Affiliate Marketing Within Your Niche Fact Or Fiction

One of the absolute most prolific pieces of advice for prospective affiliates is to work within their passions-to find their niche market in an area of personal interest and stay with it.  While there is a place for niche marketing in affiliate marketing, it is not what you have been led to believe that it is.  For sure, "work within your personal niche" is one of the worst pieces of advice given to new entrepreneurs, and the cause of multitudes of affiliate failures.

Do what interests you

Do what interests you; find your niche; do what you are passionate about; sell the products that interest you the most…

These are the pieces of advice that entrepreneurs are told time and again.  And there is some basis to this thought, some method behind this madness.

The overall belief is that if you choose to do business in an area or 'niche' that you are deeply interested in, that passion will shine through and you will make sales almost accidentally.  The feeling is that by selling products or working within your most favorite niche you will have a built-in sense of urgency and desire that will compel you to work on your business and to succeed.

Moreover, by working within a niche category of personal interest you will come prepared.  That is, you will come armed with bucket loads of knowledge and experiences with various products so that you don't have to 'waste time' getting up to speed.  You'll already know the products that deserve promotion.  And you'll know all the promotional background information almost off the top of your head.

The belief is that if you focus on promoting products that are in some way of interest to you, you can easily take care of business.  You can construct websites that will sell the products; you can write articles to submit to directories and gain links back to you, the niche expert; you can build blog upon blog and never run out of something great to say about your favorite little widget that so transformed your life as a widget collector (whether you should or not, is another matter, and we'll discuss that later).

Here's the thing about this-none of it is untrue.  It is easier to put yourself behind a product you already know.  It is easier to hit the ground running when you are already well-versed in matters.  It is easier to connect with visitors and readers who are more like you.  So why, then, is it a myth to believe that you should focus first and foremost on your personal-interest niche as an affiliate marketers?  Why can't that mean virtually automatic sales and commissions?

What's wrong with passion?

The reasoning against personal niche concentration is more simplistic than you might think.  And in point of fact, there are some exceptions to the rule, which we can touch upon after you understand why the myth in general is a myth.

Then cut to the chase already, right?  What's wrong with doing something you are passionate about?

There is nothing truly wrong with it.  But there is something unprofitable about it in an overwhelmingly large percentage of cases.  What is unprofitable about this mindset is that it is just too limiting. By choosing your business and products based on one personal preference, you lose the freedom of choice.  And that freedom is important, because it is what allows you to give buyers what they want, and saddles you with a limited number of affiliate product options, most of the time in a niche that isn't seeing very high demand.

Very simply, unless your niche interest happens to be in products or subject areas that coincide with what people are ready to buy, it does not come with the most essential element of affiliate marketing success-built-in customers.

To your continued success…

Michael Hobach

What is it that I know that makes me an expert

I'll bet you are wondering what it is that makes me an expert to sit here and talk to you about making money and especially doing it online…

First – I'm by no means an expert!

I have a good friend who keeps telling me that I'm an expert in Internet Technology and that I keep too much to myself. Well – I do know a lot and I have done a lot… but that doesn't make me an expert – at least not in my opinion!

But here's the thing…

I used to work really hard – you know what I mean! Then things really changed for me and a number of years ago I discovered how it was possible to stop trading my time for a paycheck. I still have family members, friends and neighbors who have asked outloud – how is it that you are able to sit at home and still have all of the things that they work so hard for by going to a job. Actually my ex wife beat on me a lot about not going to work and having a job.

In our lifetime we have been conditioned to believe that we have to work for some big corporation and in return we get paid and have all of these great benefits. Well, I think it's become obvious in the last couple of years that relying on some big corporation for our livelihood isn't the best idea. Our income is defined by our position and company policy. Over achievers seldom receive the compensation they deserve. True – some days we can just show up and still get paid – but is that really fair?

I was raised to be different and think outside the box

My father always – and I mean always, reminded me that I don't have to be like everyone else. I don't have to do what they do or think what they think! So many people are just 'clones' of everyone else around them. Are you?

To make insane amounts of money online and off line requires that you think differently

Personally, I have a desire to make enough money to pay my bills, and live comfortably – not unrealistic! I do want enough money so that I can continue to help others who are less fortunate than me, but the goal is to teach them to help themselves. Our society today does not know how to do that! Truth!

Motivation comes in weird ways

To be honest – a major motivating factor in my life to make a total change on how I earn a living came about in 2001 with some issues with my now ex wife. Divorce was inevitable, and it became clear that I needed to do what I needed to do for myself and my children. Her desires no longer mattered.

The ISP business that I had created, and where I worked long hours, was just another JOB – in fact I worked a lot harder than I did when I had a JOB with a company that I didn't own… duh!

The beginning of the rest of my life

In 2001 when we moved out here to the lake I knew that I would have the environment to work on the things that I really needed to work on, including myself.

I tried a lot of things including Network Marketing – won't ever do that again unless it's just to get a good product at a better price!

I also went back to what I love – truly my passion… the Internet from a marketing and and sales standpoint. You see the business that I was trying to separate myself from was a service company – mostly providing high-speed connections to local businesses. It was very much hands on and more work focused and not really creative focused for me. The technology behind everything that you see online is interesting to me – and it was my goal to make it simple to implement and easy to scale.

I do have another passion – Real Estate. I have little fear of failure when it comes to things like Real Estate (RE). Well actually I have little fear of failure when it comes to just about anything – except family!

My passion in Real Estate put me on a quest to become more knowledgeable about Real Estate transactions – at the time I had bought and sold 9 homes (that I have lived in) and bought and sold 2 commercial properties.

I went to school to get my license to originate mortgages – the learning experience was what I really wanted – I had no intention of ever originating a mortgage though. In my life I have done this a lot to learn things that I want to know. Yes I did get my license in the state of Wisconsin – no it's no longer active as I let it expire.

At the same time that I started doing some RE Short Sales I also got involved online with some other people doing the same. I came to realize that there was demand for what I knew about RE and Foreclosures – mind you I learned what I knew on my own. As a result of my new front line passion I started writing e-books and training material. Amazingly I was making more money with almost no work right from the start. I started doing more and more and the more I integrated the 'technology' part, the more money I was making – again with almost no real work on my part!

The rise and fall of a 'niche'

The Real Estate Short Sale / Foreclosure market online was truly one of those huge niches that we all would love to be a part of. I was, and for the most part I did everything right! The one thing that I did wrong was I focused on just one niche and I didn't pay attention to what was really going to happen to it when things changed in the market and our economy. We all saw it coming – but I'm not sure that everyone really knew what it meant. Now we do – that niche is still there, but there are no buyers of the things that we were selling anymore. Rather, I should say that the buyers are still there, but they are trying hard to keep their head above water so they aren't able to spend the money. Fair?

The point is that most people who buy things like my books are those who want to be a Real Estate Investor. Some are already REI's and they wanted to know more on the subjects I wrote about. Some are Realtors who where/are trying to learn another way to use what they already know. But the 'buyers' who really mattered were those who saw an opportunity and wanted to do that – most just bought the books that were never read… Remember all the late night infomercials about Real Estate in the 80's and 90's? Yep I had boxes of that stuff too… most buyers never do a thing with their purchase – and now with the economy they can't even imagine Investing in Real Estate. Oh well…

In the mean time

While I was writing my books and marketing them online I discovered how easy it was to make money! Actually I discovered how easy it was to make money online regardless if it was my product or someone else's product. In a previous post here I indicated how I was making six figures on my books and training alone. I didn't mention that I was also making money promoting other people's products and services.

There was one e-book from ClickBank that I was promoting – not promoting hard – but promoting… I was earning just under $4k per month promoting this e-book alone as an affiliate. It was easy! Then all of a sudden that book was no longer available

I was also promoting a service that I found on Commission Junction, that made me about $300 per month. Now this was a $29.99/mo service where I received $2.99 each month on every customer that I referred. Not a lot of money, but the concept was awesome don't you think?

There were other promotions that I offered to my list that earned me a lot of money – it all adds up!

During this time I also did some major eBay stuff too – you see there are distributors out there who will drop-ship products directly to your customers – your company name appears on all material that the customer sees. On eBay they have this 'Power Seller' program… from month one I realized more than $4,000 a month in sales on eBay. After three months I got their 'Power Seller' banner on my store. What was I selling? High-end electronics! My biggest seller was a muli-function – multi-device remote from Sony. It was about $130 and everyone wanted one!

What I've learned and what I'm willing to share with you…

Times are tight and our economy isn't playing nice with our expected quality of life. We can all make small changes in how we think and what we do to improve this.

There is a simple concept to understand - if you don't know something (like how to make money online) you will either have to learn it the hard way – by researching things and trial & error as I have, or you will have to pay to learn how this all works by purchasing programs that teach you the concepts.

Understand too that there is no such thing as just one way to make money online! And there is no ONE program that will show (teach) you everything that you need to know. Stop asking me for the ONE program that you need to purchase!

There is one thing that is not negotiable – you will have to do some work… and you will be out of your comfort zone… and it won't happen overnight!

It will happen – just not overnight!

Stop looking for the quick fix!

If you are broke and unemployed – get a job and take care of business… if you are employed, but just not making ends meet realize that buying a program online will not automatically fix your financial situation!

You won't learn this overnight and you won't start making money today.

Even the no-cost or Free programs have some expense to get started – usually domain name registration (~ $10/yr) and hosting (~ $5/mo min).

Also realize that I am not you – I do have the means and knowledge to get a brand new web site up within minutes – I own servers and have hosting already online. Most people already online have these things in place. I can register a domain name and have it live in 5 minutes – seriously…. I can create the needed graphics or pick a 'theme' within minutes and have it on the web site.

You will be able to do this too – maybe not right now, but if you really want to make money on the Internet then some day soon you will be able to move that fast on a new idea.

Sorry for the length of this post – I get long winded sometimes.

I hope you find some words of encouragement in this post, and it is my desire to motivate you to do what you need to do to get what you want! Does that make sense?

To your continued success…

Michael Hobach