To niche or not to niche

(c) 2005, Michael Beauchamp, e-BizResources Unless you've been hibernating for the last couple of years, you've probably heard the term "Niche Marketing" a lot. It's one of the current buzz-words in online marketing. Which is kind of funny really since niche marketing has actually been around pretty much as long as marketing has existed. But what is it? I recently read somewhere that "All marketing is Niche Marketing". I don't entirely agree with that - I'd say "ALMOST ALL marketing is Niche Marketing". Niche Marketing is marketing products or services to groups of people (or businesses) who have specific needs or interests in common. Obviously department stores and their online cousins don't fit that description, but almost everything else is ... you guessed it; "Niche Marketing". In the physical world, your local butcher, baker and candlestick maker (sorry, a LITTLE joke there - very little), greengrocer, shoe store, etc, etc. all cater to niche markets, some more focused than others. And in the online world, any web site that focuses on a particular topic is a niche web site, and that describes the vast majority of web sites online today and in the past. So, those that are marketing any kind of product or service are probably already into "Niche Marketing", and may not even know it. Some niches are more crowded and competitive than others. The niches focusing on internet marketing and making money online are probably the most crowded and competitive online, and getting more so every day. So, it's becoming harder and harder for people just entering that market to make any inroads, let alone a big impact. But, don't panic, there are lots of other niches that are far less crowded and competitive. The current emphasis on "Niche Marketing" could probably be more accurately termed; "marketing to niches other than the 'making-money' niche". Which opens up a lot of possibilities for people just starting out in online business. Do you have a hobby or hobbies? Play a sport? What are your interests, are you passionate about or obsessed with a particular subject or activity? (keep it clean, folks) If so, chances are there are other people who share the same interest and that's a potential Niche Market! The same applies to any other hobbies and interests that you could name. You need to do some research to determine if a particular niche or a related "sub-niche" is likely to be profitable. For example, you'll need to check out: 1. Demand - how many people are searching online for related info and/or products. 2petition - how many other websites or businesses are already catering to that market? 3. Are people actually spending money in this niche? Now that's all well and good, but ... How do you find out all that stuff? And that brings us to ... The Free Download: "Think Niche & Grow Rich" This great little ebook not only explains in more detail what niche marketing is and why you should get involved, but it also gives you a step-by-step guide to researching niche markets, creating products quickly and getting them online. You'll find a number of free resources that you can use if you're short on cash but have some time to spare. Did you know that you can get answers for the above three research topics using free tools at Overture and Google? Another helpful free tool is the software, "Good Keywords". Besides the free tools mentioned in "Think Niche & Grow Rich", you'll also learn about a fantastic software tool that's dead easy to use and will speed up the process by automating most of the research steps for you. I'm sure you'll learn heaps from this ebook and give your profits a long term boost. To download it now, click the link: e-bizresources/thinkniche Whichever route you decide to take, once you've got one niche site up and working well, you can move on and set up another, then another - as many as you want. And it'll get easier with each one you do. So, as with most things I talk about, the next step is to take action, and do it now. Don't worry about getting everything perfect straight away or first time out, just get started. Happy Niche Marketing.

Impressing your customers is easy with 3 guaranteed tactics

Customer satisfaction isn't one single act, but a group of actions that work together to make their experience a pleasant and satisfying experience. You've probably eaten at a restaurant where the food was wonderful, but the service slow and unprofessional. Somebody was doing a good job, but your overall experience wasn't up to par. There are three areas of service that work together to impress your customers. Provide good service in these three areas, and they'll be back... time and time again. 1. Instant Response Let's face the facts... people just don't like to wait. When they walk out the door, they want to have the product at their fingertips. Hey, they may have taken weeks to decide on the purchase, but once the decision has been made, they want it NOW. The best way to make customers happy is to make the product available at the point of sale, but not all businesses are able to do that. Internet marketers obviously cannot provide immediate service, but can be sure to keep delivery time to an absolute minimum. 2. Make Buying Simple Keep the buying process as simple as possible. Customers are just like you, they hate paperwork. To an online customer, clicking on 20 different screens translates as paperwork. It's annoying, time consuming, and a turn off. Use the "easy as 1, 2, 3" idea as a selling point in your advertising campaign. Busy and tired customers take notice, and you'll see results! 3. Give Customers Personal Attention Good listeners are hard to come buy. The world is full of people trying to sell us something, or trying to persuade us to their viewpoint. You want to make an impact? Learn to listen to your customers. Make it easy to ask questions. Yeah, yeah, I know. That's time consuming and you don't have time to spare. But listen, you'll find that a lot of questions are repeated over and over again. Create a frequently asked question form, and you'll be able to answer a lot of consumer questions without sacrificing as much of your time.

What to say to is this a pyramid scheme

On a call yesterday following the pyramid post, people wanted to know what to say if, they're presenting the business or product, someone pops the question, "Is this a pyramid?" Before you brainstorm over your winning comeback, how about a quick check to see whether 1) your company acts like one or not, or 2) if you are acting like one (without realizing it, of course)? Here's the question we discussed: 1. Is your business all about recruiting? If so, you are acting like a pyramid, according to Rushkoff's book, Coercion: "a pyramid scheme is...[where] the need to subscribe newcomers outweighs whatever benefits the products or system has to offer. Many MLMs sell distributorships more than cosmetics [name your product or service - KK]." Yes of course you want to recruit reps - but if that's all you do, you are in the pyramid zone, because you give the impression that the product and customers don't matter, except to sell distributorships. Everyone quickly re-evaluated what they were doing to be sure they weren't coming across like that. All could see how a fixation on doing 1. above might give someone else the impression that "Yep, there goes one of those pyramid schemers." After a quick review of 9 different company pay plans (of distributors on the phone) it became clear - it's true what the recruiters say: "There's no money in customers. All the money's in the recruiting." Company owners decide where to put the money they pay their reps. Say a network marketing company pays out to the field, 50% of what it takes in. They have complete disgression on how to divide that up - between paying for recruiting and amassing customers (for those companies that make the recruiter/customer distinction - and some don't.) So, how much were companies paying for getting customers (who were not also distributors)? On product orders ranging from $85-120, some people reported getting paid from 0 - 7%. In one company, they got nothing on those customer orders if they hadn't reached a certain position in the company based on their sales; and for other companies, the reps reported getting 5 or 6% for orders of $100. (A few paid more. List to be posted soon.) Five bucks for a hundred dollar customer order? There are much easier ways to make money than that! However, for recruiting, we got much higher returns. With sign-up bonuses and fast start bonuses of $50-350 or more, for orders ranging from $300-1000. Who else wouldn't rather make $50 than $5 for making one sale? Big money in selling distributorships (which may include products). Versus getting just customers. So yes, companies whose pay plans are weighted so much to recruiting are acting like a pyramid. Worse, they make their reps look like it too, since they want to get the most return they can for their time, and would rather make $50 than $5. Who wouldn't? Well, as they say, if it quacks like a.... Oh. What to say to that question, "Is this a pyramid" (or 'one of those things')? One option (we discussed several): Let me tell you what we do, and you can call it whatever you want ok? PAUSE We market products directly to consumers, people like you and me, and we also find people who want to do that with us. You think you could do that if I showed you what to do? (That's from the Truth book.) And yes, there are other options...for another post...send in yours that have helped. (Use 'Comments' below).

Do s and don ts of emailing press releases from a media veteran

I'm a big believer in EMAILING press releases. Not only is email dirt cheap, email can often get you in front of editors a lot faster than regular mail or fax. Here's why. Media outlets like radio stations, TV stations, and newspapers get a TON of press releases. During my 20 years working in radio and TV, we got bag loads of mailed press releases every day. Probably 90 percent of them came from politicians and local college athletic programs. Their publicity people are told to send out a release several times a week--whether they have any real news to tell or not. Consequently, media get a release every time a congress person helps someone or an athletic field house gets a new folding chair. Are these mailed press releases ignored? You bet they are. Most go straight from the mail bag to the trash. Who has time to open 150 envelopes when most of them are pushing some story you will never be able to use? I know I'll get some notes from a media workers who will say "WE don't do it that way at our place." And you can be sure a few news rooms are very organized about opening, reading, filing, and using releases. Faxed releases work better, but not that much better given the expense. I worked at one station where the manager got tired of the fax machine burning up cartridges printing releases. Faxed releases were routed to the receptionist's computer where she deleted them. At another media outlet, faxes, ads, and all the other things that get faxed spilled out on the floor. Some were read, others were used for scratch paper, and most were trampled on until somebody bundled them into the trash. But wait a minute! If nobody is reading press releases, why do studies claim that 75% of the stories you read in newspapers originate from press releases? The answer lies in email. Email makes it easy to receive a release, forward it to the staff person who covers that particular topic, then store the release in an email "futures" file where it can be pulled up as needed. It's incredibly easy for newspaper people to import the email release into their writing program, change the headline, tweak a few things, and run it as a story. Editors don't like to admit they do this, but we've seen big city newspapers run our releases as articles with very few changes. You can't blame journalists for doing this. Media outlets have cut staffs over and over again during the past 15 years. One person now does the work of three staffers. Here are some tips for making your emailed release the starting point for a media report: 1. Start your subject line with RELEASE. Then follow with the most newsworthy/titillating part of your story. 2. Make your headline the first thing in the body of your email. I like to use two headlines, the second adding more information the first didn't have room to mention. The media person should be able to tell what your release is about just by reading the headlines. 3. Include your contact information after the body of the release. This is becoming the standard way to do things on the Net. Journalists are now used to looking at the bottom for contact info. 4. Keep your release under 400 words. Make sure you have good information the media audience wants, otherwise you don't stand a chance of getting coverage. 5. Take time to send your release to your local media. They are more likely to use your story than out-of-town media. You can find their email addresses by searching for their sites on search engines. 6. Send your release to trade publications covering your field. Even small developments can be of big interest to others in your line of work. One photographer client sent her release to photographic magazines and got coverage in almost every one. 7. Go national. Get the Gebbie Media Guide at Gebbie. It's affordable and reliable.

Top 5 tips to have them lining up at your trade show booth

You've jumped through all the hurdles and management just approved the budget for the trade show booth you've been dying to do for ages. You just high-fived your team when it hits you-you don't just need a trade show booth, you need that trade show booth to get results! This means you have to get people to come to your trade show booth-lots of them or your boss is going to be one unhappy person. Yikes! Before you start that letter of resignation, wipe the sweat from your brow and take a deep breath. Feel better? Great, now you're ready to find out how to make your booth stand out on that trade show floor and have people standing knee-deep in line just to see what you're up to! 1. Think color. Lots of it! Bold, sassy colors that immediately get attention from trade show attendees. Many people make the mistake of thinking if they build it, they will come. Nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to trade show booths! You have lots of competition and to beat it, you need a trade show booth that lets people know they're dealing with professionals who know what they're doing. Color does this almost better than anything else-unless you're going against the grain by using stark, upscale colors like white and black to make your statement. And believe me, color does make a statement. 2. Now think lights! Lights can make a fairly ordinary tradeshow booth something special. How? Think of the way paintings in museums are lit, the way candlelight sets the atmosphere for dinner or weddings. You can take a regular Joe trade show booth, put some truly cool lights in place, and Presto! You have a real show stopper-right there at your booth where you can smooze and sell to your heart's content (or your feet wear out, whichever comes first!). 3. Next, sound. Remember that guy at the end of the row with his white-cloth covered brochure covered table? Remember how he reminded you of the Maytag repairman in the old television commercials? Now imagine if he'd had some great music playing from his booth-or had simply had people out in front of the booth greeting and mixing it up with the trade show attendees. Because you can have the best looking booth on the block, but if you don't make some noise that makes people want to get to know you better, then you're just another pretty face. And that would be a real shame since you have such a great company. 4. Action. Now, many trade show exhibitors are resorting to things like having magicians or dancers performing at their trade show booths. This is a great idea-if the performances are related to your business. If you're going to have a magician, have him or her pull your product out of his hat or some other item that will keep your company top-of-mind during the act. Why? While it's important to give trade show event attendees something to entertain them, if you don't keep your company and product in their minds along the way, they're more likely to remember the entertainment than who (your company!) provided it for them. So you want to spend your money on some type of entertainment that is fun and pertinent to your business. 5. Free stuff. Now before you finalize that order for 500,000 pens with your company name and logo on them, stop. Put some real thought into this first. Pens are great, but people lose them, they run out of ink, not to mention that practically every trade show exhibitor is going to be giving away, yep, you guessed it, pens. So give away a notepad instead. One with your logo on it instead. Or better yet, have a drawing several times a day for a larger item that people will really use and that's related in some way to your business. This is the very best idea ever. Why? Because people come BACK to your booth to see if they've won. This gives you yet another chance to get your marketing message across-which makes you the real winner.

You can make a fortune on ebay ...but only if you get going

There are a number of things you need to make money on the Internet, but the most important is targeted traffic. Think about it, having a good product won't make you money if nobody sees it, a good headline, good copywriting, nice website, none of these things will make you a dime if nobody sees them. Just knowing that targeted visitors are the most important part of making money will do us no good unless we take action. How are we going to take action? We get going, going to where the targeted traffic is, and the traffic is at Ebay. Would you be surprised if I told you over 12 million people visit Ebay a month. I haven't checked all the sites on the Internet, but I doubt there are many sites bringing in that much traffic. Ok we have solved one of the main problems with making money, we now know where we can get targeted visitors, but don't be fooled thinking it will be a piece of cake just because we overcame the main problem. You see we are not the only ones that know where the traffic is, so we are going to have a lot of competition. What can we do about the competition? I would just send them an email and ask them to stop selling so I could sell my products and make a lot of money. Now if that doesn't work there are a few more ways we can beat the competition. It might be easier if I just list them below. 1. Since most visitors use the search tool to find a product on Ebay we would want to make sure we were using the best keywords we could come up with that describes the product we are selling. 2. We would also want to take our time and make sure we list our product in the correct categories. 3. If we can find a unique product with little competition that would be great, but we will need to be careful with this, because if no body is selling it, it could be because there is little demand for it. 4. If we find a product that we can buy at a lower cost than our competition then we could sell it at a lower price than the competition. I think we have a good idea how to sell on Ebay, but we need a product to sell. If you are new to Ebay you could start by selling products you have around the house. That is how I started, I did a check on Ebay to see what products were selling and what they were selling for. If there was a high demand for it and I had one, I would take a picture of the product and offer it up for auction. You would be surprised at some of the objects people will buy. After you have sold all you have around the house you will need to get a tax number from your state tax office and sign up with a wholeseller. You can search the Internet to find a wholeseller, but there are lists you can buy that will save you a lot of time and will list the top wholesellers. You can find wholesellers that don't require a tax ID, but I would not use these, because I don't think you will get the best price or best products from them. Since there is so much competition you want to make sure you have the right product at the best price. There is no way I can cover the whole process of selling on Ebay in one article, but I hope this has been some help to you. Good Luck!

Stuck for fathers day gifts find me a gift has the answer

Stuck for a Fathers Day gift idea. find-me-a-gift has the answer! We have over 1000 gift ideas for men women and children. When it comes to Fathers Day we have a fantastic selection of presents. Fathers Day is the time of year where you want to show your love to your dad for all the nice things he does, so here are a list of products that will help get you in the good books. USB Cup Warmer and Mug Warmer with 4 USB Ports We’ve all been there. You’ve just brewed yourself a steaming cup of liquid Loveliness, you get back to your desk to a flurry of urgent emails and by the time you’ve averted all manner of minor disasters like the superhuman workhorse that you are, your cup of steaming refreshment is stone cold. find-me-a-gift. co. uk/gifts-for-men/work-gift/usb-cup-warmer-and-mug-warmer-with-4-usb-ports. html Become a Lord – Make your dad a Lord this Fathers Day. Become a Lord (Laird) or Lady when you buy this gift and be the owner of a plot of land on the Kincavel Estate in Sonachan, Scotland, and have legal usage of the title “Laird” (meaning “land owner”). Laird is a title that can be used by men or women but the commonly accepted equivalent for women is “Lady”. find-me-a-gift. co. uk/gifts-for-men/unusual-gadgets/laird-lord-and-lady-of-the-glen. html Swear Box - Dad its time to pay the price for your bad language! Swearing has become second nature to some people, and occasionally comes up inappropriately in conversation. However, now we have a way to help you stop $*&#ing swearing! It’s also a good way to make some money out of your dad this Fathers Day. find-me-a-gift. co. uk/swear-box. html Sudoku Cube - Check your dads brain is still in tact this Fathers Day! Nothing has hit the puzzle world this hard since Rubik’s Cube in the 80’s… Sudoku is everywhere in plague proportions and we’re about to make it even more crazy with the Sudokube! find-me-a-gift. co. uk/sudoku-cube. html Arse Face Soap – Essential for any Dad this Fathers Day How Many times have you found your dad using your favourite shower gel? Arse Face Soap is a hilarious bar of soap that's sure to add some fun to your bathroom? Arse Face Soap is a generous size with a fresh scent; clearly stating which side of the soap should be hygienically used for certain areas of your body! CD Wall Tiles – Has your dad got his old favourites on CD then these are an ideal fathers day gift. These brilliant and unique CD Wall Tiles are an excellent way to show your love for music and display your favourite CDs on the wall. Each box contains everything you need to create your own personal layout - configure the 9 individual CD Wall Tiles however you like!. The CD Wall Tiles are easy to install and there is no tools needed, simple to extend and quick to remove without damaging your walls. find-me-a-gift. co. uk/cd-wall-tiles. html Homersapien Homersapien 1ST IN THE UK TO OFFER THIS PRODUCT! Homersapien just loves dressing up as Homer Simpson! Watch as he says 'Doh!' and other Homer Simpson phrases. Equipped with Krusty burger cup use the controller to make Homersapien pick-up, throw or even kick it! find-me-a-gift. co. uk/homersapien. html Life Coach in a Box – Is your dad close to a mid life crisis then buy him this kit for Fathers Day Long-time life coach and trans-personal psychologist, Carol Stanton, offers inspirational, motivational, and practical advice in this kit, which includes a life coach deck and companion journal. The easy-to-navigate, direct, and user-friendly material is aimed at helping people achieve successes and emotional growth in life's key areas of spirituality, work, relationships, finances, recreation, and health. Each card in the deck contains a theme, a coaching step, and suggested activities and is used in conjunction with the journal. It's a perfect complement to those already using a life coach or great on its own. find-me-a-gift. co. uk/life-coach-in-a-box. html The Amazing Dog Trick Kit The Amazing Dog Trick Kit Sit! Roll over! This handy kit takes the mystery out of teaching Fido how to be a first-rate performer. An easy-to-follow manual guides owners through fifteen spectacular tricks. The kit also includes a flying disc, professional training clicker, a bell used for special tricks, and even a bone-shaped biscuit cutter for making delicious doggy treats (Recipes included!). If you would like to look at our full range of Fathers Day gifts please click on the link below. find-me-a-gift. co. uk If you have left buying your fathers day gifts to the last minute dont worry we have an express delivery order by 3.30pm and we will dispatch your fathers day gifts the same day. Some more great ideas from find-me-a-gift. co. uk If you have any queries or comments please email me Sarah@findmeagift

Submitting websites to directories

Submitting your website to the various online directories is an important part of any Link Popularity campaign. While your traffic from many directories may be minor or irrelevant, relevant incoming links to your website will help in your overall search engine link popularity. Paying for your directory submission can be a waste of money. You can get just as good a result from submitting to free directories. Personally, I wouldn't recommend you pay for what you can get free elsewhere. The best directories to submit your site to are Search Engine Friendly directories (those that actually have your site URL listed at some point, rather than outlinks that are simply code). Some will ask for a reciprocal link, some will not. One list of non-reciprocal directories is at Pimp-Url . Opinion at the moment is suggesting that non-reciprocal or one-way links are better, although any relevant link is useful. Directories that do not encode outgoing links will help your website's Search Engine Ranking. Deep Linking can be worth linking to other pages on your site other than your main page. Before doing this, make sure that the directory you are submitting to permits you to both submit URLs other than your home page (some only allow top level submission), and for the same site to be submitted to different categories (not all directories permit what are essentially multiple submissions of the same website). This will work especially if you have online tools or directories (such as your links page) on your site that are useful and relevant to add to other directory categories. Choose the relevant directory category for your website. Most directories will have many categories you can submit your site to. Decide on the one that is most relevant, preferably a keyword that you are aiming for high search engine ranking in, and try to submit to the same or similar category in every directory, at least for your main page. This will increase the ranking of your site relating to the keyword chosen. Submit to different categories as long as your website is relevant to those categories. This will increase the number of incoming links to your website. Writing the title for your website is very important. Try to include a keyword you are aiming for ranking in the title, but make the use of it appropriate. Describe your website in a way that will attract visitors. The length of your description will vary from directory to directory, but most will be under 250 characters. Some will allow up to 1,000 characters, and in those cases write the most comprehensive description of your site and its features that you can. It is a good idea to write several descriptions of different lengths, say from under 50 characters for a brief overview, to around 150 characters for a fuller description, up to 250 characters for a yet more comprehensive listing, and finally a full description as previously mentioned for over 250 characters. Keep your listing pertinent to your website, insert keywords where relevant and appropriate, but do not just submit a keyword listing, as most directories will reject your submission. Save all your descriptions in a text file, and just copy & paste into the descriptions boxes when needed rather than typing the same descriptions out again and again. Again, as with the description mentioned above, the amount of keywords you can use will vary from directory to directory. Some will not give the option, some will allow you numbers of keywords, whilst others go by numbers of characters. Make a list of all relevant keywords for your site, from most important to least, and basically keep adding keywords until either you get to the bottom of your list (unlikely unless your list is really short) or you run out allowed characters/keywords. Check what keywords your competitors are going for if you need inspiration. This can often be done by viewing the source of a web page and checking the META tags. Again, save your keywords to a text file.

To buy a fat pig

What does buying a fat pig have to do with your business? Stick with me and all will be revealed. Does your business have a tactical and a strategic way to go to market? Let's go down to Mr. Hoover's butcher shop to see how it's done. Mr. Hoover has been selling bacon and other pig products for years. That's pretty tactical, but can result in a good continuing income stream. A lot of customers come in week after week to buy their bacon and ham and pork loin, after all. But Mr. Hoover wants to develop another income stream. What, he wonders, if he could get people to buy the whole pig ahead of time. And, maybe, he also could get customers to pay for a pig on the installment plan. Then, Mr. Hoover could afford to buy more pigs basically for nothing. Customers would be paying for the upkeep. And, Mr. Hoover could even own a stud pig that he "rents" to other pig farmers. Yet another income stream. Sweet! My tactical tool - or bacon - is email newsletters and marketing programs aimed at customer retention and loyalty. Once I'm in the door with email, I can develop a client relationship that later allows me to sell the whole pig. I designed my business this way from the start so I'd have a continuing income stream. Then, I could concentrate on what I really like to do: selling myself as a strategic partner who can help a business develop its positioning statement, fully define its audiences and develop and implement a more comprehensive communications program that has bottom line impact. That's my fat pig. Have you thought about your business that way? What's your fat pig?