New Energy Articles Blog

Copyright 2006 strength-training-woman.com

Last week I talked about the importance of finding your niche. I mentioned how significant it was to feel passion and interest in your business idea. I received quite a few emails asking for more clarification. So I am writing this next new article to provide more information on finding a niche, but more importantly I am going to show you a tool that will help you determine the perfect niche business idea.

First let’s talk about what a niche is, why it is important and how you should narrow the field. A niche is a focused area of concentration. A niche could be about orchids whereas a topic, or non-niche, would be flowers. Orchids are focused. Flowers are topics.

It is important to find your niche in business because it answers extremely relevant questions. You must know who your customers are and what they want from you. Choosing a niche almost immediately fills in all blanks about your target market. Knowing your customer and their problems will allow you to offer solutions. Solutions are products or services that you offer to a group of targeted individuals.

Narrowing down your niche can be hard. Start by writing down all the things you love to do and enjoy in life. Include life experiences, jobs, skills, interests and passions. Really dig in and take the time to think of lots of ideas. Get specific. Ask others what they think your niche is. You may find some really surprising answers!

There is another way to narrow down your niche as well. It’s a new tool designed to help you navigate through questions with multiple answers. In fact this tool was just launched last week and I have already used it 3 times. I used it to determine my next business project, to determine my next info-product and to determine what my next article should be about. Voila! You are reading it.

Before I provide you with this free tool I want to warn you of two common syndromes. One is called the “Ready-Aim-Ready-Aim” syndrome. I know this syndrome very well. The “Ready-Aim-Ready-Aim” syndrome is for people who plan and plan and plan. They never really put action to their thoughts because there is always more to learn or more detail to uncover. The result is that their ideas and plans never actually take off.

On the other hand there is the “Fire-Aim-Ready” syndrome which is quite opposite. It is for people who just go out and create without putting much effort or planning into their course of action. It often results in mistakes and possibly failure. Poor planning is definitely to be avoided.

Noting both of those circumstances helps me set the stage for this new tool I have found. You can ask it any question you desire and through a process of 5 steps your answer will emerge. Use it to find the perfect niche for your business! The free decision making tool is called Choose It and can be found at http://chooseit.sitesell.com/mylife.html

Tags: Business, Choose It, focus, Lynn VanDyke, niche, online business
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Copyright 2006 strength-training-woman.com

I recently gave a seminar to folks interested in starting their own online business.  Most of them were looking for information about shopping carts, search engine optimization, hosting, and tech related issues.  I believe they were all stunned when I explained that I would not address any of their questions until they told me their niche.

It felt as though 5 minutes passed by before any one said a word.  I could tell that not one person knew their niche.  I expected this.  In fact most hopeful net entrepreneurs miss this very important first step.  Choosing your niche.

It is so easy to get caught up in technical details, marketing, cash-flow charts and such, but what good is stressing about those concerns when no niche is chosen?  It’s like putting the cart before the horse.  Step 1 in creating an online business road map to success is defining your niche.

Websters.com defines a niche as a situation or activity specially suited to a person’s interests, abilities, or nature.  It also says a niche is a special area of demand for a product or service.  A niche is a target market.  It is focused, not broad.

Here are a few examples of niches: golfing for women, hot rods of the 1970’s, Greek desserts, and organic herb gardening.  Here are examples of topics that are not niches: golf, cars, food or gardening.  Do you see how a niche is focused and a topic is broad?

Determining your niche is the first step to producing a successful online business.  Your business should be built around 1 niche.  Your products or services should provide solutions to problems or concerns within your niche.  Your site content should provide information about your niche.  Creating an online business around your niche helps you rank better at search engines, positions you as an expert, and creates buzz in your industry.

Here are a few simple questions to help define your niche:

- What are your hobbies?

- What experiences/skills have you collected through school and jobs?

- What is your biggest passion in life?

- What hobby/experience/skill/passion would you enjoy building a business around?

- Have you often been told by people that you should go into business doing a particular thing?  For example, sell your famous muffin mix or sell your web design services.

My best advice is to choose a niche that you are passionate about.  Building a business takes effort and patience.  You will have a much harder time motivating yourself through the difficult periods of business if you dislike your niche.  So choose wisely.

Follow your gut and pick the best niche for you.  Income will follow where passion and hard work lead.  Begin researching your niche industry and then move forward with your plans.

A successful online business road map will look something like this:

- Choose niche.

- Research industry.  Find problems people have in that niche.

- Brainstorm a service or product to solve people’s problems, or become an affiliate for an existing product/service.

- Choose a hosting company that provides everything you need in one low cost price.  A good hosting company will provide support, easy page building, traffic analysis, search engine optimization, ability to create a newsletter and RSS feed and much more.  Check out my site to see who I use for my online business.

- Begin building your site around your niche.

Tags: Define, entreprenuer, Finding, hosting, how to, Lynn VanDyke, niche, online business, SBI, SiteSell, Topic
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Copyright 2006 Lynn VanDyke

There are a few secrets that I’d like to share with you.  You may have been privy to a few of them before.  Actually you may have heard of all 4, but I can promise that you will finish each article with a fresh perspective.  I will show you how 4 simple secrets can create a powerhouse web business.  This is the first part of the 4 article series.

Before I divulge the vault of successful web business secrets I must warn you of one thing.  All the information in the world will not take the place of determination and persistence.  A web business is just like an offline business.  It takes hard work and resolve to succeed.  However working smart is heads and tails better than plain old working.  These 4 secrets will turn any smart working, dedicated average Joe or Jane into a successful web business owner.

Web Success Secret #1) Content is king.

Heard that before?  I know I have.  The thing I never knew was how to use content to my advantage.  Content is useless unless it is optimized for the search engines.  It must also be optimized for your reader.  You have two customers- readers and search engines.  You must satisfy both with the same exact content.

Content is king only if you have exact and highly specific keywords placed in correct locations.  Unfortunately the hard part is determining what keywords to use.  A keyword can be a single word or a phrase.  It is the term that web surfers use to search for information.  Place yourself in their shoes and try to discover what search terms they use.  You must then evaluate the search term.  How many people search using that term?  How many sites already deliver information on that search term?  Simple demand and supply rules.  The more demand with the less supply equals more profitability.

You have several options for determining keywords and their profit potential.  Search yourself, pay a company to search for you or have your hosting company do a complete keyword search for your niche or web business topic.  If your hosting company does not offer this service I recommend you switch to a plan that does.  This feature alone can make or break your business’ future.  If you would like my recommended hosting plan, please contact me.

Without a proper keyword search and analysis you may as well forget about becoming successful with an Internet business.  Investing in this one secret is literally the start of planning your website.

Your next action step is to plan your site layout based on the 50-175 high-demand and low-supply keywords. Your site should be structured in three tiers.  Tier one is your home page.  Tier two is made of all of your main topics and also constitutes your navigation bar buttons.  Tier three keywords are sub-topics of tier two pages.  Organize your 50-175 keywords into three tiers.  Doing this makes it easier for visitors to navigate through your site and it makes it easier for search engine spiders to find all of your pages.

Search engine spiders do not like to fish around for all of your pages and links.  This is why many sites offer a “site map”.  A site map is one page that contains links to all of the content pages.  This is a fine route to take; however most people agree that pages with a lot of links on it are valued less than content pages that casually link to other content pages.

Using three tiers allows you to go from topic to sub-topic to sub-sub-topic all by natural in-content links.  For example, tier 1 is the homepage on a fitness site.  Tier 2 is a page all about cardio activity and its benefits.  A tier three page off of that tier 2 page is about different treadmill routines.  Do you see how the site visitor would like this structure?  They click on “Cardio” and are given links to more specific pages about cardio topics.  Search engine spiders like the three tier structure too.  It means they do not have to dig through layers and levels of useless links.

There is even more to content than finding profitable keywords and structuring your site into easy-to-navigate tiers.  You must optimize each and every page on your website to perform well and rank high at search engines.  Many people devote their working life to optimization secrets.  A full length article just on optimizing is possible.  Heck, a full length book is possible.  My recommendation is to use a hosting company that automatically teaches you how to optimize web pages for the engines.  Doing that will cause less headache and frustration and it will keep you focused on building content.

A quick education in optimization: place your specific keyword in the file name, title, description and keyword section of your page.  Then sprinkle the keyword throughout the content.  Also provide a link using your specific keyword in the link text.  If all of this has you spinning your head, I recommend going the hosting company I use.  They literally teach you to build a website using blocks.  It’s all simple and easier than you think.

There is one last piece to content.  It must effectively pre-sell your product or service and position you as the expert in your field.  When your website has 50-175 optimized pages for your visitors to read through it will start to position you as the expert.  Your site will become known as the place for information about (insert your niche).

When visitors find your site through search engines they are seeking information about a problem or question they have.  If they land on your site and you try to sell them something right away one thing is sure- they click the back button and find another site that will give them information.  This is why pre-selling your product or service is paramount.  Give your visitors what they want.  Answer their question and in the process let them know about your services and products.

All of the information develops rapport and trust with your site visitor.  It positions you as an expert.  It keeps your visitor on your site longer since they are actually reading content.  Search engines notice this and rank you better.  How well your site can keep visitors is known as “stickiness.”  Your site must attract and keep visitors for as long as possible.

Provide content that pre-sells your products, positions you as the expert and focuses on highly profitable keywords.  You cannot go wrong with your web business if you do those things.  The secret to content is to satisfy both your visitor and search engines.  Lose one or both and you are doomed.  As I mentioned earlier, it is best to work smarter and not harder.  Your hosting company should be providing most of these services to you free of charge.  There are a small few that do this, but it is well worth the investigation.  Contact me for further resources and information.  Having a successful web business starts with effective content.  Stay tuned for parts 2-4!

Tags: content, entrepreneur, hosting, how to, internet business, Lynn VanDyke, online business, SBI, SiteSell, Web Business
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Copyright 2006 Lynn VanDyke

There are a few secrets that I’d like to share with you. You may have been privy to a few of them before. Actually you may have heard of all 4, but I can promise that you will finish each article with a fresh perspective. I will show you how 4 simple secrets can create a powerhouse web business. This is the third part of the 4 article series.

Before I divulge the vault of successful web business secrets I must warn you of one thing. All the information in the world will not take the place of determination and persistence. A web business is just like an offline business. It takes hard work and resolve to succeed. However working smart is heads and tails better than plain old working. These 4 secrets will turn any smart working, dedicated average Joe or Jane into a successful web business owner.

Web Success Secret #3) Pre-selling is far more effective than selling.

The first two parts of this series were geared towards both the search engines and your visitors.  This article focuses directly on your visitor- more specifically your relationship with your visitor.  You must gently and effectively pre-sell your visitor on your goods or services.

Anyone can sell a product or service online.  All it takes is a link to a payment processor such as Paypal.  The difference between successful online business owners and those wishing to make a buck is in their ‘voice’.  A website has a voice.  The look and feel of your website gives your visitor an impression.  When your visitor reads your words they should know the persona of your business and think of you as an expert.

These words, or content, should provide tons of information in small, bite-sized chunks of text.  No one likes to read 8 pages of content on a website.   On the flip side, no one likes to buy a product without knowing more about it.  You need to find the perfect balance between no information and providing too much.

Generally speaking, 400-800 words can do the trick.  It can provide content, position you as the expert and gently pre-sell your visitor on a product or service.

In addition to how much content you provide you should focus on providing specific answers to your customer’s problems or concerns.  Most visitors are on your website because they want answers.  They are not surfing your site to buy something.  They want answers.  So give them answers!

It’s how you provide your answers that matters.  There is a difference between selling and pre-selling, and how you provide the answers or information your visitor wants is that difference.

Selling is cold, distant and forceful.  Pre-selling is the opposite.  Pre-selling can be thought of as a recommendation or side note to all the great content you provide.  You want your website voice to develop trust and rapport with your visitor.  During that time you are positioned as an expert.  Any soft recommendation that you make will be considered by your visitor.

Forceful selling causes people to put up their defenses.  It causes them to take a step back and wonder what your motives are.  Pre-selling does not affect people this way.  Pre-selling should lead those that are interested to your product without hesitation and those that are not interested should be led to more general content on your website- that will again attempt to gently pre-sell them.

Pre-selling and content (part 1 of this series) are closely related.  You must provide information to your site visitors.  You must be viewed as the expert and as a helpful friend making a recommendation.  People will not feel sold by that.  People will respect that you are providing answers to their problems and making a recommendation for a product that can provide even more helpful info.  It’s seen as a favor instead of a hard sell.

As I mentioned earlier, it is best to work smarter and not harder.  If you would like additional guidance on how to effectively pre-sell on the Internet, contact me for a free ebook.

Having a successful web business starts with effective content. Stay tuned for part 4! If you missed Part 1 or 2 and would like a complimentary copy please contact me and I will forward it to you immediately.

Tags: CTPM, Internet Business How To, Lynn VanDyke, Online Business Success, Pre-sell, PreSell, PReSelling, process
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Copyright 2006 Lynn VanDyke

There are a few secrets that I’d like to share with you. You may have been privy to a few of them before. Actually you may have heard of all 4, but I can promise that you will finish each article with a fresh perspective. I will show you how 4 simple secrets can create a powerhouse web business. This is the second part of the 4 article series.

Before I divulge the vault of successful web business secrets I must warn you of one thing. All the information in the world will not take the place of determination and persistence. A web business is just like an offline business. It takes hard work and resolve to succeed. However working smart is heads and tails better than plain old working. These 4 secrets will turn any smart working, dedicated average Joe or Jane into a successful web business owner.

Web Success Secret #2) Without Traffic- What’s the Point?

Part 1 of this series really got down and dirty about content.  Content’s main focus is twofold- make your visitors happy and make search engines happy.  This article is all about making you happy!  Think of this as your starter guide to increasing traffic and building a profitable business.

Traffic can be summed up in 2 words- free and paid.  I consider all PPC (pay-per-click), ezine advertising, offline advertising, and paid directory submissions a form of paying for your traffic.  I also consider any project that takes up your time to be paid advertising.  After all in the business world time is money.  Paid advertising is not bad.  It just means that you are paying to receive traffic.

Free traffic is harder to attract, but it costs you absolutely no money.  Almost all free traffic is the result of surfers finding your site on the search engines.  We talked about using content as your ultimate search engine ranking booster in the last article.

Here are several ways to increase traffic.  Some are paid advertising options and others are totally free.

- Write articles and submit them to several niche websites.  Manually submitting articles to many websites can take a long time.  I use a submission service to do all my hard work.  Contact me for more info.

- Post in forums.  Many forums will not allow you to market your product or services.  That’s totally understandable.  What I recommend doing is finding a really great forum that you can participant in.  When people have questions, provide top notch and comprehensive answers.  No selling.  Almost all forums allow you to post your website in your sig file.  Take advantage of that.

- Submit each page of your website to all major search engines.  Also submit each page to all major search engines whenever you make a change on that page.  Be careful with this one.  Each engine has very specific directions and rules about submission rules.  Be sure you do not spam!  Submit pages according to each engine’s guidelines.  I also use a submission service that does this for me at no additional cost.

- Create joint ventures with non-competing websites.  Work with a company that compliments your product or service.  Also be sure the joint venture is a win-win-win for you, the other company and your customers.  Joint ventures can be a pain to set up and complete, but well worth it if done correctly.

- Look into ezine advertising, web advertising and/or PPC.  Each method takes an initial investment and some time to learn, but can bring back traffic.  Personally I do not prefer this method to increase traffic because it’s “iffy” at best.

- Print your website name on all business correspondences.  This is a simple task, but one that is simple to do.  Add it to your email sig line, forum sig lines, letterhead and business cards.

- Create an atmosphere of amazing customer service.  This always leads to referrals from current clients.  The more referrals the more traffic!

The bottom line is without traffic your site is floating in a sea of doom.  No one is seeing your content or services.  Traffic is the lifeline of any business, and the rule of thumb is more traffic means more income.

This brings me to my last and final point about traffic.  Once you develop a nice flow of visitors you need to know specifics.  Where did those visitors come from?  How did they find you?  What pages are the most popular on your site?  What page did they enter into your site?  What page did they leave your site?  What keywords did they use to find you?  You must know your visitor inside and out!

As I mentioned earlier, it is best to work smarter and not harder.  Traffic analysis and search engine submissions can be very time consuming, but your hosting company should be providing most of these services to you free of charge. There are a small few that do this, but it is well worth the investigation. Contact me for further resources and information. Having a successful web business starts with effective content. Stay tuned for parts 3 and 4!  If you missed Part 1 and would like a complimentary copy please contact me and I will forward it to you immediately.

Tags: Analysis, Boost, income, Increase, Infopreneur, internet business, Lynn VanDyke, online business, traffic, work from home
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