Ash Summerville – Internet Marketing

Building Successful Businesses Online

Posts Tagged ‘Niche Market’

5 Simple Steps In Market Research

November 21st, 2009

Are yoy ready to conquer a new niche, but want to make sure you’re on the right track? You can’t just build a site on underwater basket weaving – you’ve got to make sure that:

People are looking for information on the topic
That there are genuine buyers and not just freebie seekers
That there are actual products that you can sell or be an affiliate for.

1. KEYWORD RESEARCH

Initially, you’ll do your keyword research. That is, identifying a possible niche and running it through Market Samurai to see if it’s got potential. You want a keyword that has a decent number of people searching for it (so your new site gets traffic) but also doesn’t have too much competition.

2. MONETIZATION

Next, we ensure that the niche can be properly monetized. Are there products you can create and sell, or simply affiliate with, within the niche? If not, the niche is dead and we should move on to another.

To check that a niche can be monetized, we can use the “Monetization” Module inside Market Samurai.

We can also do a Google search and see if any of the top results or Adwords ads displayed on the right have affiliate programs.

Checking sources like Clickbank, Datafeedr, Ebay, Amazon, Commission Junction and ShareASale can identify further affiliate opportunities.

You want to have a laundry list of products you can sell on your site, so when it’s time to build, you know you have an offer for site visitors.

Also, make sure the products you’re identifying are a tight match for the keyword you identified with Market Samurai. If you identify people as searching for “How to make your own soap,” you don’t want attempt to sell them a candle making kit. Yes, people interested in making their own soap might well be interested in making their own candles too, but it’s not a perfect message-to-market match. You need a perfect match from what your users are searching for and what you’re selling to encourage sales.

3. SOCIAL MEDIA BUZZ

Checking the social media buzz for a niche serves two purposes:

Ensuring that people are talking about your niche. If they’re not, it’s dead. People must be interested enough in it to talk about it, otherwise they’re probably not buying.
Give you a point of entry to use social media marketing in your campaign. Checking the buzz allows you to identify the social media sites, forums, blogs etc. that are most active within your niche. When it’s time to promote and build links, you’ll already know the hotspots for your niche.

You can go to each social media site individually and use the search function to check if there’ buzz, but that’s tedious. Plus, it leaves out blogs and forums, which can be a huge source of conversation and potential traffic.

Instead, use the service WhosTalkin. You simply search for your keyword and you’ll get a look across all kinds of social media platforms where people are sharing images, articles, thoughts, videos and chatter. Plus, it gives you an RSS feed for your search so you can subscribe to it in Google Reader and catch everything people are saying within the niche and respond to it once your site is up.

Another place to check is SocialMention. While this service isn’t as comprehensive as WhosTalkin, it gives you a look, in the sidebar, of the reach, passion, positive & negative percentages and top users talking about your topic.

4. TOPIC TRENDING

You don’t want to climb on a niche bandwagon when it’s just about to die. So check with Google Trends and Google Insights to identify any patterns in your niche. Does it peak at certain times? Is it generally climbing upwards or downwards? Where is it right now in relation to where it’s been in the past?

Don’t beat a dead horse (or niche). If it’s time in the spotlight has ended, take a pass on it and find another niche with a longer lifespan.

5. VERTICALS & RELATED MARKETS

You may have identified other related markets (that may be more profitable, or could provide you with other categories, topics or subtopics for your site). We’ll investigate those further to ensure we’ve covered all our bases in our keyword research. Simply follow the tips above for any related markets, keywords, niches or sub-niches you’ve found.

To identify additional related markets, check with the following sites:

With each of the above resources, you’ll be able to get an idea of the advertising spend in the market, as well as other, related keywords you can look into further.

Share and Enjoy:

No comments »

Posted in Business, Software

Tags: Marketing Tools Niche Market Niche Marketing Software

The Marketing Plan

October 26th, 2009

There are some things that should be avoided when putting together your marketing plan. Keep in mind that a good marketing plan is a collaboration of good strategy and tactics, and you cannot do either one effectively without the other.

In formulating a sound marketing plan here are some things that you should at all cost avoid:

Relying too much on creativity – I am not saying that being creative is wrong, it is actually okay. However as an aspiring entrepreneur you should not rely too much on this aspect. Sometimes when we write our marketing plan we see too much creativity that we tend to overlook tactics which will of course hurt the business in the long run.
Not paying attention to numbers – business in general is all about math and math is about numbers. So in short your marketing plan has something to do with numbers as well as it is part of your business. If you do not know your numbers that well then rest assured the results will not be good. Creating any marketing plan without knowing how much it will cost to acquire your customer, what your average sale needs to be, what is the required profit margin will result to failure. If you are going to invest $500 on advertising alone, how many leads and sales will you have to make in order to cover for the cost of the ad and at the same time profit?
Filling your marketing plan with unnecessary stuff – of course unnecessary stuff will just confuse you, so let it go. Generalities are also qualified as “unnecessary stuff.” Stating that your target market is “everybody” or “adults 50- and above” is not explicit enough and will result to problems down the road. Instead of doing this, start thinking of a niche. Narrow it down to “young males 16-plus who play video games and ride skateboards,” instead of stating “everybody.” While writing your marketing plan, keep in mind that marketing is all about buying your customers. Imagine going into a supermarket and buying everything that your heart desires. The question is, “Can you buy everything you see?” Let us face the harsh reality that, your resources would never allow it. In marketing terms, this means buying your ideal customer with the resources you already have. A sound marketing plan should mention exactly how much you are willing to spend to acquire your ideal customer.

A sound marketing plan should adhere to balance, and it is also important to show risks are being acknowledged. Like a business plan, a marketing plan is a vital guide. There are many entrepreneurs who do not understand the value of a marketing plan, and still others are clueless as to exactly what a marketing plan is. Every start-up venture and existing business needs a business plan, yet many entrepreneurs choose to forgo with that hence they throw away possible success. A marketing plan is required if you want your business to become a household name. Your marketing plan provides structure to the marketing efforts of your business.

Share and Enjoy:

No comments »

Posted in Business

Tags: Beginners marketing Marketing Opportunities Niche Niche Market Niche Marketing

Affiliate Marketing Success Guide

October 13th, 2009

Most newbies don’t realize it because they haven’t been in the industry long enough to know, but affiliate marketing success depends largely on the research you do before you ever begin. Many people who are new to the internet start out blindly, without the information they need to strategically build a successful business. Many make the decision as to what they will sell according to what everyone else seems to be doing, which can be a mistake especially if the market they choose is very competitive.

Good niche and keyword research is necessary for affiliate marketing success. By determining what peoples’ problems are, and if they are a buying market, you can continue on to do the research needed to set up a successful, profitable business. By performing in-depth niche and keyword research, you can often find long-tail keywords and phrases that are far less competitive, which allows you to make money with much less effort.

If you start out in a very competitive field, you will work yourself to death trying to make money, which is likely to cause you to burn out quickly. This often results in people giving up before they really have a chance to succeed.

By doing careful research, you can find keywords and phrases that allow you to rank your website or blog high in the rankings much easier, meaning targeted traffic will easily find you. Some affiliates market products without a blog, site, or email list, but this makes people finding you much more difficult.

Writing articles, blogging, using social media, and forum marketing are all great strategies that will help lead to affiliate marketing success; but be sure to research your niche thoroughly before you jump in blindly. It will save you much hard work and frustration, and increase your chances of success tremendously!

Research, research and research.

Just remember that there are many tools out there to help you with your research, some are free, cost cost only a few hundred dollars and others can cost you thousands a year. Again, research and ask questions from others on places like the Warrior Forum, and get their opinion on softeare before you commit yourself to the expense.

Some of my personal favourites are Micro Niche Finder and Market Samauri.

So don’t go jumping in blindly and wasting your time and money on a niche that just won’t make you any money. Do your research and you won’t look back.

Share and Enjoy:

No comments »

Posted in Business

Tags: Content Keywords Marketing Tools Niche Niche Market Niche Marketing

Niche Marketing Tips: The Magic of Internet Niche Marketing

October 3rd, 2009

There is no doubt that the idea of niche marketing has been gaining popularity over the last few of years. Niche marketing is finding and promoting a product or service in a specific area of high demand. It focuses to attract potential clients with problem solving approach. There are many software packages available to assist you determine the viability of this new found niche.

Marketing your product or services to interested prospects rather than to the whole world makes the real difference. Internet niche marketing is the best method to market online business. If done correctly, it’s so easy that even a newbie with proper understanding of the market could make huge profits.

You need to understand that the key element is the proper planning, so your product or service could fulfill the requirements of the targeted audience. It’s like understanding your market well and develops a plan of action accordingly. Right from the headline, the reader must get a feel of interest. Your copy or sales letter should be highly attention grabbing and engaging.

The more you enjoy your niche, the more you focus to a particular group of prospects. There is a niche market for every topic you can imagine, the only thing is you have to do the research and take appropriate action.

Strong market research will identify your potential clients, your competition, markets inclination for your product or services, and your chances to get success. Let’s take a quick look on how to do the niche research:

Start your research with general topic and narrow down until you get to a point where there is lot of demand and very less competition. This gives you a working area with no major competition. It offers an opportunity to be the leading personality and to dominate your niche.

Now when you have discovered your niche, the next step is to approach your prospects with vital product or services. To do that, you could create an info-product like an e-book, a short report, a video tutorial, etc. Remember to include the uniqueness desired by your potential clients. Your product or service must address at least one of the problems of your niche and offers solution in a very easy to understand way.

Niche marketing, if done correctly can bring effective results.

So, there you have it, who knows you could grab some remarkable possibilities and opportunities. Spread your marketing messages and notice the immediate sales and profits.

Share and Enjoy:

No comments »

Posted in Business

Tags: Niche Niche Market Niche Marketing

30 Day Challenge – Totally Awsome Free Training

September 22nd, 2009

I’m not sure if many people are aware of this, but this training course on internet marketing and Niche Marketing is fantastic. I have personally just gone through the course during August 2009, and found the information invaluable. Go and check out the 30 Day Challenge.

Not only does the course break down the whole process of finding a Niche Market, but also introduced me to a piece of software which is one of the best that I have see and I am now using it myself to help with my business. It help you streamline the whole process of researching the viability of a niche, to looking at your competition. The software of course is Market Samurai, produced by some fellow Aussies.

Market Samurai can hardly be called a “Keyword Research” only tool anymore. In the last month they’ve released TWO NEW MODULES, and a ton of new functionality:

NEW MODULE #1: Monetization Module – In minutes, find the best affiliate offers that relate to your keyword, and create high impact ads with a few clicks (no copywriting required!), and publish these to your blog (with full click-tracking)! You can even add Adsense, Ebay, Amazon or Clickbank ads to your blog in just a few clicks. Turning traffic into cash has never been so easy.

NEW MODULE #2: Publish Content Module – Publish keyword optimized content to your blog, automatically social bookmark it, submit it to website directories, RSS directories, and add it to Market Samurai’s Rank Tracker module so you can monitor your new article in the search engines, in just a few clicks. And here’s a roundup of some more of the new functionality that they’ve rolled out over the last 30 days: – NEW: (SEO Competition Module) – This is completely sick!… Spy on your competitors backlinks with a single click and reverse-engineer their back link strategy which you can then use for your own site!

NEW: (Find Content Module) – You can now take articles that you find from this module and send it to the new Publish Content module, edit, and publish to your blog in just a few clicks! -

NEW: (Promotion Module) – Support for Google’s new “Forum” search engine. Find hundreds of quality posts that you can use to get backlinks from. -

NEW: (Monetization Module) – Calculate the key critical business metrics for your online business, and work out expected profitability in just seconds! -

NEW: (Monetization Module) – Answer critical questions that relate to the success of your Adwords campaign. And this is ON TOP OF all the new functionality which they’ve rolled out over the past few months, like: -

NEW MODULE: Rank Tracker – Monitor your search engine positions in Google, Yahoo and Bing, in just a few clicks. It’s the only rank tracking solution that supports tracking for MULTIPLE blogs, and MULTIPLE WEB2.0 pages – the way that the SEO game is played by the pros in 2009. -

NEW: (Keyword Research Module) – Added the new Google long tail keyword source “Google Search Keywords” – find up to an additional 800 long tail keywords. – NEW: (Keyword Research Module) Zero in on high-profit keywords using the “Adwords Advertiser” column (AWA).

SO, SHOULD YOU BUY MARKET SAMURAI?

In my opinion upgrading to the full version is a no-brainer. I can’t imagine running an internet businesses without Market Samurai.

Actually that’s not true…

I CAN imagine running my internet businesses without Market Samurai because I used to do it and quite frankly – it sucked!

If someone had handed me a copy of Market Samurai when I first started looking at Niche Marketing I would have been like a kid in a candy store. Back then it literally took DAYS to do what Market Samurai now does with a few clicks of your mouse.

Heck, even TODAY it would take DAYS to do what Market Samurai can do in minutes. The only problem I can see on the horizon is our Thirty Day Challenge secret weapon is not so secret anymore.

The word is definitely getting out and more and more people are using Market Samurai to dominate their niches. This is great if you get in early and become a dominator instead of being dominated… but it also means the longer you wait to get started, the harder it’s going to be to compete.

Share and Enjoy: