What Mel
Gibson Taught Me About Niche Marketing...
By Anik Singal
A lot of my students feel they need to follow the crowd. They either
jump on the Internet marketing bandwagon, or they pounce on whatever's
new and trendy.
Granted, you CAN make money that way. If you don't mind chasing the
tail of a trend.
But the REAL money is in getting AHEAD of the trend. You could tap hot
niche markets BEFORE everybody else.
Are you saying, "Anik, you've flipped. I'm supposed to be psychic?"
No, just watch the trendsetters - the entrepreneurs, visionaries, and
celebrities who have a knack for projects that make a TON of money.
Look at Mel Gibson. He's not just one of the world's most popular
actors. He's also a movie tycoon. If Mel backs a film, it's gonna make
big box office bucks from day one.
Yet ask yourself: Would YOU have invested in a movie about a 13th
century Scottish warrior? Or a hideously expensive film in which
everybody speaks a language called Aramaic? No way!
Yet Mel took those ideas, applied his uncanny sense of what appeals to
people EMOTIONALLY... and made a MINT!
$100 million for the "run" of a movie is considered a success. Mel's
"Passion of the Christ," where everybody speaks in Aramaic, grossed
$611 million. And "Braveheart," about a Scottish freedom fighter in
the middle ages, grossed over $210 million. Anybody who backed those
projects made money. Especially Mel!
Mel Gibson's biggest strength as a marketer is he uses the PAST to
predict the future. Give him a story from the past with EMOTIONAL
CONTENT, full of heroes, love, suffering, and triumph, and he'll spin
it into cash!
How does this help the online marketer? On the web, the past
definitely isn't past. It's one of the HOTTEST niches. And it's not
cooling off. Look at the thousands of sites about history,
memorabilia, genealogy, and retro themes. The challenge is turning an
interesting slice of history into a cash machine.
That's where you can really learn from Mel. He chooses historical
subjects that spark people's EMOTIONS.
Interested in U.S. Civil War battles? There's tons of ways to
monetize: contextual advertising like Adsense; ads or auctions of
memorabilia; books, videos, and DVDs; travel to famous battlegrounds;
genealogy research and software; reproduction uniforms and period
dress; etc. And there's plenty of searches for Civil War related
keyphrases. All around, a NICE niche!
But how would Mel turn your site into a "box office hit?" He'd market
the HEROES. From infantry foot soldiers to flashy generals on
horseback. Why? Because visitors don't drool for dry history books.
Too many marketers sell the TOPIC and not the EMOTIONS. Then they moan
when their "hobby site" doesn't make money. Yet EMOTIONS create
desire... and desire opens wallets!
People drool for excitement, courage, valor, love of honor. So Mel
would put the spotlight on heroes and feelings, and pin them to
keywords, content, and products that satisfy our nostalgia.
Plus he'd focus on STORIES. He'd have a "heroes blog," an optin list,
an ezine, and maybe an autoresponder course filled with vivid tales of
triumphant heroes. And because he's an awesome salesman, Mel would use
every opportunity to associate all this grand, high-minded content
with the chance to make a SALE.
He'd send ezine readers to contextual ads with optimal clickthrough
page placement. He'd include affiliate links to everything from books
and DVDs, to period costumes and trips to Gettysburg. He'd do his best
to OWN that niche so he could make great money off that site for its
entire "run!"
"The past" is one of the web's most longstanding "hot" niches. If you
enjoy history or nostalgia, give this niche the "Mel treatment." You
might just create a 24/7 cash machine that will chug along for
generations to come!
This article is written by Anik Singal, founder of The Affiliate
Classroom. Anik Singal has developed his own affiliate system that
helped him earn well over $10,466 in just 60 days. Now, he's looking
for a few students to train one step at a time.
Sign-up for our FREE course
http://www.AffiliateClassroom.com/free-course.html