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Which Niche To Conquer?
I'm sure that you've heard about how many start up companies fail when they first begin, and the reason that most (if not all) of their failures is because they don't create a good fountain to build on. If we start right, it is easy to go right all the time. But if we start wrong, it's much harder to go back and get it right. So please pay close attention, get out your pen and pencil, and let's get to work. When you first start, you need to decide which niche are you going to conquer. When I first started my online business, I made the same mistake that 99.9% of people make. I read an ebook about how to make money online, and I decided that I would... can you guess...? I wrote my own book about "how to make money." I compiled all of the regurgitated information I could find, put a twist on it, and started to sell it. After 2 weeks and a little over $30 in sales I started to think: "Why am I selling a book about how to make money... when I have NEVER in my life made any real money!?!" You may laugh, but it took me a few weeks before I realized that there was a problem there. I decided to stop selling my book, and started to look for other ways to make money online. What I stumbled upon next really gets exciting. I was going to college at the time, and my degree is in "Computer Information Systems." I knew some things about programming, but not enough to create anything real. What I did know is where programmers spend their time online. So I started visiting places where you could hire programmers and got to know a few. I then started to search for a market that needed something. What I came upon was the "Resale Rights" market. Basically this was people buying and selling digital products (ebooks and software) that they could then go and sell to other people. This concept really excited me. I purchased a lot of these products, but struggled to sell them because all of the products had links back to the author's websites. These authors were making money every time I sold these products... on the backend. When I realized that, the first thing I thought was, "I wish that had a way to brand all of these files with my own links." And there the idea was born. I just needed to create a product that would brand these "resale rights" products. I wouldn't be competing directly with that market, but make a complementary product that would benefit them all. I went back to the programmers that I had been building relationships with, and gave them my idea. Within a matter of weeks they created a product that is now known as Zip Brander. (You can see the product at www.ZipBrander.com) I'm not going to go into how I marketed it in this lesson (I'll save that for another day), but with the one product I made over $1,000 my first month with it, and it made us over $50,000 in 2004 alone. Since then I've been able to branch out to a lot of various niches and have had amazing success in most of them. In other issues I will share exact case studies of these that you will be able to model in your businesses. How To Pick The Right Niche I want to show you now how to choose your niche. Just follow these 3 simple steps. Step 1 - Do not choose the "how to make money" niche. I'm not sure why, but I made this mistake along with thousands of other people. This is the most competitive niche in the world. If you want to fight against the marketers, good luck. But there is a lot more money (and it's made a lot easier) in the niches I'll explain below. Step 2 - Look at your personal talents, and start from there. I have had this conversation more then once - usually every time I discuss an online business with someone. I ask them what their hobbies are that we could market, and they almost always they tell me that they don't have anything they could sell. The problem is that people usually look at their current job, and can't think of ways they can market that skill. Don't look at your current job, but look at what you do on your free time. The thing that is your passion. This is where you'll find your niche. Here are examples of the last 3 conversations I've had: Friend #1 - works construction, and couldn't think of a marketable skill. After 3 1/2 minutes realized that he has twin girls. Found there was a huge market for informational product in this niche and him and his wife are now working on their first product. Friend #2 - works as a manager at Office Depot. One the weekends loves to shot guns with his dad. They are creating a software program that helps people to increase their accuracy when shooting. They are also creating video demonstrations on how to improve your accuracy. Friend #3 - came to me asking for help promoting a "how to make money online" course. He had to call me using a video relay because he's deaf. I told him that he was going in the wrong direction with what he was promoting. He had no experience making money online. I asked him what his hobbies were, and surely enough told me he didn't have any that he could sell. Before I even asked that question I knew what his niche was. He's been speaking through sign language his whole life, and there are thousands of people searching every month on how to learn sign language. What do you do in your free time when no one else is around? Are you good at video games? Are you a good cook? Do you play any sports? Do you throw dinner parties? Do you collect anything? Can you play an instrument? What is your passion? When you can answer this... then you know what your niche is. Step 3 - Research your market. Don't worry - this part isn't nearly as hard as you'd think. Within about 5 minutes I can usually tell if a niche is worth looking at. There are 3 things you need to do, and you'll know if it's the right niche. First - Check out the search engines. There are a lot more advanced tools then this, but this one is completely free to use. Go to http://inventory.overture.com and type in your niche. This will show you how many times that word was searched for that month on their search engine. If there are a lot of people searching for it each money, the it's likely a good niche. Second - Search for online communities related to your niche. People with similar interests migrate to the same places online. Wrestlers hang out at wrestling forums, poets hang out in poetry message boards, etc... Go to www.google.com and type in "________ forums" or "_________ message board" or "_______ groups" (put your niche in the blank). Visit these forums and see if they are active and how many members they have. You can often find forums with 10,000+ members in it. If you find good communities focused around your niche, then this is another good sign. Third - Search for similar products. If you can find others selling products in your niche, then it's usually a good sign that there's some life there. Purchase their products and get to know your competition (because they are going to become your JV partners in another lesson). After getting this far, you should have a good idea about which niche you would like to conquer, as well as some idea about if it is a profitable niche. In the next lesson we are going to discuss how you can turn those talents into a product. Product creation is one of the most exciting parts of the game for me, so look out for that lesson coming soon. Thanks, Russell Brunson Written by Russell Brunson editor of http://www.conqueryourniche.com newsletter. Discover How I Earned A High 6-Figure Income In Spite Of My College Education at http://www.ConquerYourNiche.com
Latest News:Site: Yahoo! News Search Results for news Myanmar's Suu Kyi to get family letters, news mags (Reuters via Yahoo! News) Detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has managed to wring small concessions from the ruling generals in the form of letters from her family and some international news magazines, her lawyer said on Friday. JCDecaux in talks for News Outdoor Group in Russia (AP via Yahoo! News) French outdoor advertising firm JCDecaux SA said Thursday it is negotiating to buy Russian rival News Outdoor Group from global media company News Corp. News Corp tightens grip on Premiere with new CEO (Reuters via Yahoo! News) Rupert Murdoch tightened his grip on German pay-TV broadcaster Premiere by appointing News Corp executive Mark Williams as CEO in a move to get the company back on track. SEC Looks Into UAL Stock Scare; Implications For Online News? (CBS News) A ton of digits have been devoted to this in other spots but the SEC's decision to investigate takes it to another level. The backstory: a six-year-old news story about UAL declaring bankruptcy made it into the Tribune-owned Sun-Sentinel 's current news flow, was picked up by a Google (NSDQ: GOOG) News bot and, via a reporter for a newsletter, made it onto Bloomberg News. After a lot of buck ... JCDecaux and News Corp. in talks to combine outdoor ad groups (International Herald Tribune) The News Corp. chief executive, Rupert Murdoch, has recently expressed nervousness about investments in Russia, where News Outdoor generated the bulk of its revenue last year. SEC Looks Into UAL Stock Scare; Implications For Online News? (paidContent.org via Yahoo! Finance) A ton of digits have been devoted to this in other spots but the SEC's decision to investigate takes it to another level. The backstory: a six-year-old news story about UAL declaring bankruptcy made it into the Tribune-owned Sun-Sentinel's current news flow, was picked up by a Google News bot and, via a reporter for a newsletter, made it onto Bloomberg News. JCDecaux in talks to buy News Corp. billboard unit (AP via Yahoo! Finance) In a deal that would create the world's largest outdoor advertising company, French conglomerate JCDecaux SA said Thursday that it is in talks to buy Russian rival News Outdoor Group from global media company News Corp. Phila. mayor to announce grim budget news (The Philadelphia Inquirer) The Nutter administration is expected to announce grim budget news today, which is all but certain to lead to significant spending cuts - perhaps as high as 10 percent - in some city departments, according to three sources familiar with the budget. News Corp says Mark Williams interim Premiere CEO (Reuters via Yahoo! News) News Corp. executive Mark Williams has taken over as chief executive of German pay-TV broadcaster Premiere in an interim capacity, News Corp. said after the move led to renewed takeover speculation. News Corp. says Mark Williams interim Premiere CEO (Reuters via Yahoo! News) Mark Williams, a News Corp. executive named late on Wednesday as chief executive of German pay-TV broadcaster Premiere, has taken over in an interim capacity, a News Corp. spokeswoman said on Thursday. Site: news - Google News Phil Schiller bringing the news at Macworld - San Francisco Chronicle
MORE RESOURCES: Site: Yahoo! News Search Results for entrepreneurialism Lone Star Library: Green Mountain founder shares entrepreneurial insights (Fort Worth Business Press) Rural Southerner Sam Wyly came by his self-made captain-of-industry status the hard way, developing a passion for business strategy by playing schoolboy football and observing his parents? natural gift for small-business operations and hard-bargain bartering. S.C.'s brightest complete Business Week (Columbia Star) Approximately 200 high school students from across S.C. have successfully graduated from South Carolina Business Week, presented by the South Carolina Cable Television Association, July 13- 18, at Presbyterian College in Clinton. Wellington West opens Montreal branch (CNW Group via Yahoo! Finance) Wellington West Holdings Inc., a privately held, employee-owned financial services firm, today announced the expansion of its national network with the opening of a Wellington West Capital Inc. full-service retail investment branch in Montreal, Quebec. Ctek Selects Kyocera 300 Module for Z4100 Wireless Router (Centre Daily Times) Kyocera Wireless Corp. (KWC), a leading global manufacturer of wireless handsets, devices and embedded machine-to-machine (M2M) modules, and Ctek, a leading manufacturer of specialized communications solutions for industrial and commercial applications, today announced the selection of the Kyocera 300 Module for Ctek's cost-effective Z4100 Router. The Kyocera 300 Module enables reliable, ... Memphis confident of growth campaign (Memphis Commercial Appeal) One year after the launch of a $64 million economic development campaign, city officials are increasingly optimistic about the impact of MemphisED on the Bluff City. Summer break project: JTCC student lives, learns nonprofit leadership with Pheonix Project (The Petersburg Progress-Index) CHESTER ? Jamie Poniatowski, a Class of 2008 human services major, spent her summer break in Petersburg, participating in the Phoenix Project?s 2008 Nonprofit Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship Program, which transforms committed undergraduate and graduate students into effective social entrepreneurs with the knowledge, skills and connections to succeed in Virginia?s nonprofit sector. Ctek Selects Kyocera 300 Module for Z4100 Wireless Router (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance) SAN DIEGO & RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.----Kyocera Wireless Corp. , a leading global manufacturer of wireless handsets, devices and embedded machine-to-machine modules, and Ctek, a leading manufacturer of specialized communications solutions for industrial and commercial applications, today announced the selection of the Kyocera 300 Module for Ctek?s cost-effective Z4100 Router. $1 Million Opus Prize Finalists Announced (PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance) Seattle University and the Opus Prize Foundation today announced three finalists for the $1 million 2008 Opus Prize, one of the world's largest humanitarian service awards. Guided by faith and an entrepreneurial spirit, Marguerite "Maggy" Barankitse, Krishnammal Jagannathan and Michael Woodard are working throughout the world to give people the tools to transform their lives. Scotiabank Online Small Business Contest Last Call (CNW Group via Yahoo! Finance) The chance for Canadian small business owners to win $50,000 in cash prizes is coming to a close. As part of Scotiabank's 'Get Growing to a Million' Campaign, the online challenge has offered small business owners across Canada a chance to win one grand prize of $20,000 and six regional prizes of $5,000. In cinemas this weekend (Guardian Unlimited) RocknRolla | The Duchess | Bangkok Dangerous | Disaster Movie | Sweete Land | El Cantante | Never Apologise | Mera Pind My Home Site: entrepreneurialism - Google News Ohio House Speaker Budish touts regionalism in his first address - WKYC-TV
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