• 1. Scalability- This depends hugely on the tasks mentioned in the first and the fifth point in the list, i.e. finding the demand and researching article directories. Scalability is a lot about long-term need of the niche. Its also about whether there is a possibility to expand in that niche.  This is a key criterion I persist with. Although it’s not really simple to anticipate scalability of any new niche, finding such a niche can be a difference between huge profits or mediocre results.

• Digital Product- We are living in an age of information. Increasing number of online entrepreneurs are engaged in selling/promoting digital goods. It always pays to investigate whether your chosen niche has a potential to sell digital products. Internet is information-based medium. Most people flock it to access information. So, its really hard to find a niche with no scope for digital selling. Still some are better placed than others. That’s what you have to find out. Check places like, Clickbank and E-junkie for existing digital goods.

• Existing Affiliate Products- Unless you are looking for strictly an advertisement-based business model, you will need affiliate product to sell. Following up from the previous point, you will need products/services to sell. They could be yours, or, someone else. Researching in advance about existing affiliate products is a good indication of niche popularity. If there are a lot of products, you can presume that there is a vibrant existing market. Lack of existing options to sell/promote in a particular niche combined with a low demand normally means you got to ignore it.

• Authority Sites: If you can find a niche, which has huge demand, low competition, which is not too complicated to create content, with good scalability and a thriving affiliate scene than you have hit the jackpot. Only thing remains to be asked from the Genii is a lack of a clear authority site/blog in that niche. Because if you have identified an ideal niche with no clear winner, you have an unparallel opportunity to rule that niche for years.

• Adsense Income- With all things being equal, I will pick a niche with higher paying Adsense keywords. How do you find that? There is no exact way, because Google/Yahoo can never disclose that. A fair indication is again given by Google’s Adwords Keyword tool. Try to find a keyword’s CPC ( cost per click) as if you are an advertiser. Keywords with higher CPC generally earn higher Adsense click commission. There are a thousand metrics involved in assessing a content-click cost to be paid to the publisher, but this CPC formula gives a fairly good idea.

I hope this comprehensive list will give you enough ideas to arrive at that perfect niche. I am always talking to affilate marketers about ways they spot a winner. Trust me, these ten steps form the bulk of research strategy of those who are churning the best moolah.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Please Bookmark This Post If You Liked It

Hide Sites

How To Find a Profitable Niche

If you know how to leverage the power of the internet to generate revenue by selling stuff, you probably already have a site or a group of sites. Whether you are an Ebay seller with your own site, or, a reseller makes no difference at all. If you are in profit, you must have found the formula to do business successfully online. Now the next stage is replicating this success by selling even more stuff. Building your second site. Starting your next ecommerce store.

The big question is what to sell next? You already know the technical side of an ecommerce business. You understand the traffic generation and conversion stuff. To move on to another product you need to make sure there is a market for it. You must take stock of the competition. How is the profit margin? Whether to source it from a manufacturer, if it’s a physical product, or, do affiliate selling? Can you rely completely on a non-selling model and earn from advertising alone ( Adsense etc.) ? Is there a scope for a digital/multimedia product (software, ebook, report, video/audio training) in that niche?

To answer these questions I have developed a process of 10 steps. I use this exact list to determine a niche I am going to dive-in. This is by far the most comprehensive list you could find online to dig a really profitable niche.

1. Demand- This is obvious, without a demand for your product it’s silly to try and sell it. We need to know exactly how many people online are searching for the stuff we can offer. Simplest and best tool to find out search demands online is Google Adwords Tool . The tool will also show you variations of key phrases you type. So you’ll a bigger picture and a lot of ideas. For more keen users Wordtracker is one of the best keyword-research tool out there. This exercise should give you factual number of searched being done for your niche. Write it down.
2. Competition- Demand/Supply rule works for online businesses as well. Now we understand what’s the demand for your niche, lets gauge the existing supply/competition. Search engines are again the best to find this out. I try to use Bing and Google both. Type in the most generic phrase describing your niche. Suppose it’s , ‘ tennis elbow’. In Google, the top right-hand corner shows the number of results returned. This is the amount of competition. Remember this is for the general phrase, ‘tennis elbow’. If you type in ‘tennis elbow treatment’, the number will go down. More specific you get, lesser the competition. These longer and more specific niche phrases are called long-tail keywords. So, choose your keyphrase describing your niche best and note the competition figure.
3. Your Interest- Without your inherent interest in the topic of your next blog/site, it’ll be really cumbersome. We are not looking for a hobby site, of course it’s a business but without some sort of knowledge and interest you won’t be abl eto pull it off. Try building an art history/criticism blog when the only time in your life you heard about The Last Supper was in a tom Hanks film. Point is that you do need some basic knowledge and interest in the niche.
4. Content Generation- Niche sites are built upon the premises of consistent content funnelling. Big question to ask when you are deciding upon the niche is- Can I gather enough content over a period of time? Can I write it myself? Can I arrange it from ghost writers/freelancers? Is it a really complex topic and only people who can write content for me are NASA scientists? You get the point. Clear the content strategy right here at this stage.
5. Popularity on Content Sites- Anik Singhal knows a thing or two about niche-marketing. His report on article-marketing talks at length about using Ezinearticles to research the popularity of that niche. This is important because niche sites are content driven. There can be no better place than article-directories to find out what content is popular. Anik has given an advance system to gauge the long-term and short-term potential of that niche. You can get the report for $5 if you want. Otherwise, doing a basic research on Ezinearticles/Go Articles can teach you a lot about your intended niche. ( For the records I don’t get any credit for praising Anik’s report or his system.)

The rest of the list continues in next post. Please write back what system do you guys use to find a profitable market to enter. I know there isn’t a definite system. This one nearly covers most ground. What say?

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Please Bookmark This Post If You Liked It

Hide Sites

Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning and the first thing that I knew,
There was milk and toast and honey, and a bowl of oranges, too.
The sun poured in like butterscotch, and stuck to all my senses,
Won’t you stay, we’ll put on the day, and talk in present tenses?

Above lines from Joni Mitchell’s Chelsea Morning highlight the significance of ‘now’- the ‘present tense’. Steve Yastrow wrote a full post talking about Joni’s song. Of course Steve is a customer-relationships expert and he found and understood the wisdom from Joni’s song thus:-

“One of the key components of a relationship-building encounter is that you and your customer need to both be fully present, engaged in the present moment. As I wrote in this recent post on tompeters.com, one of the easiest ways to kill a sales conversation is to be focused on the next step in the sales process, ignoring the opportunity to create an encounter RIGHT NOW, in the present moment.”

This post has been my favorite for its modest simplicity and acuteness of message. It hits home the point. So does Joni’s song.

What’s the ultimate purpose of any business transaction? To provide a best suited solution to your customer’s problem. A transaction is deemed complete when both parties are satisfied. In the present tense. Do you make a lasting relationship in that moment of encounter? That’s what counts. Does every moment of interaction a relationship-builder? That can only happen when you don’t jump the bogey. Trying to get their email even before they have explored your site well. Trying to sell that extra year’s hosting while they are still comparing prices. Pushing your newsletter even before they know who you are. These are some examples of  jumping-the-bogey in online business world .

When you visit your doctor the first thing that needs doing is your doc putting the stethoscope on your chest and asking you to take a deep breath. The first question will never be about where you buy your medicines from, or, would you buy a health policy from a friend of his. Let him make you feel a little better first. That’s the whole point. Isn’t it.

This ‘making you feel better’ idea always brings me to Sheryl Crow’s eternal song.

Jump in, let’s go
Lay back, enjoy the show
Everybody gets high, everybody gets low
These are the days when anything goes

Everyday is a winding road
I get a little bit closer
Everyday is a faded sign
I get a little bit closer to feeling fine

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Please Bookmark This Post If You Liked It

Hide Sites

• Over prepare, then go with the flow

When there is a really nervous event coming ahead and you can do nothing except to sweat and spend sleepless nights. There is one thing you can do- prepare, prepare and over prepare. That’s the only confidence booster in hard times. The Law of Karma/Actions says that we can’t influence results by merely worrying about them. Only way to ascertain a favorable outcome is by making sure the ‘action’ is performed right. Wouldn’t you do your homework well and prepare? Regina says, Over prepare and go with the flow.

• If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back

This is an old one. Humans have a tendency to magnify their own problems and other people’s happiness. Should be the other way round for a happy life, shouldn’t it. We tend to think my probs are the biggest and most complicate. While my friends always seem to do great.  In business situations this hurts even more. This commandment has a lot in common with a previous one- ‘Don’t compare your life with others’. The simple fact is that we just CANNOT know what’s the deal with others, what’s their life like from inside? Using the theory of relativity we can always find someone with more problems than us. Then why we tend to look at those with lesser issues than us. Its de-motivating and induces negativity. I bet you will never trade your business problems with mine. At least you know your problems better.

• No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up

The show must go on. Woody Allen has a great quote about,’ half the success is about showing up’. This also applies to having off-days or bad- days that an entrepreneur can have. Don’t let your feelings and mood dictate your business. The show must go on at all cost.

• Yield

Yield is a beautiful word. It can mean ‘to be productive’ and it can also mean ‘to give way’ or ‘to surrender’. The biggest mantra anyone can give to an entrepreneur is to be productive. To yield is to produce what it is that you are here to create. Is it money and fame for yourself, go do it. Is it a solution of an intricate problem of your clients, go provide it. The ROI of your efforts and must be produced.

The other meaning is also great. It teaches politeness and patience. The age-old dictum of let-go. Its not the rudest trees that withstand the vagaries of nature and hails, but the most polite and flexible. Conceding a small battle can often win you a major war.

• The Best is Yet To Come

Yes, the time can only improve. The ever-growing ever-improving life is the only life worth living. Every morning wake up with hope and ambitions for your business. Each day a bigger ambition and even better plans. Because, the best is yet to come. So prepare to embrace it.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Please Bookmark This Post If You Liked It

Hide Sites

With the arrival of Bing and a search-partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo, the two brands have been seriously planning ways to re-brand themselves. Bing’s expensive marketing campaign is on its way soon too. Looks like they are planning to hit big G from different angles.

Google came up with a ‘next-generation architecture for web-search’. They are not in a hurry to splash on big budget brand campaigns as yet. But you never know, as they say.

Online-Ad spend has risen to 15% of all forms of advertising spend. This is the largest chunk from the mix and has grown even during the recession. Google dominates this. This ever-increasing revenue source is what the three giants are after. More searches, more accurate searches, even more searches, and, even more advertisers (paid search).

• In Yahoo-Microsoft deal, Yahoo allows Bing to do searches. So, yahoo has backed-out from trying to build a better search engine and bring-in more searchers. Even though yahoo gets 88 cents to dollar from Bing at present, what’ the future?




• While Bing tries to perfect its search engine, will yahoo be just trying to work on added services? What happens when Bing becomes as good as (if not better than) Google and decides to leave Yahoo’s search page?




• If Bing and Yahoo are forming a tactical alliance against Google, shouldn’t they be attacking the giant from two different strategic angles? Yahoo has launched the branding campaign with ‘you’-centric message. It remains to be seen what Bing comes up with?




• The most important factor of Yahoo-Bing alliance is their access to user data. Its unclear who gets what level of user info, but they both are set to gain tremendous insights because of the treaty that combines their search traffic stream. If this doesn’t give them an edge in enhancing their search, what will?

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Please Bookmark This Post If You Liked It

Hide Sites

This reminded me of my Chartered Marketing days. And Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model. Although the model is as old as I am, I  understood a part of it in a different light while reading Chris’s email this morning. The importance of ‘barriers to entry’ part dawned upon me.

Its not only the big boys anymore who are always scouting for ways of shutting-off, or, controlling new entrants. Of course, the artificially created ‘barriers’ to stop new entrants from entering an industry, often fall under vigilance, sometimes rightly so. Buy-outs of small start-ups by big players will always continue. That’s not the point here.

The point I am trying to understand is, how can small entrepreneurs raise legit ‘barriers to entry’ within their niche? How can they ensure that the new entrant threat is kept at a constant low? What can they do within their business model to make any head-on new competitor sweat harder?

Answers.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Please Bookmark This Post If You Liked It

Hide Sites

I have been told numerous times that the universal laws of life also apply to business and entrepreneurship. After all it’s a journey as well, they say. An unknown one for most.

When I received this email list with life’s lessons by one Regina Brett, who apparently is 90 years old , I realised how important understanding life could be to understanding your business behaviour.

Lets see if we can find out things to apply to our entrepreneurial mindset.

• When in Doubt Just Take the Next Small Step

How true! You are not sure about that crucial meeting with venture capitalists. You have been asked to pitch the idea informally to the board. Money is on the table. Nervous.

Take the next small step. Sit down and relax. Chalk out an outline. Fill it with words. Throw-in some facts. Expand it. Expand it more. When you think you have everything covered, trim it down to a 10-minute pitch. Find out a one-line statement that’ll aptly describe your idea. Was it hard this way, one tiny step a time?

• You dn’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Vendors, existing clients, and even your own colleagues/staff- they all will infuriate you from time to time with their view diagonally opposite to yours. What do you do? Annoy, yourself and them with your insistence. Learn to agree to disagree if it doesn’t cost you more than the medallion of an argument-winner. Sometimes keeping your argumentative head aside can help you see views you might have shut-off previously.

• Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

This is a crucial entrepreneurial behavior concept. There are people who’ll be inspired by a Kevin Rose or a Mark Zuckerberg breed of entrepreneurs. And there are those who, ever so cruelly, continuously pit themselves against entrepreneurs who have done better in less time. You simply dn’t know their version of the story. You have your own journey. Peddle yours with smile not envy.

• If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it

I would extend it to say that in business situation any act that needs to be kept secret mustn’t involve you. The eventual danger-to-profit ratio of a secret sneaky act always tilts hugely towards the wrong end of the scale. Your business is not a Victorian romantic saga requiring the heart-stirring secrets to keep the readers amused. Stay away.

• Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful

Dave Allen of Get Things Done fame would be rather pleased with this one. Look around your office right this moment to test this statement. Files, computers,  wall-clock, furniture, empty coffee mugs, etc etc. Is there anything there that’s not beautiful, or, useful, or joyful? Get rid of it. It’s a negative bundle of energy. This applies well to your life. This applies to your business relations. This applies to anything that you have to maintain and manage- stuff, relationships, people, thoughts, and even habits.

Although I planned to serve the whole platter in one go, I soon realised that such great stuff is best served in small doses. So nest five lessons in next post.

Look forward to hear what you guys think of this.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Please Bookmark This Post If You Liked It

Hide Sites

Startus Synergy 1

Yeaps, finally I managed to put together a platform where I can get involved, on a voluntary basis, in web-mentoring. I hope to pass on my skills and insights for the benefit of budding web entrepreneurs. With some willing experts also promising to commit their valuable time, Startus Synergy 1 promises to be an interesting project.

And did I mention that its FREE. No cost to join, except, a sincere will to succeed.

This is what I expect from the program from a participant’s point of view:-

• Fasten the grip on basics. A tall building essentially needs a solid foundation, you must have heard.
• Develop a web business plan. Let you develop your own plan of action with expert inputs.
• Chalk-out a schedule of tasks required for implementing the plan.
• Brainstorm with fellow participants and mentors.
• Give you the momentum that one can lack working alone.

Places are limited, because we do not have infinite resources at our disposal. Its not going to be an ‘elite’ group, or, a ‘first come first serve’ scheme.

All applications will be chosen according to some pre-defined criteria, such as, your actual need for mentoring, present skills, clarity of thought regarding your business-goals, and, your keenness to follow the program and contribute positively.

Go check out  the program here: http://www.startus.org/

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Please Bookmark This Post If You Liked It

Hide Sites

Innovation not Competition

I am thrilled and excited with the idea.On our recent brainstorming regarding our new business portal launch, we found ourselves competing head-on with a HUGE player in the industry. Faces ablazed with disappointment and frustration.

Once we took our time to study their idea and business model, things started to look better. Even though we had exactly the same idea as them (no we didn;t copy theirs), our application of that idea innovated it to higher realms. Eureka!

This makes me declare that online business platform does not work upon competition-based ideology but an innovation-based one. Otherwise, how come we, a garage full of entrepreneurs, challenge a multi-million dollar corporation.Size doesn’t matter anymore. If it does, then how come a gigantic elephant of a firm feel threatened by us tiny dots?

Isn’t it exciting, the power that this idea of innovation-led mentality gives you? Makes one stop worrying about a crowded niche/industry in the first place. If there is a idea that can solve a genuine problem and you know no one else has your innovative edge, then, as Nike says, ‘Just Do It’ man!

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Please Bookmark This Post If You Liked It

Hide Sites

Tom Peters, amongst many agonized American taxpayers, believes that GM will not be paying back  $50 Bn. Simply because they can’t. Tom Peters lost his faith in the largest US auto-maker, believing that they stopped worrying about making the best cars in the world.A vision that made GM number one car-maker in the world.

The debate whether GM should have been given the federal assistance will never subside.Not soon, at least. The manner in which the auto-maker somehow took US government hostage is bizarre. Read this:-

“G.M. used to say that the federal government absolutely had to bailout the struggling firm because if it didn’t, especially in a time of great economic crisis, the affect on the U.S. jobs market would be devastating and America may well see the end of its auto industry because consumers would forever be turned off by a bankrupt firm no matter the success at reorganization.” (Instablogs)

Now, for every one optimist supporting the GM cause, there are ten nearly-cynical realists proclaiming that GM will never be able to pay back the taxpayer’s money.  One of the weblogs quoted the NYT thus-

“We don’t think that after this next $30 billion, they will need more money,” one administration official said. “But the fact is there are things you don’t know — like when the car market will come back, and how much Toyota and Honda and Volkswagen will benefit from the chaos.” (Kausfiles.com)

So, two major factors to decide GM’s future according to the official report are: car-market‘s recovery, and, competitive dis-advantage. Kausfiles explains that this statement merely means that if more money will be needed to compete with Honda, Toyota, and Volksvagen then so be it. US government will do all it can to save the big American ego and even bigger white elephant, the once-number-one, General Motors.

Peter Cohan from Peter S. Cohan Associates has the valid numbers to support his theory that GM cannot pay back even if they earnestly wanted to. Peter says, “General Motors would have to reach a value 20 percent above its all time high in order to repay the $50 billion government loan it received…” He also believes that GM’s pre-bankrupcy projections were “tortured to support the outcome that management was seeking.”

Amidst all this hoopla and nerve-wrecking pressure to produce goods ( read, a great car), GM launched a ‘May The Best Car Win’ scheme. Under the schemes buyers can return and get a full no-questions-asked refund. The scheme applies to Chevrolet, GMAC, Buick  and Cadillac.

Is it just an attempt to show an intent of innovation to the major stockholders (US government)?

Have they actually woken up to the original GM mantra of making the best cars in the world?

Is it just a marketing gimmick to garner trust in GM brand?

Is it just a get-the-crowds strategy?

Ears to the ground.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Please Bookmark This Post If You Liked It

Hide Sites