Home Business Ideas and Opportunities

Think You’re Not ‘Expert’ Material? I Do…

When you’re an expert, you command respect in your niche. People listen to you, they pay attention to what you say and most of all they buy your products.

Think You’re Not ‘Expert’ Material? I Do...

Being the expert in your own niche is like writing your own ticket to freedom.

Granted, you’re never going to become “The Expert” in a massive field such as weight loss. But niche it down to “Weight loss for new mothers” or “Weight loss for brides-to-be” or Weight loss for video gamers,” and you can indeed become the expert in your niche.

I was reading Russell Brunson’s new book, “Expert Secrets,” and it starts out by giving some examples of just how easy it is to become an expert.

When Russell was in college, he tried internet marketing but failed. Then on spring break when he was bored out of his mind, he and a friend decided to build a potato gun.

The thing was, they didn’t know HOW to build a potato gun. It just sounded like fun. So they started doing some research.

They discovered things like the correct barrel-to-chamber volume ratio, the right propellants to use, the correct pressure for the pipes, how NOT to blow themselves up and a whole lot more. Armed with this information, they went to the store and bought their supplies. Then they spent the next few days building the gun, finding a place to shoot it and yes, shooting the gun itself.

They had a great time, and when Russell was in school the next week listening to the professor drone on, he thought about how he’d rather be shooting his potato gun. Then he wondered if there were other people who would rather be shooting a potato gun too.

Russell checked, and sure enough: the previous month there had been 18,000 searches for the term, ‘potato gun plans.’

Russell talked his friend into creating a DVD on how to source the items needed for building a potato gun, and how to build the gun itself.

Then he sold this DVD online. While he didn’t make a fortune, he did earn enough to get excited about online marketing and his new career was born.

Notice in the above scenario what Russell did to become an expert. He picked a topic he was interested in, researched it, experimented, did his own work, and created a video.

Not exactly hard work, was it?

Russell gives a few more examples of people who became ‘experts’ in the same manner:

Jacob Hiller always wanted to dunk a basketball, but he was lousy at it. So he started doing research to discover techniques to improve his ability to jump. Every time he found a technique that worked, he made a video.

At first nobody was paying attention, but after a while he had 100 followers, then 1,000 followers, and pretty soon he had 10,000 followers.

So he made a product and built a company that makes millions of dollars teaching people how to jump. Crazy, but true.

Jermaine Griggs had trouble reading sheet music, so learned to play piano by ear. Now he makes millions teaching others to do the same.

Liz Benny was an excellent social media manager, but it wasn’t until she began teaching others what she knew that she started making millions.

Robert G. Allen once said that he made millions doing real estate deals, but he made hundreds of millions of dollars teaching real estate.

Think of that – he made MILLIONS doing real estate deals, but he made HUNDREDS of millions teaching others what he learned.

Are you an expert at something that other people want to learn? Then as Russell says, you are just one funnel away from making millions.

But maybe you don’t have an expertise yet – that’s okay. As you can see from the above examples, every one of these folks learned to be an expert first and then built their business teaching others to do what they did.

Even Russell wasn’t born an internet marketing guru. He studied and practiced and worked to become what he is today.

And the same goes for me and every single expert making 7 figures on the internet.

One last thing – you might already be an expert, but you’ve got a voice inside your head saying, “Who am I to teach others? I’m nobody special.”

You are indeed special but you just don’t know it yet.

What you know comes easy to you because you’ve studied and practiced.

Yet to most people, what you know seems like something very difficult.

They need your help.

They WANT your help.

So ask yourself this question: Who are you to deny them the help they need and want?

Think about all the people you can help with your skill. By focusing not on the money you’ll earn, but instead focusing on helping others, you can build a 7-figure business you can feel great about.

And by the way, you can purchase Russell’s book, “Expert Secrets,” on Amazon.

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How to Reduce Your Unsubscribes with One Word

A certain percentage of new list subscribers will unsubscribe from your list almost immediately.

How to Reduce Your Unsubscribes with One Word

They’ll get the lead magnet you offered them and then POW! Unsubscribe. You’ve got to wonder why.

Are they afraid you’re going to sell them something? Maybe. If you’re building a list of online marketers, you’ve really got to wonder about their thinking. After all, don’t they want to learn about marketing? And isn’t getting on other people’s marketing lists a good way to learn?

Anyway, here is the trick to reducing these immediate unsubscribes no matter what your niche is:

On the letter that new subscribers get, remove the word “subscribe” and all of its variations.

You know the ones: “Thank you for subscribing,” or “You are now subscribed,” or “If you did not subscribe, please click here,” etc.

Whether the word is coming from your autoresponder or from you, get rid of it. Talk about the lead magnet and how to download it, but do not talk about their subscription.

Try this for a month, and then compare and see how much your unsubscribe rate has improved.

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You’re ‘Buying’ Your Sales – You Just Don’t Realize It

Every sale you make is a sale you have somehow purchased. And once you get your mind around this, marketing will become a lot easier.

You're Buying Your Sales - You Just Don't Realize It

Free traffic? There is no such thing. Maybe you didn’t spend money to get the traffic, but guaranteed you spent time.

Sales from affiliates? You spent time recruiting them and you are paying them a commission on each sale.

Sales to your own list? You bought those customers from the method you used to get them on your list, warming them up, getting them to trust you, etc.

You are always investing SOMETHING to make a sale.

Which is why, if you haven’t already, you need to learn to make $1.50 on every $1 of advertising you spend. By spending money on proven methods to get sales, you can rapidly scale up.

You spend $1,000 on Facebook ads and make $1,500? Congrats, you now have a sustainable business. Rinse and repeat and repeat and repeat.

This is the ultimate goal – to stop spending your time and start investing your money to get sales.

After all, you only have so much time, and every minute is precious.

But when you can make money every time you invest money – NOW you are truly a marketer, and that six and seven figure business is just around the corner.

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From Kmart Employee to Multi-Millionaire

Manny Khoshbin arrived in the U.S. at age 14 when his family fled civil unrest in Iran. They were penniless and lived in a station wagon for weeks before finally affording an apartment. Manny got his first job at Kmart, stocking shelves for $3.15 an hour. Fast forward to today and he’s a multi-millionaire.

From Kmart Employee to Multi-Millionaire

His advice?

  • Have BIG Goals. “Average goal-setting techniques create average results, Khoshbinn warns. He says you need to be more aggressive in charting exactly where you want to be in 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 years. “Set goals you can 100 percent commit to each year, and then stick to them.”
  • Make a Plan. “You can’t drive from point A to B if you can’t see where you’re going,” Khoshbin says. So plan every step of the journey to achieving each one of your 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 year goals.
  • Learn from the Best. To get to the top, you must become really good at what you do. Surround yourself with successful, like-minded people and learn everything that you can about your business. Experts aren’t born, they’re made, which means you can become an expert at whatever you choose.
  • Check in Every Week. Once a week sit down with your goal list and see if you’re on the right path. Make adjustments, decide what needs to be done and let your subconscious find the solutions and paths to achieving your goals throughout the week.
  • Be Stubborn. Too many people give up before they reach their goal. Remind yourself daily on why you are doing this in the first place. You might want to write out your big “Why” and tack it to the wall in front of your desk, to be reminded daily of why you are working hard to achieve your dreams.

One last note: If a Kmart stock boy can become a multi-millionaire… what can you accomplish?

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5 Top Things Baby Boomers Must Do Before Starting a Home-Based Business

Don’t quit your day job just yet. If you are a baby boomer looking to start a home business, there are 5 essential things you must do first.

5 Top Things Baby Boomers Must Do Before Starting a Home-Based Business

Leaving the security of a job with an established 401(k) plan, health insurance or other benefits can create a real tug of war for baby boomers who want to pursue their dreams of owning their own business.

Analyze Your Exit Strategy

At the time of this writing, the youngest of the baby boomers are turning 42 and the oldest are turning 60. No matter where you fall into this group, analyzing and preparing your exit strategy from your job will be crucial to your long-term success as a home business entrepreneur. Do you have adequate savings? If you’re married, will you be able to participate in your spouse’s health insurance?

Create a Financial Plan

How much is your salary now? What are your fixed, variable and frivolous expenses? Create a solid plan so that you and your family will know exactly what the financial picture will be until your business gets off the ground and starts generating revenue.

Choosing a Business Model and Legal Entity

There are several business models to choose from; home party plans, consulting, and affiliate marketing to name a few. You have to make the decision based on your personality and what you are best-suited for. Choosing a legal entity for your business should be discussed with a tax accountant or your attorney. Options are sole proprietor, LLC or Subchapter S- Corp.

Set Business Benchmarks

You wouldn’t travel across the country without a road map, your business is the same. Setting financial and business-building benchmarks will help you to create a focused plan that will help you to reach your success.

Get a Physical

What does getting a physical have to do with your business? Once you leave your job, most likely your health insurance will change and as unfair as it may be, trying to get new health insurance when in your 40’s, 50’s or 60’s can be difficult. While pursuing your dreams of a home business is something you are probably very passionate about, if you do not have good health to enjoy the rewards of your efforts, not much else is important.

The baby boomer generation is like no other before it or after it. Technically, we are considered middle-aged, but we are anything but middle-aged in mind, body and spirit. We know there is more meaning to life than a commute to an unrewarding 9-5 job, but there are also important steps we must take first. Planning and preparing for your home business now will reduce headaches later on, and increase opportunities for success.

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5 Reasons You Need A Work-At-Home Schedule

One of the attractions of working at home is the vision of freedom it invokes — no time clock, no time sheets, and no one to account to for how you spend your time. Yes, it is an attractive proposition, but like so many attractive propositions there is a heavy downside — you are likely wasting a lot of time.

5 Reasons You Need A Work-At-Home Schedule

I used to loathe making a daily schedule for my work and have always dismissed it as a waste of time — that is until my home business really took off and I realized there simply wasn’t enough hours in the day to accomplish all my goals if I didn’t have a solid daily plan.

I now have my own spreadsheet and agenda for the day and I have improved my productivity and reduced my stress immeasurably. If you don’t think you need a schedule for your home business then think again — and read on.

After a spate of relatively unproductive days when my “To Do” list seemed to grow exponentially every time I looked at it I knew something had to change.

Granted I was going through a rough patch. My home business was experiencing growing pains and taking up more than the usual time, my home life was putting a lot of extra demands on me, and my extended family was experiencing a number of crises that required my input as well. But I’m also old enough to know there is never a perfect time in life — you just live the one you’ve got. These are simply the problems I’m dealing with this year… Next year these problems will be traded in for new fresh ones.

After studying my time and chatting with some other work-at-home folks, I discovered five reasons to embrace a schedule:

1. It’s too easy to waste time doing non-priority tasks
2. It’s too easy to get sidetracked or distracted from your current task
3. Unscheduled work time can often overlap into your free time costing you freedom
4. Your free time can cross into your work time so you fall behind with important projects
5. Concentrating your time and effort on highest priority projects means more gets done

I’m not the only work at home business person using a daily schedule. I recently participated in an online forum discussion where men and women had moved to embrace a schedule in their own business — and found it more freeing than restrictive. After all, you are still the one setting the schedule so you are free to schedule yourself off for a 3-hour lunch, an afternoon, or a whole day whenever you choose.

If you find it difficult setting up your schedule and priorities for the day and week then perhaps your significant other or a friend can help you set your schedule. The important thing is to set one, and hold yourself accountable to it. As you do, your productivity will improve, and your business will grow faster.

Just because you work from home, doesn’t mean you can afford to be loose with your schedule. In fact, you probably need to be even more disciplined with your schedule than if you worked outside the home, because there will be many more distractions at home trying to pull you into non-work activity.

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Focus on Your Target: Building a Successful Home-Based Business Online

You may not be able to focus 100% on your target when you are planning on building a home business. There may be many reasons for this. Many other things constantly demand your attention and interrupt you repeatedly. That said, part of learning to focus is keeping your eye trained on the target no matter what else happens during the day.

Focus on Your Target: Building a Successful Home-Based Business Online

You may have a stressful day job, a rough commute and family concerns which are all important and need to be dealt with first. You may really have to change some things so that you find time for your home business project and somehow squeeze this extra activity into your busy schedule.

It sounds like your home business will have the lowest priority, but as long as you at least see it as more important than watching TV or hanging out with friends, your business will have a chance to get off the ground. It doesn’t have to be today, but every day you wait is costing you valuable experience and progress toward the life you are truly dreaming of.

Take care of all your pressing priorities so that they will be out of the way and then you can better focus on what you need to do to develop your business. To begin with, there will be research and planning. The business you choose will be determined by your interests, but dependent on your skills and other resources you may have or need to acquire going forward.

It is always a good idea to analyze and then plan your actions. Start with why you want to start a business. Focus on this, because you will need to stay motivated throughout the process. Sometimes just a little self-talk will remind you there is something else to do before it is time to relax. Sometimes that is all it takes to trigger a nice jolt of energy to go the extra mile needed to make a business breakthrough, or just get the job done.

Take control of your future right now and push yourself to reach your target goal of financial independence today. Focus on your target of building a home business with every spare minute you have; and while it may not be your first priority, it has to be one of the top priorities if you want it to become successful. There is no better time than the present to get started, so roll up your sleeves, get to work and continue forward on your journey of building a successful business from home!

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Find Your Niche and Make Money Online

In today’s training I’m going to dig into the topic, the concern, the issue of trying to choose a niche if you’re just getting started. I think for most of you, it’s trying to choose an angle within your niche. We could call that a sub-niche, we could call that an angle, or a deeper angle within your niche. The reason that I’m doing this is … I frequently get the question “How do you choose a profitable niche?”, “How do you choose a profitable angle?”, “How do you choose a profitable part?” of the internet.

Find Your Niche and Make Money Online

I’ve always avoided teaching on this because I don’t believe that there’s any one-size-fits-all answer. It varies per person. It varies depending on the type of niche that you’re going to go into. And, it varies over time. And, so, when I do a training like this, I like it to be evergreen. I want it to be something that folks can use. I don’t want to create something that’s good for three weeks. I like to create something that is long term. And, yet, I get these questions a lot.

So, what I’ve done is I’ve put some thought into exactly how I can position this so that it’s something that everyone can use, and that offers you the various options. Almost like branches on a tree. Gives you different options. If this won’t necessarily work, you can do this. I’ll present it to you in such a way that you’ll be able to see the thought behind it. Because the truth of the matter is, even though it’s very, very difficult, I’m going to try and do that today.

It’s very, very difficult to give you, it’s certainly not a one-size-fits-all, but even a tree solution, where there’s 3 or 4 solutions, but there may still be a 5th or 6th solution. The truth of the matter is, if someone comes to me, and I do a private call with them, and I dig in, and I ask them a few questions, I can almost always, no matter what the niche is, I can almost always direct someone to a profitable corner of their niche.

Really, just by asking a handful of questions and digging in. They’re going to be different for each person. But, really being able to dig in, I’m able to come up with that.

And, so the more I think about it, I say well, if I can come up with it, and if I give you enough information, then you should have a starting point to be able to come up with it for yourself.

Without further ado, let’s kind of dig into it.

There are two different starting points when you choose a niche. You may be looking for a niche or a sub-niche, or an angle in your niche, because you already have an interest in something. You have an interest, you know that that interest is something, well, it interests you. But, you don’t know what part of the business might be profitable. You don’t know what part of the business people are looking for information. One of the things it’s important for us to remember in this industry is, we can have the best information in the whole world, but if nobody is looking for that information, you’ll never sell any of it.

I want you to just imagine that you’ve created a brand new recipe, for a new salad. But, it’s absolutely disgusting, and nobody would ever want to eat it, nobody would want to serve it. You could make that recipe, and you could put it online. You could make pictures of it. You could put a price on it. It may be a phenomenal recipe. But, nobody wants it. Because it tastes bad. Nobody is going to be looking for it online. So, you won’t have any buyers.

When you’re in a position where you say, I have a particular interest. I want to be able to help people. I know there’s people out there who need help, but I don’t know exactly what they need help with. That’s what we’re kind of talking about right here. You have an interest, and you want to dig deeper.

There’s another branch here. That is, you may be in this boat as you’re listening, you’ve got this idea that you want to get involved online, and all you want to do is make money. You don’t care what niche that you get involved in. All you want to do is make money.

I would submit to you, that until you develop an interest. You’ll probably never make money.

Here’s the thing, we hear a success story. You hear them on the radio, or the TV, an infomercial success story, every so often. Somebody will say, “Oh, all I wanted to do was to make money. And, I found a friend who was making money in a particular niche. And I just copied what he did, and oh, I’m making money too.”

The problem is, that’s a rare occurrence. Like, maybe one in a million, or one in two million.

The question is, you’re building your business right now. Do you want to take a one in a million shot? That you MIGHT be able to do something that will make you a full-time income. That might do really, really well. Or, do you want to be a part of a one in two shot, or one in three shot that you can build something solid?

The thing is, if you’re going into the business just for the sake and the purpose of making money. With NO outside interest at all. That’s exactly what I believe you have. You’ve got a one in a million, or one in two million shot.

Unless you’re willing to stake your family’s future, the other 999,999 slots on FAILURE. I think a lot of times when people hear odds like that, they’re like “Hey, one person did it! So, I can do it”. Hey, you’re right, you can do it.

But, if 999,999 other people failed, in order for that ONE person to succeed. What we’re really talking about is a 99.9999% failure rate.

Is that what you want?

My guess is, it’s not.

In order for you to choose a niche where you’re going to make money … I believe … you’ve got to start with some interests.

Throw the money aside … forget about the money … find places online where people have needs, real needs. Then work on filling those needs. As you’re filling those needs, you can then look for pockets of needs where people are willing to pay money.

Because if people are willing to pay money, and there’s a lot of people that have that need, then you can make good money selling in that particular arena.

But, if you just start from a position of making money, the odds are very, very slim.

In either case, whether you’re looking for a niche, or a sub-niche. Looking for that best angle. Or, if, unfortunately, you’re in the place where, hey, I just want to make money, I’ve got 1 or 2 ideas of things I might be interested in. What I’m getting ready to share with you will give you kind of the road map to making that happen.

The first thing that we have to do. We have to find out what are interests and needs that need to be met. We can brainstorm this, and by the way, rather than just giving you four different ways that you can do this. I want you to understand the why behind it. Because if you happen to be in a niche, or an interest, where the 3 or 4 ways I give you won’t work. If I give you the background for WHY you would use these, then you can find something that will work for you.

The bottom line is, what you’ve got to do is find out 2 things. Number 1, are there people in your interest area that have needs that are being unmet? And then 2, are the people who have needs that are unmet, are they willing to invest money with you?

You’ve got to find out both of those things.

Folks have talked about in the past, and it’s a fallacy, that you can just go online, do some quick research, find out how many people have needs, find out how much money they’re willing to spend, and well, voila, you have your answer. I don’t know that it EVER worked, but, if it ever worked, it doesn’t work anymore.

One of the old methods, and I think at one point I even taught an iteration of this, one of the old methods, when the internet was young. You would go online, and you would look for something that had lots of searches online, and it didn’t have too many advertisers. But, it had some. The theory was, if there were some advertisers, well some people must be making money. People don’t pay for advertising if it’s not working in the long run. You might start out advertising, but after a few weeks, or a few months of not making money, they tend to quit. It just works that way.

We could look at some old formulas, and we could say, hey, if people are advertising, and lots of people are asking the question, well then, somebody is making some money, so maybe there’s room for one more entrant.

Let’s look at the root issue here.

The root issue is, we need people that have needs, and we need people who are willing to spend money. The easiest way for us to look at this. In fact, I want to give you an offline example:

I want you to imagine that you’re thinking about opening up a restaurant in your town. The first place that you would go to find out if maybe you needed a new restaurant in your town is to look and see what’s happening with the restaurant scene. Are people filling up the seats in at least some of the restaurants downtown? Now, if some of the restaurants are empty, and some of them are full, that doesn’t tell you that there’s no more hungry people. If some of the restaurants are full, it tells you the food’s probably bad in those empty restaurants. But, if there’s a number of restaurants that are full, it probably indicates that there’s a demand for good food in your town.

That’s the first step.

Okay, some restaurants are full, so there must be a demand. There are hungry people. You sit outside with the binoculars and you watch how many people are coming around. You sit outside, you’re downtown, you set up 100 yards away, 50 yards away, you set up your binoculars, or telescope, and you watch in 10 restaurants, and you just count how many people go into each restaurant. At the end of an hour you know 970 people have gone into those combined 10 restaurants. There are 970 hungry people on Friday night between 6 and 7. This is a fact! We know this now. We know that there’s that many hungry people, and there’s 10 restaurants.

If you open a restaurant, and yours is as good as everybody else’s, you’ve got a shot at generating 1/11th of all of that business. You know this.

Next you go granular. You say, ok, we know we’ve got 10 restaurants. 970 people. What if we sit somebody outside the door of every one of these restaurants. We hire 10 people to work maybe an hour. We just tick it off, how many people entered this door, how many people entered that door. And if you find that there’s a 97 person average on Friday night, some restaurants have maybe 300 people, some restaurants have only 5. What does this allow you to do?

It allows you to realize those restaurants have better food, or food that people like. Maybe there’s a Chinese restaurant, and Indian restaurant, American restaurant, French restaurant, Italian restaurant. You may say, well, the Italian restaurant is getting more customers. The Chinese restaurant is not getting as many customers. Then maybe you have to go sample the food. Is it good food, or is it bad food?

Do you see where I’m going with this?

The only way that you’re going to be able to get information about whether or not your niche is going to be profitable, and whether there’s needs, without actually selling in the niche is to do some research – some searching. In your niche. I gave you this illustration because offline is the illustration that we can all really relate to – this idea of how we determine if there’s room for one more restaurant. You realize, offline, that you need to do the work. It’s the same online.

Okay, here are a few articles on how you can do that work online, now that you understand how important it is!

One of the lies online is how easy it is to build a new business. People believe that. They read sales letters and even watch late-night infomercials about how many new niches, new opportunities there are.

That data is made up for the purpose of the infomercials and the sales pages. This “data” is everywhere and says you can figure all of this out, with no “boots on the ground”, in other words, with no work and without fully understanding what’s going on.

I say this because so often when someone reads something about choosing a niche, or how to find out what your marketplace needs, you are looking for an easy formula.

The truth of the matter is: there… is… no… easy… formula!

Building a Business in Real Life

Think about this example: there is no easy formula to figure out if you need a new restaurant in town. Let’s say you want to open up an Indonesian restaurant. And there are no Indonesian restaurants in your town. The only way that you’ll actually know if that restaurant will work would be to open one.

Yes, it will cost you money.

Yes, it will cost you time commitment.

But, the only way! That you’ll ever know, is if you physically open up shop.

The only way is if you invest whatever it is. $100k for kitchen equipment, you hire a chef, you paint the front door, and you open the doors. Once the doors are open, you can start counting heads. You can look at all the business that everybody else is doing, but you’ll never know what your brand new Indonesian restaurant is going to do, until you open it.

One more idea here: could you open up a road-side stand, with some Indonesian food, and park it in front of the empty building where you want to put your Indonesian restaurant, and try it out for a week or two? Just see how much interest there is.

Yes.

It’s still not going to prove your idea, even if you sell 1k plates from that roadside stand. It’s still not going to prove that the restaurant will do well. Hey, maybe people like eating Indonesian food out of road-side carts, but they don’t want to sit down and eat it. I don’t know.

You Have to Get Out There and Do It

The key here is, you won’t know until you actually do it.

Same thing online.

You’ll never know exactly how much need there is, and how many sales you’ll make, until you actually open up shop.

But – here’s the beautiful thing about opening up shop online. All you really need is a domain name, a website – you don’t even need to create a product initially, but in order to sell, you’ll create a product, put a merchant payment button on it, and start inviting people in that particular niche, and you’re able to see what happens.

It’s very, very low entry price to get started online, to test something.

Theoretically, you could test something every month, for the next 24 months, until you found the one that worked.

Offline, you can’t do that. You can’t go be a plumber for a month and then decide if you want to do it. You can’t then go be an electrician for a month, and then be a chef for a month, then be a mechanic for a month. Takes you a couple of years to learn how to be a plumber. Takes you a couple of years to learn how to be an electrician. You’ve got to put that time, energy and effort into it.

Same thing with opening a restaurant, there’s an investment in opening that restaurant. The beautiful thing about online is, you really could try a new niche every single month for 24 months. Until you found one that works. The 7 month period of time. The 7th month, you tried the 7th idea, and it simply worked for you.

But, we don’t want to leave you in the dark here. We’ve talked about the fact that we don’t have any fully accurate information that’s just going to point you in the right direction and say, this will work for you. Just like you can look at the 10 restaurants in your downtown area, and see that some are making money, and some are not, you can do the same thing online.

You can get clues and signals. You can do research. But in the end, you need to buy the domain name, create the products, and start testing. That’s how you’ll find the winners. That’s how you’ll build a business that makes real money.

What are some ways to determine what areas online people are interested in?

One way would be to simply go online and go somewhere that there’s a lot of advertising. So, maybe, any of the news websites. A lot of the news websites have classified ads on them. You look at those classified ads, and you look at the topics of those classified ads. You could even take a screenshot of the classified ads today and then a month from now, take another screenshot and see if the same people are advertising.

Watch for Consistent Ads

In the advertising world many people advertise once. But, if it fails, they don’t advertise again. The only way to know if advertising works is to buy the advertising. I’ve done it before. I’ve bought advertising before that didn’t work. I only bought it one time. But if I buy it again, and again, and again, and again, you can assume I’m doing one of two things. I’m either trying to throw the competition off, and just trying to get them to all buy the same advertising, so they’ll fall off the cliff. Or, I’m genuinely making money.

The truth of the matter is, 99% of the time, when you see advertisers advertising month after month after month. They’re doing it, not because they want to drive their competitors off the cliff, but because they’re making money.

Look at the ads on the big websites (like big news sites) If you take a screenshot today, take a screenshot a month from now, and they’re the same advertisers. You can probably guess, those people are making money.

Does that tell us there’s a big demand?

No.

It doesn’t tell us anything about demand.

What it does tell us is, there are some people making money.

Is There Room for More Competition in Your Niche?

There’s 2 ways to look at other people making money.

One way is, to look at it and say other people are making money, is there room for another entrant? My belief is, there’s always room for another entrant. If! You’re willing to optimize so that you can do things as well as (or better than) somebody else.

Some people like to enter markets where there’s very little competition. There’s only 2 or 3 people making money. Because then you can be a big fish in a small pond. The problem with that in today’s marketplace is if there’s only a couple of competitors, there’s probably not a whole lot of demand. That’s not across the board, but it’s a general rule of thumb.

There are a few ways to know if your competition is profitable, but many ways to imagine that they might be profitable.

For them to actually be profitable is one thing, and for you to figure it out is another.

Imagine going into your local pizza shop, and walking up to the proprietor and saying. “Hey, I’m thinking about opening a pizza shop across the street, how many pies are you selling on Friday night?” The guy might call the police and have you arrested for trespassing! He’s not going to give you that information! Well, it’s the same thing online.

If someone is genuinely making money in your area of interest they don’t want you, or anybody else, to know. Sometimes folks will do things that make it look like they’re not generating as much revenue as they really are. They don’t want the competition to know.

How to Win Even if You Have Strong Competition

Let’s say a particular company appears to have a market totally locked up, and they’ve got everything figured out. If that’s the case, there are probably unmet needs in that marketplace that the company (or that individual) is not meeting. And, if you can find out what those holes and unmet needs are, you can create a brand new niche all by itself.

How do you do that? A great first step is to collect subscribers in your niche – you can run advertising to attract interested prospects in that niche and collect their contact information. Then send an email out asking for their 2-3 biggest problems/questions in the niche.

You’ll get a lot of responses and see some overlap. People will also respond with a lot of detail and you can go back and forth with those people.

Use these ideas to create products and break into a niche, even a niche where the competition has a tight hold on things. Your market research can help you pinpoint where your market is hanging out online, so you know exactly where to find them and get them onto your list. Then you’re off and running!

You could take ALL of the things that I’m sharing with you, or another coach shares with you, and set up your own shop online, and find it doesn’t work. You could do none of this, and setup your own shop online, and find that whatever it is that you’re trying to sell works. I’m a big believer in just getting out there and doing it to find out what works for you!

If you have an interest in a topic, don’t spend the next 12 months trying to figure out if this is the best topic for you. Some people take 2 to 5 years trying to figure out their topic, and by the time they do they find that all the competition has beat them to the market.

Instead, get out there today, put up a website, start finding targeted visitors, and just see what happens. You’ll either be successful, or you won’t, and you’ll learn a lot in the process that will be useful in advancing your current business or starting a new one. Fail faster, and fail forward and you will steadily climb the mountain of online success!

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Jack Daniels and Frank Sinatra – Leveraging the Power of Endorsements

In 1955, Jack Daniels wasn’t the best selling whiskey in the world. In fact, most people had never even heard of Jack Daniels. It was a small, regional brand selling just 150,000 cases annually of its black labeled Tennessee whiskey.

Jack Daniels and Frank Sinatra - Leveraging the Power of Endorsements

But by the end of 1956, sales had doubled and there was a Jack Daniels shortage. Demand in the U.S. for the whiskey steadily increased at such a high rate, the distillery wouldn’t have enough product to export to other countries for almost two decades.

So what changed? One tiny little sentence uttered onstage by just the right person – Frank Sinatra.

Frank brought a glass onstage and uttered this line: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Jack Daniel’s, and it’s the nectar of the gods.”

Here’s what we know:

One endorsement from the right person and your product can potentially take off. The above example was long before the days of social media, so imagine what can happen today.

Caution: This was also before endorsements and brand ambassadors became a thing. Now if someone well-known endorses your product, people might think this person is getting paid, even if he’s not.

Jack Daniels didn’t even know Frank liked their product until this business changing moment. But once they heard what happened, they made sure Frank’s glass was never empty again. Wherever Frank performed, there was a case of Jack Daniels waiting for him in his dressing room.

And here’s how we can use this information:

Make a product so terrific, people will endorse it even when they’re not a paid spokesperson. With social media today, even an unknown person can become an ambassador for your brand if they love what you do.

When someone endorses your product, thank them and never stop. The free products you give this person will be dwarfed by the profits you earn from their efforts to get your brand seen and used.

Get your product in front of as many well-known people in your niche as you possibly can. Jack Daniels got lucky, but you can make your own luck by giving away sample products to bloggers and social media mavens.

You did hear that George Clooney sold his tequila business for up to $1 billion, right?… I guess the power of celebrities and alcohol sales is still as strong as ever. Go figure! 😉

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Need to Write a Headline in a Hurry? Try Using These Headline Templates

Sometimes you don’t have hours to write and mull over headlines. When that happens, use these templates to speed up the headline writing process.

Need to Write a Headline in a Hurry? Try Using These Headline Templates

1: Get [desired result] in [time period]

This is a promise that is delivered in a certain time period.

Examples:

How to get the perfect body in 61 days

How to become debt free in less than one year

Guys: Become a dating master in 72 hours

2: [Social proof] Ask a question

You’re providing social proof that what you say is true. And by asking a question, you’re actively involving the reader in the topic.

Examples:

1,126 Women Lost Weight with Us. Will You Be Our Next Success Story?

Borrows Institute Declares Our Math Tutoring The Best Ever. Can We Help Your Struggling Student Excel at Math?

This Man Started and Sold 6 Companies for $9,567,453 in Profit. Can He Help You Start Yours?

3: [Number] Lies About [Something]

Anytime someone is being lied to, they want to know what the lies are and why they’re being told.

Examples:

5 Lies Your Broker Is Telling You About The Stock Market

3 Lies About Heart Attacks In Women: Believe Them At Your Own Risk

7 Horrible Lies The Cancer Industry Is Using To Keep You Sick

4: [Problem?] [Secret Surprising Shocking Solution]

Anytime you hint that you have information that’s not readily available to the public, or that most people don’t know, you’ll make people curious enough to find out more.

Use words like secret, shocking, surprising, little known, finally revealed and so forth to communicate that you’ve got something interesting to share.

Examples:

Aphids Eating Your Plants? Surprising Home Remedy Kills Aphids Dead without Poisoning Your Harvest

Is Your Dog’s Behavior Driving You Crazy? Little known Training Trick Makes Dogs Listen to Your Every Command

Can’t Afford College? The Secret to Getting PAID to Go to University

5: The [New Product or Method] that [Somebody] Now Loves

If your audience is skeptical of your product, or if your product is brand new and no one’s heard of it, this can be a great headline.

Examples:

The New Weight Loss Method that Medical Doctors Recommend to Their Patients

The Strange Home Remedy that Psoriasis Sufferers Love

The So-Called ‘Scam’ Investment System that Insiders are Secretly Using to Make Fortunes

6: [Authority Figure] [New Information]

For the ‘authority figure’ you can use a celebrity, an authority in your niche, a particular organization or whatever.

Examples:

Brad Pitt Reveals His #1 Strategy for Getting Over a Failed Relationship

The Exact System Warren Buffet Uses to Double His Money Daily

3 out of 4 World Chess Champions Use This Program to Improve Their Game

7: [Problem] [Solution]

This one is straight forward and easy to use.

Examples:

Investors Are Losing Everything in This Volatile Market: How to Safeguard Your Money While Earning 10-16% Interest

Over 50 and Tired all the time? How to Have More Energy than a 20 Year Old.

Can’t Get Dates Because You’re Not Skinny? How to Have Men Begging to Go Out with You Regardless of Your Weight

And there you have it – 7 headline formulas you can use for subject lines, book titles and of course headlines.

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