Blogging is something which I do a lot of both because I enjoy it and also because of the many benefits it brings me.

I thought I would share a report with you which you can download without having to sign up for anything - that makes a nice change doesn’t it!

You can download Blogging Success by right clicking on the link and saving it to your own computer. Do make sure that you make a note of where you save it so that you can find it - in order to read it!

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Finding profitable niches can be difficult. Finding one that isn’t extremely saturated can be intimidating when you’re just starting out as an Internet marketer. The key to finding niches that are both profitable and have little competition is drilling down a top-level niche to find profitable sub-niches with fewer competitors.

For example, let’s say you’re interested in creating a site that has to do with beauty. You can drill the beauty category down into several different sub-categories. You could choose hair care, skin care, fitness, organic beauty, cosmetics, or any number of niches related to beauty.

But these categories are still too broad to be profitable with small numbers of visitors. You need to drill down further. Let’s say you decide to tackle the skin care demographic. Sub-categories of skin care might include eczema, acne, blackheads, wrinkles, age spots, psoriasis, and dry skin.

Now you have a list of smaller niches that you can begin to narrow down. Acne might still be too broad. You can drill down even more by targeting teenage acne, infant acne, and adult acne.

While you want to find niches that are narrow enough for you to dominate, you don’t want to choose niches that have too little traffic available. Don’t be afraid to spy on your competitors.

Go to your favorite search engine, like Google, and search for things like “how to get rid of acne.” This is obviously a niche desperately seeking a solution. If you drill down too much, like targeting “blackheads,” you might find it’s an annoyance, but maybe not something people are desperate enough to spend money solving.

You should verify that your idea gets a decent level of search volume by using a keyword tool like WordTracker or Google Keyword External. When you look for the niche on Google, see if there are plenty of AdWords ads on the right sidebar of the screen.

If so, this means people are making money in this niche. Any time you can come up with an original slant on an idea that’s already churning profits online, you’re poised for instant success.

If you rally want to get into the eBay niche, don’t go after a broad, eBay for beginners niche. Target something unique such as “eBay Businesses for Baby Boomers.” Pick a specific target audience and then cater to their needs instead of approaching the mass public with a broad idea.

Over the past few weeks I have been interested to see the number of Internet Marketers who have started pushing, their often pricey, Internet Marketing Coaching programmes. My interest arose because I have been coaching both online and offline for many years in business, management, internet marketing and indeed personal development. As a professional learning and development specialist in the offline world I have been particularily interested in developing my coaching skills and have spent considerable amounts of money on honing my skills.

Given that, I am sure you can imagine my reaction when someone on a popular internet marketing forum made a statement along the lines of “oh anyone can coach there is no particular skill involved!” It was that comment that made me take a closer look at what some Internet Marketers are offering as “Coaching Programmes” and to say that they are a million miles away from my understanding of coaching would be an understatement. From my observations what they are effectively offering is a pre-written “teacher/expert” led programme which has little or nothing to do with the identified need of the individual they are offering it to. What seems to be happening is that they are branding their programme because “coaching” is fashionable, sexy, popular and gets attention!

A few days ago a friend of mine started a thread at a popular Internet Marketing Forum about the approach he had received from a so called Internet Marketing Coach about joining their $15,000 Coaching Programme. There was an interesting discussion which ensued and one of the contributors posed some excellent questions which I would recommend anyone should ask someone who was offering to coach them. It was in response to those comments that it became obvious that many of these Internet Marketers just see Coaching as another route through which to make money.

So let’s take a look at some basics and let’s start by looking at what Coaching actually is and how it differs from what many Internet Marketers are offering.

Coaching is a one to one or one to few interactive relationship which enables the person being coached to achieve the goals and objectives they identify with their coach. The role of a coach is to help the individual to travel from where they are now to where they have identified they want to be.

Consultancy is where the Consultant as expert. Consultants are the ones who give you direct answers to specific problems and sometimes help you to apply those solutions.

Teaching is the transfer of knowledge where the teacher as expert imparts their knowledge and it is left to the person being taught to apply the knowledge to their particular situation. Having said that there are different approaches to teaching which have evolved over recent years where the Teacher takes on more of a facilitator type role.

As I have watched the discussions and observed many Internet Marketers they predominantly take on the role of teacher where they impart their knowledge of techniques, strategies and approaches to the development of an online business. This has it’s place and indeed has value in certain circumstances and in some instances the amount they charge can probably be justified. However, when you have completed their programme will you be able to adapt and change should the techniques you have been taught no longer work? The reality, again from what I have seen is that no you won’t! That’s why for me much of what is offered as Internet Marketing Coaching is nothing of the sort. Why? Well because with real coaching you will work with someone who will be focused on your development rather than on simply tactics.

Let me explain a little more by talking about the typical Internet Marketer who might seek out “Coaching” and maybe you might recognise yourself? Or be able to think about what you need a little more clearly. So our typical Internet Marketer, let’s call them Joe, they have lots of ideas about how they can make money but they flit from idea to idea and always feel like they are one big idea away from success. They spend lots of money buying all the latest courses, ebooks and special offers trying to find the next thing that will enable them to move forward! Now the Internet Marketer who sells their “Coaching” would see this as an opportunity to sell their “This is how you make money” programme. The true Internet Marketing or Business Coach would see this as an opportunity to work with you on:

Identifying your key priorities
Assessing your strengths,
Decreasing the chaos in your life
Helping you to focus on making business decisions
Creating specific action plans
Being a sounding board for the flow of ideas
Holding you accountable for delivery against agreed objectives
Understanding your customers and their needs
and much more…..

Do you see the difference between what we see offered and what you could get from Internet Marketing Coaching?

Getting your name and business in front of your potential clients on a regular basis can take a lot of time and effort can’t it? There is only so much you can do and so many hours in the day!

What if I told you there is a way of getting your name, brand and message in front of countless numbers of people without spending inordinate amounts of time, money and effort? No it isn’t some dubious method that you would not want to be associated with! It’s something I have talked about before as a “must have” tool in the Coach, Counselor and Consultant arsenal.

Twitter!

The way Twitter works is incredibly simplisitic and because of how quickly you are able to post updates that showcase your products, services or projects that you are working on, it’s easy to see why so many successful marketers have focused their attention on dominating this social community, while it’s still in its infancy.

Take a look at Twitter Explained to see what you can do with this great resource.

I do like the new way that Bryan Winters has just launched to generate leads, build lists and even make potential affiliate sales in the process. His new One Minute Site system is quite unique as far as I am aware.

Not only are One Minute Sites unique and innovative in the way that they capture leads
and build lists but the speed with which you can have your (first) One Minute Site online excellent! Just fill in a few blanks, click a button, and you’re done. Take a look by clicking on the link below:

List Building Sites

Probably the question I am asked most frequently is “What Does It Take to Succeed in Internet Marketing?” because for some people it has become akin to the pursuit of the Holy Grail. In this way it has become shrouded in some sort of mist and indeed it often seems as if it is all smoke and mirrors!

What I see happening and this is equally true of people at every level in internet marketing is that the focus is too often on the tactics and the minutae of doing. People choose something to pursue or hop from idea to idea and think that this tactic or that idea will suddenly be the one!

I was talking with someone this morning who asked me how I tended to explain how to be successful in Internet Based Marketing. I summarised it in three steps:

1. Know what you want - a business, extra spending money, money for a particular thing, a hobby.
2. Work and behave based on your answer to what you decide in response to point one. Learn the skills necessary - if you want a business learn how to build one, if you want extra spending money learn how to make it etc etc
3. Do it!

Many people will tell you that they want a home based business because they want to be free! but give them the freedom and they would hate it! The security of a regular (well as regular as these things can be) income and someone else to make the key decisions is what they really need but they get caught up in the idea or dream of being their own boss.

They spend hours, days and months hopping from one idea to the next in the hope that they can build a business and get needlessly frustrated by it all. One of the things that I have found when coaching people is that what they really want is to make a little extra spending money or some money to pay for a new car or for a holiday or something else that will make their life better without taking away the security that they really do need in their life.

Read any of the major forums to do with Internet Marketing and you will see people asking questions that make you wonder what they really want from Internet Based Marketing. I remember seeing a little while ago someone asking whether other people responded to emails from the lists they have built in various niches. You know the sort of thing I mean? When someone joins their Dog Niche Newsletter (probably a Private Label Rights Newsletter they bought for $20) and then writes and asks a question because they think you know what you are talking about. Well this individual saw this as an intrusion and something he really couldn’t be spending his time on - all he wanted was for the subscribers to buy one or more of the products he promoted every other newsletter! Heaven forbid that they start to engage with him as an authority on his niche!

The responses in the thread were quite illuminating but what was completely missed was the fact that he had bought the idea of “the money is in the list” without understanding what part list building really plays in building a business. But I bet of someone had sat down with him and asked him what he really wanted they would have soon discovered that he didn’t want to build a business! He probably just wanted some extra money each month to help him along with his life - absolutely nothing wrong with that and indeed it’s not only commendable but is also precisely the sort of opportunity which Internet Based Marketing can provide for anyone.

Yes if you want to build a business on the internet you can do but of that isn’t what you want then don’t get sucked into the idea that is the way to succeed.

If you want to build a business then learn business skills! Discover who you want to be the supplier to, what it is that they need and how you can meet and exceed their expectations. Building a real customer centred business is a subject for another day!

If you haven’t already subscribed to my Business Creators Newsletter which comes out directly to your inbox each week then you will want to!

If you join my Free Email Publication I’ll ot only let you have your choice of a range of Platinum Reports - I’ll even send you A $25 Surprise Gift!

You can sign up at Business Creators now!

If you’ve decided to start your own home-based Internet business, but don’t quite know where to begin, don’t worry! Starting an Internet business doesn’t have to be complicated, overwhelming, or intimidating. With proper planning and a willingness to take action, your new business can be up and running in no time at all.

While it may be tempting to try and come up with the “next big idea” for a product or service, many people have found that the surest way to build a successful online business (i.e. one that makes money!) is to find out what people are already buying online. It’s all very well to come up with some newfangled idea… but if no one wants to buy it… you ain’t got a business! If, on the other hand, you can see what people are already buying – and how you can deliver a unique and better product or service that would appeal to such people – you are much more likely to have a money-making business.

So do some research and find out what people are buying. This will bring to light the various Internet-based markets for goods and services. Do any of these interest you? Can you see where there are gaps in what companies are (or are not) providing?

In particular, it’s often advisable to focus on an area where you already have some knowledge and expertise. For instance, you may have some ideas for improving on the products or services already being sold. However, that doesn’t rule out going into a totally unfamiliar market. If you wish to sell products or services that are new to you, you just need to find out everything you need to know about the relevant customers, products and services in order to come up with a superior, compelling offer.

Once you’ve worked out what you’re going to sell and to whom you’re going to sell it, the next step is to decide on what legal structure your business will take. Depending on the type of business you are planning to launch, you may or may not need to retain the services of a lawyer. However, it is important to investigate the business license requirements and zoning laws in your area. You don’t want to start your online business only to end up with fines or even worse, being closed down because you have violated the laws of your community! Your local government should be able to supply you with the needed information, but you may also want to ask a lawyer for assistance.

An essential part of building your online business is selecting an appropriate domain name. It’s often ideal to incorporate the name(s) of the products or services you sell into your domain name, as many prospective customers may search on such terms when looking for your type of product or service. Having these “search terms” in your domain name can also help your website achieve a higher ranking in the search engines.

After you have your domain name, you’ll then need to establish your online presence. Before designing – or hiring someone to design – your site, think carefully about what your site is designed to do (e.g. encourage people to buy?) and how your site should be designed to maximize your desired results. Then pick a web host to host your site and either design the website yourself or hire someone to design it for you.

It can be fairly straightforward to build a website using templates and tools such as Microsoft Front Page. You can also find some helpful tutorials to teach you how to use HTML, the primary website language. However, if you lack the time or skills to design your website, it’s wise to hire an experienced web designer.

Finally, with your website up and running, you need to promote your business and build your customer base. Your main goals are to generate traffic and convert into customers. It’s also a good idea to offer your visitors something to entice them to sign up to a mailing list. With a mailing list you can regularly send promotional emails to prospective customers. In many cases, a percentage of those subscribers – those who didn’t buy straight away – will buy from you because you emailed them. Just be sure that your emails give subscribers something of value – e.g. helpful information – and are not just annoying sales pitches.

Like anything, starting a home-based Internet business takes careful planning and, most of all, action! After you’ve planned how you intend to run your business, it’s crucial to get it started. Although this can be daunting, by taking it one step at a time, you’ll have your business up and running in much less time that it would take if you let yourself become overwhelmed. Take a look at my 21 Day Free eCourse on How To Start A Home Based Business and give yourself a step up the learning curve - yes I know that was a little bit of a mixed metaphor.

Having looked at the basics of Search Engine Marketing I thought that you would find it helpful to listen to a free interview which Jonathan Leger gave recently. Jon looks at some of the Search Engine Marketing Myths and gives a real insight into some ideas. Have a listen and see what you think:

Search Engine Marketing Myths

Search engine marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on generating a high ranking on the Internet search engine results pages (”SERPs”) of the major search engines. Search engine marketing – also known simply as “search marketing” – includes search engine optimization (SEO) on the one hand, and various kinds of paid search engine marketing including “pay-per-click”, “paid inclusion” and “paid placement” on the other.

A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help users find information stored on the Internet. Essentially, search engines were built to help minimize the amount of time required to locate information. Nowadays, they are the main tool used by Internet users to find the information they want. Consequently, search engines are a major source of web traffic for many websites. Moreover, because search engine users tend not to look beyond the first few pages of results, the higher the ranking achieved by your website, the more search engine traffic it is likely to receive.

Search engine optimization is the process of increasing your search engine ranking for specific keywords. In other words, if you know that many of your prospective customers tend to search for your products and services using particular keywords, you want your site to be highly ranked in the SERPs for those keywords. In general, to achieve a high ranking, you need your website to be perceived by the search engines as being highly “relevant” for those keywords. Although the algorithms used by search engines are a carefully guarded secret, it is generally believed that this involves designing your website in a certain way, as well as attracting “back links” from other relevant (”authority”) sites.

While achieving a high ranking in the SERPs via search engine optimization can take time and effort, it doesn’t take much time to get a high ranking in the paid listings… if you’re willing to pay! Essentially, you can have your site or ad appear high on the paid listings in return for a fee. Pay-per-click advertising, for example, is where the search engines display a short ad for your website on the right-hand side of the SERPs in return for a fee. The amount of this fee will depend on how popular are the keywords you’re targeting. Fees can range from $0.05, to $5 to $50 per click!

Paid inclusion programs are programs where, in exchange for a fee, a search engine will guarantee the inclusion of your website listing. The downside of these programs is that they cannot guarantee that the pages will rank high for certain keyword searches. This is in contrast to paid placement programs, which do guarantee top listings if you pay a high enough fee. Paid placement can be particularly expensive. Both paid placement and paid inclusion typically involve a flat fee.

While there is a cost involved in either search engine optimization or paid search, both can be very cost effective compared to other means of advertising and marketing. It is generally wise for anyone with a website to consider pursuing some form of search engine marketing.