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Jul 11, 2012

How to Identify Your Online Niche


This is the $600 Billion question: How to find that little space online that’s going to make you money?
There’s no sure fire formula, but there are ingredients that are required to be present if you’re cooking up success: information and a place for that information to be found.
Information, both trivial and serious, is the reason the internet has become so popular. Think about it; you want to know something, or more recently, how to do something, so you Google it. The “How To”, niche has grown in the last couple of years with YouTube channels and blogs appearing everywhere on diverse subjects from cooking to fixing sports cars. The point with this type of information is that if you have it and can present it in an accessible way – through video, or as a written blog – you have a subject, a niche, you could even call it a product.
But your niche may not necessarily be the information itself; it may be the place where the information is found. Two very successful examples of this are The Huffington Post, a news and content aggregation site started by Arianna Huffington and the most famous one of all, Facebook. Both sites created a frame-work and allowed others to fill that frame-work with searchable content. Then you and I come along looking for some information, we search and along with the information we seek on these platforms, are advertised to.
The internet thrives on personality. Some of the most successful internet entrepreneurs have made it because they’ve married a great idea with their own personal take on it. Here are two case studies.

The Product: Mike Change’s Sixpack Shortcuts

Mike Change is a personal trainer from Austin Texas. Several years ago, he worked for a corporation and was really overweight. He started working out and learning about nutrition. Concerned that he wasn’t eating enough of the right foods, he designed his own eating system that allowed him to continue living up to the demands of his job, but also meant that he got all the proper nutrition so he didn’t need to eat junk food. Mike lost his belly, quit his job and began to train others.
After a few years of this, Mike decided he wanted to expand, so he created a program that would help people he’s never met get lean, mean and gorgeous. Through a series of videos, Mike shows people who want to look like him how to eat properly and how to workout correctly. Teaser videos are available free on YouTube, but those wanting the full package buy the program – the information – from sixpackshortcuts.com
Mike has sold tens of thousands of copies of his program and why? He personally takes you through the program – the nutrition, the workouts and the potential pitfalls – in a series of videos. He uses himself as an example of how a fat guy got lean. The overriding message is that if he can do it, you can do it too.

The Platform: Joel Gascoigne and Buffer App.

Joel is a Full Stack computer programmer and all-round start-up guy. Late last year he created Buffer App, which allows social media users to schedule their status updates and any content they want to share without unleashing a deluge of content – commonly known as spamming – at their followers in one go.
Buffer is a scheduling platform that allows its users to maintain a presence on their social media platforms all day long without manually updating, which when you’re a rising star, you don’t always have time to do. In an age when social engagement is so important for businesses, Buffer is a great solution. Full up your Buffer for the day or week and let it run while you do other important things. With a series of payment plans from Free to Premium, the Buffer Team are making money.
Joel is a genuine guy wanting to create genuine experiences, so what he also does is publish his warts-and-all journey in creating a start-up, which if you follow him, hasn’t been easy. Those using his product can see how it’s evolving, but also how its creators are evolving too. In a world where engagement is everything, Joel has created a platform that will share the information people are searching for.

The Ingredients

Information – A product, or a blog that offers useful information.
A place for information to be found – A website, essentially.
Personality – You don’t need to be ripping off your shirt to demonstrate whatever it is you want to share with the world, but you do need to be genuine. And if your information is coming across in the written form, you need a voice and some good grammar.

What It All Comes Down To

In a word Passion . What are you good at? What do you love? What do you want to share with the world?

Monetize Your Blog with Amazon


One of the reasons many people begin blogging is to create a secondary source of income. The trick to building a solid audience is finding something that you are passionate about and then sharing it with others. The trick to making money with it is to set up ads and other affiliate programs on your blog. Amazon.com allows you to link to products and earn whenever a customer purchases a product that they click through and buy. You can also set up Amazon ads on your site.
Setting Up an Amazon Associate Account
First you will need to enroll in the Amazon Associate program. You can do this by signing into your Amazon account and clicking on the option to sign up as associate. You will need to fill out the information for the program, which includes providing your address and account information so that you can operate an account. Amazon will put a stripe along of the top of your account, which makes it easy to create links and insert images into your blogs.
Posting with Your Amazon Links
For your referrals and other advertisements to work the best, you will want them to flow naturally with your blog. This means that you may not have a product your recommend in every single post. Only recommend the things that you love the most and that you feel are the most useful. If you can be genuinely enthusiastic about a product it is much easier to have people be interested in purchasing it. You can also list the products you like the best in your side bar with a link back to Amazon.
Amazons Ads and Banners
In addition you can put Amazon ads in the sidebar of your blog. This is a very easy thing to install using the widgets that Amazon provides for you. The banner can be place at the top or the bottom of your blog as well. This may be an easier option when you are first starting your blog out, then selling ad space to people, since you often need to state how many viewers you have each day. It allows you to earn money while you build up your readership and get to the point where you can begin to sell ads on a regular basis.
Balancing Your Blog While Monetizing It
For your blog to be truly successful you need to build a strong readership that will come back and participate in a discussion with you and other readers. Too many ads, and not enough real content will turn readers off and will make them stop coming back. You need to focus on providing quality content that is engaging and put in your advertisements around your content, and focus on that first. This will allow you to build a blog that can bring you a steady stream of income. Finding a subject or variety of related subjects you are passionate about will make it possible to build a blog that people enjoy reading. The more readers you have the more likely you are to have a successful blog that will provide you with income.

Top 5 Mistakes You’re Making With Your Blog


You’ve read all about how to become profitable with your blog. You’ve chosen a niche, and you’ve started to write content. You’ve opened your AdSense account and even signed up for a few affiliate programs. But you’re just not making the money you thought you would — and may not even be making any money at all. What gives? Here are a 5 common mistakes that bloggers make that could be keeping you from turning the profit that you desire:
Incorrect Keyword Usage
Your keywords are critical to how well your blog ranks. They are what customers use to find your site. Choose the wrong keywords, or use them incorrectly, and your site won’t show up in the listings that your target customers are shown when they search. Make sure you do good keyword research, and then make sure you use them appropriately on your blog. Typically, keywords should be used in the title, the first 100 words of your blog post, and then ever 100 words throughout your post. Don’t use your keywords too often, or your page could be flagged as spam.
Inconsistent Posting
Did you post every day one week, but then dropped out of site for another two months? Inconsistent posting is a sure way to lose readers. No one wants to return to your site day after day, not knowing whether there will be new content there. Even if you only post every two weeks, you should make sure that you do it consistently so that readers know what to expect and will return as needed for the new content.
Stale Content
No matter how consistent you are, if you are only posting once a month or less, your content will quickly grow stale. Your site will become less attractive to both search engines and readers. The less often you post, the lower your site will rank with search engines. Make sure you are posting often and that you are posting interesting and engage content. Even if you are posting regularly, if you are posting boring or useless content, your ranking will suffer just as much.
Personal Content
No one wants to read about your cat — unless your blog is about cats. While sharing personal information can often make your blog stand out by showing off some of your personality, there is a fine line to walk, and you have to be sure you don’t cross it. Keep your blog on the topic at hand, and don’t bore your readers with information about what you ate for lunch or all the cute things that your kids said that day.
Improper Linking Strategy
Simply submitting your blog to a directory is not enough to get the highest rank possible. Use a diverse strategy that includes directories, guest posts, forum and blog comments, press releases, and more. Also be sure to use internal linking to get more notice for your older content, and to keep driving traffic to all your posts.
Whether you’re a veteran blogger or you’re just starting out, you can fall prey to these common blogging mistakes. Make sure that you avoid making these blunders and you’ll watch your blog readership and your search engine ranking grow.

Earning Money Online With Forums

Before I explain how you can earn money with forums seating at you home, let me first explain what is forum, just incase if you don’t know.
According to Wikipedia,
“An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages”
And Google’s definition is
“Forum is a meeting or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged.”
So now you know what internet forum is but do you know that you can make real money with the help of these forums? Here it is how.
Why I just said that forum can help you generate revenue from internet?
  1. Forum is the best platform to advertise your online business, your products and services or to build backlinks for your blog and sites.
  2. Forum is the place where like minded people meet to discuss the problems and get the solutions on particular subject. So in terms of audience for your business, forum members and visitors could be the high quality customers for you.
  3. Forum is the place where visitors come from google searching for solution so you can earn more business if your product or service is offering the solution what people are looking for on forums.
  4. Here you can build loyalty by showing your expertise in your business by taking part in hot discussions and helping people to get their solutions.
How do I find the top ranking forums in related to my business niche?
Let me tell you my own way of finding great forums in your niche. It’s really very simple. Just go to google and search for the following terms replacing keyword with your own niche / business keyword.
Keyword inurl:forum
Keyword forums
How do I know which forums are good for me to promote my online business and make money from?
If I will have to find the forum list, I will look for the following criteria.
  • Forum that has high Google PR (Pagerank) and Alexa rank.
  • That allows you to put link in your signature. And the link in your signature is publicly viewable.
  • Where people are addicted to spend some time discussing their ideas, topics, problems and solutions, I mean it should be active.
  • Should not be following any unethical marketing strategies including black hat SEO strategies.
  • And finally, it should be free so you don’t have to pay for your forum marketing efforts.
I have list of top forums in my business niche, what should I do now?
  1. Create your free account with all the forums.
  2. Read their terms of use and follow them strictly.
  3. Show your expertise and do not try to promote your self in your posts. Let your signature do that for you.
  4. take part in all hot discussions going on and try to show your expertise and build loyalty. Make readers follow your views and hence believe your words too.
  5. Never insult any one during discussion, be honest and try to be as friendly as you can.
  6. Be a real person and don’t argue too much. Apologize when you find your self wrong on any topic. After all you are here to build credibility and not to prove your arguments true, right?
  7. Post your ideas and share your views on other’s ideas and try to be a problem solver.
  8. Keep doing all these things regularly and consistently. More valuable member you will become for forum and readers, more benefits you are going to get from all your efforts.
  9. Work to help people there and it will automatically help you earn the trust, loyalty and finally more business and more profit.
Caution: While working on forums to make money online, always be ethical, real, friendly and follow all terms and conditions. One wrong step can lead you in loss of trust, credibility and hence no money. Never try to oversell you product, never offer unbelievable promises that can make your buyers or visitor unhappy.


Popular Blogging Platforms You Should Use


During its infancy, Web logging had the unfair reputation of being amateur, narcissistic, and ungrammatical. But because it slowly gained an audience, the blogosphere soon turned into an avenue for almost everyone.
For most people, it has become a means for talking about their experiences and interests. For many professionals (e.g. writers, entrepreneurs, chefs, etc.), it has become a channel for sharing their insights. And, for the readers, it has become a source of relevant and updated information.
How about you, are you interested in creating your own blog?
If you are, here are four of the most popular and user-friendly platforms.
BLOGGER
As a beginner, you need a blogging service that provides you with simple features. As such, you can greatly benefit from Google’s free system, which is easy to set up and use. Even if you have not tried uploading your write-ups before, you can publish your first blog in less than thirty minutes.
So, what does it have to offer you? Well, through it, you can perform these tasks.
  • Edit drag-and-drop templates
  • Update dynamic elements
  • Use geo-tags for location-based articles
  • Generate content through Windows Live Writer, Microsoft Word, and Google Docs.
With Blogger, you can feature other bloggers, helping you grow your site. This is possible because it supports a maximum of 100 users.
TUMBLR
If you like to combine blogging and social networking, this dashboard is ideal for you.
Technically considered as a micro-blogging platform, it lets you create short posts, which are longer than Twitter feeds and less formal than regular blog articles. Or, you can upload videos or images with brief descriptions, which is what most users are doing.
These days, it appeals to plenty of people, what with its informal yet fun and easy functions. If you want to share your passion in writing but you do not have enough time to commit yourself fully, Tumblr is a great selection.
WORDPRESS
This is an open source service, which provides you with the following options:
  • Free blog setup on your server
  • Blog hosting at WordPress.com
Whether you go for the former or the latter, you can take advantage of wonderful features like themes, widgets, and apps. Thanks to its growing community of developers and followers, you can make your posts more interactive for the readers.
Although setting up and configuring your account is not as easy, you can obtain amazing rewards for your effort. Because once your blog is up and running, you can use a wide array of customisation tools to tailor it according to your desired theme
SQUARESPACE
If the first three channels are free, this one is not. Now, you may find this aspect a huge downside and decide not to obtain the service. However, you need to think twice and check out its features and functions before making up your mind.
Just what does it offer? These usually include the following:
  • A completely hosted and managed system
  • A flexible platform for serious bloggers, photographers, and entrepreneurs
  • Site and content customisation
  • Free domain names
  • Social widgets, professionally designed templates, analytics tools
  • Blog importing
Judging from the list, you can expect a wonderful environment waiting for you. This means every penny you spend for the service is worth it.
So, there you have four well-known blogging platforms. Other than these, you can come across several wonderful options.
As conclusion to our topic, you have to be aware that as soon as you start publishing, you will stumble upon challenges, which are going to test your passion and dedication as a blogger. These usually come in the form of critiques and dissatisfied readers.
If you do receive negative comments, avoid retaliating; instead, cite your opinions and reasons for talking about the subject matter. On the other hand, do not forget to offer appreciation to anyone who praises your work.

Beginners Tips on How to Get Success With Online Business


Learn Before You Start.

Although there are various methods you can make online income, but you will never know which one is best for you until you discover them, research them or experience them your self. So it’s always better to understand the way and destination of your online journey toward success before you take first step ahead. I am pretty sure if you will quickly jump into the online business world without reading or learning enough, you will get only failure soon or later.

Set A Goal.

Ok, so as I said earlier, you must learn before you can start your online business and now I think that you are ready with the basic information and eager to kick start your work to earn money from internet. It’s time to set a goal. Yes, you have to set a goal because if you don’t know about the destination, about where you want to reach, how interesting your journey will be? The goal may be a short time goal or long time goal, it may be small or big but it must be there in your inner soul. Goal is what can keep you working, keep you dreaming about your success and great future ahead and also keep you charging to fight against the obstacles coming into a way to online success. To help you set the goals, here are some examples…
  1. I will double my website traffic within one month.
  2. I will write one article a day and publish them to article directories regularly for one month.
  3. I will build 100 backlinks from forums and blogs.

When To Give Up?

If you are really serious about your internet business or work from home job, you must know the exact time to give up and do you know the exact time when you should give up your work and get back to your old job? It’s never. Yes it’s never because if your goals are strong enough, your vision of success is clear, no one can stop you. I understand there are times come in journey when we have to think about giving up, but believe me, it’s the time to look back and think what mistakes you have done till today and what you forget to do that you know you should have done and then look forward and start policing your practice, work smartly doing less mistakes and more fruitful jobs.

Success Is Not The Destination, It’s A Journey.

To help you understand I would like to put some quotes here….
“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.”
Said By: Greg Anderson (American best-selling Author and founder of the American Wellness Project., b.1964)
“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”
Said by: Don Williams, Jr. (American Novelist and Poet, b.1968)
So whenever it makes you think about giving up, you must remember these quotes and believe that the success is in the journey, what you learn doing your journey and it’s not the destination. Destination is only the mark point where you will stop and think that you have got the success but actually you are getting it in every small step toward your goal. Isn’t it?

How to start your own classified site for free


There are so many classified sites in India. I also started one. You will find every week some new classified sites. I learned a lot after starting my own classified web site. These days starting a classified site is very easy. It is as easy as starting a blog. There are some of open sources scripts available on the web. There are scripts that are partly free and partly paid. So starting a classified site is just easy for any people who have some knowledge of internet.

What and how?

(1) What I need to start a free classified site?
If you have a self hosted blog and hosted your website on Bluehost like web host you are good to go. If you have not one you can easily get one it is as cheap as Rs. 5000 for one year. You can register a new domain or you can create a sub domain for classified.

(2) Where I can get a free classified script?
There are some of the free classified script, you can install WordPress plugin that will convert your blog in to a classified site. Open_Classified site plugin for WordPress is popular. However the one I preferred for my site is OSClass. OSClass is open source classified script. The script was developed with the aim to help start a classified site for free for anyone who wants one. And somehow aim is still motive.

(3) What is in OSClass?
It is continuously in development open source project getting a strong community support. There are some of the beautiful and scalable themes, you can easily modify them with basic knowledge of HTML and CSS, FTP etc, if you have some knowledge of PHP then you can take part in development. You also can create your own themes. There are some of the very good plugin as you see in WordPress. You can modify plugin as well.

(3) How can I install OSClass script?
If you have some knowledge of database creation and knowledge of FTP it is easy for you but if you are facing some problem you can pay the script developers install it for you as low as $20 with a month’s premium support.

(4) How can I make my ad posting site differ?
You need some working knowledge of HTML, CSS and you make it different.