Sadly many online entrepreneurs are on the cusp of success but walk away without realizing that a few easy tweaks could mean the difference between being broke and watching the sales come rolling in.
For many, it’s simply failing to monetize their sites! You’d think that would be an apparent slip-up to avoid, but they get so focused on ranking in search engines and building their list that only when it’s pointed out to them do they realize they’ve forgotten to include links to products where they’ll earn a commission.
And the sad thing is, most people put their product creation on the back burner for the day they have accumulated a healthy list so that profit-pulling potential is also lost on them.
Some don’t know how the money is supposed to come to them, so it’s important to understand how you can monetize a niche before you get too deep into the process that you pick something that may not have much in the way of earning ability.
Tangible Niche Profit Potential
One of the easiest ways to earn money is to be the go-between that connects consumers ready to spend money with products that will ship to them from an online retailer.
The best example is to think of what is sold on Amazon. An Amazon affiliate, called an associate, can earn money from a consumer’s purchase on their site. So if you’re in a niche like toys, for example, you’d be writing product reviews for your blog about selling toys on Amazon and using your affiliate link to link to it.
There are other sites, such as Target, Walmart, and others, that you can find to promote tangible products as an affiliate. There are a few ways you can promote. Text hyperlinks are one way, but you can also hyperlink images of the products back to the site.
You don’t have to link to an individual product, either. Most sites have ways you can connect to the entire store, or in the case of Amazon, you might link to a search results page within site or even to a bestseller’s list of the items.
Amazon even has a carousel option that rotates the products being showcased and gives you another way to capture the attention of the consumer who landed on your blog.
Whenever you’re in a niche, think of all the tangible ways you can make money from them. For example, even in the mostly digital place of online marketing, you can promote tangibles such as laptops, PCs, desks, video recording equipment, success books, and more.
Tapping Into Digital Niche Income
Digital income from a niche is often higher than that of tangible products. This is primarily because digital courses are usually priced higher and offer an increased commission rate.
So if you go to a site like ClickBank, for example, you can look up your niche and find online courses or memberships that your readers might like. For example, if you’re in the diet niche, you’ll find all kinds of digital techniques that target a particular audience – women, those who want 6-pack abs, people over 40, and more.
There are also courses on sites like Warrior Plus, JVZoo, Udemy, Teachable, and more. And, of course, you can create your info products to make money without being an affiliate.
When you create or promote a digital product, it should be something that answers the questions or guides your audience in whatever help they need. You’ll probably be getting questions from subscribers over time that you can use to help you create a digital course.
You can also look in forums to see what people are asking, check the comments section on YouTube videos or Facebook groups, and see what blind spots people have that need attention.
There are digital products for different income levels. Some will be super cheap, such as a $7 eBook designed to answer the most basic questions and help the vendor build a list.
Others will be medium-priced, such as a $47 course that serves as the first step to helping people achieve their goals. With these lower ticket items, it’s usually a hands-off vendor who isn’t likely to help implement the ideas.
As you move up the tiers, you’ll find higher ticket items, such as a course that sells for $197 where it may provide some “done for you” content or a service that’s offered to the buyer so they can skip the learning stage and have their needs met on autopilot.
And lastly, there will be high ticket items such as $5,000 one-on-one coaching that works as a hybrid with a course that acts as the foundation for the customer, with the addition of hand-holding by the vendor in several direct communications.
If you’re an affiliate promoting digital products, vet the vendor before sending your people to them. If you send them to someone for the sheer sake of profits, then they will lose trust in you and refuse to spend their money in the future on your recommendations.
Finding Niches with Dual Profit Potential
Try to hone in on a niche with dual profit potential whenever possible. That means it’s ripe for plenty of tangible and digital profits. So, for instance, it’s primarily tangible with toys – most parents aren’t going to pay for guidance on which toy to buy.
And with marketing, it’s primarily digital. Most marketers have a laptop and desk and aren’t buying a ton of tangibles. But many niches serve an audience of both kinds of products, giving you ample earning opportunities.
Survival is an excellent example of a niche with dual profit potential. People like to learn strategies such as creating a homesteading garden, self-defense techniques, food and water storage, etc.
Those make great info products you can promote or create for that audience. But to implement your advice, they’ll need tangible items, such as gardening equipment, defense items like stun guns, rain barrels, and MREs (meals ready to eat), etc.
Anti-aging is another dual-profit niche. The anti-aging place covers a wide range of topics – like skin care, mental acuity, mobility, heart health, and more. So those make good digital course topics.
But the consumers also want tangible items, such as wrinkle cream or exercise equipment, to help them improve their longevity and stave off disease or mobility issues.
The diet niche is another great dual profit-pulling topic. Consumers devour books and courses about how to lose weight, shed fat, and tone up or build muscles. They want to look good and feel fit.
Those are great digital topics to write about, make a video course, or be promoted by someone else. But you can also promote tangible items that will help them. Those include food or weight scales, meal deliveries, dumbbells, and more.
Remember that even if you’ve narrowed your niche to a specific topic that’s only tangible or digital, you still have the opportunity to periodically promote the other items because they’ll be relevant to the other case.
So, for example, let’s say you build a product review site for survival water filtration systems, and you review things like rain barrels and other items a prepper would need for this aspect of homesteading.
Because it’s relevant, you can still introduce a digital product on how to do it. After all, your list won’t feel as if it’s disconnected. Suppose your site was only about digital topics preventing wrinkles, and you suddenly introduced a review for a mobility scooter. In that case, that might not be as relevant as a product, such as age spots, which is also a skin-rejuvenating topic or product.
Ask yourself how relevant it would be to your audience, and don’t stray too far from what they came for. You don’t want your site overly muddled where they can’t tell what the content is supposed to be about.
Is Selling Space or Subscribers a Smart Move?
Some newbie marketers mistakenly think the bulk of their sales will come from selling ad space on their blogs. They start using systems they set up where companies display ads regularly and move up to taking orders from people who want to put a specific ad in a space on their blog.
An ad system is a way to earn a little bit, but until your blog becomes widespread, it won’t be enough to support you financially. It also depends on the niche that you’re in, so if ad revenue is the business model you’re considering, think about that, too.
You can sell or rent space on your blog in many areas. Right below the header image is a premiere spot. If your blog is popular in a niche, they’ll want this prime spot so their banner ad gets noticed.
Another area is the sidebar of your blog. The higher spots will be worth more to the person renting space than the lower parts of the sidebar. But this is a space where you usually could have your own opt-in and promotions.
Some people will want to rent space out by purchasing an entire blog post – either written by you to promote them or written by them, submitted for approval, and placed on your blog by you for a fee.
You can also rent out solo ads to your subscribers. This is a risky business because you aren’t thoroughly vetting the person purchasing an ad going out to your list. You’re also not making as much money on it as you would if it were a direct affiliate promotion.
Take a lot of care with your subscribers, and try not to sell emails going out to them or sell the entire list to someone if you move on from the niche. These consumers consciously decided to hand over their name and email address to you because they liked what you said and trusted you.
They weren’t signing up for someone else’s list, and when you hand over their contact details, that’s a sign of poor ethics in this industry. They’ll often be able to tell who sold their name because of how they signed up to your list, too, so it can quickly sour your reputation.
Zeroing in on Recurring Payments
Many marketers fail to realize that the profits you earn don’t have to be one-time commissions. If you’re strategic with it, you can promote ongoing affiliate programs that send you a check or payment month after month for as long as the customer stays in the program.
They range from small tickets to big-ticket items. Some renew monthly, while some are annual renewals. Some will be software programs or tools they’ll need, like hosting – while others might be a member for training and information.
You can even find some in other niches, like subscription boxes. The pet niche has recurring payment options, where people buy monthly subscription boxes for their dog or cat.
Some diet meal plans get sent out (some are digital programs while others are the actual meals) on a weekly or monthly basis. These can earn you an ongoing commission.
The survival niche and beauty niches also have these recurring income options. Type your niche topic into a search engine, add the words recurring income and affiliate program, and see what you can find.
You might not find any, but you might be able to find some high-ticket items that make you a good amount of money as an affiliate with a single purchase. Having a mix of profits coming in helps ensure you won’t be left in a lurch if one of them falls through.
The process of monetizing a niche isn’t complicated. Where most people fail is in simply forgetting to put the elements in place (such as affiliate links) that will earn them money. You have to actively think about each blog post, every email, and each post and how it can help you make money.
As time goes on, ensure you’re analyzing your efforts’ results. You might find that your readers respond overwhelmingly positively to a particular vendor over another one, and you’ll want to check and see if they have a line of products that you can promote.
If you don’t check the results of your monetization efforts, you won’t spend your time wisely. You may be giving space to something that doesn’t convert well for you at all. With simple, quick tweaks, you could alter that to a flow of commissions coming your way quickly.
Amazon Products
Supplements
