Internet Marketing Insights to Help You Make More Money

Having bought, read and "slapped" myself for buying so many internet marketing manuals which of course were each going to make me a fortune....this latest report really came as a big surprise to me.

This latest internet marketing insights report is called "7 Insights to Improve Your Bottom Line". Although I was wary, because of all the money I have spent on "making money" manuals and reports, it caught my interest straight away. I have to say I'm really glad I bought it.

What I would say, having read it from start to finish, without a break is this...

In it, I found information about making money online, and creating a successful online business that you won't find in any $47 clickbank ebook, or find in any forum, any email, any course, or any blog post. You probably just won't find it period.

The kind of information I'm talking about is some of the most powerful and truly insightful internet marketing information you could hope to find about online business but you will never come across it for the simple reasons:

1. There are only a handful of online entrepreneurs that know this kind of information and are willing to share it with everyone

2. The people who do know it rarely talk about it because its not the kind of information that sells ebooks or even gets noticed.

3. Even if they wrote it and you did come across this kind of information, most people wouldn't realise the power of what they were reading. They might even say the material had no value, because they don't fully understand the implications of what has been written.

So what kind of information am I talking about?

I'm talking about the kind of information that you can't learn by learning. That seems like a typo but it's not...

Sounding crazy? I bet!

What I'm talking about is this:

There is the kind of information that you can only learn by being there, doing things, making mistakes and working it out for yourself.

If you haven't experienced it for yourself, you can understand it intellectually but not in a way that you'll truly know it and apply it in your work online.

Now bear with me here - this is not the kind of information that sells. The reason being that the majority of people trying to make money online DON'T KNOW that they need it...

You know what I mean?

These are the type of things that you might think "I don't need to know that, I really need to know THIS" and you might miss out on this really important information.

On top of this, there is other information still that purposely doesn't get sold because having large numbers of people aware of it will mean less sales for a lot of online marketers.

It's information that is MAJORLY time saving, hugely valuable if you understand it and could potentially be the difference between your success and failure but people don't like telling it to you because one way or another it leads to less sales for people selling 'how to' products.

What I mean is that as a culture, despite everything they say, the Internet Marketing World would rather have you be a newbie who is always wanting more information and always buying products - a bit controversial but something interesting to think about I'm sure you'll agree!

Hence this report was born and it covers the 7 Insights or thoughts that the author believes to be the most relevant, most powerful and most valuable nuggets of wisdom he could give. These are from everything he has learnt, successfully making money in his online marketing businesses.

What will this report do for you?

Some of it will excite you and some of it, being so different to what you normally hear will SCARE you. But the bottom line is without a doubt that if you truly take what it says on board, you WILL make more money online than if you don't.

Taken from the report, here are just a few of the things you will find in it:

- The Secret That While Never Talked About Can Be The Difference Between Your Ultimate Success Or Complete Failure Online (Only If You Can Handle The Truth)

(Here he includes his personal story of how he came from having his bank card declined at his local KFC to pulling a monthly income that would SHOCK most people)

- How To Ramp Up Your Websites Traffic Without The Use Of Search Engines, Article Directories, Video Sites, Or Social Networks.

- Want Fast Cash? How To Make A Mini Site That Could Make You Thousands Within a Few Weeks.

And much more. These are only a few paragraphs from this powerful 29 page report.

Anyway here's the link for you to check out this extremely powerful internet marketing insights report:

7 Insights

The author is really striving to be known as a marketer who tells it like it is, with no "fluff" and provides the most valuable information possible.

I really do think that this report contains some of the most valuable information that could be revealed to you.

Here's that link again. Don't waste any more time check out this valuable internet marketing insights report:

7 Insights

The reality is that most startups won't succeed, but with failure comes knowledge and the co-founder of one failed startup says online marketing is one of the most important things for a website - if it's done correctly.

Mark Goldenson was the co-founder of PlayCafe, an internet TV network for games which failed when the site was unable to reach enough users. In a column for VentureBeat, Goldenson assessed what went wrong and what went right for the site and says marketing was the main failure of the startup.

Goldenson says that the company's efforts to using search engine optimization
(SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) weren't "terrible," but says that online marketing requires more professional help.

"Like creating content, I no longer think marketing is something smart novices can figure out part-time," he wrote. "As the web gets super-saturated, marketing is the difference-maker, and it's too deep a skill to leave to amateurs."

Search engine optimization has become something everyone with a presence on the web is starting to consider as the online landscape becomes littered with sites. A recent report from Internet Retailer found that 55.3 percent of respondents said they plan on increasing their search engine optimization (SEO) spending in 2009 while only 24.2 percent said they plan to increase paid search.

Courtesy of www.brafton.com

Ed. comment: "This shows that there is a great market for SEO amongst businesses and now especially with the crisis, I would say even more!"

All the more reason to be SEO aware and you can do so by checking out this link ... SEO Codebreaker

Whether you're brand-new to Internet marketing, or you've been selling online for a while now, search engine optimization is the one strategy you can't AFFORD to ignore!

Earn high rankings in the search engines, and you'll be rewarded with endless streams of quality FREE traffic heading straight to your website.

But neglect your rankings, and you'll spend ALL of your time trying to convince even a few visitors to stop by your site (and chances are, they won't even be interested in what you're selling when they show up).

Fortunately, optimizing your website for the search engines is neither rocket science nor brain surgery!

Armed with just a few tried-and-tested techniques, you should have no problem getting those coveted high rankings for your site.

The challenge, though, is that the search engine industry changes more quickly than most, so something that used to be a sure-fire SEO strategy can suddenly become useless...

... and it might even get your listings demoted to the back pages!

So to make sure you don't get penalized by the search engines -- or just plain IGNORED -- watch out for these seven deadly search engine optimization mistakes:

Deadly Mistake #1: Improper Use Of Your "Title" Tag

Not only does your title tag tell the search engines what your webpage is about, the title also appears in the search results for your site, as well as at the top of your visitors' browsers while they're on your site.

So this is DEFINITELY where you should put your best keywords!

But we routinely see site owners making pretty basic errors with their title tags, costing them good rankings, and sometimes, even their credibility.

So avoid these common title tag mistakes:

a. Not including a title tag at all

If you leave your title tag blank, your visitors will see "untitled document" in the search results, and the top of the browser.

This makes you look careless and unprofessional. Besides, who searches for untitled documents? You're squandering an opportunity for better SEO, and you're missing out on sales!

b. Using your URL as the title

Some site owners use the URLs of individual pages as the titles.

But, while a title tag like "sallysbeautyshop/cosmetics/product123.html" does contain the business name, the product category, and the product name itself, it's not very helpful to your rankings.

Remember, your title tags are for keywords.

c. Using a friendly greeting instead of a keyword-rich title

There's nothing wrong with a friendly greeting... in person.

But your title tag is the wrong place to say hello to your audience. And again, who searches for welcome messages?

d. Stuffing the title tag with single words

Don't take the shotgun approach and fill your title tag with a list of words off the top of your head in the vain hope of attracting traffic.

Instead, use one or two of your TOP keyword phrases (but keep it under 70 characters so it fits on one line).

Your title tag is easy to find and easy to change in your HTML code. On most web pages, it's right at the top, below your "head" tag.

Deadly Mistake #2: Misusing Your "Keywords" Meta Tag

Once upon a time, the search engines really cared about keyword meta tags, and would determine your site's relevance based on the content of this tag.

Well, those days are long gone, and a keyword meta tag -- even one that's well-written and contains just a couple of your best keywords -- will NOT help you get a higher ranking.

BUT... a poorly written meta tag CAN get your site penalized!

So our best advice is to use the meta keyword tag for what it was intended: to help you quickly and easily identify, in one line of HTML code, what keywords you've optimized that page for.

Meta tags only appear in your HTML code, not anywhere on your site. They're usually placed very close to the top of the page, near your title tag.

Deadly Mistake #3: Keyword Spamming Or Stuffing

The more keywords you have on your site -- and the more places you repeat them -- the better your search rankings will be, right?

Wrong!!

That may be the way it worked in the "olden" days, when the web was in its infancy, but the practice helped websites get high rankings for topics they didn't even cover.

So these days, Google's algorithm (the formula it uses to figure out where to rank pages on the search results) is much more complex than that, thanks to years of dealing with people trying to fudge the results.

So don't even bother with these outdated tricks...

* Typing your keywords over and over again in very small font at the top and bottom of your page -- blocks of tiny text either in the copy or the header tags don't improve your relevance

* Increasing your keyword density above about 10% -- you end up with a page full of text that doesn't make sense to anyone reading it

* Using "invisible" keywords (white text on a white background). This one is SO frowned-upon that it can get you delisted from Google altogether!

The only foolproof strategy is still to find out what kind of quality, relevant information your customers are searching for, and then give it to them. In the long run, it's by far the best strategy.

Deadly Mistake #4: Using Irrelevant Keywords To Attract More Traffic

So, you found some great keywords with low competition and great traffic numbers... but not quite on target with your website?

For instance, when Sarah Palin broke big in 2008, she was one of the most searched-for terms in the country. But if you'd put an article about her on your website, it wouldn't have increased your sales!

If people come to your page or website in search of a keyword phrase, and find that your site has nothing to do with it, they'll just leave again...

... so all the traffic in the world won't help you if it's off target.

And you can even end up diluting the theme of your website and irritating people so much that they report your website as spam to the search engines. And that's not worth any number of extra visitors!

Deadly Mistake #5: Creating Useless Content

The Internet is swamped with low-quality articles and blog posts that are created for NO other reason than to get better rankings.

But consider this: It can take potential customers 6 - 8 visits to your website -- and significant exposure to your content -- before they feel comfortable enough to make a purchase from you.

If the only content you've posted is just a few keywords repeated without any real substance, why would anyone bother coming back to read more?

This tactic can harm your reputation and your credibility... and once those are gone, it's almost impossible to get them back!

Deadly Mistake #6: Using "Doorway" Pages

When was the last time Google or Yahoo purchased a product from you?

We're guessing NEVER, right? So why would you create pages on your website that are exclusively for them? But that's exactly what people do with "doorway" pages (pages with very little text, but very high keyword density).

For example, if your page only has four words on it, and two of them are "sailboat," that gives the page a keyword density of 50%, which is great for search results...

... but if someone actually searches on the term "sailboat" and lands on the doorway page, there's nothing there for them! They'll have to click further into your site (and for each unnecessary click you ask visitors to make, you lose a large percentage of them).

Doorway pages are really frowned upon by the search engines, because they clog up the index with junk. It's just too easy to produce thousands of these pages that have a very high keyword density, but no real purpose, other than trying to build links and direct traffic to a single site.

Before you put a doorway page up, remember to ask yourself if it's actually providing useful information to your potential customers. If so great. If not, don't do it!

Deadly Mistake #7: Bait and Switch - "Magic" Pages, Redirects, and Cloaking

Search engines want to make sure that once they've indexed a page, the visitors they send there see the same thing they did. However, this isn't always the case.

Some site builders build two versions of their sites. The one for the spiders is full of the kind of stuff the search engines like. The one that regular visitors see is full of the flashy, off-topic effects that look cool, but it isn't the relevant, content-rich site it's advertised as.

This is a strategy that will end up hurting your business!

Your customers end up at a website that may not contain the keywords they were searching for, and instead, get to one with animation and all the bells and whistles that may not be important to them.

More importantly, the search engines feel ripped off, too.

When customers start pointing this kind of fraud out to them, the search engines are pretty good at delisting the offending sites. Is a few weeks of increased traffic really worth the risk of getting booted off Google for good?!

Finally, don't use spammy redirects on your site. These redirects send visitors from a page they think they're going to (one that's been optimized for the search engines), to another one altogether.

This deceptive method has been overused, and the search engines no longer fall for it. It can get your site penalized or delisted.

How You Can Avoid Being Penalized -- Or Worse -- By The Search Engines

These are just seven of the MANY search engine optimization techniques that can have a harmful effect on your site's rankings, some of which can potentially get you into hot water with the search engines!

So why take a chance?

If you're going to save yourself a TON of money by doing your own search engine optimization, make sure you get ongoing advice from an SEO expert who can tell you which strategies are working right now...

... as well as show you the strategies that you should AVOID.

All the more reason to be SEO aware and you can do so by checking out this link ... SEO Codebreaker

Social networking websites, especially Facebook, have significant implications for business owners, marketers, and entrepreneurs. To keep your business current, you should at least be familiar with the latest conversational marketing techniques and viral technologies, including Facebook and its array of powerful features.

Here are ten reasons to be active on Facebook:

1. Meet your peers. Facebook is not just for college kids anymore. Members are typically older and more mature than on other sites, and there are more white collar users.

2. Find business contacts. With more than 65 million active users, and predicted to be 200 million by the end of 2008, not only are your friends on Facebook, so are your prospects, your customers, your JV partners%u2026 and, of course, your competitors. You need to be on too.

3. Instant gate opener. Facebook members are open to connecting. You can easily begin a dialog with highly successful-even famous-people who were previously otherwise unreachable.

4. Build relationships. By engaging in conversations with your prospects and customers, you can better adapt your marketing and business services to meet their needs.

5. Raise visibility. By consistently showing up, posting relevant information, and being a thought leader, you can increase visibility and credibility as an expert in your area.

6. Develop your personal brand. The lines between business and personal have become blurred. You can reveal as much or as little about yourself as you wish, allowing you to personalize your brand.

7. Target your niche. Users volunteer vast amounts of information about themselves that you can readily access. These kinds of demographics, psychographics, and technographics would previously have cost fortunes to access. Author, John Battelle, calls Facebook a "database of intentions."

8. Get rapid top Google placement. Create a Page for your business and ''push" information to your "fans." Pages (for business) and Profiles (for personal) are indexed for optimal search engine positioning. Facebook has a page rank of #7 according to Alexa.

9. Place targeted ads. With Facebook Social Ads, you can test out extremely targeted advertising for minimal cost.

10. No cost marketing. Aside from paid ads, Facebook is totally free to use and with regular activity you'll end up with more traffic, more subscribers, and more paying clients.

Mari Smith is a Relationship Specialist, Internet Marketing Consultant and Facebook Business Coach.

http://facebookfortunes.com/

SEO Codebreaker..What is it and why should I even consider buying it? Lets begin with some fundamentals and put some meat on the bone of this review.

Everyone, well virtually everyone knows how easy it is to put an internet website together..you can use various programs, templates etc or you can "bite the Bullet" and pay somebody to do it for you.

Either way the job is far from finished at this point. The bottom line is that if "you aint got no visitors or traffic" (that's the technical term), then you are literally "up the creek without a paddle", because as we all know No Traffic= No Sales!

And how many people do you know including, maybe yourself, who have great websites, but with virtually no traffic. This really spells disaster for a would be Internet Marketer. The simple truth is that you can have all the adsense ads, textlinks, free offers etc, but if nobody sees them, how can you make any money!

So! How do you get traffic to your wonderful, beautifully designed new website?

The best, most cost effective (it can even be no cost) way to achieve this is to get traffic from the search engines. This is direct traffic and just to prove how effective it is, a recent survey carried out showed that over 70% of the population, of the USA, use search engines to find things or information that's a staggering amount. What does that mean to you? It means, if you get some of that traffic yep, you got it you make some Profit!

The way to get search engine traffic effectively, is by using Search Engine Optimization or SEO. This can be a real art and if done properly, i.e. by implementing SEO for your website and in all your sales strategies, you can rank your website highly in the search engines. This then drives lots of traffic to your website for your particular product and if your website is as good as you think, then you will get sales.

Sounds simple doesn't it?

Well don't believe all the claims that you read about how easy it is. SEO requires work, not just once, but on a consistent basis to keep your websites ranked highly in the search engines. That's why you can end up paying a small fortune to SEO companies or to individual experts, who will do this for you.

So, I guess when you look at it like that, you only really have 3 options.

1. Leave your website as it is and practice witchcraft or magic every night in the hope that people will notice your lonely website

2. Pay a professional loads of money and hope your product is good enough to justify the expenditure

3. Educate yourself in SEO and use your new found knowledge forever.

I don't know about you, but option 3 looks pretty good to me!

Infact, there is an old saying that "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime"

Ok! I can hear you asking "what's the relevance of that?" Well, it just says, that it's better for you to learn something (and, in this case, not pay someone else again and again), and then you can use your knowledge forever and make loads of money!

I know! The next question is going to be, "where can I learn this sort of information properly, no b***s**t and that will actually help me to do the job properly?" And of course, the most important thing is a way that won't require you to take out a mortgage or go back to college.

Ok, here is the answer you have been waiting for.....Drum Roll!

SEO Codebreaker by Charles Kirkland

You've probably never heard of Charles Kirkland. He is not some SEO guru, with a huge amount of full-time staff working around the clock for him. He is actually a guy who got fed up with struggling to make a living and whose business was a victim of the collapsing housing market. He knew about the importance of SEO and having your websites ranked highly with the search engines, so he set about learning everything he could about SEO, so he could keep his failing businesses going.

What he found out was that there was lots of information out there, but mostly written by people that had never done it for real. And to cap it all, the information was old, outdated, useless and would have little or no effect on his website rankings. He persevered and finally cracked the code. Now, this process allowed him to rocket his sites to the front page of Google, Yahoo and MSN which upset some very big companies. Despite the fact that most of his competitors were very well financed companies with entire departments dedicated to getting top search engine rankings, he was still able to hit the front page of Google in less than two weeks.
He has now decided to share this information, for very little cost to the general public.

I have to say that I was a little skeptical at first, thinking SEO Codebreaker was just another of those "let's relieve the public of some more of their hard earned cash" machines. However, in reality, what SEO Codebreaker actually is, is a comprehensive set of videos that explain virtually every facet of search engine optimization. It is concise, easy to follow and easy to understand (for such a complex subject) and in my opinion Charles has excelled himself.

The extensive set of videos for SEO Codebreaker is broken down into the following individual sections:

1. SEO Basics and Program Overview - covering SEO, what it really is about, search engines and directories, and an overview of the steps for an SEO project.

2. Market Research - covering market research and understanding the level of competition.

3. Keyword Research - Keyword research and using the right tools.

4. Onpage Factors - Often ignored, but explained what they are and how they work and how they can account for up to 20% of your webpage ranking ability.

5. Offpage Factors - covering ways of building traffic, such as link building, articles, free content and web forums.

6. Case Studies - covering a real live example of how Charles took a small one page website and pushed it to number one ranking with Google.

As you can see, the above sections cover an enormous amount of material - 5 hours of streaming videos to be exact!

So, the burning question! Do I think that SEO Codebreaker is worth the money?

I have to say that this question is an absolute "no brainer". With the number of people out there, struggling to get traffic, wasting vast amounts of money on really bad ways of getting traffic, purely because they don't know how. The bottom line is that it's not their fault, but now, there are no more excuses for being ignorant of getting traffic to your website...you can't use that whiney excuse of "This Internet Marketing stuff doesn't work".

So, get off your "butts" ASAP and buy SEO Codebreaker - it's worth its value 100 times over and comes with a 8 week money back guarantee as well as a 1 year free SEO membership and various other bonuses. I highly recommend it.

Click here to find out more about SEO Codebreaker

It's no secret that social media should be an integral part of your online marketing strategy. Creating viral content and promoting it is only a fraction of the equation. You must also strengthen your online footprint and become part of the network. Trying to figure out where to start can be daunting.

Follow these ten simple steps and you will be well on your way to being more connected, more plugged in and more efficient in 2008.

#1 - Connect. Add 2 contacts per week on either LinkedIn or Facebook. It's a great way to connect with people and get opportunities flowing. If you simply add 2 people per week, that will be 102 new people per year that are in your network and who you can possibly work with. Time Spent: 1 hour per week.

#2 - Master a Forum. Find one active forum (check to see how often people are posting) in your niche and create a real profile there. Introduce yourself and get involved - use the private messaging features to introduce yourself to other influential members (DON'T sell). Once you have made contributions, then feel free to share your products or services with the other members of the forum. Time Spent: 2 hours per week.

#3 - Cut Down & Move Up. Get rid of most of the blogs in your feed-reader. Unless you are running a site that relies on that latest news, you probably don't need to read hundreds of blogs each day. Instead focus on a handful in your industry that are viewed as highly influential. Comment at least once per week on each of those. After a month, email the author to let them know how much you enjoy their blog. When you have something good that you are looking to build links to, email them. It's no longer a "cold-call" now. Time Spent: 5 hours per month. Time Saved: 10 hours per month not reading everything.

#4 - Meet a Digger a Day. Spend 15 minutes per day (during the week) contacting a new person from Digg via instant message and forging a bond. You can usually locate this information right on their profile page and add them to your IM program. This simple task will do more for your chances of success at Digg than anything else you can ever do. Trust me. Most of the active diggers also have profiles on a lot of the other social networks so you are killing many birds with one stone. Time spent: 15 minutes per day.

#5 - Get Universal. Take advantage of Google Universal with video optimization. Create 1 video for your business and put it on YouTube. Build links to it. Hey, if a chiropractor can do it, so can you. Time Spent: 5 hours to create the video and 5 hours to get links to it.

#6 - Think Globally. For each submission that you make to Digg or reddit - use the same exact title and description and translate it to Spanish and submit to meneame (a "Spanish digg") and Scoopeo (a "French digg"). You'll be surprised at how much traffic and links they can generate (and you don't even have to translate your content). Use a quick translator to make this super easy. Time Spent: 10 Minutes Per Submission.

#7 - Focus. Stay away from the over-hyped, all-purpose social networks that don't drive traffic or influence people. They are out there and they want to suck your time up. Don't let them. If they can't get you decent traffic or links, don't waste your time. This is why it's so important to track your work closely and make sure you see where results are coming from. Time Saved: Countless Hours.

#8 - Answer. Answer 5 questions per day in your niche on Yahoo! Answers. Link drop to one of your sites every 5th answer. Time Spent: 15 Minutes per day.

#9 - Join the Conversation. Once per day, use a tool such as Google Blog Search or Serph to search for your name and your company. See where people are talking about you and join in on the conversation. Time Spent: Varies on your company but should be less than 20 minutes.

#10 - Year in Reviews. If you own a business or work for a client that does - there's a good shot that user generated reviews can play a big part in your life. Find out all of the places that are featuring your company and create a review there. Whether it's Amazon, Epinions, Yelp, CitySearch or Google Local they should all have reviews of your company from the people who know it best. Time Spent: 15 minutes per review + 5 minutes per day asking customers and contacts for reviews.

By embracing this holistic approach to social media marketing, you can accomplish so much for your business and spend less than five hours per week doing it. There will be other factors that come into play (creating linkbait, writing blog posts, etc) but by sticking to core basics like this you will have a strong blueprint for social media success in 2008!

Chris Winfield is the President and Co-Founder of 10e20, a specialized social media marketing company.

Seriously. Wipe it right out of your head.

Now, I'm not saying that product idea is going to doom your business to failure.

But what I AM saying is this:

When it comes to Internet marketing, it's not WHAT you sell that counts - it's WHO you sell it to!

If you don't take the steps necessary to make 100% sure there is an easily reachable market of people online who WANT TO BUY something you can sell them, then there's a strong chance you're building your business on QUICKSAND.

That's why in all of our programs and courses, the first thing we always, ALWAYS urge you to do is.......

MAKE SURE YOU'RE SELLING TO A NICHE MARKET WITH REAL PROFIT POTENTIAL!!!

By "niche market," I simply mean, a group of people who have a certain problem, and are ACTIVELY looking for a solution online without much luck.

(And of course, they must be willing to pay good money for that solution!)

If you can provide that group of people with a product or service that solves their problem, then your business has a good chance of making money.

BUT: No matter HOW fabulous your product is - if no one is looking to buy that product - or something like it - online, then your business will collapse like a pack of cards.

It's just that simple.

This isn't just for beginners, either. Even if you already HAVE an online business, you STILL need to make sure that you're targeting viable niche market. It's the only way to make sure your business is built on a solid foundation.

How do you make sure you've identified a market with great profit potential?

Simple! Once you've done your keyword research with a tool like Keyword Discovery or Wordtracker to identify a potential problem shared by a significant number of people online, you need to research your market online and find the answers to these four important questions:

1. Is the market easily defined and reachable?

You need to know where they hang out, what publications they read, if they have clubs or events that bring them together, and where they look for or share information online.

Most potential markets will already have places where they congregate. Look for groups, forums, discussion boards, clubs, and special websites - a simple Google search should bring up places to start. Links on any promising sites you find will point to other useful sites.

2. Is the market small enough that there are not many competitors - but large enough to allow you to make a profit?

You want a small pond, but it still needs enough "fish" in there to make it worth your efforts.

If these competitors look well supplied and well funded, it may be more difficult for a small business to compete for eyeballs, traffic, and PPC keywords. Too much heavy-duty competition is a sign that you should look for a smaller, more precise niche.

3. Will this market actually have and spend money?

You need to know if these people actually buy stuff!

It's actually a good sign if there are sites selling products for the market. If related products are being sold profitably, you know there's a viable market and you should consider these businesses as potential joint venture partners.

4. Does the group have a ridiculous amount of passion for the hobby or topic?

A motivated market eats, sleeps, and breathes their hobby.

You're looking for prospects who are so passionate that they must have all the information related to their subject. Think about video gamers or collectors........their obsessive passion is a big reason those markets are so huge!

Admittedly, this is just the tip of the "niche market research" iceberg.

There's a whole lot more you need to know, in terms of doing quality keyword research and how to find your niche market online. But no matter where you're at with your research, you always need to keep these four questions in mind.

They're the questions that will help you determine whether you're sitting on a sand pit......or a gold mine!

Written by Derek Gehl, CEO of the Internet Marketing Centre

HTML, JAVA, Cpanel, FTP, Upsells, Downsells,
OTO's, Main Pages Squeeze Pages....Order Pages,
Confirmation Pages, E-mail campaigns, it's...just...
about...enough...to make your head EXPLODE...

Sound painfully familiar?? Yeah, for me too.

Personally, it makes me itch all over just thinking
about it. And it's what we face each and every day
as an Internet Marketer... I pose a simple question
and I get 43,676 answers from Google, NONE of them the
same and NONE of them that make a bit of sense to me...

Information OVERLOAD can shut you down. Not only that
it can shut your business down..in a heartbeat. No
clicks, conversions or customers... game over.

--> FREE WEBSITE MAKER


But, it seems like someone was listening to our
collective screaming... Keith Wellman and Marc Horne
the guys behind The Million Dollar March are apparently
paying very close attention to that screaming actually.

The reason I know this is because I just got a line on
a little deal they just knocked out that you can grab
gratis...long as you're quick enough to get over there
and grab your copy before 999 other people beat you to it.

--> FREE WEBSITE MAKER


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As an Internet marketing guide, a lot of people ask me how to start and grow an online business. I tell them this: There's a proven sequence of steps you can follow to guarantee your success. How do I know? I've seen thousands of people start and grow online businesses following the same exact process.

Step 1: Find a need and fill it.
Most marketers make the mistake of finding a product before they have a market. But unless people are actively searching for your product online, you'll never make a sale. The trick is to find a group of people with a common problem they're trying to solve and then solve it.

Thankfully, the Internet makes market research easy. Here are some easy steps for researching your market:

* Visit online forums to see what questions people ask and what problems they're trying to solve.
* Figure out which keywords a lot of people are searching but not many sites are competing for.
* Check out your potential competitors by visiting their sites and taking note of what they're doing to fill demand.

After you've done this, use what you've learned to create a product for a market that already exists -- and do it better than your competitors.

Step 2: Write sales copy that sells.
On a Web site, your copy has to do the selling for you. There's a proven formula for writing sales copy that will take visitors through the selling process from the moment they arrive:

* Arouse interest with a compelling headline.
* Describe the problem your product can solve.
* Show them why you can be trusted to solve the problem.
* Add testimonials from people who've used the product.
* Talk about the product and how it benefits the user.
* Make an offer or a guarantee.
* Create urgency.
* Ask for the sale.

Throughout your sales copy, focus on how your product or service is uniquely able solve people's problems or make their lives better. Think like a customer and ask, what's in it for me?

Step 3: Design and build your Web site.
Once you've got your market and product and you've nailed down your selling process, you're ready to build your site. Remember to keep it simple. Your Web site is your online storefront, so be sure to make it customer friendly. You have less than 10 seconds to grab a visitor's attention before they're gone. Some important tips to keep in mind:

* Use a plain, sans-serif font, like Arial, on a white background.
* Make your navigation clear and simple and keep it consistent throughout your site.
* Only use graphics, audio, or video if they enhance your message.
* Include an opt-in offer so you can collect e-mail addresses.

Step 4: Use search engines to drive targeted buyers to your site.
How do you get traffic to a brand-new site? Pay-per-click advertising, which has two advantages:

* The ads show up on search pages immediately.
* They allow you to test different keywords, headlines, prices, and selling approaches.

Not only do you get traffic immediately, but once you've figured out what keywords are working best, you can use them throughout your copy and code, which will help your rankings in organic search results.

Step 5: Establish an expert reputation for yourself to drive even more traffic to your site.
People use the Internet to find information. If you provide valuable information for other sites to use -- and include a link back to your site -- you'll get more traffic and better search engine rankings. Some ideas for establishing yourself as an expert include:

* Give away free content, such as articles, videos, or other useful information, and distribute that content through online article directories and social media sites.
* Include "send to a friend" links on your site's valuable content.
* Become an active expert in industry forums and social networking sites where your target market hangs out.

If you use these tactics, you'll reach new readers. But even better, every site that posts your content will link back to yours, and search engines love links from relevant sites and will reward you in the rankings accordingly.

Step 6: Use the power of e-mail marketing to keep in touch with your visitors and turn them into buyers.
When you build an opt-in list, you're creating one of the most valuable assets your online business can have -- permission to send visitors e-mail. Why is e-mail marketing so valuable?

* You're giving potential customers something they've asked for.
* You're developing lifetime relationships with people in your target market.
* The response is 100% measurable.
* It's cheaper and more effective than print, TV, or radio advertising because it's highly targeted.
* It can be almost entirely automated.

Anyone who visits your site and opts in to your list is a very hot lead. And there's no better tool than e-mail to let you effortlessly follow up with those leads.

Step 7: Increase your income through back-end sales and upselling.
One of the most important Internet marketing guidelines is to develop every customer's lifetime value. At least 36% of people who have purchased from you once will buy from you again if you follow up with them. Closing the first sale with a customer is by far your most difficult task, not to mention your most expensive one. So here's how to get them to buy again:

* Offer products that complement their original purchase.
* Send out electronic loyalty coupons they can redeem on their next visit.
* Offer related products on your "thank you" page.

If you reward customers for being loyal, they'll become even more loyal to you in return.

Step 8: Start an affiliate program to maximize your sales and revenue.
Once your business is up and running, it's time to launch your affiliate program. Affiliates are people who promote your products on their sites for a cut of the selling price. Every time they send you a buyer, you pay them a commission.

An affiliate program is a simple, low-maintenance way to grow your business. Once you get your program set up, all you have to do is share your marketing materials with your affiliates and send out checks when they make sales.

By doing this, you don't have to go out and spend money on advertising -- your affiliates do the advertising for you. Better yet, you only pay them when they make a sale.

The Internet changes quickly, but the principles of how to start and grow a successful online business have changed very slowly in the more than 10 years I've been in the business.

If you're just starting out, stick to the sequence of steps in this quick guide. If you've been online awhile, do a quick review and see if there's a step you've been neglecting or never got around to doing in the first place. You can't go wrong with the basics.

Derek Gehl is Entrepreneur.com's "E-Business" columnist and the CEO of the Internet Marketing Center, an Internet marketing firm that has helped thousands of people learn to start and run their own online businesses. He has just released the 2007 edition of his comprehensive Internet marketing guide, The Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet.

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