Question about finding your Niche
Submitted by Giode on Tue, 08/19/2008 - 01:43.
I just listened to the first Webinar tittled "Finding your Niche". It was very informative!
My understanding is that you will go much further in Affiliate Marketing if you run with niches you have an inherent interest in, rather than niches that others are doing well in. Makes perfect sense!
However, I am curious how this changes when figuring in domains? Lets say for instance you owned Loans.com. You have zero interest in this niche, but own an incredible domain name that is sure to rank well, and get some type-in traffic. Would the premium domain be enough to compensate for your lack of interest in the subject? Or would it be better to hand register a domain on a niche you do have interest in, and focus on that?
Can the domain be an advantage in Affiliate Marketing?
A killer domain like that will bring free traffic to your site, lowering ( but not ELIMINATING) your reliance on organic search and paid advertising. It won't make your traffic convert (though if there's enough traffic, odds are some percentage of your visitors will). To get conversions you still need to do something compelling with the site, and that's where interest/knowledge of your subject matter gives you the edge.
As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water ...
The interest suggestion is just to keep you motivated and passionate about being an affiliate marketer. Yea if I had that domain I would make the interest. Hell I own http://basicbonsai.com and I get decent traffic already after only 4 weeks of the site being up just for the domain name.
-Ken
got twitter?
www.twitter.com/kensavage
Hi Ken,
I went to have a look at your site. First of all it looks great.
In the post "Where should you buy your first Bonsai tree?" I think the link to Bonsai East should be Bonsai West instead?
Mark
got it thx Mark
got twitter?
www.twitter.com/kensavage
Thanks for the input! BasicBonsai.com is a great looking site. Nicely done!
Personally, I'd go for a niche that I'm interested in, its just more fun that way IMO
But with a single word domain name like loans.com (or something similar), I would definitely try to AM with it. There are ways for you to make yourself become interested in things you don't think you have any interest in. Building on your example, I personally find loans a very dry and boring topic. But if I were to AM for it, I would first identify if there is anything in my life that requires loans or is loans related. As luck would have it, I'm looking to consolidate my college loans and I'm also looking to buy a new car. In which case, I'll do some research on college loan consolidation or different types of loans for a car purchase. Once I have enough knowledge about loans, its that much easier to build a topic around it. The point is, you should see if you can research for yourself first, boring things will become interesting if it has to do with your life personally.
If you have great domain, like loans.com, its a great start, but like the post above getting traffic to your site is really only the first step. If you are able to tons of people to your site but no one is buying, it is pointless. From my point of view, much like Mark above, if you market your position your product correctly and work on driving traffic to it, it won't really matter what the domain it. Take for instance kijiji.com - growing site, hard domain to spell, say - but it is getting tons of visits.
If you aren't interested in what you are trying to promote, how can you convince others to purchase it?
Faye McLaren
Signatures removed. Please read http://www.quityourdayjob.com/node/1723
Some great comments. Thanks! My brother in-law's brother, actually worked on development efforts with AutoLoans.com. Supposedly that that site makes well into the 6 figures monthly just in lead generation.
What about domains that get substantial type-in traffic, but are not as targeted keywords. For example: I am trying to find a way to monetize my domain HomeGarden.com. It gets 100+ type-ins per day, but the traffic could be looking for anything within this incredibly large niche. Ive done quite a bit of research into the effectiveness of generic domains in affiliate marketing, and it seems like the general consensus is that generic domains tend to not do very well with this type of marketing unless it is VERY targeted traffic. I was reading somewhere that people would rather click on HomeGardenlandscaping.com (example) in PPC, and other targeted variations rather than the more generic url.
Just seems like there has got to be a way to effectively monetize generic term domains in affiliate marketing. For sure the quality score must be higher with these domains, I would imagine. Would that be enough to make up for the loss in clicks?
Anyone have any experience with this that they could share?
[quote]I am trying to find a way to monetize my domain HomeGarden.com. It gets 100+ type-ins per day, but the traffic could be looking for anything within this incredibly large niche.[/quote]
Then it's your job to provide it for them!
Type in traffic is free traffic - free traffic that's resistant to search algo changes! It will be more "varied" for this name than a smaller niche, but that doesn't make it worthless. Monitor your referrer logs to see what they're looking for most frequently - then make sure people can find those things or very visible links to them on your home page!
As far as PPC - you can improve your targeting with your display URL. For example:
HomeGarden.com/Landscaping
Tools.HomeGarden.com
HomeGarden.com/DIY
Same applies to organic search traffic ... use your file names, titles and descriptions to your best advantage. Having relevant keywords in your domain name won't make or break a site, but they definitely help!
I would take a domain like that over a "brandable" name any day!!! Best of luck with it!
VERY HELPFUL! Thanks for the good info JerseyGirl. What you said makes a lot of sense, and is a plan I'll follow. Thanks again!
You could either force yourself to be interested enough to use the good domain or, as it may be valuable, you could sell or lease it.
Of course, the ideal situation is to register a catchy domain name then build a brand around it so, even if it has nothing to do with your niche, it becomes synonymous with it.