Avoid Niche Market Mistakes With These 13 Research Tips

By Devin

One of the biggest mistakes I see new marketers make is to jump into a niche or market without proper research. In the physical world, most people would never dive head first into murky water without first checking to see how deep it is, right? However I’ve been asked by marketers numerous times that are trying to figure out why they aren’t make enough sales online. The first thing I ask is how did they choose their niche. Most of the time, it was because they had a “great idea” that they really liked, or persued something they were passionate about. I then ask what type of market research they did. This is usually where they get kind of embarrased and admit they didn’t do much research.

OOPS!

I’m not saying that your “great idea” or favorite hobby can’t be profitable. They most certainly can be. However, you MUST do your research first in order to make the best decision! I’ve collected 13 of my favorite ways to research niche/market viability.

Google Trends

http://www.google.com/trends
Obviously, Google is the search authority, so their tools are always going to be instrumental in your market research. Google Trends is a great place to start. It shows how often a particular search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world, and in various languages.

Google Keyword Tool

http://www.google.com/sktool/
When you have various ideas regarding niches or products you are thinking about they Keyword Tool is a great way to see how many people are searching for your keywords, and also it will suggest other related keywords that will give you additional niche ideas!

Google Insights

http://www.google.com/insights/search/
Google Insights takes your research to the global level, and breaks down search interest with visual tool that you can see various countries/regions, times, etc. A great way to see if your niche/market is just a local thing, or if it has worldwide interest.

Yahoo Buzz Trends

http://buzz.yahoo.com/
Although at first Yahoo Buzz seems to be mostly pop culture and celebrity focuses at first (hey, that is what a lot of peopel search for!), you can use the menu to choose various categories that you want to explore. It’s just one more way to identify trends and markets.

Microsoft Keyword Forecast Tool

http://adlab.msn.com/Keyword-Forecast/default.aspx
This is a very interesting one that I just recently started using. It actually uses Microsoft’s data to help predict continued level of interest in various keywords. It can help you see if your target keywords are on a potential decline, or hopefully, a huge increase!

Trends Buzz

http://trendsbuzz.com/
This is a cool place where various other trend websites are combined into up-to-the-minute information about top searches!

Ebay Pulse

http://pulse.ebay.com/
This one is pretty self explanatory. It shows what people are searching/buying on Ebay. Hellooooo. This is what people want! These are buyers, saying we want this stuff!

Shopping.com Consumer Demand Index

http://www.shopping.com/top_searches
Wow, now this is an awesome one! You can see the top 100 hottest product markets and emerging trends. Make sure you use this one. It gets updated very regularly, so it doesn’t hurt to come back here once or twice a month and see what’s hot.

Amazon Gifts Most Wanted

http://www.amazon.com/gp/gift-central
Thanks to a friend for a tip on this one. On the main Amazon page, goto “Gifts & Wish Lists”. Then on the left hand side of the page, look for “Most Popular, Most Gifted, Most Wished For”. These are the things people plan to buy, bought for someone else, or are asking someone else to buy for them. Just like Ebay Pulse, this is a great way to identify things that buyers are hungry for.

Amazon Movers N Shakers

http://www.amazon.com/gp/movers-and-shakers/
Another part of Amazon that helps you idenfity hot products. Sometimes these things can seem rather random, they might not be specific niches, but you would be surprised at some of the great ideas you can get while browsing through here.

WordTracker Labs Keyword Question Tool

http://labs.wordtracker.com/keyword-questions
Love this one! Once you have some simple product ideas, niches, or markets, punch the basic keywords into this tool and it will show you related questions that people are asking the search engines! If you can supply a product that answers these questions for people, that is a great place to start for identifying a niche.

Spyfu PPC Spying

http://www.spyfu.com/
This one might be a little on the advanced side for some, but it can be very powerful. There are other tools out there like this, some paid, some free. This one has a free option. What it allows you to do is put in a specific website or search term and then see what PPC ads are being run for it and how much they are paying! Now that is incredible. This can show you exactly what your competitors are up to and how much they are spending. Don’t be afraid of competition. If other people are out there selling it, that means is IS profitable, which is exactly what you want to know.

Nichewatch

http://www.nichewatch.com/
Another way to check out your competitors. Very cool free tool that tells you what sort of SEO techniques are being used for a specific domain, like backlinks etc.

Well guys, this is a great start to your research. I know it may seem like a lot to do right now, but it is WELL worth the time you spend. Following these tips can help avoid kicking yourself later for getting into a market that will keep you struggling. If you have your own special research techniques that you didn’t see listed here, I’d love to hear about them. Leave me a comment or email me via my blog!

Published by Devin

Increase Your Email Open Rates With These Tips!

By Devin

Think you know the best day and time to send your email newsletter?

Ever wonder if your fellow email marketers are all sending at the same time you do?

Convinced your open rate is too low (or amazingly high)?

Some recent statistics pulled from all AWeber users may help you answer these questions:

What Kind of Open Rates Are People Getting?

If you’re sending HTML emails, you probably use your open rate to help gauge your success.

Even though it’s not a perfect measure of whether people are actually opening and reading your emails, it’s useful as a relative measure:

If it goes up over a short period of time, more people are probably reading

If it falls over a short period of time, it’s almost certain fewer people are reading.

Plus, all other things being equal, it can give you some motivation (if your open rates are lower than other senders’) or satisfaction (if your rates are higher).

So, here goes…

When Is/Was The Best Day To Send?

You’ll often hear (at least, I often hear) that Tuesday is the optimal day to send, because on Monday people are catching up from the weekend, and that on Tuesday morning you’ll have their undivided attention before they jump into their work for the upcoming week.

Do the numbers back up that theory? Let’s see.

The breakdown of open rates by day of the week:

Last month, Tuesday was actually the second-worst day to send, at least if you’re measuring by open rates.

(While we’re breaking assumptions, I should point out this, too: the hour of the day that got the best open rate was not 8-9AM, or 9-10AM, but in fact 2-3PM Eastern Time — email newsletters sent during that hour last month enjoyed a 19.1% open rate.)

Does This Mean I Should Switch My Campaigns To Thursdays?

In a word: No.

In both March and February, Thursday newsletters got the 3rd-worst opens vs. the rest of the week.

I hesitated a little to publish these stats, because I’m concerned that people might flock to sending their newsletters at the day or time that happened to get the best results lately.

Please, don’t drastically change your sending times/days just because you see that the average last month, or any month, happened to be higher on a different day or time.

Yes, you might eventually be able to shift your sending schedule, or split test some broadcasts, but if you up and move everything, you may throw off subscribers who are used to hearing from you at the usual time.

“It’s So Busy, Nobody Goes There Anymore”

To get at the other reason for not shifting your sending based on these stats, let’s paraphrase Yogi Berra (see above).

If everyone switches their sending schedule to send on say, Thursday, then recipients will start getting a ton of email that day, and start paying less attention to each individual email.

One possible reason for Thursday’s success last month may be that it wasn’t as popular as say, Tuesday or Wednesday for sending email:

Those higher-volume days mean more emails in readers’ inboxes, which might contribute to reduced open rates. Following that reasoning, some people may look at the low weekend volume (more email newsletters were sent on Tuesdays than on Saturdays and Sundays combined) and see an opportunity to get their audiences’ undivided attention.

My main point in showing these is to point out that our assumptions about what works are often quite wrong, and that you ultimately have to test for yourself to see what best suits your audience.

Some Inspiration… And Some Help

Are you getting better open rates than this?

If so, GREAT! Give yourself a pat on the back…

…but don’t get complacent. Open rates aren’t the be-all, end-all of email metrics. They don’t guarantee that people are reading your emails, only that they have images turned on and that they probably saw your email for at least a moment.

Plus, there’s always room for improvement, right?

Some ideas that can help you raise your open rates:

Ask people to add you to their address books. Some email programs will display images from senders who are in the recipient’s contact list.

If you are putting pictures in your emails, use the ALT text for those images to pique readers’ interest in what the picture is, so that they enable images. Or, just directly ask readers to turn on images!

Add a picture of yourself to your emails, near/next to your signature. People like seeing your smiling face, and if they see it in one of your emails, they may be more likely to turn on images to see it again later.

Posted by Justin Premick

Published by Devin

18 Easy Ways To Increase Your Website And Sales Conversions.

By Devin

1. In your sales copy, insure that browsers pay attention to your main points by using formated subheadlines, bullet points, and/or graphics. Many people just skim through text and don’t read it carefully, so you need to have the main ideas jump out at them. Just be careful not to use too many or you risk making the page look cluttered.

2. Keep the sales process as short and simple as possible. Every page inserted into the sales process is a potential chance for the customer to lost interest and click away. Of course it is ok to insert pages such as upgrade offers and upsell/downsell strategies, but make sure you plan your process carefully.

3. Offer “basic” and “full” options to your offers. Some people always want the bargain priced product, and some people always want the top of the line, so having a two-tiered pricing setup gives you the most opportunity to monetize that visitor. Keep it simple and clear. You can also use terms like “lite”, “standard”, “advanced” and “pro”.

4. Earn their trust. Make your company contact info easy to find, and if appropriate, add an “about us” section or page to identify you or your company.

5. If you have one, tell a story. A short, simple, interesting story that vistors can relate to can really grab their attention and convert them into buyers.

6. If it is a high ticket item, for example over $500, offer more than one payment option if possible. This will help you retain potential customers that might not have been able to afford the full price all at once.

7. If you are a member of any certified or accredited business organizations, make sure to display their logo.

8. Near your call to action, have a graphic that reminds your customers that their information is safe and confidential.

9. Make your customer aware that they will be supported. A small box or set of bullet points explaining your support options helps customer feel comfortable with their purchase.

10. A video demonstration of your product is and excellent way to increase conversions. It is pretty easy to use a slide-style presentation with voice over if you don’t want to appear on video yourself. Just make sure the quality of the video and audio is clear and concise.

11. Use specific case studies if possible. Verifiable proof is a great way to earn a potential customers trust.

12. Optimize your site for fast loading. Be aware of your image sizes and other larger files that might slow down load time. Even though your connection might be very fast, many of your customers might still be on a slower connection like dial up.

13. Guide the visitor down the path. Make sure the steps you want them to follow are clear. Confusing navigation is a major reason people get annoyed by a website.

14. Rehash to minimize loss of sales. Have a small box or bit of copy that refreshes your valuable offer and guarantee in the customers mind right at the point sale.

15. It might all make perfect sense to you, but you would be surprised what an inexperienced 3rd party might be confused by. Have someone that is not familiar with your project go through your sales process. Their feedback might surprise you!

16. Highlight your guarantee. A guarantee is a great selling aid, but not if the customer doesn’t notice it!

17. Use real testimonials. You can have both testimonials from users that are similar to your potential clients, as well as testimonials from industry experts or peers. Split test to find out where they are most effective on the page. Many times it is near the call to action.

18. Use specific numbers instead of generalizations. People pay more attention to specifics. Notice that the name of this article is “18 Easy Ways To Increase Your Website And Sales Conversions”, not something generic like “A Bunch Of Ways…”.

Hope you found this information valuable! Feel free to share your own tips in the comments section.

-Devin Chipman

Published by Devin

Want Steady Recurring Income With Longevity? Sell A Service!

By Devin | 1 comment

Many of you out there reading this right now might just be getting started with online marketing and are thinking about what product to create or to sell, and that is great, I applaud you getting involved with it. Learning how to market online can significantly change your life and provide you with a freedom and income that a J.O.B. cannot match.

There are many entrepreneurs and small businesses that do very well simply selling a product or a line of products. They start out by learning how to build sites and drive traffic to affiliate offers (someone else’s product). After they have built up a significant list, they build their own product, which increases their profits and expands their business. However, many of them fizzle out around this point, and just continue to make product after product, and never really advance to the next level.

You’ve probably heard the old saying, “Don’t dig for gold, instead sell shovels.”

When it comes to that time in your business when you decide to reach for a new level, you might consider building a website that provides some form of automated service instead of just a new product. While this type of website typically has a much higher time/money investment into building, it can provide excellent benefits over a simple product.

In the online market, some of the most incredibly successful and fastest growing companies are the ones that provide a service to other businesses. Rather than create products, they created a service that helps other people facilitate their own business. PayPal and Clickbank are excellent examples of 7-8 figure companies that were built simply by providing a service to other companies. If you can find a “need” that many businesses share, it is a very easy sale if you can provide a service that fits that need. A business already knows it has to spend money in order to get things done, unlike a typical consumer that is usually views their spending as a luxury. The business HAS to spend in order to grow, so purchasing services is almost a necessity.

Take a little time out of your day to watch this video. It features David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of the Ruby on Rails framework and Partner at 37Signals giving insight into creating a profitable startup company.

Remember, “Bells and whistles wear off, but usefulness never does.” Create something useful.

Published by Devin