make-money-online
How to Start Making Money in a Small Niche Using a Simple Business Model
When it comes to succeeding as an online marketer most people will make the same mistake. And what is that mistake? Their ambition!
Unfortunately, being too ambitious is a very common downfall for new many online marketers as they basically bite off more than they can chew and this causes them to give up too easily.
Instead of aiming to become rich or change the world right from the start, be more sensible and start off small. Aim to accomplish a small goal first and then build on each success to eventually reach your ultimate goal. There is nothing wrong with dreaming big but you need to be realistic in your expectations in the very beginning.
So what might this look like in practice?
The Micro Niche Site Business Model
SmartPassiveIncome.com is a blog owned by internet marketer Pat Flynn where he shares his methods to make money. One of his most successful recent ventures was a website aimed at food trucks. This is a very small niche and the benefit here is that the small size of the niche made it easy for him to find highly effective marketing techniques (ways to communicate with the target demographic).
If you compare this with creating a website in a huge niche such as fitness, you can imagine how much easier it is to get noticed and to reach the right audience when the niche is small.
Pat monetised his website by selling an eBook aimed at those food trucks that would help them make more money and apply smart business skills.
THIS is a perfect business model for new online marketers to start with. You need to decide on an appropriate niche (sticking with a career is a popular choice) and you may decide that you’d rather sell an affiliate item. This general model simple to set up and a good place to start for the inexperienced marketer.
Why does it work?
So what’s so good about this business model? Well, choosing a small “micro”niche to operate in means that it will be MUCH easier for you to get noticed by your potential prospects. If you decide to use PPC (Pay Per Click – a form of paid advertising) your advertising costs will be lower in this niche compared to what you would pay for a larger niche and subsequent keywords such as a bodybuilding or dating related keyword.
This will also help you to come up with a very clear value proposition and offering. Ideally, your product should set out to solve ONE specific problem for a very specific group of people. This makes it much easier to market and promote such a product to the people most likely to buy it.
Facebook and email marketing
Facebook has 1 over billion users and over 600 million active daily users. And it also has the broadest age-range diversity, and all this means that you can get in front of a giant that caters to the needs to every business, every marketer, no matter what niche they are in.
Because it has such an active users base, and such diverse demographics, any serious business MUST be on Facebook.
This is why all businesses need to have a Facebook fan page. And the good news is that with the Facebook Fan page and its additional promotion tabs, you can combine Facebook and email marketing together to reach people and, most importantly, engage them!
This is great news for you in two ways: it adds value to your social media efforts and it also helps you build your email list efficiently.
There are numerous ways that a marketer or a business can increase their social presence on Facebook and engage their fans, hence creating brand awareness and building brand trust, while at the same time making sure they are building their email subscriber list.
However, out of the many methods available, only a handful are truly worth your time, effort, and the money you invest.
After all, even if you do need to spend money in order to make money (which is generally true), you know that the key is to have a great return on investment (ROI) and this means that you could effectively be getting subscribers for free! If you are spending $1 to gain a subscriber and your average ROI per subscriber is $1 you are building your list for free; in this case the key to building a list quickly is to spend more!
Next time we’ll look at how you can use Facebook promotions to engage your audience and how you can use those types of promotions to increase your email list.
How to use articles and free reports to build your list
Well, this is the the final post in this list building series. I hope you have enjoyed these posts and learned a lot about building and maintaining your first email list. In this post you will learn how to use articles and free reports to build your list.
Getting new customers for your business should be your number one priority. It is every bit as important as providing a high quality product or service and this should go hand in hand with providing the best customer service you can, because happy customers are repeat customers.
Email marketing is a very low cost strategy that is proven to be very effective when used properly. Your email list gives you the chance to communicate information about your business, products and services to your subscribers on a regular basis. It can also be used to market new products and ideas and to provide excellent customer service.
As stated in a previous post, once your website visitors subscribe to your list they basically have given their consent for you to send them information, promotional materials and also to follow up with them after they make a purchase. It is essential when using email marketing that you present your promotional items in a way that grabs the attention of your subscribers and keeps them wanting more.
One of the best ways to do this is to provide fun, entertaining and high quality informational articles. Well written articles packed with useful information will help you to build your list and keep your subscribers on your list for longer.
Many entrepreneurs already understand the importance of using articles to increase traffic, attract new customers and for search engine optimization. Well written articles will not only provide the information people are looking for, but it will also help them find you.
Whenever you write and post an article online, whether that be on your website or blog, or submitting it to an article directory such as Ezinearticles.com, it will be indexed by the search engines. Then when people go online to search for information related to the topic of your article you will have a much better chance of being found and thus attracting their attention.
The real magic of using articles in this way is to use them to provide a link back to your optin form via the signature block. Use this for every article you publish or submit online. The signature box is simply a short note at the end of your article that may include some basic information about you (the author), your business and a link back to your website/blog where they can find more information.
A tried and tested way of improving the results you receive from every article you publish is to offer readers a free report containing more information on the topic to anyone who clicks the link and subscribes to your email list.
If you have ever subscribed to an email list in exchange for a free report or short course then you have seen this technique in action and you know first-hand that it works!
When you start building your first email list it’s important to remain focused on your main objectives. There is a lot to learn and the process may take some time, so do your research, learn everything you can and you will have no problem getting the results you desire.
Now go out there and build your list. You won’t regret it…
Keep your subscribers engaged and coming back for more
In this lesson let’s discuss how to keep your subscribers interested, engaged and coming back for more.
When your business provides a great product or service that satisfies customers, it increases the chance that they will end up becoming a repeat customer and buy from you again. And they may also recommend you to other people and that could generate more business for you and your site.
This alone can drive more traffic to your site, where you can persuade them to subscribe to your list. Then you can send them a series of emails including newsletters, site updates, special offers etc.
The benefit of using email as your marketing platform is that you can reduce the high costs of other types of advertising. After all, email is cheap (or even free if self hosted) and if you can manage to make your own promotional advertisements, you can also save money there too.
If your list is full of interested subscribers you can be pretty sure that your emails are being received, viewed and read by your subscribers and not simply being deleted, because they have signed up to your list and consented to receive it.
This is a great way to keep reminding them about your business, products and services as well as any promotions and special offers you may have. There is also the possibility that they may be forwarded to their friends or colleagues who may in turn become potential customers for your business.
And don’t worry too much about unsubscribes; they happen and are a part of any business. Just make sure that your subscribers are satisfied with the information you provide and this will keep them interested in receiving your email.
Here are few tips to keep your list interested and engaged:
- Make it easy to opt-in. Provide easy instructions for them to follow and don’t ask for too much information up front; an email address is fine. Make sure you reinforce all of the benefits that they will get out of their subscription.
- Make your emails interesting and entertaining. Find out what people are interested in, and this way you can send them information that you know they will be excited to receive. This means that they will look forward to your emails. For example, if you are selling dance wear, let them know what is new and trending in the dance world.
- If you want to build a profitable mailing list, you need to offer something to your subscribers that they really want. Quality content is very important. Be sure that the information you’re sending your readers provides value and helps them.
- Write informative and engaging content. If your subscribers enjoy reading your email, they will be much more likely to click on your links to find out more. This results in more traffic to your website and ultimately more sales for your business.
- If you’re not a great writer, don’t worry as there are many professional and experienced writers that can be hired for a small fee. They will know what they’re doing and they can create content for you but it is important that you communicate well and tell them exactly what you want.
In the final post we will be discussing how to use articles and free reports to build your list.
Quick tips to build your opt-in list the right way
It’s time for the third post in the list building tutorial. Today we are going to go over some quick tips that you can use to build your optin list the right way.
As we have discussed before, an optin list is one the best, most effective ways that you can build your business and increase your profits. It can mean the difference between just staying in business and having a successful and profitable business.
As you now know, an optin list basically is just a list or a database of names and email addresses of people who have visited or made a purchase through your website. This “golden” list will allow you to send updates, emails or promotions to those who are subscribed.
Building a list can definitely work to your benefit. It helps you stay in contact and build a good relationship with your subscribers, which can lead to more sales for your business.
Here are some quick tips you can use to build your optin list:
– You should put a ‘subscribe link’ or ‘subscribe box’ on your web site. It is advisable to put it on all your pages. Then make sure that it is strategically positioned, meaning it has to be easily located by the visitors. The upper right hand corner of the page would be a good position.
– Promote your website and promote it even more to make give it more exposure and to get more subscribers.
– Come up with contests or give away freebies and goodies that will require visitors to give out their email address to be able to join.
– Give out information, articles and updates to your subscribers with your links in it. Make sure the information is timely and relevant to your business.
– Offer free courses to your visitors. This will help build your list and maintain a good relationship with your subscribers.
– Do some networking. Join some forums or groups and build relationships with the people there. Social media sites like Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn make this so easy and it’s a good way to add more contacts to your list.
Don’t send bulk email to people who haven’t subscribed to your list. This is spam! Always get permission from people before you add them to your list, or you could ruin your reputation.
Don’t flood your subscribers with information that doesn’t pertain to the reason they subscribed to your list. They will only get annoyed and unsubscribe. You worked hard to get them on your list, so treat them right and keep them there.
As your list grows, make sure that you maintain it well. Keep in contact with your subscribers. Send them updates. Give out special offers, helpful tips and little gifts to let them know you appreciate them.
There are many benefits of having a large list of subscribers. They can keep you in business, help you grow and you will definitely enjoy the profits when they come in.
That’s it for today’s post. In the next post, we will be talking about how to keep your subscribers interested, engaged and coming back for more.