The importance of researching your niche

When you finally decide to take the plunge and enter the world of the internet entrepreneur, you need to decide on a product or service you wish to offer. It is best to start with something you are knowledgeable about as this will make it a lot easier for you. Once you have decided on a product or service you need to determine whether there is any demand in that particular niche or whether it will be a waste of time.

This is one of the most common mistakes newcomers make – they decide on a product that would be of interest to them but do not conduct any market research and then become disillusioned if there is little interest.

It is vital to determine the demand in your particular niche before you start, and, if there is little opportunity, to change course and try something else. There are numerous ways to research your potential niche.

Surveys and polls

This is one of the best ways to conduct your research. Ask your potential customers what THEY want, what influences their buying decisions, and what they may like and/or dislike about the current market options. This way you can tailor your product or service to meet their needs. Two way dialogue is critical with potential customers.

You can post questions and polls on your blog or website or send to your email list. This also encourages customer interaction and will gain their trust so they will be more likely to consider purchasing your product.

Use tools like Survey Monkey or Poll Daddy to conduct your own surveys and polls and act on the results to maximise the earning potential of your niche.

Keyword research

Search engine data can help you determine the demand for specific keywords or phrases pertinent to your niche.  Do a search for your product as a potential customer and if that search is very popular it means that there is a healthy market worth pursuing. But it also means that their may be a lot of competition for that particular phrase as competitors optimise their own websites to capture these customers.

Is there any way you can drill down further into a sub-niche which may be more profitable? If so try doing a search for this and if it is still popular but less so than the original search then this means that there is still a healthy market but there is likely to be less competition.

Use Google AdWords.  It is a great free keyword research tool specific to Google which is by far the most popular search engine used. Type in your keyword and evaluate the results to target your niche appropriately.

Another great tool is Google Trends. This allows you to investigate keywords and you get a graphical representation of historical data which will show you its popularity over the last several years. It also allows you to see demographic data which shows you the places that are most likely to search for that keyword/phrase.

You could also use Google Insight to investigate search trends by category, seasonality, geographical distribution or properties.

Check out the competition

Take time to investigate the competition and to develop your unique selling proposition to make you stand out from the rest. You can use this information to target your strengths against their weaknesses. The internet has made it very easy to investigate your potential competitors. Look at the product or service they supply, their pricing strategy, and customer service. You could even sign up to any newsletter they supply and use their own strategies against them. Be bold and this could give you the edge that persuades a customer to spend their money with you rather than them.

I hope this has given you a few ideas about researching your niche and how important it is to do this before you produce your product or service. Conduct it thoroughly, target a great niche and milk it dry! Good hunting…

Writing your ebook part 3

Following on from my previous post:

c.     Writing your ebook

Here are some tips to remember when writing your ebook:

• If at all possible try to answer the question “What is the purpose of your ebook?” in your introduction.
• Think about your readers whilst you are writing. Is this ebook giving them good value? Visualise your perfect reader and ask yourself what they would want to know about this topic. Make decisions about the content, form, and style of your ebook based on your understanding of your readers’ expectations.
• Try to write in a way that makes the reading experience easy and enjoyable. Put your own character into your writing and it will appear much friendlier. Don’t be afraid to write as you would speak. It may not always be grammatically correct but your writing will be less stilted and more flowing. One idea is to use a Dictaphone and record yourself talking about the subject. Compare this to your writing and you will see the difference. Combine both to produce a nice flowing script.
• In conjunction with the last point, try to break up the length and structure of your sentences and paragraphs to make sure that your writing doesn’t become monotonous.
• Give your readers’ eyes a break by leaving sufficient white space.
• Indented quotes and examples, as well as section and sub-section headings, will help you keep your reader’s alertness.
• Could you use an image and/or graph to get your point across? “A picture paints a thousand words.”
• Make use of lists, both bulleted and numbered.
• Find a font that’s easy to read and stick to it. There is nothing worse than continuously changing fonts! Stick to the more common ones such as Arial and Times New Roman.
• Get a good dictionary and Roget’s thesaurus.
• Try to open each chapter with a hook to grab your reader’s attention. There are a number of ways to do this. You could start with a few thought-provoking questions or shocking facts that relate to your readers’ problems. Also try to keep each chapter’s title clear, concise, and compelling.
• Try to keep in mind hot selling points for each chapter. This will help you remain focused on your topic and you are also preparing to market and promote your ebook whilst writing it!
• Add quotes that are relevant to your subject.

  ”The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that’s already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what – these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence.” William Zinsser

Keep your subject matter narrow.

Remember; don’t make your subject matter too broad or general: give your readers specific ideas and solutions they can use right away.

“Shrink your subject. Most of us are way too ambitious when we set out to write. So we end up with a flood that’s a mile wide and an inch deep. Give your readers some depth so that they can enjoy the water. Pick the most interesting, unusual, or surprising aspect of your subject and dive in.” Jack Hart

If you keep these tips in mind when writing your ebook you will be well on the way to writing a clear, concise, informative and enjoyable product.

Next time we will look at the next important step; editing your work…

Writing your ebook part 2

Following on from my previous post:

B       Research and gather information for your ebook. 

Top tips to help research your ebook

• The amount of research that you will need to do is dependent on your level of expertise in your chosen subject.
• If you are already knowledgeable, write down everything you know. Write this under each chapter heading, then do extra research if you need to fill in any gaps in your knowledge. Also, it is important to ensure that your information is current.
• If you don’t know much about your chosen subject, you will have a lot of work to do in terms of research in order to provide value for prospective customers. Organise your research. Take methodical steps. Use files and folders and begin collecting and organising your information. Always try to keep hard copies as well as digital copies. You could use Squidoo lenses to help organise your research. Squidoo lenses provide modules which you can use in the same way you would use index cards. Use a different idea for each module and link to the source of the information for easy reference.
• Keep a record of your sources of information. You never know when you’ll want to go back to a specific resource so make sure that this is easy to find. Also give credit to others if you are using their ideas.
• Don’t just limit your research to online search engines. Make sure you make good use of books and magazines too. If you know, or have access to subject experts, talk to them; you could then use these interviews as an audiobook option.
• Look at all the points in your outline/mind map and research them all thoroughly to ensure that you’ve covered everything that is needed to convey the information that your readers need. Be clear and concise. Don’t be tempted to waffle.
• Whilst researching your topic, if it looks like your book is going to be 500 pages long, your topic is too broad. See if you can narrow it down into sub niches. If you are lucky, your broad topic could provide you with subject matter for several products. You could then sell them separately, as a bundle or give some of them away as a free gift.

Next time we will look at writing the ebook…

Writing your ebook

So, you’ve chosen a topic you’re passionate about and determined that there are people out there looking for information on your topic and more importantly willing to pay for it. You’ve also determined that although there is some competition in your niche, there’s enough room for your product. Good. Now it’s time for you to start writing.

The basic process will look something like this:

A. Determine the structure of your ebook.
B. Conduct research and gather your information.
C. Write your ebook.
D. Edit your ebook.

Let’s look at these stages in a bit more detail over the next few posts:

A.       Determine the structure of your ebook – develop a Table of Contents

When thinking about the structure of your ebook the best way to stay on track is to develop a table of contents and then an outline. It may also be good to write your sales page first. This will keep you focused on what your ebook needs to include to appeal to its target audience. Once you have written your sales page, which is basically a list of the benefits that your ebook will provide to your readers, you can use this as the basis for your table of contents.
If you need ideas when writing the sales letter , search for ebooks on your chosen subject and look at their sales page. Don’t copy other people’s sales pages; you’re just looking for ideas and inspiration. Think about how you could make yours better and stand out from the rest.
Once you have developed your table of contents you can use this to create an outline for your ebook. This should include chapter headings and the points you want to make listed under each heading. Some people prefer to use mind maps instead of outlines, just use whichever method is best for you.              
(A mind map is a graphic technique used to represent ideas, using words, images, symbols and colour. Write down the topic at the centre of a piece of paper, then draw branches leading out from this topic, and smaller branches leading out from these. The branches are organic and free-flowing, instead of being structured and rigid. The first level of branches are supposed to represent the key benefits you can provide your readers. These will become your chapter headings so only use a few words per branch. Then, from each key benefit , branch out into supporting facts, anecdotes, resources etc. It’s a good idea to use colour and images when creating mind maps to further stimulate both memory and imagination.)

You can use Amazon to brainstorm a table of contents by using their “Search Inside This Book” feature to get an idea of the content provided in books in your niche. You could also write the table of contents as a list of questions that your audience wants answered.

Remember that each chapter in your ebook should ideally solve a particular problem related to your topic.
Remember this when developing your table of contents too: every chapter needs to solve a particular problem or add a benefit to the reader.

Next time we’ll look at researching your ebook…

Is there a market for your ebook?

The importance of market research 

It is very important to determine whether there is a market for your ebook and whether it is overly saturated.

If you want to write and publish an ebook to make money you need to find a market where people are willing to pay for your knowledge in your chosen niche. So before you start writing, you should conduct market research in order to determine the following two things:

1. Is there adequate demand for your chosen subject?
2. Is there too much competition?

You want to find a subject that is in high demand, but that doesn’t have too much competition. This is NOT easy! The last thing you want to do is to waste your time writing, publishing and marketing an ebook, only to discover that there’s very little demand for your chosen topic or that the market is already too competitive.

Tips to use when assessing your competition

Your objective is not to find a niche where there’s no competition as this usually means that there is little demand for your information and thus poor profit potential. And even if it could become a profitable niche, you’ll to have to work overtime to educate the market as to why they need your information.
When looking at your competition ask yourself questions such as :

• Do the ebooks and guides currently available cover your subject matter well or are there any gaps in these ebooks that you can exploit?
• Are the ebooks directed at the same target market?

You must have a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that makes your ebook stand out from the ebooks already available. You need to give a potential buyer a reason to prefer your ebook over the competition. Read the reviews of the books in your niche that sell well on Amazon. These reviews can be a great source of  information and ideas to make your own ebook better, and may also give you ideas about how to cover an aspect of the topic that others have neglected.

Conduct Market Research on Your Readers

If you have a blog write a few posts on the topic you’re planning to write your ebook about and see how your readers respond.
Is the response lukewarm? Did your readers appear to be  interested in learning more about the topic? Did you get lots of questions in the comments section?
You can also ask your readers to let you know if they would be interested in buying an ebook on your chosen subject.

Set up a poll or survey on your blog and monitor the results closely.

This is important. DO NOT try to sell your ebook to everyone. Consider this fact: “approximately 58% of US adults never read another book after high school.” Then, bear in mind that among potential customers, your ebook is just a needle in a very big haystack. But don’t despair! I am not saying this to deter you, far from it. But for this reason it is far better to concentrate on a small subset of the market – that subset that you have permission to talk to, where you have credibility, and most importantly, where people just can’t live without your ebook.” If you can identify this subset and target them you will reap the rewards.

“A book is a living engine of marketing and idea spreading . . . You should write one.”