Choosing a “niche market”

Choosing a “niche market”

Now that you’re considering opening your own affiliate marketing website, you have to pick a product to sell. In previous articles, we’ve talked about how important it is to pick a product you know a lot about since you’re responsible for writing articles that try to get people to buy your product.

But there is more to it then just writing snappy articles and providing a link at the bottom of the page. Knowing how to market your articles will go a long way in determining if your site is a success or a failure.

In the process of picking out a product, don’t be afraid to go “niche.” What that means, essentially, is don’t worry about picking an item that may only appeal to a small number of people. If you pick something like televisions or books, people can go down to their local Best Buy or Barnes and Noble and get those items. If you deal with a company that most people don’t have in their towns like L.L. Bean or Tower Records, people will be more likely to shop with your affiliate site because of the prestige of those companies. People can get a pair of boots or a CD anywhere, but getting those items from those stores is extra special.

Make sure your content relates to the demographic your after. If you’re selling life insurance, you probably want to have content that is going to connect with older folks, not the skateboarding crowd. And this advice goes the other way, too. If you’re selling skateboards, make sure your content is going to appeal to that generation. You wouldn’t want your content to read like an ad for life insurance. Of course, there are some products, like books and CDs, that cross generations, but you can still write your content so it aims at a particular audience. This is the other side of “niche marketing;” making sure that your content is written for exactly the people you want to buy from you. 

Niche marketing can be a hard skill to master. Most people want to create a broad affiliate marketing site that doesn’t have a lot of focus so that it appeals to the most people. While this is tempting, you can be left with a site that appeals to no one at all. By zeroing in on the group most likely to buy the product you sell on your site, you can lock yourself into a niche market and, chances are, your sales will explode. 

Marketing in niche markets

Marketing in niche markets

One of the great things about the Internet is how it works as a complete reference. The encyclopedia, the dictionary, the White and Yellow pages and even maps have all become antiquated with the invention of the Internet. How can this help you, the new affiliate marketer? It’s easy. The big money in affiliate marketing is found in niche marketing. 

Before we get into it, what exactly is niche marketing? Niche marketing is marketing to a particular group instead of the public at large. Now, on the surface, this sounds a bit strange. Don’t you want EVERYONE to buy from your website? Of course you do, but making a site that appeals to everyone and writing web content to sell your product that appeals to everyone is impossible. That’s where niche marketing comes in. You pick a product, say, Hickory Farms meats and cheeses and you do your best to market these products. When you take on a niche product, you have to ask yourself a series of questions.

• Who is going to buy my product? Well, if you’re selling Hickory Farms products, chances are you won’t be selling to many teenagers. Your market is going to skew older, so you want to write copy that is going to appeal to an older audience. Hold off on the slang, the off-color jokes and the pop-culture references.

• What benefits does my product have? In this case, Hickory Farms is a company that has been making quality products for generations. You can play up the history aspect, you can play up the quality aspect. You can even play up the holidays aspect, since they are a company that always seemed to peak during the holidays. Every product out there, every single one, has a list of benefits you can highlight. Make sure you know them and make sure you tell your customers all about them.

• Do I know enough about this product to write new, interesting content about it every few weeks? This is the BIG question. If you’re passionate about Hickory Farms and you love their products, then you should feel confident that yes, you can write a new article about their product line every few weeks. If you agreed to participate in an affiliate program only because the commission was high and you don’t know thing one about the product you’re selling, you might want to rethink your choice.

While niche marketing may sound a bit odd on the surface, it really is the way to go. Making your site focused and concentrating your energy on a particular group will make it seem more legitimate and you can count on better business in no time flat.

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