Selecting a PLR Niche

When creating PLR products the very first thing you have to do is to choose a topic or niche.   Obviously, if you are creating a product or writing an article pack, you have to choose what to write about.  Basics.

What might not be so obvious, is what to choose!  Since you are trying to make money, the key will be to choose something that sells.  You need to choose niches or topics that are in DEMAND.

There is demand for PLR in a lot of niches, but having run a membership site for awhile now there are definitely some things to consider when you are choosing your topic or niche.

1. Your Knowledge Base – What do you like writing about, what are you good at writing?  Is there anything you know more about than the average person?  This is a great way to think of a topic to write about.  This won’t guarantee commercial success, but it will let you put together the best product you can, in the least time possible.

Take the time to brainstorm, and write a huge list of your interests, experiences and things you know a lot about.   These could all be potential topics for your PLR.  When you choose something from this list you will know that you will be able to write about it and will probably save a lot of research time.

2. What’s Hot – PLR is a very web-based business so that means things move rapidly.  You have to keep your eyes and ears open on what it is popular – especially when it comes to the internet.  If you are creating PLR you don’t want to miss out on a hot topic – these topics can come and go fast so make sure you take advantage.  Some of our biggest successes have been from trending topics like Mobile Marketing and Google+.

3. The Classic Earners – Since I have been creating PLR products for a couple of years now, I have learned that some niches always sell well.  They might not be MONSTER sellers like trending niches can be, but they will always garner enough interest to be worth pursuing.  I am sure people will have their own views on this, but looking back at our last 60 or so products, I feel like the following niches seem to consistently be PLR friendly:

Social Media (Twitter, Facebook especially)

Health (Diet, Exercise, etc…)

Online Marketing

Blogging/WordPress

4. Products That Transcend Niches – Another thing that we have found selling PLR, is that products which can be used across a wide variety of niches sell particularly well.  This makes sense because the products aren’t limited to small niches.  These type of products for us have included:

Time Management

Motivation

Content Creation

That is not a full list by far, but those have been the most successful ones that I have sold.  The common theme between them is that they could be helpful to just about anyone who is working online.  Everyone needs time, motivation and content!

When it comes to choosing a niche for your PLR product, the above considerations will help you create something that is commercially viable.  Now that said, and I may be in the minority, but I also think you shouldn’t lose too much sleep over your choice of topic.  I say jump right in, if it doesn’t sell well, you still have a business asset you can use on upsells/bundles and like Jay-Z says “On to the next one…”.

Thinking Ahead For Maximizing Blog Profits

If you have a blog it is a good idea to strategize a game plan. You need to think ahead about what issues you might face. If you are able to create content instantly, update often and properly market you blog then you have the right blogging strategies in place. Doing this will mean your blog has a chance to stand out from the pack.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Use Ideas Instantly – Whenever you have an idea use it instantly. This doesn’t seem like much of a strategy but it has helped me explode my blog traffic. There will be days when you can’t think of what to post at all. If you jump when you have an idea then you won’t have this worry. Be prepared to at least jot down any ideas that come to you. Carry a notepad, or an audio recorder to get your thoughts down as soon as you think of them. You don’t want to make a mental note, because those aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. You don’t have to post your ideas instantly, but keeping running notes about all your ideas will make content creation a snap.

2. Update Often – Oh great strategy right? Well it is actually. This might not seem like it has to be said but if you are starting to blog make sure you are consistent. There is nothing worse than a blog that is never updated. Those blogs have no real chance of building a fan base. Besides your live visitors, Google likes to see updated content as well. Updating your content might seem obvious but if that is the case why do so many people ignore it? Once you decide on blogging, one of your first strategies better be how to update regularly.

3. Spread The Word – This is a really important strategy that all good bloggers know. You have to actively market your blog online and offline. A lot of people start a blog and then post like a mad person, only to wonder why no one comes to their site. People have to know it exists. You have to combine online and offline marketing. First off, make sure your blog can be found and is optimized for search engines. Then make sure you share it everywhere you can online. This means social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. It also means social bookmarking sites like Digg and Stumbleupon. As for offline, you can add your blog to any of your pre-existing marketing material, in fact I suggest you do. You can also create cheap offline marketing tools. I had business cards made up with only the url of my blog on it. I gave it to people I met when they asked how they could contact me. It cost me $25 bucks and I still get traffic from those cards circulating.

These above strategies have been used and proven to stimulate your blog traffic and overall exposure. If you act on your ideas right away, update often and market your blog offline AND online you will notice your traffic increase. You will also gain valuable backlinks and begin branding yourself as an expert. Who could ask for anything more?

Kiss Spam Comments Away With Akismet

All WordPress installations come with 2 plugins already installed (though not activated). They are Akismet and Hello Dolly. I always delete the latter one. Hello Dolly is just a novelty for your admin area. I am sure it is very small, but I don’t use it so I delete it. The other one is Akismet – I suggest you definitely use this. It’s main job is blocking spam comments and although it doesn’t catch them all, it does a great job.

Set up is simple:

Navigate to your plugin menu and activate Akismet. You will get a warning saying you need a WordPress API key to use it. This is also simple to get. You have to start an account at WordPress.Com (free). You don’t have to set up a free blog or anything, just an account. Since I was creating an account I made a quick free blog to drop some backlinks to my site, but that is a story for another article. Anyways, once you have a WordPress.com account, you can find the API key in your profile. You can also request a free API key from Akismet.com if you don’t want to start a WordPress account. Once you have the key you can use it on multiple sites.

After a fairly simple set up process Akismet will instantly go to work. Using a huge database, Akismet will check all incoming comments and automatically mark the comments that match the database as spam. This will save you a lot of time, because you will be receiving spam not long after your site is up and running. I have sites that haven’t even been completed before they were spammed.

Another great feature of Akismet is that it learns, if it is missing spam and you routinely mark those comments as spam it will learn to mark those comments as well. Conversely if it is marking comments as spam, that aren’t you can teach it by marking those comments approved. Although I trust Akismet on my blog, I do check the spam comment area to see if it caught anything it shouldn’t have. If you are wondering about it’s effectiveness – here are the actual numbers from my site since the end of January: 870 Spams caught at an accuracy rating of 99.686%. I am not saying everyone will see those kind of numbers, but that’s how well it is working for me. Quite impressive.

Spam comments are going to aggravate you eventually. If you don’t have this plugin it will happen sooner than you can imagine. WordPress packages this plugin for a reason – it works. Don’t waste your time pouring through spam comments in your email or on your site. Activate Akismet now and thank me later.

Lie Cheat And Steal Your Way To Blogging

Lie Cheat And Steal Your Way….

Yes you read the title right – if you have been blogging with no results, then it is time to turn to the dark side. No more Mr. Nice Guy blogging for you. You have tried your best at being honest – now it is time to embrace the darkness. You need traffic? Then you need to lie, cheat and steal your way to blogging supremacy. Let me guide you down this dire path. If your pure and innocent mind is telling you to stop reading, you might want to continue just to see what I mean.

1. Lie! It is time to forget the ten commandments, lying can help you devise some catchy blog posts that will get talked about. I have to admit that my idea of lying might not be as evil as you were expecting. I am actually talking about satire. You can use satire to craft funny posts that people may feel more inclined to spread. This might be hard to explain so I will give you an example. I pretended to get a sneak peak at some upcoming software. I picked a software release that won’t be happening for years and I gave ten “secret” facts about it. Of course I was “lying”, I just made up new comedic features that were so over the top no one could take it seriously. It ended up getting some twitter love and was one of my more successful posts. The creator of the software even retweeted it and thanked me for giving him a good laugh.

2. Cheat! We covered lies, so now lets move on to cheating. What evil ideas will I come up with here? Well once again, it is a little ,vanilla. I think for us bloggers consistency is key. If you release posts everyday you will get Google love and more traffic. Sometime this is impossible though. I have had days so busy I can’t possibly get a blog post out. That said, my RSS subscribers still got a notification in their email about a new post…because I cheated!

WordPress and most other blog platforms allow you to schedule posts. When you are “feeling it” and ready to crank out content — crank out as much as possible and then like the infomercial says: “set it and forget it!”. You can even keep a couple blog posts in a text file so you just have to copy and paste on your busy days.

3. Steal! Alright this is clear cut, I obviously meant you should go to someone else’s blog and steal their content. This is simple! It is also plagiarism and I’m joking, I do not support that.

What you can steal are ideas! Browse your favorite blogs and get inspiration from them. You can easily and honestly get a topic or general themes from them. You can also go one step further and use a part of their post in your post. You can review their blog, you could review a video they made or you can take a single quote from their blog post (with attribution of course) and discuss your feelings about it. Stealing is usually frowned upon but I think in this case blog owners will be happy to receive exposure from your site.

We grew up learning not to lie, cheat or steal. I think the majority of people would agree they are wrong but even the most prudent person would agree my methods are pretty tame. If you are in a rut then don’t forget; you can lie, cheat and steal your way to creating constant content! This should give your blog a much needed boost, and hey sometimes it feels good to be bad.

Ebook Writing Essentials

The hardest part of writing is the first sentence. When you look at the whole project, it seems like an impossible task. That’s why you have to break it down into manageable tasks. Think of climbing a mountain. You are standing at the foot of it and looking up at its summit vanishing into the clouds. How can you possibly scale such an immense and dangerous mountain?

There is only one way to climb a mountain: step by step.

Now think of writing your E-Book in the same light. You must create it step by step, and one day, you will take that last step and find yourself standing on the summit with your head in the clouds.

The first thing you have to do, as if you actually were a mountain climber, is to get organized. Instead of climbing gear, however, you must organize your thoughts. There are some steps you should take before you begin. Once you’ve gone through the following list, you will be ready to actually begin writing your

E-Book.

Beginning Steps to Writing an E-Book

First, figure out your E-Book’s working title. Jot down a few different titles, and eventually, you’ll find that one that will grow on you. Titles help you to focus your writing on your topic; they guide you in anticipating and answering your reader’s queries. Many non-fiction books also have subtitles. Aim for clarity in your titles, but cleverness always helps to sell books as long as it’s not too cute.

Next, write out a thesis statement. Your thesis is a sentence or two stating exactly what problem you are addressing and how your book will solve that problem. All chapters spring forth from your thesis statement. Once you’ve got your thesis statement fine-tuned, you’ve built your foundation. From that foundation, your book will grow, chapter by chapter.

Your thesis will keep you focused while you write your E-Book. Remember: all chapters must support your thesis statement. If they don’t, they don’t belong in your book. For example, your thesis statement could read: We’ve all experienced insomnia at times in our lives, but there are twenty proven techniques and methods to give you back a good night’s sleep.

Once you have your thesis, before you start to write, make sure there is a good reason to write your book. Ask yourself some questions:

Does your book present useful information and is that information currently relevant?

Will you book positively affect the lives of your readers?

Is your book dynamic and will it keep the reader’s attention?

Does you book answer questions that are meaningful and significant?

If you can answer yes to these questions, you can feel confident about the potential of your E-Book.

Another important step is to figure out who your target audience is. It is this group of people you will be writing to, and this group will dictate many elements of your book, such as style, tone, diction, and even length. Figure out the age range of your readers, their general gender, what they are most interested in, and even the socio-economic group they primarily come from. Are they people who read fashion magazines or book reviews? Do they write letters in longhand or spend hours every day online. The more you can pin down your target audience, the easier it will be to write your book for them.

Next, make a list of the reasons you are writing your E-Book. Do you want to promote your business? Do you want to bring quality traffic to your website? Do you want to enhance your reputation?

Then write down your goals in terms of publishing. Do you want to sell it as a product on your website, or do you want to offer it as a free gift for filling out a survey or for ordering a product? Do you want to use the chapters to create an e-course, or use your E-Book to attract affiliates around the world? The more you know upfront, the easier the actual writing will be.

Decide on the format of your chapters. In non-fiction, keep the format from chapter to chapter fairly consistent. Perhaps you plan to use an introduction to your chapter topic, and then divide it into four subhead topics. Or you may plan to divide it into five parts, each one beginning with a relevant anecdote.

How to make your E-Book “user friendly”

You must figure out how to keep your writing engaging. Often anecdotes, testimonials, little stories, photos, graphs, advice, and tips will keep the reader turning the pages. Sidebars are useful for quick, accessible information, and they break up the density of the page.

Write with a casual, conversational tone rather than a formal tone such as textbook diction. Reader’s respond to the feeling that you are having a conversation with them. Break up the length and structure of your sentences so you don’t hypnotize your readers into sleep. Sentences that are all the same length and structure tend to be a good aid for insomnia!

Good writing takes practice. It takes lots and lots of practice. Make a schedule to write at least a page a day. Read books and magazines about the process of writing, and jot down tips that jump out at you. The art of writing is a lifetime process; the more you write (and read), the better your writing will become. The better your writing becomes, the bigger your sales figures.

In an E-Book that is read on the screen, be aware that you must give your reader’s eye a break. You can do this by utilizing white space. In art classes, white space is usually referred to as “negative space.” Reader’s eyes need to rest in the cool white oasis you create on your page. If your page is too dense, your reader will quit out of it as soon as their eyes begin to tear.

Make use of lists, both bulleted and numbered. This makes your information easy to absorb, and gives the reader a mental break from dissecting your paragraphs one after the other.

Finally, decide on an easy-to-read design. Find a font that’s easy on the eyes, and stick to that font family. Using dozens of fonts will only tire your readers out before they’ve gotten past your introduction. Use at least one and a half line spacing, and text large enough to be read easily on the screen, but small enough so that the whole page can be seen on a computer screen. You will have to experiment with this to find the right combination.

Of course, don’t forget to run a spell and grammar check. You are judged by something as minor as correct punctuation, so don’t mess up a great book by tossing out semicolons randomly, or stringing sentences together with commas. (By the way, that’s called a “comma splice.”)

Last of all: create an index and a bibliography. That’s it! You’ve written a book! Now all you have to do is compile and publish your E-Book online, and wait for download request from your website visitors!

Make It Easier For Prospects To Find Your Business: Choose The Right Web Address

A web address refers to the title your customers will type into the toolbar at the top of the screen. The web address of the media giant Amazon is amazon.com. You can check out what Disney is up to at Disney.com, and so forth. When you have your own online business, people will be able to type in your web address in order to see what you’re up to, as well!

This may seem like a somewhat obvious concern, but you will have to think up a web address that is catchy, evocative, and easy to remember, which is no small feat. By this point in the history of the Internet, a great deal of the short, snappy names have been taken. For instance, if your business is called Good Times, well, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be able to land goodtimes.com for the purposes of your site.

It’s gotten to the point where many people choose to name their businesses based off of what web addresses they can land rather than basing the web address of the name of the business. In fact, it’s probably a smart idea to check out what web addresses are available before building your site if you have the luxury to do so: those who are building websites to bolster a previously existing business won’t have this luxury, obviously.

There is a lot of fuss on the Internet regarding using hyphens in web addresses. In an overarching sense, whether or not to use hyphens in your web address comes down to personal preference, but it is true that most people don’t stop to note hyphens in the names of addresses unless giving specific directions to a site. Thus, if you have a great name that is available only when you use hyphens (“blue-money.com”) but goes to a different site when the hyphen is removed (“bluemoney.com”), it’s probably best to think of another name, lest you end up accidentally sending customers to an unrelated site or, worse, a competitor.

Also of contention are the extensions for web addresses, which can include .com, .edu, .net, .org, .us, .info, .biz, and many others. There are also country specific web addresses such as .co.uk. Of course, the most popular one of these is the .com, and in general, if you can land the web address of your dreams that also happens to be a .com, then the stars are smiling on you and it’s your lucky day.

However, if there’s no chance of that happening, .org and .net are well-known as well and most customers find them perfectly acceptable alternatives. Just make sure to publicize your website with the full web address should you not have a .com extension. The country-specific domain names are great for local businesses – after all, if you’re working out of Australia and are only serving the Australian community, having a .co.au site helps identify you as a local resource and will heighten the chances of your website popping up when a consumer does a search for local businesses.

5 Super Simple Strategies For Bringing Life To Boring Writing

If you are looking for blog writing tips, then look no further. The following five tips will help you transform your blog from boring to brilliant!

1. Write Like You Talk: This is not advice that you will hear in Journalism 101, but when it comes to blogging it is an entirely different story. If you write like you talk you can engage readers quickly, because they will feel connected with you. It also helps for editing purposes, when you read over your blog post, do it out loud and you can hear if it flows naturally.

2. Edit, Edit, Edit: This goes well with the above point – read over your blog post at least three times before you publish. Yes, spellchecking software is great, but it won’t catch all the mistakes. It will miss grammar mistakes, punctuation and words that are spelled properly but used wrong. If you value your readers then you will want to make sure you present your best possible work.

3. Avoid Overkill: For the most part, I don’t think people are into 9000 word blog posts. A lot of people will scan a blog post without really reading it, if your post is short and simple it is more likely to grab their attention.

4. Don’t Be A Wimp: Do not be a wimp – stand up for what you believe in. Take a controversial stand or two, yes some people might get angry, but they also might send the link around in their anger. Getting people talking and engaging you (even negatively) can help your blog’s exposure. For every person you anger, there will be someone who agrees with you. Stick to your guns in comments as well. I used to dread negative comments, but now I view it as a way to interact with my readers.

5. Your Work Isn’t Over When You Hit Publish: You can write as much as you want but if people don’t read it, who cares? Market your posts every time you make one. The average person has a couple hundred friends on Facebook so share it on there. Share it on Twitter if you use it. Email it to your friends if you don’t use social media. You can also send it out to bookmarking sites like Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit. None of these strategies cost you anything!

Now that you have these five tips to work with you should be able to consistently create quality content. Remember to use each tip every time you write a post and you will undoubtedly notice your comments, traffic and opt-ins climb steadily!

Marketing On Forums – How To Offer Your Product

In an Internet Marketing Forum, all people want to display their superior copywriting skills while composing a special offer. I have listed some tips for you to follow while posting your ad in a forum based market place.

Do not try to overdo the title – if your offer cannot be understood, there are high chances of you losing out. They should be directed to your sales page and the offer copy should be short and pin pointed.

Apart from the headline, actual copy and payment method, you need to ensure the inclusion of the following:

? Rights – What are the rights to be included (use these in the zip file too!)?

? Guarantee – Will you guarantee refund? You better, especially if you are new.

? Delivery Terms – Enlist the timeframes and if they are manual or automatic.

? Support – Does your offer allot any support, installation or other such help?

? Upgrades – To be included or served as extra?

? Reviews – Did you get 5 to 10 members to review your offer before?

Some forums allow the members to post their ads related to their product / service for free. But there are many forums such as warrior forum that asks for a small fee of $20 to post the ad.

Also, price your products or services properly. It is better if you charge a special price at the forums which will definitely attract more customers towards your products or services.

As a matter of fact, in some forums , it is mandatory to charge a discount price compared to what is being charged to the general public. This is because more people to go to buy in some particular forum based marketplaces since they know that they are going to find quality products a low price in those market places.

By asking for a lower price, you will definitely have higher chances of making sales.

Remember, I talked of over delivery earlier. A good way to over deliver is you can charge for one product and give 2 quality products to the buyers. Or you can add 5 valuable E-books that will be of great use to your customers or you can also, use the technique , buy 1 and get 1 free technique to attract more customers.

Many experienced marketers create an urgency in their products or services by restricting their number clients or by restricting the period of the offer. So, if you have a product or service, that you are confident of , you too can create exigency by placing certain limitations.

 

Spend some time in posting your ad and trust me, it’s worth every penny or second that you invest. Owing to the large number of traffic flow to the popular Internet Marketing forums, not only your products or services but also you are going to get some good exposure. That is why I repeatedly kept focusing on the importance of a QUALITY product and the value of a well crafted offer.

Remember, a forum based marketplace has every power to make or break your online business.

Partnering With Your List

Now as far as turning your list into joint ventures goes, this is a pretty easy but also open ended and rather variable in results until you actually see what these people are capable of further down the line. Similar to previously, when we talked about gaining feedback from your list you can in the same way, gain joint ventures from your list, again, as in the above example with the affiliates, this is often far more widely used, and for good reason.

I urge you once again, not to relegate your joint venture prospects to those who visit your website, and the individuals you pick out through the top performing affiliates, but to actively seek them through your list. The reason we’re doing this is simply because there’s a good chance someone will be out there that won’t progress down your line of resources otherwise. If they’re experienced, have a big list of their own, or the ability to get in touch with your target market, you’re going to miss out if you’re not telling them that you want their services.

For example, an experienced marketer that subscribes to a selection of lists to keep up with what’s going on around them, happens to subscribe to your list where you’re selling an info product such as this. He or she won’t buy your how to product, because they’ve got their system set up already and it just so happens, that they only promote their own stuff to their own lists, unless it’s a joint venture (this is very common among the big guys by the way), they won’t buy your big product for the same reason, and they won’t be joining your affiliate program for the above reason. He or she is a heavy hitter with a big list, but you’re missing out. These are the people you’re aiming to cater for here. It’s not good if you’re leaving massive holes like this, because you’re missing out on some massive profit potential. In fact, as we speak the majority of marketers out there are very obviously leaving these types of holes.

The problem with joint venturing through a list at this stage is it becomes kind of a lottery if you’re not careful. You can’t just send out a mailing asking for anyone with a list over ten thousand people to contact you for higher commissions, because then everyone else feels cheated and you may alienate some potential affiliates. In general terms joint ventures should be a private thing, the deal will also vary from person to person, depending on your product, their list size, what they want in return and what you can grant in return. The best way to go about this is to keep it that way. Don’t do a mass mailing just requesting joint ventures for the reasons above, we can’t do that for this particular resource.

What I’d suggest you do instead, which you should be doing with your list anyway, is carry on as your normally do, sending out your un-intrusive surveys to help with your research and find out as much info as you can about the people on your list, for something in return. For example a short valuable report that you’ve written on your area of expertise. In exchange you’re getting vital info that not only allows you to tailor your ads to your list providing a better response rate, but at the same time you’re building up a picture of who the good joint venture prospects are. Once you’ve done that, you can go through the results you’ve collected, and pick the top performers, the knowledgeable, and the people with the most resources, and contact them individually.

Increasing Your Marketing Efforts With Increasing Costs Through Email Marketing

One of the most valuable assets an online business can have is an opt-in list. What’s this and how does it work? We’re here to help!

An opt-in marketing list is where a customer (or potential customer, but it’s most often somebody who has purchased something from your site) gets an option to include themselves in on an email list that your company sends out.

This is very different from spam, which is where unscrupulous business owners go “phishing” for random email addresses that they find on the Internet and relentlessly pelt these poor souls with emails. Spam does nobody any good and basically ends up costing a business a lot of money only to irritate people.

An opt-in list, though, is a brilliant for business because the people who receive your emails are actually interested in receiving them. You can send this list of people who are interested in keeping constant correspondence with your business occasional emails – no more than twice a month, usually, and only when you have something of worth to say or offer – which can detail everything from the current goings-on of your business to deals and offers and promotions. Many companies offer special promotions to those who join their opt-in list as an incentive to, well, opt in.

Opt-in lists give customers who are interested in you your attention. Even better, the effect of an opt-in list is entirely traceable, as if you start offering promotions through your list you’ll be able to tell how many of them get redeemed. Opt-in lists are also another great way to get out more of that free expert content you offer, specially designed for those who wish to follow you. Many smaller businesses offer Q and A sessions through their opt-in list, where followers can ask specific questions that can be answered through the general forum of your email.

These lists are also the digital equivalent to having “regulars” at a store and engaging them in casual chat. Through an email list you can develop more intimate relationships with customers as compared to the normal “anonymous buyer” that hops into your site to pick up a few items, and then hops out without you knowing anything more about them other than what they bought. Close relationships with customers generate brand loyalty, which is a hot commodity.

Want another bonus? Email marketing can also be entirely free if you manage it yourself. Even if you choose to outsource your email marketing or leave it to an employee to handle, it is much cheaper than print advertising because of how targeted it is. Individual customers make specific requests, and you fill them by sending out the information direct to those who asked for it. It’s a very simple, yet incredibly effective method of advertising that is guaranteed to optimize conversions and get people talking about you, particularly if you make your opt-in list a plum deal to join.