Importance of Niche Research for Internet Marketing
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You should always do your proper research before entering into a niche market.
Niche research can be pretty tricky if you have never done it before. there are specific things you need to look out for. This step is extremely important, and it can either make or break your entire business right out of the gate!
First, let’s discuss how you choose the right niche. There are two ways to go about doing this. The first one is choosing a niche related to your hobbies or personal interests. This can be a great idea, because it cuts down the amount of research needed to create a product, plus it can be more enjoyable overall. The problem a lot of times is that some people’s hobbies or interests aren’t exactly in a “hot niche” or a niche that has a lot of income potential. For instance, if your hobby is underwater basket weaving, there may not be a lot of buyers out there in comparison to say the weight loss niche.
It’s usually better to choose a niche that people are already buying information products in. You will always have some people that debate how a smaller niche has less competition, therefore being easier to dominate. Personally, I think this is a bad way of looking at things. You should always go where the money is! No matter what anyone says, there is no such thing as over-saturation in a niche. The more competition there is, the better.
The five main niches that would be a good starting point are as follows:
- personal development
- health and fitness
- employment and financial
- make money
- problem solving/solution
Each of these niches have a lot of products as well as buyers in the marketplace. When first creating information products in your niche, you should always create products similar to what’s already selling. Research your niche thoroughly and find out what the top products are. I then suggest you purchase them, and get ideas for your own product. Obviously you should never copy anyone else’s material, but you should keep notes as part of your research. Just make sure before you land on an idea, that you are going to sell something that people want. It doesn’t matter how much you love your product! It only matters how much the marketplace wants to buy it!
Should Newbies Start Out with Affiliate Marketing?
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I have seen this question come up hundreds of times in my time as an internet marketer. There is actually quite a debate going around about whether or not newbies should start out doing affiliate marketing of not. In my opinion, newbies SHOULD start out with affiliate marketing. Internet marketing has quite the learning curve, and I believe that if they start out learning the basics through affiliate marketing, and not getting bogged down with it’s complexity from the start, there is a higher chance that they won’t give up as well as a higher chance that they will make some money in the beginning (which is very motivating for sure).
Ofcourse, just like anything that has to do with making money online, there are pros and cons. The pros of affiliate marketing are that you don’t need a product of your own, there are thousands of products to promote in hundreds of different niches, and in most cases you don’t have to deal with any customer service issues! Also, many products nowadays (especially info products / IM products) give 75% to 100% commission!
The cons ofcourse, atleast the main one, is that you are building someone elses business. You are actualy pointing dozens of links from all your hard work to some other persons sales page. Not to mention, you have no control over the product. You never know if they will decide to take it off of the market. When this happens, all your effort is wasted (except for the sales you made previously)
Now don’t get me wrong, I do believe that at some point, everyone should create their own in demand products to a hungry market. (Including recruiting affiliates to sell your product for you), but as far as newbies are concerned, I think that affiliate marketing is a great way to learn the basics of internet marketing. The learning curve is a lot smaller, and theres a good chance they will make some money to invest in future internet marketing ventures.
If anyone is interested, I actually wrote a free report on how I do affiliate marketing in my spare time. It’s really short and to the point, but its a great resource for newbies to get started. you can avoid any opt-in pages and download it directly at the following link.
www.freemarketingecourse.com/stuff/affiliatemarketingreport.pdf
Please save it to your hard drive and share it with others. Most importantly, take action!
Free Hosting vs. Paid Hosting in your IM Business…
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What’s the difference between free hosting and paid hosting?
There are dozens of places online where you can get a website for free on the internet. The main problem
with these websites is that you have absolutely no control over them. I understand that a lot of people
starting out in internet marketing may not have much money to invest in the initial stages, however
starting your online business with a free website is a huge mistake!
First of all, when your website is hosted on a freebie web host, a lot of people don’t take you
seriously and may not trust you very much. With all the scamming going on today in the internet, it’s
no surprise that people have their guard up more than ever. The vast majority of people wouldn’t even
consider buying from a site that isn’t professional looking. Sure it may be nice to set up a free site
for friends and family members to share pictures or something, but when it comes to dealing with
customers, the trust issue is definitely important. You have to make a good first impression if you
want to gain your visitors trust!
Not only is trust a factor, there is also the fact that you have no control what so ever regarding what
happens with your website. Since you don’t own the server that your website is hosted on, there is
always the possibility that your website could be deleted without any explanation at all. There is
really no way to back up your website with free web hosts either. If something happens where all your
content is deleted, there’s no way to get it back!
There is also the credibility issue. If you want to have a good online presence, using a freebie
webhost is not a good place to start. I don’t know about you, but if I saw someone’s website on a free
hosting site, and they were saying they are an expert in that niche, I would DEFINITELY think twice
before I purchased anything.
A domain costs less than $10 per year, and you can get a good shared hosting account for only $7 to $10 per month, so why wouldn’t an expert have their own website? Seems sketchy to me, and it usually is. People take notice to these sorts of things. You must take your online business seriously, and branding yourself like this is not a good way to get started. When looking for a paid webhost, it’s best to find one that offers unlimited add-on domains. This way you can host as many websites as you want on your hosting account for no extra charge. The only extra charge is the price of the domain name itself. It simply makes sense to go with paid hosting services if you are even the slightest bit serious about your online business.
The best Hosting Service that allows unlimited add-on domains is Host Gator . Many internet marketers that use Host Gator as their main webhost. Another optin that some marketers use is kiosk.ws , but it’s a bit more expensive and not absolutely necessary in my opinion.
Welcome to the Direct Effect Marketing Blog!
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Thank you for visiting the blog of Direct Effect Internet Marketing. The business collaboration of Ben Clemons and Josh Fulfer.
We have been working online for several years separately and have done a few projects together over the years however it wasn’t until recently that we both decided it was time to kick things up to the next level. That was the day we decided to join forces in developing an Internet Marketing company based on both our efforts and experience that would help to teach people different strategies and techniques that they can be using online to have a “Direct Effect” on their businesses, incomes and lives.
It is our goal to provide as much value and helpful information as we possibly can to our readers, subscribers, customers and clients. We know that the only way we are going to be able to have continued success with our business is if we are constantly helping others to create success not only in their businesses but in their lives as well.
We look forward to creating online success with you and are excited to see what new ideas and possibilities the future holds.
Sincerely,
Josh Fulfer & Ben Clemons
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