Under-Served Niches

We talk a lot about the importance of finding a niche that attracts traffic, and judging by the feedback we receive, we know this is the most difficult aspect of starting an Internet business or blog.

The Internet business niche you choose is the most important aspect of starting out. Choose it wrong and you’ll find yourself without traffic and buyers. Choose it right, present the right information and offer, and you’re on the road to success.

There are many ways of approaching the niche you want to be part of. Although you can succeed in a crowded niche it takes savvy. Finding an under-served one is the quickest way to making your site successful.

Although his article focuses on blogging, the principals apply to a website also..

Click here to read more on finding niches.

The Skelliewag blog is a great spot visit to explore topics on blogging and finding niches in general

Are you swimming naked?

"When the tide goes out, you find out who’s been swimming naked." Warren Buffett

Now that the "tide" appears to be flowing out, all you need to do is watch the news to see who the "naked" companies are… Banking giants like Citibank, home builders and everyone who supplies them — even Starbucks, who had to shut down to retrain staff this week.

All this negative news has begun to impact consumer confidence. And that means even more companies will be exposed with "their shorts down" soon.

But all is not doom and gloom — at least, not for those who are prepared. Downturns, like the one caused by the mortgage mess in the US, can mean good things to entrepreneurs.

• As selling gets harder, companies pull back, leaving the space open to those who understand the art of selling.
• The Internet is a global market… and so bad times in one market doesn’t mean all markets are affected.
• Employees, vendors, suppliers, suddenly get a LOT easier to deal with. (After all, they don’t want to lose business… or their jobs!)
  

The upshot is, businesses that are launched in hard times are better equipped to survive than those that became overly reliant on surplus spending.

Here’s why: New businesses…

• Project an optimism that is infectious… and buyers react positively to the difference.
• Are built upon up-to-date market research… And they use pricing strategies that are in sync with the economic realities of the day.
• Don’t carry the bloated overhead that older ones have become addicted to — and can’t wean themselves from. .
  

So if you’re thinking of starting a new business, great news!

There’s still money to be made in ALL markets — and you can thrive and expand in downturns by being in touch with the current marketing reality.

An Internet business is still the best way to profit from a downturn… because the cost of entry is lower than any other business and the upside is enormous.

On top of that, an Internet business is very forgiving. You never have to "bet the farm" on an Internet idea. If something isn’t working, you’ll find out right away and you can either fix it or move on to something better. This is very important! With an Internet business, you’ll never get locked in to a losing proposition.

Now is the time to invest in yourself and the space between your ears!

The knowledge you’ll gain today will position you way ahead of those who are retreating into a "survival mode" mentality. If you’re an entrepreneur you understand that retreat isn’t part of your vocabulary. The time you spend learning about Internet business and marketing strategies — along with the new technologies that make starting an Internet business easier than it ever has been — will pay off in spades.

As many readers know, we’ve been teaching Internet marketing since 1994 through our "Insider Secrets" course. Most of the businesses that got started thanks to our course are seeing no slow down at all.

The one thing we know here at The Internet Marketing Center is that every time we have gone through a recession, our business has actually GROWN.

This is why we’re investing heavily in new products to help our readers get online faster and easier. We’re hosting 5 day Internet Business building clinics around the continent, instead of seminars. We’re having Q&A calls each week. And we’ll continue to add new services to make sure that all of our customers have everything the need to succeed.

Watch for my next article where I’ll share five steps you can take now to prosper in a slow down.

Derek Gehl

Do the math - what will the fee changes cost you?

The recent fee changes introduced by eBay have created a firestorm among sellers.

While eBay has given with one hand — by lowering insertion fees and eliminating the basic Gallery fee — it has taken away with the other, by increasing Final Value fees.

As you’ve seen, there have also been changes to the prices of more advanced features, such as Featured Plus!, Pro Pack, and Homepage Featured.

eBay says the changes will reduce the upfront risk of listing an item and reward successful sellers. But many sellers believe the changes, particularly higher Final Value fees, will hurt their profits.

Here’s a breakdown.

1. It will cost you less to list your items for sale on eBay

Basic insertion fees have been reduced by as much as 50%, depending on the type of listing and the starting or reserve price.

For example, here’s what the insertion fees for auction-style listings look like now:

Starting or Reserve Price	Old Insertion Fee	New Insertion Fee	New Insertion Fee for Books, Music, DVDs & Movies, Video Games
$0.01 - $0.99	$0.20	$0.15	$0.10
$1.00 - $9.99	$0.40	$0.35	$0.25
$10.00 - $24.99	$0.60	$0.55	$0.35
$25.00 - $49.99	$1.20	$1.00	$1.00
$50.00 - $199.99	$2.40	$2.00	$2.00
$200.00 - $499.99	$3.60	$3.00	$3.00
$500.00 or more	$4.80	$4.00	$4.00

Click here for full details of the new insertion fees.

2. It’s now free to include a picture in your listings

eBay has eliminated the basic Gallery fee for all types of listings and it has lowered other Gallery fees such as Gallery Plus and Picture Pack.

Click here for full details of this, and the fee changes for advanced options.

3. You’ll pay eBay more when you sell an item

Here’s what’s got eBay sellers up in arms: higher Final Value fees.

The amount you’ll pay will continue to depend on the type of listing and sale price, but eBay has increased its cut dramatically.

For example, if you sell an auction-style or fixed-price item for $25 or less, you now pay eBay 8.75% of the closing value — up from 5.25%.

Click here for a full breakdown of the changes.

Let’s see how all this works in practice…

Suppose you sell a pair of shoes for $60 in a fixed-price listing that includes a picture.

Before:

$2.40 (insertion fee)

$0.35 (Gallery fee)

$1.31 (5.25% of the initial $25.00 of the closing value)

$1.14 (3.25% of the remaining $35.00 closing balance)

$4.90 (Total amount you pay eBay)

After:

$2.00 (insertion fee)

$0.00 (Gallery fee)

$2.19 (8.75% of the initial $25.00 of the closing value)

$1.22 (3.50% of the remaining $35.00 closing balance)

$5.41 (Total amount you pay eBay)

 

Media sellers pay less

Although eBay is lowering its insertion fees for almost all types of listings, the biggest percentage reductions are for Books, Music, DVDs, Movies, and Video Games. (Perhaps eBay is worried about sellers moving to Amazon.)

Suppose you sell a CD for $15 in a fixed-price listing that includes a picture.

Before:

$0.60 (insertion fee)

$0.35 (Gallery fee)

$0.79 (5.25% of the $15.00 closing value)

$1.74 (Total amount you pay eBay)

After:

$0.35 (insertion fee)

$0.00 (Gallery fee)

$1.31 (8.75% of the $15.00 closing value)

$1.66 (Total amount you pay eBay)

What’s your reaction?

Some sellers reacted by boycotting eBay last week. This appears to have had some effect. The number of eBay auctions dropped from 14.5 million on February 18 to under 11.9 million on February 21, according to Medved.net.

How will the changes affect your business on eBay? Did you take part in the boycott? Let us know.

 

Click Here To Get Your FREE ‘Quick-Start’ eCourse And Start Making Money On eBay In As Little As 48 Hours!

 

 

The 2008 Insider Secrets Course Is Here

This is the moment you’ve been waiting for!

But you need to move FAST…

Because we just released only 300 copies of the most complete Internet business start-up solution the world has ever seen…

… To a list of more than 15,472 people like you who have been chomping at the bit, eagerly waiting for this announcement!

It took me and my team $500,000 and six months of blood, sweat, and tears to develop — but we’re excited to reveal that we can now remove absolutely EVERY barrier standing between you and your first successful Internet business.

(Yes, including getting you into a fully-functional, professionally designed website that accepts credit card payments without knowing a lick of HTML!)

And even though it’s based on the SAME system that’s created MORE six-figure income websites in the last 12 years than any program like it…

… We’re still going to let you try it for just $2.95!

Click here to get your copy before the first 300 are gone and you’ve missed out.

To your success,
Derek Gehl

P.S. I can’t emphasize the urgency enough… More than 15,472 people expressed interest in getting into a lucrative new Internet business using one of these 300 automated Internet business start-up solutions.

So there’s no time for hesitation. If you’re interested, you need to act NOW because I expect this offer to be gone very soon…

Click here to get your business started.

Your 10 step rescue plan

Imagine: After weeks of hard work, your website is finally live. You’ve officially been open for business an entire week. And yet you haven’t made a single sale.

Not. One. Single. Sale.

Arggh!

Don’t despair — we’ve all been there before. In fact, it’s one of the most common problems people ask us to solve for them.

Here’s something that’ll help ease the pain of turning a "dud" site into one that rakes in the profits…

You need to ask yourself every single question on the list below, starting at number one. Once you’re able to answer "yes" to all ten questions, I guarantee the sales will come rolling in.

Print out the following checklist and start your troubleshooting right now:

#1. Is there actually a market for your product?

By that I mean, are you positive you’re selling a product or solution people are actively looking for online — and not finding? That is the formula for a successful business.

The best way to answer this question is to do keyword research with a tool like Keyword Discovery or Wordtracker to confirm whether people are using search engines like Google and Yahoo to hunt for something just like your product — but not finding it.

It all comes back to supply and demand… You want to make sure people actually want to buy your product before you try to sell it!

#2. Are you getting enough traffic?

Before you can really judge your website’s effectiveness, you need at least 1000 unique visitors (not pageviews). If you’ve only had 100 visitors and haven’t made a sale, be patient! You just need more traffic.

Once you’ve had 1000 visitors, then you can begin to assess how effective your site really is.

#3. Are you getting the right kind of traffic?

If you’ve had 1000+ visitors to your website and you still haven’t made a sale, find out where your traffic is coming from. That’ll help you know if it’s targeted or not.

(By "targeted," I mean, visitors who are actively seeking out your product and are therefore extremely likely to buy it.)

The best way to get the RIGHT traffic to your site is by bidding on extremely targeted keywords in the pay-per-click search engines.

If you drive 1000 visitors to your site — using extremely targeted keywords in your PPC ads — and you still don’t make a sale, then we know the problem isn’t the quality of traffic you’re getting. It’s your website.

So let’s take a look at that next…

#4. Is your headline effective?

If your site doesn’t have a compelling headline that clearly communicates a powerful benefit, your potential customers aren’t going to stick around to see what you have to offer.

Writing a better headline is typically the easiest way to fix a floundering website. If you get more people to stay on your site and read your offer, more people will buy your product.

#5. Are you distracting your visitors from your main sales message?

You need to get rid of everything that encourages your visitors think of something other than the product you’re selling and the problem it solves.

This includes: links to other websites, Google Adsense ads, banner ads for other products, free articles that don’t support the sale… the list goes on.

Keep your visitors focused only on buying your product — and your sales will go up.

#6. Are you using testimonials effectively?

Like I said in last week’s editorial, testimonials are one of your most powerful selling tools. Nothing says, "Buy it now!" like an unbiased third-party recommendation.

If your site is brand new and you don’t have any testimonials yet, give your product to a few friends and ask them to provide you with testimonials on how well it worked for them.

#7. Does your guarantee take away the risk of buying?

A good guarantee is an essential selling tool — especially on the Internet. Unless you’re a major brand (like Sony, Wal-Mart, Pepsi) that your customers inherently trust, you need to let them know you’ll stand behind your product.

Reassure them that if they’re not 100% satisfied they can return it to you and get all their money back. And remember, a longer guarantee usually results in more sales — and fewer refunds!

#8. Is your price too high? Or too low?

Most people know that if you price your product too high, you’ll hurt your sales. But this can also be true if your price is too low.

People get suspicious when the price is far below their expectations. They think it’s probably "too good to be true" — and as a result, they don’t feel confident making a purchase.

#9. Is your ordering system easy to use?

Just because you can figure out how to navigate through your ordering process, it doesn’t mean your average customer can.

If you want to make sure your ordering system is "user-friendly," find a few friends who aren’t very Internet savvy and get them to order your product.

Watch over their shoulders and take notes. Where did they get stuck?

Make sure you fix whatever problems they encountered — because your potential customers are encountering them, too — and most likely leaving your site in frustration without buying!

#10. Do you have good salescopy?

If you aren’t using well-written salescopy to sell your product, then you’ll never achieve online success. It’s that simple.

Your copy needs to use all of the selling tools I mentioned above to present a strong, linear sales message. It doesn’t matter whether your particular site needs short copy or long copy, the fact will always remain: Your product isn’t going to sell itself! You need words to do the job.

So there they are… the 10 questions we ask whenever we look at a website that’s not turning visitors into sales. I have never answered "yes" to all 10 questions without seeing a substantial improvement to the site’s conversion rate.

Now, if you’re scratching your head, wondering what a good salesletter looks like… how to test pricing… how to write a headline… or how to use the pay-per-click search engines — then I have to be honest and tell you, you need more help than we can provide in a single newsletter!

If you want detailed, step-by-step training on everything I mentioned above, then you’ll want to check out our new program!

Next Page »