Which verticals should be avoided to get to the $1,000,000 mark? (33)
Which verticals should be avoided to get to the $1,000,000 mark?
Looking for a little advice about choosing a vertical.
My ultimate goal is to put $1,000,000 in the bank in the next year and a half. I am just getting going in AM with only a few conversions under my belt. I know that I need to select a vertical and focus on it but given my ultimate goal are there any verticals that I should steer clear of because it would be super difficult to scale up to that level that fast? It seems to me that one of the most important factors to consider is broad vs narrow niche. The larger the market the more traffic available to scale on ? But I'm still new so would be grateful to hear other's thoughts on this.
Q: Which verticals should be avoided to get to the $1,000,000 mark?
Ans: No vertical should be avoided.
You need to find a vertical that works for you and then scale that up. If i tell you i make 1 million a year with vertical X and then you try - I won't be surprised if you dont even make $1 with that same vertical.
If you're a newbie, ill suggest you to change your goal to "finding a vertical that brings you a positive roi"
Nevertheless -> Dick pills, weight loss, adult dating, app installs, pin submits are all doing good.
Thanks for the advice! Yes, I have my next goal as "create a campaign with a positive roi". I was just thinking forward toward my end goal and wondering if there were some obvious (to you guys) non-choices when it comes to choosing a vertical to focus on.
I can understand where this question is coming from, I have thought about the same when I started of. But rather than a vertical, it depends on the offer.
NOT ALL OFFERS CAN BE SCALED.
Be sure to pick offers with a wide appeal. What this means is that, if you pick an offer that is for a small country targeted to just iPhones under a specific carrier, no matter how hard you try, there might not be enough people to sell it to.
So pick an offer that can be scaled. Although, your first goal should be to create profitable campaigns, no matter how small they are.
Good luck man, you will get there 
Originally Posted by mobpilot
The verticals to be avoided is too long to list. (ie. water purifiers, calendaring software, etc etc etc. STM'ers dont typically talk about these anyways)
It would be better to start with the biggest verticals: antivirus, mobile games, tech support, diet, skincare, muscle, brain, dick, dating, bizzop, mortgage, etc.
check out the STM threads... and see which are the top 3-5 with the most posts and visits. those are the verticals =D
If you want to make money run nutra, run antivirus, run tech support on payper call.
Thanks everyone for chiming in on this, I really appreciate it!
It sounds like the better question for me to have asked is "what verticals are more suitable to make a million in a year?". Or something like that :-) I know I need to get a better feel for what the larger verticals are, but these recommendations are very helpful to me. It gives me some place to start my own research and provides some measure of hope that I'm not wasting too much time in an area that I will ultimately end up leaving anyway.
Anyway, I am reading everything I can on STM, launching campaigns, and figuring stuff out. Once again, much appreciated for all the good advice here!
arunbasillal and johnaff are absolutely right.
You cannot generate $1 million of profit a year for yourself on every industry in the world.
You either need to be industries with massive affiliate ad spend, or somehow grab a massive market share of affiliate ad spend for that industry, or (normally) both.
Let's run some numbers.
2. In order to generate $3 million of commissions, advertisers need to be willing to pay your affiliate network(s) about $4 million for the leads that you bring.
3. Even most superaffiliates will not be generating more than 10% of the TOTAL leadflow for an entire industry. (Most people grossly overestimate even the most basic market share assumptions ... just remember that even the ubiquitous Mac that affiliates love so much only has a 13% market share of PCs, those annoying Crocs you see everywhere on the streets only has 2% market share of casual shoes, and Tim Ferriss' market share of all books sold last year was well, well below 1%.)
4. Let's just give you the benefit of the doubt and just say that you are somehow able to capture about 1% of the TOTAL industry leadflow ... which is already a massive number.
5. So, this means that the total online affiliate leadspend for that industry needs to be at least $400 million per year in order to support $1 million of profits to you for that year.
Well, let me tell you ... there are NOT that many industries that spend more than $400 million a year on affiliate marketing.
In fact, you can probably count the number of industries that fit this criteria on your fingers.
You cannot generate $1 million of profit a year for yourself on every industry in the world.
You either need to be industries with massive affiliate ad spend, or somehow grab a massive market share of affiliate ad spend for that industry, or (normally) both.
Originally Posted by johnaff
To avoid : verticals your mother would be proud of
"Lose 20 pounds fat and get 10 pounds muscle, date and bang b*tches with your bazooka d*ck while getting rid of your debts and getting rich living the 4 hour work-week aournd the world, playing games for free instead of working on your virus-free computer... all of this of course at no cost and at the push of a button, money back guarantee, only available to the next 3 participants"
@cmdeal: Good tips and good maths ;-)
Had the idea to do some digging, because of @cmdeal's post. Found no statistics about CPA specifically, but some general stuff about ad spends for affiliate marketing. Good enough for a bedtime read and to make your own conclusions.
What are some of the fastest growing verticals for Affiliate Marketers right now?
http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-o...ters-right-now (from 2011...)
IAB Digital Ad Spend 2014
http://www.slideshare.net/galeo999/i...-ad-spend-2014 (only for UK)
What Industries Contributed the Most to Google's Earnings?
https://www.wordstream.com/articles/google-earnings (from 2011)
Global Affiliate Marketing - Approaching International, Regional and Local Strategy
http://www.slideshare.net/pmievents/...local-strategy
Originally Posted by wiifmdude
i imagine the verticals that fit cmdeals criteria are:
insurance (auto, life)
diet
skincare
sweepstakes/rewards/promotions
gambling
higher education leads
loans/credit cards/ credit reports
maybe some Law leads, like DUI
there are a ton of other verticals where one could make millions with lead gen (healthcare for example) but i think those listed above are the most easily accessible.
any other suggestions?
This is extremely valuable information, thank you very much!
So it sounds like I might be better off focusing on 2 or 3 large verticals rather than just one. My thinking is that it might be easier to capture a small percentage of a few rather than trying to make a large disruption in just one? So my goal could be (eventually when I get further along) ~$334,000 in 3 verticals rather than $1,000,000 in just one.
I still have so much to learn but for me forming a clear path to the ultimate prize at the end helps out quite a bit. I need to be able to see how I could get there as that will help form the decisions I make going forward. Having a venue to ask a question like this and get such useful/valuable/well informed responses is priceless!
Originally Posted by tawamudu
Like Jay-Z said
"I tell you the difference between me and them
They tryin to get they ones, I'm tryin to get them M's"
tech support
Originally Posted by randomdude
But these exclude all / under-represent the dirty industries (with high profit margins) and include too much / overestimate the white hat industry (price comparison sites, cashbacks, etc).
e.g. I'm not sure you'll get many takers for Amazon's crappy 24 hours cookie & 5-7% commission here, but they do represent a good % of the white-hat aff market.
Cheers,
you should also check the eCommerce vertical as this is one vertical that can easily be scaled more and more and really dont have any limits like caps for example,
The more you will learn and adjust and the more you invest in the right methods and placements the more you can earn with eCommerce
Originally Posted by wiifmdude
Its rare for an affiliate to make millions running straight up performance campaigns. Usually when they start breaking 200-300k profit a year they start creating their own offers, SaaS products, etc. They usually diversify into other avenues that may bring then more long term returns.
Consider that performance is a very scrappy space, its a million fish hunting in the same pond. You want to get out of the day to day grinding of just running straight up performance offers right off a network that you plug into a traffic source. Very hard to make millions this way.
You need defensible advantages that will take you from 200k to 2-3 million. This could be exclusive offers you have created, technology you own out-right, services you sell in the marketplace, etc.
Here is an example of what I would say the path of a super affiliate would look like:
1. Starts out running dating struggles and loses money for 6 months
2. Gets manageable campaigns, starts making small profits ($50-$100 campaigns) - 8-12 months in
3. Graduates to making $1-2k per day in that vertical after learning systems and becoming more familiar with the space overall. 12-24 months
4. Now is a volume player gets exclusive offers, offer pages, etc (doing 5k-10k days) 24-36 months in
5. Starts his own dating site or app generating millions in revenue
The true millions is in using affiliate marketing as the jump off platform to learn everything about online marketing (this is just my opinion). Once you know it inside and out you can use that knowledge to build products, services, or even consult for big businesses. This strategy can help you make the same money or better without pulling your hair out because of the constant day to day stress of campaigns going up and down.
So what verticals work? There will always be the evergreen niches, but also consider that sometimes million dollar and billion dollar markets don't exist until they suddenly do one day. For example Uber, Lyft, AirBnB. If you had dismissed ride sharing apps as a vertical when starting a business you may have missed one of the most disruptive billion dollar industries to be formed in the last decade. I just say this because looking at stuff in "verticals" is fine, but sometimes the guys who strike the mother load are the guys to create a vertical on their own. This is why Uber is worth $51 billion
I think your focus should be on mastering your skill set. You can apply your skills to any vertical and learn the intricacies as you go.
Just remember its not the vertical that matters as much as the affiliates ability to push the product. This is exactly why a lot of super affiliates run in multiple verticals...the skill set translates horizontally.
I consider myself to be in one vertical.....the online marketing vertical.
^^^ i think that is great advice. to focus on the core skills. as those can be later applied to any vertical.
Originally Posted by synapse
Its rare for an affiliate to make millions running straight up performance campaigns. Usually when they start breaking 200-300k profit a year they start creating their own offers, SaaS products, etc. They usually diversify into other avenues that may bring then more long term returns.
Consider that performance is a very scrappy space, its a million fish hunting in the same pond. You want to get out of the day to day grinding of just running straight up performance offers right off a network that you plug into a traffic source. Very hard to make millions this way.
You need defensible advantages that will take you from 200k to 2-3 million. This could be exclusive offers you have created, technology you own out-right, services you sell in the marketplace, etc.
Here is an example of what I would say the path of a super affiliate would look like:
1. Starts out running dating struggles and loses money for 6 months
2. Gets manageable campaigns, starts making small profits ($50-$100 campaigns) - 8-12 months in
3. Graduates to making $1-2k per day in that vertical after learning systems and becoming more familiar with the space overall. 12-24 months
4. Now is a volume player gets exclusive offers, offer pages, etc (doing 5k-10k days) 24-36 months in
5. Starts his own dating site or app generating millions in revenue
The true millions is in using affiliate marketing as the jump off platform to learn everything about online marketing (this is just my opinion). Once you know it inside and out you can use that knowledge to build products, services, or even consult for big businesses. This strategy can help you make the same money or better without pulling your hair out because of the constant day to day stress of campaigns going up and down.
So what verticals work? There will always be the evergreen niches, but also consider that sometimes million dollar and billion dollar markets don't exist until they suddenly do one day. For example Uber, Lyft, AirBnB. If you had dismissed ride sharing apps as a vertical when starting a business you may have missed one of the most disruptive billion dollar industries to be formed in the last decade. I just say this because looking at stuff in "verticals" is fine, but sometimes the guys who strike the mother load are the guys to create a vertical on their own. This is why Uber is worth $51 billion
I think your focus should be on mastering your skill set. You can apply your skills to any vertical and learn the intricacies as you go.
Just remember its not the vertical that matters as much as the affiliates ability to push the product. This is exactly why a lot of super affiliates run in multiple verticals...the skill set translates horizontally.
I consider myself to be in one vertical.....the online marketing vertical.
These are all very good tips everyone is giving here. You can learn a lot from there.
I'd like to add as well that there are no verticals that should be avoided - if a company is in business - and not bankrupt - that means they are making money with their online operations. Every vertical works, it all depends on the traffic buys. You have to hit those "sweet spots" that convert well, have a positive ROI and that you can upscale quickly. Finding these placements requires a lot testing! You'll see as well that every campaign dies out eventually so you have to have loads of campaigns live at the same time.
Also, I think its important to have Realistic goals. Going from zero to 1MM sounds like a cool target. You wanna run a marathon (everyone wants to) but you don't have any training yet. I'd set quarterly targets based on the current revenues you are doing now, and the growth forecasts you can achieve. Setting realistic targets will keep you motivated and gives you control on your business venture. And...never give up until you make it to that 1 million marker!
But if I were you, starting out new, I'd focuse on sweepstakes and ios/android app installs. Running them on FB and GDN cos that's easy to upscale big time. For sure there will be cloaking involved if you want to make so much money that fast. Hit me up on skype if you want to talk this through in more detail. Cheers.
Originally Posted by synapse
Its rare for an affiliate to make millions running straight up performance campaigns. Usually when they start breaking 200-300k profit a year they start creating their own offers, SaaS products, etc. They usually diversify into other avenues that may bring then more long term returns.
Consider that performance is a very scrappy space, its a million fish hunting in the same pond. You want to get out of the day to day grinding of just running straight up performance offers right off a network that you plug into a traffic source. Very hard to make millions this way.
You need defensible advantages that will take you from 200k to 2-3 million. This could be exclusive offers you have created, technology you own out-right, services you sell in the marketplace, etc.
Here is an example of what I would say the path of a super affiliate would look like:
1. Starts out running dating struggles and loses money for 6 months
2. Gets manageable campaigns, starts making small profits ($50-$100 campaigns) - 8-12 months in
3. Graduates to making $1-2k per day in that vertical after learning systems and becoming more familiar with the space overall. 12-24 months
4. Now is a volume player gets exclusive offers, offer pages, etc (doing 5k-10k days) 24-36 months in
5. Starts his own dating site or app generating millions in revenue
The true millions is in using affiliate marketing as the jump off platform to learn everything about online marketing (this is just my opinion). Once you know it inside and out you can use that knowledge to build products, services, or even consult for big businesses. This strategy can help you make the same money or better without pulling your hair out because of the constant day to day stress of campaigns going up and down.
So what verticals work? There will always be the evergreen niches, but also consider that sometimes million dollar and billion dollar markets don't exist until they suddenly do one day. For example Uber, Lyft, AirBnB. If you had dismissed ride sharing apps as a vertical when starting a business you may have missed one of the most disruptive billion dollar industries to be formed in the last decade. I just say this because looking at stuff in "verticals" is fine, but sometimes the guys who strike the mother load are the guys to create a vertical on their own. This is why Uber is worth $51 billion
I think your focus should be on mastering your skill set. You can apply your skills to any vertical and learn the intricacies as you go.
Just remember its not the vertical that matters as much as the affiliates ability to push the product. This is exactly why a lot of super affiliates run in multiple verticals...the skill set translates horizontally.
I consider myself to be in one vertical.....the online marketing vertical.
"1. Starts out running dating struggles and loses money for 6 months"
LOL - that's exactly what I started out doing, but I did not stick with it for that long. I have since moved on to trying out other verticals too.
There's a lot to think about here and I'll do so as I continue to work on improving my skill set by running campaigns, testing out angles, traffic sources, etc. Just learning as much as I can as fast as I can.
Thanks again!
Originally Posted by cbrughmans
Originally Posted by cbrughmans
adding u on skype
thanks a lot
What means GDN?
Thanks a lot.
Originally Posted by menoyocapital
i was/am-still-sorta in financial lead genspace and i can tell you that guys doing insane numbers AND fully compliant (i.e. whitehat) are not
1) on forums
2) gonna tell you what they do
So yes.. dirtier the better is not the answer.
For all the different types of verticals out there i think one of the most important and sometimes overseen areas is asking your rep/affiliate manager what has been around a long time. Yes getting into Nutra or health is a great vertical and the same can be said about sweeps or bizz ops but most larger networks have merchants who have been around a long time and knowing that a campaign is going to stick around and has lots of cap to offer makes it easier to keep that cash flow coming in because there is nothing worse than spending hours of work setting something up and then two days later it comes down due to cap. If i were to pick a great vertical to promote to make money i would suggest market research ( Surveys). They always have TONS of cap to give out and as long as you can keep the flow coming in you can get some pretty great rates for how simple the conversion is.
Not a single vertical needs to be avoided in order to get to the 1M mark. Every campaign can work if you have the right traffic source for it. Its like a puzzle, the campaign needs to match with the traffic source and that is the hardest part. You can only find this sweet spot after a lot of testing and optimizing. So no vertical should be avoided, although some verticals are easier to get profitable than others.
Affiliate marketing is a big and dynamic space, it can be overwhelming. If you want to be succesfull: SIMPLIFY
Pick 1 or 2 verticals to focus on
Pick 1-3 traffic sources to focus on
Determine a clear testing strategy with a limited nr of banners and landers to test
Have a clear cut off rule to dump ROI negative campaigns
Upscale fast (every campaign will eventually die out)
Pick one spy software to keep things simple
Focus on your core business (mediabuying) and outsource all the rest (financial paperwork, billing, programming, content writing, banner development, design, cleaning your place/office, etc)
Keep things simple, have discipline and be persistent. Success will inevitably come sooner or later!
One other category that is working very well for us is VOD subscriptions. Other than that, Sweeps, Survival, Pay per call, Nutra, Gambling, Lead Gen, Mobile content are all great too.
It's funny...
The blackhat guys are very vocal on here and other places.
But it's the whitehat guys that are killing it and making millions quietly. They just don't want anyone in their world.
It used to be the other way but now all the big bh stuff has become mainstream and the wh affiliate stuff has gone underground.
I wrote a post years ago and honestly I still stand by it....
http://www.oooff.com/php-affiliate-s...-sitting-down/
This stuff is timeless as it's good business sense...
Follow your path 
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