In previous blog postings I’ve written about how important it is to be "involved" or "plugged-in" to your chosen niche target market.
In "Putting a Fair Price on Your knowledge", we highlighted how many information publishers, authors, self-publishers and indeed, professionals undervalue their knowledge. If they know something, they figure everyone must know it too.
There are 3 very good reasons why this just is NOT the case, especially today:
1. 98% of the population wants to be in a different place in their life but will NEVER do the type of digging required to understand how to achieve that end. So, they will come looking to buy a better life, a solution to their weight problem, a plan to follow that will help them change careers, a way to enjoy a new hobby that will allow them escape their boring, frustrating lives.
2. Don’t know where to look to find answers. For those of you who are involved in the 6-Week Information Product Profit’s Course at InfoMarketer’sZone, we know that the most successful information publishers and marketers are researchers and problem solvers by nature. They absolutely get a giant kick out of finding a challenge and going out to find the answer to that question. Most people aren’t like that. Most people look at the process of finding answers as frustrating, too challenging and boring. For those people – they will pay to AVOID what you and I love to do.
3. It’s near impossible to keep up! What is written yesterday is surpassed today and will continue to evolve tomorrow. As someone who wants to follow a system, discover the ‘best way’ to accomplish something, understand the latest experiences and news on their beloved topic the world of information is becoming more and more challenging each and every day. It has reached a point where many people will pay to stay informed, get the latest systems, tips, techniques and news – and that is to your benefit.
HOW DO YOU KEEP UP
Now that you know WHY people will seek you out and pay your living to stay involved and up to date on your chosen market, how do YOU do it?
1. Focus: By becoming a specialist in a given niche market you will beat 99% of others who prefer to exist as generalists. There is no other way I can think of that offers you a simpler way to earn a fortune – to increase your marketability, demand and price than having specialized knowledge that others do not. Gaining specialized knowledge means you need to spend time involved with your market, try things out, not be distracted by doing many things in lots of markets, but by doing ALLOT within YOUR market.
2. Stay plugged in. Make sure you get plugged into your marketplace. That means try things, watch the news, talk to the newsmakers, interview experts, attend conferences and meetings, subscribe to lists, participate and watch discussion forums, blogs and Web2.0 sites – do more listening and watching than speaking and you will learn massive inside secrets that most people will not notice or take the time to find.
We talk about dozens of ways to monitor your markets over at InfoMarketerszone, one simple way is to set yourself up to receive Google Alerts
With Google alerts, you simply set up an alert for each keyword or keyword phrase you want to monitor, indicate the Type of alert where you can choose from just news, website, blog or other source alerts (I suggest you select comprehensive to get them all) and then select how frequently you wish to receive the alerts – once a day, a week or real-time.
Finally, include your email and each morning you will have a new alert summary containing anywhere from a few to a few dozen links with summaries (depending on the popularity of your topic).
It’s one of the best tools for market research, uncovering interesting partners, finding authority sites, performing competitive intelligence, uncovering useful content and ideas you may want to incorporate into your infoproducts and as an ongoing source of content for articles and blog postings.
In our various marketing programs we suggest you begin blogging and massive content development early in your internet business – letting Google alert results tweak your brain is a terrific way to come up with new content ideas.
3. Understanding Your Role. Too many information product publishers and marketers spend the majority of their time on operational tasks (accounting, setting up their office, website design) or think that their most important activity must be writing when in fact your most important activity is staying in touch with your market, uncovering patterns of demand, finding out where the really BIG ideas are and then developing product ideas and outlines to fulfill the desires in your marketplace.
I can almost guarantee that any new clients or subscribers we get into our programs are not spending half the time they should be in understanding demand and their own position within their marketplace – once you do there will be no stopping the profits.
YOU, A KNOWLEDGE BROKER?
Great online businesses are built by brokering knowledge. The content web developers stays ahead of their market by leading their marketplace with useful information. The top affiliate marketers study their market scrupulously and match products to desire. Million dollar information publishers quickly create products to match gaps in knowledge and information.
If you aren’t already – get plugged in. If you are serious about starting your own information-based business, then consider InfoMarketer’sZone as a place to learn the best techniques, strategies and methods to automate your research, know how to identify the most desirable topics and turn those topics quickly into high-priced information books, e-books, audios and videos.
