the net is if your business is based around two crucial things:
1) Large Demand
2) Buyers
In other words - you aren't going to get rich selling a $15 ebook about growing square watermelons - even though that might be a great passion of yours.
The demand just isn't there. Maybe there's a few searches a day on Google for the topic, and perhaps there's some interest in the online "gardening enthusiast" communities - but you'd be hard-pressed to make even a few hundred dollars a month from ebook sales.
Similarly, you also aren't going to have a particularly easy time getting rich by building websites about some seemingly "popular" topics like humor, jokes, funny pictures and so on. And while there are a few ways to "monetize" your site (with AdSense, CPA Offers, CPM Banners, etc.), it takes literally millions of website visitors to make even just a few thousand dollars in markets like that.
The demand is huge - but the visitor value is extremely low...
Instead, if you want to make it big online - pulling down an impressive six-figure income - you need to tap into markets with tons of demand, where the majority of the visitors are valuable.
You need to capture tons of traffic that wants to buy something. If you take this approach, you'd practically have to hijack your own order links (or affiliate links) not to make a sizeable income.
In fact - did you know that some affiliates make several thousand dollars daily just by promoting a single product in hot markets? (Just imagine what the merchant is making...)
In some markets there's actually so much demand that the vendors are quite literally selling over a thousand units - or more - per day. Digital products, with practically zero overhead/delivery cost.
But it all comes back to tapping into valuable demand. In most cases, it takes no extra effort or "skill" to market to a valuable market than it does to struggle along with something you're passionate about.
These two factors - demand and buying traffic - are what seperate the "wannabe" marketers from the millionaires. Because there's no real secret - you just need to sell what thousands of people are already buying.
The ball is now officially in your court. Are you tapping into markets with massive, valuable demand?
Or are you struggling to simply make a few dollars occasionally with a business that's based on your own passionate interests?
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While you hit some very important issues people deal with when trying to market products online - it is also a fact that those working true to their passion often claim to be the most successful because of their passion for the field they invest their time.
Thus - the winning combination is finding a profitable niche --- that you have passion to learn or work in. If you have no passion interest in the topic your missing out on some of the best things life can offer other then the gold mine.
I think it needs to be a topic with some demand but ALSO needs to be something newbies are passionate about or at least interested in.
IMPORTANT
If a newbie affiliate jumps into something like insurance, just for the money:
1) they won't be able to compete.
2) they will be bored out of their minds and frustrated trying to generate content.
3) They won't make any sales.
4) They will quit saying they didn't make a dime and affiliate marketing does not work.
JUST FOR THEIR VERY 1st SITE, I feel strongly, the niche needs to be something they are passionate about, interested in, or interested in learning about. It needs to have some demand but not be TOO competitive.
It's REALLY important new affiliates can start to see some early results from their efforts or most will give up and quit!
Then after they learn on this easier 1st site, they'll be in a better position to decide if they want to tackle a more competitive, in demand site.
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There is so much to learn when you start to run a business online. I think if you understand your topic inside and out, it makes it easier to learn the online end of it.
If you don't understand your topic then you have to spend a lot of time learning it AND learning the internet marketing end. It can be hard to separate problems out when you're not sure of the facts.
I think life on the net is no different from life on Main Street. A person who wants to decorate cookies for a living (who knows how to bake and is artistic) shouldn't think they can open an insurance company or bank and succeed easily. Not only do they have to learn how to run a business they have to learn about insurance policies.
I agree that you're far better off having a passion for something. It also helps you stay excited.
For every "Passion" there are tons of people out there who share it and the internet is the only place you can find all those people world wide - it's exciting!
While you hit some very important issues people deal with when trying to market products online - it is also a fact that those working true to their passion often claim to be the most successful because of their passion for the field they invest their time.
Thus - the winning combination is finding a profitable niche --- that you have passion to learn or work in. If you have no passion interest in the topic your missing out on some of the best things life can offer other then the gold mine.
I agree that combining a profitable niche and personal passion is the winning combination. That's why it's important to know your passions, which is where I recommend people start, but also how to research a potential niche for profitability (and keywords for consumer intent).
This also ties in with something I read by Paul Myers of Talk Biz News in his ebook Need to Know (p. 19):
"If your product solves a problem that 100% of the people in the world have, and 0% of the people in the world care about, it's not providing value. And if it doesn't provide obvious value, it won't sell.
Unpleasant Fact of Business #673: You are not your market.
Get over it."
Differentiating between what YOU want and what your market really wants is an area I will be seeking to learn more about.
I started with something I know about, not necessarily something that I am 100% passionate about. But I am a knowledge bank, and considering I talk about the niche all day at my normal job, it was a natural extension.
I agree that this step was important, because I it was something I was somewhat passionate about enough to learn AM with it.
I made some great early steps, but quickly learned that the best I could expect is an adsense site from this effort (with some contextual Affiliate links sprinkled in). This site pulls in a couple bucks a week still, it will be more when I regain time to put more effort into it using stuff that I learned on my newest effort for traffic generation... which was also the key to page 1 (which I have struggled to hit on that site... I sit 11 on every variation of the keyword). My new effort has higher payouts, so I will finish here first.
Earning my first sale of ~$4 was all the motivation that I needed to push ahead... two more sales of $25 a pop just tells me that I am getting things right.
As an affiliate marketer who spent years in mundane 'jobs', I think it depends on how narrow your 'passion' is.
My passion is making money through affiliate marketing. If I thought it would pay the bills, I would write and make sites about (the mating habits of the african water buffalo)
If you are chasing the perfect combination of 'passion' and 'money' good luck, it may work for you. But think about all the 'great' painters and authors who only became 'great' after they died.
"It's REALLY important new affiliates can start to see some early results from their efforts or most will give up and quit!" Best quote of the thread.
I was just about to say the same as simcat..... the passion should be about making money online and not just about making money from, say, cooking or soccer or whatever the passion is..... I personally will be happy to find a good niche that is ripe for the picking no matter what the subject is, as long as my clickbank and bank account are filling up nicely
The Two Biggest Reasons Why Most People Will Never Make a Full-Time Income Online...
