Eric’s Tips

LESSON #23: Choosing and Registering a Domain Name

September 2, 2008 – 3:52 pm

In the previous lesson, we talked about branding your business and naming your product.

Once you’ve come up with a product name, you’ll need to register a domain. However, some domains are much better than others, so I want to take a few minutes to explain it to you right now…

(Watch this video…)

Main points:

A domain name is basically the web address of a particular website. For example “Google.com” or “EricsTips.com” is a domain name.

You NEED your own website (reasons explained on video)… therefore you need a domain.

A domain name is like the title deed to your website. (you want to build equity in your web properties)

Domain Extensions…

- .COM is usually the best, especially if it’s for the primary website of your business
- .ORG can be beneficial in gaining trust, and may be preferable for some information and service oriented websites.
- Country-specific extensions (ex. .CA, .IN, .JP) can be advantageous if you’re marketing exclusively to a niche within a certain country.

While domains consisting of “made up” words can become popular (ie. ebay.com, Xanga.com, Bebo.com, etc.), a more straight-forward approach is better for informational websites.

The domain should concisely describe WHAT the site is all about.

Consider adding a word, thinking locally, or making it personal (Examples on the video)

Generally avoid superlatives such as ‘best’, ‘top’, and ‘number 1′. (Can hurt your credibility and cause problems with PPC advertising)

Use an adjective. I often use an adjective as the first word of a domain name.

What about hyphens?

In general, I would prefer a domain with no hyphens. It’s debatable, but hyphens may create a visual advantage in some cases for SEO and PPC. However, it also makes the domain harder to remember, and more difficult to say out loud.

Don’t use intentional misspellings. You can use misspelled domains to capture traffic, but you should NOT build a full fledged site on one. (There are exceptions, like Flickr.com, but you are probably not the exception. Misspellings look bad)

Don’t use abbreviations, unless it’s VERY well known.

Don’t use numbers (digits), unless you have a really good reason.

Don’t make it too long. Aim for 2 or 3 words, and no more than 4 words.

Matching up with your product…

- If your product name is 2 or 3 words, it would be ideal for the domain to match it.

- If your product name is not available to register as a domain, you’ll want to check to see if that domain is currently in use. If someone is using that domain to sell a product in your niche, I would recommend coming up with a new product name to avoid conflicts.

- If your product name is long, you’ll need to come up with a shorter domain. (see example on video)

You may want to register a few domains to give yourself some options. (Multiple domains can be used for the same website. You can then split-test domain names on PPC, or use multiple domain names to avoid competing with your own affiliates on PPC)

Just don’t register a bunch of domains you don’t need.

Domain suggestions tools. It’s fine to use domain suggestion tools to get ideas, but I generally do not use them. If you can think like a marketer, you can come up with a better domain name than a computer.

Where to register your domain…

- There are hundreds of places on the internet where you can register a domain. Some are better than others. If you’ve already found a good and reliable registrar, feel free to stick with them.

- I recommend registering your domain with someone OTHER than your web host. (reasons explained)

- It’s important that you have good control over your domain (easily be able to change DNS, set up child name servers, etc)

- I recommend using www.LifeDomains.NET

(see registration walk-through on video)

SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY:

You may want to consider getting your own domain sales business, like mine. There are always people who need to register domains, so if your business has anything to do with business or money, then this could be a good side business for you. Domain resellers are making as much as $37k per month with this opportunity!

Click here for info about getting your own turn-key domain business

(Includes bonus advertising credits and other freebies. See details on site…)

Action steps:

1) Register a domain for your business.

Use the guidelines from this lesson to register a good one!

After you’ve registered your domain, the next step is to get it hosted. There are good hosts, and there are bad hosts, and choosing the wrong one could be a costly mistake. Having been a web hosting company owner, it’s a subject that I know a fair amount about, and I’ll be sharing the important facts with you in the next lesson.

As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below (Feel free to let us know about your new domain, even if it’s just parked right now)

Have a great day!

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LESSON #22: Branding and Naming Your Product

August 27, 2008 – 10:06 pm

In the past few lessons, we’ve gone through the process of selecting a niche market, and defining the topic of your information product.

Now we need to talk about your branding strategy and come up with a title for your product…

(Watch this video…)

Main points:

You can come up with your product name AFTER developing the product, but I personally like to do it at the beginning of the process because…

1) It allows you to begin with the end in mind, and have a strong vision of the finished product.
2) It enables you to get a jump start on some marketing activities.
3) It helps you determine how the product fits in with your overall brand.
4) If the product is being outsourced, a title helps provide focus and direction.

A brand is a collection of words, images, and ideas which represent and identify a business.

Branding is the process of integrating a company’s brand into everything they do.

We often associate branding with logos. Companies like Nike, McDonald’s, Mercedes, and others have shown the power of branding with a logo… BUT you don’t need a logo to have a good brand, especially when it comes to information marketing.

Example of Eric’s Tips. What kind of branding have I done? Compare consistency of my website, emails, videos, etc. Not just words and colors, but also the style.

Here’s what good branding does:

- Invokes trust
- Builds loyalty
- Connects emotionally

Examples on the video of branding by Armand Morin, Jeff Alderson, and Brad Callen.

TOMA = Top of Mind Awareness

You only need to worry about gaining TOMA in YOUR niche.

The method by which you brand yourself really depends on your target market. That’s why you need to know WHO they are.

Convey your image in a way that resonates positively with your target market.

Consider your branding strategy before coming up with a product name.

Naming a product can involve in-depth linguistic science, but it doesn’t have to be that complicated.

If you ARE planning on doing some serious branding, then a trademark is something you may want to look into.

- Trademarks can be registered directly through USPTO government site
- If you want help, try Legalzoom

In general, you do NOT need to worry about registering a trademark for an info product. However, you should search to make sure your brand/product name is not already a registered trademark. You can search for free using the TESS system at www.uspto.gov

Here are some guidelines to help name a product…

1) Brainstorm adjectives

2) Get synonyms (http://thesaurus.reference.com/)

3) Focus on the benefits (not the features)

4) Make it easy to pronounce, and easy to remember

5) Must be catchy enough to stop a member of your target market in their tracks

(think shocking, provocative, exciting, controversial, motivational…)

6) Look at the ClickBank marketplace to see the titles of best selling info products (just don’t get suckered into buying them)

7) Consider “How to…”

8] Try my reduction method. (It doesn’t always work, but sometimes it does)

- Write down exactly what the product is.
- Condense it into 1 sentence.
- Then condense it into 4 words or less.

9) Play with the title scorer: http://www.lulu.com/titlescorer/
*Just DON’T put much stock in it (seriously), because information product titles are different from bookstore best sellers.

10) Split test titles on Adwords

11) Consider a traditional title/subtitle format. (Title gets attention, subtitle explains what it’s about)

12) Google it in quotes to see if someone is already using your title.

13) Get feedback.

Action steps:

1) Think about your branding strategy, and decide whether it will affect your title

2) Come up with a title for your product

Keep in mind that you CAN always change the title later on. It’s not set in stone!

After you’ve come up with a title for your product, it’s time to stake your claim on the web and register a marketable domain to go along with it. There are good domains and bad domains, and I’ll be talking about all of that in the next lesson.

As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below

Have a great day!

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LESSON #21: Surveying the Market & Focusing Your Topic

August 23, 2008 – 2:47 pm

In the previous two lessons we talked about how to select a niche market, and how to determine whether there’s money to be made in it.

Today we’re going to refine your topic to make sure you’re zooming in on the desires of your niche audience. If you fail to do this, your product runs the risk of missing the target…

(Watch this video…)

Main points:

You need to figure out what information people would be willing to pay for.

In general, people may be willing to pay for information that will…
- ease their pain
- fuel their pleasure

Most successful infoproducts are focused on a problem/solution.

There are some niches in which people are not going to pay for information. If you find yourself in one of these niches, then I suggest you do one of two things…

1) find a different niche
2) figure out different way to monetize it (ie. give the info away for free to build a list, and monetize the back end through physical product/affiliate sales)

The best way to find out exactly what your niche wants is to conduct a survey.

If you have as list of subscribers in your niche, survey them. Here are three ways you can conduct your survey.

1) email replies

2) self hosted survey - You can put a survey on your own website using a script such as this one (available with Master Resale Rights)

3) 3rd party survey - I recommend doing an ASK Campaign

If you don’t have a list, there are several other ways to conduct a survey…

1) Hire a market research firm (generally not recommended, due to the high cost)

2) Make a deal with a list owner in your niche. Create a win-win situation where the list owner benefits from the data being collected (or some other mutually beneficial arrangement).

3) Use PPC. You can send targeted traffic to a survey on your own site, or to an ASK Campaign. This will cost you some money, but very cheap compared to some alternatives (as few as 100 respondents may be enough).

4) Find free traffic. Get involved in forums in your niche, and then poll other members. Use social networks, etc.

5) Do it offline. Call people you know who are in your niche, text them, email them… do whatever it takes. Poll your neighbors, your church members, whatever you need to do to make sure your product hits the bulls eye.

Incentivizing your survey will result in a higher response rate (just make sure the incentive is targeted to your desired audience).

Examples of questions you can ask…

What is your biggest problem regarding _________ ?

How difficult is it to find the answer to that problem?

What would you most like to learn about ________ ?

How much would you be willing to pay for a solution to ____________ ?

Be sure to include at least one or two open ended questions. Multiple choice are easier to analyze, but open ended will give you more valuable feedback.

Dig as deep as you can. (8 questions is a good target, but you may want to do just a few questions if you’re polling your own list)

If you choose to not do a survey, it is imperative that you do some additional research, which could include the following resources.

Go to Yahoo Answers: http://answers.yahoo.com

You want to know what PROBLEMS they are having. So pay special attention to questions like…

“Can someone tell me how to fix/improve/avoid… ______?”
“Is there a better/cheaper/faster way to… ______?”
“I need help with… _______”

Check out Board Tracker: http://www.boardtracker.com (search engine of forums)

Look for problems related to your niche that people are discussing on the forums.

Look at Ezine Articles: http://www.EzineArticles.com

This is the biggest article submission site, and will show you what is being done by other internet marketers to provide information in your niche. Are all of your audience’s most burning questions already being answered for free in these articles? Look at the author bio boxes to see how they are attempting to monetize the articles (ie. do they have a competing infoproduct?)

The more competitive the niche, the more important for you to have a strong USP. (There are ways to break into a market without a USP, but I generally don’t recommend it)

USP = Unique Selling Point, or Unique Selling Proposition

Action steps:

1) Survey your market and/or

2) Research the market in detail to find out exactly what they want

3) Decide what the focus of your topic will be

4) Come up with a USP for your product

I want to give you fair warning that this is where a lot of new marketers miss the boat. If you end up with a product that nobody wants to buy, more than likely you can trace it back to this lesson and see that you didn’t dig deep enough into your market to find out what they really want to pay for.

Once you’ve narrowed down your topic, it’s time to envision your product and come up with a great brand name. I’ll be talking all about that in the next lesson.

As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below

Have a great day!

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When I’m Not Marketing…

August 19, 2008 – 11:06 pm

In case anyone was wondering why I haven’t posted any lessons in the past few days…

We’ve been doing some redecorating on the main level of our home, and I decided to create some new paintings for the walls.

Here’s what I did…

We’re going for more of a modern look in the living room, so I made this 2-panel abstract to go over the piano:
abstract painting
It’s called Psalm 1 (can you see a tree?) (48″x 72″ acrylic on canvas)

Then I painted this one, titled Fields of Grace, pictured here still on the easel:
dancer painting
The dancer is modeled after my wife, and I painted it in one sitting today. (36″x 48″ acrylic on canvas)

I really enjoy painting, but I typically only do it a couple times a year. When I’m done with the whole internet marketing thing, I hope to spend a little more time working on my technique and developing my style.

I’m back to working on the lessons tomorrow.

Art is 100% subjective, so feel free to post your comments and let me know what you think of my paintings, good or bad

Have a great day!

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LESSON #20: How to Choose a Niche (Part 2)

August 14, 2008 – 1:59 am

In the previous lesson, I talked about some important things to keep in mind as you choose a niche market.

I ended the lesson by asking you to brainstorm some possible topics for your information product.

Today we’re going to do some research to help you determine whether your topic has good potential for success…

(Watch this video…)

Main points:

Google your topic (in quotes) and look at these things…

- How many results?
- How many paid ads?
- What kind of sites are in the top 10?

Regarding number of search results: If it’s too few, your niche may be too obscure. If it’s too many, you may need to zoom in on a tighter niche.

Regarding number of paid ads: Lots of ads equal proof of money in the niche. But keep in mind that more ads also means more competitors.

Analyze the top 10 results. What kind of sites are they? Does it look like the sites are making money? Are there any information products, or direct competitors with your product idea?

Check the PageRank of some of the top listings. You can use Google Toolbar, or a free PageRank lookup tool.
(This shows you how hard it will be to compete with their listings from an SEO standpoint)

Find out how many times the topic is being searched for each day. You can use this free keyword tool

If you plan on launching many niche sites, you should consider investing in a tool that will help you automate most of the above processes. I recommend Keyword Elite

Spy on the competition using the free Spyfu search tool

Look at:
- How many advertisers?
- How much traffic they are getting?
- How much they are spending daily?
- What are they advertising?
- Do any related advertisers have an affiliate program? (potential back end promotions)

Search the ClickBank marketplace to see if there are similar information products, and how popular those products are. (Look at the grav score)

Search Ebay and Amazon for your topic to see if people are buying related products. (Are they hot sellers, or are they mostly getting 0 bids?)

Don’t ignore your gut feeling (if your gut is often right)

Action step:

1) Go through the research process I used in this lesson, and answer these 4 questions for each topic that you are considering.

- How big is the niche?
- How competitive is the niche?
- How potentially profitable is the niche?
- Is there potential for back end products?

2) Choose a niche that seems to have a good balance; one that you want to pursue. We will be further refining it in the next lesson.

Once you’ve identified a potentially lucrative niche, you need to go the extra mile and dig deeper. You need to zoom in on the market and find out EXACTLY what they want.

There are some simple ways of surveying the market and focusing your topic to give it the best chance of success, and I’ll be detailing those strategies in the next lesson.

As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below

Have a great day!

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