5 Star Affiliate Programs

highroller22 · #1 (**permalink**) 10-30-2008, 05:46 PM

Hi everyone,
I just started on this industry and gained a lot of knowledge and tips from this forum.I've been doing a lot of research on the forum and found a couple of nice niches. My question is what to do after finding a niche. Do I actually try to find a supplier for the product, blog about it and put ads/links to vendors who supply the product, create a BANS store?? I am still a bit confused about the whole affiliate/niche marketing. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Linda Buquet · #2 (**permalink**) 10-30-2008, 06:05 PM

hi highroller22,

Welcome to 5 Star. Glad the forum has been beneficial to you and glad you decided to join and get active.

Well there are SO many different ways to start and the recommendations would sometimes vary somewhat depending on the niche. I'd give you one standard easy, middle of the road type of plan, reluctantly... BUT I'm afraid I could tell you all that, but then if I knew the niche I may say, oh in THAT case, I'd do it this other way.

If you can give me a general hint about the niche or product category that does not give your niche away that would help.

highroller22 · #3 (**permalink**) 10-30-2008, 07:24 PM

My first niche is a product in the food/bev. industry and my second niche is a service in the finance sector. I am very knowledgeable and quite fond of both these products/services since I was introduced to it two years ago. I've already chosen a domain and host. As I stated earlier what would be a good next step? Does every website I develop include a blog/articles?

Blog about the products/reviews?
Find an affiliate program for these niches?
Link to existing vendors of the product?
Sell the products myself after finding a supplier?

Thanks for the quick reply Linda and I know I have a lot more information to absorb. However, I am still eager and excited about this industry.

Peter

Linda Buquet · #4 (**permalink**) 10-30-2008, 08:02 PM

Hi Peter,

Great you found niches you know about and enjoy. It will make this so much easier.

1) The most common and effective approach I think would be to start with a blog. You can also have static pages on the blog, they don't all need to be blog entry type postings.

2) Generate Content - don't worry about affiliate links right away. Build your foundation 1st which is content. I would save the product reviews and direct sales attempts until stage 4. I would write keyword rich content that is going to ATTRACT your target visitor. What would your target customer be interested in or searching for? This is the bait that will help to start to get targeted visitors coming to your site. Try to add at least 3 - 5 new blog posts per week. 2 a day even if you have time. Ping after each new post. (Ask if you aren't sure how.)

3) Learn to market and drive traffic - don't worry about affiliate links right away.
I already said that didn't I? There are reasons!

Marketing/traffic strategy could be partly: Learning about and implementing SEO strategies, posting comments in other relevant blogs, blogging about and linking to other industry blogs, commenting in forums, joining social networks and article marketing, for starters.

4) After you have a good foundation built with 2 & 3 you can start thinking about adding affiliate links. Text links within your content that don't sound like a sales pitch and are highly targeted to your niche typically convert highest. But you can also have relevant text links and banners in your side bar or at the top of bottom of each blog post.

The reason I say wait on the affiliate links is doing it to early will take you away from all the momentum you need to build up doing #2 and 3. PLUS if you start marketing and don't have much good content yet - mainly just a bunch of affiliate links it can turn your precious early visitors off.

Most important to know - it can take 500 visitors before you make your 1st sale - they should come much faster after you learn the ropes. But if you stop for instance before you even get 25 visitors, to learn about how to pick programs, best way to add links, best link placement and all of that - you just pushed back the length of time it's going to take you to start getting enough traffic to even start making sales. So that's my thought process anyway.

Like I said earlier, there are a TON of ways to get started.
This is a safe efficient way for newbies to get started.

JoanneGreco · #5 (**permalink**) 11-30-2008, 10:35 AM

Great tips Linda. Thanks for posting them.

Nidoszintern · #6 (**permalink**) 07-05-2009, 04:09 AM

Hi ,

Before starting any project , research must be done. And that's why almost 90% internet
entrepreneur failed to make money online . Because they just dumb their hard earn money
into something that they themselves are not to sure about.

One of the purpose of doing research , is to look for potential niche(s) that can be developed into profitable source of income , in long term( hopefully

)

Once niche had been decided , the next thing to do is to identify how you can put those niche and ideas that you have , into working machine. I mean , at this point of time,
you must start looking for things like hosting , website platform , etc.

In conclusion , looking for niche is just a part of task must be done , before starting anything else. I found some valuable lessons by a guy named Brian Terry . He taught a lot about niche marketing. I think you will need it.

Good luck

newyorkshopping · #7 (**permalink**) 10-01-2009, 05:55 PM

market survey, strategy watch to know your competitors, identifying the way they work, and they sell the product. Even if it's a niche, you have normally one guy who sells a similar or identical product. Then, make a real marketing plan to make the difference or to explain why you are the right to choose and why this niche market is valuable for customers.
I hope it's helpful.

paperkool · #8 (**permalink**) 10-04-2009, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by highroller22

Hi everyone,
I just started on this industry and gained a lot of knowledge and tips from this forum.I've been doing a lot of research on the forum and found a couple of nice niches. My question is what to do after finding a niche. Do I actually try to find a supplier for the product, blog about it and put ads/links to vendors who supply the product, create a BANS store?? I am still a bit confused about the whole affiliate/niche marketing. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Much depends upon what niche you're into. It's always nice to have a big list of potential buyers first. Maybe it's just me and a lot of other marketers but, we make sure the demand is solid. then the rest of the stuff is just like a cool aid stand. Get set up according to what you're selling.

richkid · #9 (**permalink**) 10-04-2009, 07:55 PM

Hi guys, everyone say that you should pick a niche that you are passionate about so that you can write about it and update it daily and money will flow. But i am wondering do all niche generate same amount of money?

I mean your choosen niche might generate less money than a niche that you are not interested, isn't it true?

Linda Buquet · #10 (**permalink**) 10-04-2009, 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by richkid

But i am wondering do all niche generate same amount of money?

No and some niches can't even be monetized and some are too competitive for newbies.

So it's not just finding something you know about or are passionate about. You also have to do your keyword and competitive research and try to determine if the niche is viable before jumping in.