In this series of articles I'm going to show you how to findout if there's a hungry crowd for your ... ... you write a single word. Mark Twain once said: “Find out where the people a
In this series of articles I'm going to show you how to find
out if there's a hungry crowd for your information product
BEFORE you write a single word.
Mark Twain once said: “Find out where the people are going
and get there first”.
With the advent of the internet you can certainly find out
what folks are wanting. Being the first at the front of the
line to bill them might not be quite so easy.
But there are ways to find out if there's an existing hungry
crowd for your information product, and more importantly a
crowd with pockets bulging with cash to give you.
In this article I'm going to share some tips that will
save you much heartache from chasing after the wrong market.
Firstly I believe that it is very important that what you
sell interests you, otherwise you sign up for a life of
struggle and worse... Boredom!
Motivating yourself to sell something you have no interest
or belief in is soul-destroying at the best of times, so
don't do it.
Just because *rubber cat suits* is your thing doesn't mean
the rest of the planet digs them at all. I mean that's a
pretty small niche with less than 560 searches performed a
month. Yes I did actually go and check out the stats for it.
One of things I've found in this marketing-malarkey is that
I am able to explore interests that I simply don't have the
time or inclination to actively get involved in.
Take archery, I can twang a bow as well as the next man, and
have done for the past couple of years. But the idea of
traipsing off to all those shows every weekend,
predominantly talking a load of rubbish just doesn't do it
for me.
BUT sell this bunch of Robin Hood wannabees an infoprod, and
I'm game. Seriously though, I love archery, it's one of the
few sports the British government hasn't actually tried to
ban... yet!
And that brings me to my point... What do you have an
interest in that also has a large number of people willing
to do what I call *the wallet flip*. You need to be looking
for markets where the folk won't even blink at spending $100
a year on the products you will be selling.
OK time to take some action:
=> Draw up an initial list of 10 of your interests.
=> Scan your bookshelves to see what reference books you've
bought in the past, and on what subjects or hobbies.
=> Pay attention when folk you meet start talking about
their hobbies, their passions.
=> Pop down to your local magazine store and see what
interests are being catered to.
=> Can't be bothered to pad down to your local store, then
click over to http://www.mediafinder.com and do some
searches.
=> Buy a stack of these magazines and go through the
classified ads with a highlighter. Call up the ones you've
circled and ask for their information packs. Make a note of
which ones you've called and see how soon the information
arrives. How are they selling? Good, bad, OK? Could you
improve on thequality of what they are offering? Over five
to six issues how many of the adverts are repeated? Make a
note and watch that market like a hawk. If they weren't
making money the ads wouldn't be running.
=> Hop over to eBay to research all the different
sub-categories. Which ones are active? Which ones are
commanding high prices?
=> Are there any discussion forums related to your potential
market? Buzz over to http://www.forumfind.com and do a
search.
This is just the beginning. Until the next article I want
you to start paying attention to what people are interested
in. This can simply be as easy as listening to folk banter
when they're in the checkout line.
Scan the news, open your eyes and mind to opportunities.
You'll be amazed at how your brain kicks into “selective
perception”. Don't know what that is? Ever bought a car and
then suddenly you notice the whole planet is driving the
exact same model. It's like everyone decided to buy the car
YOU just bought. Well that's “selective perception” at work.
Same thing happens when you actively go hunting down niche
markets… actually it can work great for an awful lot of
other things… building keyword lists is another example, and
another story.
Until next time, now get on with your homework.
