In his post he stated the need and importance for gathering alexa users from around the world. It is very important to get visitors from other countries to increase our Alexa ranking. So how do you get visitors from around the world? Easy, you join social blog networks and directories like BlogCatalog or Social Spark.

BlogCatalog

One great resource for finding Alexa users from around the world is Blog Catalog. Locating bloggers from other countries is easy. First, Sign up for an account on blog catalog. Once logged in, visit the directory and start browsing blogs by country. Try to request as many blogroll/ link exchanged with various bloggers from other countries. Another way to drive traffic from these blogs is to ask them if you could do a guest post on their blog. This will most likely result in a increase in foreign traffic to your blog, thus increasing your alexa rank. Make sure that your post is relevant content to their blog and not just yours.

I used this technique and it did increase my blog's Alexa rank significantly. My blog has been active for about 3 months when this post was written and now has an Alexa rank under 89K. That shows the power of this technique.

I'm sure there are plenty more social blog networks out there to help you find more foreign Alexa users. Just wash, rinse, and repeat the process.

What other methods are you aware of to help increase your alexa ranking?

Reading your local newspaper is a great way to find a niche that you can turn around and use to make money.  Take 20 minutes a day to read and you will soon have a number of prosperous niche blogs and websites.

Scan the headlines for some general topics that are of interest.  You will find excellent topics in the special sections of the paper – fashion, religion, etc. - and you can look at the specific articles for more refined niche ideas.

Jot down 5 or 10 ideas while scanning the paper.  Once you are online, do some research:

What are people saying about the topic?

Is this a topic that lots of people are discussing?

Is there a lot of competition?

Then ask yourself how you can make money from this idea.  Are there products that are related to it?  Are there books or reports that you can sell?  Do a Google search of the topic and “affiliate” to see if you have some ideas.

You can also create a product for your niche topic.  Write up a short report or guide that provides a solution to whatever problem your niche might have.  Offer it for sale on your blog or website.

As a quick example, let me share with you what I did:  I was scanning the paper and saw an article that discussed how local school kids had issues with head lice when they went back to school.  (Ick, right?)  So I found a Clickbank product that cures this problem and became an affiliate.

I put together a blog, added content and a link to the product and found some parenting forums.  I put a link in my signature and then became a participating member in the forums.  (I did not spam!)  People saw the link in my signature and went to my blog.  Hooray!

Take a few minutes to look around you and you will find all of the ideas you need for niches.

Putting out a notice that you are looking for guest authors creates a buzz about your site, and welcoming submissions for content or posts creates a high level of reader participation.

Once a guest author has been approved for your site and has had his or her first post or page  posted, you can guarantee that he or she has sent notice to everyone on his or her list and told them to come and visit your site!  This introduces an entire new set of faces to look at your site – and when they see your site, they will see your product or service, too.  More eyes on your site means more money in your pocket each month.

Guest authors want to be on your site because they can also get a new audience and expand their network.   They meet your circle of readers and can greatly expand their web presence.  Make sure you encourage guest authors to want to work with you by offering things such as an author's page and links to their website.

You want to have guest authors for reasons other than just generating more traffic.  Guest authors can provide you with fresh content – without any effort on your part.  They can expand on topics you do not know that much about – and give added value to your readers.  They help free up your time so you can work on promoting your site and other forms of marketing.

Using guest authors is truly a win-win situation for all parties – you, your guest author, and your readers.  Everyone benefits, and that means more traffic (and revenue) for you!

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There are tons of niches in the world today, and there are many more being created each day.   There are niches that stay around for years (such as credit repair) and niches that don't last as long (like music from singers that turn out to be one-hit wonders).  The important thing is to find a niche and make money from it.

Look on forums, message boards, etc.  A good way to find out what is on the minds of average people is to visit some moms' forums.  (Do a Google Search for “moms + message board” to find them.)  What are they talking about?

Finances, parenting, weight loss, beauty – all of these are seen when you visit these boards, but look at the specific questions, too.  You can also post a question on forums, as well, and find out what people need or want.

Here is an example of how I used this idea to find a niche in less than 20 minutes:

I went to a parenting message board and found about 10 threads asking about potty training.  Moms were at the end of their rope about this!  They were literally begging for help!

I created a blog that targets parents who need help potty training their children.  I created 10 posts with general potty training tips and topics.

Then I went to Clickbank and found a product that helps with potty training and is guaranteed to help train the child quickly.  I put an affiliate link in the sidebar.  Done!  (If I wanted, I could add other child-related products such as potty chairs, etc.)

It really is simple to find a niche and make money from it, if you take a few minutes to look around you.

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Creating a niche blog is your answer!

Creating a niche blog is simple, quick and costs very little (and can be free).

First, find a topic.  Get ideas from online forums, magazines, etc.  If people are talking about it and writing about it, then it can make you money!   Start with something big – like “moms” - and then work down until you find a niche.  “Moms” is so broad of a category that you can't make much money with it (too much competition), but “work at home moms” is better.  Even better might be “Montana work at home moms.” See how it works?

Second, set up a blog.  You can get a free one from www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com (but spend a few bucks and upgrade to one that has your own domain name).  Choose a blog name, select your template and boom!  You are in business!

Finally, set up your blog with about 10 blog posts, and set the dates on the posts to look like they have been posted every 2 or 3 days, starting about a month ago.

Now that the blog is set up, you need to make money from  it.  This can be done in several ways:

• Place Adsense ads on your blog (very easy with Blogger) – you get paid when someone clicks on the ads.
• Find paid advertisers to place ads on your site – they pay to be placed on the blog and pay every month after that.  You can also charge by the year or every six months.
• Find products and services that pay you a commission when you make a sale – you get paid when someone buys the product.

These are just a few ways you can profit from a niche blog.

So what are you waiting for?  Get started!

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Making money with a niche website or blog just got a lot easier thanks to Pepperjam Store Builder. With access to millions of unique products from a variety of merchants (and the ability to streamline those products as you choose), Pepperjam Store Builder provides you with the tools you need to have a niche website or blog storefront up and running in under an hour - which means you can be making money this afternoon.

Pepperjam Store Builder works well with any existing site or blog. (If you do not have an existing site, you can easily have one up in a short time if you purchase ready-made content.) Simply create a storefront by checking off whatever combination of keywords, merchants and categories you like – it is really that easy and user-friendly. There is even a live demo that runs while you are working on your storefront in order to help you! You create your storefront, copy the code they provide onto your site or blog, and you are ready to go.

To show how simple this is, look at a few examples. Say you want to create a niche site and cash in on a targeted market. With Pepperjam Store Builder, simply choose a merchant and use filter terms (like “bar stools” or “tactical clothing”) and make your store as focused as you like. Having a niche site with a narrow focus can bring in great sales because people doing searches and finding your site are looking for specific categories of items – and you can provide them.

click to enlarge

Another example is a pet niche site. You could have a niche site or blog with hamsters as the theme. Choose the appropriate merchants and select filter terms for items that hamster owners would use – like cages, exercise balls, and wire exercise wheels – and you can quickly have a site that is turning a profit. You can have content that provides information hamster owners seek and they can find everything they need for their little pet at your site – and that puts money in your pocket.

click to enlarge

Pepperjam Store Builder is the easy way to create a profitable store in a short amount of time. You can create one store for a specific niche or create different stores for a multitude of niches – all of them making money for you. With the ease and simplicity of Pepperjam Store Builder - plus the hundreds of merchants and millions of products available - you cannot go wrong. Get started now!

Have you built one of these stores? Do you see the potential? Leave a comment and let us know!

Using Google Insights:

The first thing to do is to visit http://www.google.com/insights/search/ and sign in to your google account at the top right.

The home page will look something like this:

Google also provides data for categories, seasonal, and geographic keyword data. Make sure you take the time to look over each section.

Finding a niche market:

To find a niche market all you have to do is type a keyword you want to research. Google insights will then dig through it's data providing you with a goldmine of top searched keywords and keyword phrases.

So for this example I will research rifle scopes. I'll type rifle scopes in the search bar, choose U.S.A., and gather the data all the way back from 2007 for the top keywords and phrases.

Google will then generate a graph like this:

Click to enlarge

Don't mind the data on the graph it's self. You just want to pay attention to the relative volume to see if the term is rising. You can even compare this term with a second one. Just hit the plus sign to add a phrase and google will generate a chart to compare the data.

Click on the add search term

Now I'm able to compare two different keyword terms to see which is better. For this example I'll use the term spotting scopes.

spotting scopes

This is the data google provided. You can compare the relative volume of both.

Click to enlarge

Google Insights also provides related terms on the rise in google. This enables you to dig deeper to reveal potential niche markets and sub-niche markets. After I scroll down I clicked on the "leupold rifle scopes" term to dig a little deeper.

I clicked leupold rifle scopes to dig deeper

Then google provided me with the common search terms and keyword terms on the rise.

Now I know the search volume and keywords on the rise to profit from. Google Insights will help you dig through all the junk and help you find those true niche markets, making all you niche marketing efforts worth wild.

Go and check out his tool and let me know what you think. Was it easy to use and find your niche market.

Co-branding can be very cost effective, particularly for small online businesses.  However, if you choose the wrong partner, or too many partners, it might be more harmful than beneficial.

Adding Partners to your Website
As a small business you need to be cautious with your marketing budget.  When you add a partner to your website you need to ensure that you’re going to see strong and positive results from the union.  These positive results can include more traffic to your website, increased online sales, or more contact with your customers.  Online branding can be costly so be sure to choose partners that can benefit your business.

Co-branding can be described as a variety of activities that include:

• Joint promotions
• Value endorsements
• Joint ventures
• Alliances

Co-branding works best when both you and your partner company each provide a related service or product to the same types of customers.

Powerful Co-branding

Studies show that most online users like the idea of co-branding because it helps them to make decisions about the hundreds of brand name products that they come into contact with on the Internet.  When top-quality brands join together in a partnership it strengthens their customer’s approval.  If you have a lesser know brand it will be to your benefit to partner up with a more well known brand so that your overall image is improved and so that you get more exposure on the Internet.  And if a popular brand partners up with a lesser known brand it won’t harm the popular brand.  Your best bet is to partner up with a company that is equal to you. A partnership needs to make sense and customers need to understand the connection.

Guidelines for Co-branding
If you have the right partner you can share the costs of marketing as well as strengthen your company brand.  You’ll also have access to a larger customer base.  Following are some important co-branding considerations:

• What does your co-brand partnership say to your customers?  Will it make your customers feel better about themselves?
• What do you and your partner have in common?  Are both of your products innovative?  Are they dependable?  You want to make sure that your image makes sense for your current customer base.  You don’t want to lose your current customer base but instead you want to build on it.
• How does your co-branding partnership benefit your customers?  Will it save them money?  Or will it save them time?  Your marketing campaign should make the benefit very clear to your customers.
• Your goal with co-branding should be to find the best solutions for your customers.
• There should be an equal value for both brands in the partnership.  You need to have an equal partnership or your marketing strategy will be uneven.
• Will your customers easily be able to see the connection and value of your partnership?
• Does the co-branding partnership bring you into contact with new customers?

The above questions need to be answered before you join in a co-branding partnership.  Joint promotions take a great deal of time and thought to be implemented correctly.  However, when done correctly and accurately, a co-branding partnership can bring you results that are far better than other traditional internet marketing methods. One of the basic rules of internet marketing is:  take your message, content, and promotions to your customers rather than focusing too much energy on the effort of trying to bring customers to your website.

Integrating Partnership Products
When it comes to co-branding partnerships you need to take the time to include the benefits of both brands into the overall design of your marketing promotions.  This way your customers will understand the connection between both products or services.

Simply putting your company logo, or a link to your website, on another company’s website will save you time and money but at the same time may cause you to lose some potential customers.  Co-branding that is successful never leaves your customers wondering exactly what website they are on.  Partnerships should improve a customer’s shopping experience by helping them to make buying decisions.  You’ll want to exchange content with your partner so that you both expand your expertise in the industry.  However, you’ll need to incorporate this content into your website so that it flows naturally and fits in with your own content.  The end result will be beneficial to both of you when you maintain professional consistency.

Complementary Partners
Your website will be more legitimate and competitive when you have co-branding content that is well integrated into your own web pages.  Co-branding will only help your business if it complements the business goals you have defined for your company.  Always keep your business goals in mind no matter what internet marketing strategy you’re trying to incorporate into your business.  This means that all your website content, promotions, and activities with your co-branding partners encourages your customers to follow through with the sales action.

Joint Ventures
A joint venture is where you team up with another marketer in a compatible niche for what should be an equally rewarding promotion or project.  Often times joint ventures involve promoting each other’s products as affiliates or even working together on a mutually beneficial product launch.

Some people think “joint venture” means getting the biggest guru you can find to promote your product and make you rich.  Those people are wrong!  Most experts say that the best place to start with joint ventures is with your peers and friends, of which most are probably at a similar level as you are.  Even if you have to get out and meet some new people, there’s a good chance you aren’t going to get one of the “big time” marketers to promote your product if you don’t have previously established relationship with them.
A “joint venture” is as much about relationship building as it is about selling products.  Sometimes in the beginning you may have to “give a little” more than what you get back—and that’s OK, because it’s part of the relationship building process.

Here are some tips for finding joint venture partners:

• Search the search engines.  Find people with related products and services that you can contact and get to know.
• Go to events and seminars related to your niche or product, or general internet marketing seminars.
• Ask your customers.  Send an email out to your list to fish for prospective partners.
• Visit forums and online discussion boards, and ask around.
• If you find a potential joint venture partner, don’t be afraid to sign up for their mailing list and/or purchase one of their products.
• Consider how working with your competition could pay off for both of you.

Niche stores can be a great way to make money on the Internet. Thousands of small businesses have discovered that BANS (Build a Niche Store Script) is an inexpensive way to introduce their products to new customers and begin to generate a cash flow.

The problem, as even inexperienced users know, is that the Build a Niche Store script gives you only nine pre-made templates within the administrator.  There are thousands of BANS, and nearly all of them use one of those nine pre-made templates. Each store looks very similar, and merchants have a difficult time differentiating themselves from the masses.

Perception is everything when it comes to sales, and if my store has the same layout, color scheme and set up as every other store, it looks to my potential customers as if I have the same, dull products as they find at every other store. I need to have a site that makes my store look atypical and unconventional so customers pause, look further, and take time to discover what I have to offer.

That’s where the product, “Build a Niche Store Premium Templates” can step in and help out.  By altering the code on the Ebay template, Ian Fernando’s product provides up to nine different templates for a BANS stores and up to 18 different themes for a BANS website.

Demo Template #1

Most storeowners aren’t computer experts, and have no interest in or knowledge of code and programming. Still, we want to give customers a reason to stop at our site and see the unique products we are selling. For those of use who fit this description, these Premium Templates provide an answer.

Using the templates is a breeze, and I found it an easy process to install them. Anyone who runs an Internet retail site has enough point and click, download and upload knowledge to quickly get them up and running.  It only takes three simple steps:

• choosing and downloading the theme,
• uploading it to your websites theme directory,
• then choosing it to be your Template.

Demo Template #2

From there, it’s the same straightforward process to create your store and display your products as you’re already used to – your store just looks a whole lot better.

The point to this process is, of course, increasing the number of potential customers who actually become buyers on your site. These colorful and different layouts do drive more traffic to the store, and that’s going to mean more cash in pocket.

Demo Template #3

The best selling point to me is the 100 per cent satisfaction guarantee. If you’re not happy with the templates within thirty days, you can get a refund of your money, no questions asked, no debates or justifications, no problems. That’s the kind of business I like to be, and that’s the kind of business I want to do business with.

It’s getting harder and harder to stand out in the BANS business. These Premium Templates are simple and effective way to get that unique look that will show customers that your store is something different, and something that they’ll like.

Have you tried these tmplates? Speak your mind and leave a comment.

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Enjoy!

Come back for part 5 of the 10 part series on target traffic generation.

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