Friday, March 29, 2019

Good Planning



    In today’s business environment you MUST have a website to successfully compete with others within your marketing niche.  However, just because you build it doesn’t mean that “they will come.”   

     For anything to work well, care must be taken to make firm, workable plans to execute it and the same goes for website designs. With a well thought out website design, you will be able to create a site that generates multiple streams of revenue for you. In fact the opposite is also true, many websites turn into online wasteland because they are not well planned and do not get a single visitor. Gradually, the webmaster will not be motivated to update it anymore and it turns into wasted cyberspace.

     The crucial point of planning your site is optimizing it for revenue if you want to gain any income from the site. Divide your site into major blocks, ordered by themes, and start building new pages and subsections in those blocks. For example, you might have a "food" section, an "accommodations" section and an "entertainment" section for a tourism site. You can then write and publish relevant articles in the respective sections to attract a stream of traffic that comes looking for further information.

     When you have a broader, better-defined scope of themes for your website, you can sell space on your pages to people interested in advertising on your site. You can also earn from programs like Google's Adsense and Yahoo! Search Marketing if people surf to those themed pages and click on the ads. For this very reason, the advertisement blocks on your pages need to be relevant to your content, so a themed page fits that criteria perfectly.

     As the Internet continues to grow in its ever reaching expanse, advertising on the Internet will bear more results than within magazines or other offline media. Hence, start tapping in on this lucrative stream of profit right away!

     This will come about with good initial planning of your site.  Don’t be satisfied with your site today, but consider what you will be doing with it five years down the road, or maybe ten years into the future.  Allow your site the opportunity to grow and expand as does your entire business.
QUOTE TO CONSIDER


THOUGHTFUL GEM

"There is no greater defeat 
than to look behind and think
what could have been!"




Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Build Your List to Survive



     When you operate a “brick ‘n mortar” type store you are always seeking ways to get more customers to come in and hopefully make a purchase.  When you operate an online business the same is pretty much true.  However, people cannot usually “walk by” your online store and find you.  You will need to make great efforts to get them to know that you exist and realize where you are located on the vast web.  One of the key ways in doing this is by building your online store with a productive mailing list of potential customers.  Your mailing list is the lifeblood of your online business. The old adage "the money is in the list" cannot be true enough.  If you had a targeted list of prospects to contact each time you have a new product, you will be able to save a lot of effort by marketing it to your existing list of targeted prospects.

     You can actually build up a targeted list of prospects that are interested in your products by offering a relevant download on your website. For example, let's take a look at a very good example: Apple.com. When you download the free iTunes and Quicktime software from their site, they will ask you to fill in an optional name and email form so that they can send you offers on songs that you can purchase via -- guess where -- iTunes!

     In reality, you do not need to offer such a "heavyweight" download such as a full-feature software like iTunes.  You can attract prospects equally well with some quality freebies such as a simple report, a free wallpaper, and so on. The important thing is that your download offers enough value for the prospect to be willing to give away his/her own email address to get it.

     However, slapping together a simple download and putting a link on your website won't be enough to attract qualified prospects. You will have to do some homework in order for your lead-generating mechanism to work well for you.

     First of all, you must place your download form prominently on your website. Preferably, dedicate a page to it and link to that page from every other page of your website. That way, there is no way your visitors cannot find the download page, and when they do, you'll get some of them converted into your prospects!  This is the ultimate goal of your download page.

     Also, you have to put little effort into promoting your download. Explain and elaborate on the values of the download, and why your visitors should download it. You might think why would anyone want to pass on a freebie, but most of your visitors will be too lazy to make the effort to download it because most of what they have downloaded just sits on their hard disk collecting virtual dust.  It is hence important to show your visitors why they should download your freebie.

     With a successful, informative, and valuable download available to your visitors you will soon see an increase in your potential customer list.  This list will, in time, become a gold mine for your business success!  We want you to receive all our wonderful gems.  Join our list by using our "Let's Get Connected" box right below the news feeds!
QUOTE TO CONSIDER


THOUGHTFUL GEM

"You may have much to sale.
It may be good.  It may even be the greatest!
However, if you have no one to purchase it,
your inventory is only a dust catcher!"




Friday, March 22, 2019

Keep 'Um Coming Back!



    Let’s face it:  MOST businesses would NEVER survive if all their customers were only ONE time purchasers!  A lot of successful websites depend on returning visitors to account for a major part of their traffic. Returning visitors are easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they return to a site, the more trust they have in that site. The credibility issue just melts away. They know you and they have come to trust you and what you have to offer on your site.  Hence, keep your visitors coming back to your site with the following methods:

1)       Start a forum, chatroom, or shoutbox

     When you start a forum, chatroom, or shoutbox, you are providing your visitors a place to voice their opinions and interact with their peers -- all of them are visitors of your site. As conversations build up, a sense of community will also follow and your visitors will come back to your site almost religiously every day.

2)       Start a web log (blog)

     Keep an online journal, or more commonly known as a blog, on your site and keep it updated with latest news about yourself. Human beings are curious creatures and they will keep their eyes glued to the monitor if you post fresh news frequently. You will also build up your credibility as you are proving to them that there is also a real life person behind the website.

      3)   Carry out polls or surveys

     Polls and surveys are other forms of interaction that you should definitely consider adding to your site. They provide a quick way for visitors to voice their opinions and to get involved in your website. Be sure to publish polls or surveys that are strongly relevant to the target market of your website to keep them interested to find out about the results.

      4)   Hold puzzles, quizzes and games

     Just imagine how many office workers procrastinate at work every day, and you will be able to gauge how many people will keep visiting your site if you provide a very interesting or addicting way of entertainment. You can also hold competitions to award the high score winner to keep people trying continuously to earn the prize.

      5)  Update frequently with fresh content

     Update your site frequently with fresh content so that every time your visitors come back, they will have something to read on your site. This is the most widely known and most effective method of attracting returning visitors, but this is also the least carried out one because of the laziness of webmasters. No one will want to browse a site that looks the same over ten years, so keep your site updated with fresh bites!
     Make sure you use the above and various other methods to get people coming back to your site.  If they do and your offer is of good quality they will eventually become your customers.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER


THOUGHTFUL GEM

"You should never forget:
There is only ONE boss in your business,
The CUSTOMER!"



Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Keep Your Business Growing!



    Your business cannot succeed or move forward without profits!  They are what make the wheels of your business operations continue to turn.  In actuality you will not stay in business very long if you fail to make profits – and make them on a regular basis.

     One of the most important ways to sustain profits in your niche-related business is to create new products and services that your targeted audience will be eager to buy. How can this be done?  You can accomplish this in a number of ways.

     The most obvious is the new product launch. If you know your niche well, chances are you should have a pretty good idea of what they really need and how much they are willing to pay for it.  In other words, you will only create products that you are certain will sell. You don’t want to be spending your time, energy, and money on ideas that you are not certain are going to be profitable.

     If you are not sure, take the time to survey the people on your email lists or poll them on Facebook to ask which options they would find most useful.  Let them pick from a range of choices. The answers may surprise you. They will certain stop you from wasting a lot of time and effort and perhaps money creating product A when they are really eager to get their hands on product E.

     In terms of launching the product, have a soft launch and a hard launch. The soft launch should be to those in your inner circle. They can get a first look at it for a substantial discount. Ask upfront for testimonials and give them an easy way to contact you to deliver them, send in reviews, and ask questions.

     Let your Joint Venture partners know that the new product has arrived and let them have first look as well.  Ask them for feedback so your product will be attractive to their audience as well.

     Once you are sure your product is as good as it can be at the correct price point for your niche audience you can widen your audience through your hard launch. Offer a free webinar, guest blog, have your JV partners interview you and promote the product, and more. 

     Webinars can prove very useful for product creation. Record each session and offer it as paid product or promotional item. Have a transcript made to sell as is. Turn it into a free ecourse, special report, or an e-book of insider secrets.  If you interact with the audience by allowing them to ask questions, take note of their queries and see if any of them are worth creating a product for.

     If you have a lot of content at your site or blog, consider putting e-books together by topics. How to titles are extremely attractive to most audiences.  Consider different levels of learners in your niche, such as beginners, intermediates, and advanced students. You can present information in a sequential way, or go into more depth for those beyond beginner level.

     Look at what your competitors are selling, and at what price points. In this case you have 2 choices. Charge less and give the same type of information, or charge more due to your expertise and the excellent bundle you will be offering. 

     Bundling works for all paid products. Again, you have 2 choices. You can sell one main product and bundle a range of very attractive bonuses together, such as worksheets, hand-outs, templates, infographics and more.  Or you can group 2 of your most popular products and services together to create an all new offer that your niche market will be eager to buy.  Add some fabulous bonuses on top of that and see how much profit you can make from your niche-related products and services.
     Remember to survive your business must grow.  To grow your business must have a continuous supply of new products and services.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER


THOUGHTFUL GEM

"To advance forward is to grow.
To stand still is to stagnate and die!"




Friday, March 15, 2019

Becoming THE MAN!


  
   In my “day” the saying always went “You’re the MAN!”  That is you are the one that others would turn to for the information they needed within your scope of expertise.  Today it is more that you are the man in the know.  This is especially true when it comes to your niche.  But HOW do you become the MAN?  The one that others turn to for help and information.  There are  a number of effective ways to position yourself as a thought leader in your niche without spending a fortune on marketing. The first step is to know your niche inside and out. What do your customers want and need most? What are their pain points, that is, their most important problems that they need to solve?

     Customers are looking for solutions that actually work and offer good value for their money. They are constantly asking the question, “What’s in it for me?” With so many websites and businesses online, you need to answer that question from the moment they show up at your website or discover one of your products online.

     Once you know what your niche needs, offer it to them. You can be done  in a various number of ways.  Make sure your website has information on every product and service you offer.  Include a Marketplace that links to every product.

     Make sure your site looks professional, with an easy to use layout that is mobile-friendly. Your niche-related content must be worth taking the time to read. Just because it is free does not mean it should be junk. In fact, publishing impressive niche content regularly is a great way to position yourself as a thought leader --- THE MAN!

     Use your site as a lead generation tool in order to build your email marketing list. In this way, you can communicate with your list on a regular basis, presenting your niche customers with information, products and services that will prove you know what you are talking about.

     The products you promote can be yours, or affiliate products you are selling for a commission. They might also be Joint Venture (JV) products you are promoting to your list in exchange for your partner promoting your items to theirs.  It doesn’t really matter as long as they are quality offers.

     In order to get people to sign up for a mailing list these days, you need to go beyond the free newsletter offer to a compelling special report registrants can download that will be packed with information (and links to buy products) related to your niche.  Aim for a broad topic most people interested in your niche will be eager to read, and even to pass on to others via email or social networks.

     Working with JVs gives you other opportunities to show yourself as a thought leader. These include writing reviews of every product you sell as an affiliate or a partner.  JVs might also invite you to participate in an online webinar or interview you as an expert in your niche.  You might even get some guest blogging opportunities in which you write articles for some of the top blogs in your niche to show what you know.

     One of the best ways to give yourself instant expertise is to write a book and publish it on Amazon. It doesn’t have to be an encyclopedia of everything you know about your niche. Many bestselling books are usually ones with How To somewhere in the title, offering real solutions to real problems for your readers.

     Publish it as an e-book through the Kindle Digital Platform first. If there is enough demand, publish it in paperback as well. Get a great cover designed for as little as $5 on fiverr.com.

     Becoming --- THE MAN --- a thought leader in your niche is easy if you give your prospects what they want and need, and show you are in the know about all the top products and services available, not just your own.  This may take some time and effort on your part but the results will be well worth whatever it takes.
QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Knowing what to do is valuable.
Helping others know what to do is priceless!"



Monday, March 11, 2019

The Times



    Let’s pause for a moment from our usual business discussion and consider a few thoughts from our times and the situation that we may have to face.

     “He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.”

     With today’s population it is estimated that over 50% of those living are under the age of 30.  When you consider that every day that number will continue to increase you can certainly see the potential truth in the above quote.  Whoever has the power of youth behind their decisions and intentions will no doubt be able to accomplish much in this world.

     We notice how everyday commercial firms attempt to influence the minds of the young into whatever product, service, or venture that they wish to promote.  We also see how governmental organizations will focus their attention on the younger population to obtain the “majority” of supporters.  This hasn’t changed for decades.

     “The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force.”

     The vast majority of the world’s population will be swayed by the prolific flow of words of promise than they will be by an invading army.  It has been demonstrated over and over that those who will voice (or pen) the winsome words that the vast majority are wanting to hear can be persuaded to follow those that have the implication of promise in their speech. 

     Empires and great nations have been toppled by the speeches of powerful men in the past and will no doubt be victim to the same means of destruction in the future.  The power and boldness of the spoken word can never be overlooked nor taken lightly.

     “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.”  “The greater the lie, the greater the chance that it will be believed.”

     This has always been the case with humans.  If the winsome words that are being spoken are all false, the only way to have people accept them is to make sure that the lie is SO BIG that it would make most people feel that it MUST be true or why would anyone say something so ridicules? 

     Any yet look at people around us today.  Some are so desirous a change, wanting their circumstances to improve, that they are willing to believe whatever is told to them.  Those in politics make their living doing this.  They promise whatever the people want to hear knowing most often they are not going to be able to deliver what has been offered.

     “All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.”

          Propaganda: The spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person is only going to be accepted if the people can understand what is being told to them.  This doesn’t differentiate between what are “ideas” or “information” intent on “helping” the institution, cause, or person from that which is a “rumor” that has the purpose of “injuring” an institution, cause, or person.

     Whichever the case may be the propaganda must be grasped by the “least intelligent” of those to whom it is intended to affect.  This will aid tremendously with it being accepted and acted upon as was its intended purpose.

     “The day of individual happiness has passed.”

     Today it is very difficult to find someone that is truly happy.  Varying situations and conditions exist that work to produce just the opposite within individuals.  Even the attempts by governmental authorities to improve the conditions of their constituents is lacking in providing real happiness to those that they serve.  The time of people going to bed happy and satisfied with the way things are has surely become a thing of the past.

     “I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator.”

     It seems that very few put their real trust in God.  However, when their actions come under question they become very religious people.  Some would even agree with the quote shown above and apply it to their actions.  They truly conceive within their own minds that their actions are “in accordance with the will of” God!  Yet they commit serious atrocities against humankind and contribute to the devaluing of human life.  It’s almost unbelievable that they can think this way but sadly they do!  However they may reply:

     “Who says I am not under the special protection of God?”

     The rants of a mad man will always include the inevitable “fact” that he will claim that he is within his rights to conduct himself the way he does because “God is on” his side of any of the issues that are being brought forth.

     Beyond all logical thinking the “conquer” will proclaim that all his actions are due to his being motivated to do the will of God.  Or that he views himself as the “instrument” that God is using to accomplish His will here upon this Earth.  And why shouldn’t he view himself this way when he feels that by his superior intellect he will prove himself to be right in all he does!

     “It is always more difficult to fight against faith than against knowledge.”

     Regardless of what a person has been taught he or she can be made to believe something entirely different by means of clever persuasion of the contrived falsehoods of man.  Against all reasonable logic a man can be made to think outlandish thoughts within his mind.  And he can be convinced to put these thoughts into actions that reflect a lack of sensible thinking by any reasonable individual.  And how could one reasoning in such a manner be able to get away with the atrocities that would be committed because of his preposterous thinking and his manipulation of humankind that is gullible enough to listen to his outrage?

     “How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.”

     Once an individual or group has decided that they will blindly follow the proposals of a mad man they have forsaken their own freedom of thought.  They choose to allow the actions and the thinking of another to guide them into whatever path of destruction that will be brought upon them.  They relinquish that valuable commodity of their right to think for themselves and place their future into the hands of those leading them.  Many of them doing so without truly understanding where this “leader” is taking them.

     I started by stating that we would look at the times in which we are living and at a possible future that we may have to face by giving up our right to free will and having others think for us.  But in actuality ALL the quotes I included within this article were made by Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.

     Adolf Hitler, the leader of Germany’s Nazi Party, was one of the most powerful and notorious dictators of the 20th century.  Hitler capitalized on economic woes, popular discontent and political infighting to take absolute power in Germany beginning in 1933. Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939 led to the outbreak of World War II, and by 1941 Nazi forces had occupied much of Europe.  Hitler’s virulent anti-Semitism and obsessive pursuit of Aryan supremacy fueled the murder of some 6 million Jews, along with other victims of the Holocaust.  After the tide of war turned against him, Hitler committed suicide in a Berlin bunker in April 1945.” [www.history.com]

     Could the world be heading for a similar situation in our times?  Hopefully, men will have learned from history and will not allow such a thing to happen again.  However, reconsider the quotes I have included above and you will note that they can very easily be applied to people, circumstances, and occurrences that are around us at this very moment.
QUOTE TO CONSIDER


THOUGHT TO CONSIDER

"Don't let others do for you
what you can do yourself!"


Friday, March 8, 2019

Getting Customer Referrals


     When you make a sale of your products or services you’re going to get people talking.  The problem seems to be WHO is talking and WHAT are they talking about?   According to current marketing wisdom, one unhappy customer will tell 7 other people about their bad experience with a product or business. A happy customer will only tell ONE other person about their great experience. How can you beat these odds to get more of your satisfied customers to spread the word about your products and services?

     The first way is to produce excellent content in a range of formats useful to the prospects in your niche, including:


- Articles

- Special reports on hot topics in your niche

- Videos on YouTube

- Images/infographics

- Webinars

- PowerPoint presentations on Slideshare (now owned by Linkedin)

- Emalls in your email marketing platform and autoresponder

- Ecourses

And more.

     Use share buttons for all of these types of content. Many blogs have plugins that allow visitors to share the content at your site on many of the main social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Tumblr.  Publish original content on the networks that your followers can also share easily. You’ll not go wrong by giving your customers what they want, when they want it, it a format they are using, and straight talk about your specific niche.

     To go viral means to spread rapidly from person to person in your niche.  We might also term it creating buzz about your products and service. Launch new products regularly can create buzz. Be willing to give away free review copies in exchange for testimonials to pass the word along about how good your products are.  Some times its very important to understand that by giving a little you can get a LOT!

      A free webinar or workshop with Questions and Answers (Q & A) can also create buzz if you have a good reputation in your niche that would make people eager to attend so they can interact with you.  If you have NEW good ideas people will want to hear them from you.

     Emails can be forwarded easily to friends and family. Ecourses are even better for viral marketing purposes if they are on an interesting niche topic. Similarly, special reports designed to get more email sign ups have a high potential of going viral.

     YouTube is not just for entertainment. It is one of the largest search engines on the Internet as well. Don’t want to appear in front of the camera? Transform your best PowerPoint presentations into video and upload them in your YouTube account. Now it is easy to use an “avatar” in place of yourself, if you have to.

     Create an affiliate program for your loyal customers so they can earn income by referring your products and services.  Form JV partnerships with those in your niche who are not direct competitors so you can all help each other with your viral marketing. Give them a chance to try your product so they will feel happy to use it and recommend it to others. Craft such attractive offers that any customer would be delighted with it and be glad to tell others about the terrific bargain they got.

     In reference to your social networks, publish unique content as well in your accounts and within groups you have joined or created yourself, such as Facebook groups.  Your connections can share it with all their followers with just a click.  Don’t come off “pushy”, but let others know how informative you are.

     Finally, just ask! You would be amazed at how many marketers, even top ones, forget to include a call to action that suggests if the reader liked the content or found it useful, they should feel free to share it with others.  I’ve heard a great ad promotion that included the ending phrase “If you’re unhappy with our service let me know.  If you like our services let others know.”  You may be surprised at how effective this direct approach can be!
QUOTE TO CONSIDER


THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Mama used to say 'If you can't say something nice about 
someone, don't say anything at all!'
If that were only true with customers!"




Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Ways to Partner Effectively


     SO --- you finally decided to put that business idea into implementation and have your new website go LIVE!  Hold on for just a few minutes.  Many new business owners get so excited at the thought of starting their own profitable company online that they do not look before they leap. They come up with what they think is a great new idea and start to try to sell it without doing proper market research to determine demand and what customers in the niche are willing to pay for products.  Other new business owners go to the opposite extreme and steer clear of certain top-earning niches because they think there is too much competition.  You can’t go to either extreme.

     There is something you can do to help improve your chances of being successful in this new business venture.  One of the best ways to put yourself head and shoulders above the competition even in a crowded niche is to link yourself with key companies and influencers. In this way you can offer all new products and services, increase your authority in your niche, and earn more income all at the same time without exposing yourself to a tremendous amount of downside.

     If you are giving serious consideration to making this new venture happen and want to be involved with little opportunity for failure then you need to follow one of the easiest way to accomplish this.  That is through:

          - Affiliate Marketing

          - Joint Venture Partnerships

          - Strategic Partnerships

     Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to get to know the top people and companies in your industry.  There are a number of affiliate marketplaces that allow you to link up with top infiuencers, companies and products all in one location. The main ones for digital products are Clickbank and JV Zoo. The best ones for tangible products are CJ.com and LinkShare. Create your links once, paste at your site and in your marketing emails, and those links will keep on earning for you even when you are away from your computer.

     In the process of finding affiliate products to sell, you will discover the top individuals and brands in your niche.  Make a list of them and their websites and email addresses.  Once you have a large email marketing list or are willing to be interviewed or contribute to a webinar about your niche, you can form Joint Venture (JV) Partnerships.

     With JVs, you market together and split the proceeds 50/50.  If you have a mailing list of 500 people, for example, and your JV partner has a similarly sized list, propose mailing to each other’s list and splitting the cash. If their list is twice the size of yours, email 2 of their marketing messages instead of just one.  You can work out any agreeable procedure between yourselves.  Just make sure you recognize the “give and take” of this type of operation.

     Strategic partnerships can be formed online or offline in a similar way. Partner with anyone who is not a direct competitor but sells complementary products and services. For example, if you sell wedding gowns, partner with other local merchants who can provide any of the other items commonly required for weddings, such as flowers, formal wear, limos and so on. If you give this a little thought you may be surprised at what types of partnerships you can think of creating.

     One other useful way to find local partners is to offer an interesting workshop or talk at your local Chamber of Commerce. They will do all the marketing and promotion for the talk. You just need to deliver a great presentation. Those who get to meet you in this way might just want to partner with you, or know someone who does. Online networking is great, but don’t overlook the opportunities to forge relationships within the community, especially if you have a brick and mortar store.

     Every business and entrepreneur is judged by the company they keep. Form relationships with the top movers and shakers in your niche and see what a difference it can make to your profits.
QUOTE TO CONSIDER


THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Spend your life helping others succeed,
and you will also."

Friday, March 1, 2019

Is Your Business Hiding in Plain Sight?



    If you feel that you are not getting the online attention you should maybe you need to enhance your online presence with some great niche-related features.

     These days, any serious business owner with a brain in their head has a website or blog to help market their business. A website with your own domain name (URL) establishes a professional online presence and offers a central hub for all of your online and offline marketing efforts. However, if you have not updated your website recently or posted fresh content to it, it’s time to enhance your online presence to improve your chances of succeeding in a competitive niche.  If you don’t have any interest in your website who will?

     If your website is more than a few years old, chances are it might not be mobile-friendly. With the boom in Smartphones and tablet computers, this should be your first enhancement.  It’s not a difficult thing to do, but you must make certain that it gets done and don’t rely on “I think it is!” mentality.

     Second, do you have a blog? A blog is a fun and interesting way to present fresh niche-related content on a regular basis. Write the content, or commission it, upload it, and set the publication date.  Your blog will be updated regularly without you having to work on it every day.  Remember that even if the process is automated you will still need to check on it from time to time to make sure everything is going as planned.

     If you are working in a small company or are a solo entrepreneur, you might be thinking that you have no idea how to do either of these task and have no budget to hire anyone. The good news is that you can kill two birds with one stone with a completely free program: WordPress. (www.wordpress.com )

     There are two ways to accomplish this. The first is to set up a free blog at WordPress.com. This basic version of the program is mobile-friendly and will show you just how easy WordPress is to use.  Link to your site and vice versa to drive more traffic.

     The second way to do this is to download a copy of the free program at WordPress.org and upload it to the main folder of your website, or to a subfolder, such as one called blog.  Install the program and start adding content.

     The full version of WordPress includes 2 key items that can really help your niche business take off. The first are themes and the second are plugins.

     Themes set the overall appearance and functionality of the site, such as a text-based blog versus a photo blog. Search through all the free professional-looking themes available to find the one that is right for the look and feel of your business.

     Plugins are little mini-programs that add a range of functions and tools to your pages and site.  These can range from social media links that will let you promote your site on all your accounts and allow your customers to promote your site as well to a number of exciting niche options that will make your site a magnet for customers, such as:

- Auctions

- A forum or discussion board

- Top niche products lists with links to buy

- An article directory

- A membership site, free or paid

- A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) portal

And much more.

     If your site isn’t getting the kind of traffic you want or enough repeat visitors, update your site/blog, add functionality, and see what a difference it can make to your profits.  Your business should be ever growing and to do that in the market of today you must periodically review your use of technology and make sure you are up-to-date on what is available and what is being used.  Otherwise you may become the “rotary phone” of your niche!
QUOTE TO CONSIDER


THOUGHTFUL GEM

"You can get really tangled in the web.
Know your way in and know your way out.
But don't get lost while you're there."