The Niche Marketing Blog

Tools for understanding and reaching your market

Google’s Game Changer

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...

Search Plus Your World

As reported on Blogspot, CNN, and elsewhere, Google announced on Tuesday that they were making a dramatic change in their search algorithm by adding contextual content from social media platforms (especially Google+ and Picasa) into the search results. I will leave it to others to explain the nuances, while I will point out the obstacles, and opportunities, cow confronting niche marketers.

Google feels that the inclusion on social media content will provide a richer experience for the user, and I agree with them. However, with the inclusion of such content, your previous SEO efforts will have to be re-examined. If your site was currently ranked in the top 5 of Google’s Page 1, you will likely be bumped down a few spaces. If you were ranked near the bottom of Page 1, you’ll likely now be residing somewhere on Page 2. The reason is that Google is now adding additional search results which will compete with your page ranking.

Fortunately, the solution should be  straight forward for those who are aware of this change.

First,  if you don’t already have one, set-up a Google+ account. While you’re at it, create a business page as well. With some analysts predicting a membership roster of 400 million by the end of this year, you’ll want to be actively posting quality content on Google+ anyway.

This is a good time to start thinking about increasing the size and scope of your circles as well. The more people you are following, and who are following you, on Google+, the better you’ll be positioned in the revamped search engine results.

Second, if you haven’t already done so, establish a Picasa account and start populating it with keyword optimized photos. Google has indicated that Picassa will be weighted in their new search rankings, so now is the time to get busy with a Picasa account.

Third, encourage your friends and followers from other social media platforms to join you on Google+, and comment on your photos over at Picasa.

Finally, review your on-page SEO efforts for title tags, keyword relevancy and density, and image alt tags. Despite the changes that Google is unveiling, these on-page factors are still important.

Being proactive with the above steps will help preserve your search engine rankings. Let me know what’s working for you and if you’ve noticed any changes in your search engine rankings as a result of Google’s latest changes. Feel free to leave me a comment below.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

New Year – Fresh Plans

With the New Year comes the time for re-evaluating your marketing efforts to see what’s working, and what’s not. One of the secrets for being a successful niche marketer is to continually evaluate the marketplace, your customers and prospects, and the latest tools available for helping you connect with them.

For most of us, the idea of reassessing our niche marketing efforts is daunting. Many of you are, no doubt, feeling overwhelmed and, in many cases, haven’t yet seen the promised riches that were supposed to be flowing in once you got your first niche site up and running. Too many courses, too many tools offered, too much hype.

Well, here’s some good news. Marketing expert is offering a FREE 31-day marketing make-over that will help you clear out the clutter, remove money-sucking projects, and free you up to concentrate on a more profitable business model in 2012. No hype and no strings attached. The only thing you have to give up is your name and email address to receive her 31-day marketing makeover via email.

So, no more excuses. Click on the following link and get 2012 off to a great start!

Internet Marketing Makeover

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Technorati Tags: , , ,

How to Get Website Traffic Using Articles

A symbol for list-class articles.

Niche article writing

[Editor's note: We continue our series of web site traffic building strategies by looking at article writing. By writing high quality articles, containing targeted keywords, and then submitting those articles to article directories, you can dramatically increase the number of readers who will see your writing. If you are clever, you will write your articles in such a way that many of these readers will then visit your web site or blog to obtain more information.

Despite the "sky is falling" predictions surrounding Google's "Panda" update* offered by some traffic gurus, article writing is still a cost effective way to generate traffic - sometimes massive traffic - to your site. Today's guest article foscues on the "how-to" end of article writing.  Niche marketing writers continue to use this strategy to good effect. What do you think? Let me know if article writing has worked for you, or if you need more information on how to get started writing articles. Feel free to leave me a comment below.  ~Scott]

 

(*Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of Google’s “Panda” update Just get busy writing those articles!  ~Scott)

 

By Pat Turman

There are numerous ways to get website traffic and I am going to talk about one of the easiest ways to do it. What I’m talking about is writing articles to generate traffic to your website.

Writing articles with good content around a product or service you are offering and then submitting these articles to article directories is a great way to generate website traffic. However there are three key points you may want to remember.

1. Do good keyword research first. A key component is writing an article around a keyword or keyword phrase that you are using to target your web audience. Say for instance you are selling floormats for a Toyota FJ Cruiser SUV. You need to research via the internet various keywords or keyword phrases that one may use in the search engines to find floormats for this vehicle.

Once you find relevant words and phrases, determine how many searches are being done using those words and phrases, then check out your competition. If you determine those keywords are what you will target then you move on to number two.

2. Write quality informative content around the keywords and phrases in relationship to your product. Again using the example above. You can formulate articles around floormats for different year FJ Cruisers, cargo area mats, rubber mats, carpeted mats, and different color mats. There are many options. A rule of thumb is to write articles that are at least 400 words or more. This gives relevance to your content. As we say content is “King”.

Make sure you write the articles with information that you believe, from your research, your targeted audience is looking for. Make sure you add the keywords and phrases throughout your article so the search engines can find your information.

But don’t stuff you articles with keywords because they will be rejected by the article directories and deemed clunky or unreadable. Try to stay within 1 percent to no more than 2 percent keyword density within your article. Therefore with a 400 word count article you should have no more than 4 keywords.

3. Once you have your articles written then you can start submitting them to different article directories. You will need to set up an account with the directories first. Some article directories are free and some may cost a small fee. I recommend starting off with the free directories to drive website traffic to your site and see how it goes.

Make sure you read the terms and conditions of the directories to know where you can put your links to your affiliate products or your website. By placing links in your article you can direct the viewer back to your website where you provide additional information, offer the visitor a product, or explain your service to them.

Article marketing is a great way to start building links to your website which is a plus in the search engines. As more people find your information, find your information relevant to what they are searching for, and then click through to your website you begin to see an increase in website traffic.

Hopefully you have learned a little more about using articles to increase your website traffic. If you would like more information and find the top 25 article directories to submit your articles to check out my website at Niche Business 101.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pat_Turman
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Get-Website-Traffic-Using-Articles&id=6695601

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

How to Get Free Website Traffic

Symbol for web traffic, SVG version of Image:W...

web site traffic

[Editor's note: Following up on our theme of generating more traffic for your web site, today's guest article focuses on three simple, yet proven, ways to get visitors to your site. Many business owners, and niche marketers, complain that traffic counts are down, but fail to take simple steps to reverse the trend. I will be exploring more of those steps in the coming posts. In the mean time, tell me what you think: how is traffic for your site? And what are you doing to increase the traffic counts? ~Scott]

By Dayne Jones

No matter what you are selling or marketing, you can always use more eyes looking at your website. Of course there are ways to pay for traffic to your website and those methods are great but you can still get pretty far on a budget. In some cases, free website traffic is even better than traffic that you pay for. Paid traffic is often more focused on numbers of visits while the free website traffic methods I’m going to show you will be more about quality. Here are my favorite free methods for getting free website traffic:

1. Get on the search engines. Google, Yahoo, and Bing, the 3 major search engines, want to find your website and provide it as a result to their customers. Unfortunately, the search engines don’t necessarily know you exist, especially new websites. Since the search engines are free, you do not have to pay them to get listed, you just have to submit your URL to their listings. It is also recommended to submit your name to the search engines once a month for continued and accurate indexing.

2. “Word of Mouth“. When you have an offline business, you spread the word physically. You tell people about the business, give out business cards, put up signs or billboards, and get your friends and family to talk about your business. The same principle applies to the web. Since the web is a little different, you will follow the same idea but in different ways. You already know that you need to get a facebook and twitter account to connect with the people you know but there are many other ways to get it done. Try going to question and answer sites like Yahoo answers where users submit questions and answers. If someone is asking a question about your industry, answer it and suggest they check out your website. You can even drop a link to your site to make it easier to follow. Not only did you just help someone out, your answer is there for anyone searching the web to find it. This works on forums as well. These days, there is a forum for just about anything. If you can find something related to your industry, join the forum. Become an active member and leave a link to your site in your signature or in every post you submit. Not only have you left valuable information and a link to your site but you’ve also given the search engine more reason to think your site is reputable. If you are participating all over the web in discussion about your industry, the search engines will notice and rank you higher.

3. Make Partners. If you can find other websites or directories dealing with your industry, you can probably get your link on their site. Contact local businesses in your area and link swap with them. Consider contacting your chamber of commerce and getting your link listed there as well. If you have a page called ‘our partners’ and list other local businesses you interact with, they are very likely to return the favor by linking to your site. This will show more people that you exist and impress the search engines at the same time.

These are my 3 favorite ways to get free website traffic. Of course there are other ways of going about it so don’t be afraid to try something new and be creative. As always, if you need to create a website, don’t hesitate to check out WebStarts.com and build a free website today.

At WebStarts, you can make a free website and get online for free.

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

http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Get-Free-Website-Traffic&id=6684177

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Technorati Tags: , ,

What Is All This Content Marketing Stuff Anyway?

A Picture of a eBook

Content marketing

[Editor's note: This week's guest article continues our focus on content marketing and how you can use this strategy to help build traffic to your niche website or blog. Words to the wise: content marketing as a strategy is only as good as the content that you have published. So, choose your topics carefully and only publish high quality work.  Let me know what you think by leaving me a comment below.  ~Scott]

By R. Henks

In this article I am going to teach you about another method of traffic building that I call content marketing. You will learn what it is, how it can build your business and how to do it.

There are several methods of driving traffic to you business. In past articles I taught you some of the low cost methods. Content marketing is another very good low cost method of driving traffic to you info marketing business. Some examples of content marketing are articles, blogs, articles, videos, eBooks, audio courses. There are still more but that is enough to get started.

So how do you get started with Content Marketing?

Basically you start creating content. You can write an article, then submit it to the article directories. You could post it as a blog or on a website. The idea is to get it published online. Then people will see it, if they like it they will recommend it or publish on their websites. That is called viral marketing. Getting other folks to advertise your article all over the web for you. This could continue on and on, from friend to friend or website to website until there are thousands of views of it.

This could be any type of content you choose. You could use a video, or audios and post them on video sites. The same thing can happen. Then at the end of your article or video just be sure to include a call to action. Whether it is a link to your squeeze page or to your website or affiliate offer. Just make sure you take advantage of all those people that are viewing your content.

The viral part of this is what helps you to build your business. The search engines might pick it up and index it. Then you have a whole lot more chances for people to see your content and your call to action.

How do you do content marketing to build your business?

Lets say you start writing an article every day and publish it on the internet. Let’s just do 5 a week to start. In a month you could have 20-25 articles written. Keep that up for 6 months and you could have over 100 articles published online.

Now, take those articles and record them as audios, a video, maybe a blog post and you have hundreds of hours of teachable material that many folks will be glad to pay for.

To promote this content you created you could subscribe to forums that are in your niche and talk about your products. Eventually folks will ask for your links and begin visiting your sites and buying your products.

At the same time, while creating these teachings, you could be promoting some good affiliate products that will help your readers even more. They will appreciate your recommendations. That would make your articles and videos get that much more traffic to build up your info marketing business.

By the way, if you liked this article, you will probably like my new Info Marketing Success Daily newsletter – I am planning to do a daily training for 90-100 days – if you like this article, you should like the daily training.

Sign up here: Info Marketing Success Daily

Or do you want to learn more about using articles like this to drive traffic to your website and increase online conversions?

If so, I suggest you visit here: info marketing.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=R._Henks

http://EzineArticles.com/?What-Is-All-This-Content-Marketing-Stuff-Anyway?&id=6622430

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Internet Marketing Guide – 4 Content Marketing Miscues

SEO Tool: Basic Editorial Plan @TopRank

Content Marketing helps with ranking

[Editor's note: The term "content marketing" is gaining traction in the niche marketing communities. While not a new concept, content marketing is still receiving a lot of press because it offers a potential solution to the recent algorithm changes served up by Google. The following guest article takes a look at four specific content marketing mistakes and how to avoid them. Are you using content marketing in your on-line strategy? Let me know how that is working out for you by leaving me a comment below.  ~Scott]

 

By Darren W Chow

Internet marketing campaigns revolve around 3 things – search engine optimization, social media and content marketing. These marketing efforts are referred to as pull strategies. These are the marketing efforts that are designed to “pull in” your target clients, instead of pushing them to make favorable buying decisions.

The oft-repeated adage in Internet marketing – content is king – remains as relevant as ever. After all these emerging developments and shifts, the content of your Webpage remains to be the lynchpin of Internet marketing. Search engines scour the pages of your Website to assess if such pages measure up to the search query. On the other hand, your target readers will follow the content of your blogs, whitepapers, articles, etc. in order to get a clear picture of the product or services that you are offering.

This means that you need to generate quality content to build your reputation online. You have to exert extra effort to show that you are a trusted and reliable source of information. Thus, if you want to hit the jackpot in your Internet marketing campaign, you have to work on your content.

There are 4 common pitfalls that you must avoid in your Internet marketing campaign. These are the following:

Inadequate Fresh Content

Fresh content is the lifeblood of content marketing. This may appear to be a perfect case of redundancy. How would you perceive a blog site where the latest post is already a few weeks old? Blogs that are generally stagnant are considered by readers as fairly useless and won’t waste their time reading through the content. You are losing out on the opportunity to rank well at Google since each of the posts in your blog can target various keywords and these can help improve your online presence.

Connecting With the Wrong Audience

Follow the basic rule in marketing – profile your potential clients. You must monitor who are reading your blog posts regularly. Carefully assess if you are missing out on some earning opportunities from other segments of the market. Determine what your priorities are. Do you want to build your reputation as an expert in a particular field or niche? Or do you want to share information with your target clients? You must also get a good grip of the online behavior of your target readers and find out what they are looking for when they browse the Web.

Coming Off As a Hard Sell

You will surely mess up your Internet marketing campaign if you treat your content marketing as your medium in selling your product or service. You have to remember that your primary objective is not to sell but to market your product or service. You are into content marketing to “help” your potential clients. Your readers will surely not appreciate it if you sound a bit too “promotional” when you provide content for your blog.

Producing Content Without Promotional Value

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you should find ways to promote your product or service without going overboard and appear to be a hard sell. Learn of the “stealth” techniques so that you can get the desired response from your readers. When you produce a great article or white paper, you can get positive response from your target audience. This puts you closer to your main objective of developing a potential business through higher CTRs. Make yourself visible on the Web. Get those posts on your social profiles, company newsletters and social bookmarking sites. Of course, don’t forget to put share buttons on your blogs so that your target audience can republish or link to them.

For more resources about internet marketing check out Choose Income program. There is also a great program called Niche Conqueror that can be very successful.

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

http://EzineArticles.com/?Internet-Marketing-Guide—4-Content-Marketing-Miscues&id=6617682

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Technorati Tags: , , ,

5 Major Benefits of Content Marketing

Content Strategy

[Editor's note: There has been a lot of buzz in the niche marketing arenas lately about "content marketing". While this concept isn't exactly new, it does afford many advantages over other forms of online marketing - especially for niche marketers. Today's guest article looks at five benefits that you can realize by adding content marketing to your overall marketing strategy. What do you think? Do you use content marketing in your marketing mix? Has it paid off for you? Leave me a comment below  ~Scott.]

ByTJ Philpott

Content marketing is fast becoming more highly recognized as a viable and long term means of marketing on the internet. Publishing content may not be as easy or work as quickly as submitting a PPC ad and does involve an investment of your time. On the flip side however it is one of the most effective advertising methods available online today.

Many look at what is involved in publishing content and often times choose to use another online marketing strategy that is not as labor intensive. No doubt there are many who may not be convinced that using content to promote online is worth the effort.

For anyone still indecisive about using content as an online marketing strategy let’s review 5 compelling benefits this promotional strategy offers.

Economical

Publishing content involves only the investment of your time and effort. Using content to promote yourself or your business online is very easy on your marketing budget. In today’s day and age where are you going to find something that actually works and not have to pay for it?

Longer Lasting

Unlike some other methods of advertising, publications such as newsletters, blog post or articles can continue to drive traffic for you long after they were initially published. Of course this is highly dependent upon the quality of the content that you have published.

Builds Credibility

The more content you publish the more recognized you become on the internet due to the increased exposure. Along these same lines the longer your name is associated with the content you are publishing the more you become recognized as an authority on the subject matter.

What you are looking at here is building a reputation online which is difficult to do within such an ‘impersonal’ medium as the internet. Your content allows readers to get a better feel of who you are and the degree of your expertise.

Attracts Targeted Traffic

Obviously the people who are most interested in your content will be the same ones who visit your sites. When you consider that your content is going to focus on whatever it may be you are promoting this traffic will be highly targeted.

Great SEO Tactic

The more you publish any content linking back to your site the more incoming links your site will have. Also the frequency of your publications is something the search engines love since they are always looking for fresh content they can rank. In both these cases the search engines will display more favoritism to your site(s) with a higher ranking for you. This results in more ‘organic’ traffic for you which is the best type to have since it is so targeted.

Content marketing is one of the most effective advertising methods for marketing on the internet today. The only drawback for some may be how labor intensive this type of online marketing strategy is. In reviewing 5 major benefits this promotional strategy offers it is hard to deny the obvious advantages associated with publishing content online. In the end it would seem the effort is more than worth it as long as you are willing to put forth that effort!

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Technorati Tags: , ,

Market Research Remains a Key to Growth

By Scott Spooner

The folks over at HingeMarketing.com have recently completed a study looking at  the effects of market research on company growth and profitability. The results surprised the study team:

To our surprise, we found a clear — even dramatic — correlation between systematic research and firm growth and profitability. The more frequently you do research, the faster you grow and the more profitable you are.

The following infographic helps to summarize their findings.

In short, the more systematic research a business engages in, the the greater growth and profitability that business is likely to realize. The research team believes that this correlation is straightforward: the more you learn about your customers, the more you'll be able to anticipate their wants and needs, and the sooner you'll be able to react.

As the economy continues to remain soft, this is good advice for niche marketers who are trying to gain a foot hold in their market.

 

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Technorati Tags: ,

Niche Marketing – 3 Simple Steps to Finding a Profitable Niche Market Online Within 5 Minutes

Niche marketing strategy

Image via Wikipedia

[Editor's note: As the global economy continues to remain soft, marketers and business owners alike are being forced into narrower and narrower niches in order to appeal to customer needs. Today's guest article reviews the concept niche marketing and explains how to get started as an on-line niche marketer in a short period of time. Are you finding niche marketing tougher these days? Tell me what you think by leaving a comment below. ~Scott]

 

If you are struggling to find a profitable niche that will generate income for you, then this article will save you lots of time to do the research and ultimately, this method will help you to find a profitable niche within 5 minutes or less from now. When selling a product, you need do the research to find a market first that spends money, then find out what they want and give it to them. After that, you will need to find main phrases for the niche and find out if your niche is making money. After finish reading this article, you will know how to find a profitable niche within 5 minutes without spending any money.

1.) Research

The Example I am about to give is the exact method I use to find hungry niches and is quite easy to do! You may not find your hobby or interest is a profitable one but at least it gives you a starting point. Just think of things that you enjoy doing like cooking, playing computer games, fishing, collecting stamps etc… The site that I use to do the research is at Google Keyword Tool. It lets you see the amount of Google results and the amount people are paying per click on Google AdWords. The next step we going to do is to find popular phrases in your niche

2.) Find main phrases in your niche market

Type in the main keyword for your niche and search for it. Bear mind though you need a good number of searches to make this a profitable income stream for you. Different marketers will tell you different numbers depending on their own point of view. I try to stick to above 2,000 a month searches for a niche term in UK or US. So you should now do the same and pick the top 5 phrases that are being most searched for in your niche. If your niche has less than 2000 searches per month then you will need to find another and try and think of another niche with more search results. So, the next thing you would need to find out is if the niche will make you any money!

3.) Find out if your niche will make you money

Bear in mind that there is no guarantees that you will make money with your product, however if you follow this step it should make 99% sure that there is a market for the taking! Go to Google and type in the top phrase. Once you have typed in your main phrase the first thing you should look at is the number of search results the query has. This is a lot of results and that normally means there is a market there.The next thing you should do is look at the number of AdWords (sponsored Links) the phrase has. These are adverts people place on Google for certain phrases. Basically the more profitable a market the more people will bid to place their ads.

Now that is the proven system to find a profitable niche market. You learned how to do the research in your niche market, you learned how to find the top 5 main phrases for your niche, and you learned how to find out if your niche will make you money. Now you have everything you need to know to find a profitable niche for free to generate income for you.

Christopher Sia, a 21 year old kid without any college education, started making money online everyday after learning his mentor’s proven system.

Discover the exact system how an ordinary guy is able to make money online with niche marketing without spending money on traffic at all. Sign up for a free case study video that reveals how to generate auto-pilot income in a niche market.

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

http://EzineArticles.com/?Niche-Marketing—3-Simple-Steps-to-Finding-a-Profitable-Niche-Market-Online-Within-5-Minutes&id=4817476

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Technorati Tags: , ,

Social Media: 5 Trends to Consider

Social Media and Niche Marketing

Image by Intersection Consulting via Flickr

[Editor's note: Today's guest article focuses on social media trends that have recently emerged and that can be leveraged by smart niche marketers to create more traffic and more sales. Take a look at these trends and consider incorporating one or more of them into your current marketing mix. Let me know what you think by posting a comment below.  ~Scott]

 

Does the concept of starting a social media marketing campaign scare you? Don’t let it. While social media sites are quickly growing, they’re also becoming easier to use and are welcoming not only social butterflies but businesses as well. Social media marketing is slowly but surely finding its way into the standard marketing campaign – and for good reason. Here are some of the trends we’ve noticed over the past year.

A Lack of Control

When venturing into the world of social media, it is important to remember that you will have very little control over the actions and mindsets of your followers or fans. Take Facebook, for example. You may decide to build a business page for your organization but you may also find that your fans have created fan pages of their own – unofficial pages where they have chosen to network and talk about your products or services. While that shouldn’t discourage you from building your own page, it should encourage you to check out what others are doing or saying in an effort to monitor and protect your brand.

Exploring Collective Sales

The past year has introduced the concept of collective sales, or collective buying, to the social media marketing platform as well. Sites like Groupon offer businesses a set amount of guaranteed sales. You, as a business, will offer a steep discount but an individual can only take advantage of it if a guaranteed number of people make the purchase. Those clients may not turn into regular customers, but the collective sale will give you the opportunity to gain hundreds of new customers literally overnight.

Location Based Marketing

Technology is an incredible thing and advances in the way people can connect to the internet and, in turn, their social networks has had a huge influence on social media marketing. Anyone with a smartphone or an iPad can access the internet and many love checking in on social applications like Loopt and Foursquare. Even Facebook and Twitter have added applications that allow people to report where they are. Many business with storefronts are now offering incentives, ranging from discounts to free products, to customers who post that they are in the shop.

Social Networks and Gaming

Many social networks, including Facebook, feature incredibly popular games. Despite your hesitance, it’s important to recognize that millions of people are playing the games offered by social networking groups each day. Pretty soon, you’ll be able to advertise within these games. At the very least, you may be able to include your product in virtual form so that those playing can buy your services. They may just decide to do so in real life, too.

Social Media Experts

While social media was at one time completely free, trends now point towards the incorporation of social media experts into the overall marketing plan. These experts have experience setting up Twitter profiles or Facebook pages, making customizations and changes that will give you the most professional and appealing face possible. It’s all about building your brand, and an expert can help you set things up right from the start.

Social media marketing is growing by leaps and bounds and many businesses, from Toyota to Nike, are marketing their social networking pages (especially their Facebook fan pages) even more heavily than their own websites. It’s a trend in itself and will continue to grow over the next few years. Don’t launch an online business (or an offline business with a web presence) without adding social media to your marketing campaign. It’s guaranteed to make a huge difference.

http://thefoxegroup.com

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , ,

« Previous Entries