This is the first post to Your First Niche Series. Again, before I begin, it is likely that you experts will already know about this, but as I am just branching off into affiliate marketing, I am writing for those who are in a similar situation as me. Maybe this will be of a help to them and hopefully for the experienced, maybe this will help you remember the “old days” or even refresh you with a few tips you forgot about.
Before I get into the details on how you find your niche and all, this post will first set some needed foundation. A mistake many beginners make is that they have no niche. They either do something general or they choose a huge market that you could never label as a niche. You may be wondering why you need to choose a niche anyways.
You’re Not a Superman
You just can’t do everything by yourself and although you might be the smartest person in the world, you really can’t handle every topic. Rather than being mediocre in a lot of topics, you probably will do better if you devote all your time into one topic. Let me give you a scenario to really try to convince in you into finding a niche.
It’s Like a Major
When you’re in elementary, middle, or high school, you’re learning a whole lot of stuff. This is when you’re trying out a lot of stuff and seeing what’s right for you and what’s not. However, when you enter a university/college, you choose a major and focus on one thing. Maybe language is your thing or maybe even science. Whatever it is, you pursue that dream and later on if you have some time, you pursue another thing.
In a way, it is similar. There isn’t really a job called, “Do-it-all”, but there are jobs like “designers”, “engineers”, and “musicians”. In a rapidly changing world, competition in all fields are getting a lot harder. Even if you chose one job the competition would still be intense. That is after four years of studying your one major! I mean, shouldn’t you be chosen for the four years you devoted your time and energy? Unfortunately, it’s not like that. In the web, it’s quite similar. The competition for a “general” site is intense. It has no color, no focus, and often, no vision or a plan on where to go next. Like choosing a major, you need to choose a niche (even a niche is getting a bit too competitive these days) to test and give yourself some chance of success.
Time is Limited for You AND Your Visitors
Another reason why you need a niche is because of time. It’s just unrealistic to be doing everything at once. Branching off into other niches are possible after one project is at a level where it can sustain itself. However, unless you have some massive budget to begin with, you really want to use your time well. There is no point in making a website dealing with a whole lot of topics that won’t convert. That time could be spent on making one or two niche websites where you devote all your time into.
Also, setting up a website is not the end. What’s hard is optimizing and monetizing it. If you choose something general, chances are, people won’t go to your site as it takes them too much time to find the information they want. If I had some infection, I’d probably want to go to a website where every information on it is related to that infection. I wouldn’t want to have to browse through the webmaster’s picnic last Friday or the dinner he ate with his date last night.
Niches Convert Well
Often, if you choose a niche, it’s a lot easier to make money. Say that I was running a news portal. I probably will deal with topics such as breaking news around the world, sports, celebrities, science, and technology. Once I have a good amount of visitors coming to my news portal, I’ll probably link up the site with an affiliate network. I decide to put up sports related products like soccer balls, basketball jerseys, and autographs. Now, what are the chances that a visitor coming to my news portal to read about the latest news in science will convert? Probably a figure very close to 0.
Guys, it’s not getting visitors to buy stuff through your affiliate link even when you run a soccer related website. If you’re running a general site and hoping to make some money through some converts, I suggest that you stop dreaming as you probably won’t get too many sales, if any! You want to choose a niche, build a site, and optimize it so that a good portion of your visitors convert, buy something, and make you money. Websites with a focused niche can do that, but general sites just can’t.
Conclusion
Now, I’m not preventing you from creating a general website. It’s okay to make one like that and if it is a hobby, I’d say go for it. However, if you’re looking to make some serious money online and want to be successful through the Internet, that’s just not going to help you make money. It’ll only help you realize that general websites usually can’t make money as easily as other niche focused websites.
Again, it’s really up to you. I’ve created a lot of “niche-less” websites. ahnternet is a make money online blog, but in a way, as I’m talking about a lot of my other interests too, I guess it has a toe or so in the “niche-less website” pool. On the other hand, BloggersWalk is quite focused on the topic of whole topic of blogging, so that would be a bit more of a “niche” site than ahnternet.
Did I convince you that niches are the way to go? Still, not convinced yet? Have any questions? Think this post isn’t so impressive? I’d love to hear your feedback, so please do leave a comment. Remember that ahnternet dofollows your website/blog too and also utilizes CommentLuv to help you. Thanks!
Don’t forget to keep up with this series, especially if you’re new to affiliate marketing. For beginners, it’s all about finding the right niche, as your first niche will be where you get your feet wet with affiliate marketing!
As a blogger, there are so many things that you have to do. Without realizing, you may be busily making your 10th twitter update of the day or just be reading and reading blog post after blog post. Then, all of a sudden, you realize that you really didn’t get a whole lot done for your own blog. You just wasted a whole lot of time, which in a way, is money.
Blogging is an enjoyable activity, but it can also be an exacting one. If you don’t manage your time well and be efficient, you can run out of things to blog about, make your blog go idle, or at worst, lose interest and throw your blog (and potential money) away. Efficiency is what can help you, as a blogger, keep your blog rolling with minimal effort, while producing quality articles. That’s what I’m going to be talking about today.
Begin by Setting a Goal
I fail to do this on a daily basis, but whenever I do remember, I try to set a goal for the day. It varies from day to day. To give a few examples, these goals range from planning on writing a few posts within a certain time frame to making a certain amount of comments in other bloggers’ blogs. Note that there is no pressure for you to achieve these goals. However, you should still make an effort to reach them. At first, this is one of the harder parts to becoming an efficient blogger. Once you catch the rhythm though, it’ll get easier and easier.
Make Notes Often
A good portion of blogging is writing about something. Finding these unique topics to write about can be quite demanding. Thus, instead of thinking about what to blog about while staring at your monitor, try to make a habit of making notes every time you see or hear about something interesting that you could blog about. In addition, when you do use one of your ideas, be sure to not throw away the other ideas. Keep them in a Word document or save them as drafts for future use. I personally have over 50 drafts just for BloggersWalk. Most of these drafts only have a title and a simple sentence so that when I open up one of my drafts later on, I can quickly remember the incident and develop the post.
Bookmark Aggressively Using Your Browser
If the above was making notes in your daily life, this one is making notes while you browse the web. Most browsers nowadays have a pretty good bookmarking feature where you can organize your bookmarks anyway you want. Whenever you see something awesome, bookmark it! Note that these bookmarks can be used for various things. They can be used in ways such as for research or to link to for further reference. However, keep in mind that bookmarks should not be used to steal ideas or to plagiarize in some sort of way. That’s not the point of bookmarking. As a blogger, you should bookmark to go back on good information.
Give Yourself Space and Time
To deliver quality content, you need to focus. At least for me, it is really hard to write up a decent post while listening to music and chatting on MSN. Maybe I’m just a really bad at multitasking. However, I honestly believe that even if you are a great multitasker, you will be able to work much better if you give yourself some space and time, and devote your whole self into writing the post. Don’t let other things distract you from working on your post, as you want to be efficient. You don’t want to be spending five hours writing two sentences.
Are you an efficient blogger? Personally, I’m not that efficient and have often caught myself wasting too much time on one blog that I don’t have enough time for my other blogs. Thus, I did a little bit of research to find some ways to be a bit more efficient. I’ve only implemented this “technique” for about a month or so, but have found it to be great, as I now have quite a bit of extra time in my hands.
If you are an efficient blogger and thinks that these tips are a joke, please do share with me your techniques on how you stay efficient. Maybe you don’t think it’s a joke, but have other routines to keep yourself efficient. Why don’t you share it with the rest of the community through a simple comment? I’d really appreciate it and I’m sure many others would too. Thanks!
I just wanted to say that I’m still here and I’m not taking another hiatus from BloggersWalk. I already explained it over at ahnternet, but my server was having some massive problems with four CPUs having a load of 25+. Actually I didn’t know about this error until today, and I thought that my Internet was the problem. However, I realized the loads today and moved to a better server with eight CPUs.
BloggersWalk should thus load a bit quicker for you guys and it definitely does for me. I was supposed to put up a post yesterday, but this is the main reason why I couldn’t. I won’t be a dork and skip this update. 
In the next 24 hours, that update that was due will go live. Just to give you all a sneak peak, it’ll be a post about being efficient as a blogger.
The reason behind the topic is that I realize many bloggers (including myself) are students, and as the summer wraps up, our schedules that we had over the summer will be very different than our schedules for the next few months. So, I decided to touch on the topic of being an efficient blogger, so that’s going to be coming up in the next few hours.
Yeah, that’s about it. Just thought I’d give a heads up and an update on a no update. On a side note, let’s congratulate CERN for their beam today. I watched it live and it was truly an awesome moment as I’m quite interested in that science, geeky stuff.
First things first. I want to congratulate CERN on the first beam. I was watching the live feed, and as I have a lot of interest in physics and nuclear research, I was pretty pumped up about this thing. I was confident that a beam travelling in one direction wasn’t going to create a black hole and eat up the Earth. That suspense is due for a few weeks later. I’ll update you guys on that when the time comes. 
Next is that I want to explain why I wasn’t able to update any of my blogs. I’m sure ahnternet and a few of my other sites were loading pretty slow for you guys. Well, the server that I was on was having some problems. Despite the four CPUs, the load was skyrocketing. Thus, I changed to a new server with eight to power up my sites. The site should load significantly faster now, as I’m averaging less than 0.50 with eight CPUs running, so that’s workable for me.
About the first part of the Your First Niche Series, that will be coming starting tomorrow. Sorry for the delay. All the posts are there and I was actually planning on getting the first post up today, but I was busy getting my site over to the new server and upgrading my Vista Ultimate to XP Professional.
Visit again tomorrow and I’ll have the first series up and it’ll be an awesome series if you’re pondering about taking a step into affiliate marketing.
So I said last week that I’ll be posting about finding profitable niches sometime this week. I was writing the draft on another computer of mine and noticed that it was getting really long. A LOT longer than the industry standard these days of 500-750 words per post. So, I decided to split it into a series over the course of the week so those of you thinking of starting out can maybe use it as a reference.
To give you a really simple overview of what is coming in the following few days, I’ll be discussing about:
- Why you need a niche
- How to find a niche
- Researching and pre-testing the niche
Again for those Internet marketing experts, you guys probably know this already, but I hope that I’ll be able to refresh some of the things that you may have forgot about, such as researching and finding the information you need for free.
Anyways, look ahead and visit ahnternet daily if you want the information as soon as possible. The best way is probably to subscribe to the feed which is the orange RSS feed icon that you see at the top left of this page.
With so many contests going on these days, I’ve decided to add another Contests category to organize everything a bit.
Anyways, today I want to introduce to you guys a nice little contest Ben from Big Ben Patton’s Place is having. He’s doing a relaunch and to celebrate that, he’ll be giving away an ASUS Eee PC for free.
What’s the Eee PC? Well, it’s a mini laptop that Asus has come out with. It’s got pretty much the standard applications that all laptops have and it also has WiFi. If you’re a blogger, this thing can really help you blog on the go. Check it out folks!
An integral part of the blogosphere is the comments. I honestly cannot imagine a blog without comments. It is what develops the original article, publicizes the commentators to the blogosphere, and bonds the bloggers even more. However, more recently, with so many contests related to comment making and so many plugins promoting commenting, I’ve noticed a drop in what I would consider quality comments.
As a still unknown blogger in the blogosphere, I have tried immensely to make thoughtful comments. Consequently, on a few occasions, I even got a personal email from the person running the blogger, thanking me for an excellent contribution. These are the moments when I really felt that my one comment was and always could be better than a post or a tutorial on my blogs.
So, how do you make quality comments that will dazzle the blogger and make other commentators look like they are spamming?
Develop the Original Post
These days, I see a lot of “Thanks for the information!” and “Wow, a great post!” type of comments flying around. Those comments are warming and motivating for the blogger, but wouldn’t a blogger absolutely love it if one of the commentators stood up and wrote a lengthy comment further developing the original post? If it was me, first, I’d be amazed at the commentator’s knowledge, and second, wish that this commentator made more comments to my posts.
Most of the bloggers encourage comments by leaving their blog posts slightly open. I’ve personally posted about how these incomplete posts (of course, not to the point that you look like you don’t know what you’re talking about) stimulate the commentators from posting. Bloggers want and like commentators who thank them, but they also like those who develop their posts. It’s not at all an offense for pointing out and developing an incomplete corner of the post. Bloggers love it!
Follow-up Your Comments
While comments are awesome, it is important to follow-up on comments too. One of my pet peeves is those who vanish after they make a certain claim or say that they are going to do something. A follow-up to such actions are necessary. With commenting, it is similar. You want to follow-up on the comments that are posted on your blog AND the comments to your comments that you posted on another blog.
This shows that you are both dedicated and professional with what you are doing. Even if you don’t have anything much to say to follow-up, in such a situation, you don’t need a beautiful, dazzling comment. A simple “I see your point” or a “Thanks for your input” ensures that professionalism that you want to maintain in the blogosphere.
Sound Encouraging and Euphemize
I’ve seen a few hater comments flying around recently and in my opinion, they really don’t do much. If you don’t have anything nice or worth saying, why say it? You might ask, “But Static, what if it is really bad!”
Euphemism. Indirectly point out what is wrong, but say it in a more mild way or an encouraging way. If you have been blogging for a while, you probably know that most bloggers will accept constructive criticism. Blogging is all about saying your opinion, so a constructive criticism is always healthy. I personally love it when my readers point out a mistake I made or have a different opinion than me. It just makes me a little bit better. Make sure that your comments sound nice and even if its real meaning may not be all that good, say it in a way that would help the blogger.
Conclusion
There are just three tips that can really make your comments look and sound better. However, there are really more. For example, learning to put a certain emotion into your comments is another way of bettering the overall quality of your comments. My personal view is that you should treat comments as another branch of your blog. As a blogger, you want to sound smart and professional. You may look like that on your blog, but if you make really bad and spammy comments on others’ blogs, you may be hurting your blog.
Do you have any tips regarding making good comments? Did you learn a tip or two from this post? I’d really love to hear your feedback! Feel free to make a comment with your thought on this!
That’s right folks! After installing CommentLuv on BloggersWalk, I’ve come to like it quite a bit that I’ve decided to install it on ahnternet too. Maybe this will really motivate you guys to post some comments on this blog.
Sometime next week, I’ll post a nice tip about finding some profitable niche. As some of you may know, this is something that I’ve been doing intensely for the last few weeks, so I think I’m now at a point where I can share some of the things that I’ve been doing.
If you manage websites or are any online guru, especially a blogger, you probably know that you don’t really have working days and weekends. You’re the boss so you’re really in control of everything. So, to the real question now.
As a blogger, how do you spend your weekend? Are your weekends the same as weekdays? Do you take more time off than usual? Below are just some of the things that I focus on especially on weekends, as I really like Saturdays and Sundays, although Friday nights are my favorite. Anyways…
Promoting MORE Than Usual
Well, firstly, I don’t make any posts on my blogs on the weekends, unless it’s a breaking news that I must post about. So, I use that extra few hours that I have from not having to craft my posts into the promotion of all my blogs. Unfortunately, this promotion does not have huge immediate results because I have to promote so many of my blogs. However, I have noticed that steady wins the race, as looking at the promotion I have done from a more distant perspective, it has really paid off.
Following Up
Again, with the extra free time I have on weekends, I make sure that I follow up on the comments, emails, and some blogs that I was not able to get to. My personal belief is that you never know when you’ll find a gem, so you need to constantly follow up, even if you may be a few thousand emails behind. Oh yeah, I’m staying true one one of the posts I made at ahnternet.
Reaching Out and Socializing
I put some extra effort into getting new contacts and strengthening my relationship with those who I already know. Whether it be through a casual email, a chat over MSN, or a match of StarCraft, I make sure that I stay in touch. It may seem pointless, considering time is money. However, I believe that some of these people can eventually help me in some sort of way.
Imagining the Next
I dedicate a lot of my weekend scheduling/planning my week. I do this both for my online and my offline life. Pertaining to this blog, I start on and draft a few posts which I can develop over the course of the week and publish on Tuesday and Friday. I also set myself some short term goals that can be achieved in the following week (thus, very realistic goals), such as making sure that I make at least 10 comments a day on other bloggers’ blogs.
This is just a snapshot of what the blogger behind BloggersWalk does on weekends for the success of this blog. Of course, everyone has their own routines.
As a blogger, how do you spend your weekends? Do you completely stay away from the computer? Do you have a special routine that you go through? Share it with the rest of the community! Also, commenting at BloggersWalk got a lot better, as we recently added the CommentLuv plugin to our dear blog!
Well, today’s a day when a post is due. However, I’ve decided to timestamp the post to tomorrow. Why? To first make an important announcement.
Now, I’ve made BloggersWalk an even more attractive place to make a comment at! Yes, I’ve finally installed the famous CommentLuv plugin that will surely get you guys some link juice. So, wait for tomorrow’s post and make sure that you make a comment in that one!
EDIT: I just noticed that while writing this, the time to September 3rd. Oh well, I guess technically, you guys can wait for another post today.
