Ok, I am a newbie marketer myself so take anything I say with a grain of salt. But let it be known that I have taken and devoured a ton of information (from this site and others) and have added genuine testing to the equation and have come up with a general game plan to test a campaign.
To save time I will quote what I mentioned about this in another thread.
I know this market (I have been in and out of this market for many years) and know there is money here. People are desperate for the solution this niche poses.
Here is how I set up this niche.
I chose a product, I went with clickbank here figuring that I would attempt a low gravity product (highest gravity in the niche, which should have raised a red flag alone... lesson learned.)
I chose a relevant keyword rich URL to build the campaign around. Being that I was pretty sure this niche will be profitable I bought both a .info domain (for a redirect to test products early on) and a .com domain (to build the authority site around later on).
I then did keyword research starting with keywords the merchant recommended, branching off into others. I chose a dozen or so low traffic keywords to start with and built squidoo lenses around 5 of them. I then wrote 7 articles directing traffic towards these lenses and my redirect url.
From there I let things simmer. Being a platinum author on ezine articles it only takes a day or two to get my articles published, and within 36-48 hours my articles are featured. Articles in this niche are slow moving and one week later I still have 3 articles on the recent articles feature (well.. had). So it was a matter of building up some clicks.
One thing I immediately noticed was the fact that my traffic to the sales page was much higher than a niche I previously tried to work with. Being that I was dealing with a real problem that people want a solution to now it makes sense.
But today I have a few hundred clicks to the sales page of this product with no sales. I have been concerned that this product might not sell. Just using my brain for a minute reveals that this is probably not a product that they believe will work for them, and they are looking for something else. I asked myself if I would actually buy the product and it was a resounding NO.
So decision time.
I can choose to promote a different product, or let this campaign die out. I had a product in mind, but I needed to apply for them... and they had a long detailed application procedure in place that turned me off initially. So I applied for Commission Junction to check merchants there. I thought there was going to be a problem since I have yet to formally set up my business, but I got approved immediately.
From there I searched for my niche and there was my desired product. Quick application... quick approval... painless process really (much less than I thought it would be).
So I spent the next hour rewording my articles to get away from the leaning towards the info product towards an actual product. For most of the articles it just required a simple resource box rewording.
I then changed the redirect on my .info domain to the new product and now I wait to see. But without waiting as I will add new articles towards this niche. The product I chose this time around is a proven winner, so I know that all I need to do is to send traffic towards it... and to prove it I will blast a ton of articles out there.
I already have plans to expand this beyond where I have it now, I am just waiting for solid numbers and proof that I am pushing the right buttons.
This is just what I do to test a product or niche. I have done 4 of these tests with domains purchased for another 4. I have made sales with one, while 2 of the others were for alternate products for the first niche I tested (no sales).
Simply put, I put out a bit of effort and have got some rewards... but more valuable to me right now is solid information on what is working and what is not. Add to that how I am not giving up on a niche that I was prepared to stop on and have instead moved towards a different product in the same niche before scrapping it completely.
The hard part now... everyone was right... I feel like a kid in a candy store after getting into CJ!!!
To save time I will quote what I mentioned about this in another thread.
I know this market (I have been in and out of this market for many years) and know there is money here. People are desperate for the solution this niche poses.
Here is how I set up this niche.
I chose a product, I went with clickbank here figuring that I would attempt a low gravity product (highest gravity in the niche, which should have raised a red flag alone... lesson learned.)
I chose a relevant keyword rich URL to build the campaign around. Being that I was pretty sure this niche will be profitable I bought both a .info domain (for a redirect to test products early on) and a .com domain (to build the authority site around later on).
I then did keyword research starting with keywords the merchant recommended, branching off into others. I chose a dozen or so low traffic keywords to start with and built squidoo lenses around 5 of them. I then wrote 7 articles directing traffic towards these lenses and my redirect url.
From there I let things simmer. Being a platinum author on ezine articles it only takes a day or two to get my articles published, and within 36-48 hours my articles are featured. Articles in this niche are slow moving and one week later I still have 3 articles on the recent articles feature (well.. had). So it was a matter of building up some clicks.
One thing I immediately noticed was the fact that my traffic to the sales page was much higher than a niche I previously tried to work with. Being that I was dealing with a real problem that people want a solution to now it makes sense.
But today I have a few hundred clicks to the sales page of this product with no sales. I have been concerned that this product might not sell. Just using my brain for a minute reveals that this is probably not a product that they believe will work for them, and they are looking for something else. I asked myself if I would actually buy the product and it was a resounding NO.
So decision time.
I can choose to promote a different product, or let this campaign die out. I had a product in mind, but I needed to apply for them... and they had a long detailed application procedure in place that turned me off initially. So I applied for Commission Junction to check merchants there. I thought there was going to be a problem since I have yet to formally set up my business, but I got approved immediately.
From there I searched for my niche and there was my desired product. Quick application... quick approval... painless process really (much less than I thought it would be).
So I spent the next hour rewording my articles to get away from the leaning towards the info product towards an actual product. For most of the articles it just required a simple resource box rewording.
I then changed the redirect on my .info domain to the new product and now I wait to see. But without waiting as I will add new articles towards this niche. The product I chose this time around is a proven winner, so I know that all I need to do is to send traffic towards it... and to prove it I will blast a ton of articles out there.
I already have plans to expand this beyond where I have it now, I am just waiting for solid numbers and proof that I am pushing the right buttons.
This is just what I do to test a product or niche. I have done 4 of these tests with domains purchased for another 4. I have made sales with one, while 2 of the others were for alternate products for the first niche I tested (no sales).
Simply put, I put out a bit of effort and have got some rewards... but more valuable to me right now is solid information on what is working and what is not. Add to that how I am not giving up on a niche that I was prepared to stop on and have instead moved towards a different product in the same niche before scrapping it completely.
The hard part now... everyone was right... I feel like a kid in a candy store after getting into CJ!!!
