The Brainuser Blog » Niche Marketing

Discover Your Talents ala Brian Tracy

Dirk Tietjen — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:03:08 +0000

I have talked about finding your passions in this Blog before. Here is another great essay which can help finding the right business:

When we do strategic planning for corporations, the first thing we think about is how to increase the company’s rate of return on the equity it has invested in the business. This is done by allocating more resources to areas with higher potential, and taking resources away from those with lower potential. By developing or promoting newer and better products and services, and discontinuing those that are less profitable, the company can channel its efforts in a way that maximizes its returns.

In doing personal strategic planning, the first thing you want to think about is how to maximize your personal “rate of return.” You need to realize that the most valuable thing you bring to your work is your ability to think, to act, and to get results. Your earning ability — which is a function of your education, knowledge, experience, and talents — is your equity. And the way you “invest” it will largely determine the quality and quantity of your material and psychological rewards.

A young man in one of my seminars came up to me and said that he was working as a plumber for a large contracting firm. He made good money, but he was envious of the salespeople in his company who made more money, drove nicer cars, wore nicer clothes, and had much better lifestyles.

He had completed his training, had his journeyman’s certificate, and was at the top of his wage scale. The only way he could earn more money in his current job was by working longer hours. Instead, he wanted to get into sales.

I told him that if he wanted to get into sales, it was up to him to learn how to sell — and then to do everything possible to get his boss to give him the chance to sell the company’s plumbing services. His future was up to him. But he first had to learn how to do the new and higher-paying job.

A little more than a year later, he attended another one of my seminars… and brought me up to date on his situation. He had told his boss that he wanted to get into sales. His boss discouraged him, telling him that plumbers have very little aptitude for the skills involved in selling a service. He then asked his boss what he would have to do to prove to him that he could do it. To make a long story short, his boss helped him learn how to sell the company’s services by recommending that he study manuals and take extra courses on his own time.

And that’s what he did. He bought books and listened to tapes and spent time talking to the company’s salespeople. As a result, he became a full-fledged salesman.

After five months in his new job, he was already earning more than twice as much as he had ever earned as a plumber. But most of all, he was happier.

He was more enthusiastic about his work than he had ever been. He loved selling, and he considered his career change to be one of the best decisions he had ever made.

This is typical of countless stories that have been related to me over the years. In every case, the individual had discovered and developed his or her strengths — and, subsequently, improved the quality of his or her life. You can do the same thing.

Thinking of yourself passively — as being employed and, therefore, subject to the dictates of someone else — can be fatal to your long-term success. In reality, you’re the president of your own personal-services corporation. You’re completely in charge of production, quality control, training and development, marketing, finance, and promotion.

Seeing yourself as self-employed forces you to recognize that you are also self-responsible and self-determining. That everything that happens to you happens because of your conduct and your behavior. You’re in the driver’s seat. You’re behind the steering wheel of your life. It’s up to you to decide how to utilize your talents and abilities in such a way as to bring you the very highest return on the investment of your time and energy.

No one else is going to do it for you. Others can help you, guide you, direct you, channel you, point you in the right direction, and even give you opportunities.

But in the final analysis, you’re the boss. No one else can make the critical decisions that will determine your future and your fortune. To that end, here are four questions that you need to ask yourself on a regular basis:

1. What do I most enjoy doing?

2. How would I describe my ideal job?

3. If I could have any job at all, anywhere, what would it be?

4. If I won a million dollars in the lottery and I had to pick something to work at indefinitely, what would I choose to do?

To uncover your strengths and determine your unique talents and abilities, ask yourself:

What have I been good at in the past?
What things do I do easily that seem to be difficult for other people?
In what areas of work do I seem to get the best results… and derive the most pleasure?

The answers to all of these questions will give you a good idea as to how you might increase your return on the energy you invest.

Then look at your current job, and ask yourself:

Where do I want to be in three to five years?
What kind of work do I want to be doing?
What kind of people do I want to be working with?
What level of responsibility do I desire?
What kind of money do I want to be earning?
What part of the country do I want to be living in?

Look at your work and at your life in general, and ask yourself:

What kind of people do I admire and most want to be like?

Who do I know, or know about, who is doing the kind of work that I want to do and isliving the kind of life that I want to live?

What changes would I have to make in my life to be like that person?

Remember: Whatever anyone has done, someone else can do as well. You’ll never be exactly the same as another person, but you don’t need to be. You can use the successes and achievements of other people as guidelines to help you decide where you want to arrive at the end of your particular journey. But you can be unique and different and successful in your own way.

As a result of your genetic structure, your education, your experiences, your background, your interests and proclivities, you’re a unique and rare combination of talents and abilities. You can be extremely good at something. And it’s your responsibility to find out what that something is.

Whatever you’re doing today, it’s nowhere near what you’re really capable of doing. The key to a happy and prosperous life is for you to regularly evaluate your strengths and weaknesses, to become very good in the areas you most enjoy, and then to throw your whole heart into what you’re doing.

By Brian Tracy

[Ed. Note: Relax and allow positive affirmations to flow through your subconscious mind. Feed your mind the fuel it needs while you rest. This powerful CD includes 10 powerful affirmations with music. You simply let yourself relax as Brian Tracy talks to your subconscious mind. Find out more here.

And for more help setting and achieving the goals that will get you your dream job, check out ETR's Ephiphany Alliance program. With Bob Cox as your mentor, you'll learn the time-management strategies and success techniques you need to accomplish more in one day than most people do in a week. Check out the Epiphany Alliance here.]

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

Hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading, Dirk

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The Ultimate Start-up Guide for Digital Entrepreneurs

Dirk Tietjen — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:20:17 +0000

Finding a reliable source of side income is practically a “must do” these days. Of course, you may be daunted by the idea of setting up a business, creating a product line, finding a pool of customers, and marketing your product.

The fact is, you can get by with the bare minimum. (I’ll give you a simple way to come up with blockbuster product ideas in a minute.) And in about 5 minutes, you could have access to an army of salespeople eager to work for you.

I’m talking about selling a digital product on ClickBank. Here’s how to get started.

You can write an e-book or develop another type of digital product (software, tutorials, an e-mail newsletter, or video instruction, for example), post it on ClickBank, and generate residual income for months, years… even a lifetime. (Or as long as ClickBank stays in business!)

In 2001, I developed a digital product that is still generating residual income on ClickBank. I receive a royalty check from ClickBank for this product every month. (And that’s not the only digital marketplace I use.)

With ClickBank, you have access to more than 100,000 affiliates who can sell your product for you. And the best part is IT’S EASY!

If you develop a product that resonates with the market – i.e., people buy it – there’s a good chance ClickBank affiliates will be attracted to it and start selling it to their own subscribers, members, and website visitors.

How do affiliates find your product so they can start selling it? You don’t have to worry about that. ClickBank affiliates are a savvy bunch. The most successful ones are constantly scouring ClickBank for the best and most profitable products.

But that’s not all…

You can “jumpstart” the process by advertising your product in ClickBank, hundreds of other digital marketplaces, or on Google, Yahoo! and MSN (to name a few places).

You see… popular (bestselling) products also “move up in the rankings” on ClickBank.

It should be no surprise that the ClickBank program has one of the lowest attrition rates in the affiliate business. The entrepreneurs who sign up as ClickBank affiliates tend to stick with it. I think the main reason for this is because ClickBank pays their affiliate commissions accurately and on time.

Here’s what a typical ClickBank affiliate payout looks like:

Product – Yahoo Cash 4 Idiots
Sale Price - $77
Affiliate Commission – $40.69 plus 60% commission ($40.20) on back-end product

Another reason the ClickBank affiliate program enjoys such a low attrition rate is because it’s so damn easy to make money with it.

So why not consider developing an e-book or digital product to generate residual income on ClickBank?

The best way to research and/or develop a saleable product is to STEAL IT!

Well… not exactly steal it… but COPY one of the products that’s already being sold successfully on ClickBank. I’m not talking about word for word plagiarism. I’m talking about copying the “Big Idea” of the product and putting your own spin on it.

Search all the ClickBank categories and study the most successful digital products. Order a few of those products, too. This is the best way to save time and start making money, because you won’t have to reinvent the wheel. You can also hang out on the ClickBank blog. You’ll learn about the best strategies and products right from the horses’ mouths (ClickBank staff and Super Affiliates).

As for determining what kind of commission to offer affiliates… again, copy success. What are other publishers and writers offering them to sell similar products? Maybe you could offer more. Or maybe less.

When you work with ClickBank, you’ll be in control of your product and retain a lion’s share of the profits. You can earn residual payments for weeks, months, or years down the road – just by submitting one e-book to the ClickBank Marketplace.

And just imagine what would happen if you submit two e-books – or more!

It’s easy to get started. Simply create an e-book based on your area of expertise. (You may want to do a bit of research first, to discover the types of products people want to buy.) To get a good sense of what’s selling on ClickBank, check out its marketplace – where ClickBank offers all the products it has for sale. You can identify the most popular products by sorting your searches by category. (ClickBank also allows you to sort the results based on other criteria – for instance, the number of affiliates who made money on a particular product in the last 30 days.)

Once you’ve got a digital product to sell, simply visit ClickBank and click “Sell Online.” The instructions for getting started are easy to follow.

By Marc Charles

[Ed. Note: As “King of Business Opportunities” Marc Charles points out, starting a side business doesn’t have to be expensive or even time-consuming. If becoming a digital entrepreneur doesn’t appeal to you, no problem – Marc seeks out easy-to-start side businesses with high profit potential each week in the Liberty Street League.

2 your learning success, Dirk

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Malcolm Gladwell – Why do some succeed where others fail? What makes high-achievers different?

Dirk Tietjen — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:49:04 +0000

Malcolm Gladwell, two-time number one national bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink, discussed his latest book Outliers and more at a Penn alumni event at the Hudson Union Society. Very interesting stuff – read his books, i f you can.

Cheers, Dirk

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How to Bring the Right Customers to Your Website

Dirk Tietjen — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:09:37 +0000

Whether you already have an Internet business or you’re thinking of starting one, you should have one major thing on your mind: driving traffic to your website. Learning how to do this is crucial to your success. After all, if you don’t have people browsing through your products or services, how can you sell them anything?

Let’s say you give tap dancing lessons in Orlando, FL, and you’ve set up a website to help you find more students. Now, you probably know how important it is to get as many people as possible to visit your site. But you may not realize that there are two types of traffic – and only one of them is going to be worth your efforts to attract it.

In general, traffic is targeted or untargeted.

Targeted traffic is the best. It consists of people who come to your website already knowing something about your niche and what you are selling. They’re often ready to purchase your services or products even before they get there. Targeted traffic for your hypothetical business would be residents of Orlando who want to take tap dancing lessons.

Untargeted traffic could come from anywhere. Their purpose in visiting your website is unknown. They may or may not have any interest in your offers. For instance, you could get visitors who are researching Orlando or tap dancing, but who may not live in Orlando or be looking for dance lessons. This type of visitor seldom results in any significant sales.

So how do you get the right kind of visitors to your site? There are a couple of different marketing methods you can use.

One of the most effective ways to generate targeted traffic is to master one specific tool: Keywords. It’s important to understand how vital keywords are to your success – and how to use various tools on the Web that can help you maximize your findability.

When creating content for your website – product information, staff member bios, even articles related to what you’re selling – you want to make sure you include plenty of keywords that your potential customers could be searching for. The goal is for your site to show up in search engine results pages (SERPs) after a targeted visitor searches for those particular keywords online.

Amassing a Keyword Arsenal

Most Internet business owners make the grave mistake of not taking the time to conduct thorough keyword research. They brainstorm the first 10 words that pop into their heads for their niche (like “tap dancing” and “Orlando dance lessons”) and never dig deeper into the minds of their prospective customers.

Effective targeted marketing methods rely on proper keyword research. A keyword can be a single word (like “dance”) or words strung together to create a keyword phrase (like “tap dance lessons for adults”). The more specific you can get with your keyword phrase, the better. That helps narrow down the people searching in your niche. Plus, it usually means fewer competitors for the phrase in search engine results pages.

Use keyword tools – such as those from WordTracker, Yahoo/Overture, and Google – to really dig down to come up with the best keyword phrases for your website. The more in-depth you get, the more you’ll be able to find the words or phrases that your best prospects will type into a search engine. If you can hit upon some of these phrases, you’ll see huge increases in the right kind of traffic.

You can look at keyword phrases from a number of different angles. Many keyword research tools provide information on how many searches are being done for a particular keyword phrase, but that’s not all there is to it. You should also look at how much competition there is for that phrase, as well as its Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI).

KEI refers to the ratio between the amount of competition for a particular phrase and the number of searches done for that phrase. The higher the KEI value, the better. You’ll usually want to use phrases where the searches for it have been plentiful and the competitors scarce.

WordTracker not only allows you to find the number of searches being done for a particular keyword phrase, it also lets you see how much competition there is for that phrase, along with the KEI value.

There are two ways to do keyword research through WordTracker – with a free trial or a paid option. The free trial allows you to research 30 keyword phrases, but only provides search results from MSN. The paid option gives you a number of different ways to research as many keyword phrases as you like. Plus, you can choose which search engine you want to receive results from.

To start your keyword research in WordTracker, enter a basic keyword or short keyword phrase that describes your business. For instance, you could type “Orlando tap dance lessons” into the search box.

WordTracker would then spit out a list of related words and phrases for you to choose from – like “tap dancing,” “dance lessons,” and “instruction.” Click on any of them to see related keyword phrases on the right side of the screen. Clicking on “tap dancing,” for example, might elicit a list that includes “tap dancing shoes,” “history of tap dancing,” “tap dancing steps,” and “tap dancing lessons.” Clicking on “tap dancing lessons” might then elicit a list that includes “tap dance lessons for adults” “tap dance lessons for children,” and “free online tap dancing lessons.”

The next step is to pick, from these options, the keyword phrases that are most closely related to your product or service. In WordTracker, this adds them to your “keyword basket.” For our hypothetical business, we’d choose “tap dance lessons for adults” instead of “tap dance lessons for children” or “free online tap dancing lessons.”

Try to come up with as many specific keyword phrases as possible, and use WordTracker’s “dig-down” feature to get even more precise choices. Once you’ve filled your keyword basket, the next step is the competition analysis.

The competition analysis page is where you’ll get the most information regarding your chosen keyword phrases – the number of searches that have been done on them, the amount of competition for them, and their KEI values.

WordTracker recommends using keyword phrases with a KEI greater than 10, but it’s even better if you can get keyword phrases with a KEI over 100. A real gift is a phrase with a KEI greater than 400. A high KEI value means that you’re likely to be ranked within the first few pages of your targeted visitors’ search engine results pages … if you optimize your website pages for that phrase.

By choosing very specific keyword phrases with a high KEI value, and sprinkling those keywords throughout your website and inside your advertisements, you’ll be able to get the most targeted traffic to your website – people who actually want to buy your product or service.

As your list of keyword phrases grows, start putting it to use by including those phrases on your website, in your blog, in content you post in article directories, and in pay-per-click search engines. As time goes on and you see how important keywords are to the success of your online business, you’ll continue conducting thorough research and bulking up your list for a greater reach on the Web.

By Paul Smithson

2 your learning success, Dirk

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Mastering Google AdWords in 3 Easy Steps

Dirk Tietjen — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:29:02 +0000

“I know I need to be in Google … but that can be expensive if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

I hear comments like this all the time from Internet entrepreneurs and e-business owners just like you.

Getting your website listed on Google using AdWords is a way to drive targeted traffic to your website instantly. With AdWords, you choose keywords for your ad – and when people perform Google searches using those keywords, your ad will show up on the right-hand side of their search results.

But choosing the right keywords can be tricky.

There are thousands of Internet articles, forums, blogs, and e-books devoted to “mastering Google AdWords” – some better than others. But I’m going to show you how to do it in three easy steps.

There are more than 387,000 Google AdWords advertisers, and new people are jumping on the program in droves. I think it’s fair to say that most of them are unsuccessful – meaning they end up spending more on their Google AdWords than they generate in sales.

That’s because most new advertisers shoot for the moon – and try to secure the top keywords at a premium. You see, Google AdWords are offered in an auction format. The most sought after keywords (like “loan,” “mortgage,” “hosting,” “ring tones”) are placed up for auction, and the highest bidder receives the TOP spot on the right-hand side of the search results pages.

Click-through costs for top positions in Google can be as high as $100 per click. So if your advertising cap is $300 per month, your account would close after a measly three clicks. You can see why most AdWords advertisers walk away shell-shocked.

But you can get listed on Google AdWords without breaking the bank. Here’s how:

Easy Step #1 for Mastering Google AdWords: The Money Is in the Middle

Instead of trying to secure the top spot and paying a premium for it … shoot for the middle.

Sure, most of the people searching Google (or any engine, for that matter) rarely look deeper than two or three pages. Which means if your AdWords ad is on page 4, 5, 6, or 70 of the search results, you’ll probably receive very little action. (Not many potential customers will click through to your page.)

What’s more, most of the advertisers “at or near the bottom” of the AdWords ladder typically stay there or drop out. And guess what? Advertisers “near the top” of the AdWords ladder usually drop out too – because it’s just too costly.

That’s why you need to aim for the middle of the cost-per-click range.

When you place bids for keywords in the middle range, the chances are very good that your ad will move up the totem pole (without any added expense) when advertisers near the top drop out. And many times your ad will be featured on the FIRST search results page, right next to the Big Spenders.

Easy Step #2 for Mastering Google AdWords: Getting Rich From Research

Most people don’t have the time to research keywords. They develop a list of words off the top of their head, or they receive help from people who have no Internet, search engine marketing, or direct-response expertise.

If you want to separate yourself from the 387,000+ Google AdWords advertisers, you’ll need to do some basic research on the keywords that you want to purchase. But fear not. There’s an easy way to do it – and it can even be a lot of fun.

There are hundreds of keyword research tools and applications on the Internet. Two of the better ones are Wordtracker and Keywords Analyzer.

I like Google’s Zeitgeist. This tool will show you the most popular Google keyword searches in several categories.

Another tool I like is Overture’s Keyword Selection Tool. (Overture has been bought out by Yahoo. However their keyword selection tool is still active.) This is not perfect. It’s only a gauge of popular keyword search terms for the previous month. But when you combine it with Google’s Zeitgeist, it’s pretty powerful.

You’ll want to select keywords that already have huge search traffic – not words that you think will have huge search traffic. That’s where your research comes in. Once you’ve studied which words are drawing the most traffic, you’ll have a better idea of which keywords you need to use.

For example, let’s say you’re selling watches – and, by the way, the word “watch” received more than 529,287 searches in November. How do you tie your keyword ads to current popular search traffic?

Let’s take a look at the top 10 keyword searches in Google. For the week ending December 9, they were:

James Kim
Pearl Harbor
NASA
Randy Newman
Alessandra Ambrosio
Taco Bell
Pirates of the Caribbean
minimum wage
Rich Rodriquez
America’s next top model

You might be able to work with some of these top-ranking keywords for your product. For instance:

Pearl Harbor watches
NASA watches
Pirates of the Caribbean watches
America’s next top model watches

Keep in mind that straight keyword ads work too (watches, designer watches, cheap watches, specific watch brands, etc.).

After you’ve selected your keywords, you’ll need a headline for your ad that stands out from the masses. The objective is to drive traffic to your site and close the sale.

That brings me to writing headlines.

Easy Step #3 for Mastering Google AdWords: Headlines Make ALL the Difference

Google AdWords allows space for three lines of text – a headline, the body, and your URL.

The URL should describe your product: GreatWatches.com, DesignerWatches.com, DesignerWatchesCheap.com … or something like that. People won’t always bother clicking your ad – they’ll type the URL right into their browser.

The body should offer an immediate benefit, like “Look the Part” or “Lowest Watch Prices.”

There are thousands of approaches to writing Google AdWords headlines. Enter a few of the top keywords listed above into Google and you’ll see what I mean. Just make sure your headline grabs your prospect’s attention – and doesn’t let go until he clicks on your ad.

Ask yourself which headlines are working for your competitors. Which headlines do you see repeated week after week after week? The reason most AdWords advertisers continue running the same ad is because it works.

If you can make it work for your product or service, come up with an unusual or newsworthy headline that will stand out from all the other possibilities staring at your prospect. (Do a search on Google news for ideas.)

For instance, you could try these Google AdWords headlines to sell your watches:

Avoid Designer Fraud
Watch Huckster Arrested
Designer Watch Ripoffs

Once you’ve mastered Google AdWords, you’ll get plenty of prospects clicking through to your website. Then it’s up to your site to make the sale. Make sure your website copy flows naturally with your Google AdWords ad … and you’ll enjoy huge profits.

By Patrick Coffey

2 your learning success, Dirk

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