(Putting the 30-day challenge into practical use – Part 2)

On my previous post, I highlighted some of the methods I used to get top search engine rankings for What Sells Online! In How to Generate Ideas on What To Sell Online, I revealed some of the ways to get ideas for potential niche keywords. Finally, in Putting the 30 day challenge into practical use – Part 1, I discussed some ways anyone can use to nail down several niche keywords they could work on.

Now that you have your list of niche keywords, here’s what you need to do next:

• Use niche keywords to write good content
• Post your content on a Web 2.0 site or blog
• Search for relevant affiliate products to promote
• Get your niche blog listed on top of search engine results
• Other methods to draw traffic to your niche blog

a. Using niche keywords to write content

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There is no doubt about it: The ability to draw traffic is the key to online success, no matter what you are selling online. With top search engine rankings, you are able to capture potential buyers who are specifically searching for your product or service.

Ever since launching What-Sells-Online.com, I’ve been trying for top search engine ranking for the search results of “what sells online”. A bulk of my traffic came from my articles posted on Ezinearticles.com, many of which were listed on the first 2 pages of Google’s search results.

Eventually, I was able to get top search engine rankings with these strategies:

1. Post articles linking to your site on Ezinearticles.com

It seems that Google has an affinity for high PR websites such as ezinearticles.com. Thus, new articles on this site optimizing specific keywords will easily get a first page ranking. If you have just started a new
website, it helps to have an article (not duplicated on your blog or website), posted on Ezinearticles.com (or other popular article submission sites).

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Reading the JohnChow.com2007 Blog Income Report indicates that we don’t necessarily have to sell stuff online to make money. Working on a blog, with the right publicity, traffic generation techniques and some writing skills on the right topics, are some of the key ingredients for success.

Of course, all these do not come free. I’m certain that at some point or other, John Chow had to work hard to promote his blog before the money came pouring in. And, if you review his Blog Income Report for 2006, there is actually a significant difference in the income he’s getting. Apparently, according to this report - How Top Bloggers Earn Money-John Chow dot Com Income Report-August 2007 – John Chow had only started with a few hundred dollars of income in the first month. To me, this small amount is
great, as it indicates the effectiveness of his traffic drawing methods. Apparently, he started with only $3,440.66, which then grew to a whopping $27,240.83 at the end of the year.

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I’ve been busy over the past 3 weeks with several things:

1) Developing a website for a restaurant

2) Listening and analyzing all the pod casts and presentations from the Thirty Day Challenge

3) Putting into practice the keyword-finding tactics explained in my previous post

Fortunately, I’ve managed to complete all of the above, and with time left for Christmas shopping and preparations!

Today, I’m going to share my findings for the 3^rd item – identifying potential keywords that COULD be used to sell affiliate products online. You’d want to find keywords that aren’t already too competitive to optimize. In a nutshell, these keywords should fulfill the following criteria:

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In my previous post, How to Generate Ideas on What to Sell Online, I explored the various idea sources of possible product niches. Looking at what people bought, talked about, asked about or researched on, pretty much sparks off your imagination on how you can fulfill their needs.

Now that you have an entire list of product ideas, your next step is sieve out those with too much competition. Essentially, the key to a successful online product is the specific KEYWORDS used and optimized in a blog, sales page or website. The strategy here is to find niche keywords with some volume of searches and low competition from other websites, especially web 2.0 websites.

How do we do this?

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While looking for a guide to nail down what to sell online, I came across the Thirty Day Challenge training from Caroline Middlebrook’s website. With a sign-up, I gained an invitation to pod casts and audio recordings of the tutorials which were delivered each work day over a period of 30 days.

Days One through Three of this online training course were primarily focused on places to get ideas on what to sell online. While the trainers do not specify which products specifically would make money online, they make a good attempt in providing tips and tools for users to figure this out on their own. Holistically, the coverage of the entire 30-day program encompasses:

• Market Research
• Build Traffic
• Conversion Strategies
• Creating a Product

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One of the most inspiring methods I’ve found online is the potential of Blogs as tools to help us sell
online. While blogs have become tremendously popular, this channel of self expression has been successfully turned into a money making tool.

Most money making bloggers often utilize blogs as publicity and promotional tools for their other products. However, with the stiff competition from the millions of blogs online, each of them fighting for attention, bloggers have to work hard to carve a niche for themselves. They need to be creative in their traffic generation strategies.

Pay per click advertisements are often a source of side income for these blogs. While this money making channel may seem puny at the beginning, large volume of incoming traffic has the potential to help the blogger earn thousands of dollars.

A recent great example of this is Shoemoney, who recently shocked the Blogosphere by revealing the outrageous income he is generating from Google Adsense alone. He raked in a whopping $132,994.97 just for the month of  August. This was generated from 125,175 clicks, about 1% of the 13 million page impressions. (Oh, apparently Google Adsense income is just his side income. His blog is
actually his publicity tool for other products that he sells online.)

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Visiting trade shows is obviously one of the possibilities anyone would look at when seeking for products to sell online. I’ve been to several of these, with the latest being the April 2007 Global Sources China
Sourcing Fair in Hong Kong.

Logo from Global Sources

As fashion accessories and lingerie were amongst the products I was considering to sell online, China was then an obvious source. This country is synonymous with contract manufacturing, with thousands of factories selling millions of items across the world. Global Sources is, of course, great with their  marketing abilities.

I had received an attractive Global Sources brochure, and was just thrilled at the idea of meeting hundreds of China suppliers under one roof.

I was about to be disappointed. The following were the reasons why:

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Image from Engadgets

While this new and interesting PMP by Acelabs was worth a feature on Engadgets, I wondered if this product could be worth selling online. So, I ran a search for Acelabs products on eBay and found no results returned for my search terms. Next, I Googled Acelabs and found no company information on the first page of search results. Obviously, the first link listed was the review by Engadgets.

In my experience in searching for products to sell online, I’ve come to the conclusion that only branded electronic products are worth promoting on eBay or even other shopping sites (at least in the beginning). There are several obvious reasons for this:

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I read about this on Engadget and thought that it was a pretty good idea from Google. Local brick and mortar businesses would definitely be able to gain a head start from their competitors. The question now is: Is there an opportunity here for online Internet Marketers?

The way I see it, new online start-ups can utilize this to build their brands. This would be just one of the various avenues they could use to promote themselves offline. Then again, their decision could also depend on the costs involved, and the specific target market the map would go to.

An example would be, if a person is looking for directions to a restaurant a gas pump Google map, alternative information on online restaurant reservations services, online hotel agents, online travel agents, and even local online tour information could be advertised on these coupons. Special promo codes could also be easily incorporated to encourage quick online access.

Additionally, with 80% of US citizens going online, there is no doubt on the blurring of the boundaries between offline and online marketing channels.