In the previous two lessons we talked about how to select a niche market, and how to determine whether there’s money to be made in it.
Today we’re going to refine your topic to make sure you’re zooming in on the desires of your niche audience. If you fail to do this, your product runs the risk of missing the target…
(Watch this video…)
Main points:
In general, people may be willing to pay for information that will…
– ease their pain
– fuel their pleasure
1) find a different niche
2) figure out different way to monetize it (ie. give the info away for free to build a list, and monetize the back end through physical product/affiliate sales)
1) email replies
2) self hosted survey – You can put a survey on your own website using a script such as this one (available with Master Resale Rights)
3) 3rd party survey – I recommend doing an ASK Campaign
UPDATE: I now use Instant Form Pro for most of my surveys. That’s what I used for my twitter survey, and other surveys. I like how easy it is to set up, and how it enables me to export the data to Excel to sort it as I wish.
1) Hire a market research firm (generally not recommended, due to the high cost)
2) Make a deal with a list owner in your niche. Create a win-win situation where the list owner benefits from the data being collected (or some other mutually beneficial arrangement).
3) Use PPC. You can send targeted traffic to a survey on your own site, or to an ASK Campaign. This will cost you some money, but very cheap compared to some alternatives (as few as 100 respondents may be enough).
4) Find free traffic. Get involved in forums in your niche, and then poll other members. Use social networks, etc.
5) Do it offline. Call people you know who are in your niche, text them, email them… do whatever it takes. Poll your neighbors, your church members, whatever you need to do to make sure your product hits the bulls eye.
What is your biggest problem regarding _________ ?
How difficult is it to find the answer to that problem?
What would you most like to learn about ________ ?
How much would you be willing to pay for a solution to ____________ ?
You want to know what PROBLEMS they are having. So pay special attention to questions like…
“Can someone tell me how to fix/improve/avoid… ______?”
“Is there a better/cheaper/faster way to… ______?”
“I need help with… _______”
Look for problems related to your niche that people are discussing on the forums.
This is the biggest article submission site, and will show you what is being done by other internet marketers to provide information in your niche. Are all of your audience’s most burning questions already being answered for free in these articles? Look at the author bio boxes to see how they are attempting to monetize the articles (ie. do they have a competing infoproduct?)
Action steps:
1) Survey your market and/or
2) Research the market in detail to find out exactly what they want
3) Decide what the focus of your topic will be
4) Come up with a USP for your product
I want to give you fair warning that this is where a lot of new marketers miss the boat. If you end up with a product that nobody wants to buy, more than likely you can trace it back to this lesson and see that you didn’t dig deep enough into your market to find out what they really want to pay for.
Once you’ve narrowed down your topic, it’s time to envision your product and come up with a great brand name. I’ll be talking all about that in the next lesson.
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below 🙂
Have a great day!
may i know how to have place a opt-in box on my blogs
Eric,
I think you did a great job on this lesson. I consistantly tell the members of my MLM business that the best type of leads possible are those leads they generate themselves and they should generate those leads via a survey. It allows them to zero in on exactly what people are looking for in a home based business. I have them ask questions like How much time can you devote to your business a week. Are you willing to invest money into training packages. How much money would you like to learn how to earn extra per month. Etc… My members can usually get an idea on rather or not they need to give Survey A. Person a call or email. If people show with their answers that they are just another freebie seeker then they, of course, go to the bottom of the list or into a niche contact list in a pacific catagory so that the surveyed lead is always targeted. It is just another great thing about surveys. You can get information from the person being surveyed so that even if they are not interested or probably not interested in your MLM they still may be interested in a product you have or certain knowledge that you have. That way all of your contacts have a potential to make you money. You know you can sell them something because they just told you what they wanted to buy. Again, You did an outstanding job on this lesson Eric just as you always do.
Hi there again.
Great videos and information. This is what it’s all about. This is work, no doubt about it. But it’s a lot easier when all the steps to take are laid out in front me. No guessing what to do next. I’m looking forward to more of the same. Thanks Eric.
I have a delima though.
I’ve been an auto mechanic for 27 years and still have yet to find a way to earn an online income with this niche. I would like to profit from my knowledge, but after researching for months, all info regarding this topic is available in forums and Google for free, and of course everybody knows where to get parts for their cars.
If anyone has some ideas on how I can accomplish this, I would welcome them.
But at this point, and after lesson 21, I am looking at other options.
Yes, I like golfing, music-I play guitar, I really like affiliate marketing-I’ve yet to make an income from it, but after 3 years, I’m still excited with, and continuing with it.
So my question is – what to promote?
The above markets are huge, and according to my research, would take a lot to get anywhere with. According to what I’ve been taught in the past, it is best to stay away from huge niche’s like those when starting out. That’s fine.
So, basically I’m at a loss as to what to promote.
Weight loss, dieting, golfing, affiliate marketing etc.
I’ve been considering purchasing prebuilt websites, that I can host on my server, all ready to go and promote. I have heard good and bad about these types of sites and am on the fence.
So, what to do in my situation, is a huge barrier to me at this point. So I often start to think, discard all my ideas, pick some high commission products from Clickbank, write some articles and submit them, and see where that takes me. I’m truly at a loss.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Trevor
No way I will STOP. I am building SBI site and making graphics with some man on guru.com and doing this all the way.Don’t give up on us Eric.
Thank you for doing this
Hi Eric,
I don’t really know if what I’m about to say ‘fits’ well here but here goes!Having followed the lessons thus far and carried out the ‘action’ lists and added a few of my own tasks I’ve come to the conclusion that my poor laptop is over indulged in ‘garbage’!!! Not just my laptop but also my bookmarks!So..I’ve ignored your advice on ‘not’ buying and bought an external hardrive not just to back up to but to set my ‘business’ up on aswell.I have an old desktop which will be the ‘powerbase’ where just the business operations will be centralised.I am the most unorganised person I know!Seems to me that to run a business I need to know where everything is!ATM everything is spread all over the place and with over a hundred lessons to go it’s about time I began to put this right!Any tips on naming folders especially those that maybe used to offer downloads from?I don’t want c:/laptop/my documents ETC showing on them?Sorry if this is ‘school kid’ stuff!
Paul (UK)
You are at the point I need help with. Thank you so much for these lessons. You are an awesome teacher. Never boring, You are awesome.
Hi! Eric,
You just touch a nerve point for me:
1) I am not happy with the results of my search for the niche I want
2) I don’t want to make an excuse from being at the border of 2 powerful ideas, but I really think there are a market and a need, and I am surprised that look like there aren’t a lot of money involved in it. When I searched the questions in Yahoo and Articles… the people don’t put the right questions or they put superficial ones.
3) One “excuse” really can be the fact that is related with “teachers/education” and this is a category of people who in States doesn’t have a lot of money, from this reason you can extrapolate that not a lot of big companies are interested to this market as well. If I search each idea separately there are a need, as soon I combine them I have 4 ads in Google and zero digital products in clickbank. You will take a risk like this?
4) This is why my beautiful niche is risky, I definitely need to make some money, I don’t mind working hard, but I cannot wait 2-3 years to establish myself in that market.
5) There is a twist I can make in my niche, but I keep this for a OTO/back end sell
6) In conclusion I think going with 2 niches one which is easy going affiliate marketing type, and one which is my favorite choice. Keep the fingers cross for me.
7) By the way, any advice counts at this moment.
Regards
Michey
Hi Eric: Imagine you are a Father that is teaching your son to fish.
You take him to the “Tackle store” and help him
select fishing equipment. You plan a fishing
trip with him, right down to the “lunch”, the
getting up early – the coffee by the lake side.
By the time you explain how to put a worm on
a hook; you have hooked your son on fishing.
It is the doing that keeps the attention, being
told helps but application keep the attention.
Eric
I watched the entire video,this was very useful,
good job
Hi Eric,
only 3 words I want to say so far:
thank you, thank you,thank you.
Brigitte
Thank you for taking the time to seend me Erics tips.I’m still trying to figure out how to make
money online.Being broke does not help but I look forward to your tips.It’s imformation I wish I’d learned long ago.Untill next time.
Thank you very much.
Eric,
Always a pleasure to watch your video. I do learn something with every lesson! As always, great job!
Ron Barron
Hi Eric,
You always give your very BEST!! Thanks for the valuable info on lesson 21. It’s going to take me quite some time to go through all the resources you listed.
Thanks and God bless,
Mike Wong
Pingback: LESSON #22: Branding and Naming Your Product | Eric’s Tips
Hi Eric,
Although I can’t consider myself a newbie anymore, there’s still a lot to learn and I appreciate your generosity in providing such valuable information.
To Dave:
I have Micro Niche Finder, and I love it. I use it frequently and what I love about it is that once you’ve chosen a keyword phrase, it will give you a red, yellow, or green button to tell you how likely you are to be successful with that keyword.
It’s based not only on the search numbers and the competition, but the STRENGTH of the competition…how well optimized your competitors are for that keyword.
If they’re not strong for that keyword, you can easily overtake them in the search results.
Hope that helps!
Warmly,
Honey (yes, that’s my real name) Wesley
Eric,
That is wonderful. I’ve took time up to read all the comments and most especially the lists posted by Gary Pettit.
They are wonderful resources which will help greatly in achieving success in Internet Marketing.
Thank you Eric for your vital information especially your advice “Don’t Quit”.
Quitter don’t win and Winner don’t quit. A word is enough for a wise.
Together we shall win!
Adesegun Akitoye
http://www.repeatrichrelief.com/pips.html
Hi there.
My wife Debbie and myself, Trevor, are absorbing these lessons at different times in the day, and then we discuss together the endless possibilities and how we can rearrange our venture to get the most out of your lessons.
Then after discussing, we try to agree on short term goals and implement them. We respond together using one of our names.
We seem to see each others viewpoints better this way.
Thanks for the great stuff.
Trevor and Debbie
Thanks
Hi Eric,
Thank you for such a wonderful module on “Focusing on Niche”. It has boosted a great confidence in Online Business.
regard
Julius
http://www.communicatetoriches.com
I fully realize the value of list building, but I am a novice and could use some recommendations as to what listbuilding software to use.
I Thank You from the bottom of my heart.The lessons get to be more and more work.I would love to change my finances and afford a home and a car that runs with windows.
Keep them lessons coming!I will do all the hard work.Thank You So Much.I would have never been able to pay someone for the information you are giving freely.
You are the GREATEST
Chris
Hi Eric. I’ve been away from my computer for over a week now (on holiday).
It was great to get back and watch such a comprehensive lesson from you.
In particular using Yahoo answers as you’ve suggested.
I’ve been contributing for well over a year now, with a high percentage of my answers chosen as ‘best’ (for what that’s worth). I never once looked at Yahoo Answers from that angle. It really was a case of ‘The Elephant In The Room’.
Great video. The meats really being given to us now.
many thanks. Pete.
Hi Eric
As usualy Great Lessons! I’ve been using Yahoo Answers asking and answering queswtions. I have looked at doing research there, but my question for this is –
Does it matter that much if the answers are like 3 or 4 years ago and were answered? Is it still possible to build a product around the most asked questions?
Hope this makes sense.
Laura
Hi Trevor,
Could not help noticing you and I hope my suggestion is helpful.
Remember that your niche is real people who will value what I just know you already have in your heart for them.
So if what you love and know most doesn’t seem doable, just stay with it a little longer and the way will open for you, or a right idea will come to you of something that you have already been prepared for, and will bring infinite joy to you and others,
Hang in there patiently, and learn while you wait. LOL
Dear Eric
Thanks a bunch for your loving work. I have started to read through the comments after the lessons more thoroughly now and find them useful, inspiring, and dare I say quite entertaining.
After painful months of trying to understand how to market and teach ‘healing through prayer’ into which I have put many years of study and successful practice, I am at last starting to get a glimpse of what truly is possible thanks to your kind and loving dedication to these lessons.
I cannot express enough gratitude for the patient way you are unfolding the way and the inspiration I am starting to feel as the confusion diminishes.
Although I have a sales and marketing background, IM is a new field for me and your teaching is wonderfully in context and appropriate.
My sincere thanks, much Love Andrew
WOW! I have been following these lessons with glee! I love to learn. Today I believe I got the confirmation that I needed for a project that has been in the works for a year. My gut has said I am right and I trusted and this video just helped me do more research on my subject matter of interest and I know I am on the right track whooo hoo!
In it to win it,
Party Plan Pat!
P.S Where can I send my check for this great information :)?
Eric,
I’ve diligently followed your lessons to this point and this has to be one of the best pieces of information I’ve seen recently. You covered so much material I’m having to go back and see these last two lessons (Lessons 20/21) several times. Great job, thanks for you help!
Hey, Eric,
When I was trying out SBI a couple of years ago, I ended up despising Canadians. Ken Evoy “warned” us all about a website called Domain Registry of America, and when I finally had had enough insults from his arrogant support team, especially one twit named Andrew, I approached DROA and convinced them to let me register kenook.com free of charge. I only kept it for a year, and then I abandoned it. LOL
Hi ! erics,
We have to focus our objectives while we going at writing, ofcourse it should be done….
Hi Eric,
This is exactly where I get stuck. The reason is that it takes work and time. Most people want immediate resultes and jump right in, like me. I’ll go through this video again as there’s so much info here. I’ve learned that I need to step back a little do the work required and then go forward. I thought I knew what my customer wanted but do I have the product that they would pay for? I love your lessons.
Thanks again,
Hi Eric
You have really started getting into the meat of how to build a business. I have been playing catch up and watching the lessons in the morning before work. I have had to force myself to be patient and go back through lesson 19 and up with a notebook and pen and find myself pausing the video quite often to take down notes. I must say that you have shown me how much i haven’t learned in the time that I have been involved with trying to build an online business. Thank you very much for revealing to us the things other marketers don’t want to.
Dear Eric,
This is another eye opener from you. I just love it and i’ll begin to make use of it immediately.
You are a blessing to me especially. Just keep up the good work.
eric u are Godsent, i am a newbie from nigeria,and i must say thank u for these lessons
Thanx Eric for sharing your wisdom! You are teaching us to be overcomers, like the Word references. God will continue blessings upon you and your family for your efforts. You truly are a blessing! I’m impressed and that is rare for me.
Hey, Eric, thank you for this heavy lesson… I’m putting this one to use immediately. Your lessons are First Class, second to none, period!!!
Hello Dear,
My name is Graham,a newbie to Eric Tips Internet marketing,i am also from Nigeria,but i have been away on course.I just resumed,i have been running and having some difficulties on Eric Tips Internet marketing.
Are you really into Mr Eric marketing thing?just let me if we can both work together from here.
Well for now,i dont really know how we could both get in touch,just take care.
Graham.
Your lessons are great, i have already bought a few programs you recommended. I am overwhelmed with information at this point, and need to organize my thoughts but still don’t know how to put it all together. when will I know? by the way your example of inventions has perked my curiosity I have invented a new product for the beauty industry that has been greatly recieved by my peers. It is fully patented, manufacturing ready in china and need money for tooling costs and inventory. please advise if you can! go to http://www.perfectflo.com.
If you’re overwhelemed with info, you probably need to stop buying stuff for awhile, and focus on getting one thing done at a time. Do not try to move onto the next thing until you finish the first thing. If you attempt to multi-task while building your business, it may slow you down significantly and cause information overload, from which you are suffering. I’m not sure exactly where you’re at in the business building process, so I don’t know what your next step should be. But figure out what it is, then focus on it until it’s done. Then move the the next step.
Your invention looks cool. You’re obviously an expert in the field, and you’ve got testimonials from your peers, so I think you’re off to a great start with it! The internet could be a great place to find investors. Also, you may be able to leverage the internet to line up a large number of potential buyers before the product is even manufactured, which could help secure investors, or a loan.
in finishing up with my ad does the display url and the destination url have to be the same or should my destination url have my id and the merchants id in the destination
Eric, Thats alot of info, I am really going to have to do my reseach on my niche i may have to make some adjustments or even make a change to my niche, thanks for being there for us, James
Hi Eric, writing this note in a hurry to tell you that I have got the 21st lesson after the 19th. Please do send me the 20th lesson as soon as possible. Thanks. Rema.
If you’re talking about marketing as an affiliate on Adwords, you should put your affiliate link in the destination URL.
Dear Eric, Thanks for leaving Gary’s list in the comments. Ev
when can be start i need money my situation is difficult there are many det to return tha
Thanks very much Eric. But this way,without lesson number 20 reaching my mailbox, I cannot add the lesson to my individual folder containing all the lessons. Thanks anyway. I assume that it will not be possible for you to send me the lesson.
Rema.
Once again, Very good and concise. I am struggling between learning all the good advice, actually implementing it, understanding the technology, and making money. The product research is essential. So is eating! After 30 days of doing everything from scratch, my learning curve has flat lined my business. I still have high hopes. It seems the increase of marketers are selling to newbies something that is so vast that they,(the newbies)become overwhelmed. Once that occurs, then they lose interest. If the marketer has sold them a membership, then they hope their customer sticks it out.
Eric
could you give a lesson on pain and where to go to heal it My sister is in so much pain and is losing the ability to talk like she use too. And has gone to many doctors with no results as to the cause. I am really concerned about her.
My sister is in so much pain and is only 64 I would like to know where she can go to get help she has been to neroligist doctors chiropractors and still has found no relief she is even getting hard to understand what she is saying Most of the pain is in her back but she has found no help from anybody as of yet. Can you help us? I am listening to all of your lessons and feel you may know where she can go. Thanks Karen
Your lessons are the most powerful lessons I have ever seen. You always go straigth to the points that can change one’s financail destiny. I love you and will continue to be your student – you are my mentor.
THANKS
Hi Eric,
First of all, this is my first and long-overdue comment, so I want to say that I really respect what you do with Eric’s Tips. You’re a great teacher, and I think any business owner could benefit from the solid principles that you teach.
Now…
In this lesson you used the iPod example, and mentioned that someone could create “individual reports” or pages that are searchable. I think I understand that this reasoning is two-fold: each topic page is SE optimizable, and each page would require an opt-in form.
Am I correct?
And more importantly, how do you incorporate an opt-in form or membership area on each “report page” that should be keyword-searchable?
I’m brand new at all this and trying to wrap my head around it, so forgive my assumptions.
Thanks… for everything!!!