My good friend, Kelly McCausey, is running a very cool program over the summer, in which you are encourage and guided to Keep It Simple and create three simple reports. One to use as a free giveaway to grow your list, one to sell, and one to put on Kindle.

I did a quick walk-through video for you of the program so you can check it out and see if it's something you want to achieve over the summer.

If this is a definite YES for you, jump in here:
Yes, I want it, Nik!

If you're still not sure, let me ask you these questions…

1. When is the right time to start building your list? (Now.)

2. Why over-complicate things? (This is simple and it works.)

3. Do you have something for your people to buy from you? (If so, awesome but adding more is always good. If not, then when?)

Now is the time. This is the place. You get to keep the recordings, so even if you can't make it on the forum very often, you're still in.

Here's the link again:  Click here to Check it Out

I hope this has been helpful in helping you decide if it's right for you.

Warmly,
Nicole

PS.

There's a picture of us together from earlier this year. ->

I'm the closer one and she's the one further away. We're both thinking hard, getting smarter.

Well, I'll step down and let Susanne take the stage and shine.  Here she is…

A Step-By-Step Approach To Creating A Niche Website

by Susanne Myers

I spent the past weekend with Nicole at NAMS (Niche Affiliate Marketing Workshop) in Atlanta where I spent a good bit of my time helping out in the beginner room.

The first stumbling block for many beginning Internet Marketers seems to be choosing a niche that they will then build a website or blog in.

Over the years I've done quite a bit of niche research. Here's my process I go through every time I am considering going into a new niche.

First of All, What IS A Niche?

Let's start by talking about what exactly a niche is.

According to Wikipedia, a niche is

“the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing; therefore the market niche defines the specific product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intended to impact”.

For Internet marketing in particular they have the following to say:

By appealing to smaller segments of larger markets, referred to as niches, a website can be developed and promoted quickly to uniquely serve a targeted and usually loyal customer base, giving the affiliate a small but regular income stream.

Let's look at an example. Health and Wellness is a large market, weightloss is a subset of that market. We can then “niche” it even further down by choosing “weightloss for new moms” as our niche.

Is It a Profitable Niche?

Next I like to take a look at the profit potential of a niche. Some things to consider are:

• Is it popular?
• Does it solve a problem or entertain?
• Is there a magazine (or even better several magazines) out there that target your niche market?
• For ecommerce sites, if you can't find the product at large stores like Wall-Mart, you have a pretty good chance of being able to sell it online.
• Do others buy google adwords ads for products in this niche?

If you can answer several of these questions with a definite yes, your niche has quite a bit of profit potential and it is usually worth spending a little time putting together a website to test the niche further.

Who's My Target Market for this Niche?

My next step is to put myself into my customer's shoes. Get as much information about your target market as you can. Who are they? What kinds of problems do they have that you can help with. What questions do they have that you can answer. Great places to research your target market are niche forums and sites like yahoo answers.

Are There Products I Can Sell?

Before you start building your new site, I want you to check on one more thing…  Are there any products (eletronic or physical) that you can sell to this market? I like to start by looking at affiliate products. Later on I might consider developing my own products, but for now let's focus on affiliate products. If you have several options, move on to the next step.

If there are no good products out there, it may be time to move to another niche. Please do not skip this step. I have spent hours and hours developing a site in the past only to notice a week or two into the project that there was really no good way to monetize the site.

Time For Keyword Research

I mostly get free traffic via search engines to my niche sites and the way to do this is to do some keyword research and then optimize content for these terms.

Pick your favorite keyword research tool. I personally use the paid version of wordtracker, but even the free wordtracker keyword tool or the google adwords keyword tool will do.

Spend a little time figuring out what terms are searched for in your market. Put them in a spreadsheet so you can refer to them easily when you start to create your content plan.

I like to sort my keywords into 3 different segments. The first is my main term. This will be the keyword with the highest search volume, but it will also be very hard to rank for. That keyword becomes my main focus for the home page of my website.  Next I like to choose 5 to 10 keywords that are very general, but a little easier to rank for than the main one. Those become my category pages. All other keywords will be used in individual articles blog posts. This sorting is the first step toward creating a content plan. Let's talk about that a little more.

But first, if you want to learn a bit more about keyword research, listen to this panel discussion I was involved in along with SEO experts Karon Thackston, Lynn Terry and Dan Morris. It's $17, but I think you'll find it well worth the small investment.

Creating A Content Plan

I like to take those “sorted” keywords and come up with a content plan for my new website or blog. It helps me get things up quickly when I'm ready. A great way to organize the keywords is to use a mindmap. You can see a very simple example in the image below:

Of course you would add quite a few more long-tail keywords for the individual article pages (shown here in green). As your site grows you can expand by adding more and more keyword targeted articles.

Of course you can also do the same on paper if you are not comfortable with mindmapping.

Building Your Site

With your plan in hand, it's time to build your niche site. You will need a domain name, website hosting and some sort of content management program. While there are quite a few good ones out there and you could even build a static html page, I prefer using the free wordpress blogging software (www.wordpress.org) to build my niche sites. (If you've never installed a blog, ReliableWebs.com will set one up for you.)

Use your mindmap or content plan to lay out your categories, then start writing your content using the long-tail keywords. I like to get about 10 or so posts in to begin with and then work on adding a few more each week.

Content Promotion Strategies

The last step is to go out and actively promote your new site and the individual articles on it. It's a little outside of the scope of this blog post to cover content promotion in detail, but here are a few ideas to get your started:

• Tweet about your new site and new articles as you add them.
• Do some article marketing.
• Participate on popular niche forums and include a link to your site in your forum signature.
• Comment on other popular blogs in the niche.
• Write some guest blog posts on other blogs.
• Build some backlinks to each page of your site to get it ranking well in the search engines.

I hope you found this step-by-step approach to niche research helpful. Yes, there is quite a bit of work involved, but it's also a fun process to go through once you get a hang of it.

Of if you prefer, I'll do all of the research for you. I create niche research packs that include all sorts of other important niche info at your finger tips to help you enter a new niche or dominate one that you're already in.

Check them out at NicheResearchPacks.com

Susanne Myers

I hope this was helpful!

Please let us know if you have questions by commenting below. We’re happy to keep answering questions as long as you keep asking.

Have a great day!

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

Here's the question…

I have purchased Affiliatenaire, Membernaire, and Homepreneur Habits, so I feel pretty confident in writing reviews about them.

However I really know nothing about Small Reports Fortune, List Profit System, or Outsource Weekly.

Do I need to purchase those to be able to write about and be an affiliate for those products?

My husband and I just went through a bankruptcy and our brick and mortar business has become very slow, so right now, buying those is not an option, although, I would like to some day. I am hoping that I can generate enough to be able to pay for my membership in Affiliatenaire and Membernaire because I am learning so much and feel like I am finally able to do something that will generate some income.

Thank you for all that you and Jimmy do for us. I for one certainly appreciate it.

Here's my response….

Regarding your questions of buying up all of the courses, take your time. Please. It seems like I've been talking people out of buying courses lately more than talking them into buying, but you need to keep your roof over your head and implement what you've already learned before buying more.

If money is tight, then hold off on writing your own affiliate product reviews and, instead, post the following to your blog.

• Set up text interviews with experts. (I'd be happy to do an interview if you email me a few questions.)
• Give away free reports, audios and videos from Brandable Stuff.
• Record short audios or videos on your PC and post them to your blog. You can do tutorials, video reviews, audio interviews, videos with a flip camera of your office or you, anything that you can imagine related to your blog topic.
• Review other courses that you've taken even free online courses.
• Post free reprint articles from FreeAffiliateArticles.com or Free Reprint Articles by Women – I always recommend that you write your own introduction though, when posting reprint articles.
• Review business books that you can get from the library.
• Buy some cheap business PLR here or grab this free PLR from my site.

That will keep you growing your blog (and keeping your focus) without breaking the bank, until you can afford to purchase more courses and review them properly.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. We do provide drafts of product reviews in Jimmy D. Brown's affiliate center, but of course recommend that you review the course personally for best results.

Success (pod)Cast

I started the Success Cast to help YOU to take ACTION in your online business.

No more being afraid of making mistakes.

No more “I don't know enough yet”.

No more timidness.

It's time to DO.

Nicole Dean – Success Cast #1

Vera Raposo – Success Cast #2

I've already got people who are totally hooked on the show, so come on over to see what it's about.

AND…

I recorded a 45 minute interview with my friend, Bob the Teacher Jenkins yesterday about Affiliate Management that you can access here free:

IM Success Radio – Interviews with Lynn Terry, Nicole Dean, and more!

More to come. Enjoy!
Nicole

If you can make a phone call, you can record interviews like I do with this tool: Click here to try it free Easy Interview Recording.

This one is for those of you who would like to offer free reports, free ebooks, or even transcripts on your blog, but you aren't sure how.

I hope it helps!

Resources mentioned:
ReliableWebs.com – free blog installation with purchase.
InfoProfitShare.com – where to get brandable reports.

Warmly,
Nicole

Serve Up Tasty Recipes for your Blog Readers
by Arika Lewis

Are you looking for a fast way to add appeal to your blog? Try adding recipes! It's an easy way to add content that people will “eat up”. Everyone eats and most people cook, at least a little bit. But, how do you get recipes that you can use on your blog? There are numerous places to find recipes and I'll give you a few ideas in just a bit, but first let's discuss some legalese.

To keep from violating any copyright laws, you can not just take recipes out of cookbooks or magazines and type them into your blog. You'll absolutely want to be sure that any recipe you use does not contain the original directions word for word. Both recipe instructions and recipe collections may be copyright protected. Therefore, you have to use other options.

Now let's cover my favorite ways to find recipes that you can use on your mom blog.

Your Recipes

We all have recipes that we make on a regular basis at home. Maybe a favorite dish that is easy to make and everyone loves? Do you have a specialty? Or just a handful of favorite dishes?

If so, get them on your computer and use them on your blog.

Aunts, Grandma & Friends

Does your mother have a special chili recipe that everyone loves? Ooh, and that spicy dip that your sister always brings to football parties.

Look around the Thanksgiving dinner table and ask everyone to share their recipes. Then, start asking your friends, neighbors and co-workers.

Hire a Writer

Another way to get recipes for your blog is to hire a ghostwriter to write them for you. This is a great way to save time and focus your energy elsewhere be it on your website, marketing efforts, or something else. Keep in mind that hiring someone will cost money. However, for most the cost is worth it when you look at the time and effort necessary to do it yourself. You'll have more time to focus on other aspects of your business. Also, you can assign a project to a freelance writer and have it back quicker than you might on your own. You might check out elance.com or shelancers.com for starters.

PLR Recipes

The fourth (and my personal favorite) way to get recipes for your blog is to purchase PLR recipes. The great thing about PLR recipes is:

1. You aren't stuck coming up with all of the recipes yourself.
2. You don't have to pay someone else to write them for you.
3. You can change the recipes as much or as little as you'd like.
4. You can split them up and add them to multiple blogs. You can pretty much do whatever you'd like with them to create a product, freebie or something else.

You can get a lot of PLR recipes for cheap. Some PLR sites sell them for less than a dollar each.

Of course there are some rules with PLR recipes and depending on where you get your recipes the rules vary. For instance, most PLR content providers will not allow you to submit PLR articles to article directories or offer them as private label rights content elsewhere. So, be sure to check the rules before purchasing any PLR content.

A final tip: I recommend that you edit your PLR recipes so they are unique. Some ways to do this are:

• Modify the directions.
• Make the title sound more interesting.
• Give the reader some additional tips. Maybe a favorite side disk or a way to speed up the preparation.

Now you know how very easy it is to add a recipe section to your blog. I hope you'll consider getting started right away so you can attract hungry readers.

Get yummy PLR recipes each month. Just compile them and Viola! You'll have a ready made cookbook that you can sell from your blog. Need a way to make more with your blog? Check out the Menu Planning Affiliate Program

********

Want a unique version of this article to post on your own blog? Get one here. (Just remember you cannot edit the article in anyway and you must leave the resource box in tact.)

If you're an affiliate of YummyPLR you can of course replace the link with your affiliate link and use this bio instead:

Get yummy <a href=”http://www.YummyPLR.com”>PLR recipes</a> each month. Just compile them and Viola! You've got a ready to sell cookbook that you can sell from your blog. Need a way to make more with your blog? The ladies at www.YummyPLR.com will help you with that, too!

Catch ya later,

Nik

However, there is one “typing for pay” business that a work at home mom *can* do. And, it's legit.

Here's the scoop. Many, many online businesses record teleseminars and turn them into infoproducts. You may have even bought some of them. And, what do most come with? All the good ones include a Transcript, right? (See EasyArticleMarketing.com as an example.)

Personally, I won't buy a product unless it comes with a Transcript. I'm a visual learner so I like to “see” what I'm learning. Plus, I'm a terrible multi-tasker, so I can only take time to listen to audios when I'm at the gym or doing something other than spending time with the kids or working (which narrows it down quite a bit). Even if I'm out back, watching the kids swim in the pool, I can't listen, because they keep yelling “Watch this, Mommy!”. If I have headphones on, I feel like I'm not all there. If I'm reading, I can set the papers down and give them my full attention while they show off for me. Anyway, heading off on a tangent. (Moral of the story — if you create an infoproduct, make sure it has transcripts!)

Anyway, back to the plot — who do you suppose TRANSCRIBES all of these audios? When John Reese records an audio, do you think he sits and types it in himself? Of course not. When Kelly and I recorded six hours of audio for EasyPartnerships.com — did we type it all up? Heck no! We hired a Transcriptionist.

With all of the weekly podcasts and radio shows… don't you think some of them would jump at an offer to have their shows transcribed? I know they would.

–> Just to clarify — this is NOT Medical Transcription. It's General Transcription. No medical typing is involved.

If you'd like to learn how to start a Transcription Business, check out the very affordable Transcription Starter Kit here. You'll get everything you need to learn how to get started in this online business.
And, have a great weekend!

Nicole

If you have an online business – whether it's selling on eBay, affiliate marketing, direct selling, or even a service you offer – you've probably wondered at some point if and when you have to report that income.

Well, CPA and fellow online business owner, Kristine McKinley, answers this question for us here. According to Kristine…

* You must report all income earned. It's a common misconception that if you don't earn much or if you're just doing it as a hobby that it's not reportable or taxable. That's not true. All income is reportable from the first dollar earned.

* It doesn't matter if you receive a 1099 or not. It also doesn't matter if you earn less than a certain amount. Another myth is that if you earn less than $600 you don't have to report the income. Again, it's just not true.

* However, you are allowed to deduct business expenses from your income, so just because you have to report your income doesn't mean you'll have to pay any taxes. If you have expenses that are as much as or greater than your income, then you won't owe any taxes, and you may even be able to use that loss to reduce other taxable income.

To learn more about how your online income is taxable, and what expenses you can deduct, please run over and grab a copy of Kristine's “Your Top Tax Questions Answered” teleseminar and ebook.”

Personally, I hate dealing with taxes and books, so this is definitely one that I'm going to check out.

Let me know what you think of it if you grab a copy!

Nicole

Listen in here: http://momwebs.com/blog/

(Just click on the “play” arrow on that page to enjoy.)

We’re going to be holding regular training sessions for MomWebs Hosting customers and those interested in our hosting. You can call in and ask us questions about anything that applies to your website, hosting, design tools, etc.

We’ll be offering these calls on a bi-weekly basis. If you’re a client you will receive an email reminder. If you’re not currently hosting with MomWebs but are interested in knowing when we hold these live calls, please visit Mom Webs and subscribe to our mailing list.

Warmly,
Nicole

PS. Please share your questions about hosting and setting up a web page below.

Last week, my friend, Kelly McCausey and I were chatting about “easy” ways for a mom to experiment with an online business (for cheap or free) and I recommended starting a blogger blog. Will it make you a *TON* of money? Well, odds are, no, but it can and has for some people.

But, the important thing to me is that it can get you past many of the roadblocks and enable you to learn and apply and test ideas and PLAY around without feeling stressed or overwhelmed.

Once you get your blog set up and get a chance to experiment, and learn how to do things like get traffic, sign up for affiliate programs, etc… THEN, you can move ahead to bigger pastures.

(The only problem with this theory is that, if you decide to start a website or switch to a Word Press blog later, is that you'd be, in essence, starting over. So, look at this first blogger blog as a learning tool — or see my PS below and start off with Word Press to begin with.)

Of course, if even blogging is new to you, then I highly recommend the courses at www.JustAddSweat.com

I put together 3 blogger guides there. One for craft blogs, one for review blogs, and one for recipe/cooking blogs. They are VERY simple and will walk you through everything from choosing a niche, setting up your blog, finding ways to make money from your blog, and getting traffic to your blog.

HOT TIP: If you're in a Direct Sales business, this is a GREAT way, to easily develop a following for your customers and leads. You'd promote, review, recommend, and discuss your own products,  answer questions from customers, and just be accessible.

Warmly,
Nicole

PS. If you prefer to use a Word Press blog (as many people do and I highly recommend it) because it offers more flexibility, I recommend you check out MomWebs.com for hosting. They'll set up your blog for only $10. Check it out here:   Word Press Help for Mom Bloggers.