Stop Being So Selfish - No-one Cares About You

Disclaimer No. 1 - The Names Have Been Changed to Protect the Innocent. Any Similarities to Actual Persons, Living or Dead, or Actual Events (or Actual Affiliate Marketing Platforms), is Purely Coincidental.

Disclaimer No. 2 - No Old Fluffs, Blunt Brendas, or Wonky Donkeys Were Harmed During the Making of This Blog Post.

Once upon a time there lived an Old Fluff.

As we’ve previously established, this Fluff was OLD.

I mean, she had to be in the Guinness Book of World Records as the OLDEST person that had ever lived.

Anyway, after her previous restaurant debacle, she decided to do things the RIGHT WAY this time round.

So, rather than being so focused on the DESIGN of her restaurant, she realised that the MONEY was in the food.

She had opened an ITALIAN restaurant, therefore her MAIN daily task was to COOK ITALIAN FOOD.

No more making the restaurant look pretty, there was time for that in the future, but only once she had established herself as a great cook, who provided so much VALUE to her customers.

However, Old Fluff decided she needed help to run her restaurant effectively and efficiently.

So, she did what any Old Fluff would do, she got some hired help.

Old Fluff felt she had found the perfect pair to compliment her personality when she employed Blunt Benda and Wonky Donkey.

That said, Blunt Brenda and Wonky Donkey’s role was very clear.

The second any person entered the restaurant Blunt Brenda and Wonky Donkey should be all over them, telling them the specials of the day, trying to steer the customers in the right direction, and making sure they got as many SALES as possible.

A HANDSOME MAN ENTERED!!!!

Hahahahaha!!

“”Tis I, Prince Partha, I have come to eat at your establishment”.

Without hesitation, the second Prince Partha entered Blunt Brenda and Wonky Donkey didn’t even give him time to breathe.

“Spaghetti Bolognese Sir, Spaghetti Bolognese Sir, you must try the spag bol, it’s awesome, here’s one I prepared earlier, allow me to shove it straight in your face,” said Blunt Brenda.

Clearly, Blunt Brenda was bang on the case, as the Prince hadn’t sat down, removed his coat, or even looked at a menu.

Not to be outdone, “Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, try our PASTA bolognese, you must try the pasta bolognese, bolognese, bolognese, bolognese, HEE-HAW, “screamed Wonky Donkey in the Prince’s face.

“Eeerm, is there any chance of a seat and a little bit of me time to peruse the menu?” asked the Prince.

“And aren't spaghetti bolognese and pasta bolognese the same thing?”

“Please can I have a menu”

“HEE-HAW, no menus I’m afraid sir, but I can give you a list of the specials”, replied Wonky Donkey.

“We have spaghetti bolognese, pasta bolognese, pasta with meat and tomato sauce, tomatoes minced beef with carbohydrate swirls, tagliatelle with ground beef in a solanum lycopersicon (3 guesses what that is, Hahaha) sauce. Oh yeah, and Chicken Tikka Masala and Beef in Black Bean Sauce”.

The Prince, “WTF”

“But, I saw the menu outside and I wanted…”

“NO”

“And what has Chicken Tikka Masala and Beef in Black Bean Sauce got to do with Italian Food?”

“Okay, based on the menu outside, please may I have…”

“NO”, said Blunt Brenda.

“BUT”

“NO”

“These are the specials and this is all we offer, it’s MY restaurant, so it’s down to ME what I cook, whether it’s all the same, but with different names, or whether it’s food that’s not Italian. As I say, it’s MY restaurant, take it or leave it”, said Old Fluff.

And with that, the Prince left, dissatisfied, hungry, and extremely confused.

THE END.

Has anyone “got it” already? Hahahaha!!

Well, allow me to explain anyway.

Here’s how the vast majority of people start a new website.

Choose niche, choose domain name, set up WordPress, BOOM!!

I’m online.

My niche is affiliate marketing.

So, my first few articles will be

• How to Make Money From Affiliate Marketing
• Can You Make Money From Affiliate Marketing?
• Affiliate Marketing - What’s the Best Way to Make Money?
• Is Affiliate Marketing a Good Way to Make Money Online?

Firstly, do you see how these are essentially ALL THE SAME (it ‘s the Old Fluff, Blunt Brenda, Wonky Donkey Bolognese scenario all over again).

THIS DOES NOT PROVIDE VALUE FOR YOUR READERS - YOU ARE WRITING FOR SEARCH ENGINES NOT PEOPLE

Secondly, once you start your new website, you head on over to Jaaxy, you type in Affiliate Marketing, and hope for the best.

You then choose what you believe is a great keyword, as Jaaxy told you so, but you didn’t CHECK what the competition was like on page one.

Finally, you decide what you would write about because IT’S WHAT YOU WANT TO WRITE ABOUT.

You then write 50 product reviews as your initial articles.

You ensure you have 7,253 affiliate links per post, and just to make sure you make commission, you throw a few Wealthy Affiliate banners in as well.

Then, obviously you want to make as much money as possible, so you also throw a few banners up on the side for products related to “How to Lose Weight” and “Teach Your Dog How to Sit”.

Okay, perhaps I exaggerate a little (what me?? Exaggerate, or use sarcasm… NEVER!!)

However, this is pretty close to how many people start a new website and can you see the similarities to how Old Fluff, Blunt Brenda, and Wonky Donkey ran their restaurant (those 3 are DEFINITELY gonna beat me up today, Hahaha)?

I would say that this is the SECOND biggest mistake people make online (you know I feel that many, many, many, many people still haven’t got keyword research right, which is the BIGGEST mistake).

Basically, you start a niche blog, and then simply GUESS.

You probably hop on over to Jaaxy, type affiliate marketing into the search box, hit enter, and hope for the best.

Then again, if you decide to start a niche website focused around an interest of yours, your first thought is, “I have so much knowledge to share, I can’t wait to get started writing articles”.

WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

Sorry Princesses, sorry to burst your bubble, IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU.

NO-ONE CARES ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY.

When you first start a niche website you’re an unknown entity.

So, the search engines and your potential visitors have very little trust in you.

But, why would they?

They don’t know, they don’t know anything about you.

So, they visit your website and what are they greeted with?

Loads of warbling nonsense where you’re TRYING TO SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE.

NO-ONE CARES.

When you’re an unknown entity, it is NEVER about you.

It is your job to find out what the people in your niche ACTUALLY WANT TO KNOW.

You then write articles based on WHAT YOUR AUDIENCE WANTS TO KNOW.

It’s not until you’ve established yourself, perhaps your readers hang off your every word, and they love your style, and want more, more, and more.

This is when you can PERHAPS write what YOU want to write about.

However, until then, it’s never about you, it’s ALWAYS about your audience.

So, your job is to FIND OUT what PROBLEMS and ISSUES the people in your niche have.

Then provide them solutions to their problems.

This should only be a PRODUCT some of the time.

Don’t be like Blunt Brenda and Wonky Donkey SHOVING SALES DOWN YOUR POTENTIAL CUSTOMER’S THROATS THE SECOND THEY WALK THROUGH THE DOOR.

Answer me this..

When was the last time YOU bought something from a pushy salesperson?

I’m going to guess, not very often to NEVER.

So, what makes you think that you can become successful online following the pushy salesperson process on your website?

Then again, what makes you think that anybody is interested in what you have to say as someone new to a particular niche?

This is why you have to PROVE YOURSELF to your potential readers.

How do you do this?

You FIND OUT THEIR PROBLEMS, then you WRITE ARTICLES to SOLVE THESE PROBLEMS.

Granted, sometimes a “solution” will be a product, but not every time (remember, NO pushy salesperson).

People BUY from people.

And pretty much every single time we buy something THAT WE DIDN’T ACTUALLY WANT is because WE LIKED the person offering this to us.

And pretty much every time we have had sales shoved down our throats by a pushy salesperson, we don’t buy anything and run the other way.

Trust me, it’s no different online.

Actually, that’s not strictly true, sometimes it can actually be harder.

When you’re cornered by a pushy salesperson in the REAL WORLD, you have nowhere to run.

However, online, if you simply don’t like someone, you can just back click on your browser (Partha suddenly loses 50% of his audience, LOL).

The reason I say that your articles aren’t about YOU is simply because at the heart of it, people are selfish.

No matter what you believe, people are always interested in WHAT’S IN IT FOR THEM.

This is why when you start a new website the VERY FIRST THING YOU SHOULD ALWAYS DO is perform niche research.

Do you know how simple this is?

I don’t know the exact numbers, but there are close to 10,000,000 online communities.

These are places where people ”hang out” online, chat, hold discussions, ask questions, wait for answers, etc.

Basically, there are 9,999,999 (approximately) other communities online JUST LIKE THE WEALTHY AFFILIATE PLATFORM.

Plus, there isn’t a single niche that doesn’t have their own online community.

And trust me when I say some of them are just plain weird.

But, the fact remains, there are people online literally TELLING YOU WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO WRITE ABOUT.

Your job - go find them and study what they’re talking about, take notes, and only then can you do keyword research and even begin to think about writing an article.

If you do it the other way round, which the vast majority of people do, you’re DOOMED TO FAILURE.

This is also why I personally use Google Autosuggest for keyword research.

Google is TELLING ME WHAT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR.

So, if I already KNOW WHAT PEOPLE ARE SEARCHING FOR this makes my job so much easier.

If you START by simply typing words into a keyword tool, you are simply HOPING for the best, you’re GUESSING what your audience wants to know, rather than actually going out there and finding out.

Okay, admittedly, even using Google Autosuggest is much the same thing, you’re still guessing.

So, you ALWAYS have to start with NICHE RESEARCH.

I’ve mentioned the millions of communities that cover just about every single niche you could EVER think of.

You know I’m a fan of Quora and Reddit, get yourself over there and type in a few keywords based on your niche (yes, you're allowed to guess these) into the search bar.

You can then read all the questions and answers around those keywords, as PEOPLE ARE TELLING YOU WHAT THEY WANT TO KNOW ABOUT).

You can also search for forums (online communities and “meeting places”)

Simply go to google and type the name of niche (or a related keyword) into Google with + forums afterwards (again guessing here is fine)

So, things like:

German Shepherd + Forums

Laptops + Forums

Affiliate Marketing + Forums

White Water Rafting + Forums

Yoga + Forums

Carpentry + Forums

You get the picture.

But, whatever your niche, you can guarantee there will be a forum for it.

A place where like-minded people discuss ONE PARTICULAR NICHE and ask questions about their PROBLEMS hoping to find SOLUTIONS.

Plus, don’t forget things like Facebook Groups too.

These are all places where people in your niche HANG OUT.

Are you starting to see how EASY it is to FIND OUT WHAT THE PEOPLE IN YOUR NICHE WANT.

So, don’t guess.

Don’t just write about what you want.

Don’t think that just because you have a head full of knowledge that this is what people want to know.

It’s ALWAYS about your AUDIENCE and NEVER about YOU.

So, GET TO KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE FIRST.

Thank You For Reading

Partha