Mini Affiliate Sites and Niche Marketing
By Shane Pearce

In this article I'm going to cover two specific marketing tactics, yet they do however tie in together. I'm going to show you how Niche Marketing can be very effective and how Mini Affiliate Sites can earn you a very good ongoing income, if done well. I will also show you how to promote your Mini Affiliate Sites for the best result.

Niche Marketing is the concept of targeting a specific group or audience.

For example, have a look at www.Crystallures.com, they target a specific audience/product, Fishing Lures, and do it well. I know the people behind crystallures.com as I did some marketing work for them. They wanted me to target a specific audience, which I did, and I got a phenomenal response.

Not only did the customers buy the Fishing Lures, they told their friends to as well. And to me, that's the power of Niche Marketing. Targeting an audience that has no interest in what you sell is not only a waste of your time, but also your money.

Here's another example of what I mean. Say you have an Internet Marketing book and decided to promote it in Pay Per Click Search Engines. But here's the big question: the keyword "Internet" gets over One Million searches a month. On the other hand, "Internet Marketing" only gets half that number. Which keyword would you choose?

If you said "Internet," I'm sorry, but more than likely you are wrong. You see, the term "Internet" might get more searches, but it's not TARGETED. For example, if someone types in "Internet," they could want a range of products, and more than not, it's something that has nothing to do with Internet Marketing.

But if someone types in the term "Internet Marketing," they are being more specific and are actually requesting to view information solely on Internet Marketing. It's a simple explanation, I know, but it does help a lot of people. Of course, this example will work with any other keyword.

If you're wondering what this has to do with Mini Affiliate Sites, I'll explain now.

Mini Affiliate Sites are small sites that are two or three pages long and promote maybe one or two affiliate programs.

These sites have been proven so effective that they have become my full time Internet Marketing job. They key is finding a great affiliate program and making a site around it. Fortunately, after spending countless hours of wasted time, I found a product I can use in my everyday life as well as make an informative Mini Affiliate Site around.

Mark Joyner's ROIbot, or Return on Investment, has saved me hours of precious marketing time, doing all the tedious tasks for me. It sets up autoresponders for my emails, spies on my competitors' sites to see if they have changed anything on their site, tracks all my ad campaigns (Very Important) and sends out my newsletters. Of course there are more features than this, but at this point in time it does all I need it to do. Plus the affiliate program is so easy to use.

Marketing a Mini Affiliate Site is easy, or should I say, easier when you know how to get the best response.

Search Engines, Pay Per Click Search Engines, Articles and discussion groups are your best bet. The reason I used the word bet is because sometimes Mini Affiliate Sites can be a big gamble. That's why a lot of people, when they create their Mini Sites, use free domain names and free web hosting. While this may seem like a good idea, it can sometimes lead to your downfall. Here's why:

1. Search Engines frown on this sort of practice and are more likely to link a site with a keyword filled domain name. For example, a good keyword domain name would look like this, Freeinternetmarketinghelp.com.

2. Free sites don't build trust, and with Mini Affiliate Sites, you need to build as much trust as you can in a much shorter space.

In conclusion, if you're going to make a Mini Affiliate Site, find a product you use and trust and create a site around the product. Make sure you target only the people who could use or want your product, and most importantly, TRACK ALL YOUR advertising campaigns.

Shane Pearce has been helping Internet Marketers succeed online for 2 years. He offers free Internet Marketing Consulting via email and chat.
Send a blank email to mailto:underground@powerup.com.au   for more info.