When learning how to start an online business, I'm sure you came across someone mentioning the phrase, "niche market". The all-illusive, all-important target-market for your business known as your niche.

Niche. Some pronounce it "neesh" and some pronounce it "nitch". Why? Heck if I know... I think it has to do with what side of the "pond" you live on and if you pronounce tomato as "toe-may-toe" or "toe-mah-toe". In my personal opinion, if "niche" was supposed to be pronounced as "nitch", then why didn't we just spell it n-i-t-c-h?

Anyway....

Please, Define a Niche...

Finding a niche market in any business is crucial to its success. I read somewhere a great conceptual definition of a niche market. A niche is a market within a market, if that makes sense.

Lets take for example, Cat Food. The cat food market is pretty well dominated, right? If you were interested in penetrating that market it would feel like running into a solid, brick wall. However, in your niche research, you found a little chip in the brick wall....a little hole that you could work with. Say you found an area for cat food for adult cats, or cat food for indoor cats, and that market was NOT saturated with products, yet DOES have a market that is pretty much under-served. Bingo - you found a niche market.

Think: Vitamins. Think: Vitamins for Women. Think: Vitamins for pregnant women, vitamins for older women, vitamins for vegetarian women...etc etc. The niche finding thought process starts there. Then you do your market research and keyword research to find a viable market you can be profitable in.

Seems easy enough, right? Sadly, if you are like most of us, that brain freeze locks in. When you can think about anything in the world, why suddenly does nothing come to mind?

I've always wondered what brainstorming processes successful internet marketers use to find those golden niches. The internet is an endless buffet of brain food to feed a brainstorming session for a new niche market to conquer - what are their secrets?

How to Find a Profitable Niche Market

I found a fantastic free video entitled "Find Your Niche" that is put out by an extremely successful internet marketer names Jermaine Griggs.

Jermaine Griggs, is different from these other internet marketing guru types. Mr Griggs started off online with a grand total of $70 at the age of 17. He turned an idea into millions - and changed his life.

Jermaine's niche is so unusual - so unique - and it turned into a goldmine for him. Ready for this niche he found? Learning Piano by Ear.

Can you stand it?? Who would ever think of that? and HOW did he think of that?

Jermaine shows this video of his sales from 2002-2007. You actually see him go from making $2000 to months of $112,000+... but I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that he makes this much as an online piano teacher (and 80% of his products are focused around gospel music at that).

I'm really excited to be talking about Jermaine today. He has a phenomenal site launching tomorrow where for a grand total of $2.97, I can get inside his brain for a full month. No, I didn't misplace the decimal - that is two dollars and ninety-seven cents. I told ya, he's not like the other $297 gurus...lol!

If you watch his video on his info page and see the story he tells of his up-bringing and the circumstances he rose above, you will most likely be just as amazed as I am at his accomplishments. Jermaine pretty much takes the phrase, "I can't" out of our vocabulary as you see how he DID.

If anything, I sincerely recommend everyone go at least watch his video story. It's just a few minutes of your time, it is put together in such an out-standing way....and it is so genuine and inspirational that, like me, you'll get back to busting butt this week to make YOUR millions!

Here's your links:

Find your Niche Video Instruction

Jermaine Griggs Personal Story

Jermaine Griggs Sales Proof Video Story

Have a great day!

P.S. I sure wouldn't be a good little internet marketer if I didn't tell you how YOU can promote Jermaine Griggs launch tomorrow. He has an EXCELLENT affiliate program. Click here for more info.





Brand New to Internet Marketing? Read my four-part blog series - How to START Making Money Online

Website traffic - gotta have it... all there is to it. PPC, or pay-to-click, advertising always seems to be the "easy" answer. Need traffic? Pay for it!

I have refused to go that route. I don't want to pay for traffic, yet I know my online business is getting to the place where my niche markets are more refined and defined. My keyword lists are better...I've found "buying" niche markets..so why not throw some PPC advertising on these campaigns? Adwords can be learned. It's not rocket science, but it is also something you do NOT go into blindly.

Ok, so I can learn and I can pay for traffic to my already profitable niche sites and make even more money. Right? Right.

To PPC or Not To PPC ???

Perhaps you are in this same situation - trying to decide if you are ready, willing, and able to pay for traffic thru Google Adwords. If you research the topic of PPC like I have, you may have also found many generous souls willing to charge us $97 or so for all the deep, dark secrets.

Also, perhaps you are thinking what I am. If I use PPC, I am cutting into my profits. There WILL be a learning curve. I WILL need to focus a lot of attention on my new PPC campaigns or else it WILL be a very expensive learning curve!

Ok, NOT to PPC, that is my answer.

Sorry folks, I am still all about FREE WEB SITE TRAFFIC. There is nothing better than organic, targeted traffic to your web site. I also believe that consumers have gone "ad blind" and don't even see adwords ads anymore.

Free Web Site Traffic - the Solution

So, how do you get free traffic to your niche site or blog? This is where "Make Money Online - on a Budget" comes into play. This is a fabulous resource for many, many free traffic generating strategies - that work. Some of these strategies work very quickly, too.

Whether you are new to this make money online thing, or you've been doing this for some time, Make Money Online - on a Budget will give you great ideas, proven concepts, AND get traffic to your site or blog.

PotPieGirls Traffic Mindmap

No Traffic = No Sales = Bad
Random Traffic = 1 or 2 sales = Better
Paid Traffic = Lots of Traffic = Expensive
FREE TARGETED TRAFFIC = Lots of Sales = Pure Profit Revenue...and lots of it!

Gee, that PotPieGirl is a genius, isn't she? (yes, I am picking on myself. It's part of my charm...lol)

To PPC or Not to PPC - What is your answer?

If you are also toying with the idea to try PPC (Google Adwords) and think there is no other way to get high-volume traffic, stop for just a sec and check out these free traffic generating strategies. Even if you DO end up using PPC, you will need these strategies working for you, too.







Brand New to Internet Marketing? Read my four-part blog series - How to START Making Money Online

You know the commercials - the ones where they ask, "What's in YOUR wallet?" - well, I'm about to sound like that right now.

What's in YOUR IM toolbox?

What tools do you use, day after day, in your internet marketing business? I certainly have some tools that after a LOT of trial and error have become things I wouldn't consider doing a day of business without.

I started off in this business using nothing but 100% free programs, methods, and platforms to make some money online.

Guess what happened? I DID make some money! I remember the way I felt when I made my very first commission online - a $7 ebook payment into my Paypal account.

I was amazed and my first thought was.... "Oh my God, this really works!"

I was off and running.

Slowly, more payments started coming in, and since I had no overhead I chose to reinvest my earnings into marketing tools that will make my business not only easier, but better.

I still completely advocate Squidoo, free blogs, and article marketing as a solid and cost-free method to make money online. Those 3 things combined make a sound vessel to sail your business with. However, there are now things I pay for that have enhanced my business model and made it sooooo much better (and yup - a lot easier on me, too.)

What's in YOUR tool box, PotPieGirl?

Autoresponder

I have used the free auto-responders that are available such as www.freeautobot.com. They're fine. They work..and they're "fine". Yes, you are extremely limited with the free options, but for a $7 script or basic needs, they work just fine.


I have since upgraded to aWeber.... I won't go back. Oh my goodness, they sky is the limit with aWeber. The free 30 day trial impressed me enough to sign up on a monthly basis, but the more I use it, the more impressed I am.

In this business, there is nothing more important than your list. Capturing your visitors info and having contact with them is at the heart of all this.

Keyword Research

In the past, I about killed myself doing keyword research the free (and old-fashioned) way. I used free keyword tools such as this one from wordtracker and then would go hunt thru Google to see what my competition was and then make an educated guess from there. It worked fine. My friend, Luke, from SureFire Success System (an excellent system, by the way), has a free keyword tool that is one step better. Lukes tool also shows you how many searches a keyword receives and how many competing websites on Google. It works a bit better than fine. =)

Then, one day I tried the free trial from WordTracker. Holy smokes - internet marketing life will NEVER be the same. WordTracker gives you such better flexibility and results than any free research tool I've ever used. I highly recommend at least taking the free trial and playing around with it. You will be in awe - and, if you are anything like me, you will find yourself in there messing around with words for hours. I have found some really golden nuggets while playing with WordTracker. I love it - and I will never do old-fashioned keyword research again.

Domain Names

Yup, you read that right... PotPieGirl is now buying her own domain names! Since I've gotten such really great finds during my keyword research, I can't help but make a real site for these hot little niches! Yes, I still make Squidoo pages and free blogs...and article marketing....but now all that work is to promote my actual web sites (that have an auto-responder opt-in box...gotta build those lists!).


I am in love with NetFirms. I am all about free things, but you can't buy a domain name for free, can you? NetFirms offers domain names for $4.95! That is lower than I have found ANYWHERE.

Oh, wait! Speaking of domain names... I have found a cool little online tool (yes, it is free) that you can do while trying to think of domain names and to see what is available. This is yet another tool I can play with for hours.

Check out: BustAName.

Hosting

So, since I've let the cat out of the bag that I'm buying domain names and making niche sites, I guess you're wondering where I am hosting my websites, right?

I'm not. Well, I don't pay to have them hosted, anyway.

I'll save that story for another day.







Brand New to Internet Marketing? Read my four-part blog series - How to START Making Money Online