The Free Micro Niche Finder Tutorial

Written by The Shops at 24Seven on Tuesday, November 10, 2009

It's been quite awhile since I've blogged, but I promise this will be worth your read.

You hear a lot from internet marketing gurus about creating niche websites. For example, it's better to create a website focused on baby blankets than it is on baby bedding in general. Mostly the reason this is suggested is because it's going to be very difficult for your website to rank on the search engines for baby bedding, but easier for baby blankets.

However, I know too many people who have dabbled with affiliate marketing only to give up because they didn't make any money. Yes, for a lot of them, they believed all the earnings lies you get in your inbox or read on those annoying pop-ups. Any affiliate worth their salt knows it's hard work. But for most of them, it's because they throw up their first website and while it's niche-based, it's still too broad. Beginner affiliates NEED to start out small. Micro-niche. I've been doing affiliate marketing on the side for years and I still go micro-niche.

I'm an Internet Marketing Manager by day, but I do have a sizable supplemental income from my personal affiliate marketing efforts by night. So, believe me, there is no get-rich-quick formula.

Let's take a look at Corner Stork Baby Gifts and the products it sells. You could look at any of our categories and make a niche website from them. But rather than create a website where it's focus is baby blankets, these micro-niche ideas would be even better.

• Pink Baby Blankets
• Blue Baby Blankets
• Chenille Baby Blankets
• Animal Baby Blankets
• Fleece Baby Blankets

Let's say that you created 5 different websites for the above 5 ideas. If you did your homework, worked hard and were able to do enough SEO (it wouldn't take much) to get all 5 of these websites to rank on the first page of Google. I know it would generate sales. No, not thousands per month, probably not even a hundred bucks per month. But, something. Enough to keep you motivated. Enough to where you've learned HOW to do it. You worked hard and now your seeing some of the payoff.

Now, here is why going smaller FIRST gives you a BIGGER advantage later. You've done the above and now you want to go after something more competitive. Since your a pro in the baby blanket industry now, why not build a site targeting the keyword 'baby blankets' or 'baby boy gifts'? No, that's not the BIG advantage. It's this. You now own 5 websites that you can instantly link to your new BIGGER website. All 5 websites are "trusted and relevant" in your niche. Google loves links from relevant websites...and you have control of 5 of them!

Don't miss my point. I share this with you to teach you how to think, not give you the perfect idea on which micro-niche to target. This strategy can work in almost any niche.

How to find your next micro-niche
There are all sorts of software you can buy to help you with this. Market Samurai is one. But, honestly, I don't use anything. I don't think it's that difficult. In closing, this is how I do it.

1. Go to a website you love or have an interest in referring their products
2. Pick a category from that website (they are usually along the left navigation)
3. Now study that category, and break a group of those products down into another level (color, size, price point, brand, model, common features).
4. That's it...build your website.

This is an example of how this looks on paper.

I picked TigerDirect.com.

Now I need to pick a category: Let's see...Camcorders!



Now, what should I use for my micro-niche website? Hmm...how can I group some of these products together? Ah, High Definition Canon Camcorders! Sweet!

I didn't even click through and view all of their camcorders. I know they have more than 3 HD camcorders and will also be releasing more. It's really that simple. Don't waste money on software.

50 Free Icon Sets You MUST Know About

Written by The Shops at 24Seven on Wednesday, May 20, 2009

I'll admit, I'm addicted to icons. And I know many of you are as well or you have a blog/website where linking over to twitter or your youtube videos just makes sense. So, I couldn't help but pass on this great post I read this morning.

These 50 free icon sets have all the top social media logos embedded on chocolate hearts, 3-D cubes, soda cans, test tubes and everything in between. Enjoy them here.

And if you looking hosted Twitter buttons, go here.

Corner Stork Launches 4 New Baby Gifts

Written by The Shops at 24Seven on Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Affiliates - Corner Stork Baby Gifts launched 4 new baby gifts that I'm confident will convert as well as our other gifts. Of all The Shops at 24Seven, Corner Stork continues to convert at high levels and I'm convinced it because of the uniqueness of our gifts. Here are some pictures of the new ones, be sure to pick up the product links in your networks.


Plush "Monkey Magoo and Blankie Too!"



“Big Dreamzzz” Baby MD



“Big Dreamzzz” Camo Baby




“Big Dreamzzz” Baby Ballerina

When was the last time you cleaned up your reciprocal links?

Written by The Shops at 24Seven on Wednesday, April 08, 2009

I'm not going to get into if reciprocal linking still works and if there is any value in it. My opinion is that it can, if your very selective and work only with reputable websites whose link pages are actually indexed by Google.

Most of us already have a links page tucked down in our bottom navigation from when we first launched the site years ago. Back then we knew reciprocal linking worked. So, you just keep it down there and ignore it out of fear of losing the external links from those partners.

My Strategy

This week I was spending time looking over the sites we link to from these pages and cleaning them up. I'm noticing many of the sites no longer exist, so I kill those. Then a good amount you can tell have not been touched in years, more link brutality. I Google the links pages where are links show up to see if they are indexed. If not, kill them. What's the point of linking to them if Google never has found the link back to you?

Lastly, I killed some simply because I'm not comfortable with linking out to them. Call me paranoid but if Google views links as a recommendation, we need to be careful who we are recommending. I don't want to get labeled as a bad neighborhood. In high school, if you hung out with the wrong crowd, it was because you WERE the wrong crowd. That's my reciprocal link logic. So, spend some time in the next few weeks reviewing who you are recommending.

Don't Tweat at Work - Just Ask Charlie Villanueva

Written by The Shops at 24Seven on Wednesday, March 18, 2009

3 New Baby Gifts

Written by The Shops at 24Seven on Tuesday, February 24, 2009

We recently launched 3 new baby gifts from Baby Aspen. These are some really unique gifts, so wanted to pass this on. You should be able to link directly to these from within the networks (CJ, SAS).

"Sweet Dreamzzz" A Pint of PJ's Two-Piece Sleep-Time Gift Set	"The Cow Jumped Over the Moon" Lovie Gift Set	"Welcome Home Baby!" 3-Piece Layette Set in Keepsake Gift Box (Pink)

Seth Godin - 7 Tips for a Startup in a Recession

Written by The Shops at 24Seven on Thursday, February 05, 2009

Mashable, which I love to read, posted a video where Seth Godin gives some great advice on tips for growing your business in a recession. The basis for his advice is that with companies struggling right now, it leaves more room for entrepeneurs to fill in those gaps.

View the video below or click here.

Favorite Super Bowl Commercials

Written by The Shops at 24Seven on Monday, February 02, 2009

As we all know, the Super Bowl commercials are just as entertaining as the game itself. As marketers we are wise to watch these and take notes. These are the companies who are putting all of their marketing eggs in a basket for their one 3o second spot...at $2.4 million (not counting the cost to make the commercial). These commercials are the best of the best, or are at least supposed to be.

These were my two favorites. They both made me laugh out loud and remember the company's name.

My Favorite



Runner-Up

Krispy Kreme and Spring Wedding Favors

Written by The Shops at 24Seven on Thursday, January 22, 2009

I'm a big fan of the donut, so when I hear "Hot Now", I immediately think of Krispy Kreme. Well, with wedding season starting to pick up, our Spring Wedding Favors are the hot items affiliates need to be promoting.


Using the Google Keyword Tool, we know that January and the beginning of February are the hot seasons that people are searching for spring wedding favors (see chart below).


Further, the search data on our own site, MyWeddingFavors.com, shows that people are searching for the word 'spring' twice as much as any other word right now. So, affiliates, this is the area to promote or if your not already, join us today.

Hubpages

Written by The Shops at 24Seven on Wednesday, January 14, 2009

I've mentioned Hubpages here before, but wanted to stress to make it part of your business plan. Last week the Google Pagerank for Hubpages went up to a 6, which means Google will like your site more if it has a link to it from Hubpages.

If you're not familiar yet, Hubpages allows you to create a hub about any topic. So if your website is about planning a baby shower, you will want to create a hub about that topic. Most importantly, be sure to link back to your website on your hub. I suggest only linking back to your site once per hub as doing it excessively will probably get you banned by Hubpages.