I frequently read the wickedfire forum. I have learned a lot from there, and I have met people who make some parts of my affiliate business a breeze.
The majority there, are US affiliates. Everytime someone writes something like “the niche I am targeting has 1 million results, how long till I rank?” I start to laugh. I feel sorry for them, especially for the noobs, because they dive in an over-saturated market, where competition is everywhere. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t brag about being smarter, I just laugh because in my target area, untapped niches are like continents.
It seems as if every project I throw up there, simply ranks in no time. Not because I am doing something special, I do the normal seo and linkbuilding stuff everyone else does. The reason for that, is quite simply, the fact that the competition isn’t there. And even if it is, its rare that I find another webmaster who knows his job (usually, when such a person shows up, we just have a silent agreement of sharing the top 10, 50/50 shares).
Another factor, is the Greek alphabet. You know, the funny letters we use: “μαλακας”
Since the ascii code for this: “Aa” and for this :”Αα” are different, this makes for a completely different game. Where English affiliates try to rank for 1.2 million results, I only have to rank for 300.000 results.
Here comes the downside as well. No competition, means no affiliate networks to work with! We have almost zero CPA offers, users are reluctant to put their credit card online. Half the work I do is simple translation, since a lot of Greek surfers know little or no English. And, I repeat, no affiliate networks at all. Only independent merchants, who are (I am not kidding) around 20. That number includes all niches. Almost every webmaster uses adsense to monetize, simply because there is not much of anything else.
I don’t even have to tell you how few people ever heard of affiliate marketing…
The first check I got, was from CJ. When I took it to the bank to cash it out, 3 employees gathered over the check, including the manager, to discuss whether this was a legitimate check or not. The check said in bold letters: “Bank Of America”. So they decided to make 4 phone calls to verify the validity of the bank. They finally accepted it after 25 minutes, 4 phone calls, and a group vote (still not kidding).
Anyway, my point is this. If you are in a country where affiliate marketing is still at early stages, you have to jump right in. Forget making US campaigns etc, sending traffic to US offers, trying to outrank people in English results.
Here are some of the reasons you should focus on your country:
- Domains. DOMAINS. There are so many unregistered golden tld domains, you will slam your head on the wall in a few years if you don’t invest in domains.
- Keywords. Cheaper clicks, better ROI.
- SERP rankings. Much, much easier to rank for quality terms.
- Few affiliates, getting more from the merchants. Think of it. You are a merchant, and you have 15-20 affiliates sending in shit. Then comes an advanced affiliate, who brings in another paycheck. Who are you gonna pamper?
- Make your own affiliate offer. Seriously. Its much easier than you think.
- Practically every professional and well maintained site becomes authority. I’ve seen it happen here so many times…
- Sell your webuilding/SEO services as if they were made of gold. You can rip off sooooooooo many people. Still, if you don’t wanna rip them off, it still is easier to find clients. And overcharge them. A bit.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Stumble it!
written by Glowleaf
