Take The Guesswork Out Of Niche Marketing

Writen by Swaminathan Viramani

Many of us learn from the Gurus that we should identify a niche and dominate it, so we can make money online. They give us brief glimpses about what is to be done, like identifying a niche market by browsing magazines and hanging around in forums and discussion groups to see if we can be hit by an idea brainwave.

Oh how I wish it was that easy. My first attempts at finding a niche made me feel like I've gone deeper into quicksand, and the niche with a great demand had an awful lot of competition. Not one to be outdone, I went and bought software and books to learn what mistakes I made and try to recover from the mistakes. I learnt all about demand, and how "wordtracker" is the best service to use to assess demand for keywords and how to assess and estimate supply from "Google" manually. I saw lots of products offering to teach me how I should target the market, research the keywords, analyse the KEI (Keyword Efficiency Index, which tells you the relative profitability of the keyword you select based on demand,supply and competition), and signed up for a lot of courses to learn more about niche marketing.

To cut the process short, this is what I learned:

a. You must have a niche (this is easy, you don't want to try to compete with the biggies)

b. You must assess the demand - i.e. find buyers in this market with money to spend.

c. You must see who you are pitted against - your supply estimate to see the competition.

d. Having found the demand and supply, and with a fair idea of the competition, you must find the profitability of your niche business idea.

e. Once you feel it is profitable, get into product development around this niche.

f. Promote the product and pocket the cash ...

What you end up learning the hard way is that all these people who write about earning money with google adwords ads don't tell you how much they spent on the ads, and if it is really that profitable..see, it is a numbers game, as I will show you below:

Assume you will have a decent 1% conversion rate for your product. That means for every 100 clicks you will make a sale. At a minimum bid of 5 cents, you will surely turn a profit for every $5 spend you do. But then, real life is not that easy. You have people competing against you, and your 5 cent bid doesnt attract clicks, leave alone buyers. So you either lose this small amount every day, or hike your bid to get some good clicks. Say you hike your bid to $0.25. At this rate, you would spend $25 to make a sale... get the trend of my thinking?

Unless you are lucky and able to find cheap keywords with high demand to bid on, the google adwords will remain a losing proposition. Or else you have to find the words people use when they look to buy something on the internet, and bid high on those keywords, to increase your conversion rate. This was the situation I found myself in..until I found a good software which did everything the sales page said it would do.

With this software, I was able to assess demand, supply and profitability scores on my idea, and come with lots of keywords with these demand/supply/competition data plus the top 3 PPC bids. I knew clearly what I needed to spend, before I went into product creation or promotion. How I wish I found this software before I sunk in money in internet marketing! But then, as they say, better late than never.

Well, now you know the rub... find a good software which does a great job. It takes the guesswork out of niche marketing.

Swaminathan Viramani
http://www.bestebooks.org

Using This One Simple Word Helped Triple My Sites Profits

Writen by Michael Cheney

This article is very important.

In fact, the chances are it will give you more sales from your website. Now I'm not suggesting you're low on sales but we could all do with more sales right?

I first started using this word on my website about a year ago. Using the word changed the whole focus of my website, my business and my life!

Sounds unbelievable doesn't it?

But it's not, it's entirely true and I want to share it with you.

You want to know what this word is don't you? Okay then - no more messing around then.

This word is the reason you are reading this article and the reason you carried on reading after the first paragraph. Have you guessed it already? The single most important word you need to use on your homepage is "YOU"!.

You. You. You.

Using 'YOU' Brings Success

Using the word 'you' on your homepage can have dramatic effects on how effective your website is at converting visitors into enquiries and sales. Using the word 'YOU' gets across your business' message in the only way that truly works - from the customer's point of view.

Now you might be thinking this is all obvious stuff. And it is! But just remember to look at the next few homepages you visit and see how many site owners are not following this simplest but most effective of rules.

Most businesses fall into the trap of wording things in this way:

"We provide such and such a product. We are industry-leaders.. We are based in .."

What you should be doing is changing the entire angle and 'voice' of your website around from an anonymous corporate 'brochure-type-speak' into a more personal YOU-focused angle. Take a look at my homepage and you'll see what I mean - www.websitemarketingbible.com . Now take a look at your homepage - how many 'YOU's have you got on your page?

So Why Is Using 'YOU' So Important?

Because YOU are the most important thing in YOUR universe. You don't want to hear about me, my company, what we do or what our strengths are - you want to hear what's in it for YOU.

Studies show that you should have around 70% of all sales and marketing literature comprised of words like 'YOU', 'YOUR', 'YOURS' etc. This might seem like an uphill struggle at first and your initial attempts might not read too well but you will soon get the hang of it.

Can You Play YOU-Gymnastics?

You can actually start treating it like a game. It takes time but eventually you will master the skill of turning any sentence around from a 'WE', 'US' or 'OUR' statement into a 'YOU' or 'YOUR' statement.

I urge you to revamp your homepage and get rid of any 'WE's or 'OUR's that you have and reword everything to put the customer at the heart of the matter. Now we're just talking about the homepage here but really you should be applying this principle to your entire website.

How The Word "YOU" Changed My Life

When I first learned of this golden rule it changed my website totally. I went from talking about my business and products on the site to talking directly to my customers and putting things across in a way which meant most to THEM. It also made me take a step back and re-draft all my corporate literature adopting this same YOU principle. But the story doesn't end there..

I realised that putting 'YOU' at the heart of my business communications and my business as a whole was actually the starting point for something far deeper. Ask any successful person and they will tell you that 'givers gain' - that is, if you give first and receive second you will achieve more than the person who takes first and thinks of giving afterwards.

It was then that I realised that I needed to start putting the 'YOU' at the centre of my whole life. I realised that to every other single person in the world - they were the most important thing that existed.

I listened more and made better relationships.

I empathised more and made more sales.

I gave more and felt more rewarded.

I could go on but feel that YOU need to go off now and start implementing this powerful technique for YOUR website!

I wish YOU great success!

Michael Cheney is Author of The Website Marketing BibleTM. Take the Free 7-Part Course "Internet Marketing Made Easy" and get your free sampler of 'The Bible' here: http://www.websitemarketingbible.com/marketing/

Trust Is The Killer App Online Reputation

Writen by Stuart Oliver

As Fractional Work becomes the norm and we source our work globally that without trust you will be unable to survive. Trust will come from your online reputation. I referred to how you (we) react when purchasing something from eBay if we see a poor or low reputation of the seller. Aside from eBay, we are all sellers. We are all also buyers. What we need is our reputation in a portable, transferable medium. At the moment, eBay pretty much has a monopoly on reputation. There is something similar on LinkedIn but it is text based. You, as a potential purchaser of my services, a future partner let's hope need to have as much reassurance up front that [a] I can do the job, [b] I can and will do it well and that I have demonstrable experience of [a] and [b]. Tradition dictates that we seek references from previous employers, colleagues etc etc but this becomes harder when these are across the globe.

What if you can build and online track record. Not only can you sell your old CDs on eBay and get a good reputation but you can also consult on building communities, virtual teams and all things EDRM and ECM? Now you have breadth of reputation. Now this needs to be portable, not just held within eBay for example.

Rapleaf aims to be the platform through which people can build their reputations online regardless of whether there has been a transaction and whether that has been online or offline.

This is a fantastic idea and somewhat analogous to the reason we should all have a blog. Blogs are the new CV's / Resumes. If you want to know about me, my experience and interests you can get more information in 5 minutes of reading that you would in a 2 hours interview. That's better for both of us. What my blog doesn't tell you is whether I'm genuine. If Rapleaf is successful, you will be able to browse my reputation on line, 10s or 100s (hopefully!) of positive response and comments, this information has almost infinite value.

So, what does a platform, such as Rapleaf, need to succeed?

It must have an open interface / API. It will be no good if it cannot interface with most (read all) websites that have commercial interaction. You will want people to be able to comment on your reputation regardless of where you trade.

Secondly, and here comes the Catch 22, it needs to be trusted! It's no good having an online reputation that says you're great and trustworthy if no-one trusts it!. Trust must be earned and this is where Rapleaf will need to be very, very careful. Doubtless they will be looking for VC funding at some point and a key issue will be what is the possibility of it losing it's trust – what are the risks, how can they be mitigated or controlled. In my opinion this could turn the company from being priceless to worthless in an instant.

For more details on Rapleaf take a look at the excellent article written by Michael at TechCrunch.

My background and experience is mainly project management within diverse environments such as large corporate financial institutions, medium-sized technology consultancies and smaller start-ups. Having held positions including Operations Director (COO) and Head of Process Management, I have now left corporate life…the entrepreneurial side of my character is prevailing.

My focus is on becoming an "Un-natural Entrepreneur". I want to work with people and companies that have vision. I can offer key values and skills to help bring your ideas to fruition. If you are a "starter", then I am your "finisher". My approach to a challenge is to clarify, understand, problem-solve, develop and deliver.

To take an idea or concept through from its inception to its execution requires a consultative approach - a partnership. I am a rational and pragmatic thinker and can work within an existing management structure, or create a new management team through my extensive network.

http://www.stuart-oliver.com/blog

Make Money On Internet Promote The Product Not The Program

Writen by Hector Milla

Allan Gardyne a well-known affiliate marketers on the Web, gives various pieces of advice in order to earn money online. Promote the product and not the program is one of these ones. However, some people seem to have not listened to this uttermost advice of one of the successful men on the net.

For Gardyne there are thousands of ways to promote affiliate products, but the worst way of doing it is promoting the programs, since the important thing to do is to assess your own skills and interests, using your strengths.

He explains that he wrote and launched a newsletter. He also contributed to online forums and spent a lot of time answering emails at the beginning. Things that work for him but that have not to work for others.

For example, to earn money online he recommends to create ezine ads if you are good on that and then link them to a free report, that you divide into a series of articles in order to promote and place them on an auto responder.

But there exist other key points you have to look for before choosing an affiliate program to promote and make money online such as: a site that has a high conversion rate or looks as though it has, an excellent product that will appeal to your niche market, a high commission (40%-50%), programs that pay residual incomes or lifetime commissions.

Gardyne suggests also earn money online to try the product before promote it. He likes to study and use the products he is promoting, because if you like the product you will talk about it with more enthusiasm and your writing will show that, increasing your sales.

Despite other experts consider that is better to offer your own products by the Web to make money online, you don't need to do that to succeed online, according to Gardyne though it's an excellent idea, if you want to get ahead fast.

Article written by Hector Milla, editor of bigmoneyusa.info, where has been published several articles pointing ways to make money on the internet at http://www.bigmoneyusa.info, plus a full list of those articles may be found at http://www.bigmoneyusa.info/xenu.html. Thank you for use this article in your website or ezine keeping a live link.

Getting Maximum Leverage From Your First Joint Venture

Writen by Rockford Tapscott

Many of my coaching students have asked my advice on setting up their first joint venture deal – they have created a new product after doing market research to find a need, but they haven't yet built a customer list of their own, and they want to make the biggest paycheck they can for the least amount of effort possible.

While this a natural goal for most people to aim for, the problem is that they are approaching the deal with the wrong mindset.

The fact is, the person with the CUSTOMERS has the power in every transaction, while the person with the product has very little leverage most of the time when you are brand new to a market.

Finding and nurturing a responsive, loyal group of customers is much more difficult and time consuming that finding products to sell to them, and the customer list is where the power is in any business.

It doesn't matter what your product is, it can be copied, knocked off, simulated or plagiarized until the cows come home and there's very little you can really do about it unless you want to tie yourself up in legal action for a good part of your life.

The best way to approach a potential joint venture partner, especially if you are brand new, have a brand new product, and are inexperienced at doing JV deals, it to realize that you don't hold many cards and act accordingly.

What do I mean by this?

Well, remembering that you are basically being a parasite on your potential joint venture partner's customer base, you'd better be prepared to compensate them for helping you to get your product to market.

If you think you are going to be able to go to one of the big dogs in your niche and offer them a 50/50 commission split on a digitally downloadable information product, you're in for a rude shock.

Even giving potential JV partners 75% of the initial sale proceeds may not be enough incentive for them to promote your product to their list.

Many novice product developers find that by giving away 90% or even 100% of the initial sale proceeds (after processing fees) they create a compelling reason for potential joint venture partners to help launch their product and get it into as many hands as possible quickly.

But if you give away all the profit, what is the point?

Good question…there are many reasons you should consider giving the lions share of your initial product sale price to your joint venture partners. Here are just a few…

· You will receive the names, email addresses and often mailing addresses of every person on your joint venture partner's list who buys your product. This will give you multiple chances to offer these proven BUYERS additional, related products for months or years to come. A list of people who have purchased a product is the biggest asset any business owner can have, and your list will have cost you nothing to create

· Your product will be launched and in circulation much faster than it would have been if you had gone the traditional route and used pay per click campaigns, ezine advertising, traffic generation programs, SEO or articles to generate leads to sell your product to

· You can ask your list of buyers for testimonials which you can then use in your own personal marketing to generate additional sales on which you will receive the full sale price

· You'll know exactly what new products to create as back-end offers for your list of buyers because you'll be able to survey them and ask for their feedback. You'll get a much more accurate idea of what your market wants to buy if you ask BUYERS as opposed to prospects who haven't purchased anything from you

· Many of your purchasers will become affiliates and help you to sell even more of your product to others. You only need to pay affiliates the going rate of 50% to 65% and all sales they make for you basically cost you nothing to generate For these and many other reasons, it can be a very profitable decision to give up the early profits on a product to earn long-term back end profits from the customers you generate through your joint venture partnerships.

Something to think about…

Rocky Tapscott is the author a free 7 Part Mini Course "How To Build The Perfect Home Based Business Around Your Favorite Hobby, Pastime, Sport Or Skill" which uses 6 real life case studies to show how others have used a proven system to build profitable businesses around their favorite hobby.

Drop by http://www.hobbyandlifestyle.com/ecourse.html to grab your free copy.