I will cntinue from where I left off shortly
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Talk About Running Head First Into A Brick Wall!
Sorry regular readers for teh break there in transmission. Came down with a dreadful lurgie that kept me feeling more like my lungs were the twins of Spongebob Squarepants!
I will cntinue from where I left off shortly
I will cntinue from where I left off shortly
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Day 001.3
Can't Be Bothered Reading? Press Play!
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So now you have the tool to see how many people search for your niche term. Next we need a tool to see whether the searches are seasonal. If you think about it, searching for "Christmas" in November is going to show you more hits, than if you searched for it in February. So how do we do this...and for free?
Google trends is a very handy URL to have in your bookmarks.
Google trends will show you whether there is a seasonal aspect to your searching as well as showing you whether the search has been influenced by recent press stories. At the time of writing there is a scandal involving astronauts. In the months to come when Google trends collates their data there will be a spike in searches for astronauts, but Google will also note the news item spike at the same time.
Also handy is the trend comparison with searches. Just type in the search terms you want to compare, seperated by a comma and voila! a nice graph that compares the two.
Oh one last thing. Make sure you are searching in your target market area. If you want to sell to the USA make sure you are searching the USA searches. Countries have their own peculiarities and you don't want to skew your results.
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So now you have the tool to see how many people search for your niche term. Next we need a tool to see whether the searches are seasonal. If you think about it, searching for "Christmas" in November is going to show you more hits, than if you searched for it in February. So how do we do this...and for free?
Google trends is a very handy URL to have in your bookmarks.
Google trends will show you whether there is a seasonal aspect to your searching as well as showing you whether the search has been influenced by recent press stories. At the time of writing there is a scandal involving astronauts. In the months to come when Google trends collates their data there will be a spike in searches for astronauts, but Google will also note the news item spike at the same time.
Also handy is the trend comparison with searches. Just type in the search terms you want to compare, seperated by a comma and voila! a nice graph that compares the two.
Oh one last thing. Make sure you are searching in your target market area. If you want to sell to the USA make sure you are searching the USA searches. Countries have their own peculiarities and you don't want to skew your results.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Day 001.2
Can't Be Bothered Reading? Press Play!
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Pre-postscript
Silly me! Left this post in draft form and forgot to hit publish. *slaps wrist*. You might have noticed I have podcast each post. I'll be doing that for every post because I know there are plenty of people out there that learn from hearing rather than reading.
I know I learn from seeing and hearing rather than reading.
So onto the numbers bit. The previous post showed how I made lists of subjects which were then crushed down to gravel sized pieces. Now to extract the diamonds!
Here is where the filtering comes in as we run some tools over the list of posible niche topics.
First filter is "is there anything in your list where you KNOW there is a gap in the market". Have you ever gone "hmm I really wish there was a XYZ in my ABC area of interest". If you KNOW there is a need for something in that niche then they should go to the top of the pile. We can look at how to judge and refine need, desire & interest a little later.
next...tools
For those that have been reading or have read "how-to make money on the internet" type of literature you would have come across the name Yahoo Overture. Well alas Overture is to be sunsetted (and frankly from all I have read has been tired and grumpy for some time). So what to use instead?
Well here is the first of my recommendations (remember free or cheap is the name of the game here for me).
Wordtracker* is a great way to do what Overture did but in a supported and fast environment. I really recommend that if you are emulating me then do what I did, have your gravel list in hand, buy a days worth of searching and go for it. Again, check out the free search and make up your own mind about whether you think it is a great tool.
Anyway what are you doing here at Wordtracker* ? Well you are looking at how many searches per day are made on the particular niche you are interested in. It is a pretty accepted fact that you will need AT LEAST 200 new people visiting your site every day. It is also accepted that Wordtracker* like Overture, is only a percentage of total searches, and a small one at that. So you will need to multiple the amount of searches in overture by about a conservative 5. (better to err on the side of sense!). Then out of those searches, how many will actually visit your page or your ad?
So does your search get a good hit for a small niche?
More tomorrow
*Wordtracker* is an affiliate link.
powered by ODEO
Pre-postscript
Silly me! Left this post in draft form and forgot to hit publish. *slaps wrist*. You might have noticed I have podcast each post. I'll be doing that for every post because I know there are plenty of people out there that learn from hearing rather than reading.
I know I learn from seeing and hearing rather than reading.
So onto the numbers bit. The previous post showed how I made lists of subjects which were then crushed down to gravel sized pieces. Now to extract the diamonds!
Here is where the filtering comes in as we run some tools over the list of posible niche topics.
First filter is "is there anything in your list where you KNOW there is a gap in the market". Have you ever gone "hmm I really wish there was a XYZ in my ABC area of interest". If you KNOW there is a need for something in that niche then they should go to the top of the pile. We can look at how to judge and refine need, desire & interest a little later.
next...tools
For those that have been reading or have read "how-to make money on the internet" type of literature you would have come across the name Yahoo Overture. Well alas Overture is to be sunsetted (and frankly from all I have read has been tired and grumpy for some time). So what to use instead?
Well here is the first of my recommendations (remember free or cheap is the name of the game here for me).
Wordtracker* is a great way to do what Overture did but in a supported and fast environment. I really recommend that if you are emulating me then do what I did, have your gravel list in hand, buy a days worth of searching and go for it. Again, check out the free search and make up your own mind about whether you think it is a great tool.
Anyway what are you doing here at Wordtracker* ? Well you are looking at how many searches per day are made on the particular niche you are interested in. It is a pretty accepted fact that you will need AT LEAST 200 new people visiting your site every day. It is also accepted that Wordtracker* like Overture, is only a percentage of total searches, and a small one at that. So you will need to multiple the amount of searches in overture by about a conservative 5. (better to err on the side of sense!). Then out of those searches, how many will actually visit your page or your ad?
So does your search get a good hit for a small niche?
More tomorrow
*Wordtracker* is an affiliate link.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Day 001.1
Can't Be Bothered Reading? Press Play!
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Niche picking time!
Niche picking is like choosing where you would like to take a holiday. You have to weigh up the pros and cons of each place then choose. From several sources I have come across one thing has stood out about niche picking, indeed about this whole Internet marketing thing, if you cannot be passionate about your niche then you will have a hard time making it successful.
So listing pro and cons and stats and figures are fine, but in the very end, can you answer truthfully that you are passionate enough about this niche to put a hell of a lot of work into it?
If the answer is YES! then go for it...if the answer is um well maybe? Then I would suggest going right ahead and picking something you love and damn the rest of the Internet, because your passion is going to come through.
You are going to be spending hours and hours (and probably days) working on this niche, if you aren't interested from the beginning, then that will taint your final product.
Get Excited!
So how did I choose my niche?
I made a list.
Not sure if you can see the above but it is the handy dandy Docs & Spreadsheets offering from Google. Did I also mention I will be making this first niche effort with as little money as possible? No? OK well I am! I'll keep a running tab of expenditure at the end of each post so you can see how my balance sheet is going...now back to the niche picking
No longer do you need to a) have a PC with some form of office product installed or b) even have a PC. Log into your Google account anywhere and work on your stuff. Making lists is easy and fun (for most people :))
I started off making a list of my hobbies, pass times, things that interest me. I didn't filter anything. Remember that! Filtering is bad...really bad. The logical part of your brain is more likely to repeat back to your things that you heard or read. When deciding what insurance company to go with or where to get a bank loan that is helpful. For making lists of what you like are are interested in, let your intuition be your guide.
Remember that saying "dance like no one is watching?" well that's what you are doing here. Just write the list of things you like. Be daring...go wayyyyyyyyyyyyy out on a limb. Do not let the logical side of your brain tell you "no one will like that!". Of course someone likes that..YOU like it! So go for it.
Next comes the refining process. You have put the big boulders into the crushing machine and now you have to make them smaller. That is where the spreadsheet above comes in handy. As you can see I have listed "fiction writing" then chunked it down to various sub headings. If I wanted to I could then chunk them down again with headings like
How about you give it a try and tell me how you are going!
I'll show you the nitty gritty numbers bit in the next post
powered by ODEO
Niche picking time!
Niche picking is like choosing where you would like to take a holiday. You have to weigh up the pros and cons of each place then choose. From several sources I have come across one thing has stood out about niche picking, indeed about this whole Internet marketing thing, if you cannot be passionate about your niche then you will have a hard time making it successful.
So listing pro and cons and stats and figures are fine, but in the very end, can you answer truthfully that you are passionate enough about this niche to put a hell of a lot of work into it?
If the answer is YES! then go for it...if the answer is um well maybe? Then I would suggest going right ahead and picking something you love and damn the rest of the Internet, because your passion is going to come through.
You are going to be spending hours and hours (and probably days) working on this niche, if you aren't interested from the beginning, then that will taint your final product.
Get Excited!
So how did I choose my niche?
I made a list.
Not sure if you can see the above but it is the handy dandy Docs & Spreadsheets offering from Google. Did I also mention I will be making this first niche effort with as little money as possible? No? OK well I am! I'll keep a running tab of expenditure at the end of each post so you can see how my balance sheet is going...now back to the niche picking
No longer do you need to a) have a PC with some form of office product installed or b) even have a PC. Log into your Google account anywhere and work on your stuff. Making lists is easy and fun (for most people :))
I started off making a list of my hobbies, pass times, things that interest me. I didn't filter anything. Remember that! Filtering is bad...really bad. The logical part of your brain is more likely to repeat back to your things that you heard or read. When deciding what insurance company to go with or where to get a bank loan that is helpful. For making lists of what you like are are interested in, let your intuition be your guide.
Remember that saying "dance like no one is watching?" well that's what you are doing here. Just write the list of things you like. Be daring...go wayyyyyyyyyyyyy out on a limb. Do not let the logical side of your brain tell you "no one will like that!". Of course someone likes that..YOU like it! So go for it.
Next comes the refining process. You have put the big boulders into the crushing machine and now you have to make them smaller. That is where the spreadsheet above comes in handy. As you can see I have listed "fiction writing" then chunked it down to various sub headings. If I wanted to I could then chunk them down again with headings like
- how to write
- selling the best
- collecting
How about you give it a try and tell me how you are going!
I'll show you the nitty gritty numbers bit in the next post
Day 001
Can't Be Bothered Reading? Press Play!
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Yes it is day one and I am still sorting my options for a niche.
Do you want to know how I am doing it?
Well I'll show you come this afternoon. Keep in mind that this is a quick and nasty niche decision because I know myself well enough to acknowledge that I could analyse and ponder FOR EVER! Sound familiar?
So as we come up to the first hurdle and prepare to leap over it I want to ask you...have you reached this point too but not gone any further? Leave me a comment because I would love to hear your experience in this
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Yes it is day one and I am still sorting my options for a niche.
Do you want to know how I am doing it?
Well I'll show you come this afternoon. Keep in mind that this is a quick and nasty niche decision because I know myself well enough to acknowledge that I could analyse and ponder FOR EVER! Sound familiar?
So as we come up to the first hurdle and prepare to leap over it I want to ask you...have you reached this point too but not gone any further? Leave me a comment because I would love to hear your experience in this
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Day Zero .2
Can't Be Bothered Reading? Press Play!
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Added the feed links and the digg, technoratti etc links. I think we have things just right for the time being.
Now comes the fun part going off and researching a market. As this is my first attempt and I have seen that this is one of the biggest stumbling blocks for many, I am not going to be perfect, nor even try to be perfect. I am giving myself 24 hours from this moment to choose a niche. That way I am compelled to start somewhere and soon.
24 hours...easy!
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Added the feed links and the digg, technoratti etc links. I think we have things just right for the time being.
Now comes the fun part going off and researching a market. As this is my first attempt and I have seen that this is one of the biggest stumbling blocks for many, I am not going to be perfect, nor even try to be perfect. I am giving myself 24 hours from this moment to choose a niche. That way I am compelled to start somewhere and soon.
24 hours...easy!
Day Zero .1
Can't Be Bothered Reading? Click Play!
powered by ODEO
Alrighty. I have "monetized" the blog by using the usual adsense ads from Google *points here and here*. I don't expect that much (if indeed anything) will come out of those ads but they can stay for the mean time
I have also gone quick smart over to MyBlogLog and signed up for an account there. The great thing about MyBlogLog is the way the widget works with the cross linking. You can see who has been to your blog and they can see you have been to theirs. I have a few MyBlogLog tactics that I use to get more traffic than the average blog but I think I'll keep them up my sleeve for a product. I learned them from another blog I run (not for profit).
After all I can't claim to have "secrets" if I don't really have any, can I?
Oh by the way, I'll state right here, I dislike intensely most of the "marketing" tactics that self styled marketing "gurus" use. I find the lack of ethics in this area deplorable, and if you think you are being ripped off by one of these "gurus" you probably are. Always, always remember buyer beware! Get guarantees in writing and make sure you can take the time in the cooling off period to speak to people who have purchased that product to hear their views of the value for money.
I haven't been here for long, but I have been here long enough to see that many "programs" are not going to help the average Joe who is overwhelmed by the whole internet marketing scene.
powered by ODEO
Alrighty. I have "monetized" the blog by using the usual adsense ads from Google *points here and here*. I don't expect that much (if indeed anything) will come out of those ads but they can stay for the mean time
I have also gone quick smart over to MyBlogLog and signed up for an account there. The great thing about MyBlogLog is the way the widget works with the cross linking. You can see who has been to your blog and they can see you have been to theirs. I have a few MyBlogLog tactics that I use to get more traffic than the average blog but I think I'll keep them up my sleeve for a product. I learned them from another blog I run (not for profit).
After all I can't claim to have "secrets" if I don't really have any, can I?
Oh by the way, I'll state right here, I dislike intensely most of the "marketing" tactics that self styled marketing "gurus" use. I find the lack of ethics in this area deplorable, and if you think you are being ripped off by one of these "gurus" you probably are. Always, always remember buyer beware! Get guarantees in writing and make sure you can take the time in the cooling off period to speak to people who have purchased that product to hear their views of the value for money.
I haven't been here for long, but I have been here long enough to see that many "programs" are not going to help the average Joe who is overwhelmed by the whole internet marketing scene.
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