Once you have begun to think that you may have decided on your niche, it’s becomes time to really do your homework. In my last post I talked about finding your passion, something that you really enjoy, something that does not feel like work, but that’s only half the battle.  There is still a lot more to be done, to be certain that you are making the right choice. And, once you are sure about being in the right niche you then need figure out how to go about appealing to the people who utilize it. 

Marketing on the Internet, even opening a brick-and-mortar business takes a lot of work, a lot of hard work.  It is not uncommon to see someone who just started a business working 15, 16 or 17 hours a day.  And the last thing that you want to do is open a business that is doomed to fail.  When you open a business you want to make sure that the deck is stacked in your favor, you want to have the odds on your side.  You want to make sure that your business is going to be profitable.

But how do you make sure that the business you open is going to make money.  Well, unfortunately you can’t, but you better make sure that you have done everything possible to give yourself a chance. Listen, being in business is difficult enough even once it begins to become established, why not make it as easy on yourself as possible.  The obstacles that you can avoid now will only make your life easier in the future.

Along with finding something that you really love, you had better be darn certain that it’s something that other people will appreciate as well.  Because remember, no customers equals no profit.  Then once you know that there will be customers for your new business it is vital to know who your customers are going to be.  And this is even more important and more difficult in an online business then in an off-line business because your customer contact is so much more limited.

Only once you know what type of person will be interested in your product will you be able to market to them effectively.  Men versus women, old people versus young, college educated versus non-college-educated, they all have different buying habits.  Today content on the Internet is more important than ever and the competition is fierce.  It includes all kinds of Web 2.0 stuff including articles, videos, web sites and a whole lot more.  If you want to be successful you had better know what type of customer that you are going to have so that you can set things up to appeal to that kind of person.

Here is how I go about it.  First, I put the keyword for whatever niche that I am considering into a browser to look for competing sites.  If I want to sell furniture, its furniture, if its jewelry, I put in jewelry, you get the idea.  Then once I have located the same type of sites within my niche I go over to Quantcast.com.  By putting the site’s address into Quantcast.com you will get much of the information needed to see who your visitor’s to your site are going to be.  Remember to only use larger more established sites, smaller ones will not be listed. 
   
Establishing yourself online is not an easy task. Taking the time to plan and establish a strategy cannot be underestimated and knowing who your potential customer is should be part of that plan.  It may seem like a trivial thing to do, but in today’s fiercely competitive world whatever can give you an edge over your competition can make the difference when it comes to your success. 

Often while I am online searching through forums and reading other people’s blogs I hear the same question over and over again “what should I write about?”  I hear this from all kinds of people with good intentions who have come online for whatever reason that are stuck at this point.

Being a blogger I can very much relate to this situation.  You see, I entered the world of Web 2.0 because I had been surfing the Internet since 1996, loved being online and was ready for something new.  It also seemed like a good way to maybe make some extra money.  If you read my post “What’s All The “BUZZ” About Web 2.0?” you will see that the Internet has become a very different place than it used to be.

The online experience has now made it very easy for anyone to say, do or upload almost anything.  It’s this reason that we have seen the explosion of sites like You Tube and Twitter.  Anyone that has anything to say can now say it in a multitude of formats.

This is also why we have seen such a rapid growth in the world of blogging.  But, what happens if you want to come online, because like for so many including myself the Web 2.0 experience looks like something that you would like to check out, but you do not know where to begin or what message you want to deliver? Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, so you have your article written, what next?  You have several choices and depending on how much time and money that you want to invest will determine how much work you have to do.  I would suggest that you get your article published in as many places as possible because the more online real estate that you own, the more chance that you have of being noticed and getting your message across.

Here is a look at some of your choices.

1.Hubpages - First I would suggest that you get your article published over at Hubpages.com.  It’s FREE and drives a lot of traffic.

2.Squidoo - Squidoo is similar to Hubpages, but instead of creating a single article, Squiddo allows you to create a page of articles, videos and a bunch of other cool stuff which is called a lens.  You could consider this a mini blog.  Squidoo was one of the first sites that I began to use when I came online.

Always make sure that you have at least one link back to your blog or web site.  You want to make sure that you have a way of leading your prospect back to your product.

3.Article directories - also known as ezines are an excellent source of traffic.  There are many article directories out there and like anything else some are good and some are let’s just say not so helpful.  As long as you meet their criteria the article directory will publish your article for very little or no cost.  The trick is knowing which ones to use and the quickest way of getting your work online. Read the rest of this entry »

Does it seem like a never-ending challenge for you to get attention online? Is your bank account reflecting this situation? Do you feel like you have tried everything and you’re at your wits end? If so, you are not alone. Thousands upon thousands of online marketers go through the same situation every day. Online marketing can be pretty difficult.

If this sounds like you, have you ever considered article marketing to drive traffic?

Article marketing is a terrific method of bringing in more potential customers to your Internet business than almost any other strategy that I have seen. Once this approach is understood and after some practice it isn’t hard to get people that are intrigued by your product knocking at your door, or in this case your blog or web site. And one of my favorite things about article marketing is that I can upload it and forget it! Once you have finished your article and uploaded it to an article directory, you will get traffic for a long time.

Recently I came across a really good example of just how long an article will drive traffic when this past January I wrote an article about golf. Now January is probably not the best time of year to write an article about golf because if your golf course is like mine, it’s usually covered in snow. Yet writing an article doesn’t cost anything, so although I enjoyed writing my article on golf in January, no one really noticed it. Until Now! It’s now June and much to my surprise my article is very popular. All anyone interested in golf has to do is put the key word which in this case is golf into their browser and it will still appear. Read the rest of this entry »

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

With the information age, people, companies, and governments now control the flow of information and the largest medium for the dispersal of this information is the Internet.

The Internet redefined the phrase “intellectual endeavor” as we know it, and led to the birth to the information age. Amongst the most profound mediums within the Internet that influence the direction of information is something known as social book marking. Social book marking allows a kind of democratic selection of what is considered hot or not amongst the masses of people who utilize the Internet everyday.

If you are familiar with Digg, Reddit, or Del.icio.us you are familiar with social book marking. Social book marking allows anyone who enjoys a particular piece of media on the Internet, be it article, news feed, video, or even audio clip to bookmark the piece and essentially make an open announcement that they suggest it for the review of all other bookmark users. Read the rest of this entry »

What Is A Blog?

The term Blog which is short for web log originally became popular back in the 1990’s. Blogs evolved from what used to be called online diaries and were nothing more than people’s day to day accounts of what was happening in their lives.

Blogs which are displayed in reverse chronological order can still have any kind of content but are usually written on a particular topic such as political blogs, travel blogs, fashion blogs, project blogs, education blogs and niche blogs just to name a few. Blogs are setup in many formats including writing, art (artlog), photography (photoblogs), links (linklog) and sketches (sketchblog). Blogging has also become very popular with businesses and marketers for commercial reasons.

One of the most important parts of any blog and a good demonstration of web 2.0 is the ability for readers to leave comments in the comment section in an interactive format. Other parts of the blog include: Read the rest of this entry »

Looking to promote a product or service? There are many ways to go about doing so, including print, radio, television and the Internet. All of these are good and work well, but the Internet which became popular in the 1990’s is the most widely used. Look around, almost every large company and most small companies have a presence on the web. The problem is that if you have ever considered the Internet as way to promote anything, you probably found that it can be very confusing.

If you ever thought about starting a business on the web you probably asked yourself the question “where do I begin?” You probably thought that you needed a web site, but did not know how to construct a web site or how to go about getting one built for you. Many people never get past this point, but building a web site is not that difficult and I can point you in the right direction, feel free to contact me. The biggest problem selling online is that a web site alone is not good enough to do the job anymore.

Web sites have sprung up all over the Internet since they first became popular back in the mid 90’s. Back then, because there were so many less than there are now and the World Wide Web was so much less crowded web sites worked well. However, now your web presence needs the ability to interact or have a dialog with the reader. You need your web site to speak to the reader and the reader to be able to speak back - you need to communicate. The Internet is now all about socialization. Read the rest of this entry »

  Maybe you are here because you are interested in finding out what it takes to make money on the Internet, or maybe you know what is involved, but are just not sure where to begin.  It doesn’t make a difference; within these pages I focus on exactly what is needed to start to become successful on the Internet through the eyes of someone who did it not that long ago, not the marketing guru that is so advanced they can’t remember their humble beginnings. I was in the same place as you not that long ago. Read my “about me page” you will see that I began like many people with nothing more than a desire, but had no idea where to begin.

In the Internet marketing industry it is very easy to spend a lot of money following a lot of people’s strategies. Everyone is trying to sell you something! That would be fine if their ideas actually worked and you did make money. Unfortunately, it is very confusing and difficult to figure out whom to listen to. Almost everyone that I talk to knows somebody that has invested large amounts of money only to get nowhere.

The other problem is even if you do find good information; many of the experts out there have forgotten exactly how difficult it is for the person first starting out. If you are just beginning, you need to focus on the very basics and not have who is instructing you assume that you have the basics down and take you directly to the next step. You’ll become frustrated and loose interest quickly.  Also, many of these experts began their businesses several years ago and still teach the way that they did it. With the Internet, what worked last year probably will not be as successful this year.

Be assured that I am not one of these “gurus” selling their stuff.  I am still learning myself (I think you are always learning), but remember what it was like when I was first starting out.  I didn’t know a blog from a web site, I had never heard of article marketing or social book marking or Squidoo.  And believe me it was more than a little frustrating.  This is my blog - my story of what I have learned……so far.