There are a lot of gurus online selling you their personal “secrets” to becoming a super affiliate. In case you are interested, here it is for free: target smaller niches.

While there are millions of customers online looking for all kinds of stuff, it is easier to target a smaller audience who are looking for a specific product or service.

It is difficult for an affiliate to try to be “all things to all people.” When we try to give everyone what they want, we often find ourselves trying to do too much and therefore we don’t do it as efficiently as we should. This is particularly true when using paid marketing strategies. We need to focus and specialize on one targeted niche and try to become an expert within that niche area.

For example, instead of targeting on a huge market like “fishing“, you would do better by specializing in a smaller niche like “fly fishing rods“. By doing this,you greatly reduce your competition within the search engines and lower paid advertising costs due to lower competition for keywords. At the same time this allows you to serve a smaller and more targeted group of people.

By specializing in “fly fishing rods”, you are able to provide specific information to a smaller but more precise segment of the market more effectively. After time, you become “the guy” to go to for this particular item. Therefore, you are able to build a successful business without having to compete with thousands of companies in the bigger, more general market.

By setting up many of these smaller niche sites, and promoting one product, you can dominate each niche area.

How do you go about this “niche marketing”?

1. Target a smaller segment of a hot market
   Do your research and find the current “hot markets”. Once you have identified these markets, dig a little deeper and pull out some niche areas that look like the best to promote. Much of that involves finding an affiliate site for that product, etc. It will take some time to research all this, but believe me it will be well worth it in the end.
2. Create a review site
   You want to give people just enough information about your product to get them interested enough to want to buy it. Remember, people are looking for something to buy. Your job is to help them to decide by reviewing your product, then sending them to the actual sales page. Focus on how your product will solve their problems and how they will benefit from the product.
3. Build an opt-in list with your review web site
   This is very important:
   If you want to build a successful affiliate business and earn repeat commissions, you must build an opt-in email list. Your list is a vital asset to your business. Make sure you have a way for your visitors to join your list on your web page so that you can follow up with them in the future.
4. Offer a bonus
   A simple way to increase your commissions is to offer visitors a special bonus for taking action. For example, you can give them a special report or video tutorial worth a $ amount if they purchase your product.
   Always make special offers or bonuses time sensitive as to create urgency with the visitor. Such as, “Get this special offer if your make a purchase today”.
5. Market your review page to your specific audience
   What is important here is this: you only want targeted visitors specific to your market segment.
   When advertising your review page make sure you are only targeting those visitors interested in your specific niche area. You can’t use broad search tactics or you will have missed the whole point. This will not only get you the best visitors, but also lower your paid advertising costs.
   I suggest using free advertising methods like press releases, articles and social networking to start with, then paid methods such as PPC and paid ads.

Lastly, I suggest learning all you can about researching on line, using PPC, web site building, etc. It is a continuous learning experience and will help you build that successful business you have been dreaming of building.

Remember: smaller niches mean bigger profits!