Effective Affiliate Marketing

Effective affiliate marketing

How to Build an Online Income Empire with Less than $100

What if I told you that you can build an online income empire with less than $100? You might be thinking to yourself that this is flat out impossible.

You might be thinking that I’m trying to pull a fast one. You might even be under the impression that I’m delusional.

Well, I’m telling you, this is not only doable, but you can do it yourself. That’s right. Even if you don’t know how to write English well enough, you can do this.

Even if you’re not all that good with online promotions, you can do this.

You see, $100 is not that much money. In the United States, you can earn $100 in about a day or less.

In other parts of the world, it can take you a little bit longer, but it’s not going to break the bank. Most people can come up with $100.

The following steps will enable you to build an online income empire for less than this amount.

Step #1: Pick a cheap host

The first thing that you need to do is to pick a cheap, reliable host that charges you $1 to $3 per month. There are lots of these basic hosts.

The great thing about the type of service you’re looking for is that you don’t expect to drive millions of visitors every single day, so you can pretty much go with a light to medium-duty hosting company.

You don’t have to find a heavy-duty, top notch, top shelf hosting service provider. That’s absolutely unnecessary.

As long as you pick $1 to $3 per month hosting service company that can guarantee your links will be working all the time, you should be good to go.

Step #2: Buy cheap domains

There are many cheap .info domains available with many domain registrars. Buy these cheap domains. A lot of them sell for $2.99 per year.

You probably would need maybe 5 to 10 of these.

Step #3: Install WordPress on your domains

The next step is to install WordPress in all the domains that you have bought.

Once you have registered the domain, change the DNS server to the DNS address of your host.

You should be able to access the control panel or administrative panel of your hosting service.

Install WordPress with a few mouse clicks or keystrokes. Once you have set that up, move on to the next step below.

Step #4: Invest in a decent theme

Use a decent low cost theme, like a $10 theme. There is quite a number available online. As long as it looks professional and it’s easy to modify, you should use it.

It has to be professionally designed. It cannot look amateurish.

Step #5: Reverse engineer your competitors’ best “how to” content

This article assumes that you already have a niche you’re targeting. Find the very best content produced by your competitors in your niche. Reverse engineer it.

Maybe you would need to hire a writer from the Philippines or India for a few bucks to rewrite your competitors’ best content.

Whatever the case may be, you can get it done cheaply.

Of course, the content must be grammatically correct. It also has to be emotionally engaging, and it has to have great subheadings and titles.

Once you’ve gotten this content, publish this material on WordPress. Make sure you use pictures, make sure you use headings.

Step #6: Promote your content using Facebook comment plug in

Grab all the keywords related to the consumer content that you are promoting.

For example, if you are promoting a piece of content that talks about how to buy insurance, look for keywords that are related to the insurance selection process.

Get as many keywords that you can find. You can easily do this using the Google Keyword Planner tool.

Create an account with Google AdWords. This will give you access to the keyword planner tool.

Enter your niche or topics into the tool and you will be able to get massive lists of keywords.

Step #7: Link from your reverse engineered content

Since you have a hot piece of content based on you reverse engineering of your competitors, the next step is to link that amazing piece of content to your affiliate product or service you are promoting.

Again, this article assumes that you already know how to pick an affiliate product from affiliate networks. Maybe you also know how to offer your own product.

Whatever the case may be, link from the content that you’re going to be promoting.

Step #9: Do searches for Facebook Comments plug-in and promote your resource link

The great thing about this money making technique is the fact that you’re not promoting a sales page directly.

Let me tell you, if I’m reading a comments section on the internet and I see a link and it’s obvious that it goes to some sort of affiliate product or a sales page, I will not only be upset, but I will be angry.

I will report your post. I might even try to screw with you. I’m hardly alone. A lot of people are just angry at spam.

The great thing about this technique is that you’re not spamming a spammy page. Instead, you are promoting a credible and useful piece of content.

I hope you understand that.

So at this stage, you’re going to load your target keywords one by one into Google Keyword Planner tool, and then you’re going to include a search phrase next to it that targets Facebook Comments plug-in.

Your search will then return blog posts that use the Facebook Comments plug-in, but are related to your target keywords.

You then click through and read the blog post.

Make sure that it’s actually related to the issues you address in your content.

If you see a tight fit, comment regarding the blog post and whatever issues you find with it—maybe there’s room for improvement—and then raise issues that are related to your content.

If you do this right, there’s a tight connection between the blog post you’re commenting on and the content you’re promoting.

People would be encouraged to click through. People would see the reason why they should click through.

The best part to this is that it doesn’t look like spam.

If anything, you’re adding value to the blog post because you are discussing supplemental resources that raise issues or raise resources that adds value to the blog post you’re commenting on.

Do this for as many websites returned by your search for the hundreds of keywords you’re targeting.

If you do this right, you can get a steady flow of traffic to your target page over an extended period of time.

Best of all, since your content is top notch content, it might get shared on social media, so you can pull traffic from social media.

Bloggers might link to you and some of the direct traffic you get from Facebook comments might actually click through your affiliate link and buy something.

Do you see how this works? Good.

The great thing about this online income empire is that it costs you less than $100. It’s very scalable, and the only investment is your time.

Do some comments when you have some spare time. Instead of screwing around playing Clash of Clans, Fortnite, League of Legends or wasting your time on Facebook or checking your email, post a few comments here and there.

Maybe you can post ten comments a day.

Whatever the case may be, this is an asset that builds in value over time.

The more high quality comments you post, the more traffic you stand to get from many different blog posts all over the internet.

Keys to Success

Make sure you’re promoting the right product. Make sure you are promoting the right niche.

If you get both these right, you should be able to make quite a bit of cash. In fact, don’t be surprised if you get thousands of dollars after investing less than $100.

If this works for you, scale it up. Create more of such content, and then if you need a lot of cash quickly, you might want to sell your website on Flippa.

Does it Make Sense to Buy Ad Placements from Social Media Personalities?

From Facebook pages, to Facebook groups, to YouTube channels, to Instagram accounts, more and more online personalities are discovering that advertisers would pay them top dollar for ad placements.

Not surprisingly, a lot of these personalities are looking to charge quite a bit of money for brand mentions or even dropping links as well as offering promo codes.

What if I told you that most people who try to buy such ads end up wasting time and money? I know that sounds sad, but it’s also true.

You have to understand that just because somebody’s big on YouTube, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should advertise with that person.

Just because somebody seems to have a huge following on Twitter or Instagram, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to jump in with both feet and pay them a huge amount of money to run your ads.

Often times, doing things that way only end up with you losing quite a bit of cash.

Here’s how you do it:

Focus on Real Influencers

The first thing that you need to do is to focus on figuring out whether the influencers you’re considering are the real deal. This is the first item of business.

Everything else is useless if you don’t get this right.

You have to closely watch YouTube channels, Instagram accounts, and other social media accounts. Pay attention to their engagement levels.

Do they have a huge following, but does it seem like nobody’s sharing their stuff? Do they get a lot of likes to their page, but very few people are commenting?

Does it seem like the comments are generic comments?

Is there a certain pattern to the comments, like they came from the same place or they’re just basically reworded versions of a template response?

Do you notice that their content on Facebook doesn’t get shared a lot, but gets a lot of comments and likes?

You have to understand that as more and more scammers become sophisticated online, you have to keep up.

A lot of these scammers create “popular accounts” to suck up advertising revenue. They really don’t have any followers.

Instead, their followers are either bought and paid for, or are bots. Neither of this is good.

Last time I checked, software robots do not have credit cards. They cannot buy the affiliate product that you are promoting. Not in a million years.

This is why it’s crucial to look at their overall engagement levels and pay attention to the number of followers they have.

Another metric you should pay attention to is their following to follower ratio.

For example, on Twitter or Instagram, if the account is following a lot of people and has a lot of followers, that account might not be worth investing in. Seriously.

Why? It’s common knowledge that on Twitter and Instagram, when people follow an account, often times, people would follow back out of courtesy.

Now, when they follow back, it’s not like they care about the content being published by the person they’re following. Instead, they’re just returning the favor.

This means that an account that has a high follower figure may not have a loyal fan base.

Instead, look for people who follow very few other accounts, but have a huge following. These are more likely to be legit accounts.

Engage with Them to Determine Their Content Quality

The next level of this analysis is to engage with these social media personalities.

Comment on their YouTube channels, pay attention to their videos, check out their Tweets and pay attention to what happens.

Does it seem like when they do something, there’s a tremendous amount of waves generated in their niche?

If that’s the case, then you are dealing with somebody who is truly influential.

But if it turns out that they post content piece after piece and nothing seems to happen, regardless of how many people supposedly follow them, you might want to sit up and pay attention.

You might want to stay away from such personalities.

Even if they have real followers, the fact that nobody really takes them seriously should raise a red flag with you.

If their own content doesn’t get enough traction, what makes you think their sharing of your advertising materials will produce better results? Here’s the spoiler: it won’t.

Ask for the Very Best Price

Social media personalities are not equal when it comes to business savvy. Some know that they are sitting on a gold mine, that’s why they will ask for top dollar.

I can’t blame them, but you should not give in to these. Put them at the bottom of your list.

Instead, place product placements with personalities who charge much less. Do several tests with these and try to convert their traffic, and then stick with them.

If you can’t manage to get any good results from these low cost players, then and only then should you go to the higher cost social media personalities.

If you play this game right, you can maximize the amount of product sales or affiliate commissions you generate from the traffic sent by these social media personalities without paying an arm and a leg.

How to Pick the Right Instagram Influencer for Affiliate Outreach

If you’re looking to promote a dropship e-commerce store, one of the best ways to do so is to partner up with an Instagram influencer.

Influencers are really popular personalities on Instagram who specialize in a niche.

Maybe they focus on luxury watches. Maybe they post a lot of pictures of luxury cars.

Maybe they post pictures from their many vacations from different spots all over the world.

Whatever the case may be, an influencer has to have two things going for him or her for you to want to consider this person a possible affiliate ally.

First, the person has to be focused on a specific niche.

In other words, if a person consistently focuses on vacation pictures and uses hashtags related to the vacation or travel niche, this person would have a specific niche focus.

This is definitely crucial.

Second, this person has to have enough real followers.

This is very important. There are many Instagram personalities who have a lot of fake followers. They really do.

When you look at their following count, it seems that there’s a tremendous amount of people paying attention to their posts.

When you pay attention to the engagement levels of their post, you get an entirely different picture.

It turns out that even though their follower count is over 100,000, for example, they barely get any likes for their posts. This is a red flag.

Similarly, when they post content and hardly anybody posts a comment, you should be suspicious.

You have to understand that there are lots of services online that sell Instagram followers. You have to be very suspicious of such influencers.

Assuming that you have found a number of influential Instagram personalities who focus on your niche in the form of pictures and hashtags and you’re confident about the legitimacy of their followers, the next step is figuring out how to reach out to them.

Outreach Must Be Closely Related to Research and Evaluation

A lot of people promoting on Instagram completely drop the ball. They really do.

They really screw it up because they don’t realize that when you are sizing up different influencers on Instagram, you are also reaching out to them.

You kill two birds with one stone. This is how you become efficient at influencer outreach.

In the beginning, it may not seem like you are thinking of advertising with them. This is definitely not the kind of signal you’re sending out.

But the more you interact with them, the more you figure out what they are about.

They quickly get the idea that you are also credible and authoritative in their niche.

You no longer appear like some random person who is completely clueless regarding their niche.

Just by reading your comments to these influencers, they will know full well that you truly care about the niche and you have something of value to say.

This makes you stand out, and this actually puts you in a position to determine the level of engagement the influencer has with their following.

Loyalty is Crucial

If you notice that the influencer’s engagement with you gets a lot of notice from their followers, you should sit up and pay attention.

This tells you that they command a tremendous amount of loyalty from their fans.

This is not a shallow form of loyalty. This is not just a passing kind of influence.

When you notice that people truly are engaged with your interaction with an Instagram personality, this gives you kind of a preview as to how well your commercial message would be received if you bought an ad placement with the influencer.

Engage, Assess, and Buy

So how exactly do you pick the right Instagram influencer for affiliate outreach? I’ve pretty much given this to you already.

You have to focus on the niche specialization of the Instagram personality. That’s the first thing you need to do.

If they’re not in your niche, you have no business even thinking of doing business with them. You’re just going to waste your time, effort and money.

Don’t even think about it.

Next, engage with them. The more you engage with them, the more you will see clues as to how loyal their fan base is. Do they really know what they’re talking about?

Do they really care about their niche?

Also, when you engage, you get a chance to demonstrate your own level of legitimacy and credibility in your niche. These go hand in hand.

You actually increase the chances of impressing your online personality enough for them to want to give you a discount when you ask them if they would like to run your ads.

Also, when you engage with Instagram influencers, they can give you clues as to what campaigns work and which don’t.

They also can give you important intelligence on the preferences of their fan base.

This is solid gold information because you can use this info to craft ads that have a higher chance of succeeding when presented by that influencer.

Don’t think that engaging Instagram influencers is a waste of time. It isn’t.

It’s a very valuable time that can teach you all you need to know about succeeding on Instagram.

Why do Most SEO Outreach Campaigns Suck?

Make no mistake about it, after Google Penguin was released, the name of the game when it comes to SEO is outreach.

This is the conclusion tried and proven SEO veterans have arrived at. The old tricks no longer work.

Well, you can try them, but let me tell you, they will give you a one way ticket to Google penalties.

The bottom line with modern SEO is editorial control. You have to get links from third party websites that your competitors usually can’t get links from.

This means that you have to get in good with the editors of those sites.

How do you go about doing this? Well, it really all boils down to giving them something in exchange for a link. I’m not talking about money.

After all, Google frowns on paid links.

If Google finds out that you are buying link placements on third party blogs, they will not only penalize the places linking to you, but they will also penalize your site.

This is a nonstarter. Instead, you should “pay” for your link in the form of free content.

The most obvious example of this is a guest post. You reach out to bloggers and ask them what kind of content they’re looking for.

You send them that content along with the link to your site. If they like the content, they publish it on their blog.

Now, the understanding is that you’re not going to submit that same content somewhere else. Instead, the content that you give them is unique to their blog.

If you get enough of your contributed blog posts published, you build a nice network of backlinks to your target website.

These backlinks can dramatically improve your search engine rankings.

Sounds good so far? Great. Unfortunately, most online entrepreneurs doing SEO outreach plain suck at it.

The Hallmarks of Worthless SEO Outreach Campaigns

A lot of marketers and online publishers trying their hand at SEO outreach plain suck. They really do.

They would send an email saying, “Hey, I have this website and I’d like to know if you can publish a guest post I will write for you on this topic. Let me know soon.”

I’m telling you, if that is the gist of your email, you’re wasting your time. Such practices have all the hallmarks of worthless SEO outreach.

Hallmark #1: You sent an email first

You have to understand that when you send an email to somebody, most of the time, if they don’t know you, they will ignore your email.

Worse yet, they might even flag it as spam.

You have to save the email for last. You have to email a publisher only after you have established some level of relationship.

This is why I suggest that before you send an email, get on their radar by commenting on their blog, engaging them on social media, or getting introduced by somebody they already know.

Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time by sending an email first.

Hallmark #2: You’re obvious about guest posting

The first thing that you need to understand is that business relationships require a relationship first. In other words, you have to introduce yourself to them.

How credible are you? What kind of value do you bring to the table based on your website? Who exactly are you in their niche?

Because if the people you’re reaching out to think that you’re just this random person, how seriously do you think they would take you? Here’s a spoiler: they won’t.

They probably get hundreds of outreach emails every single day. Your stuff will fall between the cracks.

You have to introduce yourself using your successes. So you basically say, “My name is so and so, I run this blog, which is a leading blog in our niche.

Here are some links from some of the most credible websites in our niche.”

Alternatively, you can say, “Here are some of my past posts.” And the posts must be able to speak for themselves in terms of quality, credibility and authority.

You have to introduce yourself. You have to create a context for your expertise, otherwise, people will not take you seriously.

Hallmark #3: You dictated to them

Another hallmark of really worthless SEO outreach is when you dictate to somebody you’re trying to get a link from.

You’re telling them, in no uncertain terms, “Hey, publish my content. Here’s the subject matter.”

I’m telling you, even if they think you’re credible, even if they think that you can possibly add value, they’re going to get turned off. Nobody likes being dictated to.

So the workaround to this should be obvious. You should let them lead. You should ask them, “Do you have any content needs?

What kind of subjects would you like content on? Do you have some content ideas?”

Ask them for a list. Let them lead. This way, they would think that the whole guest post arrangement is their idea. They would think that they’re the beneficiary.

Keep the tips above in mind. Beware of the hallmarks of worthless SEO outreach campaigns. Don’t engage in them. They are a waste of time.

Do yourself a big favor and read the workarounds and alternatives I discussed above so you can take your SEO outreach campaign’s success to the next level.

How to Promote on Forums the Right Way

I remember the first time I promoted on a forum, it wasn’t pretty.

I had an affiliate link and I created a forum account, and I just posted my link on all the discussions on that message board.

I don’t think I even reached the 20 posts until I noticed that my account got automatically logged off. When I tried to log back in, it says, “Account banned.”

That was my first experience with forum marketing. As you can tell, it wasn’t a very productive one.

My second attempt wasn’t any better. I used domains to redirect my affiliate link. I thought I was being clever because I was using many different domains.

Well, that didn’t really work because I wasn’t really posting anything other than the redirect domain. Again, my accounts got banned.

How I Achieved Forum Marketing Success

I got so depressed with my results because after spending the better part of a day posting links, I had nothing to show for my efforts.

That’s when it dawned on me that I should take it easy. I should instead create a realistic account.

So I created a forum account that had a picture. I had some biographic information. I looked just like a normal, rank and file account on that forum.

Next, I actually participated in the discussions.

I would answer people’s questions, I would raise issues, I would provide research by posting links of credible and authoritative websites that truly answer the questions of people with concerns.

Soon enough people were giving my account a thumbs up. I was getting thanks for my contribution to the forum.

It turned out that the more third party content I contribute, the more respect I got.

This third party content is not random content that I pulled off the internet. I actually looked for the very best content I can find.

This is content that gets a lot of retweets from Twitter as well as likes from Facebook. There’s a tremendous amount of social proof for these pieces of content.

The more of these I shared, the more respect I got.

It dawned on me that I should only share tried and proven content because if they succeeded on Facebook, there’s a high chance they would succeed on forums as well.

After I’ve gotten quite a bit of credibility on the forums that I was posting on, I would then start sharing original content that I’ve produced for my affiliate sites.

When you read this content, they actually answer questions.

They actually deliver value to the lives of their readers.

There are links to affiliate products, they have picture ads surrounding them, but the content itself delivers solid value.

I then post this contents’ links from time to time. Most of the time, I would post quality third party links.

After several months, I was generating quite a bit of cash from my forum posts.

The Best Part?

The best part to all of this is the fact that my forum posts involving my own content do not get taken down. Even to this very day, I still get traffic from that content.

I share this story with you because you may think that the fastest way to make money from forums is to simply dump lots of links and get the hell out of Dodge.

Don’t do that.

Drive-by spamming is a one way ticket to banning. It’s not worth your time. Instead, become a credible and authoritative member of the community.

When you share real content, you can rest assured that your content will remain up and will continue to draw clicks long after you’ve posted them.

They are definitely worth the ramp up time.

How to Build a Truly Significant Affiliate Marketing Platform

Let’s get one thing clear. A lot of people call themselves affiliate marketers, but the way they carry themselves leaves much to be desired.

That’s just a polite way of saying that a lot of people in the affiliate marketing game are completely delusional.

They assume that making money online is really just a money grab.

They think that they just need to, somehow, some way, show up and all of a sudden, all this money will appear.

I know this sounds infantile and childish, but let’s be honest. This is how a lot of people think.

This is definitely how they operate judging by the kinds of websites they put up.

A lot of these websites are very laughable because they are so basic. Even online stores using Shopify have a lot of room for improvement.

You have to understand that if you want to make money online, you have to deliver value to the lives of people you’re trying to sell to. That is the bottom line.

For you to get something, they have to get something first.

Last time I checked, people are not going to give you their hard earned dollars just because they had nothing else better to do.

They’re not spending money after clicking on your ads for their health. Instead, they’re looking for value.

They have a problem, and they’re looking for a solution. If you deliver them that solution, you make a commission.

If you fail to make the case, then you don’t make any money. It doesn’t get any simpler than this.

Most People Missed Out on the Memo

The sad reality is that most affiliate marketers have missed out on the memo.

They think that they just need to promote a really hot affiliate product and somehow, some way, the conversions will come.

Maybe they had to buy traffic or maybe they have to buy some sort of “sales funnel system” and everything will pretty much operate on an autopilot basis.

They delude themselves into thinking that there is some sort of “set it and forget it” solution out there.

The vast majority of people who try their hand at affiliate marketing fail precisely because they buy into this type of thinking.

If you want to truly succeed in the affiliate marketing game, you have to do something basic yet different.

How to Build a Truly Significant Affiliate Marketing Platform

The key to success in this game is to come up with a significant affiliate marketing platform. This is a platform that actually adds value to people’s lives.

This is not some sort of shallow affiliate site populated with low quality content that simply pimp a keyword.

Believe me, there are millions of those sites littering the internet. Most of them are not making any money.

If you want to make real money in this game, you have to add value.

How do you do this? You can create a search engine service where people looking for information in your niche would search your platform to get specialized content.

This content will then show your affiliate ads.

You can also feature a list of information that they can’t find elsewhere because you’ve gathered this information on your own.

Whatever the case may be, come up with a solution that adds clear, distinct and easy to appreciate value to the lives of people looking for niche materials.

That’s the bottom line.

Sadly, too many affiliates think that they just need to invest in low quality content by buying from the cheapest writers possible and post up website after website to make money.

I’m telling you, that is a one way ticket to early bankruptcy. Don’t even think about it.

Again, to make money online, you have to add value to people’s lives so they can add value, in the form of sales, to your life.

Why do Most Blogs Fail to Make Money?

If you’re thinking of blogging to make money, you might want to think twice. I don’t say this to discourage you. I don’t say this to crush your dreams.

You may be all excited about a particular topic or you think you might have a lot of interesting things to say about several subject categories.

That may all well be true, but let me tell you, if you are looking to blog for money, you have to understand that the vast majority of blogs fail. That’s right.

They go belly up. A lot of them don’t even make one red cent. That’s how bad blogging can be.

The Reason Why

Now, you may be thinking that it would be foolish to come up with some sort of black and white universal reason why blogs fail.

After all, different people from all walks of life put up blogs every day.

People have a million and one reasons for putting up a blog.

How can anybody say with a straight face that there is one unitary reason why all these blogs fail to make money or flat out fail?

You might be thinking that it’s just logically impossible to come up with some sort of bright line reason that explains all this failure.

Well, I’ve been around blog publishers and affiliate marketers for a long time. I have launched and sold my fair share of blogs.

I can tell you that, regardless of how many reasons people offer for their failed blog, it really all goes back to one reason.

I know that’s a bold claim, but hear me out.

The number one reason why most blogs fail to make money is because the owner of the blog did not target their niche properly. That’s the bottom line.

Even if you’re really passionate about your particular niche, if you don’t know how to target it properly, you’re not going to make any money.

I know this sounds crazy, but even if you become an authority in your niche and people from all over the world want to hear your pearls of wisdom regarding your niche, you still won’t make any money.

Why? You’re not targeting your niche properly.

This goes beyond great content. That’s actually a given. You know you’re a great blogger if you produce great content.

You shouldn’t actually put up a blog if you do not know how to give people value in the form of your blog’s content. That’s not going to cut it.

What matters most for your success is how you target your niche with your content.

You have to use a conversion tool that would turn whatever perception of value your readers have about your blog posts into cold, hard cash.

Most bloggers are completely blind to this. They think that they just need to post all sorts of ads.

They think that they just need to play all sorts of tricks and somehow, some way, they will make money.

Well, they’ve done that and the vast majority of them fail. They have very little to show for the modifications that they’ve applied to their blog.

They sign up for program after program and they don’t make any money.

Turn Your Blog’s Income Generating Power On

So how do you make your blog make money? Well, it all boils down to how you position your content.

If you have a successful blog, this means that you are able to use your content to draw traffic from the internet and, at the same time, push your readers to do something that adds dollars to your bank account.

That’s the bottom line.

You’re targeting your readers to convert. You can do this through your mailing list, you can do this through specialized content that you create to push affiliate products.

Best of all, you can do this to sell your own products and services.

This is how you target traffic. Everything has to be about conversion, conversion, conversion.

Otherwise, your blog, regardless of how authoritative, credible and beautiful it may be, will fail to make significant money.

Sure, you can make a few dollars here and there, but beer money gets old very quickly.

There’s nothing more soul crushing that the realization that you have been putting hundreds of hours into your labor of love only to see a few bucks in return.

That gets old quick.

Do yourself a big favor, target your niche right to turn your blog’s income generation power on.

Does it Make More Sense to Target Trendy Niches?

A lot of affiliate marketers are big on bandwagon marketing. When a trend breaks out, everybody targets keywords related to that trend, hoping to make a quick buck.

It’s very easy to see why a lot of people find this attractive. After all, when a news item breaks and search terms for that news item skyrockets, you get instant traffic.

You’re basically piggybacking on ever changing public tastes and trends.

The problem with trends is that they’re like a sugar high. In the beginning, you get a nice surge of traffic, and then once it crashes, it’s pretty much gone for good.

If you need proof of this, just look at the search trends for the phrase “fidget spinner.” This was all the rage a couple of years back, but now it’s dead as a door nail.

That’s how trends work. It’s kind of like surfing.

You wait for the initial swell, and then it keeps getting higher and higher, and then it peaks really high, and then all of a sudden it just crashes. It’s like going off a cliff.

You drop like a rock.

Considering the temporary nature of trendy niche traffic, why do people even bother? Well, it really boils down to the initial surge.

Because if you dominate keywords for a trending topic on social media as well as search engines, you stand to get a tremendous amount of traffic.

This can lead to a lot of cash if you know how to convert this properly. It really all boils down to having some sort of first mover advantage.

Does it Make Sense to Chase After Trends?

I wish I could give you a black and white answer to this question. Unfortunately, I can’t because everybody’s skill level is different.

If you are a seasoned affiliate marketing veteran, targeting trendy niches might be worth it for you. The return on investment might be there.

Why? Well, first of all, you know how to generate this type of traffic.

You know how to do keyword research, you know how to search on social media for platforms that are already talking about a particular trend.

You would probably also know how to create content that people interested in this trend would want to seek out.

You should also know how to create ads that would convert traffic into potential customers for the affiliate products you are promoting or for your own products.

Finally, if you truly are a seasoned affiliate marketer, you would know that the money is not in affiliate marketing at all. Seriously.

When it comes to trendy niches, the big money is in your own products.

Now, this can take two forms. Either you can offer your own digital products directly in the form of books, software or digital resources.

Alternatively, you can also find contract manufacturers in China or drop shippers in China that allow for branding and brand hot merchandise to reflect the trend you are targeting.

It requires a tremendous amount of skill as well as luck to make a lot of money on trendy niches.

The Most Important Skill

If you thought that the skills I listed above are daunting enough, wait, there’s more. Seriously.

You have to focus on the strongest skill you have to develop when it comes to trendy niche marketing.

What skill is this? The skill to get out when it’s hot. This is the key.

You’re building an empire based on this trending niche. You know, deep in your bones, that it’s not going to last forever.

Accordingly, you are going to bail out at the right time.

Again, pay attention to the surfing analogy I described above.

Just like when a surfer first floats on the surface of the water and allows himself to be carried by the wave before standing up, then he rides the wave to its highest point, and then it’s downhill from there, you have to know how to surf consumer trends.

You have to have an eye for the peak.

They key is to sell when the hype is the hottest. This is where you will be able to command the highest dollar figure for the empire you have built on that trend.

The worst thing that you can do is to ride the trend all the way to the end because you probably would make a lot more money selling whatever business you’ve built based on the hype.

And the best part to all of this is that you won’t be hyping anything.

The buyer will be hyped up because they got all excited about the trend. They want to dominate the trend.

You sell them a business right before the peak of the trend. This is the key. You have to sell a few months or a few steps away from the peak of the trend.

That’s how you command the highest price. Once the trend starts to crash, good luck trying to sell your business.

Do You Need a Huge Amount of Traffic to Make Money Online?

The more the merrier. How many times have you heard that saying?

I really can’t blame you for thinking that if you want to make money online, you need to pump as much traffic to your website as possible.

After all, it really all boils down to conversions.

A certain percentage of the people reading your content would click on your ads.

A certain percentage of those people will actually go all the way through and buy something. Sounds good so far, right?

Well, the problem is, online conversions and making money off the internet goes beyond conversion percentages.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Conversion ratios and percentages do play a major role in affiliate marketing success, but it forms just one part of the puzzle.

You have to look at the big picture.

In many cases, depending on the niche you are targeting, it makes a lot more sense to drive less traffic to your content. I know that sounds crazy. Let me explain.

Less is More: This is Not Just a Zen Buddhist Mantra

Zen Buddhists from Japan are quite popular for their mind blowing sayings. They say things that are supposed to stop you in your tracks.

These sayings are supposed to stop your logical and rational thinking faculties long enough for you to experience some sort of deep and profound revelation.

“Less is more” is one of these sayings. “Hear the sound of one hand clapping” is another one of these.

These are supposed to push people to stop thinking in normal ways and start perceiving using their whole mental faculty instead of just thinking habitually.

Let’s face it, even the very best of us gets stuck sometimes. We tend to think in habitual terms. It’s as if we develop a one-track mind when it comes to our decisions.

In fact, a lot of people actually decide impulsively based on their moods or their emotional states.

Later on, when asked about their decision would they come up with something that sounds vaguely rational and logical. That’s just how people are.

And there’s a lot to be said about these Zen Buddhist sayings. Because if we want to really take our performance to the next level, we have to go beyond the routine.

We can’t just go through the motions and expect the same results. That’s just not going to cut it.

“Less is more” is a very powerful strategy for affiliate marketers.

Instead of beating yourself up and risk burning out trying to pump a huge chunk of traffic to your conversion tools, you’d be better off maximizing the conversion capabilities of your tools.

You would probably make more money qualifying your traffic sources so as to ensure that only people who are more likely to convert will show up on your website.

You probably would have a better chance of achieving the kind of financial freedom you desire for yourself if you were more efficient in qualifying your traffic.

The Bottom Line

Instead of focusing on massive traffic volume, focus instead on qualifying your conversion tools on two levels.

First, qualify your traffic. Come up with content or buy specific traffic that is more likely to convert. This means you buy from the right sources.

This means you send the right signals so people who are not interested would not click your link.

Second, you need to turbocharge the conversion power of your content, your landing pages, or your emails.

By paying attention to these conversion tools, you increase the likelihood that you will work less, yet make more money. Less can definitely produce more.

For a Solid Program on Affiliate Marketing, Click on the Banner Below:

Modern Affiliate Marketing