After choosing a niche to service...it's a smaller one, but the people are very dedicated to it...I made my first move. In the "affiliate war" you have to know your enemy...or enemies. Taking my cue from the affiliate masters program, I went to google and researched the top 5 sites in my category. Opening a text document, I went one by one and logged their names...pros/cons...affiliates or advertisements and anything else that caught my attention.
The top 3 were slap full of content...but mostly read like stereo instructions. The contect of course keeps them on the Search Engine's good side...but they could put you to sleep quick. Sites 4-5 were even worse...they had just enough content to say they were a content site, it was so obvious that they are set up to sell you on their products. That's ok of course...but they will turn away more potential customers because they are not creating that "open to buy" frame of mind...hence why they are lower on the food chain
After breaking down the sites, I've decided the only way to beat the top 3 was to play their game...but play it my way. The trick is to keep the content, add a little more if possible...then bring the fun. The one thing that they were all missing were example pages, pictures or gifs that would inspire the average fun-loving websurfer to be inspired to try out the products and read further. When it comes down to it...it's all about inspiration! If they are not feeling it...they ain't buying it! So what's the next step? It's time for the most critical move...the design phase! This should and will take time...but hey, I'm here for the long haul !
Stay tuned
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