So you’ve found that first money making idea, you’ve exploited it for all it’s worth and now what?  Back to square one eh?  Lost and desolate in the affiliate wilderness without so much as a blinking map to lead you to that next oasis like pool of lovely money.

But like most navigators of any kind, you’ll probably know exactly where you are with your current niche.  Time and time again I see people forging out on their next venture, which ends up being completely different from what has been recently successful for them or something related that has been chosen without reference to their current position.  This is a recipe for getting lost in the affiliate wilderness good and proper.

With this in mind I decided to provide an outline of how to engage in a bit of what I like to think of as “Affiliate Orienteering” – a great way to make sure that your next big idea is located in a more educated way than sticking a pin in a map!

Think About WHY Your Most Recent Venture Was Successful

If It’s a Single Product…

• Why did people buy it?

• What features did it have? For example, a while back chocolate fountains were suddenly all the rage.  People bought them because they were a great food related novelty, a nice way to finish off a dinner party with some table top cooking, or an interesting feature on a party buffet, some of their popularity came from the “staying in is the new going out” vibe that has become popular in recent years as the cost of living has increased. They also got a lot of coverage on the telly and in glossy magazines.

• Was it a standalone product?  Or are there any accessories for it that you might be able to promote?  Are there any similar products that are cheaper or have slightly different features?  i.e going back to our chocolate fountain idea, could you sell posh chocolate fondue sticks and recipe books as an addition to your current site?

• If it was a product with a specific purpose (like a chocolate fountain) what else is there out there that will appeal to people for the same reasons as they rushed out and bought a chocolate fountain? With that in your mind, do a bit of research.  The best place to start is probably the merchant or merchants you’ve already had success with. If I’d had a big success with chocolate fountains I’d immediately look at other single purpose cooking gadgets, particularly ones that might get wheeled out at parties.
• Here’s what my list of next niches to explore would be:-

• Fondue sets
• Stone Grills
• Popcorn makers
• Pizza makers
• Indoor BBQs
• Any other single purpose food gadget I could think of.

Armed with my list, I’d then approach some merchants and just plain outright ask them about the performance of any products they stocked that were on my list.  Questions would include: – “How do these sell?”, “Do you find these convert for you?” If they’re not converting now, will they convert at Christmas?” and finally “How many do you sell?”

If It’s a Broader Niche Site…

You’d follow the same process but the selling features would be more general.  Questions you’d ask yourself would be as follows: -

• Can I make a similar site and target a different country?
• Can this product area have variations that appeal to a different group of people?  i.e. I created a successful womens underwear site and then used a similar structure to create an underwear resource for men.
• If your site converted really well, why do you think it converted well? If it was targeted at a certain group of people i.e. silver surfers and you successfully created an appealing resource for them to use – have a think about what other product groups appeal to them.  After all you are already well experienced at selling to them.

Your Next Niche is Never as Far Away as You Think…

The majority of the successful niche areas I’ve tapped in the last few years have been related to one degree or another.  I’ve found that once you start to follow a “mapped approach” that creating useful resources that add value to the user and convert well gets easier and easier.  I suppose the best anology is that I have gotten familiar and comfortable with my local neighbourhood meaning that these days I very rarely need to use a map at all.  I just know where I’m going.

Yep, that’s right.  We have another new resident here in the Affiliate Stuff office (and you might well be forgiven for asking yourself if we can actually get the door shut on any given day).

So who is our new affiliate chum?

Introducing…

Zuri!

Her main duties here at Affiliate HQ are in the stress relief department.  So far she’s been doing a good line in looking cute, adorable, and generally gorgeous.  Our resident Cat in Chief, Lazlo was a teeny bit unsure to start with, but seems to have gotten over his initial concerns about her fairly quickly….

As you can see, they form a fairly formidable IT support team by way of creating a rather excellent “screen muff” on the rear of my computer.

But On A Serious Note….

We got Zuri from our local animal rescue shelter.  Just before Christmas, Duncs and I decided that we should foster a cat for one of the local rescue organisations as that is a time of year when lots of former pets are Euthanased. 4Paws Animal Rescue are a Sunshine Coast organisation that have adopted a decentralised approach to the concept of an animal refuge.  All their animals are housed in the homes of volunteer foster carers.

Zuri was abandoned in a rental property when her owners moved out. They simply closed the door and left her, another cat, and some kittens behind. They were found a few days later by the maintenance man.  When we got her she weighed 2.2kg and was fairly thin and bony.  This is the picture 4Paws took of her when they got her…

Cute size for a kitten, but this cat is actually well over 1 year old!  I don’t understand why people can treat animals like a disposable commodity, particularly one with such a beautiful personality.  Of course, knowing what she’d been through and after Lazlo took such a shine to our new wee foster-kitty we couldn’t really bear to part with her.  So the adoption papers have been signed, money has been parted with, and she is now a full time member of Clan McKenzie!  She still spends a lot of time hiding herself away, but comes out of her shell a little more every day.  Lazlo is completely besotted (bit too much at times as she gets fed up with his constant attention!).

So…

Welcome home Zuri – and ladies and gents don’t forget your local animal rescue if you think you would like a new pet.  Even if pedigrees are your thing, you may be surprised at what you find in a shelter. Posh cats and dogs have not been immune from the effects of the recession.  If you don’t want to commit to a permanent pet, do please consider fostering.  Every dog or cat placed in a foster home is one less euthanased at the council pound – you’d be quite literally saving a life.

Zuri has been with us a month and has already put on 500g on a diet of Iams, chicken necks, and love

P.S We chose her new name – it means “white and lovely”.

P.P.S Don’t think I don’t know you thought this was a post about another spider

I was having a chat with my MSN pal Dan (hello Dan!) the other morning, and our conversation made me realise that although new affiliates very quickly get the “target the long tail” message, this is often not matched by a rapid understanding of 1) what one of those is and 2) WHY they should be used.  Although Dan has been involved in the wonderful world of affiliate marketing for 2 years, he confessed that his understanding of the concept has only recently crystalised.

When I realised this, a bit of a light came on in my head about this being one of those “buzz words” that a lot of people use, and only a percentage of them understand.  It got me wondering….

What Exactly Might Someone Visualise The First Time They Hear About Long Tail Keywords?

Some kind of exotic reptile?  Perchance a magic fairy who deposits cash in your affiliate account?  I think the latter of those two is probably how I’d see it, for the long tail is often presented as a sort of holy grail of making money online and effectively channelling relevant traffic to your site.

So What is a Long Tail?

Well, the officially correct definition of a Long Tail keyword would be  that it is a keyword phrase made up of 3 or more words that are more specific than a one word search term.

How Do We Use Them?

Well, the first way I think we should use them is to disregard any rigid definition about  them.

For me the key part of the definition is “more specific”.  Getting the targeting of your words right will define whether or not your site sinks or swims so targeting outranks Long Tail in the Kirsty McCubbin book of affiliate priorities.

In conclusion – I think “target the long tail” is a bit of red herring and I apologise to everyone I’ve used it on.  I think “Highly Targeted” keywords is what I should have been talking about.

Some Examples…

Here are some examples of pairs of non targeted and targeted keywords (I’ve made them seasonally relevant): -

Valentines Keepsake > Silver Last Rolo

Sexy Lingerie > Agent Provocateur Lingerie

Romantic Night Out > Thames Dinner Cruise

Naughty Game > Nookii

Romantic Weekend > Champneys Spa Weekend

As you can see, most are indeed 3 words but I’ve also used one that is a single word and also highly specific.

Why Target Them?

All of the above keyword pairs have one thing in common.  I would never, ever target the non specific ones at the start of a new venture. Why?  Because as an affiliate I want to put all of my energy into grabbing people when they are as far along the sales journey as possible.  I’m not interested in visitors when they’re still researching which valentines keepsake they want to buy their significant other. It’s a waste of my energy and resources.  However, once they’ve narrowed down the field to a very specific choice I really want to grab them and get them through to a merchant – I have a much higher chance of grabbing a conversion and the traffic is much easier and cheaper for me to get.

That’s not to say that more general keywords don’t have a space in my marketing mix, they do!  However, by starting highly specific and then working my way backwards towards more general keywords I will be able to get a feel for when the more general stuff is not worth my effort.  With PPC, I’ll also be able to use the highly targeted keywords that generate better revenue to help subsidise my more generic terms which might just get me onto a higher commission tier.

Keywords Are Well…. Key Really

There is absolutely no point at all to being top of the search engine or PPC pops for terms unless they actually earn you money.  It’s vitally important to put yourself in the shoes of the buyer when coming up with your niche keywords and getting them as close to the end of their purchasing journey as possible.

What’s your favourite 3 letter word? I know what mine has been this past year, yep that’s right SEO!  Although 2009 was a bit gnarly for me in places, the little thorns in the usually sweet-smelling affiliate ointment galvanised my determination to insulate myself from margins that were on the wibble.  This is a process I first began just over 2 years ago when I was a 100% PPC affiliate.  The first year saw some small progress and I managed to get myself to 80% PPC and 20% SEO.

However, once the dust from our nuptuals had settled and the credit crunch had really bit, I applied myself to the business of garnering organic traffic like a woman posessed. The results?  An absolutely brilliant increase in my profit margin and turnover.  I will leave the explaination of why combining PPC and SEO can be so powerful to Nadeem Azam – he did a great post on that a while back.

Now I’m Not Letting Any Numbers Slip But…

I can show you how the impact on my bottom line looked!  I keep monthly stats on all of my sites and do love a good graph.  So here’s my monthly income and expenditure graph (numbers removed!!)

The distance between my profit and expenditure (green and red lines) which you can see in January is a pretty accurate reflection of how it had been for the whole of the previous year.  As you can see, throughout the year the amount I’ve been spending on PPC has not increased that much whilst the green and blue lines (profit and turnover) have adopted a pleasing upward trend, followed by a terribly exciting spike around the festive season.

In 2009….

Investing time into writing content and building quality sites reduced the percentage of my turnover I was spending on PPC from 49% to 25%.  Given that a good chunk of my new income has come from sites which are only a few months old I’m incredibly optimistic about consolidating my success further in 2010 and reducing my reliance upon Google Adwords (because I’m starting to get alarmed about how they view affiliate landing pages).

How Will I Capitalise On My SEO Success?

I think I’m going to play the same numbers game I did in 2009 to keep myself motivated.  Every day I set myself a target to get 8 new pages written and live.  I give myself 2 hours to do this.  I set aside a few hours a month to link build for my sites and am using the Content Now Link Building service to garner links for my lingerie site.  I’m seeing some rather pleasing results from that and my rankings are improving all the time.

Where Will My Little Green Line End Up At The End Of This Year?

Well, after a rather sad drop in January I’m hoping it will resume its gentle upwards climb. It’s taken me 2 years to get to this point, and I feel I really know what to do this year to really secure my various sites in the SERPS and insulate Duncan and I from any more recession-esque income fluctuations.

I’ll let you know how I went in January 2011

Happy New Year Guys!

Well, 2009 can best be described as having been an “interesting” year for me and my affiliate business.  The recession and some issues with key merchants took quite the gouge out of my bottom line in the early part of the year – but I managed to work through that and I feel I’m finishing the year with my business in pretty good shape and in a great position to reach new heights in 2010.  Before the shit really hit the recession fan I made a few resolutions about what I hoped to get out of this year – you can see them here.

How Did I do in 2009?

Well, all in all I managed to meet most of my resolutions. I’d estimate my success rate at 80% to 90%.  My failures were as follows: -

• I didn’t manage to create much in the way of revenue with Affiliate Future and Linkshare. Of the two networks I think Linkshare has the most merchants that are a good fit with my sites, so I hope to correct my omission in 2010 and will keep an eagle eye on Affiliate Future for inspiration!
• My vegetable garden hasn’t really eventuated. However, I have 6 tomato plants in the garden. These are still alive and seem to be fruiting.  Baby steps!
• I didn’t change my name to McKenzie! I had planned to be Mrs McKenzie in my personal life, however I got unaccountably agressive when the bank said I couldn’t have one name on my personal accounts and another on my business accounts.  Who is Kirsty McKenzie anyway?  She didn’t make that money, and I was buggered if her name was going on it.  I got a name plate for the front door in the name of “Mr & Mrs McKenzie” – that almost counts
• I didn’t pay off 20% of my mortgage – 2009 was a year of  stupidly big bills.  Not a month went by without someone sending Duncs and I a comedy bill of gargantan proportions.  Oh, and the GBP nosedived against the dollar. I’ve got the equivalent of 10% sitting in a Sterling account though, and with a following wind I hope the value of that will increase to 13% (if the exchange rate improves eventually).  Not a runaway success, but given the challenges we’ve had this year I still think that’s pretty good.

My 2010 Resolutions

• I will consolidate the success I’ve created in 2009 – I created several new sites last year and these have been pleasingly successful.  In particular I’m happy with my Mens Underwear site. It was only started in February last year and has created some impressive fledgling results.  I have loads of ideas in new areas I know will work. However, a trap it is all too easy to fall into is to always be starting new projects and not doing your existing sites justice.  My current sites have the potential to really create a significant turnover boost this year if I devote a block of time to developing them further.
• I will increase my organic traffic and decrease my reliance upon PPC. I’ve already made vast inroads in this area, in fact the results are so impressive I’m going to do a separate post showing the effect of organic traffic on my bottom line in 2009.  Also, given recent “mass banning” outbreaks over at Adwords HQ I’m keen to insulate myself from such an eventuality. Paranoid?  Maybe.  But always preparing for worst case scenario isn’t a bad thing!
• I will keep investing into the growth of my business – it’s too easy to just grab all that lovely affiliate cash and get it spent.  However, it is well worth setting aside a good proportion to invest into promotion, content, and site development.  I see lots of people who make a small amount of affiliate cash, and just keep on spending it. This can lead to turnover stagnation.  It’s so important to nurture the vehicle of your success.  In 2009 I invested heavily in content and it has paid off big time. I wish I’d done it ages ago!
• Add 20% to my profits. I’ve crunched my numbers based on a 5% monthly traffic increase to key sites and it seems this is achiveable.  In fact, my calculations suggested I might well manage to add significantly more than that – but as affiliate number crunching is nebulous given all the variables outwith your control I’ve decided to try to “keep it real”.  Time will tell and I’m not counting any chickens, but its good to have something to aim at!
• I won’t spend too much time affiliate number crunching. It’s all fantasy till you actually get the work done and its too easy to spend time you could be working setting out yet another growth forecast.
• I will pester my merchants more. Goddammit Kirsty but you don’t ask merchants to do enough. Particularly the ones you are driving strong volume to. Get it sorted girl.
• I’ll definately go to the A4U Expo in London this year. I can’t go 2 years running without seeing all my affiliate pals I might even bring my Mum for y’all to meet if she’s up for it.

Personal Resolutions

• More effort at NOT working. Harder than you’d think.
• Plenty of weekends away. We live in a tropical paradise. More sightseeing effort required.
• I’ll spend a chunk of cash getting the house ship shape. Despite the shit exchange rate, it’s time to unleash the moths as this house in its current state is starting to drive me bonkers.
• I will get better at spending my money on myself. Funny thing I have.  I find it really hard to spend cash on myself.  Any purchase over $50 and I get “the guilt” in the pit of my stomach.  I think nothing of spending money on nice things for Duncan, or the house, holidays etc.  But stuff only for me?  I can’t do it.  Whats the bloody point of all this work if I can’t get some goodies for myself? LOL.

OK, I think that’s enough resolutions for one year.  What are your resolutions? Personal or affiliate it doesn’t matter. Record them below so that I can see how mine compare!