A Product Without A Market

On Monday I downloaded a video tutorial product on how to use the popular web host administration software, Cpanel. And since I use Cpanel to manage my sites and don't know that much about it I was excited to view the videos because I wanted to learn how to "use cPanel's bigger features to take your business to the next level of success." (A quote from the sales page.)

My reaction after watching the few videos over the the topics I wanted to know about most was... disappointment and then confusion.

You see, 99% of the information on these videos is given freely in the video instructions provided by my hosting service. The 3 primary differences in the purchased videos and the Cpanel webhost instruction videos are:

1. The purchased videos have audio while the webhost instruction videos have caption boxes that must be read.


2. There are a few little tidbits of new information such as, check with your hosting company about size limitations on complete backups. Evidentially backing up a large site may exceed some hosting company's limitations and your site could be shut down for exceeding the limit.


3. The purchased videos did show the correct sequence for doing a task like moving a mySQL database from one host to another. So while the actual Cpanel mySQL instructions could be found in the webhost instruction videos the purchased video showed me the order to do things if I wanted to move my database.

Now I must admit that I am still disappointed since I don't feel like I learned to use cPanel's bigger features to take my business to the next level of success and now I am wondering why they were created.

My first thought was that some value was added to the free information so this product was created to fill a need in some niche market. So I did some market research.

Using the free Nichbot keyword tool I discovered that there was a daily average of 112 searches for cpanel for the last 100 days (good) and there are over 7 million sites found for that search term (really bad). So I dug down to find a possible search phrase. Unfortunately I could not identify any phrase that had a decent number of searches, a fair amount of competition and could be correctly used for this product.

I then tried several other words and phrases and still couldn't identify any keywords or phrases that could be used to get some search engine traffic looking for information provided in this product.

Still thinking it was me and my lack of knowing what niche market this product was created for I decided to checkout the competition at ClickBank. Would you believe I found a total of 4 products across all categories when I searched for Cpanel? I tried some other product related searches and found either no products or products that had nothing to do with web host administration except for those selling web hosting service.

Now I am sure this product will get sold to a few however I doubt that anyone will make very much since most of the information is freely available and there doesn't appear to be much of a market for this type of information. And that's why I'm confused.

Since it took time to make and market these videos and since time is money, why would an experienced internet marketer waste their time doing it. And yes, this product was created by an experienced internet marketer. He just didn't put his name on it.

Oh well, at least 2 good things came from those videos:

1. An example of how to make a product where there isn't much of a market.


2. I found a video that emphasizes how some waste their time doing harm to those who don't deserve it.

To Your Success,
Susan

P.S. In case you're wondering if I asked for a refund the answer is no because I didn't buy the product. I got it from a membership site where I get lots of new products every month.

Also, if you're interested in some free Cpanel video tutorials become a free member of this site because there are 29 available to all free members.

Please leave a comment or rate this tip. Thanks

Tags: web host administration software, Cpanel Webhost Instruction, Cpanel, niche market research, time is money, don't waste time

How To Find A Niche Market - Passion or Market Research

You've probably read several articles or ebooks about how to start an online business. And what do they say about choosing your niche? They probably all advised you to focus your business around something you are either passionate about or on something you know a lot about. And while this is usually the best advice when starting because of the amount of time and work you'll be spending on your business, it isn't always the best.

For many, telling them to focus their business around their passion or expertise doesn't work. You see there are many who have jobs and hobbies however they aren't passionate about them. They know enough to do their jobs and hobbies however they don't consider themselves an "expert" so they don't think they have anything to share.

So today, rather than tell you how to find a niche within your market I'll focus on finding a niche market when you aren't passionate about anything.

The first thing you must know is that there are 3 things all online businesses need to succeed. They are:
People looking for information or products
People willing to buy the information or products online
Good products or information to sell them
Now whether you're passionate about your niche or not the niche market you choose must have these things.

So when you are passionate about something after you've picked what your business will be about you do market research to identify your targeted niche by identifying the types of things people are looking for and the things they are willing to buy.

However when you aren't passionate about something you start by doing the market research first. In other words, first find something a lot of people want to know about and identify what they're willing to pay for.

Here's an example:

This morning I went to a keyword research tool and typed in - how to. I found there were 1536 searches daily for "how to play soccer." I also found there were more than 93,000 pages listed for that search term on Google. The thing that's interesting is that this is the number 1 site for that search term -
http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/soccer/soccerfull.html

The site soyouwanna isn't focused on 1 product type. Instead they've identified their niche market as people who want to learn how to do things. As such they have lots of information about lots of things.

And the same thing happened when I did a search on "how to play basketball." (Without the quotes.) I found 1389 daily searches, over 600,000 sites found and the number 1 site was -
http://www.howtodothings.com/sports-and-recreation/a3447-how-to-play-basketball.html

Now I'm not suggesting you try to identify your niche with the phrase "how to ..." because that's where everyone before you has gone and they have pretty much established themselves. However if you do know enough about something to write some articles you may still want to investigate to see if this information is something people are looking for and if there's very much competition.

Or you could do some research on what you're interested in right now like I did.

Earlier this month I wanted to share some craft ideas on my blog. However before I wrote the articles I did some keyword research and found the phrase - homemade halloween crafts and decorations - as something people were searching for and there was almost no competition. So I wrote the articles centered around my keywords.

Now in the event you don't have an interest that anyone is searching for then you can always start by looking for a product that has information people want. Did you know that the 9th most popular product in ClickBank's Home & Family category is "Discus Fish Secrets", there are 240 searches a month for: discus fish care and feeding - and there is very little competition? Oh, you don't know anything about Discus Fish. Me either but then I didn't really know anything about pumpkin painting when I wrote that article either.

The important thing to remember about picking your niche market is that you must do some research. You must find out what people are looking for and willing to buy online. Then you find good products or services to sell. And then you put in the time and effort to become an "expert" so you can give information that will draw traffic and make sales.

To Your Success,
Susan

Tags: how to find a niche market, how to find target market, niche target market, market niche examples, niche target market

Should Freedom of Speech Ever Be Restricted?

Image via Wikipedia

This week I was going to write a tip about how to find a niche market however I changed my plans after a disturbing call from 1 of my daughters.

On Wednesday, October 15, while driving home she was almost run off the road not once but twice. Fortunately she managed to avoid having an accident both times however she was extremely shaken up by this ordeal.

Now my daughter has been driving home from work 5 days a week on this same highway for several months and nothing like this has ever happened before. So my question to her was why - Why would someone try to run you off the road?

She had no idea since she was keeping up with traffic and was staying in the "slow" lane. The only thing different about her, her car and her driving was that the night before she had put a political bumper sticker endorsing the candidate she was supporting on her car.

Now we don't know for a fact that it was the bumper sticker that incited 2 people to the point of trying to scare or hurt her. But to be safe she did remove the sticker.

As her mother I was very upset with what had happened and was relieved to hear she had removed the sticker.

As an American I was outraged by what had happened!

Having lived through a lot of presidential campaigns I know that fear and hate are common campaign tactics and you can't believe a lot of what's said. I also know that presidential elections cause a lot of mixed emotions.

But to have someone afraid to state who they support in an upcoming election...

To me that's UN-AMERICAN!!!

In a country where freedom of speech is protected by the First Amendment in the Constitution no one should be afraid to state their political commitment on a bumper sticker or anywhere else. And those who resort to violence when someone doesn't agree with them should move to a country that supports that type of reaction.

Of course I know they won't move because they want the right to say whatever they want. They just don't want to extend that same right to others who disagree with them.

In America we have the freedom of choice and the freedom to state our choice in a non-violent way. Many have died to give us these rights.

So no matter what your political beliefs I encourage everyone to:

• Have your own opinion and respect the opinion of others.


• Share your opinion with others and listen when others share theirs.


• Don't just listen to campaign ads and debates but also do your "due diligence" and learn the truth.


• When election day comes, Vote.


• And whether your candidate wins or loses, lets all agree to work together to make our country strong and unified.

To paraphrase something my high school government teacher once said -

You have the right to disagree with someone but your right ends just before your fist hits them.

To Your Success,
Susan

P.S. Since we're all now protected by the USA Patriot Act those who are publicly stating things like "Off with his head" and "Kill xxx" during political rallies may want to watch their backs because:

Sec. 802. in TITLE VIII—STRENGTHENING THE CRIMINAL LAWS AGAINST TERRORISM of the Patriot Act states:

"Definition of domestic terrorism. Both the House and Senate bills included this provision to define the term "domestic terrorism" as a counterpart to the current definition of "international terrorism" in 18 U.S.C. §2331. The new definition for "domestic terrorism" is for the limited purpose of providing investigative authorities (i.e., court orders, warrants, etc.) for acts of terrorism within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. Such offenses are those that are

"(1) dangerous to human life and violate the criminal laws of the United States or any state; and

(2) appear to be intended (or have the effect) – to intimidate a civilian population; influence government policy intimidation or coercion; or affect government conduct by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping (or a threat of)." Same as Administration proposal."

And while I don't believe either the Democratic or Republican candidate falls into a Patriot Act protected group those doing the yelling do. And if they're right and I'm wrong then they should also know that Sec. 102 of TITLE I—ENHANCING DOMESTIC SECURITY AGAINST TERRORISM states:

"Sense of Congress condemning discrimination against Arab and Muslim Americans. Both the House and Senate bills included this provision to condemn acts of violence and discrimination against Arab Americans, American Muslims, and Americans from South Asia, and to declare that every effort must be taken to protect their safety."

The above quotes were taken from http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200110/102401a.html

Tags: presidential campaign violence, freedom of speech, act of violence, freedom of speech and constitution, freedom of speech the first amendment, should freedom of speech ever be restricted

How to Help My Web Site Get Found for Free

In June of 2000 Netcraft.com reported that here were approximately 18,200,000 websites and only about half of them were active. However as of September, 2008 they reported that there were 181,277,835 websites and approximately 72,800,000 were active.

With numbers like this you've got your work cut out for you to get your web site found!

Now before you give up and say it's impossible to compete with over 72 million websites let me tell that it's not impossible and while the numbers are overwhelming they aren't as bad as it appears on the surface.

You see, once you've picked your targeted niche market the number of compete ting websites goes down significantly. And the more targeted your market the more the number of competitors goes down.

So while there may be over 72 million websites you are only competing with the fraction of sites in your targeted niche.

So how do you get your web site found for free?

First you've got to pick you target niche. You want a niche that has some competition but not too much.

Second, you need to find the keywords people are using when searching for things in your niche.

Third, you should get a domain name, blog name or social networking site title that contains at least 1 of your keywords.

Forth, you must put content on your site and be aware that keyword density on every page and every article is important.

Fifth, you've got to promote your site using free web site promotion services like:

• blogs


• forums


• article directories


• social networking sites


• free ezine advertising


• press releases


• joint ventures


• search engines

Do you have to do all of them?

No - You only need to a few of them. The 1 you should be most concerned about is getting found by the search engines because that's what your potential customers use when they're looking for something.

The truth is: while the other free methods may help you get your site found immediately by a few, having a link to your site posted on those other types of sites will actually help you get your site found by many in the search engines. It won't happen immediately but it will happen.

To get a free report on some of best ways to optimize your site to get a good search engine ranking click here.

To Your Success,
Susan

Please leave a comment or rate this tip. Thanks

Tags: web site get found for free, get website found for free, get website found, get web site found for free, get web site found, free seo report