6 Steps To Improving Your Chances

In my last post "Why Am I Unsuccessful And How To Turn That Around" I discussed 6 reasons why I am, as yet, unsuccessful and I offered 6 steps that could be taken to give you and me the best chance at success (whatever that may mean for you) for our future endeavors.

The 6 steps are:

1. Choose a niche you enjoy
2. Ensure enough people are interested in it
3. Is it an 'evergreen' niche
4. Ensure it is a topic and not a product
5. Assess your competition
6. Monetization.

So, I have an 'idea' for a niche and before I start looking at domain names or even thinking about content; I wanted to put it through these 6 questions to see if it has the 'legs' to run the affiliate marketing marathon.

So my overall idea for the niche is 'medieval knights and castles' with a sub-niche of the Templar Knights. Let's run this through the 6 criteria above and see if it ticks all the boxes:

Criterion 1: Do I enjoy the subject?

Yes, ever since I was a wee whippersnapper I've enjoyed castles, knights and the Crusades and it hasn't left me for almost 45 years - I think we can give this a big checkmark.

Criterion 2: Are there enough people searching for it:

I did a search for the broad term 'medieval knights' on both Google USA and Google UK and according to the USA program there were 172 websites out there that had the term medieval knights in it somewhere and the UK version had 176 websites. A lot, lot less than I thought there would be.

So, I went to Google Trends to see what the 'big picture' was:

This is the result for the trend of 'medieval knights' since 2004 to the present day in the US:

It hasn't really 'dropped off a cliff' it's just that the interest in the subject has just died a slow death. Now, this is the result for the UK over the same time period:

It's a lot spikier than the US result but there is still that downward trend over time.

But what about the Templar Knights, my sub-niche - surely that has legs?

Well, here are the graphs for both countries:

USA:

Well, it's still spiky and it seems to have plateaued for a few good years but, in the end, more people seem to be interested in the Knights Templar than in medieval knights.

How about the UK:

Well, there's considerably more interest in the UK in regards to the Templars - the spikes are about equal time-wise but the overall level of interest is higher over here than over there. I expected that, simply because the Crusades are an integral part of UK history and are taught in our schools.

OK, so it looks as though I can shift my initial niche choice from medieval knights to a more focused niche of the Templar Knights. So, fromm this point on I'll be dealing with the criteria above in respect of the Tempar Knights, rather than the broader medieval knights - good to know.

Criterion 3: Is it 'evergreen'?

Yes, undoubtedly, the Templar Knights were born from the Crusades, which will be taught in UK schools for ever more (unless they change the curriculum) so that is a check.

Criterion 4: Is it a topic and not a product?

Yes, there are not Templar Knights for sale anywhere that I can find and so this is a topic rather than a product. Check.

Criterion 5: Assess the competition

Well, this particular topic doesn't fall into any of the non-reccommended niches from my last post so I don't need to worry about getting credentials or being experienced in the field.

From a quick investigation of the 1st page of Google UK's search results my main competition for the search term 'knights templar' is:

1. No featured snippet at the top of the results
2. A local Google map showing a pub, a church and a school
3. The People also ask section
4. The website for the school mentioned on the map
5. A large organization's website (English Heritage) about the church
6. Another major site (history.co.uk) about the Templars
7. A site for a nursey school
8. An images section
9. another competitor with a website on the history of the Knights
10. another competitor as above
11. A listing of the school from the map on a local council website
12. An 11 year old article form a newspaper
13. an entry from Tripadvisor for the church mentioned in the map
14. An advert for a Christian organization.

To be honest - the competition for this particular search phrase is minimal - not one of the sites above has a product for sale except for the ad - unfortuantely the advertiser doesn't run an affiiate program, however, it is good to see an advert there, it means that there is, at least, some money floating around.

I think we can sort of tick and cross this section at the same time.

Criterion 6: Monetization.

I see 3 prongs to this - 1st prong is Amazon. There are books to promote, films to promote through Amazon Prime and music / audiobooks through Audible.. 2nd prong is Etsy - lots of jewlery, armor and even swoords availabe (not sure about the swords) but there are niche-relevant products for sale and the 3rd prong, my 'big money' would be to find a vacation package around the Crusades and push that.

Well, I found that quite useful - I can now focus all my energy on creating a site around the Knights Templar with, perhaps, a category or 2 about medieval knights in general.

Thanks for reading and I hope you found it useful.