Affiliate Marketing Secrets

I have a web business with about a half dozen monthly customers who pay an average of about $20 a month for retail sites I set up for them. They could have signed up online and used the online tools I made a vailable to create the sites themselves, but chose for me to do it instead. I want to attract people to sign up for my web hosting business online, and create their own sites without my direct help, which would save them money, but I question whether people are reluctant to do this, considering there are other tools out there that are cheaper. I have a niche market I want to target, and this market is typically not technical-savvy.
How can you achieve a scalable operation without spamming your friends and family into thinking you are a crude self-promoter?
Do people really want to pay to host their own websites when there are free tools out there?
How much of a market is out there, and in what niches?
Do Google adwords really get results you can measure or do you just have to accept that they have to be part of your marketing matrix, a part you can’t measure results from?
Are there other tools out there – technical or other?

I went into this course thinking I really wanted to do accounting and marketing and then biology and psychology on the science side, as this is what I was doing in high school (except bio). Now I’m really not sure as I don’t think they are for me – I have absolutely no idea :/. It’s just so confusing because I’m in my second year at the moment.. and I’m still just as confused, if not even more so, than I was when I first began.
I’m just wondering what my options are… I don’t want to leave the degree… because I might as well finish it. I’m just wondering what potential careers I might get from this? A lot obviously… but I’m sort of interested in running my own business one day. Beginning a niche market with something rather than being in the lab doing experiments side of things. I honestly don’t know..
Has anyone else been in my position exactly or at least a similar position? and manage to get through and find something they really liked?

Scene:
Marshal Corporation – a sports cars manufacturer is in the field of manufacturing racing car for the last 120 years. 6 years back, it introduced a very expensive new sports car – CX09. The target market of this car was determined as very rich non-professional racers who want to enjoy speed and thrill on city roads. The distinctive feature of this car was that it could also be used for normal drives. Due to this feature, with the passage of time, CX09 has become a successful brand in the local market. Now, CX09 has successfully entered into the growth stage of its life cycle. Owing to rapid growth in the sales and its popularity, other local car manufacturers have also entered in this niche market. This has alarmed Marshal as the competition may be intense in the days to come.
To cope with this situation, the Marketing Division of Marshal is planning to organize a small conference to devise strategies. In the conference, the company is planning to invite a few students from local business universities. If you are invited there then what strategies at this growth stage of CX09, with reference to pricing and advertising, would you suggest to the company?
(Note: You must give your suggestions supported with logical arguments, only in bulleted form)

What proportion of the market is roughly the maximum a product can occupy before it is no longer classified as a niche product? Thanks.

Alax Corporation – a sports cars manufacturer is in the field of manufacturing racing car for the last 120 years. 6 years back, it introduced a very expensive new sports car – CX09. The target market of this car was determined as very rich non-professional racers who want to enjoy speed and thrill on city roads. The distinctive feature of this car was that it could also be used for normal drives. Due to this feature, with the passage of time, CX09 has become a successful brand in the local market. Now, CX09 has successfully entered into the growth stage of its life cycle. Owing to rapid growth in the sales and its popularity, other local car manufacturers have also entered in this niche market. This has alarmed Alax as the competition may be intense in the days to come.
To manage with this situation, the Marketing Division of Alax is planning to organize a small conference to devise strategies. In the conference, the company is planning to invite a few students from local business universities. If you are invited there then what strategies at this growth stage of CX09, with reference to pricing and advertising, would you suggest to the company?