Is it Worth it to Go Into a “Saturated” Marketplace?
By Matt Bacak

There are tons of niches out there making a ton of money. Often times they are the same ones that year after year continue to do well. And yes, some may choose not to enter into these markets because they feel the market is too saturated; how could they possibly do well? But I always say, if money is being made there then people are still buying so go after that market!

One of my students asked me; “How do you locate a good niche that isn’t crowded but research shows there’s still a lot of interest? Do you use software or do you just brainstorm and then Google?” My answer continues to be that if there is a crowd in the market that means there’s a lot of money in the market. And I wouldn’t let a crowd bother you. Let me give you an example. Have you ever got a brand new car? Now you’re driving the car down the road and you notice everybody’s got the same exact car. The same goes for if you just got a brand new shirt. You go to school, you’re wearing this brand new shirt, and you notice everybody else has this same brand new shirt. Do you see what I’m saying? The exact same thing would happen. Sometimes you think it’s more crowded than it actually is because you’re more aware. So, that is something to think about from that perspective.

Now, the other thing to think about is that sometimes all it takes inside of a niche is for you to just to be one step above your competition. Just do a little more than them. That little inch can return tenfold simply because the market has room for something different. Thinking a little bit outside of the norm of your market can make you a lot of money. The way to do this is to see what your competition is doing and then re-evaluate the situation. Re-evaluate what you could do a bit better or tweak a bit to gain an advantage in your marketplace. You need to look at the big picture and say to yourself “there’s a lot of money in this market, but what marketing methods are they not using that I can actually use?” Take advantage of what’s in front of you but simply tweak it.

When I look at my students who are making the most money online, I notice that they’re really in multiple different places. A lot of them are involved in markets that have to do with sex, God, or money. These are pretty much the areas they’re in. I’ll give you an example. My brother, for example, he’s got Conversations with Millionaires. And that’s a really good market. But he was able to penetrate that market because he thought outside of the norm in term of how he marketed to this niche.

Now, a lot of the people doing well think from different perspectives. So if we’re looking at trying to get into a niche, let me give you some ideas. You want to go where the money’s at. So you want to really identify the market. A couple of rules of thumb… If you can go to a bookstore and you can find a magazine on the topic, then there’s probably a big enough demand for things inside that market. That’s why the magazines are able to stay there.

And another thing you could do is you can go to sites like Dummies.com, especially for information. They don’t pay their writers or publish books unless they know somebody already wants to buy it. So to see hungry markets, just look at what they’re doing. Now if you go to the site Dummies.com, in the upper right-hand corner there will be a search bar. If you search the word “dummies,” then what’ll happen is you’ll find that there are about 1,300 books or more? It lists all of the books on dummies and it’ll give you a general idea as to what people are interested in. They created books on those topics that people are searching for information on, which therefore means there’s probably a good market inside that particular niche.

My most successful students went into crowded markets, but you know what? They’re doing extremely well because they’re using internet marketing tactics that are a little bit ahead of their competition. They are thinking strategically different than those already in their market. Sometimes you’ve just got to stand in front of the money and let it come to you. The markets they’ve often done well in and these are in no particular order… Real estate investing, weight loss, network marketing, wealth building and internet marketing are really the main ones. Those would be in the top five markets where a lot of my students are making big money in.

If you really think about it, at the end of the day, one sentence says it all: You can never be too rich, too thin, or too beautiful.

What are your thoughts? Chime in in the comments below.

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Testing and Tracking Using OneShoppingCart – Part 1
By Matt Bacak

Never underestimate the power of testing and tracking your website. This is something that should never be overlooked. It is such an important part of your business because it allows you to see what’s working and what’s not. This will in fact allow you to better see if where you’ve invested your money is worth it. If your testing and tracking results show poor results in a certain area, you know that you need to make some changes. Those simple changes can return thousands more dollars. That is why testing and tracking is so important.

So, what software do I recommend you use to test your web pages?

Well, an inexpensive program that is very powerful is OneShoppingCart. You can purchase a monthly subscription at OneShoppingCart.com. It allows you to have autoresponders for your opt-in pages, as well as shopping cart capabilities. But it also provides you with testing software called “Ad Tracker” within their software. Ad Tracker is great for A/B split testing. If you’re not familiar with A/B split testing, let me explain exactly what it is…

A good explanation of A/B Split Testing on Wikipedia defines it as “A/B testing, split testing, or bucket testing is a method of marketing testing by which a baseline control sample is compared to a variety of single-variable test samples in order to improve response rates.”

A/B split testing can be used in email tests as well. You can test open rates as well as clickthrough rates since OneShoppingCart has this built-in feature. But although the software can test both, I’ll explain where you should focus your testing. Don’t focus on open rates as that means nothing. Your focus should be on your clicks. Use Ad Tracker within OneShoppingCart to access these results.

Of course, there’s going to be certain emails that get higher open rates. For those emails giving poorer results, you’ll then just have to work on those emails. You could look at that from that perspective. But from my personal experience, I really just care what the clicks are. Maybe I’m kind of off, but looking at what generated the most clicks seems to have the most importance in my opinion. Focusing on this has allowed me to make changes that produced very positive results in the end.

However, the best and only way to test your emails is to send an HTML version of your email in order to find out what’s working and what isn’t. The reason why I said you have to use an HTML email for testing is because you can’t use text email to test and gain the results. It won’t work. It has to be through an HTML email. If you’re using an ad tracker in your links when you’re sending out your emails, you are going to be able to find out the clickthrough rates, but you’re not going to know your open rates. So, HTML is the only way you’re going to be able to do access those results inside your shopping cart or inside your autoresponder program that you’re using.

But remember, your software must have this capability as it’s crucial to test and track to ensure you’re not throwing your dollars out the window.

In part 2 of this article series I’d like to address exactly how to do your testing if you’re testing multiple aspects of your website.

There are many strategies to making money on the internet, but nothing makes sense unless you have a big list. Email Marketing is the most profitable way to make money on the internet. When you build a list of hot and hungry prospects you control your future. Discover how to use the internet and turn your computer into a cash gushing machine. Sign-up right now for Matt Bacak’s FREE online newsletter to find out how to do exactly that – Go here: http://www.promotingtips.com

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Price Points For Digital Products – What You Need to Know
By Matt Bacak

Having your own digital product is an excellent concept because it allows your buyers to instantly gain access to your product without the disadvantage of having to wait for it to be delivered via mail. They also gain access to the information right away so that they can instantly begin putting it to work for them. This is a huge advantage especially if you’re offering a “how-to” type of product or offering a product where you’re teaching your buyer something. Digital is the way to go not only do you gain something out of it by getting instant sales with very little effort, but the buyer also gains by not having to wait for the product. They can begin using it as soon as they pay. Think about this, imagine you are selling a marketing product to other online businesses. You know how quickly the internet changes. Imagine offering them access to proven tools and strategies that they can instantly use to grow their business.

If you’re offering a very good product with a strong offer, I bet most of those businesses would not hesitate one second to buy from you. They’d want to instantly put into action your strategies right away so that they can begin making more money as soon as possible. Digital products would allow them to do this. The instant download would allow them to implement what it is you teach within minutes and not have to wait a week or two for your product to arrive in the mail. That one or two weeks of waiting could cost them hundreds or even thousands of dollars simply because they’d be losing time – the time they could of spent implementing the strategies you teach with your digital product.

Of course, you’ll also have to price your digital product well in order to gain sales. So, what’s the best rule of thumb for determining the price point for a digital version of a tangible product? If your tangible product is let’s just say $997, what should you sell the digital version for? Well, the first thing you need to realize is that if you have a tangible product, and if you can create a digital version, this can work to your advantage.

What you can do is strategically create two different price points. For the tangible product that you’ll send them in the mail (which will take them a bit longer to receive), but they’ll have the convenience of having the hard good with them anywhere they went. They could comfortably read it on the sofa, relax at a local cafe or take it to the beach. They’ll have the convenience and comfort of the hard copy. So, you could offer it to them for $997. A lot of people place more value on hard tangible goods.

You could then offer those people on your list who refuse to buy a discount of 50% if they decide to purchase the digital version. So, you’re offering it to them for $497 – a $500 discount off of the retail price because you’re giving it to them digitally. That’s what I recommend since you’ll be able to make sales off of those customers who initially refused your offer because it seemed too expensive to them. The digital version gives them the option to still gain access to the product although they won’t have the advantage and convenience of the hard good. That’s actually how I did it on one of my product offerings.

What I did was I sold this package for $997. I made the offer online. I said, “…hey, this package is $997.” And then if they said no to it, what I did was I dropped it down to the digital version and they got it for half-price and they got it instantly! And I just realized I should’ve done that for all of my product offerings because that’s just quick digital cash! I’m just hitting myself right now for not using this strategy on all of my products, but better late then never.

So, if you want to tap into a market that may not have the ability to pay for your initial product offering, if you have a hard good consider a digital version. You’ll be able to gain access to cash that would have otherwise been lost. Look at all of your options and look at your market from every angle. There may be opportunities that you never knew existed.

There are many strategies to making money on the internet, but nothing makes sense unless you have a big list. Email Marketing is the most profitable way to make money on the internet. When you build a list of hot and hungry prospects you control your future. Discover how to use the internet and turn your computer into a cash gushing machine. Sign-up right now for Matt Bacak’s FREE online newsletter to find out how to do exactly that – Go here: http://www.promotingtips.com

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