Journal of An Info Marketing Pirate

2008-10-05T15:21:00.003-05:00

Who cares if you have to process physical products...

I find it really funny how people bitch and moan about having to pack up physical products and say how digital product downloads are the way to go.

Think about this for a minute...

Let's say you have a DVD product and you sell it for 19.97.

You put your marketing in place and get 10 orders a day. Let's do the math 19.97 x 10 and just to round off the numbers is 200.00 a day. That's 6000.00 a month and 72,000 a year. Not to bad and this is very conservative.

Now, you have to pack these products yourself which takes a whole 2 minutes a piece to process ( give or take) and drop in the mail. That's 20 minutes a day, hell, lets make it 30 minutes a day to pack up a physical product.

30 minutes a day if everything else is on autopilot ( using paypal, etc..)
to make 72,000 a year. Folks, lets get real...stop bitchin and don't be afraid to process those orders. Who cares if you have to process your own orders for 30 minutes a day to make 72,000 a year.

Have a great weekend

2008-10-04T11:18:00.001-05:00

If I ever come across good articles that I think are must reads I'm gonna tell ya about em....

Here is one from Marlon Sanders that makes a lot of sense

"How To Get Money By Placing Simple Ads?"

Subtitle: Are you looking for a way to get money that
is simple and doesn't require the strength of Hercules,
the smarts of Albert Einstein or the networking prowess
of Donald Trump to pull off?

By Marlon Sanders

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Are you looking for a way to get money that is simple
and doesn't require the strength of Hercules, the
smarts of Albert Einstein or the networking prowess
of Donald Trump to pull off?

If so, then here's a true story you might be interested
in.

When I got into the direct response marketing
business back in 1978, the Game back then was
interesting yet simple.

You place classified ads in magazines and weekly
newspapers.

You offered a free report, newsletter, book or
sample.

People wrote in to get it.

You mailed back your sales letter (the free report).
And off to the races you went.

There were only a few variables:

1. The classified ad you ran.

2. The sales letter you sent.

3. How many times you followed up.

That business model took people from the kitchen table
to the boardroom many times. What I mean is, there were
many people that started on a shoestring placing a few
ads and over time were able to parlay that investment
into small or large bankrolls.

I'll never forget the THRILL the first time I ran an
ad that brought in money.

I think I only had 3 orders.

But those 3 orders PROVED to me I could do it. In a song,
the R & B artist once said, "It's never as good as the
first time."

And in reference to running these little ads and getting
orders and money, it's true.

Those first few sales you make take your breath away.
They make you see, feel and believe it's real.

My first success on a larger scale came when I ran ads in
weekly shoppers. People called from the ad to a message
I put on an answering machine that was 3 minutes long.

People left their name and address and I sent out the
product C.O.D., which meant that people paid on receipt
of the shipment.

People didn't want to leave their credit card number
on an answering machine. So that is why you used the
C.O.D. shipping.

I worked my way up to 3 or 4 of those little answering
machines (we didn't have voice mail back then) and sent
out hundreds if not thousands of packages.

My ads ran in 72 cities.

I ran the whole business out of a 650 square foot apartment!
Crazy times back then.

In the early 1990's, I went from running ads in magazines
and weekly papers to running ads on AOL, Compuserve and
Prodigy. At the time, Compuserve and Prodigy were huge.

I thought I'd died and gone to heaven!

Why? Because you didn't have to wait 2 or 3 months for
your classified ad to appear in a magazine. You placed
the ad and it showed up almost immediately!

And instead of running down to the print shop late at night
(I think I kept Kinkos in business) to whip out letters to
send the next day, you just sent emails.

In those days we didn't have autoresponders that send out
emails automatically. I had to send people their free report
via email by hand.

But when you compared that to the time it took to fill out all
the UPS C.O.D. paperwork, it was awesome! That C.O.D. paperwork
was quite time consuming.

Plus, 50% of the packages you sent out came back.

With AOL and Compuserve, you just placed your little ad, the
replies came in and you emailed back the free report.

Life was good!

Another big secret back then was how to get your classified ad
listed at the top of all the AOL classified ads. That was the
big secret passed around in the "inner circle" at the time.

And some smart cookie figured out how to strip out the email
addresses of all the people running classified ads and send them
emails. That was one of the first renditions of what later
became a glut of emails in your inbox.

I'll never forget when the World Wide Web burst on the scene.
Many of us marketers didn't think it'd work because those pictures
and graphics took too long to load and all people cared about
was the text anyway.

Some people STILL think that about direct response marketing.
That it's all text and graphics don't matter.

If that were true, the World Wide Web would've never beat out
the old text-based Internet.

Anyway, somewhere in that time frame, a little method came
along called "the cookie cutter method." The idea was that
you'd run little ads just like you did in the classifieds in
magazines and make sales that way.

That drew a starck contrast to the early seo days when people
advocated every trick for creating "doorway pages" and all
kinds of other hooey dooey to get listed in the early search
engines.

Ezine advertising became extremely popular. You could place
these simple little classified ads in ezines inexpensively.
You offered a free report, audio, newsletter or sample just
like you did in the old days.

Life was good for marketers!

Then, litigation got involved and rained on everyone's parade.
Sending out email became regulated. People dumped ezines and
email by the truckloads and started doing Adsense, RSS marketing
and so forth.

Which brings us to right now. Today.

There are a few schools of online marketing:

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////
School one: The product launch school
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

You run product launches and try to make a zillion in one day.
It's absolutely breaktaking when you see it happen.

Of course, the people with the zillion in a day success stories
are the modern-day equivalent to Dr. J. or Michael Jordan flying
through the air with the greatest of ease and dunking the ball
like it ain't no big thang.

It's really a blast to kick back and watch these guys perform
their artistry and make it look so simple that a 12-year old
could do it. Until you go out on the playing field and find
that, in starck contrast, YOUR feet are made of lead and what
looked easy is actually a feat requiring the greatest of skill.

Of course, the courses for sale all hint that you too can
perform these feats with the greatest of ease. But I have the
upmost respect for the marketers behind these systems. They
are geniuses. Good people. And really want to help others.

Product launches no doubt have their place. But a surefire
panacea for your money woes? Perhaps not.

If you have the $1,000 or $2,000 a month to join the coaching
programs that teach you how to really succeed with the model,
it can be good. Oh, and the $100 or $200 a month for the
newsletter, and the $3,000 training course.

Most marketers today have product launch brain seizure. It's
all they can think about is that one massive payday in a day.
It's addictive almost like crack. Instead of crackheads you
have launchheads!

It doesn't occur to them that SELLING is one thing but
collecting the money from Paypal or your merchant account is
another.

Unless you have a long record of steady sales, you're likely
to have a problem seeing that money transferred to your bank
account for up to 6 months, or even longer.

That fact is conveniently omitted from sales letters. Still,
for marketers with higher skill levels who want to compete
in the bigtime, this is a strategy you'll want to add to your
arsenal as time goes by.

If you can pull it off, it's your ticket to that 20,000 square
foot house, an office of employees all slaving away on
your behalf, reams of flowcharts, Power Points and systems,
if that's your fantasy.

But enough of that...

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////
School two: Organic seo
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

This is where you get hundreds or thousands of inbound links
to your web site, you pray to the Google gods daily for favor,
you wave a magic wand and do hocus pocus, black hat, gray hat,
white hat and any other hat you can think of to get your web
site at the top of Google.

There's a reason that the coaching programs that teach you how
to do organic seo successfully run $1,000 to $2,000 a month
and involve a complex web of online webinars, coaches, and
everything else.

You NEED the support to figure out how to make it work for
you. A system that DOES work but not for the person with a
light pocketbook, minimal computer skills or lacking the
patience of job to deal with Google slaps, updates and
put downs.

There is one system called the "Evergreen Traffic System" that
avoids many of the drawbacks of these other systems. It avoids
the Google slaps and shoots for a long-term approach.But still,
it's not as simple a model as the old classified ad model.

No doubt about that. It's a very good model if you like to
write articles and blog. And you have a bit of a Geek hidden
inside of you. The good thing about it is you don't have to
join a $1,000 a month coaching program to be able to understand
it.

http://www.marlonsanders.com/evergreen

That is the URL in case you're interested in that system. It's
the only strategy for organic seo I recommend. But you do need
to feel comfortable writing to use it. If you can't articulate
in words, I don't recommend it. You don't have to be a master
writer. But you gotta be able to write in plain, simple English.

It's also a slower method. You can get quick results. But
dominantly, it's something you build up over 3-6 months or
a year, although you can start getting ranked for keywords
literally within a 2-day time frame using the Evergreen Traffic
System.

So there's quite a bit of instant gratification built in. You
can do a blog post or article today and see your ranking for those
kwywords in Google tomorrow or the next day!

This is different from most organic seo models that take the
patience of Job.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////
School three: The affiliate marketing model
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

In this model you pay out commissions for people to sell your
products. It's a great model in that you pay no money until
someone sells your product or service for you.

The drawback is that many people feel uncomfortable recruiting
affiliates. Or they can't get the affiliates they have to
DO anything.

In the right market, done the right way, it's a potent model.
But certainly not as simple as the old classified advertising
model. It requires greater knowledge and more skill.

http://www.affiliatedashboard.com

That is the best resource to get started if you want to run
your own affiliate program. It's a great model but not for
the newbie to start with.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////
School four: The web 2.0 model
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

This model pretends to be about web 2.0, the latest craze to
hit the scene. But when you get to the bottom of it, most of
the strategies that work to get traffic are STILL organic
seo approaches using web 2.0 sites like Hub Pages, and so
forth.

For simplicity sake, I put the web 2.0 model in the organic
seo school of thought.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////
School five: The direct response classified ad model
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

This is the modern-day equivalent of the old time classified
ad model.

You buy classified ads via Google, Adbrite, Blogads, MSN and
other services that offer your free report, newsletter, sample
or demo.

People respond and your free report is automatically sent back.

Then your follow up emails are also sent automatically.

It's like the old-time direct mail model on steroids. Or some
kind of juice.

You can also put your classified ad for your free report on
a banner and run banner ads.

Or run the ad in an ezine, which still works gangbusters for
some.

There's even Facebook and Web 2.0 sites you can run your ads
and banners on.

You can create a 2-minute video offering your free report and
upload it to Youtube.

The cool thing about this model is it's simple compared to
the very high levels of skill required for organic and product
launch formulas.

Step one: You place a banner or classified ad that offers
your free report.

Step two: You autoresponder automatically responds and sends
out the free report, sample, newsletter, video or demo link.

Step three: If people wanna order, they do it online automatically
via Paypal, a very simple and inexpensive order-taking service
to set up. No huge fees like in the old "merchant account" days,
where you practically got raped to set up a merchant account.

Here are the great things about the modern day version of the
direct response classified advertising model:

a. You don't need to buy a $1,000 a month coaching program to
understand it.

b. You don't need weekly or daily webinars to be coached through
every nuance it takes to succeed.

c. You don't need to buy a $3,000 coarse, $200 a month newsletter
and $5,000 seminars to get the information you need to succeed at
it.

d. You won't be at the whim of the next Google slap.

You find places you can run your ads. You run ads, banners or little
videos that offer your free report.

People go into your autoresponder.

Your free report (sales letter) is sent back.

Your autoresponder follows up automatically.

e. Google pay-per-click loves the free report model if you create
reports that tightly match a group of keywords, which is what you
want to do for the best response anyway.

f. You can run banner ads offering your free report everywhere.
Banner advertising is practically ignored by all the product launch,
big payday obsessed groups.

g. Instead of seeking to bring in a million in a day (and having
Paypal freeze your funds for the next 6 months while you scramble
to pay affiliates), you create a nice, steady, predictable lead
flow and income.

And if you keep building on success after success, you can reach
those lofty income screen caps the gurus like to paste all over
their sales letters.

h. You don't need to have the skill of Michael Jordan or Dr.
J to write a classified ad or put your classified ad on a banner.

i. You don't have to spend late nights down at Kinkos printing
sales letters and forking over postage. Your emails are sent
out for you automatically by an inexpensive service.

I'll end with a little story here.

It's no secret that the U.S. is going through tough economic
times. And these dynamics have spilled over onto other countries
of the world.

Which is why for inspiration I turn to George E. Haylings.

He started a little direct response classified ad business back
in the 1930's and ran it for 48 years. He ran the business during
the big depression in the 1930's, through World War II, through
the Vietnam War.

And while he didn't get rich, he raised 2 sons, put 'em through
college, travelled in style, spent a lot of time with his family
and lived a good, happy life.

It's a fascinating story. He actually ran the business out of
a tent in the army. And even hobnobbed with celebrities later
in life.

My point is, we have someone to look to for inspiration in this
business. Someone who proved that even in the big depression
days, this business could thrive.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Marlon Sanders is the author of "The Amazing Formula That
Sells Products Like Crazy."

I'm starting a new MasterMind so to speak. You gotta get
Promo Dashboard first to be a member.

But you can watch the video on it here:

http://www.TurboProfits.com/tracking/go.php?c=920resourcebox

2008-10-03T09:32:00.004-05:00

Keep it simple stupid...that's the old KISS formula.

So let's keep it simple. To be successful on the internet today you need to do four things.

1. Find a niche
2. Create a product or find an affiliate program for that niche
3. Create a sales page or landing page. I personally do a salespage/landing page hybrid.
4. Market your product

It's that simple. Of course there is steps that you need to know to get through these but that is it in a nutshell.

I know many of markerters like to confuse you into thinking that there is this big mysterious secret to making money but there really isn't.

Avoid the overload by sticking to what you need to learn to get through these steps. Don't jump on those mass emails and prelaunches of these high end products. Isn't it strange how you will hear about all the hype of a prelaunch and when it does get launched you hear about it for another three weeks and then gone. Then it's onto the next BIG thing.

I basically stick to marketing and copywritting books because the first three steps come easy to me. I avoid all those plans on how to make money on the net because in the end they are just a retelling of the four steps above with maybe a twist.

If you're having any trouble on the first two steps check this out and yes this is a shameless plug for my course..

Have a great weekend!

2008-10-02T07:58:00.002-05:00

How long should it take to create an info product?

Hmmmm.. that's a pretty good question.

I'll tell you what you don't want to do. Don't sit on a product for months because it will never get done. I realize life sneaks up on everyone and these projects get the back burner. The old " I'll get to that next week" syndrome kicks in.

But guess what..next week never comes. Why?

For one thing, you probably have this idea of creating a super duper 300 page ebook or a multimedia type package product that you think you are going to sell for a couple of hundred bucks.

Let's put on the brakes, cowboy or cowgirl.

Start off small...

Create a report , an audio CD, or a camtasia type DVD. These are quick products that can be completed in a weekend and not months. What will this achieve.

1. You will have a sense of accomplishment that you actually have a product complete.
2. You will not have a lot of time invested if the product becomes a flop.
3. This intro type product will be a gauge for if the market really wants to buy what you have to offer and also will lead into more products for you to create for that niche.

See ya matties

2008-09-18T06:30:00.003-05:00

Hey gang,

If you don't know by now, you can't sell ebooks as digital downloads on Ebay. So what are people doing...

Selling there crappy ebooks on a CD and physically mailing them to you. Now not only do you pay for the crap but you have to pay for shipping as well. So what is the info marketing lesson for the day?

If you have to put your ebooks on CD and mail a product to your customer , send them something that is worth it. Before all this went down with Ebay, I was a big fan of physical products anyway but think about this for a moment.

If you went to Ebay and was looking for a book on how to make money with online gambling sites which would you buy...

1. A ebook that sells for .99 cents and 5.00 for shipping and handling for the CD.

or

2. A three ring binder how -to manual with a DVD of camtasia screen capture videos showing you some secrets to beating the system. This could sell from 27.00 and up.

I'm not saying that the first option doesn't work but what I'am telling you is that the second option is different and stands out from the rest of all those crappy ebooks on CD offers.

Think outside the box!

Have a great day!

2008-09-18T06:30:00.002-05:00

In the warrior forum someone asked " Can you make money with a 10.00 report using Googel adwords?"

And here was my response...

"I sold a 10.00 ebook on Disney travel secrets with adwords campaigns but I didn't use your typical adwords that you see in the google search. I setup my campaign to be viewed on certain websites ( and I know there is a name for this but I can't remember it at this moment) which really gives you highly targeted traffic. The campaign gave me a break even outcome which really isn't a bad thing. My only problem was that I didn't have a backend product to sell which could have made this a profitable venture. Have a backend lined up and I'm sure it will work"

Here's a little more info on that...

-I used as Adwords basically as a test to see if there was life and there seemed to be.
- I targeted websites versus the traditional google way. This to me is a big plus. You don't have to haggle with keywords just pick the sites you want to target and pay the cost. This could be a little more costly then the traditional way but the traffic is more targeted if picking the right site.
- I also split test ads as well
- I'm a huge Disney fan so I really wrote this ebook for fun and not to be a huge money maker. Also, because the market is saturated with Disney travel guides my price had to be in line with others which unfortunatley drove the price down around the 10.00 mark. Had I charged 14.97 or higher this would have been a money maker without a backend. A backend would have only sweeten the deal.

Until next time...

2008-09-14T11:19:00.002-05:00

Oh! I forgot to mention that there is actually an info marketing lesson to be learned here with Russ's book. It's subtle but it works and here it is...

T.J. actually took old information with permission from Russ and combined it with his own and made a new product not to mention a plug for free info for bonuses which I'm sure he is selling something while you are there. There actually is an internet element :)

This is an excellent example of taking old information and making it new again without doing any work because T.J's section is actually a book that he wrote early on as well. He just combined the the two and presto a new product to a new crowd.

2008-09-14T10:55:00.002-05:00

WOW!!!! Have I been away for awhile. I'm really going to start keeping up with this blog thing. I really wasn't a big fan of blogging but I better start keeping up with these other blog fanatics. So to kick it off...

What have I been reading...

I came across a book on Amazon called " How you can make a fortune selling information by mail: a step by step guide to publishing and mail order profits by Russ Von Hoelscher.

Here are my thoughts. The book is actually two books in one . The one by Russ and another by T.J Rohleder. The book was printed in 2007 but Russ's book was created in the 80's. I kind of knew this going in that it was an older book. Don't think you are going to get some kind of internet wisdom in this one because you won't. He talks about typewriters for heaven sakes.

But I have to tell you I'm a big fan of the old methods and that's why I was attracted to this book to begin with.

Was I impressed... Well, of course a lot of the techniques can be done cheaper and faster today but the knowledge is solid. I've read plenty of mail order guides throughout the 90's so to me there really wasn't nothing ground breaking here.

Would I buy it again knowing what I know now. NAH!!! but if you have a few bucks and want to pick up a book for off line mail order this wouldn't be a bad pick. I'll add this to my already dust collected mail order books and be one more book the wiser.

2007-07-11T07:07:00.001-05:00

So, what kind of info product can we create.

We have the product and hopefully you get
the concept. It’s not rocket science.

Now let’s talk about some ideas for an
info product.

If it were me, I would throw everything into
the product. What I mean is not only would
I demo the camera but I would also throw in
a section about how to take professional
photos with a point and shoot camera, rate
accessories for the camera, and the good and bad
about the camera.

You could even broaden your market by putting
together a product on “how to unleash the full
potential of your Canon powershot” and use the 550
as your demo camera. Since there are different types
of powershots you are broadening your market.

I’m not a photographer but I would think that most
of the powershots have a lot of the same features.
This actually could be a second product without
doing a lot of extra work.

1st product- Getting the most out of your powershot 550
2ndproduct- unleashing the power of your powershot-
broader market type product.

I hope this gives you some ideas for your next info product.

Until next time…

John Kiel

2007-07-10T12:26:00.001-05:00

Base your info products on the seasons…

What do I mean?

It’s summer time right..at least here in the states.
So I fired up Amazon to see what’s selling for the summer.
One thing that came to mind was photography and cameras.
I figure more people are on vacations and are doing
more outdoor activities.

So I looked under cameras (Top seller category). The hot
Camera that is selling right now is The Canon PowerShot
550 7.1mp.

TIP: Notice that this is a physical product and not a
informational product. Look for hot physical products
and turn them into an info products by demonstrating
the physical product. You can do video demo or you can
snap off pictures and write a PDF report with
you doing a pictorial demo for the product.

Obviously you might not own a Powershot 550 but you
get the idea. You might have something in your home
that you can demo.

By the way, there is a guy who sells demo dvds of different
Cameras and is making a fortune on Ebay.

In the next issue, we’ll put the product together….

Bon Voyage,

John Kiel

2007-07-10T10:42:00.000-05:00

Finding a niche market is simple. Finding a PROFITABLE niche market is a little harder, but it's still easy once you know what you are doing. Otherwise, you will end up like 90% of the other niche marketers out there who spend weeks or months on a niche market only to find out there is no money to be made there. Luckily I will reveal the secrets to finding a profitable niche market later in this article.

There are literally hundreds of ways to find niche markets. You can spend your time searching for popular keywords using tools such as Wordtracker, or you can walk around your local bookstore looking for common book topics. I've tried both of these options when I first got started in niche marketing, and let me tell you, I lost the most money when I picked a topic that way. Why? Well, it's simple. Just because people are searching for a keyword or phrase online or because there are a bunch of hard copy books on a topic, it doesn't mean those markets will buy your products online.

Have you ever heard the advice "Target a niche market you are passionate about"? What a bunch of garbage that piece of advice is. It doesn't matter how passionate you are about a topic, if people in that market don't buy products online, YOU WILL FAIL and fail miserably.

Here are 2 ways to find cash generating, starving niche markets that you have probably never seen before...

1) Ebay - the unlimited supply of niches. Everyone has heard of ebay, but few people think to go to ebay to find a niche market. You would have to be crazy NOT to use ebay to find a market. This is one of the only places you can go and see exactly what people are buying in real time. Here is how you do it.

First, go to ebay's main page at www.ebay.com. At the bottom of the left column of links, click on the link that says "All Categories". When you get to the next page, click on the link at the bottom right of the categories that says "See All Categories".

What you have just done is list every product currently for sale on ebay, but even more importantly, you can see HOW MANY products are for sale in each category. There are literally thousands of categories of niche topics right in front of your eyes, and you can see how popular each one is in just a couple clicks.

I just clicked "See all Antiques categories..." and I uncovered several hundred niche markets within the antiques category.

This is what niche marketing is all about. The category "Antiques" alone is too broad. If you go after this one, you will fail, however if you go after a sub niche such as "Asian antique bowls" or "Antique sterling silver flatware", you greatly increase your success rate.

Then, go to http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/whatshot.html and see just how flaming hot they are.

2) The next way to find a popular niche market is by going to the website www.meetup.com. From the homepage, there is a link that says "Browse All Interests". The website will then list hundreds of topics in which people signed up to be a part of a group. It also lists how many people joined each group, or "niche market" if you will. Who would have thought there would be a group of over a thousand people crazy about scooters? I found this niche market under the automotive category.

Using these two methods, you should be able to uncover hundreds of niche topics to begin targeting immediately. Once you find a niche market you want to build your business around, the next step would be to learn how to develop products these markets will knock each other over trying to buy.

Mark Kessler offers a FREE 34 page report where you'll "Discover The Most Simple, But Extremely Powerful System that reveals the 4 secret steps you need to achieve maximum niche profits!" your copy is at http://www.profitattractor.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_Kessler

2007-07-10T10:30:00.000-05:00

How Keyword Research Can Help You Find & Dominate Niches
By Carole' Nickerson

eBooks, articles and infoproducts are some of the hottest selling and most requested products online. eBooks are one of the easiest things to sell because they require no shipping & can be accessed within minutes of placing an order. When the ebook boom hit it's peak, they started popping up everywhere and now that marketers have perfected their selling & design tactics, there's no stopping them.

But just as the dust began to settle on the ebook bonanza and pay-per-click search engines bubbled to the surface with keyword data, the word "niche" started infiltrating the internet marketing collective. As more tools became available for researching the search patterns and requests of web surfers, marketers took notice and saw one golden opportunity after another. We now know exactly what people want, and how many people want it.

With laser precision, we can now easily dominate some of the most profitable yet overlooked markets on the web - and there are thousands if not millions. This insight has fueled all kinds of infoproducts and the rush is on to get those ebooks and articles published before someone else steals your thunder!

But if you're still not sure what to write about or haven't been able to figure out the whole niche writing concept yet, then you don't need to look any further than keywords.

Step 1 - Keyword Research

The best tool for this is Wordtracker. I've yet to find another tool which offers such excellent search data. This service will let you see exactly what people are searching for, as well as helping you determine how much competition you might have for a product in the search engines. You can start with an existing topic, or you can go fishing! Since I like to write about all kinds of topics, I enjoy the challenge of locating niches with no competition and then dominating those searches. But how do you "fish" for low-competing keywords?

You have to think in terms of the types of searches performed for information. Here is a list of a few keyword combinations which work well:

- How To

- Learn How

- Learn About

- Information on

- Find info on

- Find info about

These are basic terms you would enter into Wordtracker's "Comprehensive" Search feature which is located in "Keyword Universe". You will end up with numerous results displaying things like "how to make a cool xanga", "how to tie a tie", "how to make paper snowflakes", etc. What is happening is that Wordtracker is using your base keyphrase and filling in the results.

To take this one step further, you can use wildcards to get more unique results, such as:

- How To * New

- Learn * Online

- Info * Dogs

Wordtracker will fill in the * with any number of keyword strings that people are searching for, such as "How to Write a Newspaper Column" and "Info on northern inuit dogs".

Don't assume the results are no good just because the keyword or phrase shows a low count for how many searches are performed. The Wordtracker database uses information from search engines which get peanut traffic compared to Google or MSN. You might be surprised when you take the keyphrase, plug it into Overture and see that while Wordtracker displays only 10 searches within a 120-day period, Overture reports 300 searches every month. It's about percentages and this is probably what a lot of people overlook.

Here's another way of looking at it:

If search engine A gets 2% of all internet traffic, and a keyword in it's database reports 10 requests in a month, but search engine B gets 50% of all internet traffic, then you can assume that the same keyword is actually getting more requests than just 10 searches per month. So with that said, it's important to put keyword reports into perspective by looking at the numbers behind the numbers.

Step 2 - Competition Research

Wordtracker has a great feature which allows you to see which keywords have high and low competition in the search engines. Obviously, you want the low competing phrases for faster, more tangible visibility. It is important to learn how to use this research so that you can use it effectively. Wordtracker offers great tutorials you'll be able to digest in just minutes.

For example, the keyphrase "headache remedy news and information" has only 38 sites competing in Google's index. I would see this as an excellent target because it has many requests and would be easy to dominate. Immediately I see potential for products such as:

- An ebook about headache remedies

- An article about headache remedies (Easy Adsense Revenue)

- A forum, newsletter subscription (Easy Adsense Revenue)

- An intro page to an affiliate program

- All of the above!

Step 3 - Get Busy!

Now that you know how to use basic keyword research to locate niche ideas and dominate search engine results, you gotta get busy and start writing those ebooks and articles. You can choose to do one or both, offer ebooks for free or for sale. It really all depends on the topic you are focusing on. The obvious way to know which format is best is to look at how much content can be realistically written on a topic.

One interesting strategy to consider is writing an ebook or group of articles where your keyphrase and keyword research determines most of the categories. For example, let's say you find 10 great low-competing keyphrases like:

- "How to teach my hamster to fetch"

- "How to get my hamster potty-trained"

- "How to train my hamster to speak Spanish"

- "How to train my hamster to do my taxes"

- etc.

You get the point, right? You're basically just creating categories based on what people want. This way you're reaching a larger audience and getting even more search engine exposure.

Carole Nickerson has been a web developer and internet marketer since 1998. Visit http://web.thenetter.com for more free articles, tips and software.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carole_Nickerson
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-Keyword-Research-Can-Help-You-Find-and-Dominate-Niches&id=121422

2007-05-14T09:24:00.000-05:00

You can find a lot of niches when you know what search terms to putinto the search engines. For example: I like lists. I like sitesthat tell me about the top ten of what people are searching for. Topten lists give you a pulse of what is hot.

So, the most obvious term to plug into google was "top ten". Justby doing this, I came across a site that was called http://www.toptenlinks.com This site gives you the top ten sites by category and then by subcategories. How the site determines who gets in the top ten Ireally couldn't tell you but you can check out the top ten sitesand see what they are offering and how they are offering their products.

At first glance, this search technique might not be earthshattering to anyone but when you think about it, how many peoplewill put in the search term " top ten" to find niches. Most peopleput in a search term for a niche idea and is if it's viable. Thetop ten search term lets me know what people are searching forwhich allows me to create a product to that market. Remember, youare looking for what is hot...

I have a whole list of different "search terms" that you can pluginto google that can help you find these undiscovered niche marketsin the course at http://www.infotreasuremaps.com
Your captain,
John Kiel

2007-05-10T06:20:00.000-05:00

Info Pirates,

If you ever needed to get good advice on marketing, this is the guy you need to listen too... some great freebie articles from one of the best! and he's giving away free Dan the man Kennedy tapes away for free... http://www.terrydean.org/free-dan-kennedy-contest/

http://www.terrydean.org/10-internet-marketing-rules-to-live-by/

http://www.terrydean.org/the-ultimate-business/

http://www.terrydean.org/passion-hungry-market-maximum-profits/

2006-08-24T18:50:00.000-05:00

Hello Maties,

Here is a cool way to add a bonus to your products without hardly any work and it's something that has high value. The bonus could be a series of videos that you can get from youtube.com and google videos. These sites have thousands of videos on all kinds of subjects and if you can find some videos that pertain or compliment your product use them as a free bonus. What you do is create a private webpage off of your main domain such as www.yoursite.com/videobonuses.html and only give them the address once they order. All you have to do is get the code that these sites supply and embed them into the webpage. You can have 10-20 videos on a webpage that would only take you about 10 minutes to setup. Just some food for thought.

Your Captain,

John

2006-08-04T07:55:00.000-05:00

Self Help boiled down in a nutshell

Billions are spent on self help materials. Take a look at Tony Robbins for example. Here is a guy who is a millionaire a 100 times over in the self help business. Well, I'm going to save you a fortune in self help books, tapes, DVDs, etc.. I'm going to give you all you need right now.

Are you ready?

Here it is...drum roll please!

" Get off your ass and take some kind of action". That's it..All this money being made in the self help industry can be boiled down to that statement. It makes sense doesn't it. For every action there is going to be a reaction. Bottom line...Take action to move forward. I know it sounds simplistic but that's it in a nutshell.

How does this relate to the info business? everybody is looking to make a fortune overnight but nobody wants to take the actions to get there. Get moving on your product and put up a website and see what happens. You won't know until you take action.

Your captain

John Kiel

2006-08-02T08:52:00.000-05:00

The beauty of PLRs

If you're someone who wants to get in the info business and doesn't want ot create their own products then PLRs ( Private Label Rights) are your best bet. The real trick is to change it up to make it yours. PLR gives you the ability to do whatever you want with that product. It's as if you created it yourself. What most people do is keep it as is and put up a webpage to sell it. What you need to do is put it in a different format, give it a new title, re-create the supplied sales letter if they supply you with one, add to the existing product, etc..

The point is to truly make it your own product and not keep it as is. Seperate yourself from the pack and start pulling in the cash.

Your captain,

John Kiel
http://www.infotreasuremaps.com

2006-07-30T09:17:00.000-05:00

The perfect info product formula

Find an in demand niche + Find out there problems + you supply the solution in the form of a info product + a killer sales letter + a way to reach that market = a successful info empire.

This is the formula that you can do over and over again to be a success. Of course, there is a whole lot of behind the scenes stuff to get it right.

Finding a niche can be very easy if you know how. My course at http://www.infotreasuremaps.com covers just that. This will open up a world of possibilities. This is the cornerstone of your business. You need a market to sell your products to begin with.

The real edge is knowing how to write order producing copy. This is the fuel to the info product engine. Knowing how to do this right will set you miles ahead of your competiton.

2006-07-28T13:00:00.000-05:00

Why is everyone obsessed with creating e-books?

I think A lot of info marketers get hypnotized with the lure of the digital delivery product. Let's face it, the hands free approach to your business definitely is alluring and part of that is the e-book. Once the order is placed the product can be instantly delivered by download. There is no work on your part. I think a lot of info marketers miss the boat because they can be delivery physical products as well. Such as DVD's, audio tapes, kits, etc...

I wonder what would happen if you offered an e-book version and a hard copy, do you think your sales would increase? I personally hate e-books and rather have a hard copy myself. Also, doing the fulfillment of a physical product yourself isn't that bad and is well worth the extra effort. If you want someone else to do it check out http://www.profitspublishing.com

The point is don't be lured by the ease of e-books but rather look at the whole picture of your info business as well..Don't forget the physical products.

See ya.

2006-07-26T15:51:00.000-05:00

Hey everybody,

Let's get right to the chase and try to avoid some of the information overload when it comes to the ton of newsletters out today. I'm going to give you some of my favorites...

1.Dan Kennedy's newsletter
2.Sell books and videos
3.Bob Serling's direct insider
4.Derek Gehl's marketingtips
5.Ted Nicholas's newsletter
6. Info map Booty Club - that's mine...sorry, I had to plug it :)
7. Joe Vitale's "News you can use"

These are the one's that I read faithfully. Have a great day !

2006-07-24T18:11:00.000-05:00

Content vs direct sales sites

I'm going to tell you right now that I'm not a big fan of content sites. It seems to me that it's a lot of work to constantly create articles and optimize your site for the search engines just to get FREE traffic. It can take a couple of month's to get up and going before you start getting ranked and pulling in some decent traffic. What I will say is that if you really have a strong passion about something then by all means do a content site if you feel you have enough knowledge to keep a site like that updated.

Me, on the other hand , I like a one page salesletter that I can drive traffic to through some free and paid avenues. The thing that really gets me is that everyone is so obsessed with free traffic that they overlook paid avenues. If I can place an ad for 100.00 and it makes me 500.00 then I'll keep on using paid advertising all day long. It's a lot quicker and who cares if it costs me money. Use places like Ebay, Google adwords, paid ezine ads, joint ventures, and affiliate programs. You can find out a whole lot faster if your product is going to be a success. Wouldn't it be ashame if you spent months putting together a content site and nobody really cares...

The choice is yours and this is my two cents! See ya maties..

2006-07-24T07:25:00.000-05:00

I'm a big fan of testing your ideas on Ebay. This is great because you don't need a website, you have access to millions of buyers, and you can test for a couple of bucks. My philosophy is if you can't sell it on Ebay you can't sell it anywhere. Do yourself a favor and go to Terrance's site
http://www.sellbooksandvideos.com and get on his mailing list for his newsletter. The beauty about this is that he actually gives you examples of what people are selling on Ebay as far as information products. People are making thousands just selling info on Ebay each month. You won't believe what people are selling on Ebay as far as info. I love the dvd showing kids how to tie their shoes. Man, why didn't I think of that!

2006-07-23T19:12:00.000-05:00

Hello, and welcome to one of the best darn businesses on the planet. In my opinion, this is one of the most creative and enjoyable businesses to get into. Unlike most businesses where you're locked into a particular product , such as a franchise, you have a blank piece of canvas where you can create your own info businesses. The beauty of this business is that if you get bored with one topic, you can either shut it down or sell it to someone else, and start something new. You can never get bored in this business and that's what I like.

Hopefully, you will find this blog informative in helping you create the
ultimate information marketing business. So sit back, grab yourself an
ale matey, and enjoy the ride! because this ship is going to set sail..