Thanks for your comment. You’ve covered the various affiliate business models very well. There are many marketers that encourage people to go into niches they have no real knowledge or or interest in. Many of them are still very successful with these niches. But the difference in those situations is the marketer has years of experience in marketing or really great marketing skill. I’m probably sure I could go to a market I know nothing about and make some money there employing many of the techniques you discussed above such as outsourcing the research and articles to other people.

But even if that was the case you still need to know how to get people to your website and keep them long enough to be interested in what you have to offer. Getting them there can be easy if you’ve been trained properly. But I would argue keeping them there and getting them to take action would still be a lot more difficult then with a niche you already know. People can tell just by reading my articles that I’ve been where they are. My personality is in this blog for better or worst. I think many people that like this blog are attracted to that and the information I provide from my unique perspective. This is what leads to the conversions i get. And I know they’re a lot of flogs (Fake Ass Blogs) out there that make quick money. But because they’re usually promoting stuff they don’t know about, they don’t care if the products are legit or not. Thus if their user gets screwed over by many of their recommendations, Guess what? They’ve lost a customer/visitor for life. Worst case scenario, you’ve made an enemy that will now make it a point to discredit your name and blog to the world. Bad news travels fast.

So yes you can take the risk of going into a niche and throwing up some articles you purchase and then attempt to monetize the site with various affiliate programs but don’t expect to build a long term business that way. If you actually provide real value in this niche which can be ensuring that you’re providing quality information not some artice slapped together. Or better still you get quests bloggers that are actually authorities or knowledgeable about the subject matter, then you have a better chance of long term success. So I guess it really depends on your goals.

And by the way you can monetize any niche if you just think laterally sometimes. It just takes a little creativity with your words to illustrate to your users that a given service may still apply to their situation even if at first glance it doesn’t. For instance if you were running a dating site, the things that most people would promote is just sex toys, match.com, relationbooks, etc. But I could easily promote something totally unrelated in that niche like wigs. How? I could write an article about how important it is to spice up your relationship and keep it fresh. Tell your husband to meet you at a bar. Then dress really sexy but wear a wig and act like you’re someone new and try hitting on your husband. I bet you didn’t see that coming? lol

But you have to be able to think outside of the box in certain niches especially when you don’t have a lot of affiliate programs directly related to your niche. Although I’m in a niche that has plenty of affiliate companies to join, i’ll often look laterally to see if there are other fits that might help my users out and make me some additional income. So as you can see, any niche can make you money with lateral thinking. And if not that you can make passive income with joining Google adsense which pays you to have ads on your site and if people click on the links you get some money which varies depending on your site’s content and quality. So you can stick with your niche if you employ these methods.

I think going outside your niche is fine if you still plan to provide real value by taking a journalist stance where you actually do research even if you’ve never tried the product then report your findings and allow your users to make a decision as to whether they’ll take action or not. I do that on occassion and its usually for companies i’m not affiliated with. I just wanted to give people other options. But you should always think about providing first, not making money. The money will come with the value you add and it will be long term if you do it well. Hope this makes sense.

This person mentioned putting up a site about a topic she knew nothing at all about and researching eBay and PLR articles to add content. The purpose, of course, is to make money and it’s considered a sales site, basically a store the same as a physical store where the clerk is just someone who rings up the purchases. How do you feel about this?

I guess there are “authority” sites, where the owner is indeed an expert on the topic and gives advice as well as sells products (like yourself); then there are the middle-ground theme-based sites where the owner may not be an expert but provides content of sufficient quality, perhaps by using guest articles, and through them manages to sell their products; and then there are these sales sites where, probably unbeknownest to the buyer, the person selling the products knows nothing whatsoever about them.

It’s like buying from Amazon where the people working directly for the site may or may not have read a particular book or ever heard of a particular song …

I would dearly love to stick to what I love … but I fear it doesn’t provide a good-enough business model and money must be the priority.

I guess you’re new to the site. Go and visit our work at home guide:
http://www.workathomenoscams.com/workathomeguide

& Work At Home Companies page:
http://www.workathomenoscams.com/companies

And finally read the scam page: http://www.workathomenoscams.com/scams
Scams are easy to avoid and there are plenty of legitimate work at home opportunities out there. It’s just a matter of being educated on what to avoid. The scam section and guide should you get you well on your way if you take the time to actually read it. If not you’ll probably be doomed to make a lot of the mistakes that many of us have. So sit back, kick up your feet and get to reading. I’m confident you won’t be a newbie anymore after this.

Good luck.

Thanks,

candice

I totally hear your concern as a website owner. I’ve had the same discussion with other bloggers and my loyal visitors. At the end of the day any free medium needs to be supported by ads. It’s a necessary “evil”. TV networks have shady infomercials on them as well. But I think they do a great job of balancing the business of making money and being a responsible network by always providing a disclaimer before or after an infomercial. They make it very clear that they’re not endorsing any of those products and that it was an ad. I think as website owners if we make it clear that the ads are sponsors then that’s an acceptable practice. So definitely make it clear on your site who the advertisers are. Even with that disclaimer, there are going to be a few haters that will complain. But these people would be the same that complained if you removed all the ads from your site and then charged them to access your content. So you can’t please everyone. As long as you continue to provide content of value that helps people, I think most will understand the needs for ads and can figure out that they aren’t personal recommendations.

At the end of the day everyone is responsible for doing their research. I for one will still research a company even if it’s recommended by a trusted source just so I have peace of mind. So to each their own.