Nextebizguy
Exploring Ways To Make Money Online
Archive for March, 2006
The Target Audience
Mar 31st
Part of this ebiz journey is a reorienting of the way I think about things. In the beginning my thoughts were like:
- What do I like?
- I’ll build that site that I like.
- How will I get people to my cool site?
As I’ve learned more and stumbled through the early attempts at stuff, my thinking has shifted to:
- What are people interested in?
- What product are these people interested in?
- Where can I find or make a product for these people?
- I’ll build a site to offer this product to these people
This approach solves a big problem. I no longer have to worry about whether people will be interested. The target audience is built in already. Yes, I’ll have to do some marketing, but I don’t have to generate the interest.
In essence this is a shift from being self-centered to other-centered. The self-centeredness in the beginning is understandable as we all tend to stick with what we know or like. If you can make this transition, it will help tremendously.
Niche Thoughts
Mar 26th
The ebiz life is challenging (to say the least). Some people promote that you should do ebiz on what your passions are. The conventional thinking is that is what will keep you motivated and interested. While I agree to a point, I have to disagree if your passion isn’t interesting enough to sustain a business. Of course, this all boils down to your goals as well. Do you want to quit your 9 to 5 job? You’re going to need more than a dollar a day off adsense.
I’m becoming more convinced that the key to success is finding out what people want, not what my passion is. I have a passion for military flight simulators, but that market is practically dead. The Playstation (TM) revolution all but killed it. I’m going to strongly suggest you research what people want first before you start an ebiz.
So how do you find it? One place I check regularly is: Top Sellers! Pick a section and compile a list of what are the most popular sellers. Looking through books on computers/internet, I compiled a list of popular categories.
- Computer Books (like books on Excel, PHP, Software coding)
- Photoshop Books
- Game Guides
- eBay
- Web Design
Top sellers motivate me because these are the things people are actually buying. This isn’t speculation about interest in buying, it’s the real deal.
Take eBay for example. An Overture search shows that the term “eBay” is searched for 454,823 times a day. Looking at the top sellers, books on how to sell things on eBay rank highly. I would venture to say that there is enough interest to explore a niche website. It might not be your passion, but the traffic shows there is ample interest.
The hardest part is being creative in finding that subset of eBay interest. What angle can you approach that others aren’t? What can you do better than others are already doing? Remember as well that you can always buy content. Find the niche and then spend a few dollars for original articles.
Adwords Content Network
Mar 19th
Another week in the tank. This week I decided to opt into the content network with Adwords to track the effectiveness of a such a campaign. As a reminder, I am selling two items currently (portable DVD player and MP3 player). So how did that work?
MP3 Player
Search Network: 12 clicks; Avg position 5.8
Content Network: 0 clicks; Avg position 7.5
Portable DVD Player
Search Network: 9 clicks; Avg position 10.4
Content Network: 0 clicks; Avg position 3.2
My initial fear with the Content Network was 1000’s non-converting clicks. Turns out I get half the page impressions and no clicks. Go figure.
The DVD Player was my best ad performer to date, but my average position is dropping weekly and I’m getting less clicks as a result. It’s coming to the place where I think I’m going to stop both ads and work on others.