Back in lesson 7, we established that the type of online business model I’m going to be teaching is primarily an information publishing business.
In other words, you’re going to sell your own information product (also known as an infoproduct). But before we can create an infoproduct, we need to choose a topic for it.
(Watch this video…
NOTE: This niche selection process applies to virtually ANY type of online business– not just infoproducts!)
Main points:
1) They think they’re going to be married to it (so they stress out and procrastinate making the choice)
2) They’re afraid it’s going to fail and not be profitable.
(both reasons are basically that they are afraid of choosing the wrong niche)
1) Something you know
2) Something you don’t know
1) Your enthusiasm will help sell it
2) It will be a better product
3) You can relate to your market
– How big is the niche?
– How competitive is the niche?
– How profitable is the niche?
Action step:
1) Brainstorm some topics that you would be interested in turning into a product. Write them down.
Don’t worry about details of the niche market for it yet…we’ll be doing the research in the next lesson.
If you don’t already have some ideas in mind, and don’t know how to start brainstorming, here are some places to look for ideas (starting points)…
1) What’s hot on Ebay (updated each season)
2) Ebay Popular (dynamic popularity rankings)
3) Best sellers on Amazon (updated hourly)
4) Shopping.com Consumer Demand Index (updated every 2 weeks)
5) Most popular goals on 43things (updated daily)
6) Google hot trends (updated throughout the day)
Special Offer:
Today I’m offering an ebook which explains how to have your own product online and making sales within 30 days.
If you’re interested in discovering all the details about the niche selection process, or in getting a jump start on the rest of the product creation process, this ebook is for you.
It is a brand new exclusive ebook created for Eric’s Tips.
“How to Have Your Own Information Product in 30 Days“.
Click here to get more details and download this ebook
(Resale Rights also available)
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below. Feel free to let me know if you’ve got some topics in mind, or if you’ve already chosen a niche.
Have a great day!
Eric,
I’m really excited now about the new turning point and starting to work directly on creating my business. I can’t thank you enough for all the foundational videos you worked so hard on…these will continually come in handy when I find myself struggling or wanting to give up. Just like you mentioned…most other teachers don’t start(or teach) with a basic strong foundation for their students, so thank you for doing this.I’m stronger because of it!
As for a Niche I’ve diffently tossed around a few ideas…diffently will be going with something you refer to as evergreen. I’m looking forward to learning how to explore niches in your next video.
Student 4 Life 😉
Gary
🙂
Get 150 *Top Quality* NICHE Websites With Your Paypal ID On Each!
http://Instant-Paysites.com
Hey Eric,
Looking back in hindsight, the niche (everybody say “neesh” like Neil Shearing!) I initially chose when going online with my main site doesn’t look all that stellar on paper…
1. How big is the niche?
36,000,000 just in the USA. That’s too diverse to be considered a niche.
2. How competitive is the niche?
Extremely. Everybody and their brother wants to sell the 71% of families with a mom in the paid workforce something.
3. How profitable is the niche?
Profit? Where? A good portion of the target market lives paycheck to paycheck and has almost no disposable income to speak of!
But before I paint such a bleary picture as all that, I should add that using your criteria we did have a few things going for us.
a) I knew a lot about the subject,
b) I could identify and write about topics of interest to the target market,
c) And fortunately I wasn’t counting on the site to make a living.
So how’d it turn out? By the grace of God it turned out well enough to support our family. But we spent more than three years in the red before we were in the black.
So it would seem there is a bit of an intangible X factor when you’ve got an idea with as many positives as negatives. It was certainly beneficial I chose something that I was willing to write about for free…because that’s exactly what I did for three years!
However since I’m always seeking to learn to do my online work better, I’m here putting Eric’s tips into practice.
Eric, I’ll let you know when we amass our first million using your tips!
Sabrina
http://www.WorkingMom.com
Hi Eric,
I’m really looking forward for your 2nd part of this topic. For my Niche, I have actually planned for a few since I started my Internet Business and I’m working on it one by one and making sure that I only start my next niche once i have completed the previous Niche properly.
Finally the juicy information have arrived. 😀
Your Free Digital Resource Center
http://www.dbookworm.com
Thanks Gary!
Thanks for sharing this. Yes a niche as competitive as “working moms” would be very ambitious for the average newbie. But there’s nothing wrong with tackling a large, competitive niche IF you are prepared to do so. In general I would expect it to take longer to break into the market and establish a name for yourself. As you mentioned, it took you a few years to become profitable, which is a time frame that many newbies would not withstand.
A huge niche may be more work, more risk, with a slower return… but it also comes with a larger potential payoff.
And yeah, there’s always an intangible X-factor.
Hi Eric,
Thanks for sharing this info in such an easy to understand way.
I’m sure that choosing a niche and developing the product may well be a challenge, but I suspect that marketing the product will end up being the biggest challenge. Advertising can so easily swallow up huge amounts of capital.
I’m sure you will be covering the marketing of the product in your next video. I’m certainly looking forward to it.
God bless
Peter
Happy with a DSL Connection? How much do you pay for it?
You really should check out what’s coming:
http://wifi-10505pm.ItsYourNet.com
HI! Eric,
I am waiting with big interest part 2. My tendency always is to pick up a large niche, but this time I want to work in a very narrow niche, just to see how is going to work, but for a particular niche I really need to find out a good range for popularity and competition as well. I hope I’ll get some good advice in Part 2.
Example: “affiliate ebook marketing”is a good large niche, but I want something as “affiliate ebook marketing home schooling”, just to have an idea. My point is, for a restricted niche, which range for popularity I have to look it over, and which range of competition is acceptable. You got the idea.
Regards Michaela
http://www.ebookscamp.com
Hey Eric,
Choosing a niche can be very important when anyone is deciding to pick a product. The great thing is that niches usually have people who are very dedicated to their given area. They are usually avid enthusiasts who are willing to purchase quality products related to their niche.
Eric, the sales conversions is some niches are much higher than typical conversion rates. The reason for this is because everyone in a given niche is highly focused and they are open to purchasing products related to their interest.
Eric, these videos are great… Keep them coming…
Tom Curran
http://www.vipmarketingsecrets.com/
Hi Eric,
I downloaded “Your Own Info Product in 30 days” and read through it a few times and have been trying to apply all the tools…thanks for such detailed info. I’m finding(if I’m doing it correctly)that the things(niches)I’m interested in or know something about, are either not very popular or either very popular and to competitive. When I look at the power search tool you mention in the ebook it only gives me the top 100 search phrases in google and doesn’t give me a wide spectrum of niche ideas. I guess my question would be…is there a website or service you would recommend that could provide ideas for niches(just to get the creative juices flowing).Theres probably a lot of topics,niches and subjest matters out there I didn’t know exsisted. I’m kind of feeling like a blank wall at the moment and thought it would be nice to find a place(website or service) that helps with niche ideas so I could research them with all the other tools you provide.
Thanks 🙂
Great question. I get most of my ideas just from everyday life. Again it goes back to thinking like a marketer, and being aware of the trends that we observe every day.
However, there are times when I do need to browse around to help get the creative juices flowing. Here are some places to look for ideas (starting points)…
1) What’s hot on Ebay (updated each season)
2) Ebay Pulse (dynamic popularity rankings)
3) Best sellers on Amazon (updated hourly)
4) Shopping.com Consumer Demand Index (updated every 2 weeks)
5) Most popular goals on 43things (updated daily)
6) Google hot trends (updated throughout the day)
If I know that I want to create a product in a certain genre, I will go to google and search for a “list”. For example, if I wanted to target a certain occupation, I would go to google and search for “list of careers”. People love making lists, and the internet is full of them.
I can’t make a dime on line I have a product that will help clean the environment I need your feed back
Ron, for the moment I will assume that you are referring to your current website, linked from your comment. Here are some reasons I think it is not doing well…
1) probably not getting much traffic. Almost any site can make money if it gets enough traffic, but your site is still impaired even if it does get traffic because…
2) Fuel additives have been overdone in the last couple years, due to the companies setting up MLM type of affiliate programs to sell their product (thousands of people with nearly identical pages)
3) Partly due to #2 above, and partly due to the look of the site, it comes off as somewhat spammy
4) Your links (particularly the Click Here to Get Started) should be blue with an underline. At first I didn’t know it was even a link.
5) Your site is not focused. It’s hard to know what to look at on it. And the money making ebooks are totally unrelated to the fuel products you are selling… this lowers your credibility. Your site needs to stay focused and specialized.
Hope that helps 🙂
Exactly, it’s about finding the right balance of niche size vs. competition vs. profit potential…
Good point Tom, some niches are naturally more profitable than others due to the demographics and fanaticism of it’s members.
May I ask you for suggestions to improve on my blog for better ranking and to promote my online health products store under pages?
thanks
irene
Another great lesson. I do get some excellent ideas from what you are presenting and am very motivated with your style. Looking forward to the next one.
Irene, as far as improving your blog’s ranking, you would need to focus on SEO. I’ll be teaching some SEO, but don’t have time to do so in this comment. The most important factor of SEO is probably link building (getting inbound links to your site).
However, I would encourage you for the moment to focus on your blog itself and not the rank or income.
If you were just slapping articles up there and trying to make a buck from Adsense I wouldn’t worry what your blog looked like. The only important thing would be traffic from SEO.
However, it looks like you are personally writing for this blog. It’s on your own name/domain, and it looks like you are writing about things you care about.
Therefore, I would recommend forgetting about SEO for just a little bit, and focus on making it a blog that people enjoy reading.
Get a better wordpress theme. I’ll show how to do that in the next month or so.
Take down all the ads unless they’re really making money.
It’s better to gain a readership of your blog, and then monetize it.
I’m glad to see you’re building a list with Aweber. you’re doing the right thing in that regard, and I’ll talk about how you can improve those lessons in a future lesson.
Your blog just looks like a “made for adsense splog”, but I know that it’s not!
So you need to give it more of a face, and more of your personality. Putting your picture or a stock photo would help.
Get involved in the blogging community by commenting on related blogs, etc, to help get new readers for your blog.
If this were a page where you were selling an infoproduct, I would have totally different advice. But blogs are different. Your traffic should come mainly from REPEAT visitors… regular readers. Therefore you should focus on making sure it’s a place they will want to bookmark/subscribe and come back to.
I read your About Me page, and you have a compelling story. I would guess that there are thousands of hurting people out there who have gone through something similar.
If you can reach out to those people, they could become your regular readers and you could be a light in the darkness for them.
Pingback: LESSON #20: How to Choose a Niche (Part 2) | Eric’s Tips
Eric, I have never done this thing about paypal. I put all my information about my card and it kept saying information was wrong. I could not get to the download page. Will I still be billed for it? Can you mail the book to me? Please answer.
Thank you
Jeanette
Irene,
I like your articles. In addition to implementing Eric’s suggestions, I noticed in looking at your source code you don’t have a robots meta tag. Adding one can help search engines index your page content properly. Also consider adding an author meta tag too.
Keep writing. And I’ll definitely try the parsley tip!
If it says the information was wrong, then you were not billed for it. I’m only offering it via download. Maybe if you could give us some more specifics about the error message, we could help you figure out paypal 🙂
Affiliate marketing is very competitive. In order to profit from the affiliate marketing, you need to target the niche market that less competitive but got high demand.
How to Check Market Profitability?
Profit Check # 1: Is This A Market Where People Are Already Buying?
For example, the resources listed below:
1. http://www.Ebay.com
2. http://www.YahooShopping.com
3. http://www.Amazon.com
4. http://www.Magazines.com
5. http://www.Bookspot.com
Profit Check #2: Are You Tapping Into Hot, Current Trends And/Or soon-to-Be Hot Topics?
These sites:
6. http://pulse.ebay.com
7. http://50.Lycos.com
8. http://www.TrendWatching.com
Profit Check # 3 : Which Markets Are Written About?
You can visit the following article directories:
9. http://www.Ezinearticles.com
10. http://www.Goarticles.com
11. http://www.ArticleAlley.com
12. http://www.IdealMarketers.com
13. http://www.Searchwarp.com
Profit Check # 4: Validate Your Market with Free Keywords Research Tools
14. http://FreeKeywords.WordTracker.com
15. http://Adwords.Google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Hope that above tips can help you find the profitble niche market to promote. 🙂
To Your Success
Bryan Hee
Hi! Eric,
I start to read your eBook, and I find out 80% of the answers I am looking for. It is an excellent eBook. Now I have to make a habit of doing the research part the right way and don’t be worry about the length of it because it will pay off…
Thanks
Michaela
Nice list 🙂 When you see lessons #20 and #21 you will see that we’re thinking on the same wave length.
Hi Eric,
Thanks again for your great information !
Eric, last week i had a serious computer problem that made me lose many emails and other worthful stuf !!! i really feel sic about losing all of those things !!!!
Is it possible to get from you all the previous Lessons again via email ??
Thanks in advance !!!!!!
Kind regards,
John
Cool I’m glad to hear it! 🙂
Sorry about your computer 🙁
You can view all the previous lessons here:
http://www.ericstips.com/tips/category/lessons/
And if you want to get them in your email again, I suggest just sign up with a different email address:
Thanks eric,
I want to promote my niche,how about if we have more than one niche, I mean with another website is it ok
Hi Eric, thanks for all your positive teachings. Niche is a French word, initially meaning the “dog’s house”, extended to “a segment of market”; one must pronounce it neesh, not nitch… Nietszche is a philosopher.
I see in a previous post that one of the comments suggested adding a “Robot meta tag”– what kind of Robot meta tag is good?
I just realized I have a “robot meta tag” in one of my “ready to go” site that says “”
That doesn’t sound like a good one to have because it almost sounds like the command is asking the robots NOT to index the info and links… Why would this be?
THANKS SO MUCH!
Therese
OOPSS… the tag didn’t show up in my previous post… it says META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW”
Eric, I picked a hard one–Health. I have cancer since 1959, without pain but the cancer doesn’t have me. This niche is very competative & not especially remunerative. But the money isn’t as important as the help I can give them. God bless you.
Mary
Hi Eric
I do find all this meta tag add ID hop links blurb totally alien!I invested my time in writing a little blog then paid out for a domain name and hosting.Added a link from the blog to the site and…nothing lol.The link in the blog went grey not blue and my email for help went awol,no reply in 2 years lol.Still,at some point I am fully expecting to be able not to only to understand it all but also to implement the %^/ in all the right places!!!
Step by step means to me exactly that..For example some sites that redirect you to ‘auto responders’ say all you do is…and upon arriving at the page it all may aswell be written in Chinese!No offence to the Chinese meant.So when you get to explain things Eric would you keep this numbskull in mind please? lol
Paul (UK)
Hi Eric,
In your latest video, you speak about building a business by creating an info product in a chosen niche. But in your ebook on creating info products you recommend the HyperVRE website builder. These seem to be mutually exclusive systems — one relies on creating and selling your own product, the other utilizes Google Adsense, free articles and
affiliate sales. Please show me how these two models fit together.
Thank you.
Best,
Susan
Good advice on lesson 19. Hope everyone picked up on the idea about RESEARCH,RESEARCH,RESEARCH. It is work, it’s not glamorous and it takes time. They say that 98 % of marketers on the internet fail. The reason is that they don’t do the proper research. A niche that gets little traffic or a niche that is competing against millions of web pages is 98 % sure to fail. If you can find a niche or subniche that will get 80-100 searches per day and has 30000 or less competing pages will make you money. As Eric said, once you get one site up then repeat process again and build another and another.
Eric…our house just sold and we’re breaking down the household for a move to Honduras. I’d like to change my email since this one will be gone after 9/04. New one will be <<<>>>. How can I do this so I don’t lose touch?
Hi Eric,
We are working on the ‘NICHE’ but we are doing ‘OFFLINE’ & see that we can put them Online as to expand our business.We need to know how to do this & possibly we might learn as how they are being set up Online.
Niche from the scratch is something that challenging us on what should be the products that we need to have for our clients on living healthiness, always.
Ths, regards
Mohd Singapore
Dick look at the bottom of any email you receive from me, and you will see an unsubscribe/change link. Click that link. On the following page, do NOT unsubscribe. Instead, choose the option to change your email address. Good luck with the move!
Have been really enjoying your lessons. I know this is short but keep up the good work for us. There is still lots to learn.
Thanks Again
John/Annette
Eric…thanks. It’s done. I’m appreciating your thorough lessons. Keep ’em coming.
Hi Eric,
Thanks for such a great info on”How to choose a Profitable niche”
To a newbie it’s going to be a very challenging task to look for the right niche!
Any way I try to give my best shot to do the research and analysis so as to get the right one.
Regarding the ebook, I paid to Paypal but
couldn’t download the stuff !
God bless,
Warm regards,
Mike Wong
Dear Eric,
I hope this gets to you so as not to create a problem in communication with you. I was reading the fact that you are changing business direction and moving away from on-line business as you used to work. I applaud your reason as to a more fulfilling and spiritually directed life. I think your business building videos are a tribute to you as an individual and the business ethics that
you used to create your internet businesses. I look forward to devouring them quickly.
You are absolutely right as to where most newbies are that attempt to create an
on-line internet business presences. We are as you have so eloquently said – we
are operating in terms of overload. I was about to give up recently because I had
come to the same conclusion about internet marketing and I found myself at a stop
as to what to do with some of the ” stuff ” that I had acquired. Thank you again for your
compassion and concern for those that have followed your “tips” website.
My questions are many but I want to see if you could answer a question or two for
me. I have purchased many things but I had quit before your declaration to cease.
I intend to follow your ” tips” business building to the end. However, how do I
collapse some time frames and start performing some basics now. I do not want
to just market stuff to unsuspecting souls- especially if I not sure who telling the
truth to the finish in their program. I need to start building a list . Where can I find
some good information on basic directions to take in order to accomplish the tasks.
What should I do while building a list to make some money or establish some program
growth? I purchased Joel Comm’s Adsense website sellout which I realized it included
some sites from you. Is there enough information in his books to move in that direction.
My problem is know and feeling comfortable in website creation with the appropriate
internal coding to accomplish an effective job with the likes of quality people like
you and Joel Comm. Is this possible with the information that I received with those
program sites? Can I jump ahead in your business revelations and collapse time frames and understand from your work on Business Tips? Your right it just seems I stuck on inaction looking for practical help on practical things. Website creation – the proper way seems to be my big stumbling block. I am sorry that I went on too long. Is there any minimal advice that you can give me to get me moving off zero ? God bless you and thank you for your candor and honesty. Good luck and God speed on your endeavors to find meaning and spirtual growth with your purposed direction.
Thank you,
Randall Ferguson
Thanks Mike. If you didn’t get the download page, just open a ticket at the helpdesk (www.ericsupport.com) along with a copy of your paypal receipt and we’ll get the download link to you.
Randall, glad to have you on board. Several people have asked about ways to expedite the process. However, the best advice I can give for now is to stick with the program and don’t miss any lessons. Since you got those templates, I also suggest taking a look at:
http://www.irthelp.com
It’s got some tutorials that will show you how to get set up selling those.
Pingback: LESSON #21: Surveying the Market & Focusing Your Topic | Eric’s Tips
Pingback: LESSON #22: Branding and Naming Your Product | Eric’s Tips
Kick ass lesson! I liked this one best so far!
Hi Eric,
I’ve sold a very successful weight loss product on ebay for a while now.
I’m about to launch a website that will only sell that product. (a 1 page website specially directed for users of this product)
Since the mark up is not that great, what other revenue streams could i bring in to supplement the sales of the product? An ebook about weight loss might be contradictory to people taking the product.
On a separate note, i have a list of over 500 buyers from ebay who i would like to market my new site to. I have their email addresses – will any autoresponders allow me to add these addresses to them?
Regards,
Dan
Eric I seem to keep telling you how right on you are. It was through losing a day job that got me looking at internet marketing as I determined not to put all my eggs in one basket. Multiple streams of income is the way to go and you are right we need to start with one. I myself have been playing catch up with the lessons by viewing a couple a day before work and am almost there. Starting to get nervous as I haven’t seen the next one in my inbox yet but understand you have your own business and priorities. Keep up the good work you have given me a renewed fire and passion about what I am doing.
Eric,
I notice that you focus on websites versus blogs and I’m just getting started and want to start in the right ‘field’. Can you tell me if one is better than the other? I’ve heard search engines love blogs but then I’m wondering why you’re so successful with web sites.
Thanks, Jeff