Niche Marketing Revealed

Niche Marketing is the last great frontier for the small business entrepreneur. Out there in the ‘real’ world, small businesses don’t have a half fair chance of competing against the giant international corporations of the world. The Internet has evened the odds for small business. The Internet has created a real equal opportunity for those who are willing to use it.

There are several different ways to make use of niche marketing and succeed. All of the ways require getting a domain and a webhost, building web pages and adding content. Those are just the basic basics of Internet Marketing in any form.

Then there are the choices of how to go about building a successful niche marketing site that will provide you with a profit….hopefully a very large profit.

1. You can create an informational product. An informational product can be articles, reports, columns, audio or video, or other things. These can be sold as stand alone products or used for advertisement or promotional causes.

2. You can build a content rich web site that will be so interesting it will draw potential customers again and again.

3. You can publish newsletters and ezines that are so full of pertinent information that people will happily pay for subscriptions to them.

All of the above listed ways can be used to create a niche marketing website that has the capacity to make money.

Major things that all of these methods have in common are, the topic helps people solve a problem, makes them healthier or happier, or provides them with information that they want or need in some way and the content of the website, no matter the topic, is relevant, timely and interesting to the people who are reading it and the website is easily navigated.

Deciding on what product or service you will promote in a niche market should be based on a simple principle. There should be a demand for your product or service. You want to offer something that people actually need, something that will make their lives better, make them feel better physically, make them look better, or help them solve a problem.

Once you have chosen a product or service to market, researching to find the right niche for your product or service is the next most important part of beginning a niche marketing program. The things that you need to know are where they spend their time online, and what makes them tick from a personal and business point of view. There is niche marketing software out there that can help you learn these things about your potential niche market.

The next thing you need to learn as you research your online niche market is what you can reasonable charge for your product or service. The best and most effective was to do this is to visit sites that advertise products or services similar to what you have chosen to sell. It should be easy to see if they are giving away a service or selling the product at a price far lower than you would have to charge.

If you can determine that there are people out there who are willing to spend money to buy what you are selling and you can identify those people then you have a niche marketing product or service that can make money on the Internet. Sometimes it takes reframing your product or service to make it more attractive, better or just different than what others are selling it for. Research is the key to successful niche marketing.

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Internet Marketing Secrets

If you are developing a new website, or just want to improve the natural search results of an existing website, there are a few Internet marketing secrets you need to know - especially those that can provide a significant boost to your rankings.

Marketing Experts Start with Google

I have seen various statistics, but one thing is clear, Google is the dominant player of search - commanding approximately 60% of all search engine traffic. Ask any marketing expert where he or she would spend their search engine optimization efforts and they will undoubtedly say "Google". Do what you can to rank well on Google. As a result, you will see results on other search engines as well.

One of the simplest Internet marketing secrets you can put into effect immediately is to register your domain name for 3 years. Many individuals who begin a web-based business register for one year only. You must realize however that Google is in the business of generating quality results from legitimate businesses. If you're an established business, chances are that your web site has been up for more than a year. Google likes to see longevity and commitment. If you plan to be around for some time, register your domain for three years and show Google that you're in business to stay.

Optimize Your Home Page for a Keyword Phrase

You have to use the right keywords if you want your website to appear at the top of any search result list. This can be tricky because most single key words are very competitive. What to do? Another internet marketing secret is to use a keyword phrase, not just a single keyword. Additionally, you want to find a keyword phrase that isn't very competitive but generates a decent level of traffic on a daily and monthly basis. To do so, follow these simple steps:

1. Visit the overture search tool at http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/. This tool shows you how many individuals typed in a particular search term for the previous month.

2. Type in your keyword and notice other keyword suggestions. Select a number of keyword phrases to evaluate. The higher number of people searching on a keyword phrase generally means that it will be harder for you to get top placement for that term. A good number to shoot for, in terms of monthly keyword phrase searches, is about 1000 - 2000 per month.

3. Go to http://www.google.com and type in the keyword phrase(s) you've selected one at a time. After entering each, notice the total number of results listed in the upper right hand corner after your search. This is the number of web pages that are also associated with this keyword phrase. You want to find the keyword phrase that commands the highest number of monthly searches (step 2 above) and the least number of competitors.

On Page Optimization

If you are going to rank well for any keyword phrase, you need to effectively manage your on page optimization. Specifically, your use of H1 and H2 tags, page title, alt images, bolded text, italicized text, underlined text, and keyword proximity. The Internet marketing secret here is to copy your competition and do things slightly better. To do so, type in your keyword phrase in Google and visit the top 5 sites listed individually. Select "view source" in the Internet browser window you're using for each site and see what your toughest competition has done.

*Have they included the keyword phrase in their page title?
*Does the keyword appear in bolded text only once?
*Italicized text one? Underlined text only once?
*Does the keyword phrase appear in the first 25 words on the page? The last 25 words?

You will need to copy what the best websites for that keyword phrase have done and improve upon it. You don't need a marketing expert to show you how to do what I've just described, simply copy the best and evaluate each point noted. Shape your site to appeal to Google and other key search engines.

Off - Page Optimization

The final Internet Marketing Secret you must learn is the importance of off-page optimization. This refers to the number of links pointing to your site, the PR rank (stands for Google Page Rank) of the sites linking to you, and the Anchor text of the link.

There are some simple things you can do to begin developing an aggressive link campaign for those sites that link to your competitors - for the keyword phrase you've selected. The best advice I can give you however is to research SEO and link building software on the Internet. This will allow you to make the most of your time and target the best sites to improve your link popularity.

Building your link popularity is an arduous task and in my opinion difficult. I've certainly learned over the last few years that your effectiveness in this area is ultimately determined by the tools you use and effort you exert. Take my word for it, you don't want to build your links manually, you'll never get ahead - so research options on the Internet.

Once you begin developing links, you'll need to monitor them on an ongoing basis. Keep in mind that you will often have to provide a link on your website to the third party site. Be sure to create a links page where you maintain your link exchanges and monitor it regularly to insure that third party links to your domain still exist. If removed, you should remove your link as well.

The Internet marketing secrets shared in this article are essential for improving your search engine results. Take your time and implement each one in a controlled and disciplined manner and you will see your rankings improve.

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Internet Marketing for Newbies

I'm not a "Newbie" to Internet Marketing! But I will tell you this about niche marketing. I don't care what the niche is or how saturated it is. There is always a new way of marketing a product or service. If you don't believe me then just take a look at all the large companies in the world. They all have to reinvent themselves every so often.

Now of course they have brand names and money to their advantage but if you let that fact stop you then you shouldn't be in Internet Marketing to begin with.

Marketing takes work and if you don't want to do the work you will not succeed! Stop looking for a quick million because your chances are better at winning the lottery. Here's my real advice for a newbie: Start with an idea, build a system around that idea, stick with it! Most of all believe that what you are doing is right for you.

You want a free handout? I'm giving it to you!

People are always complaining that they don't know the right people or they don't know how to do something. I say, if you have that attitude you will never know anything or do ANYTHING! Decide on a goal, focus on it, find the people who are interested in that product and go after them. It's really that simple.

The entire idea is that you start somewhere and that doesn’t mean wasting time and money on silly marketing programs to try and become a millionaire overnight. There is no such thing as a free ride. You already have the answers inside of you the problem is that you just don’t know how to access them.

The biggest myth about the Internet and making a living online is that it’s easy. Marketers pray on this fact. This is a give and take world so you must give something of value in order to achieve something great. Stop and think about it for a moment. You want to have nice things, a nice life with good health right? You probably work hard for your money right? You probably are very particular about what you buy and what you do not buy right?

So don’t expect other people to buy your product if it doesn’t have good value. We are all after good value. Why? Because we all want the most for our money. When we get top-notch services we are happy and we might even buy again. So when you think about Internet Marketing or any other kind of business it all comes down to one thing. You are selling a product, now what is its value? Be realistic with yourself about this. Because what is important to you may not be important in the same way to other people. So if you want to get them to buy your product, you need to find an effective way of communicating to them.

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Internet Marketing - The great missing secret doesn't exist

Copyright 2006 llbglobal

I’d like to take a few minutes of your time to discuss Internet marketing. If you are new to the business then you may have already become overwhelmed by all of the hype and sales pitches. Maybe you have been searching for that one secret that will set you free from your job and put you on a career path of your own.

I have been a successful Internet marketer for two years now and I was once a lot like you. I spent thousands of dollars on ebooks and training manuals. I paid thousands more to take Internet coaching courses. I read every article, every blog, every book I could find on the subject. It’s funny that most people will buy a product that they think will be the answer to their prayers only to forget about it a month later and then start the cycle all over again buying more books, taking more courses and on and on.

I’m not pointing fingers because I did exactly the same thing over and over again. I can’ t tell you how much money I lost of “Get Rich Quick Scams”. Now, I’m not a stupid person. I desired to build my dreams just like everyone else. It wasn’t until I came to the realization that trying to do it all alone simply doesn’t work. Some of the greatest minds in human history did great things because they surrounded themselves with other great people. Take Henry Ford for example; Ford was an under-educated man who had nothing when he started out. But Ford surrounded himself with a group of people that he believed in. When Ford was building the first V-8 engine it took his engineers over a year to come up with a design that worked. He never gave up on his idea even when the engineers said it could not be done.

My point is that too many people think they will stumble on some great secret that only they will know and they will guard it with their lives. They will be the only ones who hold some special key and they alone will market this secret without giving away the actual secret. All this thinking leads to disappointment because there is no secret.

I built my company by believing in people as Henry Ford did. I don’t hold some great secret. I surrounded myself with like-minded people and together we built a wonderful Internet company helping people to get started in the Internet business. We believed from the beginning that we would succeed and two years later our company has become not just a source of income but also a source of pride.

Why would I try to hide some secret and then market it to you when I could show you how to be your own marketer and let you do your own thing. There is plenty to go around. We do not live in a closed society. Some of my best clients come from overseas ventures. If you stop thinking locally and focus globally your world will open up new frontiers for you.

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Internet Marketing – Short Term Strategy

After spending a lot of time and effort on building a site, many wonder where they should start with Internet marketing. Site owners can be bombarded with pitches about marketing and it is hard to sort out what should be done. In this article, a short term marketing strategy is discussed.

Short Term Marketing Strategy

The single best short term marketing strategy is pay-per-click marketing campaigns. A “PPC” campaign simply involves placing advertisements on the results pages of search engines. In essence, you open an account with the PPCs, develop a list of keywords and create ads for those keywords. The two best PPC platforms are Google Adwords and Overture.

Google Adwords lets you place ads on Google search results. In addition to its own search engine, Google also supplies search results to AOL and other sites. When you create your ads, you can choose to place your ads on “content” or “search” results. Select only “search” results until you are sure the advertisement and your site coverts traffic into revenues.

Yahoo purchased Overture a few years ago for 1.8 billion dollars. Overture places advertisements on search results for MSN and, ta da, Yahoo among others. To build your ads, you search for keywords from a list provided by the PPC and create individuals ads. It can take a long time, but it is worth it.

Which PPC is Best?

Both Google and Overture have serious benefits. Google will send more traffic to your site than Overture. Getting your ad in front of AOL users is particularly advantageous because AOL users are buyers. For whatever reason, they simply seem to be more amenable to buying what you’re selling.

If Google is so great, why use Overture? In many ways, Overture has serious advantages over Google Adwords. One of the biggest advantages involves the size of ads.

To effectively run a profitable PPC campaign, you must get the maximum bang for your buck. One strategy for doing this is to qualify your traffic by explaining details in your description. If you only carry one model of a product, say that so money isn’t wasted with people who are looking for a different model clicking on your ad. With Google, you only get two to three words in your title and 8 to 10 in your description.

PPC advertising is a tremendous short term marketing strategy for a number or reasons. First, the advertising gets traffic to your site immediately. Second, it allows you to test the ability of your site to convert traffic into dollars. If conversions are low, you can modify the site and get immediate feedback.

If its time to get working on your marketing, research the PPC possibilities. Google Adwords and Overture have a lot to offer.

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Internet Marketing: 7 Killer Tools You Can Use On A Shoestring Budget Without Having a Website

When most people think of Internet marketing, they think solely of websites. Are they right or wrong? Well both. While websites are a key component of Internet marketing and in many cases are the only Internet marketing tool businesses use, they are not the “be all, end all”. They are not required for Internet marketing. However, I do highly recommend them as they are best suited to sit at the core of your Internet marketing plan, the hub so to speak, but that’s a topic for another conversation.

So here are 7 killer Internet marketing tools that you can implement on a shoestring budget without having to have a website of your own:

1. Email Marketing – When properly implemented, there probably isn’t a quicker, better, and less expensive way to stay in front of your prospects and clients than to leverage the power of email. You can literally touch an unlimited amount of prospects and clients with a single click – how’s that for power?!

2. Blogs – Blogging is a great tool when you would like to step it up a notch and stay in constant contact with your prospects and clients. Some ideas on how to use it might be to post what’s new with you or your business, post informative content as a value-add to your clients, or hold and interactive forum with your clients geared towards understanding how to better serve them.

There are a handful of free or low cost blog hosts out there that really make this process simple (e.g. Blogger and TypePad).

3. Article Marketing – This is a phenomenal approach to bringing notoriety, interest and ultimately leads for many types of businesses. It can be used as a major differentiator or value-add on why someone should buy from you instead of your competitors. Whether your clients are local, regional, national or global -- articles are portable and usable in all situations -- that's part of their charm.

4. eZines – Much like blogs and article marketing, eZines are great way to stay in touch with your prospects on a more scheduled basis. Additionally, they are probably the forerunner in helping you develop a list of prospects to market and sell your wares.

5. Affiliate Programs -- Get others promoting and selling for you. This tool can become the equivalent of having both a full blown marketing and sales staff that gets paid on performance. They don’t promote and directly lead to a sale for you, they don’t get paid. For the do-it-yourselfers, there are plenty of tools out there to help you set up this type of program. For everyone else, there are excellent service providers out there who can coordinate and manage this process for you (e.g. Clickbank and Commission Junction).

6. Viral Marketing – Again, a great approach for getting others to promote and help create a buzz about you, your business, your products and/or your services. The best, most genuine way to get this started is by creating raving fans out of your existing clients and then helping them help you spread the word.

7. Public Relations – If I tell you I’m the best at what I do, you’ll take it with a grain of salt. Maybe you’ll believe me, maybe you won’t. However, people tend to believe what they read. So if a respected publication tells you that I’m the best at what I do, that usually holds more weight and adds instant credibility to me.

Spend some effort here. Become a resource for the press. You help them and they can significantly help you.

I highly recommend you spend some time with these. Explore how you can implement one, some, or all of these Internet marketing tools to help explode your business.

© 2005 Online Marketing Muscle -- All Rights Reserved.

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Internet Marketing 101: Putting an Online Twist on an Offline Model

If you're just starting out in internet marketing, you probably feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information available. The learning curve is less like a hill and more like a cliff! If you've been at this business for a while, you may be frustrated that you're still not making any money, or not enough money. You may be wondering why no one is reading your ads, or why all those visitors to your site are not buying anything and not returning. Where do you start? How do you convert the casual visitor to a return customer?

Relax and breathe. None of us was born an internet marketer. We all have to start someplace. A great place to start is by looking at something you already DO know, offline business. We all shop somewhere. Pick a store you're familiar with, maybe the grocery store where you shop at least once a week. Pick a small store to focus on, not a huge supermarket. Now pretend that's just an empty lot or building, and you're an aspiring grocer. What do you need to do?

There's 3 big steps you need to take.

1) First you have to have a crystal clear picture in your mind of exactly what you want to do. What do you want to sell, and what do you want your store to look like? Spend some time dreaming, so you can see everyone who is in your store and what they are buying. Your store needs four walls, a floor, doors and windows, and a roof. You need to decide on size, the first step is to figure out what you want to sell. You think about what people in your town need and buy regularly, the availability of these products in other well established stores, and decide on your niche and your location. Maybe it's bread, canned goods, cereals, candy, ice cream, soda, milk, and cigarettes on a busy corner near a residential area with no other store in walking distance. Maybe it's a natural food store in a yuppie neighborhood. Maybe it's gas and snack foods near a highway.

2) Secondly, you have to understand what you need to have in place to make that dream come true, and how you're going to do it. What does your store need by way of infrastructure? You need shelves, freezers and refrigerated cases, a counter and a cash register. Probably you need a small office and bathroom as well. You need electricity, lighting, heat, air conditioning, desk, chair, phone, fax, maybe some music, paint, flooring, security cameras and so on.

Once you decide on the layout of the store, you will know what size of a building you need to build, buy or rent. How are you going to finance this, and how will you afford to stock your store, from savings or from a loan?

3) Assuming that you now have a fully-stocked and operational store, how will you get people to shop there? You could advertise in newspapers, radio and tv; put up signs; offer door prizes and/or sales; offer free advice and information (recipes, menus, shopping lists, health and nutrition information, diet information); sponsor events (a booksigning by a famous cookbook author, co-sponsor a food related festival); build familiarity and trust by joining social, charity or business clubs, or volunteering at local events.

Fine and good, you say, but I still don't know how to make money online. Let's take the example we just developed and convert it to online business.


Gazing Into Your Crystal Ball

1) First the concept. What do YOU want to do? What do the people that frequent the internet want? First and foremost, right behind email, people online are looking for information. There are places online you can go to research hot topics, such as Overture's Keyword Selector Tool. Here you can see how many times a word or phrase was searched in the last month. You can do a Google search for these terms to see how many websites are already available sharing that information. As you keep narrowing down your focus, balance between your passion, what other people want, and what's already available. A very small niche with very little competition with targeted promotions can become a very lucrative business.


Your Shopping List

2) Now the infrastructure, the Short List:

a) internet real estate = a website. This can be an affiliate site or your own. You can get a free website with no outside advertising here: http://www.finitesite.com

b) products: No matter what your interests, there's an affiliate program with products that fit; you may want to sell related ebooks, Amazon.com books, etc. Clickbank is a good place to find electronic information products.

c) tools: you will need a tracking system (known as a link tracker); an autoresponder; a link rotator.

d) knowledge: you will need a splash page program and/or some basic html and advertising knowledge. A free html tutorial: http://www.pagetutor.com

e) an expense budget, no matter how small at first.


You Need More Than Two Cans and a String

3) Promotion: people enter your world (the internet) via a browser. Since "the internet" is intangible, many people confuse the vehicle (AOL or Yahoo!, for example) with the destination itself, the internet. So let's be gentle with our potential visitors and make their journey from landing pad to your neighborhood as effortless, pleasant and convenient as possible.

If they are interested in buying widgets online, they will soon realize that there are a million widget salesmen out there. So they start narrowing down their search, and they comparison shop. First and foremost, they are information gatherers. Where do they go first? Probably to a search engine. Then they start exploring. They visit a site; if it fits their needs, they may bookmark it before they move on. When they move on, they may return to their Google or Yahoo! search results, or they may follow a link off of the page they visited.

So getting yourself listed in the search engines is important. This does not require your own domain name, although it's the best route to go, but a website where you can control your page content is essential. A search engine will not list a replicated affiliate website, such as http://any-old-program.com/aff_id=102109 but it will gladly list http://your-domain.com/any-old-program. Search engines want new, original information, so write something original on your website about every program you join. Link your articles, etc. to your web page, then link that page to your affiliate program.

Your own domain name, carefully chosen, will help to brand either your name or your website name, such as wallywalton.com wallyswidgets.com widgetworld.com etc. If you get a free website with finitesite.com, your url will be finitesite.com/wallywalton or something like that. It might be finitesite.com/member/wallywalton -- I forget, it's been a while since I had a site with them :) With some work, you can get a site with a url like this into the search engines. It's a great way to start if you can't afford domain name, hosting etc.

Sooner or later, your site visitor will be ready for a purchase. Maybe they will drive off to the nearest hardware store armed with all their new information and buy a widget there. If they found your site in the search engine, visited and bookmarked it, maybe they'll return and buy from you. Maybe they'll buy from the site they went to after your site. But 9 times out of 10, once they've left your site, they're gone forever.


And Now the Quiz, Purely Common Sense

How do you get them to come back? Here's a pop quiz for you, choose the best answer (it's a no-brainer):

a) offering so much valuable information, they bookmark your site and return on their own;

b) building so much trust and familiarity that, when they think of widgets, or of asking for an opinion, or for buying anything widget-like, they think of you (that's called branding your name);

c) promoting your website so much that, when they think of widgets, they automatically think of your website (that's also branding, the name of your site in this case)

d) have a mailing list they can subscribe to (this might be the online equivalent of a guest book in a store) and receive updates on information on your website;

e) have contests on your site;

f) endorse other people's sites and products, with an appropriate byline including your own url;

g) give away things;

h) hang out in places online that your potential visitors frequent (forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, conferences, seminars) and make friends, give away free information and helpful links and tools, include your url in your signature where allowed;

i) blogging and using RSS feeds to keep people thinking of you and your widgets;

j) being a part of the search engine revolution and exploring the world of tagging, or social bookmarks (creating your own search engine with other like-minded anarchists :)

k) all of the above.

Each of these concept, infrastructure, and promotion ideas could be an article in its own right; but this is your basic outline for building your online business. The ultimate power of the internet is to level the playing field for both major corporations, little ol' you, and everyone in between. A business that fully utilizes the internet can throw away the purchased leads list, because cold calling and cold emailing is a thing of the past. Using the internet to its fullest business potential means putting your message where your potential customers can find it, and letting them come emailing, looking and calling for you.

Be sure to take advantage of the unique power of the internet, and keep the "internet" in your
internet marketing.

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6 Internet Marketing Myths

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6 Internet Marketing Myths - By: goalsetter

Every day thousands of people go online to make money but most of them fail miserably because they either truly believe one of the 6 Internet Marketing Myths or or all of them. You can read them below and discover the grain of salt in all of them.

Myth #1: Internet Marketing is EASY

This is probably the biggest myth of all, and let me tell you Internet marketing is hard, takes time, effort not mention money and anyone who suggests otherwise is trying to sell you a bunch of horse hockey. Granted that it's comparatively easier to brick and mortar in that there's no inventory to carry, no shipping of goods no sales staff and virtually no overhead, but a lot of work is still involved.

Myth #2: ANYONE Can Make Money Online

Folks, this is simply not true. Unless someone gets off their lazy boy recliner and download/read everything they can about internet marketing, and put an action plan in motion, they will never make a dime on the internet. DO NOTHING, MAKE NOTHING.

Myth #3: You Can "GET RICH QUICK" On the Net!

This is the trap that a lot of newbie internet marketers falls into including myself when I first started, why? because scammers make it sounds so easy and let me tell you, chasing "get rich quick scheme" is a WASTE OF TIME!, money and energy. It just won't happen overnight, instead do some research and find out what people really want and need then give it to them especially a sense of reality.

Myth #4: It's FREE to Do Business Online

This is one of my favorite myths because I believed it during my first year of internet marketing and it just wasn't true then, it isn't true today. Compared to opening your first coffee shop or gift shop in downtown Los Angeles, internet business start-up cost and maintenance cost is pretty low. Once you have your domain set up, you only pay for internet connection, advertising and ongoing educations, that's it. You can't expect to make money selling free stuff and ask others to do the same. Folks! it takes money to
make money.

Myth #5: It's TOO LATE to Start an Internet Business

Most internet marketers would love to hear people say "It's too late now, too many competitions, I should just pack my bags and go home, the internet is too complicated, etc...". You know why? the less people they have to compete with the better which in turn will make them more money.

The fact is, it's never ever too late to start anything and that includes internet business. I firmly believe that the internet is not going anywhere and you should too. Every year the stats will show you the number of people shopping
online are increasing, their spending dollars are growing and the number of people going online is increasing also.

Myth #6: The BIG Money Talk is JUST HYPE

As I've told you before, "it takes money to make money?" Well it's true, although you will be hard pressed to find experienced internet marketers to tell how much they spend on promoting and advertising. Sometimes, you have to dig a little deeper to find the truth in every hype you read. It's a fact that the people that makes a lot of money online also spends alot of money on advertising, tools, resources and know how to get the job done.

If you are willing to take the necessary action to make 'big money' happen for you - it will. It takes time. You can criticize, be skeptical and sure that 'big money' can't happen for you - and it won't. Sit down and write a financial and a sound business plan. Local Chamber of Commerce can give all the info you need to get started.

If you believe that you will succeed you're right, if you believe that it won't work, you're right also.

To summarize, you have heard people's story how they're making a fortune on the internet and how easy it is but the reality is some stories are NOT out of this world or unrealistic but it just doesn't happen overnight. You just
have to apply a bit of common sense into it, find what you love to do, have a game plan, stay focus and you my friend might find the right opportunity to make all your dreams come true.

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4 Secrets to Turn Any Business Into a Successful Web Business Part -1

Copyright 2006 Lynn VanDyke

There are a few secrets that I'd like to share with you. You may have been privy to a few of them before. Actually you may have heard of all 4, but I can promise that you will finish each article with a fresh perspective. I will show you how 4 simple secrets can create a powerhouse web business. This is the first part of the 4 article series.

Before I divulge the vault of successful web business secrets I must warn you of one thing. All the information in the world will not take the place of determination and persistence. A web business is just like an offline business. It takes hard work and resolve to succeed. However working smart is heads and tails better than plain old working. These 4 secrets will turn any smart working, dedicated average Joe or Jane into a successful web business owner.

Web Success Secret #1) Content is king.

Heard that before? I know I have. The thing I never knew was how to use content to my advantage. Content is useless unless it is optimized for the search engines. It must also be optimized for your reader. You have two customers- readers and search engines. You must satisfy both with the same exact content.

Content is king only if you have exact and highly specific keywords placed in correct locations. Unfortunately the hard part is determining what keywords to use. A keyword can be a single word or a phrase. It is the term that web surfers use to search for information. Place yourself in their shoes and try to discover what search terms they use. You must then evaluate the search term. How many people search using that term? How many sites already deliver information on that search term? Simple demand and supply rules. The more demand with the less supply equals more profitability.

You have several options for determining keywords and their profit potential. Search yourself, pay a company to search for you or have your hosting company do a complete keyword search for your niche or web business topic. If your hosting company does not offer this service I recommend you switch to a plan that does. This feature alone can make or break your business' future. If you would like my recommended hosting plan, please contact me.

Without a proper keyword search and analysis you may as well forget about becoming successful with an Internet business. Investing in this one secret is literally the start of planning your website.

Your next action step is to plan your site layout based on the 50-175 high-demand and low-supply keywords. Your site should be structured in three tiers. Tier one is your home page. Tier two is made of all of your main topics and also constitutes your navigation bar buttons. Tier three keywords are sub-topics of tier two pages. Organize your 50-175 keywords into three tiers. Doing this makes it easier for visitors to navigate through your site and it makes it easier for search engine spiders to find all of your pages.

Search engine spiders do not like to fish around for all of your pages and links. This is why many sites offer a “site map”. A site map is one page that contains links to all of the content pages. This is a fine route to take; however most people agree that pages with a lot of links on it are valued less than content pages that casually link to other content pages.

Using three tiers allows you to go from topic to sub-topic to sub-sub-topic all by natural in-content links. For example, tier 1 is the homepage on a fitness site. Tier 2 is a page all about cardio activity and its benefits. A tier three page off of that tier 2 page is about different treadmill routines. Do you see how the site visitor would like this structure? They click on “Cardio” and are given links to more specific pages about cardio topics. Search engine spiders like the three tier structure too. It means they do not have to dig through layers and levels of useless links.

There is even more to content than finding profitable keywords and structuring your site into easy-to-navigate tiers. You must optimize each and every page on your website to perform well and rank high at search engines. Many people devote their working life to optimization secrets. A full length article just on optimizing is possible. Heck, a full length book is possible. My recommendation is to use a hosting company that automatically teaches you how to optimize web pages for the engines. Doing that will cause less headache and frustration and it will keep you focused on building content.

A quick education in optimization: place your specific keyword in the file name, title, description and keyword section of your page. Then sprinkle the keyword throughout the content. Also provide a link using your specific keyword in the link text. If all of this has you spinning your head, I recommend going the hosting company I use. They literally teach you to build a website using blocks. It’s all simple and easier than you think.

There is one last piece to content. It must effectively pre-sell your product or service and position you as the expert in your field. When your website has 50-175 optimized pages for your visitors to read through it will start to position you as the expert. Your site will become known as the place for information about (insert your niche).

When visitors find your site through search engines they are seeking information about a problem or question they have. If they land on your site and you try to sell them something right away one thing is sure- they click the back button and find another site that will give them information. This is why pre-selling your product or service is paramount. Give your visitors what they want. Answer their question and in the process let them know about your services and products.

All of the information develops rapport and trust with your site visitor. It positions you as an expert. It keeps your visitor on your site longer since they are actually reading content. Search engines notice this and rank you better. How well your site can keep visitors is known as "stickiness." Your site must attract and keep visitors for as long as possible.

Provide content that pre-sells your products, positions you as the expert and focuses on highly profitable keywords. You cannot go wrong with your web business if you do those things. The secret to content is to satisfy both your visitor and search engines. Lose one or both and you are doomed. As I mentioned earlier, it is best to work smarter and not harder. Your hosting company should be providing most of these services to you free of charge. There are a small few that do this, but it is well worth the investigation. Contact me for further resources and information. Having a successful web business starts with effective content. Stay tuned for parts 2-4!

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