Find Your Niche » Niche Marketing

Making Money From Content Rich Sites

ZZul — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:56:53 +0000

Making money from a content rich niche marketing website can be very easy, very difficult or impossible. First let’s define and describe what a content rich niche market website is and how it works. You won’t find a list for “Niche Markets” anywhere. There isn’t one.

A person will find niche marketers when he types words into his favorite search engine and hits search. Let’s say he types in “Improving my golf score”. He will get many hits that will provide links that take him to niche marketing sites. On these sites, he will be asked to enter his email address and opt-in to receiving a newsletter. Since he is in need of learning how to improve his golf score, he willingly does that. On the content rich site he will find articles and other information about improving his golf score and advertisements for products and services designed to help him improve his golf score. In the future he will receive a newsletter, about every two weeks usually, and he will have become a niche market customer.

If you are the niche marketer, the opt-in email address supplied is pure gold because you will have a customer or a potential customer. When he buys the products and/or services that you are advertising on your site, you will make money. Having a content rich site enhances the possibility of sales.

The trick to making money from a content rich niche marketing website is to have a topic that helps people solve their problems, makes them feel better or look better, or supplies them with information that they need. You will need to have related products and services advertised on your site since that is where the income actually comes from. The website content is what makes people visit your site again and again. The more content rich it is will determine how often they visit and how long they stay. The longer they stay the more opportunities you have to sell to them.

Looking for Problems to Solve via Forums

ZZul — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:11:18 +0000

Niche marketing as its best helps to solve real problems that real people live with everyday. If you can come up with a product or service to promote in a niche market that will help people solve their problems then you will have a money making niche market website and can quickly build a long list of potential customers.

The things that people view as ‘problems’ run the gauntlet of possibilities… everything from a hang nail to a golf swing to a chronic disease are people problems that they are looking for help to solve.

A good way to find out what people consider a problem is to visit the online forums. People talk about anything and everything online. They discuss subjects that they wouldn’t talk about with their best friends for the simple reason that they can remain anonymous. They look for solutions online for the very same reason. By visiting forums and taking note of what people are most concerned about you can search the Internet for products and services that will help them solve those problems. Gather the information about the topic. Write or have written for you articles about the topic. In this way you can find a topic and build a content-rich website for niche marketing that helps with the problem you have identified and that will serve the needs of people.

An additional way to use forums to help you build a niche market website is to join a forum, identify the problem being most often discussed, post a question that will produce many responses and use those responses to write an e-book on the topic. The fact is that many people will buy an e-book that is filled with information they could actually gather for themselves. They will also purchase e-books that will tell them what other people with the same problem they have think about or are doing about their common problem.

Explode Your Website Traffic With Simple Niche Articles

ZZul — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:26:15 +0000

For your internet business to be successful, you need to get large amounts of targeted traffic to your website, and internet marketers have found some pretty ingenious ways of driving targeted traffic to their websites, including pay-per-click campaigns, SEO (search engine optimization), email marketing and ezine advertising. Many marketers, however, have neglected a simple top quality method of driving traffic to their sites: writing short 400 word articles and submitting them so they appear all over the internet.

Don’t be mislead into thinking this is a waste of time, having your articles appear on lots of different websites helps you in two major ways:

1) Each article provides a link back to your website. If the content of the article matches the content of the web page you set the article link to, the search engines will deem this a relevant link. The more relevant links you get to your website, the higher it will be ranked in the search engines. The higher your site is ranked in the search engines, the more traffic you will receive.

2) People who use the search engines are looking for information, and if they come across one of your articles, and while reading the article find the content interesting and helpful, they will be inclined click on the link to your website so they can continue their research. The more places you can find to display your articles, the more people will find and read them and the more traffic you will get to your website.

What should your articles consist of? Nothing fancy, each article should be around 400 words long and contain just enough content to:

- Give the reader some useful information.

- Interest an ezine editor enough to want to publish your article.

- Get the readers interest raised to the point they want to click on the link to your website to get more information.

Your article could be:

- One or two tips lifted from the info product you are selling from your website.

- Paraphrased information from a particular web page you would like the reader to visit.

- A review of a product you would like the reader to purchase. The link in a review would point to your affiliate page via a link tracker, or to a page on your website where you offer more details.

You don’t even have to write your own articles… You can pay a ghost writer to write them for you. To do this, visit websites like Elance.com where you can list details of the articles you want written and find people who are interested in writing them for you. Make it quite clear to the person who writes your articles that you keep the copyright.

Once you have your article ready for distribution, you need to submit to as many places as possible, including these three places:

1. Article Directories. After a quick content check, the directories will then publish your article instantly, and once you submit your content to one of these directories it will begin to be republished all over the internet. People are constantly on the lookout for quality articles, and you can allow them the rights to re-use yours as long as they leave intact the link back to your website contained in the bio at the bottom of the article. Anyone who wants to visit your site can do so by clicking on this link.

2. Ezine Editors. Submitting your articles to popular ezines related to your niche website will get you lots of well-targeted traffic. Many ezines desperately need new good quality content. If you submit an article for publication in one, you will get a lot of publicity in return. Having hundreds or even better, thousands of people reading your articles is always a good way to increase your website traffic.

3. Your Own Article Directory. Many webmasters and ezine publishers don’t know that article directories exist. After reading one of your articles they will visit your website and you should prominently display a link to your own articles. The link must make the reader aware that you content is free for use in any website or ezine. For example, use the wording “Get Free Content For Your Ezine” in a link in a very noticeable place on your website.

One Can’t Survive without the Other – PPC Campaigns and Niche Marketing

ZZul — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:41:11 +0000

Pay-per-click advertising is the best way for you to advertise your business and sell your products or services to your chosen market niche. When formulating PPC ads for your business, you need to take a methodical approach to your goals and start with the identification of your market niche.

How to Identify Your Market Niche
It’s not even a problem if you don’t have a product yet to begin with. Your product or service will be more or less a secondary priority in the larger scheme of things. If not that, you’ll realize that determining the best market niche for you is also the best way to determine what you should sell.

As such, what you should concentrate on right now is finding a market niche that suits your personality, knowledge, skills, and maybe your budget as well.

Looking Within
Take a good look at yourself and identify what your strong and weak points are. Appraise yourself the way you would with a company: be objective and impersonal as you try taking stock of what you have…and don’t have. Focus on knowing as much as you can about yourself based on the following aspects:

Hobbies and Interests – What do you enjoy most doing? What makes time pass by so fast? What makes you forget eating and sleeping? What activities can be described as your passion in life or your true calling?

Hobbies and interests are usually derived from the type of person you are. If you haven’t any hobbies and interests yet, you could come up with new ones right now by looking for activities that match your personality or preferences. Are you an indoors or outdoors type of person? Are you an introvert or extrovert? Are you interested in the artistic or mechanical side of things?

Finding a market niche that allows you to further explore and develop your hobbies and interests is a good omen for your business. When this happens, it will seem like you’re getting paid for something you enjoy doing. Furthermore, you won’t get bored as the years go by and you’ll never run out of ideas for marketing your products or services because you and your market are growing at the same time!

Demographics – Even if you’re managing an online business, you’ll still have to be somewhat concerned with the demographics of your market niche. Firstly, you should determine whether your market niche must be restricted to a particular geographical area. You may, for instance, be interested only in selling to people living in the United States. Secondly, you need to think about the age range. And then there are other factors such as gender, race, and religion; you need to find out if any of these will have any bearing on your market niche and consequently your PPC campaign.

General Advantages of PPC Campaigns
Now that you’ve identified your market niche and maybe your future product or service as well, it’s time to create your own PPC campaigns. If, however, you’re not thoroughly convinced about the effectiveness of PPC campaigns, here are some reasons why you should think otherwise:

Budget – PPC campaigns allow you to set budget limits and traffic goals for your website
Message – There’s no wasted time or words in PPC campaigns. There is great value in each sentence used in your PPC campaign.
Customizability – Unlike other search engine optimization techniques, PPC campaigns can easily be modified to suit your website’s needs.

How to Make a PPC Campaign for Your Niche Marketing Strategy

Keyword or Key Phrase List – List as many keywords and key phrases as you can for your website. Worry about the quality and relevance later on.
Narrowing Your List – Take out the words or phrases that don’t have sufficient supply and demand in the Internet. Take out those that don’t fit your budget.
Competition – Lastly, see what rival companies are using and compare their SEO techniques with yours. Try to determine which areas you should improve on and strengthen.

Of course, don’t expect spectacular results if it’s your first time to personally create an advertising strategy for your business. Nevertheless, if you feel that you don’t have the necessary time and skills as of yet to make a proper PPC campaign for your business, don’t hesitate to hire a professional to handle it for you. What’s important is that you get the right message across to the right market niche!

How to Accept Payment for Your Niche Products

ZZul — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:56:28 +0000

In the early days of internet marketing accepting payment for products sold online was a real headache, fortunately for you this is no longer the case and you don’t even need a merchant bank account. Over the last few years a number of companies gave positioned themselves as third party credit card processors which allow you to accept payments by credit card at your website for your product or service.

In a typical online purchase your customer will enter their credit card information into a form, and each third party processor has their own particular form (known as a gateway). The third party processor contacts the bank that issued the customer’s credit card and the issuing bank approves or declines the transaction based on the information entered into the form. The processor routes the result back to the customers computer screen either as a “purchase declined” message or by passing your customer onto the web page containing your sales fulfillment information.

If the transaction was successful, the customer’s credit card will be billed for the selling price of your niche product or service. This service is not free and you will be charged a set fee for each transaction. The most common third party payment processors are:

1) PayPal (https://www.paypal.com)

PayPal is owned by eBay the world’s biggest online auction and can be used by customers living in the developed world. Opening a PayPal account id free, but you will need to verify your bank and contact details before being able to use it for accepting payments at your website. There is a fee charged for each transaction and this is automatically deducted from the selling price charged to the customer.

You can link your PayPal account to your bank account which makes it a simple task to transfer the money made from your sales into your account. Your normal banking transaction fees will be charged on this service.

Be careful of using an un-encrypted PayPal payment link on your website as it is a simple task for link highjackers to change the details to their own so they get the money for every sale you make…

PayPal can be easily incorporated into a shopping cart system (i.e. you can sell multiple products at different prices all in one transaction).

2) 2CheckOut (http://www.2checkout.com)

2CheckOut is a very popular third party payment processor and although there is a small setup fee, they don’t charge a monthly fee for their services; they do charge a small fee for each transaction processed. As with PayPal, you can use 2CheckOut with a shopping cart system.

One advantage of using 2CheckOut is you can accept credit cards payments from customers living virtually anywhere. The will transfer money directly into any US or Canadian bank and send a monthly check or Bank Wire to non-US bank account holders.

3) ClickBank (http://www.clickbank.com)

ClickBank is another similar third party payment processor who have restricted their service to suppliers of downloadable products or internet services. For example, e-books, one time membership fees, software programs etc. To open a ClickBank account there is a small one time setup fee, no monthly fee and you are charged a small fee on every transaction processed on your behalf. You will be sent a check twice a month for all the sales you make during that period.

One major benefit of Using ClickBank for your niche product is you can set up your affiliate program through them and they will automatically pay your affiliates for every sale made on your behalf.

One big disadvantage of using ClickBank is that there is you can’t incorporate their payment gateway into a shopping cart system.

4) Digibuy (http://www.digibuy.com)

Like ClickBank, Digibuy can only be used if you sell digital products or services that can be downloaded, the major advantage of using Digibuy is that you can use a shopping cart with their payment gateway (i.e. you can sell multiple products).

Unfortunately they don’t include an affiliate payment system like ClickBank.

Your choice of third party payment processor is going to depend on how many products you sell and whether you intend to run an affiliate program. One extra consideration is some customers will be unwilling to use their credit card on the internet. For these customers you need to decide whether it’s worthwhile accepting alternate forms of payment… Some third party payment processors, for example Digibuy, allow you to accept alternate forms of payment through them as default.

Getting the Right Flavor for Your Business: Niche Marketing vs Mass Marketing

ZZul — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:42:03 +0000

Mass marketing is like vanilla; it’s a taste that’s familiar and well-suited to all types of people. Niche marketing, on the other hand, is like all other ice cream flavors. Some may go for pistachio and others may prefer chocolate while a few may go for blueberry. When you’re putting up a business, you need to identify whether it needs a vanilla kind of marketing or if it should cater to a particular flavor and niche.

What is Mass Marketing?
There are two ways for a business, big or small, to employ mass marketing: it can either sell different product variations to different target markets or sell one product in various ways. Mass marketing is best suited for businesses which sell products or services which can be modified easily to suit a particular market or those that have appeal to all kinds of market.

Types of Businesses that Can Use Mass Marketing
Food Businesses – By placing a lot of variety in their menus, restaurants and other similar businesses can easily make use of one advertising template for all its target markets.

Banks and Financial Institutions – Money is a commodity that’s constantly in demand and needed by everyone. As such, banks and financial institutions need not make use of various advertising strategies for their target markets. Specifying the basic and obvious reasons for consumers to avail of their products or services are more than enough to help them obtain profit.

Other Necessities – As long as the product or service you’re selling can be easily classified as a necessity, there’s every chance you can make efficient use of mass marketing for your company.

Pros and Cons of Advertising
PLUS / MINUS: Advertising Cost – Since you’re only using one advertising strategy for all your intended markets, you’ll definitely spend less than other companies which are required to make use of niche marketing strategies. Advertising costs however could be comparatively higher if your rival is focusing on just one target market and you’re focusing on several.

MINUS: Lack of Target – Employing a mass marketing strategy can sometimes backfire on you if your advertising strategy fails in taking into consideration certain and unique characteristics of a particular target market.

What is Niche Marketing?
On the other hand, some businesses are essentially unsuitable to mass marketing. As such, they’re left with niche marketing, which requires them to focus on a small but specific market. Niche marketing strategies are primarily for companies that are more interested in building a presence for themselves first before concentrating on obtaining high sales and profit.

Types of Business that Can Use Niche Marketing
Healthcare Products – Obviously, medicines and drugs are generally manufactured to treat a particular disease or condition, and that’s the only thing that the marketing department should concentrate on. Food supplements, healthy cuisine, and alternative foods specifically produced for diabetics can naturally use niche marketing.

Luxury Items – Jewelry, sports cars, and other high-end products will definitely fare in the market better if they make use of niche market strategies. Obviously, these items are only for the small percentage of population that can afford their price tags.

PROS AND CONS OF NICHE MARKETING
PLUS: Advertising Cost – Since you’re only focusing on one target market, advertising fees can be limited to a small amount only.

PLUS: Well-Targeted – Niche marketing strategies also have better focus than marketing strategies because it’s easier to identify the wants, needs, and preferences of a small market than a large one.

MINUS: Inapplicable to Other Markets – Niche marketing strategies aren’t reusable; they can only be implemented for a particular market and perhaps even at a particular time only.

MINUS: Finding Your Niche – Some products or services are difficult to place in a particular niche market. It’s important however that you find the right niche for your market or all your advertising strategies are simply doomed to fail.

Get to know your business well in order to determine if it will benefit more from a niche or mass marketing strategy. Know your business’ strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats it could encounter. Both niche and mass marketing strategies can increase your business’ income potential as long as they’re the right match for your business, and they’re implemented effectively.

Where to Find Affiliates For Your Niche Website

ZZul — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:11:09 +0000

To make money with articles that you place on websites, you will also need a variety of good affiliate links that will help to generate revenue. It is important that you know where to find affiliates and that you choose the best affiliates for you and your niche site.

When you pick an affiliate, it is important that you determine which companies you will profit best from based on the frequency that the product is likely to sell. There are several types of affiliates and some will offer you more money from a sale than others will. Before you get hazy-eyed by dollar signs, however, remember some products are bound to sell more than others. If you sell on product four times a year from a little known company that gives you $100 per sale or sell a well known product 3 times a week at the rate of $10 per sale, then you will make much more money with the $10 per sale product. Often times large well known companies will offer a very small profit per sale because they are established and know that their product is likely to sell well. Small, unknown companies, on the other hand, need all of the promotion they can get. Also, because they are unknown, their products are likely to sell less frequently.

The most important rule when picking affiliates to promote on your site is to pick products that would be of interest to those who would likely visit your niche site. Otherwise you will be promoting a product to a group of people who do not even want nor need it. If your niche site targets parents of young children, then promote baby products. If you niche site targets gardeners, then promote gardening products. If you promote baby products to gardeners, you are almost guaranteed to not make a profit no matter how much money the affiliate company offers for a sale.

Lastly, there are two main ways to find an affiliate company for your niche website. You can sign up with a company that manages the accounts of hundreds of companies, big and small, and apply for the products within these accounts or you can do a web search for companies that would match well with your niche, visit their websites, and see if they advertise an affiliate program.

Niche Marketing Made Simple

ZZul — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:26:14 +0000

There is an interesting area of internet marketing that is referred to as niche marketing.. While niche can mean different things, it is used here to indicate a very specialized market. Retail stores are an excellent example to illustrate what niche marketing is. A large department store can sell thousands of different products in the same building. A corner store only offers a limited number of products, but it is very likely that these items are limited to a special brand or are unique in some aspect. That’s exactly how niche marketing works.

Niche marketing is the ideal choice for new internet marketers who don’t have a lot of money or are limited in time. A major retail store would cost a lot of money for merchandise and require a ton of effort to be put forth. Niche marketing, on the other hand, offers drastically less costs and a much more manageable workload. These things will help someone who is new to this area.

This is how it works. First, you find out what products are needed and what people need them. Then you find out where these people tend to congregate. Forums, interest groups and chat rooms all offer people with a specific interest to get together. Posting to these boards by non-members is often allowed. Know the kind of person you are seeking in a customer and it will be easy to find them online. Join in the board discussions and eventually make a comment about your product and where to find it.

A paid ad on a website that focuses only on the area that your product fits into is another option. Before placing such an add, check out the website and make sure it is a place where you would want your ad. Is it a reputable site? Will they offer a good spot for your advertisement? Is it a site your target audience would actually visit?

When you specialize, you don’t have to contact people in all areas, but only those who would be interested in your niche product. Your efforts aren’t spread out but can be intensely focused on a specific market. This enable you to increase sales by being more likely to reach those who are interested in your particular product.

How to Make it Big in eCommerce with Market Segmentation and Niche Marketing

ZZul — Thu, 21 May 2009 19:41:12 +0000

The Internet has greatly become a world of possibilities not only as a large source of information and a center for communication, but also as venue for making income. Online businesses have sprouted like wild mushroom all over the world and at the same time, people have put up their own services online because of the way the Internet allows them two reach their market. In the past, making it big means reaching as many people as you can, but nowadays, experts see there is greater potential by concentrating on a smaller part of the market. This is what market segmentation and niche marketing are all about.

Market Segmentation and Niche Marketing have caught popular attention among eCommerce circles in the past few years. They involve a marketing process wherein the market is divided into distinctive segments or subsets according to their behavior or their particular needs. Because every subset is quite homogenous about their attitudes and needs, marketers predict that they would have the same reaction towards a particular marketing strategy. People in the market segment would have the same feelings towards a particular product or service being marketed, and thus it would be more manageable to appeal to them instead of appealing to the mass market.

The general goal of market segmentation and niche marketing is to pinpoint groups of similar people who can become potential clients. Once a group, or more specifically referred to as niche market, is identified, the marketer prioritizes the segment in the formation and implementation of the marketing strategy. Most or all processes in the marketing mix being employed would be devoted to understanding the niche market’s behavior and responding to their preferences by making the marketing strategies appeal to their needs and inclinations.

In market segmentation and niche marketing certain criteria govern the process of pinpointing groups or niche markets since not just any group would be a sufficient target market. There has to be homogeneity in the subset being considered, while at the same time, there has to be heterogeneity from other segments. The subsets should be identifiable and measurable – they have to be easy to pinpoint and can be accounted for. The segments must be actionable and accessible – they have to be easily reached and responsive to marketing moves. Finally, the niche market should be big enough so that profits can be gained.

Market segmentation and niche marketing are seen as great alternatives to mass marketing, which was before what most businessmen were aiming to achieve. Indeed it is true that mass marketing allows an entrepreneur to have a larger potential target market, because what would be involved is the entire market. However, many see this not to be an effective strategy because the market is indeed a very big ocean and appealing to everyone would not only be exhausting, but futile as well. It takes a corporate giant to be able to successfully reach out to the market as a whole, and thus, smaller businesses would have to find a way to reach a part of the market that is still manageable and cost effective. By doing market segmentation and niche marketing, would be able to do this.
With market segmentation and niche marketing, you can optimize your business by reaching a particular sector that is more likely to avail of your products and services. In this process, you would be narrowing down onto a particular group who are inclined to at least pay some attention to what you want to say to them, and you would be able to do away with those who are bound to just ignore you. You would not be doing the proverbial task of giving off flyers to apathetic individuals on the street, but instead you would be approaching a group of people who are more likely to listen to you because you have somewhat a good grasp of who they are.

Imagine how much effort, time, and money you can save by implementing your marketing plans on just a small part of the market, rather than appealing to its entirety. Because of the higher chances of making profits, there is no wonder market segmentation and niche marketing are becoming among the most popular marketing strategies of this time. Perhaps it is what you need to make it big in the online business.

How to Price Shipping and Handling for Physical Goods

ZZul — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:56:45 +0000

If you’re running a business that sells physical goods and products, you will frequently need to dispatch your products all over the country – perhaps even all over the world. When you do this, you might pack the item yourself, or you might pay someone to do it. However you handle it, shipping and handling is an important aspect of your business, and the safety of the items you post rests partly on your shoulders, as badly packed items will often get damaged in transit.

Your shipping and handling charges are a determining factor in how competitive you will be in a niche market. Many established companies are well known for their efficiency in dispatching the product – customers trust them for their safe prompt delivery. Before you can emulate them, you need to come up with a fair pricing structure for shipping and handling as this is an additional cost paid by your customers. The costs of shipping in bulk are often cheaper than for a single item and you should consider giving your customers discounts for volume.

How do you calculate shipping and handling charges for your product? It’s relatively easy, if you know the basics. There are two components in the price:

1) The handling cost which includes packing material, labor, storage and other related costs. While this cost is pretty easy to calculate and depends only on you, the most common mistake is to use the lowest price possible for packaging materials in the shipping calculation. The better way is to find an average cost for packaging materials and then source the cheapest. At least this way you still have some room to “sharpen your pencil” if your shipping quote is too high.

2) The shipping cost which is the charge for postage, freight or courier charges. These costs are not so straight forward and you need to research courier and freight charges to many destinations around the world. Bear in mind that not all shipping charges are fixed, and with a little effort you can easily negotiate an agreement with your shipping company.

Shipping and freight companies usually charge based on the weight and volume of items, the distance they are going to travel, and how quickly you want them to get there. Large volume or weight deliveries carry a premium price tag, while smaller and lighter ones cost less. If the destination is within your country, the shipping charges will be rather small compared to sending packages abroad. If you need urgent goods to be delivered quickly then you will need to pay higher ‘priority’ charges, whereas slow, ‘non-priority’ delivery costs much less.

When calculating shipping costs, don’t calculate the cost of shipping to each country in the world, break it down into regions or by continent. If you are shipping small items like CD’s use one shipping cost for local deliveries and cost for international deliveries. Find the most expensive shipping cost you are likely to incur and use that for all countries.

When your customer purchases a product, they will be charges the cost price for the product and the shipping and handling costs applicable for the delivery destination will be added at the checkout. A total is calculated and then charged to your customer at the end of the transaction.

You may want to consider offering customers a delivery priority for their shipment. For example:

Option 1. Standard shipping within 3 to 5 days (cheapest).

Option 2. Express 2-day shipping (average cost).

Option 3. Guaranteed Next Day 1-day shipping (most expensive).

Consider giving discounts on bulk orders. Customers will often insist on insurance for bulk orders and costly items and you should consider their request; not only does it makes them more comfortable, it saves you a big PR headache if the order goes missing. On all shipments include a clearly explained shipping, handling and return policy.

Always take care to prepare the proper documentation to suit the insurance, tax and customs regulations in force in your own country and in the destination country. If you are shipping to another country, make sure your product is not prohibited. If you sign up with a trustworthy shipping agent or courier most of the documentation will be handled by them, giving you peace of mind that your items will be delivered safely and quickly.