Niche and Tracking questions

[Molten Ice]

Hey everyone!

I'm looking to create campaigns that look like so:
Traffic Source -> Landing Page with incentive to join my email list -> Email Sequence to build trust -> Promote offer

Basically, what I ideally want to do is pick a niche, create a website/landing pages and send paid traffic straight to those.

The website/landing pages will provide value but also try and get traffic to opt in to my mailing list via some sort of free ebook etc.

I will then use the mailing list to build trust with those that signed up and promote offers (these will be affiliate offers, but not just CPA offers. They will be a mix of products/services/items that I think the niche will find helpful)

These are my current questions:

1. I want to pick a niche I am interested in but I am finding it very hard to find affiliate programs for these! For example, say in the movie niche (or sub niches like horror movies, marvel movies etc.).
   
   I don't know what I can promote! I could promote movie DVDs/Blu-rays from Amazon Affiliate but the payout is so low I think it'll be very hard for me to be able make more than the cost of paid traffic and thus be profitable.
   
   I could promote services like Netflix or buying movies online (say from Google Play Store) but as far as I know they don't even have affiliate programs!
   
   Essentially for what I want to do (Paid Traffic -> Email List -> Offer) I can't find a way to make this niche profitable, simply because affiliate programs don't exist or they have very low payouts.
   
   So am I stuck just promoting "profitable niches" like weight loss or can I still make the above niche profitable?
2. I fully understand the importance of tracking software. Do you have any recommendations?
   
   Ideally I prefer it's cloud hosted (so I don't have to host it) but most importantly it should help me track my funnel. Eg. How much I paid for Ad and number of visitors -> how many opted in -> How many took up my offer #1 and how much I made -> How many took up my offer #2 and how much I made.
   
   That way I can track if my funnel is profitable and I can start split testing different parts of my funnel and see how it affects my profits.

Thanks for reading, looking forward to your replies!

 

[awesomesauce]

The movie niche could be profitable, but I have no idea. The thing with the Amazon affiliate program is you can get paid if they purchase other things on Amazon. So make a site about movies, people could click because they are interested, then the could go to Amazon and buy a new BBQ and maybe some Diapers, and new iPad Pro. You'd get commissions for all the stuff they buy after clicking your link.

Most people use Voluum for tracking.

P.S. Just because your niche is about movies doesn't mean you just have to sell them movies. There is a ton of merchandise and even other items that aren't directly related to movies, but could be sold to people who are big movie fans.

 

[Sanshez]

It seems to me that Making affiliate marketing for example with amazone could be great, just try to find out what could be interesting for you over there, and then jump in, it should work on the pattern you are describing up here. As tracker, most people use Voluum, you could have alook at their service too, Good luck!

 

[Graybeard]

These are my current questions:

1. I want to pick a niche I am interested in but I am finding it very hard to find affiliate programs for these! For example, say in the movie niche (or sub niches like horror movies, marvel movies etc.).
   
   I don't know what I can promote! I could promote movie DVDs/Blu-rays from Amazon Affiliate but the payout is so low I think it'll be very hard for me to be able make more than the cost of paid traffic and thus be profitable.

Have you considered selling/promoting/advertising other related products to these niches? You could *seed* articles/content on these other subjects into the framework of your main content/topics ...

 

[Molten Ice]

The movie niche could be profitable, but I have no idea. The thing with the Amazon affiliate program is you can get paid if they purchase other things on Amazon. So make a site about movies, people could click because they are interested, then the could go to Amazon and buy a new BBQ and maybe some Diapers, and new iPad Pro. You'd get commissions for all the stuff they buy after clicking your link.

Most people use Voluum for tracking.

P.S. Just because your niche is about movies doesn't mean you just have to sell them movies. There is a ton of merchandise and even other items that aren't directly related to movies, but could be sold to people who are big movie fans.

Hey! Thanks for the reply. Did you ever try out paid traffic into a funnel that promotes Amazon products? Can that actually be profitable considering Amazon commissions are so low?

Perhaps it is a potential path I could take if it's common for me to earn more commissions than the products I am promoting due to what you said about people buying other stuff with their purchase.

So far I've noticed that most people that use paid traffic seem to not use Amazon but go for other products that give higher commissions or CPA which is easier to convert. The people that are into SEO/Niche sites tend to be more of the Amazon affiliates.

Do you think using paid traffic to promote amazon products is a potential path I could take and be profitable?

 

[Molten Ice]

What I don't like about Amazon's affiliate program is the one-time shot affiliate commission -- which is very common BTW with general e-commerce.

As a long-time customer: I can say Amazon is a good company to do business with and that their Affiliate Program is most likely very honest.

However, think what you could be making if you started with Amazon as an affiliate 10 years ago and get just 1.5% commission on everything your referred customer has bought.

This is saying that the average customer acquisition might be worth $200 or more on a lifetime basis ...

Yup, that's why I mentioned getting paid traffic into my mailing list That way I can keep marketing to them and increase their LTV

 

[Graybeard]

What I don't like about Amazon's affiliate program is the one-time shot affiliate commission -- which is very common BTW with general e-commerce.

As a long-time customer: I can say Amazon is a good company to do business with and that their Affiliate Program is most likely very honest.

However, think what you could be making if you started with Amazon as an affiliate 10 years ago and get just 1.5% commission on everything your referred customer has bought.

This is saying that the average customer acquisition might be worth $200 or more on a lifetime basis ...

 

[Molten Ice]

Well, a recurring lifetime deal is a lot less work and a residual income stream. I like to collect money for what I have done for many years.

CLV is customer lifetime acquisition value -- big difference.

I am talking strategy and you are talking tactics -- email is a tactic toward retention. I want as an affiliate my sponsor to worry about tactics after the sale -- keep my customer buying and making ME money.

Email lists are primarily used by affiliates for cross-selling new *offers* -- A.K.A: Sucker List
The easier person to sell is someone you have sold before, the next easiest sale comes from some prior relationship -- like an email list subscriber.

Recurring lifetime deals sound good, but I found very few affiliate programs actually offering it most were in the web hosting, SEO, make money online niche which is something I am not looking to get into.

Do you know how I can find such affiliate programs or networks that promote lifetime recurring income?

 

[Graybeard]

Well, a recurring lifetime deal is a lot less work and a residual income stream. I like to collect money for what I have done for many years.

CLV is customer lifetime acquisition value -- big difference.
Customer lifetime value - Wikipedia
I am talking strategy and you are talking tactics -- email is a tactic toward retention. I want as an affiliate my sponsor to worry about tactics after the sale -- keep my customer buying and making ME money.

Email lists are primarily used by affiliates for cross-selling new *offers* -- A.K.A: Sucker List
The easier person to sell is someone you have sold before, the next easiest sale comes from some prior relationship -- like an email list subscriber.

 

[Graybeard]

Porn pay-site (subscriptions) sponsors -- seriously
Also, Dating and Webcams.
But getting conversions is not what it was years ago.

• Some form of retail would be nice.

I think starting up with Shopify may be a longer term deal. Also, better maybe: A more independent drop-shipping business you create independently. You want to own part or all of the customer's revenue stream -- even better have first count on the money <<< that means end-to-end control of the customer's money -- you will never get shaved (cheated).

People have done this on ebay since day 1 on the Internet. In essence ebay is your traffic partner for a cut and paypal is your financier for a cut >>>You still have first count on the money. You know what you sell because you deliver the goods

The down side of a ebay or Amazon associate or sponsored seller is that you're in direct competition with many sellers of the same or similar product. This creates a very completive selling market but customers like the options and gather in great numbers (traffic) to look/shop. So, it is a trade off to some degree.

These mass-merchandising websites create wonderful branding opportunities as you can link mass-merchandising websites>social media feeds/fan or business pages > your independent website. That is one hell of a traffic funnel