I have just listened to an exciting one and a half hour tele-seminar conducted by Stuart Tan with Dr Ron, the Niche Professor. It was very inspiring and I can’t wait to share with you what I’ve learnt from this one and a half hour tele-seminar. It was simply amazing.

Before I start writing on the learning points from the tele-seminar, let me first introduce who Dr Niche is. Dr Niche is one of the most influential figures in the world of Internet Marketing. He has great knowledge in the area of finding a profitable niche market, SEO, Internet Marketing, etc. With all the experience Dr Niche has, he is certainly considered as the guru of all gurus in the world of Internet Marketing. You can read more about him at http://www.nicheprof.com.

In Stuart’s tele-seminar with Dr Niche, he has covered topics such as how you can find your profitable niche market, how you can build up your Internet business to reach out to potential customers, what is the cost of starting an Internet business, etc.

If you want to start up a profitable business on the Internet, this article is a must-read for you. Enjoy! =)

Finding your niche market

There are 1,001 areas which you can write about - from business to IT to biomedical science to books to sports to entertainment, etc. Choose the area which you are most familiar in to write about (if you choose an area which you are not familiar, you’ll find yourself “stuck” at a certain point, when you run out of ideas).

Let’s say you are interested in music. You want to write about music. Music itself is very broad topic. Under music – there are many categories of music – rock, pop, jazz, classical, contemporary, etc. Under each category of music you have different singers. There are also many different types of musical instruments – guitar, piano, violin, drums, keyboard, etc. Under each type of music instrument you have different brands, prices, quality, etc. These are called sub-niches. Music itself is the niche.

In order to make money online, you have to write articles on a particular sub-niche. You have to zoom in to a particular group of people whom you want to attract. However, before you get started on a particular sub-niche, you have to make sure there is a demand on the topic you are writing about. You may like to go to this site called niche.classic.com to find out the statistics on how many people are searching for the topic you are going to writing about. inventory.overture.com is another good site for the same purpose. You can also do a search on the topic you are going to write about in Google.

You can also ask potential site visitors / customers what they want to know about the topic you are going to write about – run an “Ask” campaign. Ask them what they want, and cater to their demands. That way, you’ll be able to drive traffic to your website once it is up.

Is my niche profitable?

To find out whether your niche is a profitable one, do a search on Google. Let’s say, if you have a website sharing with people information about guitars, you can do a search on Google by typing in - guitar “affiliate programs”. Google will list out for you all the sites on guitar affiliate programs. Join these programs as an affiliate (it’s free to join) and advertise them on your web. You will earn commission whenever people click on your affiliate links to purchase the products.

Monetization before targeting market?

Many people have this mis-conception of looking into monetization first before targeting the market. This is strongly not recommended. The reason is because by doing you, you are simply doing opportunity hopping. By doing so, you’ll never be able to profit in the long run. Therefore, it is very important to stay focussed on a particular topic. Choose your topic and stay focussed on that. It will certainly benefit you in the long run.

Why are there no click-throughs (people who purchase products from you through your affiliate link) even though I have identified a niche market?

Remember, when you create a website about a particular niche market, you are targeting your articles to your potential customers. Therefore, it is very important to write your articles based on what they want, and not what you want.

People, before they buy something, will want to know how the product will benefit them, how it can help make their life better, how it can avoid their pains and enhance their pleasure, etc. That’s human nature. I am sure when you go out and purchase something, you’ll choose a product that will best benefit you, am I right? It’s as simple as that. Therefore, you have to give your potential customers valuable content in your articles. You have to show them how the product can help solve their problems.

You may also want to include testimonials – people are more likely to purchase the product if they read from others that it is good. If you can have audio and video testimonials, that’s even better, because people can not only just read, but to be able to listen and see how the product has benefited others. Videos are especially good because not only can they hear what they say, but they can also see their non-verbal communications, their facial expressions, whether they are speaking from their heart or reading from the text.

What’s the fastest and cheapest way to reach out to the market?

The quickest way is through pay-per-click campaign (such as use of Google Adwords), or you can make use of social community (such as MindSpace, MyWebTalk, DirectMatches, etc.)

Alternatively, you can be part of a big “give-away” program. Give products to people for free in return for their contact information (usually name and email address). By doing so, you can build up your database of potential customers and can email them on any products and services you are offering.

What’s the start-up cost of doing an Internet business?

Start-up cost will include domain name registration, hosting, research, design, etc. You may also want to invest some money (about $10 - $15) on pay per click (PPC) campaigns on Google – in PPC campaigns, Google will advertise your products on the Google Search Engine itself, as well as in other people’s websites.



Whenever someone clicks on the link to visit your product page, you’ll have to pay Google a certain amount of money (ranging from a few cents to a few dollars – you decide the amount). Before you invest in PPC campaigns, make sure the product you are selling is not priced too low. Otherwise, your ability to advertise will be very low as well (I’m sure you won’t want to pay $10 for advertisements when your product is selling for only $5, right?)

Building up your customer base and selling your products to them

In order for you to be successful in Internet Marketing, you have to first build your own list of potential customers (by giving away free products). By building up your pool of potential customers is not enough – you have to establish enough relation with them, by giving them adequate information (if you give too much information, people will think you’re a pest) on what they need. Therefore, you need to create products based on what they are looking for.

Treat all your potential customers with respect and honour them. DO NOT violate their trust in you. The first time you trick your potential customers by not delivering, it will be very difficult to get them to trust you again.

Everything circles around trust and relationship.

Learning from people who has done it before

The good news about Internet Marketing is – you need not re-invent the wheel. There is a certain way to become successful in Internet Marketing. All you need to do is to find out - ask the Internet Marketing gurus, they’ll tell you how to go about doing it. Keep asking them questions, learn from them. Learn from their experiences.

Take Action

Last but not least, I hope you will start applying what you’ve learnt from this article. Do not shelf this article at the back of your brain. If you do so, then you’ll never be able to become a successful Internet Marketer. You need to take action right now.

I’ll like to wish you all success in your Internet Marketing adventure. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at ljunyuan@msn.com.

To your success,
Jun Yuan