Atrract Attention with Google My Business Posts

 Attract Attention with GMB Posts

Consider your GMB posts the same way you do “social media posts” that show up in your GMB listing on Google searches.

Your GMB posts will drive more leads to your website by sharing special offers, fresh content, or special events etc. Don’t forget to include an image to capture even more attention.

 

 Attract Attention with GMB Posts

 Consider your GMB posts the same way you do “social media posts” that show up in your GMB listing on Google searches.

Your GMB posts will drive more leads to your website by sharing special offers, fresh content, or special events etc. Don’t forget to include an image to capture even more attention.

 7 GMB Tips that Attract Customers   

 

If you operate a business out of your home, or you own a store or shop, your Google My Business listing is an effective and very powerful way to publicize your business in the local community, and drive new customers to your door.

Once Google understands more about your business, they can help match you with various search queries of which the most valuable of these is for you to receive a prominent listing in Google’s 3-Pack.

 

In the above example, for instance, you can see that if you were searching for spray foam contractors, in the lower peninsula of Michigan, you’d probably come across a result like this:

 

By far, Retrofoam of Michigan would get the nod. Why?

·         Even though they’re second, the first result doesn’t have any stars or reviews.

·         They have more stars and reviews than the third option.

·         They have business hours posted, unlike the first result.

·         If I moved to Michigan, they’d be the closest to me (proximity matters in a lot of local searches).

 

Now that you understand GMB fundamentals, here are seven surefire tips you can follow that will help you attract new customers.

 

1.    Complete Your Business Information

 

If operate a local business, keep your business name, address, phone number, hours of operation, and business category at the very least – updated. Nothing will turn a customer against you then them trying to locate you and not being successful.

 

2.    You Can Now Add Business Descriptions

 

Previously on GMB, the only noteworthy way to tell Google and searchers about your business was through the Google My Business Category list of which there are over 2,300 options.

 

Unfortunately, that doesn’t always give enough information especially if you’re in a niche business. Descriptions will also improve your search rankings in Google.

 

3.    Upload More (Better) Images

 

This comes straight from Google: “Businesses with photos receive 42% more requests for driving directions to their location from users on Google, and 35% more clicks through to their website than businesses that don’t have photos.” If you want potential customers to visit your location, rather than your competitors, add some photos to grab their attention.

 

4.    Respond to All Reviews

 

The reviews on your GMB page can be a deciding factor in whether or not a buyer engages with your brand. When making a purchase decision, people look to others for their opinions and personal experiences.

 

Here are some statistics about local consumer reviews:

 

·         97% of consumers looked online for local businesses in 2017

·         85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations

·         Positive reviews make 73% of consumers trust a local business more

·         68% of consumers left a local business review when asked

·         30% of consumers say they’ve judged a business based on its responses to reviews

 

Google My business - Series 

5.    Use Your Posts to Promote Events, Offers, & Content

Before Google Posts, if you wanted to share your content, you had to do it on your website and social platforms. Now, you can have your content show up on Google Search and Google maps in your business’ knowledge panel. So, what kind of content am I talking about?

 

• Blog articles
• Company news
• eBook downloads
• Upcoming events
• Special offers
• Product promotion

 

6.    Upload Videos

There is no better way to attract, engage, and communicate with your customers and prospects than through video. It’s powerful and you can use it to leverage your business via your GMB listing.

 

7.    Become a Google Guide

Just like on Amazon, Google Maps now lets consumers ask questions. Anyone can ask a question about a business on their listing, and anyone can answer those questions. Frequent answerers become “Guides,” with different badges and milestones depending on how many questions they answer and useful information they provide.

So, become a Google Guide so you can answer questions people ask about your business. These answers will show up in your Google My Business listing, and potentially even your Maps and Search results. 

 

The Proper Internet Marketing Mind State

 The Proper Internet Marketing Mind State

So most people will spend 8 hours a day working for somebody else, and then they’ll go home and do nothing. So they’ll put more time into their job than they will into improving themselves. And that’s sad, because once you build skills they transfer into all areas of your life.

And this is another interesting thing. Most people think the difference between a successful person and a failure is like 80 percent. Like a successful person does 80 percent of stuff differently than a failure, and really the opposite’s true. It’s only a handful of small, daily tasks that separates a successful person from a failure.

successful person doesn’t procrastinate; they typically get on with it. And then they usually are interested in feedback more than the result; and they’re confident in their ability, and they’re solution-oriented and able to adapt quickly when stuff happens and respond positively. And really that’s about it. That’s the only difference. It’s not that they’re more intelligent than a failure. It’s not that they have opportunities that a failure doesn’t have or all these other things. It’s just really they just do a couple habits differently and that dictates all the results.

So here’s some stuff that’s specific to internet marketing mind states that are going to really help you get the results that you want. Being in it for the long haul – this drives me nuts more than anything. And I guess I understand. People come into this industry for the most part looking for that quick-fix solution, and unfortunately there are very few of those. They’re far and long and in-between, and most of them rely on luck. Most of them are not duplicate-able. That’s not a very sound business strategy, and this is a business. So be in it for the long haul.

Long Haul

Only lottery winners make a million dollars overnight. This is not a strategic plan of making a million dollars. This is luck. Almost every self-made millionaire I know did it over a long period of time. So what does that tell you? It tells you if you’re in it for the short-term solution, you’re going to get very, very perturbed when it doesn’t happen, and you’re going to be much more likely to quit. If you’re in it for the long haul – this is what I like to say – you’re not looking for instant riches, but you do want instant feedback. And what I mean by that is you want to be able to try something, get an idea, try it immediately, see what happens, and then decide what to do next after you get some results in the marketplace.

Here’s another trick: Speed is important, and this is why there is this seemingly surfacing congruence that I’m now hammering into you that makes a lot of sense. You want to be in it for the long haul, because it’s going to probably take you a while to build the assets, to build the expertise, and to build the contacts and to get the knowledge you need to succeed. But the harder you go, the more you’re going to shorten that curve and the more likely you are to succeed.

Speed

So one of my mentors once told me the secret is to condense five years of experience into one year. It usually takes about five years to master something. Anything worth mastering usually takes about five years before you can become a bonafide, off the top of your head expert.

You’ve seen it all; you’ve done it; you’ve got this experience. OK? Now he said the secret to really going to the top of your industry and being successful is to condense those five years into one year. So that means

A) building smart systems that allow you to experience quicker, and

B) it means really burning the midnight oil. 16 hour days are a normal part of my life.

I said to my mom the other day, I said to her, “You know what? I’d rather work really hard now when I have the vitality and the youth and then take it easy in my later life and do exactly whatever I wanted.” I’m willing to pay the short-term sacrifice in order to get the long-term gain. Condense five years in one – that means go hard. If you’re starting out you’ve got to go hard. Go as hard as you can go, and then go a little bit harder. That’s a great mindset. Be happy with small, constant improvement, because you know you’re not going to get rich overnight.

That’s what the instant feedback is for. Get a little better every single day at product creation; get a little better every single day at traffic generation; get a little better every single day at copywriting; get a little better every single day at focusing on one task at a time, getting more done, and being more productive, OK?

This is interesting. This is why you should be in it for the long haul. Most breakthroughs happen by complete accident. So one day I was like I want to try webinars because I have this time management idea that I wanted to share with people, and I didn’t know if it would work or not. I told them that, and I said so I’m going to try this webinar. I’ve never used it before, and I want to see what happens. But I want to do this in real-time, so I can get some real-time feedback here instead of putting it out in a course. I dropped it out there; did the webinar. It was great; it was free, because I was just testing it out.

And then I was walking one day, and I thought to myself, “OK, this webinar software is $97 a month. Are you going to stay on and pay $97 a month or are you just going to cancel it?” And so I was trying to justify in my mind if it was a sound business decision. I said, “Let me find out.” Instant feedback, by the way. I am going to create a product and see if I can launch it as a webinar series. I did, and I made a ton of money from that. I was like, “Wow! This is so easy, and I’m making all this money.” So I’ve since launched 4 or 5 group coachings with that. And we just launched one the other day, why I’m shooting this video, that pulled in $12,000 in 24 hours – in a little over 24 hours. Crazy! And it’s the easiest product to deliver in the world, and it gives them a lot of value. That was by an accident that the breakthrough happened. So then I reinvented my business and incorporated it.

Timing has a lot to do with it, too. Sometimes the marketplace is not ready or sometimes you are just not in the right place. And so that’s why you’re in it for the long haul, so you can be lucky eventually; because the more you do the luckier you’ll get. OK?

This is the path to success. It’s a zigzag; it’s not a straight line. Very few people go from Point A to Point B, where Point A is where they started and Point B is their successfully defined outcome, and get there in a straight line. Usually you’re course-correcting just like a plane which is off-course 90 percent of the time it still always arrives at its destination. So that’s the proper mindset, OK?

One Skill at a Time

The other thing here is work on developing one skill at a time. This is a mindset to have, and this really ties in with the long haul, too. Your biggest leveraged asset – your biggest leverage-able asset is your specialized knowledge because that’s something you have that nobody else has, OK? Gain specialized knowledge in one area at a time.

Make it unconscious, meaning that you become such an expert at it that you don’t even have to think about it; you can just do it. You don’t have to check your notes; you know your notes. You don’t have to go out and study every single day; you have it in your head. You only have to keep it sharp by practicing it. And then it’s unconscious. You can just do it like tying your shoes or driving a car. And then you go out and you do it with the next skill. Then you go out and you do it with the next skill. And really you only need 3 or 4 really good skills to be a stud in this business.

The logical approach is to focus on synergistic skills. You know, I’ve talked about it before. Product creation is a strong asset, specialized knowledge that I have. I can create really great products very quickly. And copywriting is another expertise I have. I have my own system where I can write copy extremely fast, that's very good quality, that pulls the conversion rates that I like. Those are synergistic skills, because you need copywriting to sell your products.

And then the next skill I got really good at was e-mail marketing, marketing to my e-mail list. That is a synergistic skill because once you create a product, once you sell them, then you want to sell them more stuff on the back end. So that’s very logical to master that skill. The next skill I mastered was focus and confidence with my ability to manage my time, and that’s synergistic because that will work with copywriting, product creation, all of those other things.

Now finally here, this is how you get really good at developing one skill at a time. Experience is the mother of skill. You don’t learn how to ice skate by going to a seminar. You learn by strapping the skates on and you have a guide take you out on the ice and show you on the ice. So you learn something by going out and doing it and checking and seeing what happened and going back out and doing it again, not by reading about it in an e-book. That only gives you a map, but looking at a map doesn’t mean that you’re going to arrive at that destination. You actually gotta walk the trail that’s shown on the map. So this is the other mind state, “I’m going to do this one skill at a time. Just keep adding skills to my business.”

Never Hesitate

Here’s another mind state that you gotta have: Never hesitating. Always taking action is how you should frame it in your mind because that’s a positive instead of a negative. But you should eliminate hesitation from your mindset. And this is why. This is the most important thing I can tell you about this. It’s easier to correct a wrong decision than indecision, because a wrong decision will tell you at least, “This way doesn’t work. You should probably look at these other alternatives instead.” Indecision doesn’t tell you crap. You have absolutely no idea. So it’s easier to correct a wrong decision than it is to correct indecision. It’s actually easier to make a wrong decision right than to get the right decision right off the bat, because you’re usually never right right away. You’re usually close, and then you correct the rest of it to get right on the money.

And speaking of money, money is very attracted to speed. Money loves speed. It’s so seductive. Speed seduces money - Money goes to those who act quickly, and so knowing that’s a money magnet you should say, “If money loves to be around people who are quick to act, maybe I should be quick to act. And if I can’t, I have to create a strategy that will then allow me to.”

I like to ask people, “Has there been a time in your life where you absolutely acted immediately and you never hesitated?”

And they’re like, “Absolutely.” And I’m like, “OK, so you can do that. Now we just gotta figure out your strategy that gets you in that state of mind so you can take action,” and then we do that.

“He who hesitates waits…and waits…and waits…and waits.” So do you want to be a waiter? Or do you want to be a receiver? Getting it done and getting some stuff from it.

So don’t hesitate, because you just won’t get anything from it. The biggest difference between successful people and the norm is their speed of implementation like we were talking about earlier. There’s only a handful of differences that separate the winners from the losers. There’s only those two or three or four daily tasks and their approaches to those, and one of those tasks is winners are very quick to take an idea and turn it into something tangible.

And, as I said earlier, work harder on yourself than you do on your business; meaning that if these are problems for you, you should be setting aside some time every single day where you’re doing this stuff to become better at taking action; to be better at learning how to handle criticism; to be better at creating undeniable and insatiable desire. If these are problems for you, you have to handle them. You have to set aside time every single day where you become better as a person with your qualities. So work harder on yourself than you do on your business until you get those qualities that you want. Then you can do anything you want in any business.

Handle Criticism

The next thing here is how to learn to handle criticism. This is very important. This is what kills and cripples a lot of people. You can’t please everybody, all right? And why would you want to anyway? Would you want to please serial killers and bad, bad people that – dictators who commit genocide – would you want to please them? Would you want to please people who will then take your information and use it maliciously? I don’t think you would, so why try to please everybody anyway? This is what I say, and this is what really justifies it in my mind.

This is the corollary to that: Some people are looking for a reason to get offended. They wake up in the morning waiting to get pissed off at something. It’s just how they’re hardwired. And I say, “Hey, I might as well provide them with that value.” Obviously there’s some value that that provides them in their life otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it. I might as well be the guy that gives them that value, so when I offend a couple people, I’m not doing it intentionally, but it just happens as a course of nature.

I say, “Good, they were looking to get offended. They got offended. Job done.”

Now check this out. This is why criticism is going to happen to you. When you try to turn something intangible to something tangible, you never know what’s going to happen. So here’s what we’re doing: We’re taking ideas that don’t exist in the world, that only exist in our mind, and we’re transforming those things from an idea into a thing. Maybe it’s a report; maybe it’s a blog post, whatever the case may be. You’re taking something out of thin air and turning it into something that they can see, touch, feel, taste, whatever. And when you do that who knows what the hell is going to happen. Sometimes it comes out right, and sometimes it doesn’t come out right. And the thing of the matter is, is you really don’t know what’s going to happen till you try it, so some people are going to criticize you. And a lot of people who do nothing, sit on the sidelines, they’re the biggest criticizers, and they’re the people that you should care least about anyway because they don’t know what it’s like to actually get your hands dirty and get in this game. Never really done it before. Proper marketing mindset. Let’s move on.

Know When To Get Out

Know when to get out. This is a very interesting one. A lot of people don’t. They’ve been conditioned with this stupid corollary that they say, “Quitters never win.” And that’s stupid. Every successful person I know has quit several times. Why? Because they chase several different opportunities, and most of them didn’t work. So they quit doing those opportunities and instead said, “I’m going to go off and try something else instead.” Overall, they never quit, but they quit a lot of times when they were going down a path that they perceived to be a dead end. And I say I’m happy with 3 out of 10. If I try 10 new business things and only 3 of them work, awesome. Then I’ll keep those 3, try 10 more things. Some of those won’t work. I’ll keep the 3 that do work, and that’s 6 things. Pretty soon I got 9, 10, 12, 15. Then I got 100 things that work now. Awesome! And I only could get to those 100 things because I got rid of those 7 things in each batch of 10 that didn’t work, OK?

I did a consult with a guy one time. He was like, “I need to get money, man. I’m going to be out on my ass in three months if I don’t. I’ll have to move. They’re going to kick me out.” I said, “OK, let’s look at what you’re doing right now.” He’s like, “Well, I’m making money, man. Here’s what I’m doing.” And he showed me my model. I said, “OK, so it takes you this amount of time to write this article.

This article on the average through ezinearticles gets these many clicks. Out of those people that go to your site, these many people end up clicking on your AdSense ads,” because that’s what he was using, “and then you make this much money a month.” I averaged it out, and I’m like, “You’re making $1.29 an article.” And then in my head I thought, “Did it ever occur to him to run the numbers and to get out?”

This model wasn’t working for him. He needed to quit doing that and find a new approach, and I told him that. I’m like, “Don’t do this anymore.”

We’ve done this in live coaching classes. A lady said, “I’m working on this book that does _______.” And I’m like, “Whoa.” I go, “In my professional opinion, I say stop working on that book because it’s probably a loser and instead do this, and it’ll probably be a winner.” But they didn’t want to get out. They were invested in their own ideas, so whatever. But you can’t manage what you can’t measure, so you gotta be measuring constantly what’s working for you and what your times worth. And if it doesn’t give you the results you want after a certain period of time of you trying it, either change your approach or get the hell out and try something else instead. I know it’s counterintuitive to what people tell you, but it’s true. Don’t be afraid to cut your losses is what it amounts to.

Absolute Desire

Absolute desire is huge in internet marketing. That’s the next one here. This is the one single thing that is better than any NLP strategy that exists on the planet or better than anything else when it comes to motivation or anything for that matter, and that’s absolute desire.

It will keep you going when you want to give up. I have cultivated a burning desire, and I think Napoleon Hill cites that as the most successful common trait that millionaires have. I got this desire where I’m just going to make this work one way or another. I will either – I will either find a way or I’ll create one. Give me a lever – give me a big enough lever, and I’ll move the whole entire world.

That’s what my mindset is, ‘cause I got the desire; if you aren’t passionate about what you’re doing at least 80 percent of the time. Now there’s 20 percent where you should be like, “Aw, shoot. I want to get this done. I don’t want to do this.” But that’s ‘cause you’re pushing yourself hard, and that’s good. But most of the time if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing most of the time then you’re either doing the wrong thing, or you have the wrong approach.

You either need to change how you’re approaching what you’re doing or change what you’re doing, so that way you’re passionate; ‘cause that’s the fuel that’s going to push you to the next level. That’s absolutely mandatory if you’re going to succeed unless you do win the lottery and get lucky, but again that’s not a good thing to bank on.

Commit

Finally, commit to do the things that most people won’t do. This is the hardest part, but this makes all the difference. Winners do the things losers don’t; that’s what makes them winners. The trick is to figure out how to motivate yourself to do those things, because they’re the things that are obvious but they’re the things that make all the difference; because people just don’t come up with a solution to figure out how to get there and do those things. And they don’t work on themselves so they can do those little extra things that the losers don’t do. Look for those small, little 5 percent extras. These are biggie. They get 95 percent of results. So, for example, PLR’s. I always re-package them, and I always re-present them so they’re different than everybody else out there. Now it doesn’t take me much longer, but it makes all the freakin’ difference in the world. And that’s like that in all kinds of stuff, OK?

This is hard. This is a weed in your garden you’re going to have to kill. This is something you’re going to have to come up with a strategy for. I’ve worked most of my life on my mind state to figure out how to do those things that most people aren’t willing to do, so that way I can get the results that most people don’t get.  

Google Ads: What Are Google Ads & How Do They Work?

 Google Ads: What Are Google Ads & How Do They Work?

Every second, there are 2.3 million searches performed on Google, and the majority of search results pages include Google ads. Paid for by businesses, Google ads can be an extremely effective way of driving relevant, qualified traffic to your website exactly when people are searching for the types of products or services your business offers.

What Are Google Ads (AdWords)?

Google offers paid advertisements that appear in search results on Google with the use of Google AdWords or advertisements that appear on other websites through the Display Network and Google’s AdSense program.

Google also offers Display Ads, which appear on the Google Display Network. The Display Network is an extensive collection of outside, third-party websites that have partnered with Google and agreed to serve Google ads. Google ads on the Display Network can be in text, image, video, or rich media format, and can be targeted differently. This includes remarketing and banner ads.

Why Google Ads Appear?

The Google AdWords auction is focused around keywords – advertisers choose a list of keywords to target that are relevant to their business offerings, the words that people are most likely to use when searching for their product. They then bid on these keywords, basing each bid on how much they are willing to pay for a Google user to click on their ad. This bid, combined with a Quality Score assigned by Google based on the quality of your proposed ad, determines which Google ads appear on the SERP. When users click the ads, the advertiser pays a certain cost (the cost per click, or CPC), which is calculated according to the below formula:

This is where the term Pay-Per-Click (PPC) originates.

The AdWords Auction

AdWords works on an auction system, which takes place every time a user performs a keyword search.

To “win” the AdWords auctions and see your Google advertisement appear for relevant keywords, you’ll need to optimize your Quality Score and the bid amount. The higher your Quality Score, in conjunction with your bid amount, the better your ad positioning. The following factors (among others) affect your Quality Score:

· The relevance of your Google ad to the search query

· The relevance of the Google keyword to your ad group

· The relevance of your ad to its landing page

· The historical click-through rate (CTR) of the ad and its ad group

· Overall historical account performance

There are also overall benefits to having a high-quality score:

· Lower costs – Google rewards advertisers with high-Quality Scores by lowering their cost per click (CPC), helping improve ROI.

· Higher exposure – When you have high-Quality Scores, your ads will display more often, in better positions on the SERP—the top vs. the bottom of the page. This enables you to get more clicks and conversions without having to raise your bids.

Google Ads Costs

The cost of Google ads varies based on a number of factors, including the competitiveness of your keywords and industry, your geographic location, the quality of your advertising campaigns and more.

In the US, the average cost per click for Google search ads across all industries is $2.32. In other countries, the average costs for Google ads are often much lower.

How can a product or business be marketed on Instagram?

How can a product or business be marketed on Instagram?

 

Instagram Ads for Effective Marketing

Instagram Ads are fast becoming the number one choice for businesses that want to get the word out about their brand and their products and services. There are a number of good reasons for this including the staggering growth of the social platform and its high levels of engagement.

How does an Instagram Ad look?

There are different types of Instagram Ads but the good thing is that they look a lot like regular posts. They will have the word “Sponsored” on them but apart from that they look and feel like a normal post.

With ordinary posts it is not possible to add external links to your website. You can add direct links in Instagram Ads as well as a call to action button to persuade a user to take a specific action. The different types of ad have different call to action buttons available.

How do you create an Instagram Ad?

Facebook now owns Instagram and you can use the Facebook Ad tools when setting up your Instagram Ads. This is good because you can use the advanced tools in Facebook to target your specific audience based on demographics, interests, location and more.

You can satisfy a number of business objectives with Instagram Ads. These objectives are:

Brand awareness

If you want to increase the awareness of your brand then you need to select this option. When you do this you will maximize the number of impressions for your ad among the audience that you have specified.

Reach

If you want your ad to be seen by the largest number of people in your target audience then go with the “Reach” option.

Traffic

This is the best objective to choose if your goal is to increase the number of clickthroughs to your website or online store. You achieve this by using persuasive call to action buttons.

App Installs

If you have an app and want to increase the number of installs then select this objectives option.

Engagement

Increasing your engagement levels is always a good thing to do on social media so choose this objectives option if you want more comments, likes and shares or you want users to show up for a specific event.

Video

If you want to increase the number of views to your videos then this is the best objectives option. You can use videos to put out brand messages or showcase your products. Do this in an inspiring and creative way and you will get great reach and high levels of engagement.

Conversions

This is the objectives option to choose if you want to increase the level of conversions on your website.

Identify your Audience

Once you have chosen your desired objective you can now identify your target audience by selecting users based on their age, gender, interests, behaviors, location and more. Once you have create an audience you can save it for use with other ad campaigns.

This is a very important step. With 80% of the users on Instagram following a business you want to make sure that you get this right and that your advertising message will resonate with your target audience.

Choose the right Ad Type

Instagram offers a number of different types of ad and these include:

· Boost or sponsored ad – you can extend the reach of an existing post

· Image Ad – use a single image for promotion

· Video Ad – use a video for promotion

· Stories Ad – base your ad on a story

· Carousel Ad – use multiple images in your ad

What are the steps to getting started with eCommerce?

Cashing in on the Ecommerce Boom

E-commerce is just another word for business transactions that happen online. Popular e-commerce websites include Amazon, Zappos, eBay, Overstock, and others. It’s a billion dollar industry that continues to grow with each passing year.

According to the United States Census Bureau, e-commerce sales for retailers were over 340 billion in 2015, the most recent year to date. To learn more about e-commerce data, download this PDF, E-Stats 2015: Measuring the Electronic Economy.

The exciting thing about e-commerce is that it levels the playing field. Fifty years ago, you would have needed a large amount of capital to start your own business. You would have spent that capital by renting a store, buying inventory, paying for advertising, hiring employees, and more.

Thanks to e-commerce, you don’t need to have deep pockets to get into business. What you need now is a desire to serve customers and a strong work ethic. If you have these two traits, then you can become part of the e-commerce movement.

Choosing a Niche

The first thing you need to consider when starting an e-commerce store is what your niche will be. Picking a niche will allow you to focus your e-commerce shop on a particular customer or a specific type of product.

Amazon originally started as an online bookstore. Zappos began by offering only shoes to their customers. Biz Chair only offered office furniture, when it first launched.

Now, all three of those shops are household names and they offer a variety of products. By focusing on a small demographic early on, they were able to build their brands as they earned the trust of their customers.

When you choose a niche, you should start by looking at what you’re passionate about. If you hate being in the kitchen, starting a business that sells cookware won’t work out well for you in the long run.

Spend a few minutes brainstorming and try to come up with 5-7 ways you like to spend your time. Choose the activities that light you up and leave you feeling fulfilled.

Think about what you would do if you were given $10,000 to use any way you’d like right now. Maybe you’d spend it on computer equipment. Maybe you’d purchase a new set of golf clubs. Maybe you’d use it to travel for a week.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to focus on an existing passion. You can explore a niche you’ve always wanted to learn more about and build a business at the same time.

When you have a niche in mind, start thinking about the problems you could solve. For example, you decide to focus on healthy eating and fitness. You look around and realize there’s a huge market of people who want to get fit, but they have medical conditions that make it difficult to exercise or eat right. Maybe you even have a medical problem of your own that allows you to relate to your audience.

So, as you think up problems, pause to list them. Some problems you could solve for your niche might include:

• Easy Meal Prep for Diabetics

• Workouts for People Who Are Immobile

• Exercises for Patients with Back Pain

• Fitness Activities for Asthmatics

• Healthy Snacks for People with Allergies

Researching Your Competition

Now that you have a few ideas in mind, it’s time to look around for your competition. If you’re considering a niche and you can’t find any competition, be careful. A niche without any competitors may indicate that you’ve stumbled upon an unprofitable market.

When you find a niche that has plenty of competitors, make a list of sites and industry leaders who are popular. Note common themes, how big their following is, and what topics they regularly cover. Then list what they aren’t focusing on. This can help you spot gaps in the market so you can stand out.

Next, go beyond websites and start exploring social media. Which sites have the biggest followings?

Do they spend most of their time promoting their products on Facebook? Do they use Instagram or Pinterest?

Which one seems to be getting them the most traction?

As you research your competition, observe what they’re doing right and what’s working for them. For example, you might notice a fitness website has a ton of followers on Instagram but isn’t active on Pinterest. This may mean that your audience prefers to get their content through Instagram and not Pinterest.

Of course, once you start your own website, you’ll want to test these theories. You may even discover that what works for one site doesn’t necessarily work for yours.

Keep in mind that every niche has their influencers, too. You want to spend time examining these people. They can help shape the direction your industry goes in. But don’t just research influencers; look for up-and-comers, too. These people aren’t quite at the top of their game yet.

But they usually have a solid social media presence, a well-written blog, or vlog, and a website packed with information. These influencers are happy to talk about your niche as well as where they see it going, within the next few years. If you’re willing to listen, they can give you some amazing tips that will allow you to position your e-commerce site for success.

Don’t let your research lead to feeling threatened by others who are seeing success in your niche. Many well-known solopreneurs and small businesses work together behind-the-scenes. In fact, these sites occasionally promote each other using affiliate links.

The reason they do this is because one person or one business can’t serve everyone in a niche. And even if they could, customers like options. After all, there are dozens of burger chains serving customers and making millions.

Doing your research will also help you narrow down exactly who you want to serve. A website centered around fitness advice for anyone with a chronic illness might be too general. Instead, you may want to focus on selling health and wellness gear and aim it strictly toward diabetics.

Remember that you may start with one niche and find yourself broadening your site later on. For example, Amazon no longer sells just books. It can be a good thing to expand your e-commerce shop when the time is right.

Evaluating Your Ideas

You’ve found a niche that you can serve and you’re excited. But it’s not enough to be passionate about your idea. You have to make sure that consumers will want what you’re offering; otherwise, even huge amounts of marketing won’t be able to save your business.

You can begin your evaluation by doing some keyword research. If you’re not familiar with this process, it’s about analyzing the keywords people use to find products and services.

The best tool to use for keyword research is Google’s Keyword Tool. This is a free service but you do need a Google account to login. Click on “Search for new keywords using a phrase, website, or category” and enter your keywords.

Google will display your results and even go a step further by providing you with related keywords. These keywords can provide even more insight into what consumers are searching for.

Another helpful way to evaluate your idea is to join online groups where your ideal customers hang out. For example, you may want to join a Facebook group of avid swimmers, if your products will be geared toward this demographic.

Pay attention to the posts people in the group ae making. Are they complaining about a problem that you product would fix?

Do they like an existing product but wish it functioned differently?

What questions are beginners asking? How about advanced swimmers—what do they need?

One big mistake to avoid when evaluating an idea is asking friends or family for feedback. They may give your product or website glowing reviews. This can lead you to believe your idea is going to make you a lot of money or that your project is perfect the way it is.

Your family and friends mean well. But they don’t want to risk hurting your feelings. They want to encourage you and see you succeed with your idea. Add in the fact that most of your friends and family won’t be in your target demographic and you have a recipe for disaster.

Another helpful technique for marketing analysis is sending out a survey. To get people to participate, you may want to offer the chance to win a grand prize. This prize should appeal to many people. Examples might be a gift card to a certain store or a big-ticket item, like an Xbox.

If you don’t want to offer a grand prize, you could instead give each participant something in exchange for their time. For example, you might give people a free sample of your product or you might offer a discount code they can use on your website.

Keep in mind that you want people who are in your target demographic to take your survey. You’ll get skewed results if you invite just anybody take your survey. Focus on the people you’re excited to serve and listen to their responses. They’re the ones who really matter.

Finding Hot Products to Sell

When it comes to e-commerce, you want to sell products that are popular or on the verge of becoming popular. Picking hot products means it’s easier to make a sale and you have to spend less time marketing because the product often sells itself.

But how do you find these hot products and tap into these up-and-comer ones? That’s where a little research can come in handy. The first place to look is on Google Trends.

Google monitors various keywords and can tell you how popular they are at any given time.

You can even use trends to compare what’s popular now and what was popular a few years ago. This can give you plenty of insights into the niche you’re targeting.

Another way to research hot product is to use Amazon. You may not know this but Amazon has best-seller lists for each product category. These lists allow you to see what the top 100 products are and it ranks them for you.

To find these lists, go to Google and type in ‘Amazon Best-Seller List for (Product)’ without quotes. Use a general niche to get the best results. For example, try ‘Amazon Best-Seller List for Makeup’ in Google. You’ll see best-seller lists for Best Face Makeup, Best Eye Makeup, Best Makeup Sets and more.

You can also find what the newest releases are on Amazon. Go to Google and use the phrase ‘Amazon Hot New Releases (Niche)’ without quotes. For example, you might look for ‘Amazon Hot New Releases Toys’. This will show you the newest releases in toys and games.

But that’s not all. Amazon also keeps a list of ‘Most Wished For’ items according to niche. You can find these lists by searching for them. Use the phrase ‘Amazon Most Wished For (Item Category)’ without quotes. So you might look up ‘Amazon Most Wished for Women’s Shoes’. This will give you plenty of ideas about what products your niche really craves.

Obtaining Your Products

When it comes to creating your products, you have a few different options. The first option is to make it yourself. This is a good choice if you’d like to be involved in every stage of production and you can get the materials to create your product.

You’ll also need the knowledge and experience to do it yourself. You can either learn through online videos or by taking classes locally. Products you may want to make yourself include jewelry, lotions, soaps, cosmetics, and other items.

The second option is to buy wholesale. When you buy wholesale, you purchase a product that’s already been made but you buy it in bulk. If you purchase a lot of the product or if the product is big, you may have to rent a space to store it in.

The disadvantage of buying wholesale is that you need a significant amount of cash in advance. But you do save money since you’re paying in bulk. This savings can translate into bigger profits for your business. However, it’s risky because if your product doesn’t sell then you’ve lost a lot of money.

The third option to consider is drop-shipping. When you get a customer’s order, you collect payment and send the information to the drop-shipping company. You pay the drop-shipper and the company puts your customer’s product in the mail.

The advantage of drop-shipping is that you don’t have to worry about inventory or associated costs. You can simply focus on marketing and advertising your e-commerce website.

However, the disadvantage of drop-shipping is that your profit margin is smaller. You also have less control over your product. If there’s a problem, you may not know about it, until your customer lodges a complaint.

Evaluating Wholesale Suppliers & Dropship Vendors

If you don’t want to be responsible for making products yourself, then you’ll need a wholesale supplier or dropship vendor. But you don’t want to pick just any supplier or vendor. You want a company that’s going to be reliable and trustworthy.

You can start your search by looking at the manufacturer of the items you’d like to stock. Call the company and ask if they offer wholesale or drop-shipping services. If they offer one or both of these services, ask about a minimum order.

Most large manufacturers prefer to do business with large companies and have strict minimum order requirements. If the company isn’t right for you, thank the representative you’re speaking with and move on.

Keep in mind that when it comes to suppliers, the price you pay depends on the size of your order. If you only order 100 units, don’t expect to get rock bottom prices. The way it works in wholesale and drop-shipping is that the bigger your order is, the bigger your discount will be.

You can find plenty of suppliers and distributors by attending trade shows, searching directories like Worldwide Brands, or looking in trade magazines. If you already have contacts in the wholesale or drop-shipping industry, reach out to them and ask for guidance.

If possible, arrange a face-to-face meeting with your supplier. This lets you get to know the people behind the company and gives a chance to get a feel for their personality. Remember, you’ll be working closely with your supplier in the coming years. This means you need to be polite and professional in all of your dealings with each other.

Steer clear of companies or individuals that have a constantly changing business name. If your supplier re-invents themselves every 2-3 years, it’s a sign they may not be using the best business practices.

Popular Platforms for Selling Products

Regardless of what products you’re selling, you’ll need a platform that allows you to accept e-commerce transactions. The good news is there are a variety of solutions you can try. With so many options, you’re sure to find one you like.

Shopify

Shopify is an online e-commerce website. You can use it to open your online store. The advantage of using Shopify is that their software is simple and easy to use. You won’t have to spend hours learning how to use complicated software.

Big Commerce

Big Commerce allows you to create an online store through their website. Not only can you create a beautiful store, but you can also see detailed analytics. This data can help you determine which products are your most popular and profitable.

Magento

Magento is open-source software that can be used as an e-commerce solution. If you’re not techy, Magento can create your store on their server. This prevents outages and other hosting problems. If you’d rather have complete control, you can download the software and install it on your site yourself. However, you may need a programmer to help.

Big Cartel

Big Cartel is another e-commerce solution. It’s different in one key way—you don’t have to transaction or listing fees. Instead, you pay one hosting fee a month and you’re done. But there is one downside to Big Cartel—it doesn’t support shops that have over 300 items for sale. So if you plan to grow your commerce store, you may have to move later on.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that you can use on your website. When a customer places an order, she’ll sign up for an account and checkout. After the transaction is completed, you’ll get an email in your inbox informing you of the order.

Other Ways to Sell Your Products

If you don’t want to open an e-commerce store to sell your products, don’t worry. You can always join an existing e-commerce shop and sell your items that way. Here are a few sites that welcome independent sellers:

Amazon

The advantage of becoming an Amazon seller is that you’re siphoning traffic from one of the biggest websites in the world. You’ll also be associated with the Amazon brand, which customers already know and trust.

eBay

eBay is a good place to sell items that have been discontinued, are rare, or collectible items. But you have to study your competitors and make sure you’re pricing your items correctly. If you price too high, customers may not buy your product. If you price too low, potential customers may worry there’s a defect in the product.

Rakuten

Rakuten is a global marketplace that was started by Hiroshi Mikitani in 1997. It generates over seven hundred billion dollars each year and for a small monthly fee, you can list your products for sale on Rakuten.

Alibaba

Alibaba is an online site where consumers and businesses can shop. Although you may not have heard of this site, it’s more profitable than Amazon and Wal-Mart. It also offers a more robust product line and is trusted by consumers.

3 Essentials Your E-Commerce Business Needs

You’ve decided on your branding. You know what products you’ll be selling. You’ve chosen an e-commerce solution and you feel like you’re ready to start your business. Before you fulfill your first order, there are a few more things your business needs.

Business Plan

Just because your business is online doesn’t mean you should skip the invaluable step of creating a business plan. Your business plan is a bit like a GPS device. It helps you chart your course so you can arrive at your intended destination.

So, start thinking about your e-commerce business. What do you want it to look like in 5 years? Do you want to be a small family owned business? Do you want to grow into a big industry name with thousands of employees? Will your business be a part-time or full-time operation?

When you have a clear vision guiding you, it’s easier to make the day-to-day decisions that come up as you’re running your business. Take a moment right now and make an appointment to write out your own business plan this week.

Bookkeeping Solution

If you want a successful business, you have to know how much money you’re spending and how much you’re earning. Without this vital information, you’re flying blind. You have no idea if you’re making a profit or if you’re losing money.

You can do your own bookkeeping yourself using financial software. Some good options include QuickBooks, FreshBooks, and GNUCash.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to do your own accounting if you don’t want to. You can hire a professional bookkeeper. This can be helpful because a bookkeeper will be aware of taxes and laws that apply to your small business.

Coach or Mentor

There are always a hundred decisions to make when it comes to your business. That’s where a business coach or mentor can come in. A coach or mentor has years of experience and plenty of wisdom to share, if you’re willing to listen.

A good coach will help you make sure you’ve set up your business correctly and guide you through common problems. For example, if your supplier didn’t deliver your order and has become unresponsive, you might freak out.

This is a great opportunity to call on your coach. Your mentor can calm your nerves and give you a clear action plan so you know exactly what to do.

Tips for Marketing Your E-Commerce Site

Once you have your store set up, you’ll need to spend time marketing and promoting your business. Even if you’re on a huge platform and you’re getting good traction, you still want to inspire brand loyalty in your customers.

A simple way to promote your business is to use content marketing and search engine optimization. You can do this by having a blog you keep regularly updated. Your blog content should be in the same niche as your store. If you sell pet supplies, then your blog should be about pet care. This gives you the chance to educate your readers and point them toward your products at the same time.

As soon as you have a blog, start a mailing list. Your email list allows you to contact your subscribers about sales you’re running, new products you have available, and discounts you’re offering.

When you have a mailing list and blog with some content, it’s time to get on social media. You should be on several different platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram. Use hashtags to find and share relevant content.

How to Scale Your Business

Scaling a business is all about growing it without creating more work for the owner. This gives you the freedom and time to focus on activities that bring in profits.

The biggest step to scaling your business is to improve the customer experience. As soon as your customer makes a purchase, they should be sent two emails.

The first one should be a confirmation of their order. The second one should let them know what’s happening with your order. But you shouldn’t be sending these emails yourself. They should be part of an automated campaign that’s triggered as soon as a new order arrives. This saves you time and reduces customer follow-up

You should also focus on how to improve shipping. One of the easiest ways to do that is to offer email or SMS notifications. This way your customer will be aware of what’s happening to their purchase every step of the way. To do this, you can use a service like Twilio or Phone Tree.

Regardless of what products you offer, you need a backup way to complete orders. This can be done through a third party fulfillment service. You may have to pay a little more and you may even lose money on a transaction but it’s a great customer service move. When customers are satisfied, they return to your shop again and again.

Best Practices for E-Commerce Shops

The most important part of running an e-commerce shop is making it simple and easy for customers to check out. It doesn’t matter how great your products are, if customers can’t easily checkout, they’ll get frustrated and leave before the transaction is finished. Fortunately, you can prevent this from happening by following these best practices.

Use multiple payment gateways. When you only accept one type of payment, it can lead customers to abandon their cart. Try to offer at least 2-3 different payment gateways. That way, your customer can pick the one they prefer to use.

Offer affordable and quick shipping options. When your customer is ready to checkout, the first thing they look for are your shipping choices. They want to know when they can expect their item and how much you’ll charge for this service. Give customers several options so they can choose the one that works best for their needs.

Minimize page load time. More consumers are making purchases from their tablets or smart phones than ever before. This means that your page load time is important. If your shop takes too long to load, then your potential customer is likely to move on.

Keep your checkout speedy. Your customer’s transaction is more likely to be completed if your checkout requires only a few screens. Ideally, it should be no more than 3 pages of information—one for the customer information, a second one for the payment gateway, and the third for shipping options.

Make customer service accessible. Don’t make your customers hunt for a contact number or email address. This information should be visible on every page of your site. If you outsource customer support, be sure to train your representatives so they’re fast, knowledgeable, and friendly.

Major retailers are shutting down local stores, citing customer preferences for shopping online as one of the main factors. Big-name closings include JCPenney with 138 stores, Payless ShoeSource with 512+ stores, RadioShack with 1,000 stores, and others. With the number of online buyers increasing, it will literally pay to get in on the ecommerce boom as soon as possible. Use these tips and strategies to start cashing in with your own ecommerce business.