My first attempt at IM. Is my system the way forward?
After discovering this forum about a month ago, I have been completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of free information. Really really quality stuff! I think I've learned more from this forum than all the courses I've purchased combined. It was a real eye opener to have some real advice not biased by over hype in the interest of selling something.
After watching IM from the sidelines for a while now and finishing Uni so that I have some free time, and a need for money! I figured it was time I give it a shot. After ALOT of research a few courses and endless research at 2am in the morning I have settled on the following system.
Find a niche
Using Amazon, Clickbank, Flippa, Yahoo Answers, Web Answers and other markets, find a profitable niche. This is one part of the system that really confuses me and I think trips people over. How to really determine if a niche is profitable? Is the niche too small, too broad? Are the customers hungry?
Essentially the way I see it (I may be really wrong!) but this is essentially a guess. You can of course backup this guess with real market data. Keyword searches, number of competitors etc... But it is still a gamble. So I've found a niche and I'm ready to take that gamble on it.
Keyword Research
Find a group of keywords with low competition (in terms of quality) and high volume searches, determine quality of competition by the standard of their competing web page. Do the competing webpages have a great deal of backlinks? High PR? What is the quality of their articles/website design?
I outsourced this part of the business to a warrior member. I understand that poor keyword research can cause an IM business to fail before it's even started, so for my first site I wanted the keyword research done to a near professional standard and didn't mind paying for that.
Build a word press site.
Create around 10 - 15 HIGH quality articles, designed specifically to rank high for the profitable keywords identified. Ensure the articles are original; SEO optimised and push readers towards an optin. Also ensure site is graphically pleasing and contains administrative pages like privacy policy and contact us.
The way I see it is list marketing is one of the most efficient ways to market a product and therefore the entire purpose of the word press site is to get that optin, and NOTHING else (initially anyway). I've started development on my site. I'm having problems creating the graphics at the moment and I'm considering outsourcing this task, as I am graphically illiterate.
Squeeze Page.
Dedicate all efforts on the word press site towards getting the optin and building a list. Leverage a free 10 email course in exchange for the optin. Make the homepage of the site a squeeze page, with minimum outbound links, some bullet point benefits of the free email course, and a very attractive opt in box.
Email Course
Completely over deliver quality useful content into the email course, mixing in hard and soft sell emails for the purposes of promoting affiliate products, or if demand is high my own product.
Offline marketing efforts
Once all of the above is setup, spend time each day promoting the website in the niche. These tasks would involve things such as building backlinks, making guest posts, becoming an authority within a forum etc ...
Profit!
This is the system I'm trying. I have a few doubts such as
Will the niche be profitable - Are the customers "hungry enough"?
Is the niche too small?
Will my novice SEO efforts be sufficient to rank high in organic results?
Am I in over my head?
However I've had enough of doubts stopping me from taking a chance and I'm just going for it! What I really want to do once I've tried this system out a couple of times is develop a product. I recently graduated with a computer science degree so it makes sense to create some sort of software.
I was thinking of developing some software for the IM niche to help us all out, however has this been done to death? Is the market completely saturated now? Or is there still room for an IM related software product?
Anyway I just wanted to say Hi and explain a bit about myself in terms of IM. So HI! I'm looking forward to being a member here.
After watching IM from the sidelines for a while now and finishing Uni so that I have some free time, and a need for money! I figured it was time I give it a shot. After ALOT of research a few courses and endless research at 2am in the morning I have settled on the following system.
Find a niche
Using Amazon, Clickbank, Flippa, Yahoo Answers, Web Answers and other markets, find a profitable niche. This is one part of the system that really confuses me and I think trips people over. How to really determine if a niche is profitable? Is the niche too small, too broad? Are the customers hungry?
Essentially the way I see it (I may be really wrong!) but this is essentially a guess. You can of course backup this guess with real market data. Keyword searches, number of competitors etc... But it is still a gamble. So I've found a niche and I'm ready to take that gamble on it.
Keyword Research
Find a group of keywords with low competition (in terms of quality) and high volume searches, determine quality of competition by the standard of their competing web page. Do the competing webpages have a great deal of backlinks? High PR? What is the quality of their articles/website design?
I outsourced this part of the business to a warrior member. I understand that poor keyword research can cause an IM business to fail before it's even started, so for my first site I wanted the keyword research done to a near professional standard and didn't mind paying for that.
Build a word press site.
Create around 10 - 15 HIGH quality articles, designed specifically to rank high for the profitable keywords identified. Ensure the articles are original; SEO optimised and push readers towards an optin. Also ensure site is graphically pleasing and contains administrative pages like privacy policy and contact us.
The way I see it is list marketing is one of the most efficient ways to market a product and therefore the entire purpose of the word press site is to get that optin, and NOTHING else (initially anyway). I've started development on my site. I'm having problems creating the graphics at the moment and I'm considering outsourcing this task, as I am graphically illiterate.
Squeeze Page.
Dedicate all efforts on the word press site towards getting the optin and building a list. Leverage a free 10 email course in exchange for the optin. Make the homepage of the site a squeeze page, with minimum outbound links, some bullet point benefits of the free email course, and a very attractive opt in box.
Email Course
Completely over deliver quality useful content into the email course, mixing in hard and soft sell emails for the purposes of promoting affiliate products, or if demand is high my own product.
Offline marketing efforts
Once all of the above is setup, spend time each day promoting the website in the niche. These tasks would involve things such as building backlinks, making guest posts, becoming an authority within a forum etc ...
Profit!
This is the system I'm trying. I have a few doubts such as
Will the niche be profitable - Are the customers "hungry enough"?
Is the niche too small?
Will my novice SEO efforts be sufficient to rank high in organic results?
Am I in over my head?
However I've had enough of doubts stopping me from taking a chance and I'm just going for it! What I really want to do once I've tried this system out a couple of times is develop a product. I recently graduated with a computer science degree so it makes sense to create some sort of software.
I was thinking of developing some software for the IM niche to help us all out, however has this been done to death? Is the market completely saturated now? Or is there still room for an IM related software product?
Anyway I just wanted to say Hi and explain a bit about myself in terms of IM. So HI! I'm looking forward to being a member here.
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Mike Francis -
Thanks
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