Be Unique
The title of this post is simple and straightforward enough : be unique.
A textbook way of looking at affiliate marketing is “look at what everybody else is doing, if it’s been up there for a while then it has to work, so I’ll just model my campaign/landing page after that.” There’s nothing wrong with that and most times there’s truth to it. But sometimes also you can find greater success doing something unique, something that everybody else isn’t doing.
When you decide on what campaign you want to run and work on, the question is “what offer am I going to promote?” Once you pick the offer, you build a landing page for it and add some keywords into Google or whatever and just start tweaking the LP. Before the building phase ask yourself another question : HOW can I promote this offer?
Are you going to just making a landing page, or would a review page work better comparing other products? Do you want to collect their email before they go to the offer so you can hit them up every few days and try to sell them? Instead of just selling one offer, do you want to introduce a “succession” of offers and cross-sell? What about the demographics of your offer? Should you build a page just for women?
The biggest guys in the industry are the biggest guys because they were unique. They were the first to come up with an idea how to promote an offer, and then everybody followed them. Last year I was one of the first guys to have the True page with the big pink “enter chat rooms” button. I was #1 for chat terms for maybe a month before everybody and their mom had that page. If you went into Copyscape and typed my site it, it was crazy how many duplicates spawned so fast. Nobody was really doing it, we started doing it, and soon after everybody was doing it.
Same with the acai berry blog pages, I remember seeing the first couple guys that did it. Now there’s probably 500 pages exactly like it out there. He was unique, he raped and pillaged the towns and left them with acai berries to eat, and then everybody followed suit.
What’s the next offer you’re going to be unique on? And let me know so I can be one of the first ones to copy it :p. Kidding.
Hi Paul,
Being unique is always the best thing to do if you can.
I follow your blog and learn a lot of it!
Regards from Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Great Point and I’m known as the Stud Golfer.
Paul,
what are you busy with now? That you hasnt post for a long long time…
goobercamp
Sometimes people will copy without knowing if it’s profitable.
“Sometimes people will copy without knowing if it’s profitable.”
Those are people with no clue what they are doing. These people usually disappear as quickly as they appeared and are replaced by next batch of inexperienced affiliates.
Very small potions of them will figure out the game and stick around.
web_dev
Cant agree with you more being unique in the blogging world is rare!
it’s soo true, in many ways.
Uniqueness is definitely key in the online space. Now that the industry has grown to the degree that it has, it’s often difficult to stand out. You think of a clever idea for promotion, and hundreds of others can sometimes take that as their cue to do what you did. Before launching a new campaign, think outside the box, and really try to come up with a unique plan for promotion to stay ahead of the competition. Great post!
I was the first guy to do the acai berry LP with colon cleanse if thats what your talking.
Yeah, being unique is good. Also being one of the first ones on a system means you have a wider audience. If 90% of the people already know about product x, most of them already have it or know they don’t want it. If you have 90% of people that haven’t heard of your product, then you have a better chance of converting them.
Good points, being unique is certainly the way to grab one of those campaigns that ends up being a huge success. Don’t just be unique with how you promote the offer via landing page though, pursue unique strategies of marketing through social media like MySpace and Cubics because there are certainly enough ways to be “unique” there right now and make a killing before everyone else figures it out ;)
Being uniq rulz in almost every aspect of life. Almost all successful people are uniq in some way.
Uniqueness leading to massive success is kind of like betting on 00 on a roulette wheel. Everyone remembers the guy who gets a huge stack of chips. No one remembers the hundreds who just lose their bet then walk away.
For every Million Dollar Homepage or Red Paperclip, there are thousands of duds.
So for most, it’s easier to follow a tried-and-true proven formula.
I’m not against innovation, I’m just explaining why copying others’ success is so pervasive.
Excellent point. When I look at all the websites I have done, the unique ones always did the best. I think Google rewards those who find a unique niche. Unique niches are still available on the internet if you narrow the focus enough.
That’s it! If you are going to be truly successful you have to step out from the crowd and look at how you can do things better.
Another reason is why people copy is they do what they are told by the gurus, who were told themselves by others what to do. Don’t we all just go ugh when we see a long sales letter page? Or the software or e-book that looks like an actual book or boxed software, that just yells spam. Truth is few people are innovators, and those few will do well by thinking, and more importantly, doing creative things. Long as they don’t package and sell their ideas, they will stay profitable because they are always doing the unique things.
sure be unique is great but hard to be..
Yeah, I agree. Different/crazy people FTW.
If you can find a way to be unique in some way, you have much better chances of becoming successful online.A lot of people blog about making money online, how about blogging about making money online with a wordpress blog with certain widgets installed, or something.The more niche, the better.
Very good post. Easier said than done though!
I always knew that big G ranked higher for unique content. but like the post above easier said than done
great read, thanks!
Being unique is very hard. It is easier just to copy someone else’s idea and try to improve upon it.
Being Unique Is Not That Easy For a Noob But Still If You Want To Be Successful Then You Have To Be Unique.
Totally agree with you. Uniqueness is the only thing that works. You have to be different, and it is proven that guys who have made unique sites, are now enjoying the results for their creativity. Just try to brainstorm more, and to focus on idea realization.
Hey Paul, I have been an avid reader for years, good to see your posting more often again ;). Excellent post
True. It’s tough to create something on the internet when nearly any topic is just a “google” away.
Reminds me of a current popular rap song where I’m at:
“You just do you and I’m a do me, I’m a do me, I’m a do me…” :!:
Blogging and uniqueness has a long way to go. Now that people see blogs as a way to make money only with the implementation of adsense in blogger. It really de valued blogging with all those junk blogs out there
You can be unique if you dare to against any odd. People will laugh first but if it works then you will laugh them back.
Being Unique Is Not That Easy For a Noob But Still If You Want To Be Successful Then You Have To Be Unique.
Gotta be unique other wise your like everyone else you don’t stand out from the crowed your just an average joe.
Very true points right there! I have noticed myself that if I tackle projects that are not really unique and that I don’t have a passion for, I can burn myself out very quickly. On the other hand if I work on a unique project where I am the first to do it I often work even harder to prove to myself that it will work.
nice post. It’s really helpful to gather traffic.
If we have a great idea and build a website with unique content in it, there will be a lot of similar sites will show up then and the problem is to get search engine to notice our site that was the original author. How to make them notice?
Thanks for this mate, great post.
that right! I see a lots acai berry blog and site right now. I just finding the niche for any that possible to help me to make some money on it.
true article……..thanks for sharing
good keep going on….