Niche Vs Internet Marketing? Which One Is Best For Me?

There is a lot of marketing going on the Internet. With so much going on, it can be extremely difficult to distinguish the differences between the two. I am going to make it a little clearer for you, I will review some of the differences between Internet marketing and niche marketing.

Internet marketing and niche marketing are apples and oranges, they are both fruit but yet have their unique differences. Internet marketing is the apple, where niche marketing is the orange.

What is Niche Marketing?

Niche marketing is when you are selling a specific product to customers looking for that particular product. There are some niches that are extremely competitive, and some that have little or no competition. You can also take a niche market and create a microniche market. The key is for you to find the niche with little or no competition.

There are so many of the larger niche markets that are open to the latest and greatest marketing strategies, whereas the smaller niches are much easier to break into because they aren’t swamped with all the big-time Internet gurus posing as your competition. By going with your own niche market, you get to promote it yourself, or promote a niche affiliate product.

How To Find A Niche Market?

You can find a niche market for anything! If you can imagine it, you can sell it. All you need is a great idea, great product (whether you create it or not), some advertising, and a strong will and intention to succeed.

What Is The Internet Marketing Niche?

This is where you are promoting your own Internet marketing product. There is a lot of competition in this market and much harder to break into and see quick results.

You are competing with a lot of very wise men and women who are the best of the best when it comes to Internet marketing, also known as Internet Gurus. Does this mean it is impossible? NO…you CAN DO IT!

You are in a world that works with supply and demand, meaning if you have a product that can go up against the big guys, and if you have an iron will to win, then by all means, you will succeed in the big league. Remember however, there are easier ways to get started than jumping right into the ball field with the hard hitters.

There are innumerable niches that are still untouched, just waiting for you to jump in and take over. Go with something that you are familiar with, a hobby, a talent, something you are passionate about. Not only will this give you an edge in the market, but you can have fun with it too.

Niche Marketing Tips

1. Make your niche very appealing for anyone to sell or resell your product. By making your product appealing, you make it easier and more cost effective to advertise in a specialized market.

2. Focus on the specific needs of your target audience and create your product to meet those needs.

3. Maybe you have written an Ebook on beating insomnia, giving proven methods to overcome this safely and easily, and can virtually apply to everyone. You will be sought out by those who suffer insomnia, searching for the information you have to offer.

4. If you have a website, blog or product that focuses on writing the perfect resume’, you will not be attracting the market looking to start an online business. Focus on your market, your targeted audience.

Summary…Remember, Apples and Oranges…

By using your creativity, a little elbow grease, some committed action, and niche marketing will become a very effective and cost efficient way to sell your products and services, advertise to a specific audience, and bring in buyers of your product or service.

What can you do to become a pro-blogger?

Well, you need to get a lot of traffic to your blog.

And now you thinking….’I already know that, but HOW am I going to do it? I have some trade secrets to let you in on. By using these trade secrets, you too, can become a pro blogger.

Today, you are going to learn some great tricks of the trade to grab the attention of StumbleUpon, and use their platform to set your blog on fire. These tips and tricks will get you anywhere from the hundreds up to the thousands of StumbleUpon visitors each day.

StumbleUpon does lean toward some niches more than others, and you need to use this to work for your advantage. You will find that StumbleUpon can be one of the greatest viral marketing tool out there. So here are some tips:

• If you do have a niche that is lacking in the mass appeal, StumbleUpon will be a great boost for you where the others won’t. Digg uses a broad forum which keeps their power from weakening in traffic. StumbleUpon works a bit differently by creating more specific categories, providing a more targeted audience.

• Write posts that appeal to the particular social media, if you go for the general appeal, you are going to lose your followers. For instance, Del.icio.us likes anything that their users prefer, Digg likes the appeal of the masses. You have to have content that is going to get thousands of hits, or you won’t become a pro-blogger.

• When you are writing for StumbleUpon, you don’t need to worry about pleasing the masses, matter of fact, you benefit more by sticking with your niche, yes, even your small ones, and this will bring you some highly targeted traffic.

• So, write your content for your niche, not for the general public. By doing this, you will increase your chances to your post will be submitted to receive more traffic in a more specific category.

In another blog, I will go into the types of posts you should and should not be making. I will go into the types of content and the things you can do to make your blog more appealing to StumbleUpon.

You Know About SEO, But, Do You Know About SMO?

SEO is Search Engine Optimization, which is known to most Internet marketers throughout the world. But there are many who are not totally aware of SMO, which is a new term than SEO. SMO is a branch off the SEO tree, but there are many who are in the Internet marketing business that are not aware of this wonderful tool to increase their popularity in the search engines.

What is SMO? It is Social Media Optimization

As you would use SEO on the search engines, SMO will work on the social media sites. As you may well know, the Social Media sites to not focus on the business aspect of the Internet, but they do focus on social interaction such as the blogs, forums, communities, video websites, music sites, etc…

Search Engine Optimization is great in providing long term ranking to your websites, whereas, SMO’s are great at creating a viral marketing buzz to your business. You can look at this as a great gossip columnist spreading the buzz or news about your site, and watching the buzz take off like fire. You will be creating not only a buzz, but bringing in visitors just out of sheer curiosity.

Are There Any Disadvantages of SMO I Should Be Aware Of?

Yes, there is a drawback and that is the speed of which it takes off then fades. This works like the news, it comes out, hits the papers, then becomes old news. SEO, however, is very effective and permanent, giving it a higher ranking among Internet marketers.

But what happens when you combine the two, SMO and SEO? You then create a great partnership linking your website to some high quality content, while the website is named on the social media sites. You will be creating a win/win situation, using great content which is essential to both the SEO as well as the SMO techniques.

There are a number of websites that are social media sites which include rich content. One of these sites is Yahoo! Answers. This site answers queries while promoting their own websites indirectly.

It is important to have search engine optimization in promoting your website and making it visible to the viewers, however, coupled with social media optimization, you will reap the rewards of higher results than SEO techniques alone.

How To Get SMO Going For You

I am going to recommend you using Google Gadgets, which are tiny bits of code that can be downloaded for free right from Google. You can apply these Google gadgets as your own signature as you post on blogs or forums, attracting interest to your website, all at no cost to you.

Another option is to visit a few of the social media network sites and create your own page. This is simple to do and won’t take up a lot of your time. You may find that there are more people on the Internet that share your same interests. Send them a note with your cute Google gadget in your signature.

Social marketing is an ideal way to get a target market. If you want to direct people to your website, you need only visit some of the different social network sites on the Internet and make a page. This can be done in a matter of minutes. Then find others who share your interests and send them a note with your own personal signature, complete with a cute little Gadget. Gadgets can be customized and make a fun signature at the end of your post. They can be used to link others to your website.

Visit relevant websites and forums, creating your own ‘buzz’ just by using SMO. And as you search out relevant blogs and forums, don’t limit yourself, take a chance on the .org, .gov., .edu and so on…there is more out there than just the dot.coms. As for the .edu sites, these are a great market as they are typically the colleges and Universities.

CONTENT IS KEY!

Create excellent and keyword rich content which will help you with search engine optimization, which will also help you in your brand marketing. You want to use the Google Gadgets, providing ample exposure to your website, creating your own ‘buzz’ and increasing your ranks on the search engines. You will create your Google Gadget for your product or website, use it as your post to the relevant forums and blogs. You will soon be the hot topic on the web.

This post is a follow on from the post I made a few days ago, click here to read it first

Get That Business Coming Your Way!

You like the idea of an online newsletter, and you are beginning to see how this will help you bring in more business to your website. But you do have a few concerns, which is perfectly natural. You need to know that everyone who starts something new, has their own concerns and fears.

Some of the most common question are…

1. What if I don’t have anything interesting or relevant to write?
2. Can I keep the quality up over a long period of time?
3. How do I make links from my pictures to my website?

These are just a sample of the questions that are asked…but never fear! This is so much easier than it sounds.

The thing you need to be concerned about IS WHEN you are going to DO IT! Stop with the excuses, just begin and you will realize how simple it really is.

1. You do need to remember that you must always offer something that is of interest or very useful to your reader.
2. Keep your newsletter fairly short. So many these days have more than enough emails to read, and they don’t have time to read a long newsletter. They will like the fact that they can read it quickly and get something from it.
3. You want the best format possible for your follow up emails, so put some thought into this process. You want a model that you can use week after week, which by the way makes your job easier.Below are a few ideas that you can use as your standard format, choose one or combine them, whatever fits your personality.

I. Tip of the Month

Here you will come up with some great tips that focus on your main products. Do a bit of brainstorming giving you two or three months of content. If you are focusing on an area that you are familiar with, it should be easy. Some of the topics can be offering and explaining the problem, then offer a tip that will solve the problem.

II. The Famous “Top Ten” list

This format is so popular because it works. If you are an expert in Doll Collecting, then write your article about “Top Ten Reasons to start Doll Collecting”. Keep your sentences short.

III. Three Different Ways to….

Sometimes it can be difficult to find ten ways to do something, but you can always find three ways to do it. This can be done alternately with your Top Ten newsletters.

IV. The “Before and After” approach

You can use this much like you would the “Tip of the Month” format. You will introduce a problem with the solution. This format works best when you can include case studies which is an excellent way if interacting with your customers on a direct level. You may even ask your customers for some examples of their ‘before and after’ and if they will give their permission to share it with your readers. If your format is in text only, you can include a link to show pictures on your website.

V. What about “Checklists”

If you want to share something new with your readers, a great way to do this is with checklists. Be sure to include all the steps, and these check lists will help save your readers a lot of time, which they will love. You will begin by writing a short paragraph which introduces your topic, include your list, the end it with some final tips. You can format your entire newsletter on the checklist formula, or present it randomly.

Now you can see that online newsletters aren’t as difficult as you first thought. Get your list and get started, no excuses.

Today I want to talk about online newsletters and how these can bring in even more business for you. This is a very cost-effective way to market and will not eat up all of your time.

Whether you are mailing your newsletters out through the post office, or sending them out via email, this is a great way to increase the recognition of your brand, bringing in repeat business and sharing your experience and story and success with your readers.

1. You are going to first put your list together of your current customers along with any potential customers. Any names that you have collected from inquiries, direct mail response cards, etc…that you have from the beginning of your marketing endeavors, will be the start of your list. If you don’t have a list, and you have some money set aside, you can purchase a list, giving you names of the best potential customers.
2. If you are doing an online newsletter, it is best to include a content manager system. This will make your editing much easier with a newsletter template, your graphics and giving it your own style. You will have a little bit to learn, but you will have a lot of fun doing it. If you need help through the process, call a college student, they will be a great resource. Another option would be to hire somebody at Guru.com at great cheap prices.
3. Next you want to have a feature that allows you to track bounce back emails to help you manage. your list, deleting these names from your list. It is really important to keep your list up to date. Now, your goal is to increase sales, but you need to make this an easy process for your readers because they all have very busy schedules, so you need to show off your products in the very best manner. Below are some tips to help you do this and achieve greater financial success from your email marketing.

• Include pictures all throughout
• Show details in these pictures
• The pictures need to be bright and cheery
• Make the picture a link to the sales page or product information page.
• Be sure to add a text link which is associated with your product picture which links to the online product page
• Include the ability to order directly from your newsletter with purchase buttons
• When you have a new product, make sure you have direct links in the website, making it easy for them to get there without any extra navigating.

If you still have concerns about your new online newsletter, …just know you can do it… I will go over tomorrow some of your biggest questions… such as “What do I say?”, or “How much time will this take?”, or “How do I set up the links?”. Well, we will answer these questions in our next blog post. Stay tuned…