Why submitting to article directories is important?

Submitting your article to article directories achieves several goals:

• Readers will recognize you as an expert on the topic you write. This will enable readers to trust your business. It is a great advantage to you against your competitors.
• Some website owners will republish your article on their site along with links back to you. Thus, more poeple will get to know your online business by reading your articles.
• It is a free advertising for you when you publish your articles on Article Pool and other article directories. You can then have more money to spend on other types of advertisements.
• Links from article directories increase your link popularity that improves your chances to achieve better positions in major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Why Article Pool?

Among hundreds and hundreds of article directories, Article Pool is one of the most valuable places to submit your article. Here is why -

• Good traffic. Alexa rank less than 15,000 allows this site to take spot in the top 20 article directories by traffic.
• Google Pagerank 4. The better Pagerank, the more value Google gives to links from the directory to your site. This is important for search engine positioning.
• Article Pool doesn’t use nofollow tags in their external links. Nofollow tags devalue links to your site.
• Almost all topics covered, such as computer, finance, food, fashion, art, politics, writing, shopping, self-help, and so forth.
• Sign up process is easy. Approval is fast.

Besides these major benefits, Article Pool offers paid manual article distribution to 500+ major article directories. They provide such a service since 2005 and have distributed over 20,000 articles. Article Pool is designed professionally, easy to navigate and is a great example for other article directory builders.

Take advantage of this resource – ArticlePool.com

myGoals.com is the Web’s premier site for setting, managing, and reaching personal and professional goals. Their website users can set as many goals as they like, creating custom GoalPlans from scratch or selecting from a library of pre-made GoalPlans that contain expert advice for accomplishing the goal.

There are literally hundreds of subcategories in their goals directory, from all areas of interests. For example, there are 100+ subcategories in the Personal Growth & Interests category alone.

Inside every subcategory there are two lists. The first one is called “Some ideas” and the second one is “Pre-made Goalplans”. This is where it gets interesting!

Let’s take a look at the “Some ideas” list in the Family & Relationships > Clothing & Personal Style (Women) category:

• “To dress for success”
• “To always look well groomed”
• “To keep my fingernails manicured”
• “To always have polished shoes”
• “To revamp my wardrobe”
• “To shop with a wardrobe consultant”
• “To smile more”
• “To always look and act like a gentleman”

Ring a bell? In most cases, you can simply add the word “How” and get a great theme for a $7 report and/or a niche website:

• “How To Dress For Success”
• “How To Always Look Well Groomed”
• “How To Keep Your Fingernails Manicured”
• “How To Revamp Your Wardrobe”
• etc…

Now, go to the To Dress for Success (Women) Pre-made Goalplan. Wow, it’s almost ready-made Table of Contents for your future $7 report or even an eBook! There are Obstacles, and there are Tasks and Milestones to resolve the problem, and that’s exactly what you should write about!

• Obstacle: I need to determine the appropriate dress for my chosen career.
  • Task: Talk to professionals in the field
  • Task: Get a book about dressing for success
  • Task: Look at career-oriented magazines
• Obstacle: I need to get two weeks’ worth of career clothes.
  • Task: Organize my closet
  • Milestone: Get an “interview” suit
  • Milestone: Get at least five everyday business outfits
  • Milestone: Get two outfits suitable for casual day(s)
• Obstacle: I need to keep my clothes looking professional
  • Task: Keep work clothes in good condition
  • Task: Find a good dry cleaners that does alterations
  • Task: Keep shoes in good condition
  • Task: Find a good shoe repair shop

…And that’s only part of them.

I’m sure, you’ll love this resource for your niche ideas.

What’s next?

• Visit myGoals.com
• Read more about the $7 reports business model

More Advanced Profit Secrets Than Ever Before!

Even the most experienced website owner is sure to find tons of great new ideas for boosting sales, including strategies like…

• A surprisingly EASY, perfectly legal way to get Google to index and rank your website almost instantly.
• Capitalize the hot trend of “social networking” — and start driving qualified buyers to your website through sites like MySpace and YouTube.
• How to get “whitelisted” with Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail (plus 34,000 other domains) — and guarantee the delivery of every email you send.
• An in-depth Wordtracker tutorial that’ll explain how you can use this popular tool to find undiscovered niche markets and hot product ideas.
• Tips for using your blog to create a “Pre-launch Buzz” — and sell dramatically more products and services, FASTER, when you actually release it
• Hot-selling tips for profiting from the 2 Million shoppers who visit eBay every single day.
• The 3 NEW criteria used by “spam filters” to deliver your email — accreditation, reputation, and authentication. (It’s NOT about your email content any more!)
• Get the 7 key strategies used by the Web’s most popular bloggers to drive 1,000s of readers to their website — every single day.
• … Plus tons more than I have room to list here.

The Most Complete Internet Wealth System — EVER!

And of course, as always, they’ve packed in hundreds of ideas for increasing sales with fresh product, website design, copywriting, business automation, traffic generation… and more!

Don’t be surprised if your Fedex delivery guy is sweating a bit when he arrives at your door with your Insider Secrets Course…

… Because this year, you’ll be receiving a hefty 10lb box, jam-packed with…

• Two 8″ x 11″ full-color three ring binders.
• 8 steps, broken down into 64 lessons with step-by-step instructions included for every promotion and strategy.
• Two 400+ page packages for a total of 819 pages, with tab inserts to keep you organized.
• A “quick-start” guide that’ll allow you to make maximum progress on your business in minimum time.
• A full-color, poster-size business plan chart, to help you visualize the process of starting your business, set goals, and track your progress!

Read more: Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet Course, 2007 Edition

Unbelievable, isn’t it?

Apparently, he’s looking for a handful of real people who’d like to become his next Internet “success story” (no computer or business experience is required).

Now you have a chance to use his $60 Million advantage to learn how to start a profitable Internet business in just 45 days and make an EXTRA $7,500 to $12,750 per month, working as little as 30-60 minutes per day — even if you have NO business ideas or website yet.

As you’ll see, there is absolutely NO RISK involved in trying Derek’s #1-rated Internet wealth system. You get his entire 1,300+ page package, which includes 6 CDs and 2 DVDs… all for just $2.95!

Derek’s ONLY condition is that, once you’ve achieved your income goals, you agree to (#1) write him a glowing testimonial, and (#2) let him use your success story to inspire others. Both are pretty darn fair conditions as far as I’m concerned.

If this sounds reasonable to you, claim your $2.95 trial copy before Derek takes this page down.

I personally bought this course for the full price when I decided to start my Internet business, and found it extremely helpful. I keep those two binders on my desk for quick reference.

Hope you enjoy it too!

– Andrei

The report is not about article submissions, pay-per-click advertisement or forum posting. It’s about blogging.

Anik says: “I have just used this strategy recently to launch a brand new website and get over 40 visitors the day I launched it, without doing an article submission, without posting to a forum and without doing any form of marketing! Anyone can do this!”

Their goal is to develop blogs that can match or beat the profit performance of static ecommerce sites. Rosalind and Anik have discovered that…

• With the right blog architecture…
• The right blog content…
• And the right product offers…
• Blogs can be immense online revenue machines!

Don’t miss out on their vital blog marketing discoveries. Download the report here: Traffic Strategy Report

Today I’m going to tell you how to increase the kind of web site traffic your business really needs…

AND build your crediblity…
AND improve your ranking in the search engines…
AND get your customers talking to others about you…

… all with a simple four-step process that won’t cost you a single dime.

Sound too good to be true? It’s not!

Let me give you a quick rundown of the plan before we dive in:

1. You’re going to find a handful of keywords that the ideal visitor to your site would use to search for your product.

2. You’re going to plug those keywords into your web site.

3. Then you’re going to write a SHORT article that contains those same keywords.

4. And finally, you’ll distribute your content all over the web and get people passing your information on to other people who will be interested in what you have to offer.

You’ll be surprised how quickly and easily you can get this strategy going — AND how fast you’ll see an impact on your traffic numbers when you put yourself on the radar of people who are looking for what you provide.

Let’s check out the first step in a little more detail…

STEP ONE: Set up your web site for maximum “searchability”!

If you haven’t taken the time to…

• figure out the keywords your potential customers might be using to search for your product AND
• place them throughout the copy on your site…

your traffic is going to be sluggish right off the bat.

How are the people who really want your information supposed to find you?

When I tell people that they’ve missed an important step in their traffic-building strategy, they always ask me: how are you supposed to figure out the right keywords for your web site?

Here are the two tools I recommend to help them with the job:

• Yahoo Search Marketing’s Keyword Selector Tool is a good place to start your investigation. You just type in a word or term you think people in your market might search for, and the Keyword Selector Tool will tell you how many people searched for that particular term in Yahoo Search Marketing over the last month.It will also show you a list of related words and phrases, and tell you how many times people typed those terms into the free search engines over the last month.This is a great way to find out how many people may be searching for information to solve a particular problem, and give you a picture of the demand for your product on the Web. But best of all, it gives you tons of ideas for keywords that you might never have thought of.

Once you’ve generated a list of useful keyword ideas, you’re ready to dig in and do some serious research with Wordtracker.

• Wordtracker goes into more depth to show you not only what people are searching for online, but also how many other web sites are competing for the same audience.Basically, it keeps a record of how many times a particular keyword or phrase was searched during the past 90 days across the Web.When you enter the keyword phrases your market is searching for, you search the Wordtracker database of over 330 million searches (or “queries”).

  You’re looking for search terms that are popular, but don’t have too many sites competing for them. You can also pop all of this detailed information into useful reports that help you determine which keywords and phrases will bring you the most traffic.

  To check out Wordtracker and get a step-by-step guide to the process, just head to: http://www.marketingtips.com/wordtracker and click “Tour” on the navigation bar.

  Wordtracker is a paid service, but you can sign up for a day for under $8.00 and a week for under $27.00. It’s a great investment.

STEP TWO: Plug your keywords into your site

Now that you have some great keywords for your market, find as many places as you can to plug them into your web site! Use them in your title tags, in your source code, in the copy on your pages, and in your opt-in offers.

If you find your domain name isn’t telling people what your web site is about or showing up in the right search results, consider purchasing a new one. A keyword-rich domain name is a small investment that really pays off by making your site easy for your potential customers to find and remember. (One quick note: remember to use only keywords relevant to your product — search engines will penalize you if they find keywords sprinkled through your code that have nothing to do with the content of your site.)

Now to move on to the next step — your foolproof way to snag people searching for your product on the Web and bring them back to your site!

STEP THREE: Create a keyword-rich article to distribute on the Web

When you’re ready, get your keywords, sit down, and write a keyword-rich article that relates to what you sell. Then give it away to other sites — for FREE!

Believe it or not, this is one of the best ways you can drive a steady stream of eager customers to your site.

Why does it work? Well, people basically come online for one of two reasons: To check their email or to look for information. Sure, some of them end up making purchases, but this is not generally the reason they log on. They want…

• the answer to a question
• the solution to a problem

That’s why it’s your job to give them that information, as it relates to your product. You already do that with the copy on your web site, but why stop there?

Writing a short, informative article to distribute on the Web is a great way to gain recognition as a valuable resource in your industry.

Of course, you’ll want to write about something that relates to your products or services, since the ultimate goal of the article is to drive visitors to your site who are interested in what you’re selling. But the article should be informative, not “sales-y”.

Make sure that each article you write contains rare, valuable, or hard-to-find information. Not only will this increase the chances that other site owners or managers will post your article, it will also increase the number of visitors who click through to your site after reading it.

For example, if you have a web site that sells used golf equipment, you could write an article about three things to look for in a good, pre-owned putter.

Or if you sell an eBook about setting up your own home computer network, why not write an article about common problems people have in setting up a wireless router?

Look for article ideas in the questions that people ask you all the time, or in the things you often see people doing wrong. Share hot new tips on how to use the products you sell, or talk about trends that you’ve spotted in your industry.

I’m not talking about a major essay here, though.

Did I just hear a big sigh of relief?

Nope — you don’t need to be a professional writer to turn out a solid, traffic-boosting article! Your quick piece should…

• be no longer than 400 words (not even a whole page!)
• contain a keyword related to your product in first 90 characters
• contain the keyword in the first and last paragraphs
• have a short, credibility-building “bio” with link to your site at the end. Here’s an example: “ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joe Smith is a recognized authority on the subject of widgets. His web site, www. JoesWidgets .com, provides a wealth of informative articles and resources on everything you’ll ever need to know about widgets.”

Now for the fourth step in this traffic-driving strategy.

STEP FOUR: Get your content headed EVERYWHERE on the Web

Once you’ve taken a few hours to write one or two quick articles, head to one of these top online content distribution sites. Upload your keyword-rich content to:

• http://www.contentdesk.com
• http://www.ezinearticles.com
• http://www.freesticky.com
• http://www.goarticles.com
• http://www.ideamarketers.com
• http://www.findsticky.com

It only takes a couple of minutes, but the rewards for your site will be huge.

These sites carry hundred or thousands of articles on a range of topics. If someone is looking for content for their web site, they can download or copy an article from the distribution site without paying a dime to use it!

They can’t change the text of the article, and they must publish it with the author’s name and information intact.

Now people who are plugging your keywords into search engines will be directed to your content at these highly-ranked sites, and web site owners who are looking for fresh, search engine- attracting content will download your article — along with your bio and link! — and put it up on their pages.

And once visitors see that you know what you’re talking about, they’ll click on the link in your bio, and head straight to your web site!

The best thing about this strategy is that these visitors are QUALITY, TARGETED traffic — they actually WANT what you’re selling, because you are meeting a need or giving them help with the problem they came online to solve!

Some content distribution sites also offer “send to a friend” links next to articles posted on their sites — so make sure you’re uploading your articles to sites with this kind of capability!

Every time someone enjoys your article enough to pass it on, your audience grows. And since people don’t forward BAD content on to their friends, they are basically recommending you as a credible source just by passing it on.

You can also create a “send to a friend” link on your own web pages with the help of a simple script added to your code. Here are some examples of what this kind of link might say:

• “Did you enjoy this article? To recommend it to a friend, click here…”
• “To pass this important info along to a friend or family member, click here…”
• “Share this with a friend — just click here…”
• “Can’t wait to tell a friend about this? Here’s how…”

To find scripts to make links like these ones fully functional, check out the resources at:

• http://www.freewebtemplates.com
• http://www.javascript.com
• http://www.scriptsearch.com
• http://www.hotscripts.com

The visitors who come to your site through articles or forwarded material are highly targeted… and likely to take action when they actually arrive at your web site seeking your specific information.

Final thoughts

See how much you can do with one little article? It’s amazing how effective a small piece of content can be when you…

• know your keywords, and…
• know all the places to position that content so it’s viewed again and again

Once you’ve done your keyword research, you might feel a bit intimidated by the idea of writing something yourself for the ‘Net. Or maybe you don’t feel like you have the time to do it justice.

Remember — any free content you create shouldn’t be too long, and it definitely shouldn’t be too complicated, since the people reading it won’t know your product or your subject as well as you do.

If you’re still concerned, you can always hire a writer from a freelance web site like Elance ( http://www.elance.com ) to do a couple of short articles or an eBook (with a bit of basic information from you, of course.) Expect to pay anywhere from $25 to $35 an hour for their time.

But I recommend that you try to write something yourself first. You definitely don’t need to be a professional writer to create something readable and interesting… (I sure don’t have a degree in creative writing myself!)

Just try to think like your audience — what do they want to know, and how much do they know already? Then tell them simply and clearly. We’re not talking Shakespeare here.

Here’s one more quick peek at my easy four-step plan to increase web traffic:

1. Find the keywords people are using to search for your product.

2. Make sure all the content on your web site contains these keywords!

3. Write short, keyword-rich articles with links directing people back to your site — nothing too long or complicated; just enough content to establish you as someone “in the know” about your industry.

4. And finally, send your article to content distribution sites and — with just a simple suggestion or a script-based link — encourage people to pass your material on to their friends (and direct them back to your site!)

These simple steps are things that practically anyone can do to drive traffic. They’ll help you get the kind of targeted, quality traffic that can make all the difference to the success of a business, especially when you’re just starting out!

In other words, these are the types of visitors who are most likely to take action on your site, whether they make a purchase, or simply opt in with their personal information.

And I don’t know about you, but I’ll take more of those visitors any day of the week!

The challenge was to take this page, redesign it completely, leave the content in there. Everything else is negotiable. Adsense should be placed in the page twice.

Goal: To completely integrate Adsense and make it appear to be part of the site. That is to say, Adsense should appear to be internal navigation, not advertising.

The results of this contest can teach you more about Adsense integration than many $99 e-books. Take a look:

Adsense integration contest results

Privacy note: The VRE Toolbar collects anonymous statistical usage data but it DOES NOT spy on your browsing habits. It does not track webpages you visit or keywords you use in the search box. Please see our Privacy policy.

1. Keywords Suggestions & Research
   Grabs the Overture search counts for different geographic markets. Offers suggested monthly regional search volumes by market for Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Provides links to price estimate tools from Overture and Google AdWords.
2. Niche Generator
   Randomly suggests niche topics. Provides links to keyword research and domain lookup.
3. 43 Things
   Lists other people’s goals related to a keyword. Helps discover people’s interests, that can give you great ideas to create websites around.
4. Adwords Traffic Estimator
   Gives you keyword traffic and cost estimates at a glance. For any keywords you select, you’ll see the following information: minimum bid, maximum cost-per-click (CPC), search volume, estimated avg. CPC, estimated ad positions, traffic estimates based on an unlimited budget.
5. ColorImpact
   This software allows to create beautiful color schemes for your website with a single click.
6. DomainsBot Ideas, Suggestions
   Helps find great domain names.
7. DigitalPoint (Wordtracker)
   Shows the results of your query from both Wordtracker and Overture for determining which phrases are searched most often. Gives suggestions for alternate (but similar) keywords.
8. Rapid Niche Websites
   Quickly create cash-pulling web sites by following this easy step-by-step system.
9. Google Sets
   Automatically create sets of items from a few examples. For example, when you enter ‘armani, versace’ subset, it returns Gucci, Chanel, Prada, Calvin Klein, Fendi, Dolce Gabbana etc. Fun and very addictive!
10. The Reese Report
    A highly regarded monthly publication (a printed newsletter & companion CD-ROM) that demonstrates and teaches tons of little-known online moneymaking strategies, provides techniques and methods you can use today to start building an online empire made up of tons of tiny content sites.

What’s your favorite tool?

by Michel Fortin

In the competitive marketplace of the new millennium, the demand for specialized products or services will increase. If your site sells everything or to everyone, chances are that your audience will not perceive any greater value in shopping from you than anyone else.

The more generic you become, the greater your competition will be, since you’ve placed your offering in the same ring as the Wal-Marts, Targets and eBays of the world.

In other words, cast a wider net, and the likelihood that more competitors who are trying to go after the same “fish” will occupy the same marketspace.

Unless you are trying to be another Wal-Mart, there’s no use competing with them. The sheer size of such Goliaths gives them a sizeable competitive advantage — purchasing power.

That is, they can buy their stock at considerable bulk discounts, giving them the low price advantage with which most small businesses cannot compete.

Keep in mind that price is never an issue — what’s important is the value behind the price.

Price is an arbitrary figure that merely represents the value of an offering. Here’s an example: you walk to your local home furnishings store. You ask the sales clerk, “How much for that washer?” to which he responds, “$600.” “Wow! That’s a lot of money,” you exclaim. “The price is way too high for me. I just cannot afford that.”

This is a typical knee-jerk response.

Moments later, you walk by a car dealership and notice that favorite new car you’ve been itching to buy for the last month and a half. You walk in. “It’s $25,000,” says the salesperson. “Wow! That’s great!”

You drive it off the lot that same day.

If you could not afford the $600 washer, why could you afford the $25,000 car? So, price is never an issue. In the case of the car, the perceived value matched or surpassed the price, which wasn’t the case with the washer — i.e., the washer was too pricey based on its perceived value.

Therefore, if your value is perceived as equal to that of others, naturally the cheapest alternative will win. Price is only a metric — a currency to which most people can relate.

Take the weather, for example. When you meet someone for the first time, the weather will likely be a topic of discussion. In terms of degrees or temperature, the weather is the same for everyone. But “hot” and “cold,” however, are different.

Similarly, price is only used when there’s nothing to which one can compare your value. (Of course, price is not the only metric, but it is the most common one. Most people easily understand units of dollars rather than value. Value is more subjective and personal. It cannot be measured.)

Therefore, if you’re too similar to your competition, price will always then be (or become) an issue.

However, the more unique you are, the less competition you will have. And the less competition you will have, the less substitutable you are (or your product is). And the less substitutable you are, the less elastic the demand for your product will be (i.e., the less important price becomes, in this case).

So, if you try to copy your competition, or trying to promote your offering as one that’s better than your competition, like it or not you’re only reminding people of that which you are better: your competition!

It’s better to be different than it is to be better.

Being all things to all people will likely help you to stumble onto some people who will visit your site and respond to your offer — it’s the law of averages. Increase your hits and you will increase your sales.

But that’s not the problem. The problem, with such an approach, is the fact that you must generate a large quantity of hits in order to produce a certain result.

It is absolutely true that, if you want a lot of hits, you want your site (or access to it) to be in front of as many eyeballs as possible. But what about quality? Would it matter if your site generates an incredible quantity of uninterested visitors that will simply never buy from you?

Would you prefer less than 1% of 10,000 visitors? Or 10% of 500?

For those who wish to find more effective and cost-efficient ways of selling online, then attracting a higher quality stream of website visitors — that is, attracting interested, pre-qualified visitors that are genuinely interested in the website’s offer and ready to buy — is definitely a better alternative.

The more general or broad you are, the more you will need to paint your website or content with broad brushstrokes in order to appeal to everyone. In the end, the traffic you do generate will be just as general or broad.

Even if your product is a perfect fit for some visitors, it will only be a fit for a small percentage. Additionally, the broad nature of your offer and the image you project will likely convey that your value is equal to that of others and that there’s no added value in buying from you than in buying from others.

This is when price becomes the metric with which people will measure your value.

Additionally, out of the small handful of qualified prospects that hopefully hit your site, a large number of them — if not all of them — will likely leave due to your apparent lack of understanding of their specific needs, goals and concerns. In short, the more general you are, the more you are compared to others and therefore the more you dilute your value.

In other words, the more general you are, the less value you have.

However, the sales you generate will increase dramatically if your site is narrowly centered on a specific theme, product, audience or outcome. And niche marketing has an added benefit: the need to produce a sufficient quantity of visitors to produce similar results will lessen considerably.

Offline, being everything to everyone is understandable to a certain degree since, geographically, a niche will likely be small. Online, however, niche marketing can work since a market will expand, even if it is a small niche.

But it’s a double-edged sword.

Since the web increases your target market, it also increases the competition as a byproduct. Again, cast a wider net, and the likelihood that your net will fall into someone else’s waters will be higher.

Offline, location is important. And a competitor next door can be your biggest headache. But online, thousands of competitors have instantly become your neighbors.

Thus, niche marketing is even more important online since, by narrowing your focus, you both increase your niche AND decrease your competition!

Here’s an illustration: let’s say that your best client is the corporate executive earning $50,000 annually or more, and that your site receives approximately 200,000 hits per month.

If your site’s message aims for the public at large, you have a problem. There will only be a small percentage of that ideal market (i.e., corporate execs earning $50,000) that will hit your site. (And an even smaller percentage will genuinely be qualified for, and interested in, your offering).

For the sake of example, let’s say that this percentage is around 0.1%. That means that, out of 200,000 monthly visitors, only 200 will fit your perfect customer profile (and that’s a very optimistic figure).

Since your site is too general or too vague, an even smaller percentage of those 200 executives — let’s say about 0.5% — will be truly interested in your offer and eventually buy. In this case, 0.5% (of 200 qualified visitors) would equal to a mere client for an entire month.

(Following me so far?)

Looking at it in reverse it means that, if you want to achieve at least a single sale per month from this ideal market, your site will thus require at least 200,000 visitors on a monthly basis. So, based on the law of averages your marketing efforts will need to multiply exponentially in order to create a high enough quantity of traffic to yield acceptable results.

Now, take the example of another website dedicated exclusively to corporate executives earning over $50,000.

However, this site receives a meager 5,000 visitors per month — admittedly, it’s not a lot, especially when compared to the other. But in this case, the percentage of those 5,000 that fall into that site’s target market will be 100% — if my math is correct, that’s a 10,000% improvement.

Furthermore, the percentage of interested leads that are in a much better position to buy will be far higher by virtue of the fact that the site centers on their specific needs, goals and concerns. The perceived value of the site, in other words, will be greater in the mind of those specific prospects.

To be conservative, let’s say that this percentage is only 5%. It means that out of 5,000 visitors per month, one can achieve 250 sales — that’s 249 more sales than the other (and, on top of that, with only a quarter of the traffic).

But let’s be a little more conservative for a moment. Let’s say that only 1% buys. It’s still a remarkable 400% improvement over the other, as 1% of 5,000 visitors equals to 5 sales per month (4 more than the other).

Of course, the above example is when all things considered are equal — I agree that there are many variables, here. But the spirit of this illustration is clear: it took an equal if not lesser investment of time, effort and money to achieve 250 sales per month than it did to achieve a single one.

So, there is much truth to the statement that you will get more with less. And online, where there is so much more of nothing, less is indeed more.

Therefore, the paradox is true on the Internet: by narrowing your focus, you will likely broaden your chances of online success.

Although most business owners are aware of clear, target marketing strategies to achieve results that could be far more effective and cost-efficient, the ideology remains: to be successful one must be everywhere. That statement may be true to some degree and should not be discounted…

… But it is far better to be everywhere that matters.

In other words, your message should appear in front of those people who will likely read your ad and take action. If you promote your online business in places in which your target market is likely to congregate, it is fair to admit that your immediate costs will likely be higher.

Targeted marketing is not cheap. However, the bottom-line is the fact that your visitor value will increase substantially as a result. That’s more important.

In essence, it will certainly be cheaper for you to spend the money in these targeted areas than it would be in trying to find those ideal clients any other way.

Remember that your goal should be to attract people to your site who have a genuine interest in what you have to offer. Targeting as many people as possible particularly with a message that appeals to only a portion of them may produce a fair amount of hits. But it will mostly consist of people who will never be your clients anyway — you will attract the curious and not the serious.

With all things being equivalent, if your ad appears on a site that caters to your ideal market, you may get less hits but you will certainly get more sales.

Nevertheless, combining targeted and niche-based marketing strategies can make substantial improvements over general, non-focused marketing. By lessening your market as well as the market to which you advertise, you will proportionately increase your sales.

Jim Banks started selling carpets online in 1998. He admits that, at the time, he knew nothing about it. Says Banks: “I thought that it would be a non-competitive market (‘who would want to sell carpet online?’ I asked myself) and it would allow me to learn about this whole new Internet thing.”

But at first, Jim floundered.

“I showed carpet on the website, sent out samples, and used a wholesaler in Georgia to deliver the goods. I made some money, but it was a lot of hard work. In fact, a lot of hand-holding of customers was required, and my time was a limiting factor in how much money I could make.”

But then, Jim had an idea. He adds:

“I had read one or two of your articles at the time where you stressed the importance of niche marketing. And after thinking about that, and applying it to my industry, I came up with the idea of selling carpets and area rugs with children’s designs (e.g., animals, letters, game boards, etc). Today, things are going very well!”

(By the way, see Jim’s site at KidCarpet.com.)

In conclusion, here’s my advice: if you’re looking at starting a business online, first find a niche and fill it. But if you already are doing business online, then narrow your focus to a specific outcome, audience or product.

And finally, if you do sell everything to everyone already, I suggest breaking your business down by developing several sites, which sell the same things but targeted towards different segments of your market.

Don’t be the best. Be the first. As Earl Nightingale once said, “Don’t copy. Create!”

In other words, don’t duplicate. Differentiate.

About the Author

Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, author, speaker and consultant. Watch him rewrite copy on video each month, and get tips and tested conversion strategies proven to boost response in his membership site at http://TheCopyDoctor.com/ today.

43 Things is one of the most popular resources among the Virtual Real Estate Toolbar users.  It helps to find out what people want related to your keywords. It allows you  to search for goals documented by their users.

For instance, let’s go to the Niche Generator and pick a random niche theme (select Ideas > Niche Generator from the toolbar). I just did that, and  got Jacuzzi Hot Tubs.

Let’s look what people want related to jacuzzi hot tubs. I’m selecting the words Jacuzzi Hot Tubs, then  dragging and dropping them into the toolbar’s search box. Now I’m selecting Ideas> 43 Things (Goals).

If you used the 43 Things  tool from the toolbar before, you’ll notice that it works slightly differently  now. It doesn’t redirect you to the 43 Things website.  It now  gets the  goals list  from the source and displays  it on our  website instead. This allowed us to link each goal  right to the Keyword Research Tool, so that we could analize the goal phrase with one click.

Here are some examples of what I got for ‘jacuzzi hot tubs’:

buy a hot tub
own a hot tub
get a hot tub
build a hot tub
soak in a hot tub
get my hot tub working
get a hot tub for the basement
put a hot tub in my apartment
buy a hot tub/spa/jacuzzi
have a hot tub
relax in a hot tub, and even…
make love in a hot tub

This tool tells you what goals  people set. Now it’s your turn. Help them to achieve what they want with your network of niche websites.