Entries from July 2007 ↓
July 17th, 2007 — All Posts, Marketing, Niche
4. Design new PPC ad using specific niche keywords.
Now that you know the specific niche keywords that people search for in hopes of finding information like yours, you can help this process along by designing new ads that specifically target those niches. For example, I might write the following:
Self Publish Your Ebook
Learn how to self publish your
ebook and make $$ online.
The keywords I might use are:
self publish my own ebooks
self publish your own ebook
self publish ebooks
ebook publishing
Lastly, continue to refine this process. Once you start running this new ad, you might find that other keywords are being used even more often and you will want to incorporate those as well. Always test and always analyze.
Read the book!
Chris O’Byrne
http://www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com/blog
July 16th, 2007 — All Posts, Reviews
I have been teaching artists for some time, now, that they need their own website. I have also built several of those websites myself (and continue to do so), but this can be more of an expense than most artists are willing or able to afford. Several months ago I came up with a brilliant idea. Create a way for artists to easily maintain their own websites. Allow them to easily add pictures at random, put up their own biographical information, create a blog, send out newsletters, etc. Just in case, I did a Google search to see if anyone else was doing something similar. And guess what? Somebody was!
Clint Watson and his company have a website called FineArtStudioOnline that does everything I was thinking about and more. He makes it extremely easy to put up the typical pages and features (Bio, Contact, Links, Articles, Galleries, Portfolio, Books, Exhibits, Workshops), plus allows easy uploading and resizing of pictures. You can then arrange these into galleries and the number of pictures you can upload is determined by which monthly plan you are on. Even better (in my opinion) are all the marketing tools available. You can integrate a blog, have a signup for your own newsletter, view your site’s analytics, and, well, tons more that you have to see to believe.
Normally, you get a free 30-day trial period when you sign up. If you are reading this post, I have a special deal for you that I arranged directly with Clint. If you click on this link to go directly to FineArtStudioOnline, you will receive a 120-day free trial period AND he will throw in a copy of a teleseminar he did with Alyson Stanfield called “How to Be an Online Art Magnet” which also includes a 19-page ebook that goes into even more detail than what was covered on the teleseminar. I listened to this seminar live and it was worth every penny I paid for it. Now, just by signing up for a free 120-day trial of FineArtStudioOnline, you can get it for free.
Check it out!
Chris O’Byrne
http://www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com/blog
July 16th, 2007 — All Posts, Marketing, Niche
3. Design site to include niche keywords in both content and structure.
When I go back to redesign my site, I will make sure that I include useful information about self publishing ebooks and self publishing poetry. Redesigning the site structure, I might have a directory called /ebooks and another called /poetry. In the directory called /ebooks I might have a page called self-publish-your-own-ebook.html and in the /poetry directory I would have a page called self-publish-your-own-poetry.html. This way the search engines and visitors will clearly see this information and understand how the site is organized.
Read the book!
Chris O’Byrne
http://www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com/blog
July 15th, 2007 — All Posts, Marketing, Niche
2. Harvest niche keywords
I ran this ad for a few days and then analyzed my traffic. I found that the people who clicked on my ads had typed in the following keywords into Google first:
self publish my own ebooks
publish poetry
There were other keywords, but these two stood out because they were unexpected. I was not thinking about ebooks or poetry when I started the website, but several of the keyword phrases used those two words. Because I know a lot of people are interested in these two niches, I can include them and increase the profitability and usefulness of my site.
Read the book!
Chris O’Byrne
http://www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com/blog
July 14th, 2007 — All Posts, Marketing, Niche
Another method that I use to determine niches is to use a short-term PPC ad to harvest niche keywords. Here are the steps involved along with an example:
1. Write PPC ad with general keywords.
A website of mine is www.SelfPublishYourOwnBook.com. I wrote the following ad:
Secret of Self Publishing
Learn how to self publish and
become a respected author.
The keywords I used were:
publish book
self publish
Read the book!
Chris O’Byrne
http://www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com/blog
July 12th, 2007 — All Posts, Marketing, Niche
5. Repeat steps 1 through 4.
The more times you go through this process, the more niches and products and services you are going to identify. Keep in mind that this is a brainstorming process and do not prejudge or eliminate possibilities. No matter how crazy they might seem, put all of your ideas down on paper. Often one crazy idea can lead to several other more viable ones.
Read the book!
Chris O’Byrne
http://www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com/blog
July 12th, 2007 — All Posts, Marketing, Niche
6. Pick best fits, most profitable, and easiest to provide.
Now is the time to start judging and sifting. Your first choices should include those products you already produce and the niches they easily fit into. Another filter would be to include those products or services that can generate some sort of passive income. Any information product would be included in this category. For example, in addition to selling your custom-sculpted fire rings, you might sell an ebook that teaches people how to create a garden space designed to perfectly accent that fire ring. The possibilities for information products are innumerable and are limited only by your imagination and creativity.
Also consider which products take the least amount of time and yield the highest return. If you product a product or service that takes a considerable amount of time and energy, charge a premium price.
Niche-Problem-Solution combinations are what you are ultimately looking for. Identify as many of these as possible.
Read the book!
Chris O’Byrne
http://www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com/blog
July 11th, 2007 — All Posts, Marketing, Niche
4. Who else might need this?
By this time you should have a list of products or services to fill the niches that you have identified. Now look at each one of these products or services and think of whom else might possibly want or need them. Who else would these products or services solve a problem for? Perhaps a dentist or clinic office, maybe the coffee shop or restaurant down the street… the list will be different for each product or service that you have. What this process does is dramatically increase your number of potential niches.
Read the book!
Chris O’Byrne
http://www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com/blog
July 10th, 2007 — All Posts, Marketing, Niche
3. What else can I provide for them?
Continue the brainstorming process. With each niche and problem, think of other problems or needs they might have. If you create just the right painting for this person, won’t they need just the right frame? Now you have an opportunity to create a joint venture with a framer. Promise them all of your business for a reduced price. What other needs might this person have?
Hopefully they will have a need for another print or painting in their house, but maybe they have friends with the same problem of needing just the right piece of art. Set up a referral program where they receive 10% of any sales that you make to one of their referrals. Create a second tier and offer 5% to any sales you make to referrals of the referrals. Give them the tools they need to start the referral process and keep track of every piece of data.
Perhaps they could use the services of an interior decorator? Form a joint venture with an interior decorator where they provide a free online consultation for the customer. If they then go on to do business with the customer, you receive a certain percentage to pay you for referring the customer.
Read the book!
Chris O’Byrne
http://www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com/blog
July 9th, 2007 — All Posts, Marketing, Niche
2. What problems or needs do they have?
Now you really have to put yourself in the frame of mind of the other person. What if you were a person looking for just the right painting for that one wall in your house. You could start going to galleries or looking online for just the right painting. This would obviously take a lot of time and you might eventually just settle for the best you could find. What if you could easily commission an experienced artist to produce just the right painting of just the right theme with just the right colors and just the right size… all at just the right price?! Instead of spending all that time and energy looking, this person comes to you with the perfect solution. All your worries are gone. You don’t even have to worry if they will actually create the right painting because they show you a rough draft first so you can be sure the colors and image will be what you want.
Notice that you have identified only one potential niche and identified only one potential problem. Multiply this by many niches and many problems and needs and you can see how this method will quickly create many multiple markets.
Read the book!
Chris O’Byrne
http://www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com/blog