Opt Marketing And Why You Should Be Doing It

Opt Marketing goes well beyond simply setting up an email capture offer on a web site, connecting it through Aweber or some other marketing email software, and waiting for prospects to opt in. While this is definitely an aspect of it, opt marketing is more about taking promotional action.

So while we could say, putting an opt-in offer to a free report or a newsletter on your website to capture leads is a good idea, and should be done, this type of system is more on the passive side than anything else. You put it up and wait for people to fill in the form, and you get a 1 to 20% visitor/opt-in conversion depending on the quality of the free offer.

But opt marketing is, well . . . marketing, and so it needs to take on a more aggressive, promotional aspect. It requires activity on your part.

Opt marketing then is actively promoting sign ups through various outlets just as you would do promoting products. Instead of offering people something to buy, you offer them the option of following you.

Now why should you be doing this?

First off, people don’t really like being sold to. But if they know they’ll be getting some good information free from you, they’re more likely to opt in on a squeeze page or follow you on Twitter and Facebook. So actively promoting the opt in option will have a much higher conversion rate.

Once they’re connected to you in one form or another, then you can build their trust enough to promote products to them.

Secondly, if you’re paying for advertising through PPC or some other method, you can set up a new campaign ad each time you promote a new product, or you can set up one campaign and advertise something free to get the opt ins and let it run. When people sign up, you can then promote different products to them and it won’t cost you a penny more.

And third, the social networks are filled with people who hate marketers, but love to know things. Using them to get followers then requires you to be less the salesperson and more the enlightened informant.

Which brings us to the most important part of opt marketing. Giving people a good reason to hook up with you.

The best reason is value of course.

This is why those who use the Product Launch Formula have such a high opt in rate. They give away top quality information in the form of videos, audios and text to lure people in to the final launch. Some even say the pre-launch freebies are of a better quality, and more informative than the actual products.

But the same principles apply to your standard opt marketing. Give people high quality info, post it on a blog, offer it as a free report, tweet it, share it throughout the social networks, and people will respond. Then, once you have them appreciating what they’ve gotten, you can make some offers.

Ultimately, you’ll want to try and capture their email using a marketing email software like Aweber so you can directly promote products to them. But even if you don’t, you’ll still have tons of people following you in the social networks who you can direct to your blog where promotional banners and ads are, or eventually to a squeeze page.

You know, they say the most important thing you’ll ever promote is you. Opt marketing is about promoting you, what you know, and how it’ll help other people. It creates a less pressure environment for both you and those you’re trying to connect with because it initially doesn’t try to sell anything. So if you’re currently not actively doing this, take some stress off yourself and try it!

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Technorati Tags: marketing email software, opt in, opt marketing

Some Misinformation About Article Submission

Just reading through some articles and blog posts, you may come across information, or more accurately, some misinformation about article submission and the duplicate content myth. Knowing the truth can save you a whole lot of time and expense, especially if you’re considering paying someone to write unique articles for you.

The first is, if you submit the same article to all the article directories, Google will discard all but one. They go on to say, you need to submit unique articles to each directory so you don’t lose out.

The truth is, Google doesn’t discard anything. When a piece of content shows up on a number of sites, Google considers it to be popular and adds weight to it based on how many sites it shows up on. Weight is also added when the content is on high PR and authority sites.

Here’s where this myth’s proponents get confused . . .

Google will show only one instance of an article in a search query for the keywords it targets, and usually on the highest ranked site it appears on. So if you submit your article, yes the same article, to places like EzineArticles and some lesser directories, chances are Google will show the one on EzineArticles.

However, and just as a side point, Google will list your article in a search query on a lesser ranked directory if that directory accepts and posts your article first, before EzineArticles or other big PR sites. Then, as the more authoritative directories accept and post, Google will change the listing in a search results to the better one.

But once a page is indexed, it remains indexed. And even though it may not show up in a search result, its still part of the over all popularity of the content and counts toward the weight of the document.

On the other hand, when an article gets submitted to only one directory it stands alone with no weight beyond the authority of the site its on.

For more information about this, grab the free report “Don’t Get Duped About Duplication.”

Another bit of misinformation, and this one effects all of us who use article marketing in our campaigns . . .

They say you should only submit to the highest ranking authority sites and leave the rest of the 800 or so article directories alone.

Now everyone knows what makes an authority site, right? Quality content. It’s how all the highest ranked article directories got to that position.

So if a PR 0 site were to get a ton of incoming quality articles, it wouldn’t be too long before they too got a higher page rank and started being seen as an authority site, providing they moderated that intake correctly.

And if more of these smaller article directories gained weight with the search engines, we’d all have more authority sites to submit to.

Thus by taking a little extra time to place your articles in some of these article directories, you’d be helping to build up the entire system.

The immediate upside for you would be that your articles would get moderated faster on these sites with less article intake, and so they’d begin showing up in search results quicker. The long range benefit would be we’d all have more quality, authority sites to submit to over time.

Article submission is a powerful marketing tool if its done right. But with all the misinformation about article submission out there, its no wonder article directories are having to reject a lot of their intake, and why many of them are stuck with low page rank. Article submission is something we could all benefit from if we put aside all the misinformation about it, and each of us took the initiative to build up the directories.

Popularity: 47% [?]

Technorati Tags: article directories, article submission, authority site, authority sites, duplicate content, duplicate content myth, EzineArticles, Google, misinformation about article submission

Article Marketing: Competing For Readers

Once it occurs to you, article marketing is not just for getting back links, you’re suddenly faced with the fact there’s a great deal of competition going on behind the scene. Thousands of authors are daily competing for readers by submitting quality information. Are you one of them?

Millions of people visit the article directories every day to find information and recommendations, and with all the content pouring into these places, they can afford to be choosy about which articles they’ll read. Competing for readers then should be your top priority.

This means two things . . .

First, you need to submit your articles into the best possible category each directory has to offer.

Why?

Because readers visit article directories to find specific information, either to learn from or to find content for their sites. The more fine tuned your category choice is, the easier it’ll be to find your articles.

You see, when you submit articles into general or less specific categories, you put yourself up against the maximum number of competitors. So when readers visit the article directory, your articles are like a needle in a haystack and could be easily passed over. Then, because you didn’t submit them into a good sub-category, the readers will never see your articles because they won’t be there where they’re looking.

Make sense?

The second thing is all about quality of course, because frankly, quality content separates the men from the boys!

Good article writing starts at the title, ends with the call to action, and has an easy to follow flow in between. A high quality article isn’t about sophisticated, technical verbiage, or sensationalism either. It’s about being to the point, informative, and interesting.

The article title should be on point to what’s contained in the content. Be creative in your title selection, but never make it seem you’re offering more than the article does. An article title can be a major draw, or it can be a complete turn off if it doesn’t match the content of the article. If you stick to using your main article keyword in the title, you should do well and avoid deception.

The way you structure your article body is important too. Whether you use bullet points or not, your article should be a list of steps that take your readers from knowing nothing about the topic to understanding enough about it to see the reasonableness of the call to action at the end.

Each point should enforce the one prior so that you’re breaking down an argument to a logical conclusion. Jumping around your points will only confuse your readers and get them to give up. Writing an outline before you put your articles together will help you stay on point.

Finally, your call to action should be more about the psychology of sensibility rather than hypnotic motivation. If you’ve used logic in your article body, and presented your argument well, there should be no need whatsoever for hype at the end.

Your readers will be led to making their own conclusions based on the reasonable conditions you’ve set. And it’s a well known fact that when a person believes they’ve made a choice on their own, they’re much more likely to follow through on it.

Now this may all be contrary to what you’ve been led to believe article marketing is about, and we’re not saying back links aren’t an important element to why you’d submit articles. But the fact is, whether you’re submitting articles to your standard article directories, or if you’re selective in your submissions and only submitting to the special directories as a contributing author, you’re going to have competition.

Competing for readers first, above all other reasons for submitting articles, will still get you back links, but will also set you up as an expert author, eliminate the haystack effect of the vast number of articles being submitted, put you on track for maximum traffic to your site or offer, and give you a fighting chance in the search engine indexing war.

Popularity: 83% [?]

Technorati Tags: article directories, article directory, Article Marketing, article submission, categories, category choice, competing for readers, good article writing, high quality article

Learning From Your Market Competitors

Whether the idea of having market competitors sends shivers down your spine, or if you choose to plow through them, the fact is, no matter what niche you get into you’re going to have them. And they could number in the thousands! So what do you do to compete? Well, have you ever thought of learning from your competitors?

Anyone with any marketing savvy would tell you, market competitors should never be ignored or taken lightly. But they’d also tell you, you should always find ways to capitalize on their success, rather than blindly butt up against them.

Take for example, an obvious reason why you’d want to know what your competitors strategy is, your price analysis.

Naturally you’d want to know what products are selling for in your market before creating a competing product, or even finding affiliate products to insert into the market. If your product competitors are all selling ten dollar items, and your product’s price is way over that, you’ll have trouble breaking in unless you can clearly justify the higher price.

But your business competitors can teach you a lot more than that, and you should be eager to learn everything they can offer before completing your own market strategy.

Of course none of them will reveal their strategies willingly, but they’re still available to you if you know how to find them.

One way to do this kind of in depth competitors analysis is with Market Samurai. Using this tool will save you a lot of time and give you a broader range of statistics you might not normally get doing your market research manually. Market Samurai was created by Internet marketers for Internet marketers, so its results are right on and will take you deeper into knowing whatever market challenges you’ll encounter.

So with any market research, you’ll want to start with keyword analysis to find keywords and phrases that both suit your needs and give you a chance to get the best search/competition ratios you can.

This goes without saying. It’s the basis of all research.

But once you have a list of phrases you might possibly work with, then it gets really interesting. Now you can see what your market competitors have and are doing with them.

We can call this next phase “competitors intelligence discovery,” because now we can research how smart they’ve been using SEO and content to become major competitors in your market.

If you simply Google your key phrases one by one, you’ll be able to see the sites ranking in the top ten spots. These would naturally be you major competitors, and you can get a lot of information just by visiting the sites. However, a site visit might not give you the reason why they’re in the top ten beyond knowing the type of content they supply.

You’ll also want to know things like how well they’ve used SEO methods, how many back links point to their page and domain, their domain age, page rank, and how many pages on their site are being indexed by Google. This is where tools like Market Samurai can come in handy.

In regards to back links, competing site with .edu and .gov back links will carry more weight, as will sites with paid Yahoo links and DMOZ.org listings.

All of these things contribute to their success, and will need to be taken into account if you’re thinking of competing with them. But knowing these things and learning from your market competitors before settling on a market strategy of your own will save you a lot of time and headaches now, and in any future niche you’re thinking of getting into.

Popularity: 30% [?]

Technorati Tags: business competitors, competitors intelligence, competitors strategy, Internet marketers, major competitors, market challenges, market competitors, market research, Market Samurai, market strategy, marketing savvy, niche, price analysis, product competitors, SEO

What Should You Do When Sales Are Down?

Our natural inclination in times of trouble is to panic. We tend to either try and force solutions, or throw anything and everything we can at the problem in hopes something will work. But is panic and scrambling the way to go with your marketing? Is there an alternative? What should you do when sales are down?

Admittedly, its hard to see past the “fight or flight” mechanism we all possess. When our norm falls away abruptly, we react. This is true in regard to our personal safety for sure, but its also true for the stability of the lifestyle we’re accustomed to.

So naturally we’ll have a reaction to a severe drop in revenue, right? It’s normal!

If sales are down, it might mean you lose some of the fringe benefits you’re used to having. But it could also mean much more than that. It could mean your home, your car, or even food on the table are in jeopardy.

It’s easy too see how this would bring about a level of panic in anyone! But what can or should you do about it when you’re faced with this problem? Will scrambling help?

Well some marketers do scramble. They start promoting anything and everything they can get a commission for, even if those products are far and away from their normal area of expertise. They give up building their business, and just try to sell anything they can.

While this might bring in some sales, it tends to diminish the reputation of the marketer, especially if that marketer had some credibility in a certain field or had a particular method of marketing he/she was known for.

Now we’re not saying promoting a lot of different things is wrong. But if you’re known for a certain style of marketing, and you switch abruptly and start emailing your lists with everything coming down the pike when they’re not used to you doing that, people are going to notice.

The point is, in times of trouble when your income drops, it’s not a good time to “throw the baby out with the bath water.” Better to spend the down time building what you’ve already created a reputation for and had success with.

So unless the business model you’re following hasn’t brought in any income at all, then you should stick to what’s worked for you and use the time to enhance it.

For example . . .

Adding income streams that are relevant to your existing business is fine, as long as they don’t change your model or how you’re clientele are accustomed to receiving promotions from you.

Implementing new ways of communicating with potential customers via the social networks, guest blogging, and commenting won’t change who you are or your brand, but will widen your outreach.

Updating your content with new, useful information will raise the appreciation level of your reader base without changing the message over all.

Just remember, chances are your income drop isn’t because of anything you’ve done. The economy is bad right now, and everyone is feeling the pinch. People are being selective in what they buy, so you’re better off spending your time building trust and credibility.

Customers gravitate to these things, and so rather than throwing everything at them, which actually says, “I’m broke and need to sell you something quick,” keeping your cool and reaching out with your knowledge and expertise in the field you know is successful will win the day.

So what should you do when sales are down? Whatever you do, try not to panic. Stay true to yourself and your successful business model, and build on it. Reach out, don’t branch off!

Popularity: 50% [?]

Technorati Tags: drop in revenue, fight or flight, income drop, overcome the urge to panic, panic and scrambling, sales are down

What Do You Consider To Be Ethical Marketing?

Ethics in marketing seems to be getting talked about a lot recently, which is a good thing. I was going to write up my views about it, but then thought instead to ask you what you think. So then, what do you consider to be ethical marketing?

Here’s a few examples of what people have been complaining about to get you started:

1. Product Launch systems have come under some considerable criticism lately, but is it the process that needs to be scrutinized? Or is it how some marketers use the systems the real problem?

One of the biggest complaints with the latest product launches is how the free material seems to be more valuable than the actual products being launched and sold for large sums of money.

Do you get that impression? Do you appreciate the materials offered free during pre-launch? Do they compel you to buy?

2. Some email marketers will add [PERSONAL] to the Subject line. They then tell you not to show it to anyone else because its “just for your eyes only.” At the bottom of the email is the usual subscriber links for adjusting or deleting your subscription, revealing the email may have been received by thousands of other people.

How often do you get these, and does the [PERSONAL] get you to open them? Does it anger or upset you to discover the emails aren’t all that personal at all? Or do you expect and accept its just a tactic to get you to read them?

3. Oops, bad link

They say in marketing 101 you need to expose your mailing lists to a product approximately seven times before you can squeeze out a decent conversion rate. But do you think some marketers are deliberately putting bad links in their initial emails as an excuse to send another one? Or do you think these are legitimate mistakes? Or maybe both?

4. Exit pop ups are everywhere, but lately it seems some could be using them a bit too aggressively.

Is it annoying to you when you’re forced to opt out of a page 2 and 3 times before a site finally shuts down? Or do you think this is just smart marketing, especially when they use it to down sell or offer you a better deal? Do you like exit pop ups?

Now I tried not to show any judgment for any of these issues because I want you to share what you think. This is only an attempt to determine what the majority of Internet marketers believe to be ethical marketing practices, and is not meant to put down any products, particular marketers, or techniques.

The examples I gave are just a few of the things I’ve heard others complaining about, so if you have more or different ones, please feel free to add them to your comment. You’re not limited to the above selection.

I do ask that you post only relevant comments, and try to use the keywords below in your text. Track backs are welcomed too.

So what do you consider to be ethical marketing? If enough of us talk about it at length, perhaps we can do a little “house cleaning” and raise all our reputations and productivity.

Popularity: 100% [?]

Technorati Tags: ethical marketing, ethical marketing practices, ethical marketing tactics, ethics in marketing, marketing tactic, marketing tactics

Is Internet Marketing Just For Younger People?

On average, a large percentage of people involved in Internet marketing are younger people between the ages of 18 to 35. But is Internet marketing just for younger people? Or can seasoned old style door to door salespeople and even older newbies do just as well with it?

Sure, there are new marketing techniques being taught in school that maybe an older person may not have privy to, and perhaps the technology of the web might be easier for a younger person to latch onto. But that doesn’t necessarily mean Internet marketing is solely for the young.

You see, the best way to build a brand and make a living from it is through experience. Experience is what makes experts, and older folks have plenty of it. The trick is in finding a marketing strategy that will bring that experience to light and make it stand out.

And even with that, most old marketing strategies still work when adapted to the new technology. Just look at how popular the book, “Think and Grow Rich” still is among Internet marketers. This book was written a long time ago, but the marketing theories apply just as well as when it was written.

In fact, it’s all the same thing really. You need a supplier and a market. Supply and demand.

My dad was always in sales. He sold everything from restaurant table lamps to land in Florida. Regardless of what he was selling, he needed a supplier and a market to sell it to.

Of course his was more physical a job. He had to travel a lot so he could bring the goods and services to the client. He didn’t have a web site, simply because web sites didn’t exist at that time. And phones back then weren’t very smart, so no pictures were ever sent to clients. He had to manually mail out brochures via snail mail to precede his visits.

It was a lot more work to make a sale back then, but really, with the exception of physical travel, Internet marketing is pretty much the same. You still need connections, you still need clients, and you still need the skills and rapport to deal with people.

And actually, what we’re seeing now is a return to the standard customer relationship building so vital back in my dad’s day. The hey days of full automation and high tech generic selling are fading away, leaving us with customers who want to know and trust those they buy from.

So they say “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” but this isn’t entirely true, especially if the old dog is able, willing, and the tricks aren’t all that different than the ones he already knows.

Sure there’s technical stuff like site building, video, and the like that needs some consideration. But with systems like WordPress and YouTube, these can easily be conquered, so that someone with a minimum of Internet know how can get by.

No, these things are incidental to success online and can even be outsourced if need be.

What’s really needed are the same marketing skills used by the old Fuller Brush man, the Avon lady, and the encyclopaedia salesman that would come knocking on doors.

So whether you were one of these people, or you were a customer of any of these, you have the knowledge needed to make a living on the Internet.

In fact, with the abilities of the older generation sales force, it could be argued then that a “seasoned” person might have an advantage over the younger Internet marketer. Just having the experience in dealing with customers one on one, in their homes and offices, gives someone from the old days of marketing and selling a leg up.

So is Internet marketing just for younger people? Not by a long shot! By applying the experience they’ve accumulated over the years, older folks can do just as well, and even better. Because, in reality, the only difference between then and now is the vehicle used to reach the clients.

Popularity: 48% [?]

Technorati Tags: customer relationship building, Internet marketers, Internet marketing, marketing, marketing skills, marketing strategies, marketing theories, old marketing strategies

How To Know If A Product Is Good Before You Buy It

With all the product launches and other marketing products being sold, how do you know which ones deserve a second look, or are even worth buying? After all a lot of this stuff is just rehashed junk being peddled with a new twist. So how do you know if a product is good before you buy it?

To be honest, I seldom buy anything right away as soon as its launched. It’s not a money issue, but more of a “lets see what others do with it first” kind of thing.

Most times marketers who promote products will shortly thereafter start implementing what they got out of it in their own marketing. If at least some of them show a change in their methods relating to the product in question, and if the techniques they’re adopting seem reasonable, then maybe they’ve learned something of value from it.

This can take a little while to see how a new product is being received by people who buy it, and its probably not the best barometer in determining whether a new product is good for you or not. But I can attest to having saved a great deal of energy and brain drain by waiting.

Because you see, the worst part about all these launches is, they are normally one huge distraction!

They distract you with all the notices about it from every affiliate marketer on the planet, then they distract you with their time and supply limits, and worse, they distract you will all the freebies attached to them.

Now don’t get me wrong, some of the free stuff they hand out in pre-launch is pretty good. In fact, some of it is actually worth more than the product itself in as far as teachable information goes.

But that’s all besides the point because, the real distraction is how much time they can take away from you and what you should be doing to build your own business.

You see, here’s the thing . . .

If you’re ever going to be successful in online marketing, you’re going to need a business plan and model, and stick with it. You can’t be wandering off every time someone dangles something glittery in front of you.

And really, that’s what all these launches are designed to do. Make you chase the money, or at least the prospect of it. However, if you already have a business model that you’re working, how will allowing yourself to completely look away give you anything? And what if you get pulled into several new launches a month? How will that effect your plan?

Seriously, if you really want to know if a product is good before you buy it, hold it up to your own business model. If the product is about what you’re doing, or can add to it, then buy it if you thinks its worth it. If not, let it go as soon as you know it has nothing to add to your already established plan. You’ll save hours of distracted time and plenty of money you can be investing in yourself.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Technorati Tags: business plan, chase the money, determining whether a new product is good, how do you know if a product is good before you buy it, marketing products, product launches, your own business model

Setting Up An Article Distribution Service

One of the most sought after marketing services you could conceive of getting into is an article distribution service. Why? Because submitting articles can be a real pain in the neck. So it’s easier to hire someone to do it for you, or use an article submitting software to help you get through the process faster. But did you know there’s a way to use article submission software in setting up an article distribution service and make money from it?

Considering there are literally thousands of articles being submitted on the web every day to the 800 or 900 remaining article directories, and considering how few of these authors really want to go through the hassle of submitting their articles themselves, offering a service to do it for them can be quite profitable.

And as the article directories get smarter in the way the can block auto submissions, your average “lazy” author will need some sort of assistance to submit articles manually to everywhere they want their articles to go.

So if you’re struggling to make money, and you’re looking for a business model to bring in some steady income, you might want to consider starting an article submission service, publish your announcement on forums and social networks, and watch the orders come in.

Now if you’re planning on doing all this work manually, then you won’t need anything to get started beyond a list of article directories, a browser, and a spreadsheet to keep track of your customers and their logins.

They’ll just send you their articles via email, and all you’ll have to do is check your spreadsheet to see if they’re current paying clients, open your browser and start submitting for them.

However, many of your clients may want some proof that you’ve submitted their articles and where. So you’ll also need something to keep track of the submission history that you can send them as verification. This would require an additional spreadsheet for each individual client so you could add the date, the article title, and the directory URL or name.

So far this hasn’t cost you a penny to set up, but it might be a little burdensome to keep everything in order over time. And what happens if you get 10 or 20 new clients all of a sudden who all want their articles submitted yesterday?

An alternative to using spreadsheets and hunting down article directories would be to use article submission software designed specifically for submitting articles. This would help you, not only in submitting articles for clients, but would also keep track of everything like logins, articles and bio boxes for each author, plus provide you with a history of everything you submit per author so you can verify the work you’ve done.

Now granted, there aren’t many article submitters that can keep track of anything beyond your own personal author login, but there are some slightly higher end ones that will.

Article Submitter Pro is one such program, and can handle everything you’ll need to submit articles for an unlimited number of other people. You can load in and save an unlimited number of client author profiles complete with login details, add their articles and bio boxes and have them stored specifically for that author.

You can select personal favorite sites for those of your clients that have preferences, and get a complete history of everywhere you’ve submitted for each author and when. You could even offer a special service and submit their directory accepted article URLs with summary to the social networks directly through the software.

And you can simply save each authors’ login details in the software if they’ve already registered to their favorites sites, or you can register for them to among the 800 or so directories stored and ready in the site list.

So setting up an article distribution service using an article submission software like  Article Submitter Pro will have an up front investment, certainly. But it will also give you a professional service, and save you a lot of spreadsheet and browser time. And with the demand for this type of work, you’ll recoup your investment in no time.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Technorati Tags: article directories, article distribution service, Article Marketing, article submission, article submission service, article submission software, Article Submitter Pro, article submitting, article submitting software, submission history, submit articles manually, submitting articles

Creating Content For A Micro Niche

Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place! Working micro niches is the sensible way to bring in revenue these days, but once you find one, how do you go about creating content for a micro niche when its, well, micro? How much can you write about a blue and green striped widget anyway?

This is probably the number one problem for anyone building a site around a tiny niche, and could be the reason why so many have turned to content scraping. But does creating content for a micro niche have to be all that difficult?

Certainly there’s a lot less to write about when you’re working a single, minute corner of a market, but its not impossible. You just have to use your imagination a bit.

So, they say you need at least three articles on site before the search engines will take it seriously. That shouldn’t be too hard to come up with.

Most people who sell blue and green striped widgets tend to stick to the technical aspects of them. You know, they write about what they do, how big they are, the significance of the blue/green stripes, etc.. They may put up a video showing one in action too.

But then you need to maintain an influx of content to so you can hold or even increase your position.

So once all that technical stuff is explained, what else is there?

Well supposedly there’s always the comparison between your blue/green widget and the orange/yellow ones, and how blue/green is better and more efficient for whatever widgets do. But how many comparison articles can you write before your readers get sick and tired of comparisons?

Too many of those and your site can get down right boring after a while!

Ah, but perhaps we’ve forgotten what people actually look for when they visit a site? It’s marketing 101 stuff!

You know, the old standard “WIIFM,” or to lay people, “what’s it in for me?”

In the case of blue/green widgets, visitors might like to know some practical ways buying one will benefit them and enhance their lives.

So how do you go about relating that type of information?

I once did some work in a micro niche having to do with construction. It was based on a particular type of structure that was gaining in popularity. So I figured I’d give it a shot.

After searching for other sites in the same niche, I noticed all the content on every single competitor site was technical information. They’d talk about dimensions, layout, ease of construction, how they could be painted and/or modified, delivery time, and things like that.

The point that I focused on though, was how these structures could be modified above all the other information provided. Because, though they talked about modifying, not one site gave any examples of how they could be modified and for what purposes.

Well this started the old imagination going, and I came up with a whole slew of ways to modify, along with story lines to make presenting the ideas more personable. I thought of all kinds of ways one type of structure could be used for something other than it was intended to be.

Before long I had twenty or so full blown stories of how “so and so” wanted a special place for a particular purpose, and found a way of utilizing one of these structures with some modifications to get it. Dreams came true in my stories, and visitors found them to be informative and entertaining at the same time.

These stories kept the site in traffic for quite a while. The stories I wrote made up about 80% of the entire content, and I would feed the site a new story at least once a week, and promoted the product line through them.

After a while I ended up selling the site and domain for a decent amount, and the new owner seems to be doing rather well with it. Haven’t checked it lately, but hopefully the company running it got the idea and are busy producing new stories.

So can you build story lines around your micro niche? Certainly you can see how creating personable stories will illustrate to your visitors how your product can benefit them.

And no one says these stories have to be historically real either. You goal is to show your visitors how your blue/green widgets can be used imaginatively to adapt their own needs. The applications have to be real, but the characters and circumstances can totally come from your own creativity.

Now you could probably come up with other ways of creating content for a micro niche, but this is one way I’ve found to be effective through my own experience. The point is, focus on the customer and how your products will help them get what’s in it for them, throw in a little imagination, and it’ll all be good to go.

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