Niche Marketing (Cracking the Code with JP Schoeffel)

Hi Roland Dufault here with my regular Blog Article.

The following is an article article pertaining to [b]Niche Marketing|RolandDufault [/b]. It was submitted to me from JP. He sent it to me to share with you guys, and it’s a great blueprint for getting starting in your online business.

Our idea was for me to make comments throughout the article and engage you in a discussion about the information covered. You’ll see my comments indented, so please post your comments and questions below…

If you haven’t met JP Schoeffel (of [b]Niches[/b]InaBox.com) before, let me tell you that he’s one of the most stand-up marketers I know, and his integrity is second to none. In fact, when he promoted for me he was right there with his subscribers making sure their questions and support got handled quickly. He really cares about his people, so you’d do well to listen to his advice. Not only that, he knows how to make money online - he’s been one of my very biggest JV partners. Here’s JP’s step-by-step plan for you:

1. Find a topic you’re interested in…

…or something you think is funny, or a good trend. Simply head to eBay pulse, Yahoo Buzz, or Google Trends to identify that kind of hot topics:

pulse.eBay.com

buzz.Yahoo.com

Google.com/trends

You can also simply go to Digg, Technorati, Reddit, StumbleUpon and see what the most popular topics are, and the kind of comments they receive. It’s a great source of information and it will help you position your site and tone.

The thing is you want to identify a popular topic that you feel could be popular for many weeks or even months.

2. Set up a blog.

You want to do it the free way. That’s easy. Simply create a blogger blog (google blogging platform), or a hosted wordpress blog (wordpress.com). I recommend wordpress as the usability is second to none.

I also highly recommend WordPress - it’s what’s running the IMGeni.us Blog!

As you see, you don’t need a domain name, or private hosting (of course if you already have a hosting account, and want more flexibility, then install it on your server, and register a domain name accordingly). For hosting you have ‘easy’ plans with HostGator.

3. Find some keywords that will orient the content youwant to post on your blog.

Find them with your head first: by checking what is popular on social bookmarking sites and trend report sites. You can identify the popular searches that keyword tools won’t have yet in their database. Then try to imagine, as a ‘visitor’ the kind of info you would like to find. Write them down

You can go to freekeywords.WordTracker.com to get 100 variations on any keyword at no co*st. It could easily complete your list ...

Finally, if you need some additional lateral keyword, you can go to one of my favorite tools: KWMap.net

4. Create some articles

You can simply Google your keyword in an exact search : “bird feeding in winter” and see how you can summarize some of this. Note: use the quotes front and back.

You can also go to wikipedia.org and find some content that you can then ‘use’ for your article (not copy / paste, but just to gather the ideas)

The U.S. government also has some nice content sources. Here is, for example, a resource I used when I did some research for the last 4 Niches-in-a-box packages (just for stats and topics research): nlm.nih.gov

NLM stands for National Library of Medicine, from the NIH: National Institutes of Health. It’s the world largest medical library

Government information at NLM Web sites is in the public domain, although some parts might be provided by licensed 3rd parties. But this means you can re-use the content on your site. It’s good to always give credit to the source though, especially in the medical field as it gives credibility to your site and also removes any liability from you.

But just a quick search on the web will give you access to any government sources. And they are simply awesome.

5. Post content to your blog.

At first you can create 5 to 10 articles, split them into 4 or 5 categories (you will be able to add more categories to your blog with time), and post 2 or 3 each and every day during the first 3 to 4 weeks.

Then you can feed it with say 1 article every 2 days or so.

If you’re concerned about starting a blog, don’t worry. It’s easy and using WordPress makes so simple. If you can type an email you can create a WordPress blog.

6. Now, if you look back to what you have.

You might be delighted, but you might also be frustrated: you have a good site, using a robust and reliable blog platform. With time, you have even added some affiliate links to your posts or sidebar to start monetizing it.

You even tried to add adsense blocks to it.,/p>

But No traffic! Nada! Well, it’s normal! What you did is a bit like if you had written 10 pages in your office and were wondering why no one calls you to congratulate you about these wonderful articles.

Of course the world does not know about your site, your articles, your concept…

7. To start driving traffic.

You need to inform the World Wide Web that you exist. To do so, you have 2 ways:

Put some links on other sites: those ‘backlinks’ link directly to your site, and someone could click on them. Let search engines spread the word about your site. But please be nice to them or they will ban you immediately. Of course it’s a big summary of what traffic generation is… but that’s pretty much all.

You can find lots of additional information about generating traffic right here on the IMGeni.us Blog.

But to make this a real blueprint, here is what you could do drive traffic almost instantly to your site:

Submit all your posts to 4 or 5 social bookmarking sites (digg, stumbleupon, technorati, furl, …): try to be creative there for your Title and stories so that people want to read them

Find some blog related to your niche and comment on them (I did not say ’spam them’, but comment, bring value to them and do not forget to link back to your site)

Find forums related to your site, join them, read them, and then start contributing

Submit your blog feed to feed directories

Submit your articles to ezinearticles.com and articledashboard.com for more long term traffic

For in-depth info on Article Marketing, please see this post

8. TRACK!

Don’t do any of the above without setting a tracker on your site

StatCounter.com is a free traffic tracker that you can easily plug into your blogger blog or wordpress blog (they give you step-by-step instructions to do so).

Another amazing tool that’s also free is Google Analytics. This is what I use on all my sites.

This is fundamental - generating traffic is simply useless if you don’t know

where it comes from

what keywords are currently generating traffic (your live site is your best keyword research tool)

what marketing efforts (social bookmarking, forum, blog commenting, etc.) generated the most traffic, to what kind of article

how long your visitor stays on your page

what they do on your page

As you see all this does not cost a dime: just a little bit of your time.

But, if you want to go the extra 10 miles and find tools that will automate things for you then you might also look for:

a script to automatically post to your blog

scripts to automatically submit your posts to social bookmarking

a site generator

niche packages to upload and start marketing

a PLR membership that will do the market research, keyword research, content creation, site building…

Thus removing 6-7 out of 8 steps in the above process…

JP Schoeffel

Incidentally, JP site, NichesInaBox.com does provide you with the majority of the resources, tools and work done for you. I’m not sure why he doesn’t plug his site in this article, but it really does 99% of the work for you. I encourage you to check it out Niches In A Box today.

Please post your comments and questions below

[b]Niche Marketing|RolandDufault[/b] is the new Kid on the Block for getting your site in the top ten in the search engines. Take it to heart and learn all about it. Find yourself a set of keywords and work them to death and you will receive the great reward of placing yourself in the top ten in the search engines. Roland Dufault

10 tips for Supersizing your Affiliate Commissions by Elizabeth McGee

Why is it that some affiliate marketers rake in the commissions while others make very little money, or worse yet, no money at all? Those with dismal monthly commissions are more than likely missing several key ingredients.

Here are 10 essential affiliate marketing strategies that all affiliate marketers should pay particular attention to. They include elements that will help provide your visitors with what they are looking for, help you generate trust, promote you as an authority and create community, all key components for supersizing your affiliate commissions. 1. Be Genuine with Visitors Create content on your site that makes your visitors feel you are speaking directly to them. Speak like you are talking directly to a friend. Don't be afraid to be a little personal or make comments that reveal you as a real person. Always remain professional but add an element of personality, keep it light, to the point and interesting. Invite questions and comments. The idea is to create a community of visitors that look to you for information and feedback.

2. Deliver content and lots of it Search engines and visitors alike want to see content. But not just any content, keep it original, factual, fresh and interesting. The more content the better. Having content that draws readership helps to establish you as an authority in your niche and direct viewers to affiliate resources that help them find what they are looking for.

3. Write comprehensive product reviews Don't simply bombard your viewers with affiliate links sending them directly to a product sales page. Your visitors don't want to be forced to a sales page; they need to be sold from a source that is trustworthy. That's why product reviews work so well. Take the time to purchase the product you are promoting and do a careful review of what your findings are. There's no better way to promote something than if you use it and feel the benefits yourself. This genuine tone will come across in your review and your viewers will completely see that.

4. Build a list of subscribers This isn't as hard as it sounds. Simply place a sign-up form on your site and request sign-ups for your newsletter, daily tips for email course. Offer an incentive such as a free e-book or something of value to entice sign-ups. You'll soon begin getting subscribers which lets you directly communicate with visitors on a consistent basis while developing relationships, trust and allowing for an occasional promotion now and then.

5. Create a free small report, e-book or e-course Creating an information product related to your niche or the products you are promoting creates trust, not to mention your viewers will thank you for the tips. It also offers you the benefit of including your affiliate links within the report. Giving away something of value that is free also provides a viral effect because it can get into more hands a lot faster. You can also use this to entice sign-ups for your newsletter or opt-in form.

6. Don't send links to your home page Unless your home page is your sales page, don't send visitors there. Send your visitors to specific product pages. For example, many affiliate marketers spend hours and hours creating inbound links for their site by means of link exchanges, articles, advertisements, etc., however the most common mistake they make is to direct those links to their home page.

Instead, choose the most relevant page on your site for the link back. If you happen to submit an article on how to find the best running shoes, link to the running shoes page of your site, not the main page of your shoes site!

7. Select affiliate programs with quality promotional tools Check affiliate programs out carefully. Affiliate with programs that offer good sales tools such as articles, brandable PDF's, personalized emails, classified ad samples and of course quality banners and text ads. The more quality tools your affiliate managers provide, the more successful you will be.

8. Get to know your affiliate managers Send a note to your affiliate manager letting them know who you are. Ask specific questions about the products you are promoting and if there are any tips or suggestions you can offer you. You would be surprised how effective this can be. The timeliness of the response you get or the lack of it is also a good indicator of whether or not the affiliate program is worth it.

9. Review the affiliate site carefully Have a good look around the affiliate site. Would you buy from them? How compelling is the sales page? If they have lots of third party advertisements or Google Ads on the site, drop them like a hot potato.

10. Mask ugly affiliate links Don't promote ugly affiliate links. Firstly, it's an easy way for unscrupulous buyers to avoid using your link and go directly to the affiliate site whereby you lose commissions, but secondly, it's ugly. Find a way to set up a redirect for your affiliate link or use a link cloaker for creating a more professional looking link.

The affiliate site I am referring to is the NPN Program. It has worked great for me. Take a looka at it and I will provide you personal mentoring to check it out.