Finding your "Niche" by Wayne Van Dyck

I found this article to be concise aand relevant so I'm posting it as I am
not at my desk for holidays. Happy holidays Everyone!

Finding your "Niche"
by Wayne Van Dyck


When you are considering starting an online company, first you want to make sure you find the right product. What is it that you want to sell? What are you passionate about? What topic or subject are you knowledgeable about. Selling an information product online is easier than selling a service. However, selling a service online makes more money when you incorporate a monthly membership.

Be sure that your customers are going to be interested in what you are selling, before you spend all your time working on a website and writing up eBooks. Do market research. Start by finding out how many competitors you have -this is a good sign. Read through, forums, newsgroups, discussion boards, and chat rooms and learn about your target market customer base. Send a survey to your email list to see what they are most interested in.

There are three reasons why a customer will want to buy your product. 1. Your product has solved a problem for your customer. 2. Your product has made life easier or more comfortable for your customer. 3. You are very passionate about your product and it shows in everything you do.

When researching your niche, you may want to use www.Amazon.com and find the current top sellers. Find out what people are reading about. You will want to research related keywords with keyword tools such as www.wordtracker.com. You need to discover which keywords are being searched for most.

Checking out competitors sites isn't a bad idea. It can help you to come up with ideas on what would make your company different and better. Take a look at the competitions traffic rankings and their related links. After analyzing this information, you can see how many visitors they have each day and how profitable their company is.

Once you find your passion, ask yourself, "Does this serve my customers?" You want to provide excellent service to each and every customer that spends money with you. This eliminates many complaints, bad reputations, and, chargeback's.



Wayne Van Dyck is a former venture capitalist and builder of offline technology companies. He is the founder and developer of Simple Money Machines. Simple Money Machines is all the money making technologies in one, easy-to-use, hosted application… enabling non-technical people to set up online businesses in less than 30 minutes. It's made for people with 9-5 jobs, retired folks, stay-at-home moms and college students. To get a FREE copy of “STARTING A HOME BUSINESS MADE SIMPLE", go to:http://tinyurl.com/ykyoqx.

wvd@sbcglobal.net

Permission to reprint this article in unchanged form, including author bio.

Why Write an e-book?

It's not true that everything that has been said has
already been written. Since that unfortunate axiom
came into use, the whole universe has changed.
Technology has changed, ideas have changed, and the
mindsets of entire nations have changed.

The fact is that this is the perfect time to write an
ebook. What the publishing industry needs are people
who can tap into the world as it is today - innovative
thinkers who can make the leap into the new millennium
and figure out how to solve old problems in a new way.
Ebooks are a new and powerful tool for original
thinkers with fresh ideas to disseminate information
to the millions of people who are struggling to figure
out how to do a plethora of different things.

Let's say you already have a brilliant idea, and the
knowledge to back it up that will enable you to write
an exceptional ebook. You may be sitting at your
computer staring at a blank screen wondering, "Why?
Why should I go through all the trouble of writing my
ebook when it's so impossible to get anything
published these days?

Well, let me assure you that publishing an ebook is
entirely different than publishing a book in print.
Let's look at the specifics of how the print and cyber
publishing industry differ, and the many reasons why
you should take the plunge and get your fingers
tapping across those keyboards!

Submitting a print book to conventional publishing
houses or to agents is similar to wearing a hair shirt
24/7. No matter how good your book actually is, or how
many critique services and mentor writers have told
you that "you've got what it takes," your submitted
manuscript keeps coming back to you as if it is a
boomerang instead of a valuable mine of information.

Perhaps, in desperation, you've checked out
self-publishing and found out just how expensive a
venture it can be. Most "vanity presses" require
minimal print runs of at least 500 copies, and even
that amount will cost you thousands of dollars. Some
presses' minimal run starts at 1,000 to 2,000 copies.
And that's just for the printing and binding. Add in
distribution, shipping, and promotional costs and -
well, you do the math. Even if you wanted to go this
route, you may not have that kind of money to risk.
(continued on page 2)

Hi all,

Sorry for not getting here sooner.

Was out of town.

I promised to explain about another idea for your autoresponder

Did you know this?

Autoresponders can be used to send out pre-written tutorials.

For instance, if you have sold your customer some software,

you can use an autoresponder sequence to teach them how to

use the software.

As soon as they have downloaded your product or placed their

order, your autoresponder can congratulate them on making a

wise decision!

Then, over the next few weeks, you can send them some simple

hints to make their time with your product more productive.

After all, you've been using the product for some time but

your customers are new to this. Any helpful hints from an

expert (that's you, [FIRSTNAME]!) will go down a treat.

After all, if you had 'personal' service with a product

you'd bought, you'd feel much better about it.

Any product that would benefit from a tutorial would be

ideal for this treatment!

Naturally, once the tutorial has ended after 5, 10 or

however many lessons, your customer will be happy to

receive other news from you about other products you

offer...

Until next time,

Best wishes,

----------------
Now playing: The Beatles - Ticket to Ride
via FoxyTunes
===================================================
Creative and Profitable Ways to Use Autoreponders
===================================================

An interested visitor who has been strolling through your
site has finally come to just what she is looking for and
is about to make a purchase. It's a sunny afternoon, and
her cat, who happens to be sitting on the moss under the
visitor's large fifty-year-old snow-rose bonsai tree,
suddenly jumps down, and the priceless tree topples over.

In the blink of an eye, your visitor exits your site, and
your sale is dust - unless you have had the foresight to
utilize an autoresponder that has captured her email
address. If you have installed an autoresponder, you can
then follow-up with her, and in all probability, make the
sale when the poor woman has finished repotting her
precious bonsai.

Autoresponders are remarkable, versatile programs that do
so much more than just automatically answer your email.
Here are a few ideas that will help you to creatively and
productively use your autoresponder to transform the casual
visitor into a profitable customer. Use your autoresponder
to:

1. Publish a newsletter. Certain quality autoresponders
will manage subscriptions and follow-up with interested
prospects. Your newsletter can keep your visitors informed
about your services or products, while building your
reputation as a credible expert in your particular
business.

2. Publish a newsletter only for your affiliates. Inform
them of current sales you are running and of promotional
material that your affiliates can use themselves to
increase their commissions. Include tips, advice, and
techniques that your affiliates can use to successfully go
out and promote your business.

3. Write reviews. Cover books, software, music, e-books,
movies, etc., and put each review in an autoresponder.
Review your affiliate programs, using a link to your
affiliate's page in your autoresponder.

4. Distribute your articles. Writing and distributing
targeted articles is a powerful tool to build your business
credibility, bring traffic to your site, and increase your
sales potential. If your articles contain valuable
information, many editors will print what is known as a
resource box for you. A resource box contains your bio and
a brief description of your service or product. It can also
contain your autoresponder address. Let's say you've
written fifty articles. Put them on separate autoresponder
accounts and create a master list that contains the titles
of each article, the autoresponder address, and a brief
abstract. Then promote your master list. Additionally,
include your publishing guidelines so your affiliates can
add their articles to your list, increasing the number of
writers who are represented in your article list.
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