Good Place to Start for a Noob?

[JBird85]

Hello all, I cannot remember the last time that I have visited and or posted (usually a lurker) in the WAHM.com forums :-)
I have had an increasing interest in affiliate marketing for quiet a few months now, and I have been trying to take the time to study it before doing something stupid like paying a bunch of money to get a website started and then not seeing anything come of it.
I have "The Super Affiliate Handbook" and have been trying to follow along with the 30 day challenge... so I know a little bit about the basics.
My thoughts are that most of this comes down to planning, but I am starting to feel overwhelmed with all the options for educating myself in the field of affiliate marketing and it seems that there are several different schools of thought.
Based on your personal experience; where would be a good place to start?
JBird85

[MikeF0421]

The Warrior Forum.

WarriorForum - Internet Marketing Forums

Tons of great info there.

Also read through some of the threads here and in the Bloggers section here. You'll find some good stuff there.

[Yuliya Mironova]

Originally Posted by MikeF0421

Also read through some of the threads here and in the Bloggers section here. You'll find some good stuff there.

And in this context, you can easily do a lot worse than by searching and reading the posts of Angie Newton, Alison Moore Smith, Mike F and Gordon Brown, all of whom reliably know what they're talking about and have, collectively, kindly produced many posts of huge benefit here.

[kellymccausey]

The Super Affiliate Handbook is a great resource - I'm glad you have it.

Have you made a decision about what niche you want to get into as an affiliate?

[JBird85]

I have thought about the niche I want to get into a little bit, but that is one of the hardest parts is the whole keyword research thing. Every time I find something that I know I could write about I cannot find good keywords to go with it! Either the market I am looking at is oversaturated or not a "buying" market. Like weight loss, working at home, weddings, pregnancy, or maybe even techy nerd stuff.
I did go join the Warrior Forum (a lot of info going on over there). Thanks for the replies and tips so far
:-)
JBird85

[angienewton]

First, thank you Yulia!

Originally Posted by JBird85

I have thought about the niche I want to get into a little bit, but that is one of the hardest parts is the whole keyword research thing. Every time I find something that I know I could write about I cannot find good keywords to go with it! Either the market I am looking at is oversaturated or not a "buying" market. Like weight loss, working at home, weddings, pregnancy, or maybe even techy nerd stuff.
I did go join the Warrior Forum (a lot of info going on over there). Thanks for the replies and tips so far JBird85

I don't think there is such thing as oversaturation! If it's a niche people are 'hungry' for, you can make it work. I'm in the weight loss/fitness niche and sure it's HUGE but you find a way to be unique and make it happen.

I actually recommend the Self Starters Weekly Tips forum to get your questions answered. The Warrior forum, I'm sure is awesome but overwhelms me LOL

As for keyword research I'll be happy to help you! It took me a long time to grasp it but now that I have, it's so much fun and I actually love doing it. If you prefer not to share the niche you're looking into on the forum, feel free to direct message me.

[workfromhomepop]

Exactly Angie, the more people in a niche, the hotter it must be. I always look for a niche that has many marketers in it. A great way to tell if the niche is workable or not.

[MikeF0421]

I have to agree.

Don't be afraid of popular niches. Now, I say that with a caveat. Don't expect results overnight in a really popular niche either. It will take some time.

One thing to remember with those popular niches... 90% of the people in them either don't know what they are doing or they got started, realized that affiliate marketing actually takes work and is not a get rich quick scheme, and then quit.

Keyword research can be extremely time consuming, but is probably the most important step. In some cases, I have literally spent a week or two fine tuning it for some niches.

I think the real key to doing well in those more popular niches is finding yourself a couple of 5-6 word long tail keywords that people are searching for, but not as many sites are optimizing for.

What I mean by that is trying to get traffic for the search term "buying a new tv" is going to be infinitely more difficult than getting traffic for the term "buying a samsung XYZ 52" plasma tv". XYZ of course would be some model number.

Good luck!

[JBird85]

Thank you guys so much for the feedback thus far. I have been learning so much, and I think I am almost ready to start.
A couple of questions I have though (because I have been seeing it in so many places):
What is the purpose of having a landing page/sales letter? Don't you just send people to your affiliate product site (Like a CB product)? Is it necessary? (Sales letters usually put me off a product because they are so long and I have some serious ADHD. But I guess that is a personal preference).
Also the whole autoresponder thing (seems a bit spendy to me, but I see people swearing by them), is it just so you can send people your recommended affiliate links?
JBird85
P.S. Sorry if these are stupid questions, but I have to ask somewhere. I am planning on starting hardcore niche research later this week when I download the Market Samurai free trial.

[Yuliya Mironova]

Originally Posted by JBird85

What is the purpose of having a landing page/sales letter?

Having a landing-page serves two main purposes:-

(i) It enables you to "pre-sell" the product by writing about it without sales-talk in a way that makes people interested enough in it to see it as "a potential solution to their problem" or whatever. Common ways to do this include "reviewing the product" (but you must write an honest review, and you need to have the product yourself, or at least to have seen it, to do this honestly) either on its own or comparing it with competitors, and telling a personal story about a problem you had and how the product solved it for you

(ii) It enables you to build a list, which is where the real money is in affiliate marketing. The usual way people do that is by having an "opt-in" on whatever simple site/blog they use as their landing page, offering a free report in exchange for the potential customer's email address. You can then send autoresponder email out to the people on your list, which can dramatically increase the numbers of sales you get, especially if you keep the email content interesting and relevant and make people want to open and read them. You do need an autoresponder to do this, and it's a mistake to use a cheap one, because its "deliverability" may not be very good

Originally Posted by JBird85

Don't you just send people to your affiliate product site (Like a CB product)?

That's a more difficult way to make sales. The conversion-rates are far higher if you have a proper landing-page, and far higher still if you build a list.

Originally Posted by JBird85

(Sales letters usually put me off a product because they are so long and I have some serious ADHD. But I guess that is a personal preference).

I think it depends what sort of products you're looking at and where your traffic comes from.

If you're targetting the traffic that gets to your link as being "people who already want to buy XYZ sort of product" maybe you don't need much. If you're selling something like Clickbank products as an affiliate, the vendor already has a sales page, and the affiliates' job is to produce the customer, not directly to sell the product.

I think people (vendors of digital products) use those long one-page sales-letters because they work. I don't like them, myself.

Originally Posted by JBird85

I am planning on starting hardcore niche research later this week when I download the Market Samurai free trial.

Good luck with that, I've heard good things about it.

Remember that finding a product within a niche is important, too. And there can be great advantages to finding a niche with several different suitable products available, so that in time you can add more products without needing to do all the work all over again.