Dealer Dan, pictured here with WWE Superstar Mick Foley, has been in internet marketing since 1996. He likes hugs, long walks on the beach, and making money while wearing his jammy jams. For more information, you can read all 
Focus is something that I think a lot of us take for granted, yet it’s a character trait that is always sought after.
I mean – I’m sure everyone reading knows of at least one group of parents whose kid “couldn’t focus”, and ends up getting slapped with the ADHD tag and thrown on medication at a young age.
But despite that – I think the ability to focus is something that we all take for granted. I know I do.
I only really thought about it on the weekend. It’s an interesting time for me at the moment – I’ve made the conscientious decision to get out of gambling as much as possible this year. Not that I am dumping everything gambling related – but the majority of my focus will be on non-gambling products.
The fact is the gambling industry can be so volatile, I’d rather not have to rely on that for income anymore. Anything from it is a bonus.
On Sunday, I had a Skype video chat with my partner on a lot of these new projects. By the end of the call I had basically filled a 100 page notepad. So many notes, ideas, concepts and things to do. So many things needing accomplished – and even though Rome wasn’t built in a day – man, I really want to get everything done as soon as possible.
Another thing you should know about me is that I operate a lot of remotely hosted blogs, on websites such as WordPress, Weebly, Typepad, Blogger, and other websites. I use these for a variety of reasons: additional monetization, backlinks, seo tests, keyword research, analysis and tests etc.
Over the weekend, I had been planning on launching one of those blogs on a subject that I am currently very passionate about. Despite all these balls in the air after that Skype call, despite all of these grand plans and thoughts – I was able to buckle down, ignore them all, and focus just on this blog. I sat here for a couple of hours and wrote about 15 articles to kickstart that blog.
And when I look at this list of things to do over the next little while – I’m not sweating. I’m not worried or frantic. I’m just going to pick an item, and work away at it with no distractions. And when that’s done, I’m going to keep doing that.
Not everyone has the ability to focus. You see people all the time talking about installing programs to block out Facebook, Reddit etc during working hours.
If you have this ability – be thankful for that.
More and more, you’re becoming a rare case.
Cool Read:
Great article on Superbowl 49 from the perspective of a ticket broker.
Tip of the Week:
Think Local.
Everyone these days thinks global when it comes to building a website, or at least national.
Think local.
If you’re looking for an unsaturated niche, you will usually find many of them in the local market.
In my New Affiliate Guide I advise people to make their first project about a niche that they are passionate about. It’s very likely it will take awhile for new affiliates to make money and it can be a lot of work – so being passionate about the topic will encourage them to throw themselves into it more.
I had someone e-mail me about becoming an affiliate. They said that they just got a new puppy, enjoy dogs and were thinking of a website revolving around that topic.
Now I’ve seen similar websites before. For example – someone got big into photography. So they do a blog on that. They talk about the equipment they use, link to it on Amazon etc. But unfortunately it’s a lot of work for very little payoff. A puppy blog would be similar. Unless they’re some sort of amazing hook to it – it’s going to get a trickle of traffic and practically zero money.
So I made the suggestion to think local.
Have a passion for dogs? Great. Focus on a dog related website for your area. The website could include:
– Listings of dog parks in the area.
– Listings of kennels in the area for when dog owners go on vacation.
– Listings of areas of water to take dogs to.
– Pet store listings and reviews.
– Listings of vets.
The list is endless. You can get a community thing going by asking people what dog food they use and so on. Find the most popular dog food, and link it on Amazon. Turn it into a whole dog lovers website for the community.
There’s going to be a nice amount of traffic from the local area. The link building sells itself – you do a good job, people will be sharing it all over social networking.
So many methods for monetization, including:
– Promoting products off the likes of Amazon and so on both via website, social sites and mailing list.
– Adsense should bring in some bucks.
– Selling ad space to local pet stores.
– Selling ad space to local businesses.
You can even write about your puppy on there and blog about that – it’s additional content for the site, keeps the site fresh with updates, AND personalizes you to the rest of the community.
It’s not something that will always work – maybe there already is an established site in that niche, or maybe it just won’t work in your local area. But it’s something you should really think about.
I run a couple of websites for the local area. 2 in very small niche, 1 in a much larger one. Do I need to build a new house just to hold all the money these websites make? Not even close – but they do bring in a decent income that I can always rely on, on a monthly basis.
And more importantly, they are serving the community and providing an excellent resource. Which is really what building websites should primarily be about.
Gamergate:
I’ll end todays article with pretty much the greatest video I’ve ever seen:
Take a 10 minute break from focusing, and enjoy this well deserved distraction.
This article was written on February 17, 2015 however all articles are looked at on a monthly basis and updated to keep them relevant.
If you need to contact Graeme, please see his Contact Page. If you are an affiliate manager wanting promoted please see this page.
