Niche marketing

[danielmcgonagle@yahoo.com]

At Linda's suggestion, I went to Affiliate classroom to get started with things, so far so good.
They suggested I go find a nice to market so I did, but this niche is more suitable for marketers that are established, or have a "list". Its a good business opportunity, they're affiliate-friendly and I can promote either the business opp or the product itself, BUT no list!!

Should I drop this and look elsewhere, or is there a way I can make this work?


Another burning question, sort of related:
I seem to have an interest in a lot of things, however, the health field ( sports, nutrition, exercise, meditation etc....) is what seems to draw me.

Should I set up a bunch of content mini-sites all having to do with this one area of interest, or
would I be better off "diversifying" my portfolio of websites?

Who would you recommend for setting up and hosting a bunch of mini-sites?

Sorry about all the Qs
thanks for all the great advice Linda

[cscarpero]

One of the most interesting concepts I found on this was a recent blog I found called money makers or something like that. Each one had a sub blog related to a particular topic all linked together (ebay, mlm etc), so you really could have the best of both worlds.

[danielmcgonagle@yahoo.com]

Thanks for the reply, not sure I understand what you're saying here....

I guess I should be more direct with my questions, so here goes:

1- Should I try to sign up for a PROMISING affiliate program with little competition and good support even though I would do better with the program if I had a list?

2- Should I concentrate on my niche and create sub-sites, content sites that are related to this niche, or should I be more diversified in my site creations and niche marketing ideas?

[cscarpero]

I would never put all my bets into one program.

Here is a better illustration:

Say you were talking about dogs...

You make a website or blog for golden retrievers, one for pit bulls, one for german shepards etc. You link them together.

Then you get them to sign up for your dog lovers news newsletter.

Then you can sell them leashes, dog food, the dog training book, etc etc.

Does that make sense.

BTW, marketers don't all agree on this topic. That's just my opinion on it.

[Linda Buquet]

Hard to recommend the best way to go. It's such a personal decision.

As for hosting a bunch of small sites - I have a new 5 Star client coming on board next week. www.Hostland.com. They have a phenomenal reseller package. You can have up to 5,000 web sites on one host account. Instead of reselling you just put all your sites there. Or individual site hosting is 7.95 a month. With the 7.95 site they offer inlimited subdomains which is another very inexpensive way to make a bunch of mini-sites. Instead of buying a bunch of domains and hosting each seperately you just add to main site like this.

www.mainsite.com - http://sports.mainsite.com - http://bizopp.mainsite.com - http://shoes.mainsite.com

Here's my new hosting client with the great rates and also a SUPER strong and high paying affiliate program.

http://www.hostland.com/

Hope this helps and best of luck!

[danielmcgonagle@yahoo.com]

Ok, thanks Linda.

How about this, then?
What should I look for and expect from a merchant that has an affiliate program?
Some offer to do the autoresponder for you, set up a website for you (URL, really) and even come up with the informational things to send on your behalf to the people on your list.
What to look for in a merchant?
What do I want to do on my own?

[danielmcgonagle@yahoo.com]

I decided to go with my first instinct and go for the LESS promising site that I have more of an interest in. from what I hear, the more you lke what you do, the better you will be at it, so,,,here goes, thx

[cscarpero]

Great idea. If you are interested its much easier to keep the site updated.