Web Design Discussion

How was 2009 for you?
Have you created a blueprint for success in 2010?

2009 was a tough year for me and my family. I earned much less than the previous year. The recession may have had something to do with it as I had less customers who wanted a website designed, redesigned, hosted or wanted SEO help. My family was shocked to discover my wife had a hyperactive thyroid. It took several weeks of radiation therapy (a $1000 pill) to get recover her health.

Instead of dwelling on the negative I first look at what I’m grateful for ie wife, kids, friends, house, food, clothing, health, etc. These are the reasons I work so hard at my web design company.

The key to making 2010 a great year is your mindset. If you keep a positive and grateful mind opportunities will come your way. Recently I was listening to Joel Osteen’s podcasts while exercising on the treadmill. The reason he built the largest church in the USA..he has a positive message for everyday living. I’m not a member of his church but find his words encouraging and uplifting (unlike
the news or naysayers).

I suggest listening to one of his podcasts called “Program your mind for victory” by clicking on the audio link at: Program your mind for victory. It will help prepare your mind for success in 2010.

Checklist of Blueprint for Success in 2010

• List the things you are grateful for
• List your main accomplishments for 2009
• List the failures of 2009, why it happened and what you did or would do to correct them
• List the main projects you wish to accomplish in 2010
• List the goals for each of these projects, the actions you’ll take to accomplish them and a timeline when they’ll be completed.

Start your “day” with a “To-Do” list.

• Create 2 columns in the list – “Profitable Tasks” and “Maintenance” Tasks
• List all the things you need to do that will build your online business, those that will increase the bottom-line.
• List all the things you need to do in order to “maintain” your current online business eg article marketing, link building, SEO, customer support, etc.

By doing all the things on this checklist you’ll get a clear idea why you need to work hard at your business and a solid plan how to achieve success in 2010.

It’s up to you to make it happen!
I wish a very prosperous New Year!

Resources
Successful Business Goal Setting for 2010
8 Steps to Creating a Simple Business Plan for 2010

Leave a comment below on the No 1 goal you wish to accomplish for 2010

How to get what you really want….whether it is your marriage partner, dream home, ideal business or good health?

This is the power of “The Secret“, a movie I watched with my family recently (it’s also a book) that shows you how to apply the law of attraction to your life.

How was The Secret discovered?

Rhonda Byrne’s discovery of The Secret began with a glimpse of the truth through a 100 year old book. She went back through centuries, tracing and uncovering a common truth that lay at the core of the most powerful philosophies, teachings and religions in the world.

What is The Secret?

Here are some of the main points I gleaned from watching the movie:

1. You are what you think

You attract whatever you are thinking or feeling. If you’re feeling good about something you’ll attract good things, if you feel negative about something you’ll attract negative emotions and thoughts.

Example
“Today I will finish this project” will attract positive energy to get the project finished.

“Today I probably won’t finish this project” will attract negative energy resulting in not getting the project completed.

2. Visualize what you want

Create a picture in your mind about what you desire. Make it as clear as possible. Write it down on paper, draw a picture or take a photo of it and keep it near your computer so you won’t forget about it. Practice visualizing what you want everyday.

3. What you don’t want attracts what you don’t want

Example
If you say to yourself “I will never get healed from this sickness” you’ll attract negative energy that won’t help you get healed.

4. Be grateful

Be grateful for even the small things, ie blade of grass, wind on your face, food you eat, family members, friends, etc. Don’t focus on what you don’t have.

5. Visualize a beautiful place to go to in your mind

When life gets rough visit that beautiful place in your mind, meditate on it. It will give you peace and tranquility and cause negative thoughts to disappear while being grateful for what you have.

6. Everything is energy

If you breakdown everything (animate and inanimate objects), you find they all consist of atoms which consist of energy. This means everything contains energy. The positive or negative energy you project influences the universe. By thinking or feeling in a positive manner you attract the positive forces of the universe to help you get what you want.

7. Apply “The Secret” to your online business

Visualize what you want to achieve with your business then create a plan to make it happen.

Example
Visualize the dream house you want to buy with your business profits. Draw or take a picture of it and place it in the location where you’ll see it everyday. This will remind you why you are working so hard.

You’ll need to set a monetary goal then create a simple business plan for how to achieve your goal.

Tip

Applying the law of attraction will help you achieve a positive mindset each day and lead you to prosperity.

Let me know your experiences or thoughts on “The Secret” by leaving a comment in the box below.

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Get the complete step-by-step guide for
“Highly Effective Article Marketing Strategies“
to boost traffic generation to your web site.

In my last article I discussed the benefits of your kid starting an online business. This article will give you 10 ideas to get your creative juices going.

1. Help with repetitive tasks of parent’s online business

As a parent who has run a web design and marketing business for the last 8 years, I have many repetitive tasks that I would willingly have my teenage son do for a small hourly wage. I not only have an employee I trust, but save money by not hiring a professional marketer plus my child benefits by earning money for himself.

Here are some tasks you could pass on to your child:

*Submitting articles to article directories
*Link building
*Simple updates to customers’ web sites
*Blog posting
*Writing and submitting articles

2. Blogging

If your child has a passionate interest in something why not get them to blog about it and make money from adsense ads. It could be their favorite video game, sport or hobby. Blogs are one of the easiest web sites to set-up, and search engines index them quickly.

Get your child to add content to his blog at least 3 times a week. After 30 or so blog posts add adsense ads to each post so he can begin making money from the blog. It won’t make him rich overnight however he can easily make a dollar a day and more as he adds more content on a consistent basis.

3. Affiliate programs

Large companies use affiliate programs to market their products. By becoming an affiliate you receive a commission every time you sell one of their products. Visit the clickbank market place to find an affiliate product to promote. They offer up to 75% commissions.

Research information about the product on the Internet (if you know nothing about it) then write a review page for it on your blog. Introduce the product at the end of your content and include the affiliate link.

4. Online research

Many online marketers don’t have time to research new content for their web sites. Your kid can offer their time to do research and get paid for it by the hour. I’d suggest setting up a web site that offers all the services your kid offers.

5. Online store

Creating an online store enables you to sell any number of products. There are companies that will offer their affiliates a free store to sell their products. All you have to do is market the store by driving traffic to it and you earn a commission. For example Ebay and Amazon are 2 large companies which allow you to create an affiliate store and sell their products.

6. Sell products on Ebay

I have a nephew which builds outdoor furniture from free wood he gets from an orchard owner. He then sells the furniture on ebay. When he needs more money he just makes more furniture.

You can do the same with someone elses products by offering to sell it for them. Some folks go to garage sales to purchase inexpensive items then sell it for profit on ebay.

7. Writing articles

If your kid has a good writing style they can offer their services to online firms who are often looking for good content writers. I suggest creating a small portfolio of essays they’ve written for English classes so potential clients can instantly view how good their writing skills are.

8. Create online presentations

Creating powerpoint presentations for school projects are very common these days. Businesses spend a lot of time and money putting these together. Your child can become a virtual assistant online by offering to create these.

9. Create videos

Online videos are very popular because they engage visual and auditory sense of visitors. Businesses use video blogs, video sales pages, video squeeze pages to promote their products online. It takes a bit of a learning curve to create a good video and time to submit a video to all the video sharing sites. If your kid is experienced in creating videos he/she can use the skill to make money.

10. Write a short report

Throughout your kid’s school life they always have to write essays or do a report on a project. They can use this expertise to create their own report on a subject they are passionate about then sell it online for profit. The report can only has to be 7-20 pages long. It should only contain content people can use, not a lot of fluff.

After creating the report, build a small web site containing the sales page and graphic of the report then market it on social marketing sites, blogs and forums. The key to making a profit from the report is to find places online where people interested in the topic of your report gather together. This is your target audience.

Whatever online business you choose, make sure it’s built upon your passion. If not, you will soon lose interest and fizzle out.

You never know if your kids part-time hobby will develop into a full-fledged online business.
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For more information read:
Starting a Free Online Business

Have you thought about teaching your kids how to start an online business?

It’s crossed my mind many times during the growth of my children but I’ve always put the idea on hold because I wanted them to first interact with others (especially adults) in a physical location such as a store or restaurant.

Today is my son’s 15th birthday so I decided to revisit this topic.

The only job he ever got paid for outside our family setting was cutting the neighbors’ lawns. It made him good money but fizzled out in the winter (even though I suggested shoveling snow or racking leaves in the autumn).

This summer he wants to have a job that he can work at every day however I told him he needs to be procative because more qualified people are taking the jobs normally filled by students.

Benefits of kids starting an online business

1. Provide beginning business skills

Business skills are not normally taught in school until college so why not jump start the learning process and make money as well. Making money is a great incentive for kids to start an online business.

2. Teach personal responsibility

Apart from doing chores around the house an online business is another way for kids to take personal responsibility for the actions they perform to achieve the goals they want to attain.

3. Provide funding for college

College tuition is increasing every year and it won’t be long before your teenager is off to college. Starting an online business now may defray some or all of the costs of tuition down the road. It will also be a confidence booster for your kid. If successful at an early age he or she may become a very successful entrepeneur.

4. Transfer video game skills to entrepeneurial skills

Most kids these days are very skillful at mastering online games. They easily spend hours in the virtual world mastering online games. Instead of getting frustrated at all the time spent on these games transfer your kids’ skills to online business building?

By introducing the idea of starting an online business they may like it especially if they can use the money to purchase items they want but couldn’t afford before.

When it comes to raising kids I you want to expose them to many things. You never know what may peak their interest. For example I’ve exposed my kids to many sports however they only liked 1 or 2 of then so far.

Why not introduce them to starting an online business now?

Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment in the box below.

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For more information read:
Starting a Free Online Business

Read my previous article if you want to learn How to Start a Blog

If you want to attract search engine traffic and get thousands of visitors to read your content you need to optimize the structure and content of your Word Press Blog.

7 Steps for Optimizing Your Word Press Blog Structure

The plugins below are highly recommended as they save you lots of time, no knowledge of coding is necessary and it’s easy to accomplish.

1. Install the headspace plugin
http://urbangiraffe.com/plugins/headspace2/

This plugin allows you to easily add titles and descriptions to your posts and pages.

2. Install the Google Sitemaps plugin.
http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/sitemap-generator-plugin-for-wordpress/

A site map provides a way for Google to index all your pages. It functions similar to a table of contents so your visitors can also view the contents of your glob without scrolling through all the categories. The site map plugin submits your pages automatically to Google whenever you create new posts on your blog.

3. Install the Google XML Sitemaps generator plugin
http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/

This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO. It helps Google to index and crawl your pages better which may result it attracting more visitors from the search engines.

4. Install the similar posts plugin
http://rmarsh.com/plugins/similar-posts/

The beauty of this plugin is that it helps visitors to stay longer on your blog. After a visitor reads your post they can view other content related to it. It displays a highly configurable list of related posts. Similarity can be based on any combination of word usage in the content, title, or tags.

5. Create a permalink structure

The basic Word Press installation will display the pages with unfriendly URLs in the browser. This means the URL will have a bunch of numbers after it. It not makes them hard to remember should a visitor try to type it into their browser but it makes it more difficult for search engines to index your pages.

To change your permalink structure you need to login to your Wordpress admin panel, then go to Options > Permalinks. Choose custom. To create a permalink structure like
http://www.myblog.com/category/postname.php enter the following code:

/%category%/%postname%/

If you prefer a permalink structure like http://www.myblog.com/postname.php enter:

/%postname%/

6. Add a newsletter sign up form

You’ve probably heard “the money is in the list”. If you have a large list of subscribers you can send a newsletter to them every 2 weeks thereby keeping in touch with them. From time to time you can promote your products to them and make money from your list.

To add a contact form to your blog download and install this plugin:
http://chip.cuccio.us/projects/contact-form-ii/

7. Allow visitors to comment on your content.

To encourage visitors to comment on your blog posts make sure you enable comments in the admin panel. To do this login to your admin panel then go to: settings-discussion settings and check the boxes for allowing comments.

Now you’ve taken the 7 steps to optimize your Word Press Blog Structure you need to optimize the content of your blog.

It’s not easy to choose a domain name these days because most have already been taken (especially a dot com name). This has grown the business of buying and selling domain names.

For example if you wanted to buy business.com (if it was for sale) it would cost you millions of dollars to acquire it.

Why you shouldn’t get a free domain name?

If you wanted to save the $20.00 it costs to purchase a professional domain name you could use one of the services that offer a domain, web site and hosting for free.

For example you could sign up for a free blog at WordPress.com. You could start with this if you’re short of cash. The problem with this method is that if the company goes bust you lose your online business. If you’ve created lots pages with optimized content that ranks well in the search engines, you’ll lose all your hard work.

How to choose the best domain name

Branding

If you wish to brand your company name (ie Amazon.com) use it in the domain name. This will help visitors to easily identify your business online.

You may even use your own name to brand your business. Chances are, it may not be taken if it’s not too common..

Include keywords

People often associate the keywords in your domain name with the type of business you are in. For example I chose iSiteBuild.com because I build web sites. I chose ihost-websites.com to offer my web hosting services.

Action steps

* Create a list of possible keywords that reflect the type of business you have.

* Visit Godaddy.com and enter your suggested domain name. If it’s already taken it will offer many alternatives. It’s best to get a .com name because it’s the most popular for business names online however if you’re not particular try .net, .org, .info, .us.

You may have to try many different keyword combinations to find a domain name that’s available and reflects your company.

* Keep it short. Long domain names are them hard to remember. A short one is easy to type. When you add web pages your domain name already gets longer ie www.isitebuild.com/hostingplans.htm.

* Make it easy to spell. Don’t keep your visitors guessing. They’ll avoid mistakes when typing it into their browser. A mistake on their part will take them to another web site.

* Avoid dashes. Dashes in a domain name makes it harder for visitors to remember and spell. Only use dashes after exhausting all your options.

* Register your domain name. Depending on the extension it will cost a little over $10.00. Godaddy runs you through mine field of features you can add to the purchase of your domain (ie privacy, hosting, etc). If you don’t need all these extra features opt for the quick checkout to bypass this.

If your chosen domain name is not available and is one that you have set your heart upon, you may be able to buy it from the owner. As I mentioned above, many people buy and sell domain names as a business. Be careful though..a domain name containing high ranking keywords may cost several thousand dollars.

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Learn how to start and build a profitable online business with a

“Highly Effective Article Marketing Strategy”

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Design and SEO Services

So you’ve found a niche you’re passionate about but you don’t know if it will be a profitable one. You’ll waste a lot of time and money building a web site and writing lots of content for your niche only to find there’s no demand or interest for it.

This is why you need to do keyword research first before you write even one word. The number of searches will determine if it’s worthwhile pursuing the niche you’ve chosen. If it doesn’t receive many searches move on to another niche your passionate about. This is why you created a list in the beginning.

Camping is my passion

Let’s go through the exercise of doing keyword research for the keyword “camping” since it’s one of my passions.

1. Enter “camping” (with the quotes) in the search box of the free keyword research tool…wordtracker. It will list the first 100 keywords and show the number of times people have searched on that word in one month.

Tip: Your main keyword should get 500 to 1000 searches. If it’s less than that move on to another keyword (topic) you’re passionate about.

Here are the first 10 keywords:

1280 camping world
1119 camping
645 camping gear
466 camping tents
441 camping supplies
314 camping equipment
218 motorcycle camping trailers
178 camping rankings
164 camping costa brava
161 camping trailers
130 camping recipes

2. List the top 10 web sites in Google

This will give you a bird’s eye view of your competition. I chose “camping gear” as my main keyword because camping is too general and “camping gear” receives over 500 searches.

Here’s the top 10 web sites in Google (this may change anytime)

www.rei.com/
www.cabelas.com/
www.campmor.com/
www.summitcampinggear.com/
www.camping-gear-outlet.com/
www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=4128
www.coleman.com/
www.camping4less.com/
www.usoutdoorstore.com/
www.campingcomfortably.com/

3. Check the number of backlinks of competing web sites.

Backlinks are the links that point to your web site from another web site. The number and quality of backlinks determines the rankings of your web site. A great free tool to check backlinks is Yahoo Site Explorer

Enter the top web site…www.rei.com/ in the search box. In the inlinks drop down box at the top of the page select: “except from this domain” to “only this URL” It says this site has 114,510 backlinks. If you want to compete with this website you’ll need to get more than 114,510 links pointing to your own web site.

Do the same for the other top 9 web sites. Ideally you want to find web sites that have only a few 100 backlinks otherwise you will spending all your time finding backlinks to outdo your competition.

Do this same exercise for at least your top 10 keywords that were generated from wordtracker until you find one with few backlinks from the top 10 Google list.

Once you’ve found your ideal keyword phrase you need to do market research. This will show you where your customers go online to find information related to your niche.

Related Articles

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Research the Best Keywords Using the Google AdWords Tool - Part 1

Research the Best Keywords Using the Google AdWords Tool - Part 2

How to Use Keywords to Optimize Your Site for Search Engines - Part 1
How to Use Keywords to Optimize Your Site for Search Engines - Part 2

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Learn how to start and build a profitable online business with

“Highly Effective Article Marketing Strategies”

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Design and SEO Services

Are you skeptical about creating a profitable online business with article marketing?

I would be too, however after writing and publishing articles for 7 years I can confidently say it can be done. Read my 7 Strategies for Starting an Online Business with Article Marketing

Here is an outline of the 12 step process:

1. Find a niche you are passionate about.

It’s easier to write about something you have passion for because it will show in your writing and helps to build a strong foundation for successive articles.

Example
I like hiking so I could write about why you should hike, how to enjoy hiking, where to hike and what equipment you need.

2. Do keyword research

Use the free wordtracker tool to find how many people search on your main keyword phrase.

Example
If I enter hiking into wordtracker I get 579 searches. This shows people are looking for information on hiking. There are also searches for hiking trails, hiking gear, hiking tips, etc.

3. Do market research

To determine if your idea is in demand do a search on amazon.com, magazine.com, visit forums, blogs, article directories to read what people are talking about or questions they have (so you can help solve them with your articles).

Example
A search on amazon books shows there are over 85,095 results on hiking.
A search at Ezine Articles shows 70,400 articles have been written.

This is already a good indication there is s high demand for information on hiking.

4. Register a domain name

Registering a domain name gives your online business a professional image. Try to include your main keyword in the domain name so it is obvious to your visitors what your web site is about e.g. ilovehiking dot com

5. Get a hosting account

You need a home on the Net for your future web site. Many web hosting companies try to sell you their services by offering huge or unlimited amounts of disc space or bandwidth. 75MB of space, 3000MB of bandwidth is enough for 100s of pages of content. The most important factors when selecting a reputable hosting company are fast, friendly and knowledgeable technical support.

Check out my hosting plans at: http://www.isitebuild.com/hostingplans.htm
My servers provide daily, weekly and monthly backups, 99% uptime, site statistics, email accounts and many other features.

6. Start a blog

A blog is actually a web site which can quickly and easily be updated. Some other main features include:

* Design and content is separate so you can change the design without affecting the content.

* Rapidly indexed by the search engines. Search engines love web sites which are updated on a regular basis.

* Integrates with social marketing sites. Plugins allow your content to be automatically distributed to social marketing sites such as Twitter, Facebook,,etc.

* Large selection of templates and plugins. There are 100s of free and paid templates to choose from. Plugins help to add more functionality e.g. control spam, optimize your content, etc.

7. Set-up your blog

I recommend using WordPress as your blogging platform because it has lots of documentation, a large number of developers that stay on top of security fixes and is easy to install.

Most web hosts have a one click installation from the web hosting control panel.
You can select a free template however I suggest getting a customized blog designed so it stands out from all the free templates and it is unique to your business.

Visit http://www.isitebuild.com for more information about my web site design services.

8. Write your first 10 articles

Create a list of 10 related topics based on you main keyword then write an article on each topic.

Write your first 350 word article. This could be a how to or 7 tips article similar to how this article is written. Then build upon this foundation by writing the other 9 articles.

9. Publish your articles

Add the 10 articles to your blog and submit them to the top article directories and social marketing sites. Make sure you include a link back to your web site in the resource box of your articles. This will drive tons of traffic (visitors) to your web site.

10. Monetize your web site

You can easily monetize your blog by selling affiliate products. These are products sold by large companies where you receive a commission for placing a link to their website from your web site. When someone purchases from that link you receive an automatic commission.

Example.
If I enter “hiking” in the search box of shopping.com hundreds of hiking products are displayed that I can sell as an affiliate from my web site.

Another easy method of monetizing your web site so to add adsense ads to your content pages. This can easily be achieved with a WordPress plugin. Every time a visitor clicks on an ad you get paid. If you place adsense ads on every content page you multiply your earnings.

11. Market your web site

One of the best ways to drive traffic to your web site is to keep adding optimized content to it and submit unique articles to the top article directories. This will help build links, increase your search engine rankings and ultimately attract lots of visitors. The more visitors you receive the more sales you’ll make.

12. Build your online business empire

The beauty of producing lots of articles is that they can be used to build a profitable online business. You can use them for creating ecourses, videos, audios, teleseminars, membership sites and products such as ebooks and reports.

You are only limited by your imagination.

***************************
Learn how to start and build a profitable online business with

“Highly Effective Article Marketing Strategies”

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Affordable WebSite Design

All online businesses constantly require content. If you can write an article, you have the capacity to start and build a profitable online business. Choose a niche or topic you are passionate about then start writing.

7 Strategies for Starting an Online Business with Article Marketing:

1. Web Site Content

An online business needs a web site to sell your product or service. You need content for these web pages that persuades visitors to purchase from you. An article can easily be converted to a sales page or content for web pages. For ecommerce websites selling many items write an introductory paragraph or two before displaying the item images.

2. List Building content

Building an email list is essential for building relationships with your visitors. Your newsletter helps you to stay in touch with your visitors so they will trust your recommendations for purchasing future products and services. Offer your audience your best written articles first before distributing them on the Net. If you build a large list of 1000s of subscribers you can send one email to this list that generates instant sales.

3. Traffic generation content

For your web site to succeed it needs constant traffic. Writing lots of articles, submitting them to article directories, blogs, social marketing sites and including them on your own web site will attract lots of visitors. The amount of traffic you receive is proportional to the number of articles you write.

4. Multimedia content

Content on the web these days is not confined to text only. Video and audio is being used to appeal to a wider range of visitors. Some folks prefer to listen or watch to consume content. Some prefer all three methods… read, listen and watch. You can satisfy your customers’ needs by repurposing (converting) your written articles into video and audio then distributing it all over the web.

5. Search engine friendly content

Search engines spider content containing keywords people are searching for. For instance if you write a series of articles on “dog training” that includes keyword phrases such as dog training equipment, dog training collars, dog training collars, search engines will find your content and deliver visitors to your web site.

6. Autoresponder content

Autoresponders are essential tools to keep in touch with your visitors. A customer sometimes needs 7 exposures to your message before purchasing your product. Offer an email course from your web site or to newsletter subscribers by writing a series of 7 short articles. Load these up in your autoresponder then send a different message for alternate days of the week. Each message should conclude with your product offer.

7. Link building content

The number and quality of links pointing to your web site determines your ranking in the search engines. Include your web site links in the resource box at the end of the article. People reading your article will link to it or place it on their web site, blog or in their newsletter. If your article gets placed on many web sites your rankings will increase dramatically because there are many links pointing back to it.

If you apply these 7 strategies consistently, you can dominate any niche. Now go ahead and choose the niche you are passionate about and start writing lots of articles.

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Learn how to start and build a profitable online business with

“Highly Effective Article Marketing Strategies”

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Affordable WebSite Design

If you don’t know your customers’ needs your sales and marketing efforts will be like throwing mud at a wall hoping it will stick. The more you know about your customers, the more profitable your business will be because you have a clear focus.

7 Strategies to Know Your Customer’s Needs

1. Know where your customers gather online

Find the forums, blogs, discussion groups they visit and participate in the conversation. Communicating with your customers will give you insights how they think.

2. Conduct a survey

Some forums allow you to run a survey or poll. Ask questions related to the product or service you wish to offer. If there is no interest choose one that people are excited about.

Use surveymonkey.com to create a survey to send to your subscribers.

3. Create a Google Adwords campaign

Set up different ads that contain keywords related to your niche. The beauty of this method is that you can receive feedback within a few days. You can also tweak your ads to see which one generates the most clicks.

Use the copy of your profitable ad in the content of your web site because you already know it will attract visitors.

Pick up a copy of: “The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords” to learn the fastest and correct way to set-up and run a Google AdWords Campaign

4. Research online stores

Visit the large online stores such as ebay, magazine.com, amazon.com to get an idea what products are big sellers. Visit the largest bookstore in your town to see what books are featured prominently in the store.

5. Subscribe to Google Alerts

Google Alerts provide email updates of the latest Google results based on the topic of your choice. It also allows you to keep current on a competitor.

6. Observe industry trends

Sign up for Google Trends to follow the trends in your market.

7. Research the cost per click of your main keywords

Enter your main keywords in SpyFu.com to view how much advertisers are willing to pay for a particular keyword. SpyFu shows how many advertisers there are, cost/click, clicks/day and the number of search results.

Conclusion

Knowing where your customers gather online, how they think and what they buy, will help you make a more informed decision what niche or topic to invest in for the long term.

For more information on how to conduct market search and write articles to start an online business please visit: Article Marketing Strategies.