Any Niche Affiliate Marketers out there?

[Benjamin Ertl]

Hey guys,

So I`ve been blogging and doing online marketing for quite some time (2 years), more so as just a hobby dealing with things like swimming, fitness, health, marketing, some retail marketing topics. I`ve started working more regularly on a niche ecommerce affiliate sales website to see if I can get it up and running to actually make a profit. I`ve done relatively minimal work with it and have about $7.80 in commission junction revenue (2 products sold).

I used to have the website deal with the whole market (for example dog treats) but now it deals specifically with a particular brand that is super low in competition.

My plan is to build up this brand/niche site with more traffic and hopefully more sales, then when I feel I have reached a plateau of search traffic from this brand, I`ll expand to another niche brand in the industry.

Is this a sound strategy? What kind of tips can anyone give me to make sure that I`m on the right path to gain ground in niche search results and customers. I do understand a bit about creating conversion oriented design, calls to action, etc.

I was also thinking about using Fiver to promote my products through posters and cards located where my particular customers hang out.

Anyway... what are your guys thoughts so far?

[billbenson]

Five or more years ago the strategy of putting up an affiliate site a month worked. Look at the adult sites. It was one of the most common strategies in that industry. Most people that used that strategy are failing today.

There have been a few posts recently about affiliate sites. Most of them negative.

The multiple site approach is still valid. However IMO you would be better off selling products from a master distributor or manufacturer. You will have much higher margins on sales and be less likely to be screwed over.

Build a quality site once every 6 months for a company that will give you decent margins. Some sites might flop. But you are playing a numbers game with this type of strategy.

[Benjamin Ertl]

Hey Bill Benson, thanks for the insight. I think contacting the direct manufacturer for dropshipping might be the way to go as long as they were decent with logistics, returns, customer service, and all that.

At this point, with the margins.. even if I were getting better margins it wouldnt change the amount of sales I´ve achieved. I use a combination of adwords and searching on Google to find more about competition.

I`m definitely going to be putting a few months of conscious effort into this site until I try and move on with another site. I would love to hire an article writer to put the site on a slight autopilot. In the meantime I hope I can see more improvements in the current site.