ProHotList Blog

When it comes to niche marketing, one of the things people often have a hard time doing is choosing a topic. To be blunt, it does not have to be difficult. Some people assume if money is to be made, then it must take hard work. Well, when it comes to the Internet, working smarter pays off more than working harder.

To select a niche start out by thinking in general terms. I’m not referring to topics. ‘Cars’ is a general topic, but to start, try being even more vague to find the really juicy niches. Think of what people are looking for when it comes to cars - then drop the specifics. After you are done you will some solid niches, and they don’t have to do anything with cars.

Here’s what I mean. This is off the top of my head, so bear with me.

Make a list of what people want to know about cars. Such as…

How to get better mileage.

Where to get the best deal.

What to look for when buying a used car.

How reliable are they?

How to fix your car.

…and so on.

Now that you have your list, look for the most general parts of it. In the sample above we have the general terms of, ‘how to’, ‘where to’, and ‘what to look for’. Enter these terms in your favorite niche research tool and you will find all kinds of niches you wouldn’t have thought of on your own.

That’s one of the things ProHotList does for you. They not only explore the nitty-gritty specific niches, but also expose some general niche marketing meta-ideas, too. Check it out and you’ll see what I mean.

Remember, this little out of the box technique means you’ll be working smarter, not harder. The niches you find this way just may surprise you.

There is one resource that a lot of people in niche marketing overlook, and that is YouTube. Though entertainment reigns, there are tons of marketing-related videos available. You can also use it to discover new niches. After all, if someone is willing to produce and upload a video, it means they care about the topic.

You can gauge the popularity of any video by the number of views, it’s overall rating, and the comments it gets. The first two are helpful, but the comments are where the real niche gold is. Granted, you may have to wade through a bunch of frivolous comments, but there are sure to be a few that you can use. Any questions for clarification of what is presented, show a need for more information in the niche. Information you can provide.

Here’s a sneaky tip, for the most popular videos in your targeted niche, try to create a an ‘answer’ video related to them. Or, a similar video that uses the same keywords. The idea is to be displayed alongside these popular videos.

Another resource you can use in conjunction with YouTube is ProHotList. Here you will find tons of the hottest and most popular niches. Grabbing just one or two of these could pay off in a big way. It saves you the time of ding the niche research, and gives you more time to have fun making videos.

Once you are ready to upload the video you need to do two basic things. 1) Give it a compelling title. Your video’s title is the equivalent of a sales letter’s headline - make it count. 2) Get as many people to view it as soon as possible. If you have an email list, encourage them to view and comment on the video. In general, you have a 24 hour window in which the video will go viral or plod along. Do your best to avoid the latter.

Using YouTube in niche marketing can help in discovering new markets, as well as reaching current ones. And I would say that is very useful indeed.

This post is designed specifically for those who have not yet made the dive into niche marketing. The key is to just get started, pick a niche, and then market to it. The following advice will get you past some of the more common roadblocks to niche marketing success.

1. Stop doing research. While research is important to selecting a good niche, you can also get into a rut where you are doing research, but not taking action. Stop! Your research is done, for now. If you have even the slightest hint of a niche topic then go for it.

2. Stop thinking ‘perfection’. The perfect niche does not exist, so you can’t find it. Some niches may be a better match for you, but you will never know until you try one. The problem is that the niches that tend to make the most money are competitive, while those that aren’t competitive are more risky.

3. You can always get better, but… Only if you start. Don’t be afraid to learn from a lack of success. I like term ‘fail forward’, you take action and keep improving. Nobody gets it 100% right, 100% of the time. Don’t let the fear of failure stop you.

4. You can’t pick the ‘wrong’ niche. Just as the perfect niche doesn’t exist, neither does a completely wrong one. The worse thing that can happen is that you will pick a niche that doesn’t work for you. Good. Now you know to try another one. I can guarantee that the lessons you learn from your first foray into niche marketing will help you immensely in each successive one.

5. Do it wrong on purpose. Now I’ve gone too far, right? Hear me out. Remember, this advice is for those who still haven’t taken that first step. Well, I am giving you permission to do a lousy job. Pick a niche that doesn’t interest you, has no apparent market, don’t do enough research, get an irrelevant domain name, don’t promote it, etc. This will force you to learn some things that you can then apply to a niche you ARE interested in. In other words: If you are going to learn from your mistakes, you may as well get them out of the way early.

Niche marketing has its share of challenges, but it makes it harder if you are your own worst enemy. There is a wide chasm between understanding niche marketing theories and learning from experience - it’s the difference between thoughts results.

If you want tons of ideas and other advice on how to cash in on niche marketing, choosing niches, free downloads, personal assistance, exclusive information and more to increase your profits then visit ProHotList now to take advantage of all your membership has to provide.

When people are encountered with a new product they are often weary to make a decision to buy it. A way to overcome this is to remove the possible risk of making the purchase. The way to do this is with a guarantee.

How long should you make the guarantee? That depends on the nature of your product. For physical items you have to figure out what the expected life is, and take it from there. You don’t want people returning items just because the item’s time is due. For electronically delivered items, such as eBooks, a longer guarantee offers several benefits. A one year guarantee hard to beat for these reasons:

1. It removes the perceived risk of buying. The person reading the guarantee may even be thinking, “Ha! I’ll just use it for a year, then ask for my money back”. Which brings us to…

2. The buyer may intend to return the item, sight unseen, but thinking they can always return it later. However, after some time they forget about it. This tip will help take care of those who planned on asking for a refund even before making the purchase.

3. Less competition. Few people use a one year guarantee, so you will stand above and beyond them.

Guarantees can be conditional or unconditional. For simplicity’s sake, an unconditional guarantee is recommended. All that means is you will refund a buyer’s money with no questions asked. The conditional guarantee can be effective in some cases, though. A common condition for information products is that the person has to prove that they failed - AFTER applying the information.

Regardless, of the terms of a guarantee, they can make a big difference in the number of sales. Keep them simple enough to understand, but don’t get too hung up in the details.

Above all else, be sure to honor any guarantees you give. If you don’t, you have lost a customer for life. If you do honor them, and do it professionally and courteously, then you just may have made a customer for life.

For example, the ProHotList Forum offers a guarnetee on the membership. Yes, people may take advantage of that from time to time, but that’s okay. What counts is that I can stand behind anything I offer. Check it out now to get tips on the hottest niche marketing, IM advice, money-making techniques, and other member’s only benefits.

Regardless of your business model as a niche marketer, you will have greater success when you receive feedback from people. This feedback can come in several forms. Here are a few things to consider.

1. You have to ask for it. True, there are times when people will make comments because they feel compelled to do so, but this is rare and will not give you enough feedback for real improvement. So, you simply have to ask people to voice concerns, suggest improvements and ask questions. Request feedback from the moment people are first exposed to your offer, all the way until they break the arrangement (such as unsubscribing or wanting a refund).

2. Negative feedback is better than …no feedback at all. And, in many ways, bad feedback is better than the goo kind. Why? Because this is where you get signals on what you can improve. Sure, you will get people who are having a bad day and take it out on you, but even then there may be some truth hidden in their vitriol. On the other hand, you may notice patterns in the messages you get; take note of these.

3. Use good feedback, too. While negative comments can help you improve weak areas in your business, good feedback reinforces what you are doing right. Again, if you spot patterns of good feedback, then be sure to highlight or ramp up that part of your business.

4. Don’t take it personal. Some people are afraid to ask for feedback because they are afraid of what others will say. After all, they have spent their time and money to get up and running. They are invested emotionally, as well. But, if you are afraid of your feelings getting hurt, then you will not go far. A simple way to handle this (besides getting a backbone) is to disconnect your emotions from the equation. Think that this is nothing more than business and that you now have a suggestion on how to do even better.

5. One comment does not a business make. Now, while you need to consider all of your feedback seriously, not all of it should be implemented. You still get to make the ultimate decision about what’s right for your business.

How you ask for feedback is less important than actually asking for it. Let people know you value their opinions. Just be sure to do your best to get those opinions from them - your success depends on it.

If you haven’t yet checked out the ProHotList Forum, you may want to do so now. There are frequent updates about the hottest niches, marketing advice, freebies, and YES a chance to offer suggestions and feedback.

Niche marketing is a gamble, to some extent, but if you lay the right foundation and follow a plan, you increase your odds of walking away a winner.

1. Research to get specific - The key to finding a successful niche is to get as specific as you can while still reaching a large enough market to make it worthwhile. But first you have to do the research to see if there is a need and if you can fill it. For example, you may want to target baseball fans. That is too broad. So, on to the next step…

2. Identify who your niche is - This is where you will narrow things down. How old are they? What is their gender? Income? Lifestyle? Profession? Where do they live, work or play? Do they have other hobbies? You do not have to answer everyone of these, but answering a few will get your niche more specific. Professional women over 55 who have blogs, and happen to like baseball is a well-defined niche.

3. Determine how and where to reach them - Now that you know you have a viable and specific niche, you should have some ideas on how to reach them. In our example, we can see that people in our niche have blogs, so using newspapers to reach them doesn’t make sense.

4. Follow through - Develop a written plan and put your information into action. Track your results to see if the niche is bigger or smaller than you expected, and respond accordingly. You have to take action. Understand that there is no guarantee that any niche will respond to your offer, but you never know until you try. It is better to learn what to do better next time than it is to wonder ‘what if’.

Using these four steps will put you on track to niche marketing success. Doing the research is necessary, but there are sites that do that work for you, giving you more time to focus on earning money.

Research should be at the forefront of the thought of anyone that is interested in niche marketing. Obviously, you have to identify a niche, but you need to do more than just guess. How many people are looking for it, where they are looking, and what they are buying are a few things you must know if you want to do well.These are the sites I seem to turn to again and again. The list is not complete, but it’s a good idea to see if you can add them to your repertoire of sites you use in your marketing efforts.

Google’s Keyword Tool: A quick way to generate keyword lists for optimizing your site, or other niche marketing efforts, with the right words. Ideally, you want to find words and phrases that have a lot of searches, but minimal competition. Which is why I always turn to…

SEO Book: This site is excellent for getting estimates of how many people are searching for different terms at the major search engines. But SEO Book also shows the top 100 results that contain the term you enter. To drill down further for long tail keywords, simply click on the term in the left column. It’s easy to use and returns results for other major search engines (and more).

Trend Hunter: The best niche marketers understand staying well-informed in the latest developments in their market. Trend Hunter can be used to spot the newest trends, and a sign of things to come. Be sure to check out their ‘Popular’ page, too.

eBay: Most people may think of this as an auction site only, but it is a niche marketer’s dream. Especially if they want to find markets that are willing to spend money. There are plenty of links hidden on the site that can help you get new ideas, and target more active markets. My current favorite is the eBay Express categories page.

WikiAnswers/YahooAnswers: Q & A sites are perfect for finding out what people want to know right now. Sometimes these questions are very simple, and border on common sense. Most questions are asked once or twice, but the smart niche marketer looks for are questions that seem to keep popping up, or do not get a lot of answers. These sites not only help you identify problems in your niche, but also give you the opportunity to position yourself as an expert on the topic.

There are over 50 more such sites listed in the exclusive members area of the ProHotList forum. Along with a breakdown of tons of specific niches, and how to capitalize on them. New resources and information are being added all the time. Visit ProHotList now to take full advantage of your membership.

By Steven Wagenheim

Okay, let’s stop fooling around here. You want to make a boat load of money and retire in a year or two? You need to hit the niches that are in such great demand that prospects would trample over their next of kin to buy what you have to sell. The problem is, most marketers don’t really know what the hot niches are. Well, I’m going to reveal them right here, right now, in this article. So take notes.

The hottest niches are those that all relate to our addictions, sad as they are. I’m talking about gambling, drinking, smoking and relationships. Think relationships aren’t an addiction? Tell that to the gal who can’t dump her loser of a boyfriend. Turn on the TV and half the ads you see are for dating sites. And even with smoking ads banned from TV and radio, you think sales have slowed down any? Not a chance.

But hey, if you’ve got a conscience and don’t want to get involved in any of those niches, there is always making money. People are always looking to get rich. Why do you think lottery sales are through the roof? Why do you think Vegas and Atlantic City are booming with gamblers. Everybody is looking for the big score. So if you can give somebody a legit way to earn a buck, they’ll jump all over it.

Then of course we have another really big problem. Even though we have a nation of smokers and drinkers who are killing themselves, people don’t want to die either. So health is also a big thing. If you can give somebody who is smoking a great 30 day system for kicking the habit, they’ll pay just about anything for it. Overweight people will sell their soul to find a diet that actually works. And the poor guy with cancer would kiss a frog if it would cure him.

These are the big things that sell. Yes, there is a ton of competition and breaking into these niches is not easy, but if you manage to make your mark in one of them, you can probably retire after a few years. The money being spent on the above things is indecent.

Of course if you’d rather just find something that isn’t like trying to break into Fort Knox, you might want to check out the free report in my signature that will show you how to find niches that don’t require you to be a Donald Trump to break into.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Pick up your FREE report at http://www.nicheresearchrevolution.com/report.html on how to research profitable niches so you’re not spinning your wheels trying to find that diamond in the rough. They’re out there…You just have to know how to find them.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steven_Wagenheim

When doing niche research, one of the things it is helpful to know is if people are spending money to advertise it. That’s what Google AdWords is for - you select the keywords you wish to target and your ad will come up (depending on relevance) alongside search results and sites that subscribe to Google’s AdSense service. For anyone that’s been trying to make money online  that comes as no surprise.

But, did you know there is an incrediblt easy way to view all of these ads, and how to find out how many people are targeting any phrase with an AdWords PPC campaign? Here’s a step by step method you can use.

1. Go to Google.

2. Enter your search term in “quotes”.

3. Look in the right hand column under “Sponsored Links”.

4. If there are only a few, you will have to count them by hand.

5. If there are several, you will see a link that says “More Sponsored Links »” Clicking that will show you how many ads there are, and it will also display every ad.

You can use this information to gauge how many people are spending money in AdWords to promote the niche. It will also give you ideas for ads, because you will see al of them laid out in one place.

Click here to see the main search results for “computer parts” and notice the ads that are displayed.

Click here to see ALL of the ads currently in Google’s rotation.

While this trick is very easy, niche marketing takes some work, but each tool that you have at your disposal means more profit potential. Google is just one of many tools that ProHotList uses to do the boring stuff and offer its members exclusive information.

Sometimes the hardest for someone new to niche marketing is choosing a niche. Once that is done the other things fall into to place easier, or at least make more sense. Here is a great video that lists some resources where you can get thousands of different niche ideas.

Explore the sites mentioned in the video above , and you will be sure to find a niche that interests you. He forgot one site that does the work for you, so be sure to check that one out, too.

Niche marketing can be profitable, and that means it can also be competitive. One way to stand out from the competition is to keep moving forward. Often, niche marketers will set up a a site or two, submit a few articles, and then let it all run on ‘autopilot’. That isn’t wrong, but it is a little bit foolish.

It doesn’t matter what niche someone is on, new developments are happening all the time. And if you want to build a following of loyal customers, then it makes sense to keep on touch with what’s happening in your niche market. After all, your customers are interest in a topic means they want to be well-informed.

One of the sites I use when doing research for members at ProHotList is Trend Hunter. It shows things that are popular, or could soon be popular, across several different main categories.

The “Most Popular” page breaks down trends by the week, current, and previous months.

Any business that wants to get a glimpse into the possible future would do well to check out the Business, and Technology sections.

Some of the posts are definite PG-13, but all in all, it is an interesting site. It is one of over 70 sites ProHotList uses when researching new ideas for its members.

While niche marketing seems to have lost favor in some circles, I can assure you it is still making money for plenty of people. Consider this, anything that’s sold can be put into a niche of some kind. The real question is how specific the niche is. For anyone interested in profiting on the Internet, what really counts is the amount of money the niche makes. What follows are three areas any niche marketer should be well-versed in.

1. Affiliate products- ClickBank and CommissionJunction are the two best-known affiliate services available. There are different requirements depending on each affiliate program, but you basically get a coded link to make sure you get credit for any sales you generate. The nice thing is that you do not have to go through the hassle of creating products of your own. In fact, you can look at affiliate product stats to get an idea of which products sell the best, and therefore, which niche to market to. The key to selling any affiliate product is to differentiate yourself from everyone else. Most people will simply take any provided marketing materials and use them as is, but if you make it fit into your unique site, you will stand out and make more sales.

Pros: The product is already created. Niche market research is usual done before the product is released. Sales pages and other promotional materials created for you.
Cons: High competition to sell the same product. Can be a numbers game, where you send a lot of traffic to get a few sales. Takes more know-how to do really well. Only get a share of the profits.

2. AdSense - Google offers a way for anyone to make money online. Provide good content, and be careful in selecting keywords, then add a snippet of code; and before you know it you have a few ads people can click on, on your page. The better job you do at selecting relevant keywords will lead to more relevant ads being shown on your page. This means there’s a greater chance someone will click on them and put money in your pocket.

Pros: Free to use. Fairly easy to set up. Passive stream of income.
Cons: Little to no control over ads displayed. Clicking an ad takes people off your site.

3. Create your own products - If you are knowledgeable in the niche you choose, then you may be able to write a guide or series of special reports that you can sell to people on your own. It is not as much work as you may think - especially if you like the topic you are making a product for. Establishing yourself as an expert will generate more trust in potential customers. One more thing, you can always hire someone to write it for you. Doing this may cut into your overhead, but getting a professional writer to flesh out your ideas can add to the finished product’s overall value.

Pros:You have full control over the product. You keep all the profits. You can add any links, upsells or special offers you like. Less competition.
Cons: Takes time and effort to create products. Research has to be done; both before choosing a topic and while creating the product.

While this is not a comprehensive list, it does give you an idea of the basics. These three methods have made many people wealthy, and there is no reason why you can’t get a piece of those profits.

So, it is safe to say that niche marketing is here to stay, and profitable as ever. There is no one method that is better than the other, which is why the pros and cons are listed. Understand the differences, and select one that you think will work best for you. Above all, take action. You have to do something if you want to see results. For example, you can join a growing number of people in the ProHotList membership forum. Where new niches are revealed along with unique insights that will put you ahead of your competition.