Affiliate programs for Affiliates & Internet marketing

[bball]

Ros,
The meltdown in the US mortgage market has motivated me to become an Affiliate marketer. In starting out I'm perplexed by the advice to find a narrow niche, yet I have bought your program, and it is one I'd like to promote. In doing keyword research affiliate program is one of the keywords, but conflicting information I have read is that this subject is too broad. How do I narrow this niche down when I want to help people in the mortgage business who need income to become affiliate marketers?

[Rosalind Gardner]

Hello bball,

Although it pleases me that you would like to promote my book, choosing affiliate marketing as your first niche when you have no experience (or demonstrable success) with affiliate marketing is probably not wise.

I discuss the reasons for this extensively in the book.

Any entrepeneur worth his or her salt will tell you to start with a topic that you know --- and know well.

You can combine 2 or 3 topics to appeal to a broader market (wider demographic) while at the same time narrowing the scope of your topic... ie. decorating+kids = decorating kid's rooms.

Once you've had success as an affiliate marketer, THEN think about starting a site/page on the topic of affiliate marketing.

Cheers,
Ros

[webwiz]

bball,

I was also in the mortgage business a few years back and my first site was a credit information site. I still write my own articles for that site because I had the experience of the business and knew what questions people wanted answers for.

Ros gives good advice when she says start with a topic that you know --- and know well. You will come across as an expert and have a lot of knowledge to write good articles.

I recommend affiliate products related to the credit and mortgage niche and they all pay well. I also build a mailing list with my credit site because you get to market to your visitors over and over again.

So you may want to consider a mortgage information site to begin your online journey. There are a lot of good affiliate programs to promote in credit and mortgage.

You are probably wondering why in the world then does the guy have a toy site in his signature? I started over 5 years ago and I now have 14 web sites in multiple niches. I just started out with something I knew.

[bball]

Ros,
Been out of pocket...
Thanks for the insight and advice! I was going down this path and was getting the sense that I should switch gears.
Thanks for confirming this. I'm back to the drawing board to narrow my niche.

[bball]

webwiz,

Thanks for sharing about the credit and mortgage. Share with me more about pursuing this...right now the mortgage business is dying on the vine. So I don't know how that would sell in a declining market, that's why I started to look outside the industry.

[webwiz]

bball,

Here is what I do. I like article marketing because it doesn't cost any money yet works really well. I write articles based on keywords that I research around mortgage. People are losing their homes now due to foreclosure so these types of articles are hot right now.

I used to submit the articles to article directories but I have my own article directory now and I put that article in there. That gives me an instant back link to my mortgage site.

I also have a mortgage blog that I put the articles on and again another back link to my mortgage site. At the end of these articles I put an affiliate link to something like Credit Secrets Bible or maybe Lending Tree.

These pay around $40 to $50 for each conversion. People still want information about mortgages, foreclosure procedures and how the credit system works and when you supply that information it's like a pre sell to your offer.

Don't let the news of low mortgage applications sway your Internet marketing tactics because people still come on the Internet for information and that will never change. It's terrible if you are in the mortgage business but as Internet marketers we have a unique opportunity to supply information that as mortgage professionals we know a lot about.

Anyway, that's partly how I market my mortgage site and I make sales every day just by supplying that mortgage information. I'm in several niches but I started with mortgage because I know a lot about it and it pays well.

I've heard a lot of people that say stay away from weight loss too but I do well in that niche also. I go where the money is. Golf, toys, coffee, cell phones, I could go on but you get the idea.

[mtnest]

bball,

I am also in the credit industry and I find writing articles and submitting like webwiz talks about really works. You are not going to make a killing overnight, but it will allow a steady stram of income. If you are not aware this is basically the bum marketing method. There is a website that explains all of this for free. If you search for bum marketing method by Travis Sago you should find it. I have applied his techniques and have been able to rank on the first page for my keywords in a little over a week. In fact, this is the only method that I have been successful at and it cost practically $0.

Good Luck,