Category: How-To Guides

Article Contributed by Jessica Gust

Find the market with the best outlook for your business.

Niche markets are crucial to the success of many organizations. Your specialized products and services require a specialized market to consume them. Aim too broadly, and you risk entering a saturated market or one in which there is little money to be made. For companies in the early stages of establishment, the goal may be to identify a niche market to serve before entering the research and development phase for any products. For others, a new product may be on the horizon and you need to ensure that a market exists that will be receptive to the new product. No matter the case, you will want to be sure that you’ve thoroughly researched the niche market before you invest time and money into serving it.

Define and understand your target market

Niche markets aren’t based on industry categories and subcategories alone. To effectively offer products and services that your niche market will want, you first need to a) determine what your target market looks like and b) understand the demographics within that market. For example, if you decide that your target market will be composed of travelers, you will then need to decide on other variables of said travelers. Determine their age range and estimated income (travel among students and retirees looks different than travel among corporate execs), determine where your market audience is concentrated (travelers based in California are more likely to seek tropical excursions in Hawaii or central America rather than the Caribbean), and learn about their hobbies and interests. From there you may decide, for example, that you intend to cater toward women embarking on solo travel with an emphasis on water sports. The point is: be specific.

Study up on keywords

Search engines like Google are data treasure troves when it comes to vast keyword statistics. With the help of Google’s Adwords, you can search for keywords to find their popularity over time, among other potentially helpful metrics like relevant keywords. It can also give you some insight into the market’s competition.

Keep up to date on industry trends

Like Adwords, Trends is another of Google’s highly useful data tools. Trends shows you longitudinal patterns in web traffic for a given niche. It’s a pretty good indicator of whether or not it’s safe to enter a particular niche, as you can see if a trend is on the decline. You may even be able to spot new trends that look promising, but you will want to expand your research before you fully commit to the trend.

Once you settle on a niche market to enter, it’s important to continue to follow up on the above tips to see if the market atmosphere is shifting. Another way to accomplish this is to follow your competitors and regularly check in on what products and services they offer. Read their customer reviews, too (on top of reading your own!). You may be able to spot a niche within that niche based on what consumers are saying.

About the Author

Jessica Gust is a Marketing Assistant at Localpeek.co.uk– a new postcode finder. She is passionate about new marketing strategies, she is always eager to share her ideas through blogging.

We all know the incredible power of the internet. We understand it as an invaluable tool for research, shopping, and building networks and connections. We recognize the viral influence of social media and its impact on cultural and buying habits. We can see it as a wonderful catalyst for ideas and education. And yet, even with this unquestioned knowledge of the internet’s potential, still a huge number of small businesses, even today, have little to no presence online. If you’re stunned, you should be.

You’re not only missing out on potential customers. It’s unquestioned how much the internet has expanded and diversified over the past decade. With the rise of social media, blogging platforms, and a host of tools for quickly building websites, the internet has been re-packaged for large-scale consumer interaction. Geographical boundaries no longer matter in terms of trends, ideas or even news and the amount of fresh content that is created each day is astonishing. In short, we’ve become a culture that literally “Google” everything – we even check out reviews for the local Barber before we think about walking through the doors. So, if you’re not online, you’re not only missing out on a huge market, but you may also be in danger of losing your current customers.

This is why it’s so essential for businesses blog often and regularly be publishing quality content on the web. More than ever, businesses need to position themselves as experts in a specific area and draw loyal online readers by providing this specialized content. But for many small businesses that don’t have a blog or website, taking the first steps can feel daunting: How do I get a blog started? What should I write about? How often should I post?

The Best Guide To Business Blogging

With these questions and concerns in mind, Neil Patel has put together an incredibly helpful guide for small business blogging. It walks businesses through the steps of defining a blogging niche, brainstorming content ideas, understanding the blogging culture and making money from your blog.

Create a persona

A persona gives the warm feeling and passion to reads such that everything becomes alive. It would seem like there is someone is always around providing a friendly conversation. More often than not, sales are created when people trust what they are hearing and understanding from another person. It builds much more credibility with having a persona to go through the products or services.

Choose a domain name

Generating names for blogs is also subject to the availability of the domain name. While creativity comes into play, one has to also consciously be aware of the originality and availability of the names.It’s not enough to just come up with a good name. You need a name that also has an availabledomain name. You should try to get the “.com” domain if at all possible. This is what most people will attempt to type in when they hear your name.

The challenge of finding an available domain adds another layer of difficulty to the process, but the good news is that there are some very helpful tools (such as Instant Domain Search) that utilize the available domain name data to help you generate business name ideas.

Pick a hosting provider

Naturally you are going to need to engage a web hosting company to provide a server to store your web content. There are lots of multi-solution web hosting companies that provide storage space and even domain name registration, etc. The size and type of web hosting package you choose will be largely determined by the type of online business you are starting. Be sure to do your due diligence before choosing the vendor you will use. Find one that can provide you good customer support so that whenever a problem will be encountered, for example when you need to setup SSL security on your website.

Install a theme

A theme is basically the way how you want your site to look like. There are thousands of styles to choose from. What is really important is to create a simple and clean design for a starts. It must be easy for customers to navigate through your website and remain inquisitive enough to surf through your sites. Thereafter, you can build on more technicalities to your site to enhance users’ satisfaction.

Optimize your SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the single most important marketing activity that has given small businesses and startups a level playing field against the big boys in their niche. The increasing reach of the internet and the fact that more and more people using the World Wide Web to look for all kinds of information means that online marketing is crucial for the branding efforts for every small business. SEO makes sure that a small business’s website comes up tops on search engine rankings, which increases its website traffic and improves its sales.

Write out a list of articles

Content is paramount in today’s social marketing. It builds trust when people know that the content is genuine and imparts knowledge.

Think of what questions a reader or customer would have in mind when they go through your website and how you can get them excited about your products. Run them through and think of ten reasons how you can convince them that what you have is the best product.

You may also think of problems you would encounter from different perspective: a working parent, a campus student, an entrepreneur who might lack time and present them in your articles. This will allow them to be consciously aware what problems they might face and how you can come into the picture to provide the solutions.

For a start, find a peaceful place and brainstorm articles you can potentially write. Create a mindmap and through run your thoughts. Each of the items that you wrote down is a potential blog topic — maybe even several blog topics!

Create your first post

More often than not, it is the heading that captures the eye of the reader. Construct an attractive headline paired with good visual content is often the winning formula to keep people engaged and encourage sharing. Content should be easy to understand.

Create an editorial calendar

An editorial calendar will allow you to keep track of when you will write for the next post. This will create a routine to keep readers coming back. In addition, when you are engaged by blog sponsors, editorial calendar is very useful to provide expectations on the articles that will be posted.

Conclusion

The aforementioned eil Patel’s “The Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Money-Making Blog in 1 Hour”is one of those resources that you’ll find yourself returning back to again and again. So if you find yourself either frantic for content or simply unsure on how to move forward, grab a cup of coffee, a notepad and refer to thisgreat guide to make some money blogging. Start strategizing a new way of engaging customers online.

You finally have your web portfolio looking perfect.  In fact, it’s dazzling. Which is why you don’t understand why traffic to your website remains sluggish. Has this happened to you? As a creative, you likely have the elements of great design mastered and your color palette and font choice are stunning. But there’s one thing you might be missing, which could be why you’re not getting more visitors…

Website text optimized for search engines. In other words, SEO. Utilizing SEO means making sure your design portfolio can be found by people who are looking for your unique set of skills. When someone does a Google search for your skill set, the results at the top of that list are people who have SEO figured out. Or they used a team (or service) to make sure the text on their portfolio site used proper SEO terms.

So what can you do to make your art or design portfolio and services more easily found through searches? Here are 3 ways to make sure your design portfolio is optimized for search engines.

 1. Know what people are searching for when they search for your skill set.

Artists and designers (as well as many other professions) use industry lingo. Whereas your average Google searcher will input terms that he or she is familiar with. An artist or a designer will state that they are an expert at Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator. But a potential client will simply search for“book cover designer.” They won’t necessarily search for what program you use. Wordtracker is one way to find out what people are searching for. You can also hire this out to a professional SEO service if you want a shortcut to the highest ranking words related to what you do.

2. Add SEO to your images.

There’s more you can be doing with your images outside of using them for their visual appeal and advertising purposes. But if you upload your image and that’s the last thing you do to it, then chances are you’re skipping this vital step. You should be renaming your image file to include a keyword that people might be using to find you. For example, “book_cover_sample_design.jpg” is a better option than “bcsd1.jpg.”

Also, add in title and “alt” text. Title text is what will appear if someone hovered over the image on your site. If you aren’t fiddling with this when you upload your image, then what appears will be the filename. You don’t need to use underscores in your title. This title should look nice to the eye, and again, it should use keywords. Image “alt” text is what a web browser will display if for any reason your image itself is unavailable.

3. Use a blog to get in all those SEO keywords.

If you’re like many people who are introduced to the possibilities of SEO for the first time, you might become a little over zealous. But unnatural-sounding or keyword-stuffed web pages won’t rank high on Google searches either. So how else can you get in all those terms people are looking for while keeping the tone and text of your site sounding natural?

Aside from being an essential way to establish your authority, you will rank higher in Google searches when you blog. Showcase a step by step of you implementing a customer’s design request. Use screen captures to keep it visually interesting. Create a how-to. Talk about industry trends. Discuss and compare price ranges in your industry. And as you do this, you’ll almost automatically be including all the terms people look for when searching for someone in your industry.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. While you might not rank on the first page of Google overnight, you will definitely rank higher than you were previously. And taking these three steps will greatly improve your chances of being found by your next client.

Experts from the biggest mover companies say that move is not only a process of relocation, it is also an art of packing everything with the monomial costs. Would you like to become a professional artist? We sure you do, so read on and learn!

Pack early. First and most important advice from our experts is to pack everything as early as possible. If you hire professional Airdrie movers, they will come at least a week before the actual move in order to make sure that everything is packed and nothing is forgotten. If you are not an expert in packing, professionals advise to start a couple of month before the move for big houses, and at least a month for the smaller ones.

Start with the least needed rooms. This makes perfect sense! Movers will always begin packing form, for example, the kids’ room if your children are in university. In this way you will start packing and continue live in comfort without limiting yourself in any movements around the house. Begin packing some seasonal supplies or equipment that you are currently not using. Or you can begin this process from the garage. Any professional mover would confirm that in this way you can avoid any unnecessary chaos.

Pack one room at a time. This tip is very useful because it is convenient for both packing and unpacking processes. When you pack everything from one room at a time, you will not forget anything from it, and it will be much easier to unpack the things at your final destination. Movers say that this can help you stay organized and will also tell the movers, or anyone who will perform unloading, which boxes go where.

Declutter. Try to get rid of as many things as possible. Check all your stuff and take away all the useless items. Aidrie movers advise not to throw the useless things away but to make a garage sale to earn some money or to donate some things to those in need. Sometimes, your friends might need some things that you do not like – so ask and give them those things. There is also eBay, so your options are plenty. If you have friends helping you with your move, ask them whether they need anything you are planning to sell. After all, you’re not paying them and they should get something for all their troubles.

Do not make too heavy boxes. Professionals from Alberta-movers.com movers in Airdrie never pack the boxes which weight more than 15 kg because first of all they are too heavy for lifting, and secondly it is hard to find the boxes that can withstand such loads. They might simply break when being moved, or on the way to the truck. So the tip here is to never pack boxes heavier than 15-20 kg and to make sure that the heaviest objects are put at the bottom of the boxes so that heavier things will not damage or break lighter ones.

Looking to the future in business, despite what stock market pros and your bank manager would have you believe, isn’t anything other than an educated guess. It makes you nothing more than a sharp-suited version of Mystic Meg, staring into your crystal ball and seeing sod all, but making a guess anyway.

Of course, very little of this matters if your business is riding high on a wave of cold hard cash. But once those funds begin to dry up, your credibility will wane quicker than Goldman Sachs circa 2008.

The business world is ultimately little more than a spin of a roulette wheel, and you’ll be lucky if your chips are on the right numbers at the right time.

There are, however, a few calculated guesses you can make to improve our business prospects and increase your fortunes. Here are just a few.

Make your workplace versatile

Your workplace premises is boxier than Amir Khan and about as appealing as roast pigeon with E coli. There are, however, numerous ways to improve the layout and overall look of your office.

And this isn’t a mere question of aesthetics. If your office looks shoddier than a used car salesman, you’ll struggle to lure in clients and have a workforce distinctly lacking in productivity.

If you want to design an office that’ll impress both clients and employees, you’ll have to get inventive. If you’ve got an outdoor section of your facility, for instance, then you could invest in an outdoor mezzanine from a well known supplier and add some pizzazz to your workplace’s layout.

And if you’ve got a lot of space to play with, be sure to erect plenty of dividers and place artworks intelligently around your space.

With these changes installed, you’ll enjoy a greater level of trust from your clients. After all, who wouldn’t be impressed by a workplace that looks like a palace?

Cut out middle management

In his book Utopia of Rules, political commentator and economist David Graeber writes about the pernicious affect that middle management has had on the effectiveness of various companies.

In some cases across the globe, middle managers have even been overthrown by workers who have then turned their warehouses into self-sufficient enterprises.

While all this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hire any middle managers, it does mean that you should always try to have as few layers as possible between yourself and your lowest tier of workers.

This will make your employees feel more connected to you and won’t create a bottleneck between you and the information you need.

Got any more ideas about how to increase the profits of your business? The let us know in the comments below.