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This week's article.
One of the more time intensive tasks when you start an Internet Business is the one of finding your niche market, as well as a product that will sell well in that market. For the purpose of this article it is assumed that you have racked your brains, as well as your family and friends memories to create a list of possible businesses that you would be happy working in.
Before starting it may be best to define what a niche market is, before trying to zero in on a particular one.
A niche is defined as a "specialized market" or "an area of the market specializing in one type of product or service". In other words it is a narrowly defined group that have the same specialized interests and needs, where the group as a whole will have the following characteristics:
- Your product or service will fulfill their requirements.
- Your product offer to the group is superior to that of others.
- You can easily reach individual prospects within the group.
- The group will provide a sustainable volume of business.
- Your competitors do not consider the volume of business to be realistic for them.
With the above in mind, and taking one business at a time, you will now need to decide on the best keyword or keyword phrase that defines the niche, and then use it to research the volume of traffic being searched on that keyword, and also the amount of competition that there is for that particular keyword.
If one of your business interests is "fishing", and in particular "fly fishing". The keyword "fishing" is searched for on Yahoo almost 250,000 times per month and there are 140,000,000 results on Google for the same keyword. A large demand in a very competitive market.
The term "fly fishing", without the quotation marks, has a Yahoo search frequency of 75,000 per month, with the same keyword providing 2,750,000 results on Google. This is a good demand but still a little competitive.
The term "Fly fishing gear", without the quotation marks is searched about 5,000 times per month with a Google search results of 1,500,000. The demand is now down but the competition remains high, however, if the search is made specific to "Fly fishing gear" - contained within the quotation marks, the results in Google drop dramatically to just under 250,000. The competition is not quite as tough here.
Once you have found a appropriate niche it is necessary to delve more into its depths. Forums are an ideal place to find out about your niche, in particular what your niche market is looking for. To find your forum, enter into Google the term "your keyword+forum", without the inverted commas. Then search the results for a forum that you feel reflects your needs.
Check the posts for the information that is of interest to you. Find out, and get used to the language of the forum. Check out the posts of the moderators as these will be the specialists within the particular forum. In this manner you can get a feel for the niche, find some of the needs within the niche, as well as answers to some of the problems that you have already come across within it. In this way you can glean enough information to become an expert within this niche, especially if you start posting to them and interacting with the other members of the forum.
The above really only is a guide as each research task will pan out differently. Don't rush this work and remember it takes a lot of effort to complete this task properly, but it is well worth it to start an internet business on a firm basis.
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- Search the web for information
A great little tool that I have used for some time now is called Sonic Snooper. It is a software that you use on your desktop and it searches for websites that are optimized for the keyword that you have entered. You can review each website and if you find some information that may be useful as a basis for content for your own site, or a report, etc., you highlight the section and then drag it into a box at the bottom of the screen. You can add as many selections as you require, and when finished, it is saved as a text file. The data includes the url for the website and the data that you copied across. It is very simple to use and has saved me many hours in gathering data. Check it out at:
http://www.newbieshelp.com/Adtrakz/go.php?c=njj1
- A top class research tool
This is another excellent tool for researching a niche or a product. It is called The Search Automator Pro by Derek Franklin. Version 3 has just been issued and it is more powerful than before. This is a tool that will take a keyword, and within seconds, turn it into a treasure-trove of Websites, eBooks, tutorials, resources, checklists, guides, tips, tricks, articles, MP3s, videos, images, and more. Use it to find your niche along with a product for that niche. I use this tool in my business and I can recommend it as an excellent investment. Watch the video on the website and you will be amazed at the power of this tool. Check it out and see -
http://www.newbieshelp.com/Adtrakz/go.php?c=ndf
- For keyword analysis there is no better
One of the hardest jobs in promoting your product is sorting out the right keywords. One tool that I have used for quite a while now is called Keyword Elite. This piece of software really takes the grunt work out of keyword research and analysis. It even lets you get into your competitors' details and look at their incoming links. Brad Callen has a wealth of information on the product at the website and even videos to show you how to use it. I have come to rely heavily on Keyword Elite in the last 6 months and think it well worth a vist:
http://www.newbieshelp.com/Adtrakz/go.php?c=nbc
- This week's tip -
If you are sending an email promotion to your list, could you post that same email to your blog?
The answer of course is yes, if you have a blog, that is. Now you've repurposed that same email and you're using it in two different locations. The key is to look for alternative ways to promote the same product so that you can reach people from all kinds of different angles. The more you get in front of your audience when promoting a particular product the more likely someone is going to check it out.
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