Everywhere you go online, you hear the same thing… you
must find a niche for your business. If you are new to
Internet marketing you will do well to heed this advice.

Every day thousands more people come online in search of
wealth. Many jump right into the existing markets that are
already completely saturated and then wonder why they are
not making any money.

Given unlimited time, money and patience, they might
succeed. For those that do not have unlimited supplies of
these precious resources, aiming for a smaller niche market
can be a much smarter way to start your online business.

So just what is a niche?

If you want the long answer, you can buy any one of the
thousands of ebooks being sold online about niche markets.
You can go to a dictionary and see what definition of niche
it gives. But the short answer is niche simply means
distinct or individual.

Internet marketing has been defined as strategies that are
used to market a product or service online. These marketing
strategies include search engine optimization, search
engine submission, copywriting, web site design, reciprocal
linking and email marketing, etc.

A new person coming online to start a business has little
chance of knowing enough about all the above areas to be
able to compete in this market.

So how is a new person to have any chance at success?

Think smaller - think Niche!

Just from the above definition you can come up with the
following niches:

Marketing
Search Engine Optimization
Copywriting
Web Site Design
Promotion
Linking
Email Marketing

Even if you are lucky and are already extremely
experienced in one of the above niches, you will still have
a lot of competition in such broad topics. You need to
whittle these down even further to find tightly targeted
sub-niche markets that aren’t as competitive.

When it comes to finding niche markets, three of the best
resources available online are Wordtracker, Overture, and
Keyworddiscovery.

Wordtracker and Keyworddiscovery are the better options as
they bring everything together in one place for those trying
to find a good niche. However it does come at a cost so if you
can’t afford this, try Overture - it’s a free service.

To drilldown Internet marketing into sub-niche markets,
just type in “Internet marketing” in either Wordtracker,
Keyworddiscovery or Overture and look at the results that pop
up. Each of these results become ideas that you could drilldown
even further to find tightly targeted sub-niches that are highly
related to the parent niche.

Having a smaller, less competitive niche will give you a
much better shot at being successful then trying to build a
site around a broad topic like Internet marketing.

Remember - success in any business always comes back to
supplying a product that the public has a demand for and
that the market has room for. Find the right niche and you
are on the right path.

You can learn more about creating your niche webiste with the
Niche Site Manual, a complete and comprehensive resource
on finding a profitable niche and building related websites.

Have a great week

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I have some great news. From now through June 30, 2006,
WebPosition is offering a 20% discount on WebPosition 4
Professional Edition.

WebPosition Professional Edition delivers the advanced
functionality search marketers and SEO professionals require.
Includes all Standard Edition features plus paid keyword visibility,
advanced reporting, private labeling, unlimited domain support,
and more.

If you are looking for a great tool to improve your rankings,
don’t miss this offer!

June Special - 20% Off WebPosition 4 Professional

Can’t afford it?

WebPosition Standard Edition includes a basic toolkit for search
marketers looking for complete visibility and keyword research into
a web site’s organic search positions. Supports up to 5 domains.

You can try it for free by following the link below:

WebPosition Standard Edition Free Trial

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Coming Soon at My Software Gold Mine:

One of the best ways to get a steady stream of quality traffic to your
website(s) is to utilize the power of Viral Marketing.

If you are already a Subscriber to my Newsletter, stay tuned! You
will be going Viral very soon!

If you did not yet subscribe to this wonnnderful free Newsletter
do so now by clicking here, get your bonuses and go Viral with us!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The 60 Second Weekly Tip…

Do you know out of ALL of the emails your subscribers will
ever receive from you, which one they are most likely to
read?

… Your VERY FIRST message, ie the first “welcome”
message they get after signing up to your list!

This is when your subscribers are most eager to read your
emails. You see, they personally made the decision to join
your list, so they are consciously waiting to receive that
first email from you. This being the case, it is important
that you don’t waste this moment.

That initial mailing should be something more than just
the standard “thanks for subscribing and here’s the
download link to the report I promised you.” Sure, you want
them to read that report, but you also need to take
advantage of that one moment when you have their full and
undistracted attention.

While you don’t want to scare them off by immediately
bombarding them with a bunch of “hard-sell” offers, it’s
the perfect time to give them another option that is
directly related to your niche topic.

For instance, here are just a few things you could do:

- Offer them a special one-time discount…
- Give them an article to distribute…
- Ask them to complete a survey…
- Give them an additional freebie…
- Ask them to join your affiliate program…
- Offer them an affiliate incentive…

While this may go against everything you’ve learned about
building a relationship with your readers BEFORE you start
hitting them with your offers, you’ll be shocked how
effective this tactic can be and how much of a positive
impact it can have on your business.

Try it. You may be pleasantly surprised

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

For your enjoyment (and information), here is this week’s
quick trivia question…

What do the words ALMOST and BIOPSY have in common?

As usual the answer can be found later in the newsletter.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Featured Article
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Do You Have a Master Plan?

There is so much written on planning these days that it’s
hard for anyone to argue against the value of planning.

Some people like to live by the “seat of their pants,” and
no one would argue that a little spontaneity is great to
have in your life. But you do need to plan something at
some point, or your life will simply be one reaction after
another.

The non-planner will end up taking no proactive action to
improve his or her life. The most successful people plan
their goals and are motivated to accomplish them. So with
that said, everyone needs a master plan.

Do you have one?

A master plan should include long-term goals, short-term
goals, and objectives. You may also want to build in some
rewards to motivate you to accomplish them. Let’s look at
each item that should appear in your master plan:

Lifetime goals…

The first things you should include in your master plan
are your lifetime, or dream goals. These are goals that you
want to do at some point in your life and they shouldn’t be
dependent on money, time, or skill. For example, if you
want to make a six-figure a year online income, write it
down so you can visualize it.

Create a long list by finishing this sentence by adding
your lifetime goals:

“If I had unlimited money, time and skill, I would want
to…”

Short-term and Long-term goals…

Once you have your lifetime goals list, you should break
them down into things that you can realistically do in the
short-term and in the long-term.

Short-term goals might be anywhere from the present to the
next five years. Long-term goals are likely anything five
years and beyond. Don’t worry yet about how you’ll
accomplish them; we’ll get to that in a moment.

List your goals in order from the things you want to do
sooner to the things you want to do later!

Objectives…

Once you have developed your goals, now you need to create
objectives for each one. Objectives are the steps that you
need to take to reach your goals.

Let’s use the example from above… if you want to
generate a six-figure online income your objectives would
outline the small steps you need to take to reach your
short-term goals, such as:

- find someone who is already doing this
- follow their blueprint for success
- allocate $x and at least 1 hour a day to learn
- take the necessary action to make your first sale
- rinse and repeat to make your next sale

Then once you’ve met your short-term goals you should then
develop a new set of objectives to reach your long-term
goals.

You might look at this list and say “easier said than
done!”, but by breaking down all of your goals into smaller
objectives it does become easier to do. You now have some
small steps to work on to get you to the next level.

Now what does all this have to do with e-business? Simple.
For many entrepreneurs, a long term goal might be financial
freedom. Building your business might be one of the
objectives to reach that goal.

And within that “main” objective of building your business
will be the smaller objectives that must be reached to do
the building. The more you break down the steps that need
to be taken, the easier it will be to reach your goal.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
This Week’s Trivia Answer
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Here’s the answer to the trivia question I asked earlier…

What do the words ALMOST and BIOPSY have in common?

Answer: Their letters are in alphabetical order.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Off-Line Marketing Strategies
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Formatting Your Press Release!

Once you know the basics involved in writing a Press
Release, you’ll find it’s a pretty simple process to put
one together. In fact, if you conform to “industry
standards” and include the information that reporters and
editors are expecting to find, your press release stands a
very good chance of actually being used.

Here are the formatting rules you need to follow:

Use mixed case. NEVER SUBMIT A PRESS RELEASE IN ALL UPPER
CASE LETTERS. As you can see, it’s much more difficult to
read that way.

Always follow the rules of grammar and style. Errors in
grammar and style affect your credibility. Excessive errors
will cause your press release to be rejected.

Don’t use HTML. When sending your press release to online
Media, do not embed HTML or other markup languages in it.
Including such formatting will negatively impact the
readability of your press release.

Use more than one paragraph. If you can say everything in
only a few sentences, then chances are you do not have a
newsworthy story. (*Note: You may hear that your press
release should “never” be more than one page long.

I have found that a press release should be as long as it
takes to tell your story. If that means one and a-half or
two pages, then that’s how long it should be. Do your best
to keep it short and sweet, but don’t take out important
information just to make it fit on one page.)

Include a summary paragraph for online submissions. Some
online news services request that you include a one-page
summary of your press release. This is because some
distribution points only receive your headline, summary and
a link to your press release.

If you are submitting to online services, not including
the summary paragraph may reduce the effectiveness of your
press release. This is not usually necessary with print,
television or radio media.

Write your press release on a word processor instead of
composing it online. When you’ve finished writing it, print
it out, and proofread it. Rewrite, edit, and proofread
again, until you’ve got it exactly how you want it, and
there are no mistakes.

Because most people have a harder time proofreading their
own writing, ask someone you trust to proofread it for you.

Do not include your e-mail address in the body of your
release - especially when submitting your press release
online, or publishing your press release on your website or
in your blog.

You can include your email address in the contact
information if you wish, but if it goes online be prepared
to be spammed. Most online media services will have a place
for your email address in the submission process, for your
protection, and most of your local media will prefer a
telephone number to contact you with.

Here is a basic template you can use when writing your
Press Release:

Starting at the top of the page, on your company
letterhead, write the words “PRESS RELEASE” in all capital
letters, centered and bolded.

Hit the enter-bar twice, so you go down two lines.

On the left hand side of the page, write the date you want
the information to be released, or if it’s “FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE” write that, again in all CAPS and bolded.

On the same line, but to the far right, write the words
“CONTACT INFORMATION” again, bolded and in capital letters.
Go down to the next line, and list the contact person and
their phone number.

It’s always a good idea to have two contact people
whenever possible and two phone numbers for each of them -
for example, the office number and cell phone numbers. You
can also put your email address here.

Hit the enter-bar twice again, and type in your headline.
(It needs to be centered and bolded, but not necessarily in
all CAPS). Your headline needs to be short, snappy and
relevant. You want it to grab the reader’s attention.

Go down two spaces again.

The body of your press release should be double spaced and
typed in an easy to read size 12 font, such as Times New
Roman or Arial. Leave lots of white space in your press
release - use at least one to two inch margins around your
page.

The first paragraph of your press release needs to provide
the reader with enough basic information to make them keep
reading. It should answer the “W” questions - who, what,
when, and where and why. As you’ve only got a few
sentences, make every word count.

The second paragraph of your press release will answer the
“so what” question. It needs to explain who is going to be
interested in this information and why they should care
about it. The second paragraph is an ideal place to include
a quote, or a touchie-feely “Kodak” moment to add human
interest to your story.

The third (and often final) paragraph of your press
release should answer any other questions the reporter or
journalist might still have about your story. Here is where
you can include information about your company, or any
technical stuff.

Make your press release long enough to say what you need
to say. If it goes beyond one page, then centered under the
last line on the first page, write the word “MORE” in all
caps and bold it.

Then on the second page, on the top right hand side of the
page, write “Page 2″ and on the line under that, write the
title of your press release again.

Continue where you left off. When your press release is
finished, put these symbols centered under the last line
“###” (without the quotation marks.) This lets the reader
know that you’re done.

That’s all there is to it.

Although the information you provide will be different
each time you write a press release, the basic format will
always stay the same.

You’ve now got enough information to be able to write your
first press release. So, “write” on and good luck!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Have You Got Any Comments?
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

This is your chance to speak out.

Comment on articles I’ve run in the newsletter, give me
your thoughts on changes or your ad testing results or
questions relating to your business, etc.

In other words, just talk to me about what you think I
need to do to improve the newsletter.

Be sure to include your website address too, because if
I use your comments in a future issue of the newsletter,
I’ll thank you by posting your address so that you can get
additional free traffic to your site!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
That’s a Wrap for this Week
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

That wraps up another week’s newsletter and I hope you
enjoyed this issue.

Don’t forget to send me any comments or questions you
may have to the Feedback Loop. I would be only too happy to
help you in any way that I can.

From time to time I’ll send you important updates
that will provide information that has the potential to
greatly improve your online business… and of course
your profits!

However, you can rest assured that I will only ever
recommend products that are considered to be of HIGH value
and will provide indisputably benefits to help you grow
your business… that’s my guarantee!

Your friend,

Gilles Rais

Categories: Newsletter Issues