The Little Fish Guide to Niche Dominance

20 January 2010Comments

 

little fish guide to niche dominance

Credit: BigStockPhoto.com

You launched a new website or blog. You’re excited about it. You’re knowledgeable in your niche. Your credentials are fantastic. You know there’s a market out there for the information you’re providing (and a big one at that). Yet you can’t seem to make a dent in the overall market share. The big dogs are already more established and reasonably well-known — the “go to” sites. Your target audience doesn’t know about you. You aren’t ranking well in search engines. People aren’t linking to you, sending you targeted traffic. You’re not getting type-in traffic. How exactly are you supposed to compete with more established sites?

Don’t worry. It can be done. Continue Reading →

How To Find Small Business Grants!

03 January 2010Comments

Credit: MychaelThompson

Credit: MychaelThompson

You must have seen several ads about how to get “free” money for your small business. Is there really free money available for your businesses?

While the government does offer grant money, it is not easy to qualify or receive as some may lead you to believe.  There are hundreds of scams out there that entice small business owners with the promise of free money, for a small fee.

These scams work by guaranteeing that you will get a small business grant or you will get all your money back.  They charge you a fee of about $50 for a packet with information on how to write your grant proposal and a list of organizations that can provide the grant you are looking for.  Unassuming business owners pay this fee and receive information with a list of organizations that don’t give any business grants.  When you try and get your money back, you find that the guarantee was just a hog wash.

Does that mean there are no small business grants?

There are, but are rare, and the information you need to find and apply for the legitimate grants is available “free” of charge. For businesses that qualify, there is a possibility of getting free grants from the county, state and city governments.  There are also some private corporations and foundations offering these grants.

Grants for Technology Startups

Businesses that stand the best chance of getting grants are technology startups. As long as they match the extremely stringent requirements, the federal government’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology (STTR) programs are there to help. They award more than $2 billion in grant funding each year.

Small Technology Focused Businesses

Many state and city governments offer grants for small businesses that focus on technology. In Ohio, TechColumbus offers grants to help entrepreneurs test their ideas and see if they can actually run a business. In Philadelphia, The Ben Franklin Partnership and in Gardiner, Maine, the Maine Technology Institute are just a few of the many organizations that help local tech companies out. Continue Reading →

How To Achieve Success In Your Career With The Help Of Social Media!

21 December 2009Comments

 

Credit: fredcavazza (via Flickr)

Credit: fredcavazza (via Flickr)

The saying “It’s not what you know but who you know” makes all the difference. Today, there are more ways than ever to influence getting a job than there have ever been.  Thanks to social media, the people who know about you have increased.

Social media provides the necessary tools to empower you to get ahead of the rat race, and is proving to be invaluable for career success. Social media is all about soft sell and this leaves an impact on people’s mind, thus building your brand.

You will have to become an invaluable asset to others and be the person they go to for a specific skill. Use free social media to advertise your brand and position yourself as a provider.  This is how you are connected to human resource managers who are hiring, recruitment agencies and business owners.

You have to establish your online identity through social networking profiles, blogs, videos and podcasts.  They are a source for people to find and connect with you. You can use these social media tools to project the appropriate image and be hired for a position that is aligned with your interests.  Most prospective employers use social media to find the person they are looking to hire.

This is free and inexpensive sharing of your accomplishments with the world and your prospective employers.  The main investment is your time.  Time to jump on the social media bandwagon. Continue Reading →

Get a Free Education Online – The Best Free Online Courses

23 September 2009Comments

free online courses

Are you fascinated by a topic and you want to know more about it? Is the thought of attending a prestigious university appealing, but not realistic for you? The Internet and Open Courseware are making top notch educational opportunities available to the public on the Internet through free online courses from top universities and organizations.

You won’t earn course credits or a degree with these free online courses, but they’ll allow you to expand your mind by reading, listening to, and watching some of the best minds in various fields. Whether you’re interested in learning more about business and marketing, history, foreign languages, science, or the arts, you’re bound to find something you’ll love from these places offering free online courses.

1. Yale University

Credit: Yale University

Credit: Yale University

Wouldn’t you love to sit in on a Yale lecture? Now you can with their Open Yale program, which offers several free online courses in topics ranging from The Old Testament to Biomedical Engineering. Continue Reading →

Business Freebies Can Help You Land More Sales – Really

26 August 2009Comments

free stuff

If you’re in business, you want to make money. When you invest time or money into something, you expect to see a return on investment (ROI). In fact, the goal is to maximize that ROI. But your potential customers aren’t always eager to spend money with you. How can you set yourself apart from the competition, make potential customers or clients love you even before spending anything, and manage to turn them into buyers?

Easy. Give them something for free.

I tell freelancers this all the time. Give your knowledge away — not all of it mind you. Some people are just too protective. They figure they should charge for everything they have to offer. That’s silly though. Here’s why:

Why Freebies Lead to More Sales

When you give something away for free, you’re attracting leads. Will everyone convert into a paying customer? No. But the conversions can be just as high (if not higher than) other lead generation tactics like advertising. It can cost far less up front too (improving your ROI even more).

Think of freebies as a base for an up-sell. This happens quite often in publishing. For example, a free excerpt of a book might be given to magazine publishers (and therefore their readers). The idea is to suck them in and entice them to the buy the book. It’s true of information products online too. Let’s look at a hypothetical example.

Credit: Christian Ferrari (via Sxc.hu)

Credit: Christian Ferrari (via Sxc.hu)

Let’s say you run an online consulting program or course on SEO. There are a lot of people giving SEO advice, and you need to set yourself apart if you want people to actually pay. You already have a decent selling point in that you run a highly successful SEO firm that regularly wipes the floor with the competition. But you need more. Continue Reading →

How to Land the Perfect New Hire (and Never Post a Job Ad)

13 July 2009Comments

Job Classified Ads

Are you looking to add a new full-time staff member to your team? Some part-time help? An independent contractor to help with a specific project? No matter what your hiring needs are, it’s important that you find the right fit for your company.

When some people think of the hiring process they think of placing job ads, reviewing the applications and resumes that come in, and then conducting interviews to make a hiring decision. While advertising your job openings can give you a large pool of applicants in some cases, do you really have the time to review all of those resumes? What if none of those applicants is exactly what you’re looking for?

The best way to find your perfect new hire may not be posting a job ad, especially if you’re looking to hire someone with highly specialized skills. Instead, consider some of the following recruitment techniques:

Credit: Jay Simmons

Credit: Jay Simmons

1. Give Google a Go – Sometimes a simple online search is all you need (especially if you’re hiring a freelancer who considers new clients, as opposed to someone who may already be employed fulltime). Freelancers such as writers, designers, programmers, and consultants often have online portfolios available. Search for the type of contractor you’re looking for. Chances are good that you’ll find professional websites from freelancers that could meet your needs.

There you’re often able to review their portfolios (their past work) and sometimes learn more about their past client list, their rates, and their credentials. In other words, your hiring choices aren’t limited to those who have seen your job ad and you won’t have to weed out applicants who send resumes without actually meeting your requirements.

2. Ask Your Employees (and Others in Your Network) – The best referrals come from those who know you and understand the needs of your business. People are often better-connected than we think, and it’s possible that one of your existing employees or colleagues knows someone that would be a perfect fit for your company’s opening.

Credit: Sanja Gjenero

Credit: Sanja Gjenero

Many higher-level freelancers and full-time professionals don’t respond to advertised jobs. That’s because they already get job offers through their own network (such as their clients, past employers, or colleagues). Therefore if you’re looking for someone highly-specialized, this could be your best bet. Ask a colleague who they hired for a similar project in the past. Ask an employee who will be leaving if they know someone in the field that might be interested in filling their shoes (obviously only if the employee is leaving on good terms, such as due to relocation). Make those in your professional network aware of your hiring needs, and they may be able to help you in recruiting the best match for the job.

Preferably, stick to members of your professional network rather than turning to friends and family (where there’s a bigger chance of tarnishing the relationship if you don’t take their suggestion, or if you do and the employment situation doesn’t work out).

3. Don’t Neglect Social Networks – While it probably isn’t the best idea to start your recruiting efforts on social networks like Myspace and Facebook which are often used for personal networking, give LinkedIn a try. Not only can you find members’ educational credentials and work history if they’ve shared them, but you can view recommendations from their past employers or clients.

Credit: LinkedIn.com

Credit: LinkedIn.com

Because LinkedIn is specifically for business networking, you won’t have to sift through endless irrelevant personal details to narrow down your pool of potential new hires. Social networks also generally give you a way to contact the user privately, whether or not you have their direct email address.

Job ads still have their place in the recruiting process, but in a time where more people are looking for work and fewer companies are hiring, they can lead to a lot of applications from people who aren’t really qualified for the job. Let job ads be a last resort, and let your professional network and the Web bring you better initial prospects.

Buying Websites: Beyond the Basics

02 July 2009Comments

For Sale

Have you ever flipped or purchased an existing website? If you’re like many buyers in the webmaster community, you probably made your buying decision based on two primary factors:

  1. Traffic
  2. Income

Chances are also good that you negotiated a sale price based on income over a period of a certain number of months. For example, the price you paid may have been the equivalent of 10 months’ income from the site.

Website income

While that kind of strategy may be common in webmaster communities, it’s not necessarily smart business. By looking only, or predominantly, at a website’s income you neglect other significant value points and you risk passing up great opportunities for mediocre ones.

Think about buying websites more like purchasing an existing traditional business. You’ll find there’s a lot under the surface worth considering. For example, you might want to look at the site’s:

  1. Branding and visibility (think Twitter: poorly monetized, but major value through visibility)
  2. Authority status and content (authority content is worth more than generic keyword-stuffed content that would turn off real visitors)
  3. Staff (and whether or not any of that staff will remain on board for a period after the purchase–important if the audience draw is to the owner and not the site itself)
  4. Domain name (even if a site’s content isn’t particularly valuable to you, the domain name could have considerable value of its own, especially if it ties in well to your existing business and offers better branding possibilities)
  5. Competition and Niche (if the website is in a true gem of a niche that is just getting started but has long-term potential, the site carries more value than something in an oversaturated niche like mesothelioma)

Continue Reading →

Keeping the “Social” in Social Media: How to Interact with Your Customers Online

22 June 2009Comments

Credit: Ilker

Credit: Ilker

Companies are increasingly turning to the Web to reach their customer bases, in part to get in on the hype surrounding social media. Unfortunately though, using social media tools isn’t enough for effective PR or social media marketing. You have to use them well.

What does that mean? How can your company use social media “well?”

For starters, you need to keep it social. That means you should be engaging in conversations with members of your target market (whether they’re potential customers or existing customers–or users, visitors, readers, or whatever else applies to your company). Continue Reading →

Online Press Release Distribution: 5 Tips for Getting it Right

14 June 2009Comments

Credit: Steve Woods

Credit: Steve Woods

Maybe you’ve just launched a new online business. Perhaps you’ve released a new, heavily-updated version of your commercial software package. Or maybe you’re ready to release the results of an industry survey conducted by your company. When your business is faced with potentially-newsworthy information to share, you might decide to use a press release (or news release) and online press release distribution sites to get the word out.

Online press release distribution is a great tool for small businesses without big budgets for major newswire distribution. While the primary purpose of a news release is still to get exposure (which happens most effectively when members of the media, authority bloggers, and others in your industry put out a story on you), they can do more thanks to the Web.

Press releases can also help you build links from authority and relevant sites (through their coverage), direct traffic from some members of your target market, and ultimately better search engine rankings as a result. To get these benefits though, you have to use online press release distribution in the “right” ways.

Where Some People Go Wrong

Credit: Michal Zacharzewski

Credit: Michal Zacharzewski

Because online press release distribution can lead to SEO benefits, those distribution sites are often abused by spammers. Press release spam can mean a few different things, but when it comes to newswire services and distribution sites it basically refers to non-newsworthy press releases distributed solely for links.

This is a problem. If you have a generic article with no timely aspect or news value, it shouldn’t be put out over press release distribution sites. It would be better suited for article marketing. If it reads more like an advertorial, you’ll be better off seeking paid placement on the end sites you want to reach.

Remember that press releases are first and foremost public relations tools–not marketing. They’re not about pushing hard sales or advertising. They’re not about getting a lot of quick (but irrelevant) links from free press release distribution sites. They’re about sharing news and creating an authority image for the company releasing them. The quality links, traffic, and rankings are simply an added reward of a job well done.

Continue Reading →

Online Market Research: Anything but Optional

12 June 2009Comments

Market Research

Internet marketing is a beautiful thing, isn’t it? There are countless marketing tools available on the Web, and many carry little to no barriers to entry (in other words, they’re free or very inexpensive, so anyone can use them). That ease of use can cause some problems though. What do you do when you have an overwhelming number of options available, and only a limited budget or limited time to implement your Internet marketing campaign?

Turn to Market Research

Traditional business owners know that market research plays a vital role in the success of any marketing campaign. That doesn’t change on the Web. Still, it’s all too common to see online entrepreneurs, webmasters, or traditional businesses making the leap to the Web taking a very untargeted approach (we recently talked about the consequences of untargeted social media marketing specifically).

When you jump into using a tool because someone says you should try it, without doing any planning or market research first, you run the risk of wasting both time and money in a failed attempt to reach your target market. Market research lets you compare different marketing tools and tactics to figure out which will best reach and influence your intended audience before you commit to them.

What You Want to Know About Your Market

There are several general areas of marketing research you should be familiar with. The first part of your market is your customer base (or subscribers or readership as the case may be). Consumer market research helps you decide who to target and how to influence them.

Don’t stop there though. You also need to think about your competition (by researching what they’re doing and what’s worked well for them, you can make better market planning decisions).

Here are some of the things you’ll want to find out about your market before engaging in any particular marketing tactics:

    Credit: Jesse Courtemanche

    Credit: Jesse Courtemanche

  • Who is your marketing really reaching? – You probably have a vague idea of who your target audience is the moment you create a website, product, or service. But do you know them well enough to know exactly who your marketing message is going to reach? Think about the demographics and psychographics of the people who are your potential buyers or visitors

    Are they mostly male or female? What age group? What income level? Where do they live? What level of education do they have? What are their interests? How will whatever you’re offering relate to their values?

  • What influences your audience? – It’s not enough to know who your audience is. Marketing is about influencing a group of people–convincing them to visit your website, sign up for your newsletter subscription, buy your product, etc.

    If you target an audience consisting of mostly mothers in their 20s and 30s, for example, their motivating factors to make a purchase are going to be very different than those of a single teenage male.

  • How can you compete? – In any industry you have to know who your competition actually is if you want to successfully compete with them. More importantly, you should look at their past marketing campaigns to keep their successes in mind and to learn from their potential mistakes.

    Even more vital than that, you have to know how you measure up against them if you’re going to craft effective marketing messages that set you apart. You can do this through a basic SWOT analysis (where you detail your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in comparison to your biggest competitors).

How to Find the Market Information You Need

One of the reasons business owners sometimes neglect market research on the Web is the misconception that it has to be expensive, difficult, or very time consuming. That may be true of some types of market research. But just as the Web offers simplified marketing tactics, it offers more accessible global market research as well.

Here are several ways you can gather market research information online quickly, inexpensively, and very easily:

  • Visit competitor websites – There you may be able to find out how long they’ve been in business, how qualified their staff and management team are, or even see some of their marketing in action.

    Remember that their website, email newsletter, and even logo or other branding material are all a part of their overall marketing effort.

    • Credit: Danard Vincente

    Credit: Danard Vincente

  • Google it (or Bing it, or whatever strikes your fancy) – Search engines are your friend when it comes to Web-based market research. Not only can they help you discover competitors and how your competitors are marketing their businesses on the Web, but they can give you insight into your target market.

    A news engine, for example, might turn up press releases detailing survey results and other market research reports. Even if the full reports cost hundreds of dollars, key statistics about the markets / audiences surveyed are often released for free in those press releases.

  • Conduct keyword research – If your Internet marketing plan involves search engine optimization (SEO) or search engine marketing (SEM) tactics such as pay-per-click (PPC) ads, keyword research is a given. But even if you’re not planning those things, do it anyway.

    Tools like the Adwords keyword tool will show you what phrases your target market is interested in (what they’re searching for). In the example below, you can see keyword phrases related to market research, and how they fare against each other in popularity.

    Why does this matter? Because it tells you what your audience is specifically interested in. If you know what they’re interested in, you can better appeal to them in your marketing copy and collateral, influencing them and increasing conversions.

Keyword Research

Those examples are some of the most basic online market research tools available. There are an abundance of tools and tactics available to you in consumer market research online. Let these serve as a starting point rather than your comprehensive plan.

Depending on your audience and what you’re trying to promote, you might also turn to market research surveys, focus groups, conversion tracking (after implementing a tactic such as an ad campaign), or other marketing research methods available.

The next time you’re wondering how you should expand your Internet marketing plan, don’t simply ask others for tactical suggestions. Invest some time into online market research and find out how your market likes to be reached (or what they respond to best) instead. What works for others won’t necessarily work for you.