The Value of Niche Markets

Filed Under (SEO Tips) by admin on 14-10-2009

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If you are attempting to start a business online or if you are simply trying to increase your traffic and revenue, focusing on a niche market can give you the edge that you need in order to reach the high goals that you have most assuredly set for yourself. There are so many different niches in the overall market that any web site on any topic can find a niche and fill it. When you specialize, you are more likely to succeed.

The most powerful tactic in the history of warfare is the classic divide and conquer routine. You can make an obscene amount of money if you can take over one niche market and then another and another. Focusing on smaller groups of people and dominating their needs in a particular area is the best way to effectively spend your resources.

When you attempt to evaluate your market keep in mind that there are people in your market that you wouldnt normally associate with it. There are a small number of people who live in the suburbs who would like to wear cowboy boots. If you can target your products at groups such as these you are more likely to sell to them than someone who would target the cowboy boots to… well.. cowboys.

Finding niche markets can be a daunting task. Basically, you can ask yourself a few questions that will assist you in finding the niche market that is right for you.

1. What experience do you have with the products that you are selling? If you are an expert in the field of your sales, you are more likely to succeed than most. Try to come up with the reason that you got interested in the products that you sell. Figure out what kind of people are most likely to be interested in your products and then try to come up with some groups that arent so quickly thought of but that may find it fashionable or interesting to purchase your products.

2. Who was the product that you are selling designed for? Cowboy boots were designed for cowboys. There are people who have never stepped foot on a farm who will wear cowboy boots, but they were designed for cowboys. Try to think of what group of people the product was designed for and what other groups can be cut out of the same mold. I.E. country folks, suburbanites, city dwellers, inter-city dwellers. You are not as likely to sell cowboy boots to inter-city people as you are to suburbanites.

3. Are any of these groups already targeted for your product? If somebody is already targeting the niche that you came up with, you may be able to decipher whether or not there is still room in that market for you. If your competition has been selling the cowboy boots like hot cakes in the suburbs there may still be time for you to make some money off of them.

4. Can you target your niche better than anyone else? If there are already companies selling your product to the group that you wanted to select as your niche market, you still may be able to be the most successful. Just because you are not the first doesnt mean that you cant be the best. If you can target a group of people better than anyone else due to some experience, tendency, or inborn characteristic, go for it. Competition is important, without competition nobody would ever become successful.

5. How well can you optimize your niche for search engines? You may be able to come up with an excellent niche market that you can provide for better than anyone else. This niche may be completely original, and you may have the resources necessary to really get it off the ground. But does it have the potential to top any search result sheet? Will anyone ever come looking for it? If not you may have to start off by advertising on pay per click advertising services such as adwords before you get a chance to really thrive on your fresh new niche market.

If your niche market can fill up a few slots for key words you are in better shape than most. It is normally very difficult to come up with good, comprehensive key words for your web pages. The best situation that you can encounter is one in which your key words are more or less laid out for you. If you have a catchy little gimmick or a highly targeted niche market you should be able to come up with a good set of relevant key words. Having relevant key words is most of the battle in the whole SEO game. Any SEO that can come up with a good, comprehensive list of key words will probably do quite well in the world of business.

SEO Tips for DMOZ.

Filed Under (SEO Tips) by admin on 04-10-2009

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DMOZ is the directory where Google starts when it crawls the web, so getting listed in DMOZ is good for you. SEO with DMOZ starts with selecting the search terms youre targeting, and then finding a directory category that includes them. This can be a time-consuming and difficult task. Youll often find lots of matching categories. The trick is to find the most precise category and, if possible, a directory that does not have too many other competitors in it. You can hit a niche market simply by being placed in a category that has few competitors. DMOZ, of course, makes the final decision as to where your website will be located.

Dont choose a category thats too general for your site, as it might just get removed later on. Make your site stand out by using a unique, catchy description one for people, not search engines. Remember, you will probably get a pretty hefty number of hits from DMOZ itself. When you are trying to get listed in DMOZ, dont worry about trying to get a nice listing in the search engines that crawl here, worry about getting a good listing here. The search engines care more about where DMOZ lists your site than what you have to say about your site in your description; DMOZ cares more about how accurately described, how interesting, and how often visited your site is than where you are listed in the search engines.

A third feature to be aware of is the PageRank of the category, and the number of listings on the page. Youll do better with more specific, smaller categories, especially if they have dedicated editors. A small category with a high page rank is the best situation that you can run into. Remember that a pages page rank is split between the number of links that go out from it so if you run into a page with a rank of seven with seventy-five out links you probably arent as well off as a page with a ranking of five and ten out links. This is a constant for Google Page Ranks, not an exception for DMOZ. Your targeted keywords should appear in your sites description, towards the beginning. Dont put them towards the end, as the editor might chop them off to save space!

Remember that once a site is submitted to DMOZ, its very difficult to update its description. Give it a few days to think it over before you submit it, and be more vague about websites if you think they might change. Dont write descriptions that could become out of date easily. If you are running a monthly special you shouldnt include this in your description unless you say something to the extent of low price sales monthly. If you suddenly decide that you are going to completely transform your site into something completely different you will have huge problems with your listings. Keep this in mind before you start building your site if there are possibilities that you will choose to reuse the domain that you have purchased.

If you absolutely have to resubmit, you can submit a blank form that informs the editor of your former web site that your site has changed drastically and that you want the old listing deleted. From there you can submit a new form to any category (or categories) that you need to be listed on with an updated title, description, and key words.

Multiple Listings for the Same Site.

Some editors allow multiple listings for submitted sites, especially if theyre good quality sites that span multiple DMOZ categories. Its always best to request multiple listings you can use the text box on the submission page to justify yourself.

If you find a good category for a niche inform the editor as to whether or not this will be a specified category and then search for any other categories that are related. You may get a good deal of hits from your niche, but it may also be a small market for a reason. If there arent that many people who would be utilizing that particular category, you may want to submit to other categories that will provide you with more substantial results.

Being Patient.

Follow the submission guidelines and dont exaggerate. If no-one seems to be reviewing your site after a week or so has gone by then you could post a question. Be patient, though: most of the DMOZ directory is edited by hand, and theyre very busy. In many cases it can take as long as three months to get added.

DMOZ simply wasnt prepared for the sudden importance it had forced upon it. One of the biggest problems with the directory is that each site must be looked at by editors, so your site might not get indexed for no reason other than the editor not liking it, or even just losing it.