Work Yourself Up!

How to “Drill Down” a Niche

Finding a niche topic requires more than just identifying your interests. You need to divide the topic down to a very specific area so that you can better target the audience. Let’s look at how to break down a niche idea using a popular online search topic:  how to make money with online marketing.

That’s much too broad and difficult to market. You’ll also bump into many competitors. Think of the process as an upside down funnel. Or, if you’re mathematically inclined, it’s like reducing a fraction to its lowest terms.

Overall Topic: How to make money with online marketing.

Sub Topics from initial brainstorming include:

•    People who want to work from home

•    People who want to work anywhere using a computer

•    People who want freedom to choose their own work hours

•    People who hate their job and want to get out of the cubicle

•    People who lack advanced skills or degrees and need to learn a skill fast

•    People who lost their jobs due to downsizing or outsourcing

•    Baby boomers looking to supplement their retirement income

•    College kids needing to earn extra money

•    Stay at home moms who don’t want to go back to work

Wow! That’s an entire set of niche topics that can be developed merely by taking time to analyze why people might want to earn money from online marketing. Out of the six topics generated, select two that really interest you or represent areas where you have personal experience.

Take the first topic you chose and brainstorm five to seven key questions that people might ask in searching for the topic. Next, start a niche search using the keywords you developed and see what you find. Using Google Notebooks or designated files, collect this information. Add to your research those websites that deal with the niche topic.

Finally, look in ClickBank and on similar sites for affiliate products that you can use in developing the niche. If you decide to write your own information product, create an outline for each eBook that you’ll prepare. Then get ready to dominate your area of expertise.

How to Set Prices for Information Products

The prices for information products are largely determined by the product owner. That’s far more freedom than that of a book on the shelf at a major retailer. Print books have to make enough to pay the author, editor, printing, marketing, publisher profit and cut to the retailer.

Information products only pay the owner and affiliate sales. No inventory to store, no big upfront costs and if it doesn’t sell, just transfer it to an archive file or hit the delete key. When you consider all of those factors, the information product owner has freedom to set the prices with one exception - what will the market pay?

That’s the tricky part. Ebooks are well established in every genre from textbooks to popular topics so the price is dependent on the market and the following of the author.  Let’s say you’re starting out and lack that major following, how do you price your product?

Start by surveying the prices on comparable information products on at least a dozen sites or vendors. Have you noticed that many information products end in “7?” Popular pricing is $17, $27, $47.

This price seems to click with many buyers.  Other frequently used price points are $9.95, $19.95, $39.95. The “.95” is borrowing a retailer’s trick of making the price sound less than it really is.

After all, $19.95 isn’t a full twenty bucks since buyers tend to ignore the impact of retail tax or shipping. With information products delivered electronically, the $19.95 is the true price, leaving a big nickel for whatever a nickel still buys.

It’s not the nickel - it the psychological satisfaction of spending less than twenty dollars. The $17 products have the same appeal of spending less than twenty dollars.  Look for the middle ground in pricing.

Avoid starting too low or the value of your product won’t be seen as worthwhile. Even if you start slightly higher than comparables, you have room for a price reduction or a “special offer” at the next lowest price point.

Think of how many times you see the infamous television infomercials that flash the price as $129 with reductions that end up at $39.95. The buyer gets excited about getting a discount when the product was never going to sell at the inflated price in the first place. It’s about letting the buyer win.

Price only matters as part of the equation.  Don’t give your buyers a reason to focus on the price. Keep them focused on the product and the excitement of the purchase and they’ll be willing to pay based on the perceived value and not the dollar amount you put on your product.

Online Marketers Need to Ask the Right Questions

Smart online marketers know that asking the right questions is the most important aspect of establishing your expertise in a successful niche. Let’s say your niche is “how to avoid foreclosure on your home.” 

The tendency is to jump ahead of your prospects and give them information on loan consolidation or credit protection. Those are major issues, but not the only issues.  If you aren’t sure what kind of questions people facing foreclosure ask, get into forums on that topic and pay attention to what solutions they need.

Talk to anyone you know who’s facing this problem.  Then ask yourself these basics (regardless of the niche topic):

•    Are the immediate concerns personal or financial?

•    What are the emotional issues?

•    What happens next? 

•    What are creative, non-traditional ways to approach the problem?

•    What products or services does a person in this situation need or want?

Notice how these “personal impact” questions take your thinking processes beyond the usual information “how to” ideas. That’s because each of these questions represents a potential information product, video “how to” and affiliate product that takes a different twist than the generic options.

You can also use the contrary approach. Information products tend to show what happens when the buyer follows the advice.  Some viewers will read your sales letter and dismiss it saying, “So what if I don’t follow that advice?” 

Show them what happens by preparing an information product that explains the worst-case scenario or the less than ideal situation. Then wrap up the final pages by pitching how to change this for the better with the positive spin version.

Other questions that you can use as idea starters for product development are:

•    At what point is the buyer likely to get stuck or frustrated implementing the system?

•    What skills need to be improved to use this knowledge to move to higher level of profits?

•    What are the biggest obstacles to success for a newcomer to this system?

•    How to you want the buyer to feel after using (implementing, reading) this product?

And the final, critically important question is: What do you want buyers to say in recommending your product?  If you want them to say, it’s simple, concise, sophisticated or worthwhile then make sure you build those features into the product and highlight them in your sales copy.

Seasonal Influences for Online Marketing

Just as retailers plan and set out attractive displays to take advantage of seasonal spending, you need to keep seasonal interests in mind for your online marketing. Granted, you reach a worldwide audience, so you don’t need to be too specific. But there are certain “seasons” for buying that are universal.

New Year’s – The start of the year causes people to make those pesky New Year’s resolutions. They promise to lose weight, start exercising, clean out clutter in home and office, establish better time management skills and begin regular savings programs.

The search engines are buzzing with these keyword topics the week before January and throughout the month. You need to be ready with information products to turn those resolutions into workable strategies. But do it fast, because resolutions don’t last much past February.

Spring – When tiny flowers and green leaves peek out from winter weary branches, there’s a sense of renewal.  People start to think about planting a garden, fixing up the patio or landscape and beginning outdoor sports. Package information products on early gardening and join affiliate programs that ship flowers and buds.

Summer – This is prime family vacation time - parents looking for activities for children who are out of school and outdoor entertainment.  You don’t have to compete with the big travel sites. What you have to offer is ideas for summer fun - family friendly resorts, how to choose a summer camp and creating lush outdoor spaces on a budget.

Back to School – At least a month before school starts, parents are shopping for school clothes, supplies and electronics. Present reviews that are informative and connected to affiliate programs for back to school products. Don’t forget the homeschool families and add products for them, too.

Fall, Harvest, Thanksgiving - The change of seasons brings last camping opportunities, team sports, school events and family travel for the traditional Thanksgiving holiday. Put a new twist on information products, such as how to prepare a vegan feast or helping your child cross-train for multiple sports participation.

Winter, Christmas - The colder weather brings winter sports, family gatherings, shopping and decorating for holidays in December. Prepare a list of less crowded, budget friendly winter sports vacations, and how to save time shopping online and decorating using what you already have at home. It’s also leading into the year-end time of reflection when people think about what they enjoyed and what they want to change next year.

As you make seasonal marketing plans, remember that the seasons arrive at different times on each side of the equator. So if you’re marketing outside of the United States, what you consider spring may be fall elsewhere.

Winter break can be prime ski resort time in Aspen, Colorado and sun-bathing on the beach in Sydney, Australia. The good news is that you can use “spring” for both sides of the equator with different timing and slight tweaks of the information.

"Local Business" Marketing

If you're a "local" business, here's some good stuff you can use in your marketing.  Not sure how accurate the stats are or that I agree with them about "carefully planned predatory pricing practices."   Regardless, take what you like and leave the rest.  Or feel free to leave comments on this stuff.

See Local First Arizona for more info.  That's where I borrowed this from. ;)

The Power of Choice

Every time you make a purchase, you're exercising power of choice.

The choice is yours. You have the power to strengthen and enrich your community.

Did You Know…

• For every two jobs national retailers bring to a community, three jobs are lost as a result of local businesses closing down. 
  
  
• When you shop locally-owned businesses, your money is re-circulated over and over and creates up to 75% more tax revenue to our community and state. 
  
  
• Independent businesses raise the standard of living in your community because they take their profits and buy products and services from other local businesses, thus creating more and more tax revenues needed for the community to thrive.
  
  
• Millions of dollars of tax revenue subsidies handed to chains by financially-starved local governments drain even more tax revenue from our community and state. 
  
  
• Blighted empty shopping areas are created in your community when chain stores re-locate to a more lucrative shopping center, or leave altogether. Literally hundreds of big stores are abandoned each year across the United States. 
  
  
• Independent businesses are unique enterprises that contribute to the character of our community by offering a more diverse selections of goods and services. 
  
  
• Independent businesses provide meaningful service with a personal touch. It matters to them that you are satisfied and will come back again.
  
  
• Carefully planned predatory pricing practices have allowed national chains to establish virtual monopolies as they drive local competition out of business. And then they raise their prices.  

How To Identify Profitable Niche Markets

In Internet marketing, one of the most important keys to success is that of entering into the correct type of market for whatever promotion it is that you wish to carry out. There are several reasons why picking a market is so crucial in determining whether or not the campaign will be successful and also of what magnitude that success will be and in the following paragraphs we shall look at a couple of the main ones.

Do They Have Money To Spend?

One of the biggest mistakes that many marketers make is they go into a market because they like the look of it or think that it is going to be successful without any real prior thought given to how they are going to monetize the site. It is vital to have a plan of action going in rather than just making it up as you go along and hoping that it will all turn out fine in the end. A little bit of planning done before hand can be the difference between creating a great little extra stream of income or wasting a lot of time and effort for very little return. 

A good way to see if the niche has money to spend is to see what competitors are currently in your market and in what ways they have gone about monetizing their sites. Let's face it - you are an Internet marketer and this is not just a fun "hobby" or something you do to pass the time of day but in fact is the way that you put food on the table for your family and pay your mortgage so you want to make sure that there are viable ways to monetize the traffic.

It is possible that some of your competitors are selling eBooks or mp3 programmes and if this is the case then that should represent a good indication that there is money being spent in this market and that it might be worth your time and effort to get involved. Also if some sites are displaying Adsense then it also a good sign, however, it may also be a good idea to use some software like Keyword Elite to see if the clicks are worthwhile going after or if they are just too low a value to be worth the effort.

Are You Interested In The Market?

It is often a very good idea to be interested in the market that you go into if you are going to be creating content and products for it. Time invested in something you enjoy and that makes you money is time well spent. However, it is not essential because you can outsource the content creation or just get on with it even if you don't find the market that enthralling.

The Speed (and Creativity) of Good Marketing

"Will it Blend?" is a video series developed by a blender company, where various things are blended to show how powerful the blender is.  Things like...

• An iPod
• Guitar Hero III
• Halo 3

There are dozens of videos in the series, most of them dealing with very timely topics.  Such as this one...

Who would have thought blenders could be so exciting?

This series works for a number of reasons, but one of the big ones is that it deals with stuff which is hot now.  People are talking about politics today.  A few months ago, they were talking about the iPhone.  Halo 3 was hot.  Harry Potter was hot.  When "Will it Blend?" deals with these topics, it captures momentum which is already there.

My question for you...

How are you using current events in your marketing?  Post responses below.

Charcoal Briquettes and a Marketing Lesson for You

Picked this one up from Early to Rise...

The History of the Charcoal Briquette

Give Henry Ford credit for inventing the charcoal briquette. Ford made the first briquettes out of sawdust and scrap wood from his factories. Then he sold barbecue grills and the briquettes at Ford dealerships to encourage people to drive their cars to go on picnics.

(Source: That's a  Fact, Jack!)

It's interesting knowledge, but there is a huge marketing lesson here...

What Henry Ford did by getting people thinking about picnics was getting them to imagine how much easier their lives would be by owning a new car.  And he made the transition from car to barbecue grill seamless, to  where it didn't seem like that is what he was doing.

You can do the same thing with your music...

My specialty is the music business, so let's look at an example from that area:

Perhaps you're a R&B singer with smooth love tunes.  What goes along with smooth love tunes?  Get people to imagine the scenario, so that your music is part of it.  In other words, say "If you want a good time tonight, you're going to need this music in your stereo."

Any time people can associate your music with a good time, whatever that good time is, you've got a great opportunity to sell something.

Bottom line-- A musician is not selling music; he's selling a good time.

And what are you selling?  Probably not what it appears at first glance. :)

Book Marketing Exposed - Getting Reviews on Amazon

NOTE: This is part of a series I am doing here, which explains how I am marketing my new book, Ask, Believe, Receive - 7 Days to Increased Wealth, Better Relationships, and a Life You Love. If you enjoy the "behind the scenes" info on this promotion and feel the book would help you, please purchase it. :)

Every book, regardless of who wrote it or the level of publicity behind it, has a point where nobody has reviewed it.  And if you're selling on Amazon or similar sites, you want reviews, because they help sell the book.

So what do you do?

Personally, I ask for them.

Lots of authors I've dealt with are embarrassed to do this, but like most things, if you don't ask, you don't get.  In this case, it's because the majority of people visit Amazon to purchase books, not review them.  This is why you'll often see books which are selling well, but don't have a lot of reviews.

But as I mentioned earlier, when it comes to selling books on Amazon, reviews help...so you want as many as you can.  And here is my suggestion to make that happen...

Find a book that is similar to your book and directly contact people who have enjoyed it.  Offer them a free book.  When you send it, ask for a review.

Easy, right?

It is.  But that's no guarantee that you'll get a review.  My experience is that you'll get reviews on about 10% of the copies you send, so don't be cheap.  Send out 100 copies...or more, to get the reviews that you need.  It will be worth it.

Take a look at this one...   

'Whatever you think about and focus on the most, you'll tend to attract into your life', February 13, 2008

By Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States)

   

David Hooper is a pragmatist - and an Idealist in the finest sense of the term! In this brief book ASK BELIEVE RECEIVE: 7 DAYS TO INCREASED WEALTH, BETTER RELATIONSHIPS, AND A LIFE YOU LOVE he avoids kitschy nonsense and in a bow to the time constraints of even the most devout 'self-help' addicts, he succinctly outlines his simple but pertinent methods for making changes.

The book is best read in the manner in which Hooper suggests: there are seven days to approach the different aspects of altering our lives by applying the principals of attraction, and to take advantage of his ideas requires the brief time to read his day's comment and then to apply it. 'Here's how it works: Your thoughts trigger your emotions. Your emotional state emits a specific "frequency" of energy to the universe. In turn, the universe returns events and experiences into your life that correspond with your emotional frequency'. With this bit of advice Hooper then proceeds through the topics of 1) How to attract money into your life, 2) How to attract ideal relationships, 3) How to attract your best health, 4) How to attract you dream job, and 5) How to attract everything needed for a successful business.

Throughout the book Hooper drops little gems, like 'Allowing actually means to be in a state of non-resistance', that on first glance seem rather obvious, but in the manner in which he incorporates common sense into his program for life enhancement they work very well. In a world full of self help manuals it is difficult to find the ones that actually work. For this reader, this is one of those! Grady Harp, February 08     Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you?

Notice the "Top 10" badge.  This is somebody who reads a lot of books.  And this is the type of person you want-- either somebody who reads a lot of books, or somebody who specializes in the topic you are writing about.

If you can reach "tastemakers" like this, it's worth a lot more than the average review.

How do you reach these people?  Ask!

Book Marketing Exposed - You Can't Polish a Turd

NOTE: This is part of a series I am doing here, which explains how I am marketing my new book, Ask, Believe, Receive - 7 Days to Increased Wealth, Better Relationships, and a Life You Love. If you enjoy the "behind the scenes" info on this promotion and feel the book would help you, please purchase it. :)

I'm not here to embarrass anybody or call people out, but if you really want a book to sell, it has to be good.  Now, "good" is a matter of opinion.  Not everybody is going to like everything, nor should they, but some of this stuff is pure junk.  And I'm talking about...

• audio transcripts
• 20 authors, with each writing a single chapter
• 200-page sales letters with a full color cover

Releasing something like this will kill your credibility.  People aren't idiots.  Just look at some of these reviews...

Not really a "How to" book,

This book is a real deception.It is compound of several old interviews about how other people got rich in the Internet without giving any real specific details. Finally, the author uses 50 pages of the book you are paying for to promote other products.

Plenty of Hype - Not Enough Content!,

I'm disappointed to say this book is just one long 117-page sales letter. [NAME REMOVED] is a well-known promoter and marketer and this book contains basic snippets of information without really revealing much content. Lots of web site addresses and links to go check out but many of those just promote products. The information that is exposed is pretty old-hat in the Internet arena now, such as "squeeze pages" - there I've just revealed the main "amazing new" concept of the book.

Did the other reviewers read the same book that I did?

Wow! Where do I start? There were probably 50-60 grammar errors in this very short book. Didn't the author have a proofreader? You will be feeling like you wasted your $10 with this. Even the 3 free bonuses listed on the cover aren't accessible. The link provided in the book doesn't work. The author states in the Introduction, "This information is going to blow your mind..." That it did for its lack of value. The few simplistic secrets that he refers to as his "little known system" are all over the internet, and are free. He admits to being a promoter, and it shows!

Just a few of many...

Again, the definition of "good" is relative, but you can't fool people when you're trying to sell them one of the formats I've mentioned above and all of the positive reviews of from your marketing buddies.

And what's sad about this situation is that is really doesn't take a lot of time or effort to do something good.  A little bit goes a long way when it comes to editing and proofing...and all of that can be outsourced.  And I've found the business world very forgiving of "lack of content" if there are just a couple of good ideas within the entire book.  And I know these guys have good ideas...

So to take things in this series back a bit, let me say that the way I'm telling you to promote your book will definitely work, but it works 1000x better if you have something good to work with. :)