Internet Sales Strategies

You’ve got your niche now, how are you going to make some money?

Of course there are lots of ways to monetize your site but you don’t want to spend 100’s on it … Easy money that’s the ticket!

The first question to ask is what does the audience want? Without knowing what they want how can you sell them anything?

A few places to research your audience:

Google Groups - Search your keywords and Groups will let you know what your audience is asking about, having problems with, etc.

Amazon - Not only can you do competitive research here, check out the user comments - These are people that have bought the product and telling you what they want (& what they don’t).

Technorati - A blog search engine … Are people talking about it, if so what are they saying?

Through these tools you can learn what the audience wants!

Create your own Niche Product

The best thing to sell is information … It’s 100% your product, 100% your profit and you people will pay to save them time/energy/money of doing their own research.

I know what you’re thinking … That sounds tough, I’m not a writer, I’m not an expert.

You don’t have to be! As long as you create VALUE you have something that people will buy.

And how do you create value — By giving them what they want, which you just figured out by doing the research.

1) What are the top problems of your audience

2) Write one paragraph for each in a paper notebook

3) Keep that notebook with you at all times. What you’ll notice is that you’ll have ideas for each area - WRITE THOSE DOWN.

4) Over the course of a few weeks you’ll start to fill the notebook, then it’s a matter of spending a few hours and connecting the dots.

5) Voila you have  your product!

Now at this point it might not be a masterpiece and you might not be proud of it but this is only the FIRST DRAFT - You can always improve it, revise it, expand it, turn it into a video series … The hardest part is to start and by taking these steps you’re on your path to success.

Think of making this up, sounds too easy? Look to one of my hero’s Cory Rudl. He started with a simple ebook and that led to version 2, version 3 and many, many other products … You have to START making money online somewhere.

Now you are doing your niche reaserch and want to find the best niche? First of all note that there is no such thing as a “perfect” niche - There’s always going to be pros and cons about any niche you pick.

There might  be not a lot of people looking for the exact niche you want to go into. Or perhaps there’s too much competition, it’s a saturated market.

On the demand side consider the long term value of that audience. While it might not be a large audience now will it grow? Can you leverage that niche to other similar niches? After all one website with 10,000 visitors or 5 websites x 2,000 visitors is the same traffic! If you can dominate one niche you can send traffic to the other, use the same email list that you build etc.

Can you sell multiple products to that audience? If it’s a one-off product then that you might not be able to build that lifetime value of the audience. On the other hand if it’s a passionate audience you might be able to sell product and product, and charge higher and higher prices!

On the competition side you’re always going to have to deal with competition … Have you ever soon a Google search with 0 results???

The question is can you manage that competition?

How good are the competing sites? Do they look good, easy to navigate, clear and to the point?

How about their products? Are they good, quality products that solve what the audience wants? Are they priced appropriately?

Do they know how to market on the Internet? Can you (with a bit of work) outrank them on Google and other search engines?

Niche research isn’t JUST about the keywords you have to consider your audience and competition.

Are you looking to create a successful online business? Of course you are! Who wouldn’t want a business that you own, that can generate substantial income and you can work on it when YOU want.

The easiest, most efficient way to create a successful Internet business is by finding a niche market. After all there are already millions of websites online so you don’t want to go into a saturated marketplace.

Also, with the size of the Internet, even if say 1 in a 1000 people are interested in that area, that’s still a significant market!

The question is how to find a niche that is good? Here are a few tips:

1. Pick something you like - If this is going to be your dream job why not doing something that you enjoy? PLUS you probably know something about it.
2. Pick something SPECIFIC - The more specific, the more likely you can dominate that area. Also the more likely you can sell something as you TARGET your audience needs that much better.
3. Pick something that people are looking for - Check demand through various keyword tools to ensure that there is a market, don’t try to create a new market. Here are some tools:

   Google Keyword Tool - Get the numbers directly from the horses mouth

   Wordtracker - A paid tool that gives you demand numbers plus an estimate of competition

   BeBiz - A paid tool that walks you through step by step how to think about keywords and also walks you through the rest of the site building process

4. Pick something that you can compete in. Check the sites out in that area … Are they good sites? Do they offer good products? Do they know how to market online?
5. Pick something that people WILL pay money for. Of course this is the 64K question. The question to ask yourself is how much do people need this … Does it solve some type of problem? How deep is that problem? What are there other options?

That, in a nutshell, is how to find a niche! It’s not complicated but it does take work. Do that research, take that time BEFORE thinking about the website/product etc.

Find that HUNGRY audience and your on your way to building a successful online business!