What does niche marketing mean? Niche marketing is about finding
small opportunities on the web, small areas in which people might
be interested and for which they might be searching. Big
companies and experienced webmasters are not interested in these
areas because they are not important enough. But a small business
could be something in which you might be interested.

Perhaps a small mini website will not generate thousands of
dollars every month; it might generate 100 bucks, for example.
That is ok, if the effort involved in terms of creating this mini
website is not too high; in this way, you could repeat the same
business model again and again. Taking into consideration that
every small business could generate around $100 every month, with
ten niches, you could earn $1.000 monthly. Does this sound
better? And what if you could create 50 websites?

The first step in this kind of business is always keyword
research. You need to find small markets which do not have
competition. Wordtrack is a very good tool to use for finding
niche opportunities. For every keyword, it tells you the number
of searches and how many results are found on each search engine.
You need to pay special attention to the KEI column. KEI is the
index that balances the number of searches and the number of
competitors. The more searches and the fewer the competitors, the
better for you. A KEI higher than 10 is good, but you should,
ideally, look at keywords with a KEI over 100. More than 400 is a
gift.

Once you have identified your niche, you need to find content for
it. Don`t worry about which product you are going to sell; this
will come later. The fuel of any Internet business is content.
So where can you find content? Well, if you are an expert in an
area, you could write your own articles, but if you are not, you
have to look for content somewhere else.

There are many article directories that offer a lot of content
that you can use. You can also find much content just by
searching the web. Use search engines, find blogs, forums,
websites, etc. Last, but not least, you can always find
information as in the old times, go to the library or buy one
or two books.

After you have found enough content, it is time to register a
domain name. You should choose a name that has something to do
with your target market, but if your intention is to create
multiple mini websites, you dont need to register a different
domain name every time. You can save money by having one global
domain name, and create sub domains for each business.

The question now is, Since everything looks good, how do I make
money with these sites? You need to follow this 3 step formula
(CTM):

– Create Content – Generate Traffic – Monetize your website

You can build traffic by optimizing the webpage content for the
search engines and by analyzing your competitors in order to
build a better SEO strategy (but this is another chapter).
Blogging and pinging is a way to make sure that your site will be
spidered by the search engines. Wordpress is a very good option
for creating your blog, as it allows you to post, not only
articles, but pages. You can easily build miniwebsites with
Wordpress. Finally, there are three easy ways to earn money with
your site.

1. Sell some product that you can create yourself. If you have
this ability and you want to allow people to buy your products
with a credit card, the easiest way is to create a Paypal
account. If you dont have one, visit www.paypal.com and create
one.

2. Join affiliate programs. Find people who sell products related
to your market niche and who have affiliate programs already set
up. You will earn commissions just by selling other peoples
items. A good place to find affiliate programs on products is
www.clickbank.com.

3. Google Adsense. Create an account at Google Adsense and
include Google ads on your site. Every time someone visits your
site and clicks one of those ads, Google will share its profit
with you.

Creating small businesses is like a game. They do not require
high investment, but they will not make you rich either. However,
if you start playing many of those games, it can become a serious
business.

Popularity: 11% [?]

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Working at home has been a dream of many that goes back many
years. Staying at home and enjoying watching the kids grow up is
a goal worth fighting for.

Let’s take a look into making a living or part time living from
the comfort of your home. You owe it to yourself to gain the
freedom a home business can offer.

In the past, there have been multi-level marketing plans to sell
everything from vitamins to soap. There have been mail order
catalog opportunities. Many tried buying and selling real
estate. Each of these opportunities made many people a lot of
money, but each of them also cost many people a lot of money.

More people have spent money than have made money in every
business venture. The problem is many inexperienced people get
into moneymaking schemes after attending a meeting somewhere.
The offer may be legitimate, but most people fail in business.

According to the US Small Business Administration, over 50% of
small businesses fail in the first year and 95% fail with the
first five years. That is a scary statistic.

This means that the average business is doomed to fail from the
beginning. It also means that you will lose a lot of money if you
start a business. WOW! No wonder you are leery about putting up
your hard-earned cash for what is statically a crapshoot, a roll
of the dice.

So, what is the answer for the average person who does not want
to lose their savings and even their home investing in a
business? Start building a “digital business” online. Create a
website that generates its income without you needing to invest
in inventory or even lease a building to house your business.
Then create two or ten more websites generating income for you.

You may not know how to create a website today. It is an easily
learned skill. There is software you can buy or download free
that will help you. There are tutorials on making a website
profitable. You can do this.

Once you have a website online you can put other peoples
advertising on your site and be paid when someone buys one of
their products. If this was my baby toys webpage and I mentioned
a great baby toy with a link to my advertisers toy page you
might go there and buy the toy. If you did, I would get a
commission.

You could also put ads on your pages that only require someone to
click on the ad for you to be paid. Again, if you were on my
baby toy page and an ad talks about a toy. You click on the ad to
go see it and I am paid for you clicking on the ad. The
advertiser feels their sales page is compelling enough for them
to sell enough of that toy to cover their cost of the clicks that
got you there.

Some advertisers do not require you to buy the product when you
click on an ad, but I will not be paid unless you fill out their
application. This is usually seen on sites like insurance sites
or loan application sites. You do not have to get a policy or
take out a loan for me to be paid. When you fill out the form, I
qualify for my commission for sending you to the advertiser.

These are typically the ways a beginning website entrepreneur
starts generating income on the Internet. Once you understand
that part of internet marketing, you may move on to selling your
own digital products.

A digital product is one that can be downloaded from your
website. You can sell your own ebook you wrote yourself or an
ebook you purchased and have the rights to sell online.

If you are a programmer, you can sell you own computer program
from your site. You could also sell someone else’s program that
you purchased the rights to sell.

Notice that not all of the above ideas require you to invest in a
lot of inventory. Even the products are free if you create them
yourself. Not everything you are doing so far requires a large
investment of your hard earned money. It does require a large
investment of your time.

All of the material you need to create a website can be found
free online if you do not want to purchase some popular program.
Your only expense SHOULD be a domain of your own, such as
yourdomain.com. You can get free hosting from various places but
for moneymaking venture, this is not advised.

For a small investment, you too can be PRESIDENT OF YOUR OWN
COMPANY. Maybe the statistics are the same for success online as
they are in other businesses, but this is a chance to find out
without losing the farm doing it.

Popularity: 19% [?]

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site

Summary. It also has been referred to as a “pull” technology
rather than a “push” technology. And, in fact, this feature is
what makes RSS so popular in terms of today’s Internet usage.

It’s probably hard to argue that anyone who uses the Internet
today hasn’t heard of spam. If they have an email inbox it is
probably full of it.

Spam, for the uninitiated, is the receipt of unwanted emails from
people whom you did not request to receive information. Spam
represents the “push” technology. That is, people “push” their
email message at your inbox, whether you have asked to receive
the email or not.

And that aspect of “push” technology is what many have come to
believe is the death of email. It’s arguable that email will
still be around for quite a long time, even though there are
still people who continue the illegal spam process. In fact,
companies are making millions now just providing everyday users
as well as huge corporations, solutions claiming to solve their
spam problem.

RSS, on the other hand, can be said to be the exact opposite of
the email “push” technology. Because you cannot “push” your
message to subscribers. In fact, the only way that people can
subscribe to an RSS feed is to do so voluntarily. And, at the
same time, they can unsubscribe whenever they want.

That’s why it’s called a “pull” technology. Because subscribers
“pull” information into their readers and, if the content isn’t
what they expect, they can unsubscribe whenever they’d like. So,
unlike the email “push” technology, there is no one using RSS
that is experiencing an inbox full of spam. All they have to do
is to unsubscribe and they will never receive another message
from the person who provided the feed.

RSS has become a popular way to make money on line too. And that
is due in part to the popularity of the RSS “pull” technology.
Here’s one way of monetizing a website using RSS feeds.

Imagine setting up a static one page web site – a minisite if you
will. Now, add either Google Adsense code or the new Yahoo
version of the Google Adsense style ads that, when clicked by a
visitor – you earn cash.

This gives you a nice starting point and, if you optimize your
web page properly, there is a good chance you will get a high
ranking in the search engines. And, the more people who see your
page, the more likelihood they will click on one of the links on
your web page and you’ll earn revenue from the click.

But RSS provides an even greater potential. Because by adding an
RSS feed to that same web page, you turn a static web page that
only contains the information you placed on it, into a dynamic
ever changing web page that others will likely come back more
than once to read.

After all, once someone has read a one page web site, what
incentive is there for them to come back? Plenty, if you use RSS
feeds on your web page. It is possible to add 5, 10 or 15 feeds
on your once static web page and now, you’ve got a page that
automatically updates itself and provides something that people
will want to come back to read time and time again.

You can easily convert any web page into a dynamic web page using
free RSS creator software. One of the most popular free versions
is called Carp and you can download it at this web link:
http://www.geckotribe.com/rss/carp/.

Once you’ve set this program up on your website and added the
proper code to your website, then you will need to collect RSS
feeds that relate to the topic of your web page.

Let’s say that the topic of your web page is flower gardens. You
could go to Google News and get their RSS feed code, place it
into the appropriate position in your Carp coding you put on your
web page and then adjust the code as follows:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=flower+gardens&ie=UTF-8&output=rss

You can also get a similar feed from Topix.net and you’d adjust
the code like this:
http://rss.topix.net/search/?q=flower+gardens&xml=1

Now, once you have uploaded your web page, your site will
automatically pull in fresh information from Google and Topix
about flower gardens. Simply follow this illustration for any
web page you’d like to monetize and watch your search engine
ranking soar and also your bank account!

Popularity: 51% [?]

So, you’ve decided to start a home based business.
Congratulations! and welcome to the fast-paced world of
entrepreneurship. While there is a lot to learn, your effort will
be worth it. The thrill of growing your business, the freedom and
flexibility to set your own hours, and the possibilities of
ever-increasing financial rewards are all wonderful reasons to
start your home based business.

Now that you’ve decided to start your business, you might be
wondering “How can I get it off to the strongest possible start?”
These seven tips will help:

1) Set up a separate working space in your home. It doesn’t
matter if this is a small bedroom, one part of the garage, or a
corner of the living room. The important thing is to have some
space that you can designate as your working area. This will give
you the space and room you need to craft your dream.

2) Stock your working space with materials. This sounds basic,
perhaps, but one underlying element of success is that you have
easy access to the tools, materials, and other resources you
need. Gathering everything close by also keeps you from wasting
time searching for it, so this step can be considered a time
management strategy, too.

3) Speaking of time management, your third step is to define the
parameters of your business. What days and hours will you work?
When will you market? When will you provide services or products
to clients? How will you keep all of this straight?

4) Balance action with planning. One of the most common pitfalls
to successful entrepreneurship is getting too caught up in action
without enough planning. Stated another way, this means that you
confuse “being busy” with “working on important projects.” The
best approach is to plan your next couple of goals and then work
backwards to create step by step action plans to reach them. Once
you have the plan, then it’s time to take the action.

5) Network like crazy. One of the fastest ways to grow any
business is to make connections with other people. Be sure to
share your passion and enthusiasm with others at every
opportunity. Let people know who you are and what you offer.
Remember, people can’t buy if they don’t know you’re selling.

6) Present a professional image. If you want to be treated
professionally, present a professional image. Set up a separate
bank account for your business. Install a separate phone and fax
line. Create professional marketing materials. Be courteous and
pleasant in all your customer facing interactions. Basically, be
someone people want to do business with.

7) Automate your business as much as possible. Granted, you are
just one person (right now) and might have a lot of extra time to
take care of all the details. This might work for now, but won’t
work into the future as you get busier and busier. It’s best to
set up automatic systems and processes right from the start to
free up your time to concentrate on the most profitable
activities.

These seven tips will get your home business started (and
growing) in the right direction.

Popularity: 27% [?]

There are many things to consider when writing an article. One of
the main ones is the choice of topic. Choosing a topic you are
passionate about is important for several reasons.

Your writing will not only flow more easily, but your
enthusiasm will show through and affect the reader in a positive
way. Editors like enthusiasm in writing. You will know much about your topic, thus saving a lot of time
in research. Your writing task will be a joy to do.

You might feel that writing in the area of your interest is too
limiting, but it is possible to branch out into areas that are
similar. For instance, if your area of expertise is in chemistry,
then writing about health should not be too much of a learning
curve. It will also give you a wider scope for selling your
articles. Many magazines have a health section. Health topics can
be widened to include such topics as sporting injuries and how to
treat them, or nutrition. Nutrition can focus on various age
groups. See how the ripples widen? In no time youll be able to
submit articles to many different magazines or websites and
youll still be writing with passion and enthusiasm.

Choosing your own topic is easier if you decide to write
freelance. You can submit to magazines specializing in that
topic, but what happens if you are asked to write about a topic
you hate, or know little about? If you are a skilled researcher
and writer you will bring all your skills to bear on doing the
job correctly. Otherwise, consider refusing. If, for example, you
are asked to write about finance and investments and you are not
even familiar with the terms used, then unless you are a quick
learner and love research, your reputation might suffer.

Publishing articles on the Internet is even riskier to your
reputation, since there is not always an editor to scrutinize the
details and say yea or nay. You must not only get your facts
right, but offer good solid meat in your article. An article that
includes the basic information that everyone but the man from
Mars knows, will make you a laughing stock in the article world.

For example, everyone knows that Fido needs to be fed, watered
and exercised properly to be a happy doggie. But does everyone
know that his drooping ears need to be inspected carefully for
ticks or disease? Do they know the symptoms of a certain disease
that particular breed is prone to and what to do about it? Have
they heard about that old remedy that will save them a bomb at
the vet? If you can provide information such as this in your
article, you will soon have a happy readership.

Popularity: 23% [?]

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is a method
developed to allow webmasters and online publishers to syndicate
their contents easily to other webmasters. For example, if you
use RSS to publish your ezine, then other webmasters can easily
use RSS to display your ezine/content on their website – automatically.

Without RSS, if a webmaster saw an interesting article and wanted
to display it on his site, he would need to copy that article and
paste it into an HTML file on his own website. This is a very
time consuming and tedious process. However, with RSS, all the
cutting and pasting can be eliminated and this process can be
automated with RSS software.

RSS is very new. The latest wave started in 2004 (although its
been around since the late 90s, but was only in use by the real
geeks). One news release from summer of 2004 is quoted as
saying, Google is considering renewing support for the popular
RSS Web publishing format in some of its services. This marks the
latest twist in a burgeoning standards war over technology that
could change how people read the news. Even the giants such as
Microsoft, eBay and Yahoo embrace the RSS syndication format.

Yet there are currently many webmasters and zine publishers still
doing it the old way. Companies that don’t have an RSS approach
in place yet might need to reevaluate the way they are doing
business. Their competitors will probably have already
implemented some level of RSS support in their web sites. An
innovative marketing channel has opened up allowing you to market
your products and services. With more and more people using RSS,
the market potential is endless.

RSS has thus far, proven itself as becoming the preferred method
of distributing news and information online. Those in the know
are subscribing to RSS feeds to read news online and to receive
the latest updates from their preferred publishers. If you
publish a newsletter, you now have another conduit to distribute
your news to thousands of readers! Who doesnt want that?

Not only is RSS easy to use, it also affords you free targeted
traffic without any additional efforts. In order for your
business to be successful, you need traffic to your website, and
lots of it. You need to grab a hold of the people who are
interested in your products and services. It doesnt matter how
good your products and services are if no one visits your site.
One solution to drive traffic to your site is SEO. You can spend
countless hours or spend large amounts of your budget to hire a
search optimization expert. Or you can use RSS to glean similar
results.

With little effort you can easily add and display your articles
in hundreds of websites – automatically! What could be better
than automatic feeds while you sleep! You can stop the tedious
article submissions. Whats more is with RSS, youll be adding
fresh, relevant content on your website. Change the content
daily if you prefer. It really is simple. Now Yahoo even has a
free RSS directory.

So what are you waiting for? Get with the program!

Popularity: 21% [?]

As a web writer, it’s a “must” to write each web page with the
entire architecture of your web site in mind. Think about
navigation and web design as you write. Text, design, and format
are interwoven on a web page. To the creator of a web site, these
are separate pieces of the project. To the reader, it’s one
instant impression.

To boil it down to the bones, the 2 keys to creating a winning
web site that will captivate your readers are:

Good Informative Content

Effortless Navigation

Pretty tall order, right? It is, and it’s your job as a web
writer to make it happen!

Web surfers are your customers. As a web site content writer, the
best way to stay in business is to provide something of value to
your customers. On the Internet, that “something” is appealing,
well-designed information.

Let’s examine for a moment an off-line writing example, the
procedure manual. Most businesses have them in one form or
another. If you compare the structure of a detailed manual to web
writing, you’ll discover a few things that are keys to success.

Manuals often grow to be hundreds of pages, and are updated all
the time. Cross-referencing from one page or section to another
is frequent (just like hyperlinks!) Changes made to one section
often impact another section, which will keep you on your toes.
If you write “see pg. 279 for more information,” there better be
more information on page 279!

It’s even more so with a web site. Your pages, as they slowly but
steadily grow, will become many. Certain pages will link to
others, and they must always be easy for your readers to
find.

Suppose you write a web site about baseball. Baseball players,
rules of the game, equipment… everything baseball! Now it’s
time to create new pages about famous baseball stadiums. Your new
page about Fenway Park is great… but don’t forget to update
your Index Page or Site Map with easy to follow links.

Next, within the structure of your existing web pages, add good,
purposeful in-text links to these new pages. This will fulfill
your readers in a big way (not to mention the search engines!)

Your web site is made up of text, links, and images. As a writer,
you’re very close to these separate “parts.” But your readers
will not see your pages as isolated features. They will not
notice all your content first, and then go on to check out your
site design and pictures.

They’ll experience everything at once, instantly. All these
features – refreshing content, appealing design, and well-planned
linking – work together as one subtle ensemble in your readers’
minds the moment they enter your site.

As you write your pages, keep navigation and your site’s
structure very much in your mind. Deliver an
“easy-to-browse” web site chock full of great information, and
you’ll knock a home run every time.

Popularity: 20% [?]