Make Yourself a Marketing Guru in 7 Easy Steps
| Category: Marketing | Date: 2001-02-15 |
Ready to get yourself and your online business the publicity you deserve? More "celebrity status" equals more money. Learn how to become an Internet marketing force to be reckoned with, in only seven simple steps.
1. Recognize Your Strengths and Accept Your Weaknesses
What are you the best at? What do you love to do? Get a pen and pad, and write down five things you REALLY excel at. Walk away from that list for several days, then come back ready to redefine your focus. Next, narrow those five items down to ONE topic which you can be considered (or can quickly become) a "pro" on. This is the niche youll be focusing on in this article.
Which three items did you remove, and why? Understanding this will help you realize your weaknesses and strengthen your focus to develop your ideal target market. How so? No one can be an expert on EVERYTHING. Realizing what youre *not* so good at will help you to maintain a tight focus, and avoid taking on those things which would be better left to an expert in another field.
2. Know Your Niche Inside and Out
You can become a "guru" on an unfamiliar topic, but its going to take longer and be much more difficult. The fastest, easiest way is to choose a topic that you *already* know a lot about, and simply further the learning process.
And how do you know when you know "enough" to be considered an expert? Heres one rule of thumb: if you wouldnt feel comfortable speaking or writing an in-depth report on your niche, choose another one. Be sure to research your niche until youre comfortable with it, THEN continue on to the five steps below.
3. Start Establishing Yourself as an Expert in Your Field
Add content to your website and/or ezine which directly relates to your niche market. If you dont have either, create a small site and/or ezine specifically targeted towards that niche, and promote it as often as you can to build up brand recognition.
4. Start Working Your Way Into the Public Eye
Heres where it starts getting easier. Post to discussion forums related to your niche, and start writing and submitting articles to ezines. Not only are these easy ways to make yourself known, but theyre also free. It doesnt take long for your credibility and publicity to soar as a result of posting to forums and getting your articles published in prestigious ezines.
TIP: Even if the ezines arent very well-known, if you constantly have articles running in several smaller ezines, youll soon become more popular, and your work will become a hot commodity. But be sure to ALWAYS remain professional! Forums can mean death to your business if not used correctly. See http://ExpertOnEbiz.com/articles/beenshot.html for free tips on keeping your cool.
5. Give Your Publicity and Credibility a Final, Powerful Boost
Now that youve established yourself as an expert of a tightly- focused niche, you can really start pushing for publicity. Are you ready for success? Now is the time to approach high-profile marketers in your industry and collaborate.
Recommend each others ezines on your respective websites, offer them a high commission to resell your products (if you have any at this point), or ask them to work with you to complete a new product. You can combine all of these ideas and carry them out at once, but the fastest way to boost publicity is to co-author a new product with a high-profile marketer.
6. Dont Be Afraid to Milk the "High-Income Market"
People always come to me asking if their products are priced too high. Sometimes its truly laughable -- their products could be UNDER $30! No price can be "too high" as long as the quality of your product is in sync with its price.
And, the higher the prices you charge, the more people who will sit up and take notice of you. High prices ARENT common on the Internet, as most marketers are trying to "overdeliver," offering ridiculously low prices to gain immediate profit or a large customer base. Overdelivering is great, so long as youre not shortchanging yourself in the process.
TIP: The next time you get the "high price jitters," remember that there are MILLIONS of Internet users in the high-income bracket. Dont build up a base of "cheapskate" customers and try to force an expensive product on them later on. Instead, START OUT with customers who are willing to invest "big money" into top-quality products that will save them time and effort.
7. Finished? Now Do It Again!
Making yourself a guru really isnt a hard job. Knowing your niche inside and out and making yourself known is pretty much all there is to it. Think about it -- who do most online marketers consider to be gurus in their field? Gurus are nothing more than VERY widely-known EXPERTS in a certain field of expertise.
No Publicity = No Guru Status.
So, get out there and make yourself a guru. Im behind you 100%!
About the Author
Harmony Major is the author of Yahoo! Secrets, where she reveals how YOU can drive HUNDREDS more visitors to your site each day, by getting a #1 listing on Yahoo. Dont just settle for "getting listed." Use her instantly-effective tactics to boost your site traffic with a TOP Yahoo listing!
Harmony Major
Harmony@ExpertOnEbiz.com
URL
http://YahooSecrets.com
Harmony@ExpertOnEbiz.com
http://YahooSecrets.com
1. Recognize Your Strengths and Accept Your Weaknesses
What are you the best at? What do you love to do? Get a pen and pad, and write down five things you REALLY excel at. Walk away from that list for several days, then come back ready to redefine your focus. Next, narrow those five items down to ONE topic which you can be considered (or can quickly become) a "pro" on. This is the niche youll be focusing on in this article.
Which three items did you remove, and why? Understanding this will help you realize your weaknesses and strengthen your focus to develop your ideal target market. How so? No one can be an expert on EVERYTHING. Realizing what youre *not* so good at will help you to maintain a tight focus, and avoid taking on those things which would be better left to an expert in another field.
2. Know Your Niche Inside and Out
You can become a "guru" on an unfamiliar topic, but its going to take longer and be much more difficult. The fastest, easiest way is to choose a topic that you *already* know a lot about, and simply further the learning process.
And how do you know when you know "enough" to be considered an expert? Heres one rule of thumb: if you wouldnt feel comfortable speaking or writing an in-depth report on your niche, choose another one. Be sure to research your niche until youre comfortable with it, THEN continue on to the five steps below.
3. Start Establishing Yourself as an Expert in Your Field
Add content to your website and/or ezine which directly relates to your niche market. If you dont have either, create a small site and/or ezine specifically targeted towards that niche, and promote it as often as you can to build up brand recognition.
4. Start Working Your Way Into the Public Eye
Heres where it starts getting easier. Post to discussion forums related to your niche, and start writing and submitting articles to ezines. Not only are these easy ways to make yourself known, but theyre also free. It doesnt take long for your credibility and publicity to soar as a result of posting to forums and getting your articles published in prestigious ezines.
TIP: Even if the ezines arent very well-known, if you constantly have articles running in several smaller ezines, youll soon become more popular, and your work will become a hot commodity. But be sure to ALWAYS remain professional! Forums can mean death to your business if not used correctly. See http://ExpertOnEbiz.com/articles/beenshot.html for free tips on keeping your cool.
5. Give Your Publicity and Credibility a Final, Powerful Boost
Now that youve established yourself as an expert of a tightly- focused niche, you can really start pushing for publicity. Are you ready for success? Now is the time to approach high-profile marketers in your industry and collaborate.
Recommend each others ezines on your respective websites, offer them a high commission to resell your products (if you have any at this point), or ask them to work with you to complete a new product. You can combine all of these ideas and carry them out at once, but the fastest way to boost publicity is to co-author a new product with a high-profile marketer.
6. Dont Be Afraid to Milk the "High-Income Market"
People always come to me asking if their products are priced too high. Sometimes its truly laughable -- their products could be UNDER $30! No price can be "too high" as long as the quality of your product is in sync with its price.
And, the higher the prices you charge, the more people who will sit up and take notice of you. High prices ARENT common on the Internet, as most marketers are trying to "overdeliver," offering ridiculously low prices to gain immediate profit or a large customer base. Overdelivering is great, so long as youre not shortchanging yourself in the process.
TIP: The next time you get the "high price jitters," remember that there are MILLIONS of Internet users in the high-income bracket. Dont build up a base of "cheapskate" customers and try to force an expensive product on them later on. Instead, START OUT with customers who are willing to invest "big money" into top-quality products that will save them time and effort.
7. Finished? Now Do It Again!
Making yourself a guru really isnt a hard job. Knowing your niche inside and out and making yourself known is pretty much all there is to it. Think about it -- who do most online marketers consider to be gurus in their field? Gurus are nothing more than VERY widely-known EXPERTS in a certain field of expertise.
No Publicity = No Guru Status.
So, get out there and make yourself a guru. Im behind you 100%!
About the Author
Harmony Major is the author of Yahoo! Secrets, where she reveals how YOU can drive HUNDREDS more visitors to your site each day, by getting a #1 listing on Yahoo. Dont just settle for "getting listed." Use her instantly-effective tactics to boost your site traffic with a TOP Yahoo listing!
Harmony Major
Harmony@ExpertOnEbiz.com
URL
http://YahooSecrets.com
Harmony@ExpertOnEbiz.com
http://YahooSecrets.com
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