Next Wednesday, May 27th I will have the pleasure of talking to Kelli Claypool and Regina Smola at Diva Talk Radio!!

We’re going to talk about writing, business stuff…and of course everything ebooks!!!

Have any particular questions you want answered about ebooks? What about other business materials? Want to have your burning question about creating your own affiliate products answered?

Then leave a comment here and I’ll make sure we talk about it!

Well, Wealthy Affiliate is doing it again! Kyle and Carson are always trying to come up with different ways to help others learn the ins and outs of Wealthy Affiliate and they’ve come up with a whole new system that is launching on January 13th!

NicheQ is a niche research system. You can find out:

- recommendations for affiliate programs

- industry overviews, with stats, spending and growth statistics

- demographics analysis

- purchasing trends

- marketing strategies, materials

and more!

There are also resources such as autoresponder emails, plr articles, article marketing and SEO techniques…the list goes on and on. Seriously, if you want to become an expert at niche marketing, this system is going to get you there! All the members of Wealthy Affiliate are excited about this and can’t wait to take the information and begin implementing everything and start reaping the financial rewards!

Want a free report that will help you get on the path to making money in niche marketing? Learn more about what a niche is, how to determine a good niche in a minute, and more! Yes, it’s FREE!!! Get some nice little NicheQ freebies in this report now!!

If you are marketing affiliate products, you should take stock in your methods. Why? Because how you are coming across to your audience reflects directly on you…and your financial bottom line.

Think about the last time you bought a car. Or an appliance. Or anything that meant you were dealing with a commissioned salesperson. How did you feel about the person when all was said and done? Did you come away feeling you were helped and the person’s commission well earned? Or were you just plain annoyed by the person’s pushy nature?

It’s the same online…just because you’re not in a person’s face doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the same approach as you would if you were handling the person right there in front of you.

It’s sort of like the Golden Rule. Treat others as you would like to be treated.

Would you like to frequent a blog that was obviously an ad after an ad after an ad? Everything another sales pitch with no (or little) added value?

Would you like to receive email autoresponders that continually tried to knock you over the head with how you just MUST buy this and that or you’re an idiot?

Of course not!

Look at your site. Look at your offerings. Really take a step back and see what you are presenting to your audience. Make sure you stand behind your products.

Do you have to buy every single one in order to present it honestly? Nope. But it helps.

But you definitely want to make sure that each and every product in your affiliate arsenal is something that is worthwhile to your audience and indicative of the type of quality you want to be thought of.

Keep in mind persistence is typically key in affiliate marketing. You usually need to get your message across to people several times before they may buy something…especially if the price is on the higher end. But persistence does not have to be pushy. You can still be subtle, helpful and completely non-annoyingly “pushy” if you balance your audience contact out and don’t make everything you do seem as if it’s a grab for people’s money.

In the end, people buy from the non-pushy types. Because who likes to feel pushed or bullied into buying anything?

If you plan to blog your way to the big bucks, then you want to start off on the right foot.

First up, please, please, please say you’ll make it easy on yourself and use Wordpress.

Now…once you decide on Wordpress you’ll want to choose a theme. Really, you shouldn’t stick to the basic classic theme. Nothing screams amateur more than the basic theme.

I’m a fan on getting someone to create me a custom theme. But that’s me. And there are plenty of great themes out there to choose from. Some are free, and some are a few bucks a pop. Keep in mind that the free ones are used…a LOT. So if you want something to look a bit different then you’re better off hiring a designer to come up with a custom theme.

You can choose either two or three column themes…though a three-column theme may have a cleaner look in terms of your needs: 1) blog posts, 2) blogroll, categories, etc. and 3) advertisements. So you may want to go with the 3-column. But this blog is a 2-column and you can see how this one works just fine. Mind you, I don’t have it all cluttered up or anything. It’s a pretty clean look…but that’s what I like…

Don’t get too crazy over picking out a theme. It really can be simple. Don’t go crazy with colors. What you think might be fun or cute or whatever may just give other people a headache. So practice restraint. It doesn’t have to be beautiful and it doesn’t have to be a masterpiece. It needs to be readable and it should at least have an inviting appeal to it.

After you pick your theme you’ll want to come up with a blog title and hopefully it will use your keywords. Remember those keywords you researched to make sure they a) had little competition and b) enough keyword searches on Google to make it worth your while? Well, now is your chance to work those keywords into your Blog title.

Next on our list? Some of the “backend” Wordpress stuff!

Okay…if you’re stumped for a niche, I’ve got an idea for you…go to the news sites. You know, like MSNBC, or CNN or Fox News. Think about it - the news people have their pulse on what interests people. The news that people want to read about. Because that’s their job!

So…let’s say you want to target people who want to lose weight. Maybe it’s a personal thing for you, or maybe you have affiliate products lined up in the weight loss arena…who knows? But you are thinking weight loss. But so are a kazillion other people out there. So how can you narrow it down? Look around and see what the “experts” are writing about.

Looking at the health sections I came across an article on arm flab. Talk about a niche! This is a very specific part of the body that many, many people want to tone up. Because who wants arm jiggle?

I came across another article that was talking about fitness used as a remedy for aging. So, instead of anti-aging pills, lotions, etc., we’re talking about a particular fitness movement (in this example - Pilates) that is specifically designed to fight the onset of age.

Just a couple minutes of browsing some of the news sites and you should get a few niche ideas. From there, you can start throwing around some keyword ideas and then using the Google Keyword Research Tool to see if they’re worthy of further development.

So…if you’re ever hard up for some new niche ideas, just head to the “expert” sites and see what hits ya!

I don’t know about you, but every so often the coolest domain name idea hits me like a ton of bricks. Then I’m tip-tap-typing away over at Godaddy in order to see whether my newest brainstorm for a domain name is available or not.

And if it’s available, then I buy it!

That’s about the only impulse buy I get sucked into. Because I’m just not that much of a shopper.

I actually have 25 domain names…and you know, I only use about 5 of those actively. Some of them are very specific. Specific can be good in some situations. If I choose to whip something up for those domain names, then great - I’m covered with my ultra-cool, ultra-specific urls.

But if I had more generic domain names, I would be able to use them in different ways. By creating a subdomain for that generic domain name I could have countless sites…all falling under that generic domain name.

Let’s look a ittle closer…

Start with the domain name: http://www.genericnamehere.com

At first glance, you think “What the heck would that site even be about?” 

But that generic domain name can be used by adding a subdomain. And then another. And another. Get the idea?

So you come up with the niche of golf trophies. And a completely different niche of ceiling fan pulls. What’s an internet marketer to do?? Buy more domain names? http://www.AwesomeGolfTrophies.com and http://www.UltimateCeilingFanPulls.com?

Well, you could. By why waste the money?

You’ve got a perfectly good generic domain name that you can use. You can set up subdomains for these two niches using that generic domain name. And they will look like this: http://AwesomeGolfTrophies.genericnamehere.com and like this: http://UltimateCeilingFanPulls.genericnamehere.com.

NOTE: There is no “www” before the subdomain!!

Each subdomain is seen by the search engines (yes, Google too!) as its own separate site. So yes, each different niche can be optimized for its specific keywords and thus each subdomain can rank at the top for its keywords.

When money is tight and you want to be as financially savvy as possible, then subdomains off of a generic domain name is a great way to go!

As a business owner, you know it’s important to have something catchy to splash across all your marketing materials, both online and off. You want to sum it up in a few words…but you’re too close to your business, too emotionally attached to come up with something that is “just right.”

If you head over to 72HourBrainstorm the folks over there can help you out!!! Several professionals are working together, using their noggin’s to whip up some crazy cool ideas that will help you pinpoint that perfect tagline you’ve been missing from your business materials, or a snazzy slogan for your next ad campaign!!

You’ll get 3 brainstorm ideas - FREE. All they ask in return is a testimonial for their site!! How cool is that??

But do it now, because the 3 FREE tagline/slogan promo ends January 10th!! Less than a month, my friends - so hop to it!

So…with the information I’m learning over at The Niche Blogger, I’ve been doing some research on a few niches I thought would be pretty nifty little niches.

Except, it’s a long process..and truly a balancing act.

The whole point is that you want to find a niche where there isn’t tons of competition but that does have a decent amount of searches in a given month. The ratio?

You want to find something with less than 200,000 results on the competition side. And I found a few of those.

But then, using the Google Keyword Search Tool I would plug in what I thought was going to be My Next Big Thing and realized that the search number was too low. Over at The Niche Blogger, it’s recommended that there are at least 1500 monthly searches for your keywords.

No dice on that one. Every single one of my brilliant niche ideas were shot down due to lack of searches.

Oh well. Back to the drawing board.

It doesn’t mean it can’t be done - because it can! You can definitely find the right balance and find that niche!

With mine…I was concentrating on specific keywords because I was thinking along the lines of what subdomains I could create that would go hand-in-hand with a particular domain name I already have (and that I’m not doing a dang thing with!). (And…if you’re scratching your head at the subdomain mention, I’ll tackle that in another post).

So…back to the drawing board for more niche ideas with the right balance between competition and keyword searches.

Join The WAHM Agent Affiliate Program!

So…remember the ebooks I wrote and received some cool reviews on?

Review of Becoming a Work at Home Mom Real Estate Agent at WAHM Cafe

Review of Working Your Real Estate Business at WAHM Cafe

Review by Organized Life By Design

Heck, it was even mentioned on Blog Talk Radio!!

Well, now they’re available to sell as affiliate products!! If you have a work at home mom audience then you might want to sign up as an affiliate and make 50% off every sale of the ebooks!

The program is set up over at e-junkie and my company name is: Beyond The Pen. There are three books for sale individually at $17.99 (and you can make half of that!!) or there is The Complete WAHM Agent available for $39.99 (again, you make half of that sales price!)

I’m here to help you out in any way possible - so if you need graphics, help with some marketing copy, etc. please feel free to contact me at: tina at thewahmagent dot com. There are also testimonials on The WAHM Agent website you can use for your own marketing efforts!

Whether a work at home mom is looking for a part-time or full-time career, there is still money to be made in real estate. And it’s a great career to develop over the long haul as the kids grow up and mom has more time to spend on business!!

Okay - while this site is called “The Wealthy Affiliate WAHM” and I mention the Wealthy Affiliate program a lot (I can’t help it, I’m an enthusiastic member!)…it’s also just about affiliate marketing in general and how to become wealthy through affiliate marketing.

That means I look into all sorts affiliate programs and products and try to learn as much as I can. For myself, and to pass along to you!

I just joined The Niche Blogger program and I plan on reporting back the good and the bad as I move through the program and learn more about blogging towards to the big bucks. It’s an inexpensive program (currently less than $18 per month) and you get a month’s worth of blog posts at a time. Each day there’s a new task. It is about as step-by-step as you can get in terms of finding the right domain names, working with subdomains, and so on.

Interestingly enough, if you read the post and don’t quite “get it,” just read through the various comments underneath and you’ll find members posing questions and Amy Bass (The Niche Blogger) answers them. It pretty much explains everything.

I got through week one in about 2 days, because some of the stuff I’ve already done on my own. But so far, I’m liking the program…