Niche Database

“Aim For The Stars”

- by Frank Mullen, Niche Database

I am selling a product in the highly competitive Internet Marketing niche (Niche Database), and earning a substantial living from it. Unusual for a newcomer, but far from impossible.

The point is that anything is possible if you put your mind to it.

I began my marketing education about a year before I actually started
online. Like so many beginners, I was of two minds. On the one hand I
saw all the well-known Internet Marketing "gurus" trying to profit from
teaching people how to emulate their success, but on the other hand they
were all advising to try and find my own niche.

I decided that I was not going to become another "snake-oil salesman" and
that I was going to find my own niche. So I started doing some research.

What happened next astonished me. From one small idea I picked up from
Stephen Pierce, I suddenly became a keyword research expert.

Then, the obvious solution was to leverage this expertise and pass it on to
the ever-expanding market of Internet marketing wannabes. This was pretty
easy, since I was marketing to people in the position I was in only a month
previously.

So based on my online experience so far, I have the following 7 tips:

1. Market to a hungry market

It doesn't matter if the market appears to be saturated - there is still
room for you in it.

The biggest markets online relate to finding personal fulfilment, in any of
the following areas:

Love
Money
Health
Weight loss

Most people will advise you not to try to break into these markets. However,
they are often where the really big money is to be made, as they relate
closely to people's dreams and fears.

I would say that if you're planning to copy what has been done a thousand
times before, then don't bother even looking at these markets. Your time
would be better spent elsewhere. If you are just going to produce a standard
ebook that has already been done, then do it somewhere else... there are
still hundreds of niches with high demand that are not yet completely
saturated.

But if you can create a different product to what is already out there in
these massive markets, then go for it.

The benefits will be enormous - your product will be like a breath of fresh
air and people will be delighted to promote it for you. And of course your
potential market is huge.

Here are some ways of coming up with a different type of product:

Every day, ask yourself if there is anything you have had trouble
doing today. Is there anything that might have made your life easier if it actually existed?
Every time you see a product being sold online, ask yourself if
there is another format that product could be sold in. Particularly look for ways of converting useful information into software or video tutorials.
Always look for ways you can improve an existing product. These
improvements can be your USP (see below).
Use survey software and online forums to find out what peoples'
problems are. Chances are that if one person has a problem with something, then thousands of others do too.

2. Develop a USP

A USP is the single most important part of your business. I used to hate hearing this before I got my business going, and it was the single biggest
challenge I overcame.

In fact, a USP is actually very easy to develop. Just look at it this way, you are unique, so if you look at things in your own way, then you will have
a unique angle on it. However, if you blindly follow the crowd, you have no
chance of developing a USP. So the key is to be yourself and translate your
unique ideas into reality!

3. Always overdeliver to your customers.

Because I provide monthly updates, a case could be made for me charging my
customers for this. However, I would prefer that my customers perceive that
I am offering them something of value every month for free, so that there is
more chance of them remaining loyal customers in the future.

4. You can make money with crap!

This is something John Reese wrote about, and it inspired me to launch my product before I was completely happy with it.

The theory is to just put your product out there and start selling it. Then you can make improvements as you go (see 5 below). If I didn't read this article when I did, I would have procrastinated for another month or so and would have cost myself more than $3,000.

5. The importance of reinvestment

You should take the long term view of your business, and in the beginning you should try and reinvest as much of your profits as possible, in the following areas:

Your education

There is so much to learn online, and you should devote a portion of every
day to learning.

Your product line

You should also spend time every day improving existing products or developing new products. Ideally you should do this first thing in the morning, when you are feeling inspired.

I just read a tip from Ted Nicholas, one of the world's greatest copywriters, saying that listening to Mozart's music (and it has to be Mozart!) is statistically proven to improve your copywriting by around 27%! So this can surely be applied to writing and developing new products too!

Andrea's Tip: Here's a phenomenal tool for removing writer's block, increasing your creativity and enabling you to tap into your deepest potential. It uses binaural rhythms and can be used successfully for ANY creative situation: writing, composing, entrepreneurial activities, inventing, product creation, etc. Writer's Block CD

Don't be afraid to spend some of your profits on outsourced services. Elance, Scriptlance and Rentacoder are all great resources, and if you can afford to do so, then don't hesitate to take advantage of them to expand your product line.

So, based on the above, once you have a product up and running, I would
devote the first third of my day to product development, the second third to
maintenance of your existing business, and the final third to education. If
you are spending all day on maintenance, you should really be outsourcing.

And if you don't yet have a product, spend every single waking hour working on something until you do have something to sell or make money from.

6. Reverse engineering

You need to keep your goals firmly in mind, and every day work towards
attaining them.

Do you have specific financial goals for your business? If you do, you can
reverse-engineer these goals so you know exactly what you have to do every
single day to achieve them. You will suddenly see that a million dollars is
not as far away as you think.

You also need to have a vision of where you will be in 1, 5, 10 years time.
And you need to keep that vision firmly in mind and work towards it. Of
course, things might change in the meantime, but only do something different
if it is going to take you to even bigger places than your long-term vision.

7. Take action

This is the single most important thing you will ever do in your life. In fact I would describe it as the ultimate success secret.

To overcome procrastination, simply take baby steps. The key is to do something new every single day. Suddenly you will find that you have a
successful business within a few months.

People tend to keep looking for the perfect opportunity even though a perfectly reasonable opportunity is sitting there right in front of them.
However, they fail to take action, and as a result they end up missing the
opportunity.

So do something today. Anything!!

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Frank Mullen is a keyword research expert and is helping hundreds of people
discover new niche markets with the Niche Database.

Niche Marketing Toolbox

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NicheFinder niche marketing research software
Niche marketing tool that speeds up your market research, makes your search engine optimization more effective with keywords research, and gives you good products or business ideas.

Superb Niche Marketing Tool - "Site Build It!"
"Site Build It!" provides the best service I know of for getting ranked high on the search engines in your particular niche. It's also a simple-to-use, step-by-step Web design tool. It now offers full HTML support, as well as the ability to sign up subscribers, email your ezine, and manage your list. Now also includes e-commerce and full support for forms. If you're a Web master, you can now offer fully customized Web sites AND great search engine optimization to your clients via "Site Build It!". It's not just for the do-it-yourselfer anymore.

Site Build It! Action Guide ("Make Your Copy PRESell!") - This is a FREE guide that walks you through the entire process of building a successful laser-targeted Web site. It's a complete niche marketing handbook that is normally used by "Site Build It!" owners, but you can use it, too, even if you're not planning to use the "Site Build It!" tool.

Business Fastlane
Find out how others have found their niche. Dozens of online (and offline) success stories. A collection of niche marketing articles and small business resources, ideas and tools that will keep you up at night...reading, thinking, planning...and ultimately succeeding! But if you think building a successful online business is "a snap" and entails no work, please think again. An online business takes work, especially in the beginning, but the pay-off can be big and the satisfaction priceless!