This is the first post of a new series about Niche Marketing. Each post will look at one of the Seven Steps to start Earning Money with Niche Marketing:

1. Niche Selection and Research
2. Selecting Keywords
3. Promoting Niche Products
4. Building a Content Site
5. Ways to get (Free) Traffic
6. Turning Traffic into Money
7. Ways to Expand
   

Niche selection is all about solving a problem someone may have. That’s the main thing you want to go for, when selecting a niche.

Niche Research the Secret Way
A great (and secret) way of Niche Research is by using Amazon. They are one of the top sellers of books and their site is a gold mine for Niche Research, if you know how to!

Go to www.amazon.com and select ‘books’ in the left menu. You can now either click on ‘bestsellers’ to get a list of best selling books. Or you can select a topic on the left (Niche!). Lets do this and choose ‘Home and Garden’, which is a great main niche.

To have a bigger chance of earning money, you need to drill down further, and select a sub-niche, for example ‘Animal Care and Pets’. This is the page you should be looking at now.

What you see now are the top selling books for animal and pet care at this moment. The first few are about dogs and dog training. But this niche is too competitive (there are too many books about the subject).

A promosing subject is the book about Beekeeping for Dummies.

Another secret: all ‘Dummies’ books are great niches. Dummie books are only created when this company is sure they can make them money. Try www.dummies.com. Select a topic and you can see ‘Most Popular’ titles and even ‘Best Selling’ titles. Great Niche Ideas!

Lets stay with Amazon for now and select the book about ‘Beekeeping for Dummies’. Click on the title and then click on ’search inside this book’. You can now browse the contents of the book and already do some research about this niche!

Press the arrow on the right and go to the ‘Contents at a Glance’ page. There even is a section about ‘Common problems and Simple Solutions’, which might give you an idea for the topic of your site-to-be-built and keywords to target. Or for your own product about this subject …

This was an example of how to use Amazon for your niche research. Now choose your own topic and select a niche you like and feel passionate about. That way you will be more motivated when creating content for it.

In the next part of this Niche Marketing Series, we will look at Keyword Selection for your Niche, so stay tuned!

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Normally people promote penny stocks as being an easy way to earn cash. Of course the people (illegally) promoting these will make the most money. But here comes penny-stocks-with-a-twist: we know these people are scamming (usually) and we are going to use this knowledge in our advantage.

The penny stock scam
Penny stocks are what they are because the company behind the stock has got some problems. For now, we will focus on the firm having a large long term debt. If a company can’t pay it’s debts off longterm then it’s an outright scam, period.

To check if a company is a scam we look at the company’s balance sheet and calculate the debt-to-equity ratio. To calculate the company’s debt-to-equity ratio we will divide its total liabilities by its total shareholders equity. If the result is greater than 3 than that company most likely won’t be able to pay off its long-term debts.

Penny stock example
As an example we will take the penny stock COIN. You can view this company’s balance sheet at Yahoo Finance or any other financial service. As mentioned above: by dividing its total liabilities: 27,571,000 by total shareholders equity: 5,047,000 you get a result of 5. Since this is almost 200% above 3 they you can be sure that they won’t be able to pay off their longterm debt. So in our definition this company is a scam.

Lets take a look at COIN’s 2 year chart.

So what do we know about a penny stock scam? The scammers by the stock for cheap. Then the stock is hyped (Jan. 08 in the chart), so that a lot of investors will buy them and the price goes up dramatically. The scammers sell their stock at the top and make 100’s to 1000’s % of profit. All other investors sell too late and lose money.

The penny stock twist
And here comes our twist: we KNOW that this will hapen with scam penny stocks (of course there are also some serious penny stocks, that’s why we check the balance sheet, as mentioned above). Now we are going to short sell this stock! This means we are anticipating a price drop. Because we know this will happen!

We wait until the penny stock is pumped up 50%, 100%, or even 500% and short them at the right time to make a load of cash. There are 1000’s of penny stocks out there. So this method can be repeated again and again.

This is a short sellers dream and the best way to make money from penny stocks!

The first launch of the ShoeMoney System was kind of slow. You had to wait for a new video every other day. And that just didn’t work for the more experienced affiliate marketer. I was curious about the new ShoeMoney System, so I actually paid the $197 a month to see what it is all about.

Wow, this new setup works much better. Instead of having  to wait for simple intro videos every few days, Jeremy added everything so you can access all of the videos right away! There are 40 new videos on “How to Get Started “.  If you join today, you will have full access to these 40 videos instantly, with new videos of core training added every few days.

New affiliates will want to start at the beginning, and veteran affiliates can skip this and go to the more advanced videos. And what makes this system great: if you do not make money during the first 60 days, you can request a full refund… no questions asked.

Videos are the best training system
Other training programs may work, but a lot of them are based on text. With Jeremy’s videos, you can have them running while you work, and learn by seeing it all done right in front of your eyes.

As a member, you will also have the following benefits:

• 60 day 100% no questions asked money back guarantee.
• $2500 in free advertising money from companies like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, Myspace… etc.
• The course is a complete training system walking you through the basics of just creating accounts to complex arbitrage and ppc techniques with every advertising system.
• Tons of supplemental support content
• 24/7 support

User Testimonials
Here are a few user testimonials from ShoeMoney System subscribers.

+ “I CANNOT FRIGGIN BELIVE IT!!!!!! In less than 16 hours
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+ “Jeremy, thank you, thank you, thank you for creating
this product. I made my first commission today and I
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+ “Wow. The arbitrage video series is mind blowing.
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The ShoeMoney System has one of the lowest refund/cancellation rates ever seen. This means that subscribers stay with the program, because they get a lot of value for their money!

If you are either new to affiliate marketing, or already more experienced, this is the perfect program for you.

Start earning with the ShoeMoney System.

For those interested in trying out advertising on Facebook here is a coupon code for $50: JXEP-30TN-VM0J-WYCN
This may only work for a few weeks, so be quick.

Another one that is available for a long time and will probably continue to work is the Visa Business Network. Log into Facebook and add the Visa Business Network App. Once added, Facebook will send you a coupon code with instructions on how to add the credit to your account. Be sure to use the same email address for both! Use the Visa money only to promote your own business or your Facebook account will be closed!

Recently the world was hit by another major financial bubble, the $50 billion loss of investors money by Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. And everybody was amazed by the enormous amount of money that was inolved, and lost. Now I’d like to tell you about a $11 Trillion Ponzi Scheme.

By the way, a Ponzi scheme, being a socalled pyramid scheme, is defined by the wiki as:

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to investors out of the money paid by subsequent investors rather than from profit. The term, “Ponzi scheme,” is used primarily in the United States, while other English-speaking countries do not distinguish colloquially between this scheme and other pyramid schemes.

Now usually those investors are attracted by a high percentage of return. But here I’d like to focus on the main part of the definition: ‘returns … paid by subsequent investors rather than from profit’. With Madoff’s fraud an amazing 50 billion dollars puffed away in thin air.

Well, I’d like to tell you about a Ponzi scheme where almost 11 Trillion dollars will evaporate very, very soon. And the ultimate crook that is capable of such an outrageous, mindblowing, world destroying amount of throwaway money is called … (drumroll) … the United States of America!

Believe me, this isn’t a linkbait article, this is about information that you usually do not read about in regular media. Firstly let me point out that the debt of the USA is rising at an enormous ratio, especially the last few (do I hear Bush?) years. Although that may still sound familiar.

Here is a link to the Wiki article about the US national debt. But you’d better look at the graphs on this page, where you can see what happened since 2002: the debt has risen from 6 trillion to almost 11 trillion dollars (01082009). The actual, current amount can be seen at the national debt clock site.

In the graph above you can see who owns which portion of the US national debt. There are a lot of small owners, 22.7% are foreign (international) owners and over 40% is owned by the Federal Reserve. Of course a debt should be backed up by reserves and or by profits. But the US have no ‘profits’. Almost every year there is a deficit, which means spending exceeds revenue. And so the US debt grows.

But hey, what about the Federal Reserve, I hear you say? The Federal Reserve is a banking system, with twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks located in major cities throughout the nation acting as fiscal agents for the US Treasury. Now the US Treasury has assets (securities) in worth of 835 billion dollars. But. Over 80% of those securities are owned by foreign investors, i.e. that’s loaned money (bonds etc.). Those investors get a yearly return paid by the interest.

You see how my analogy of the 11 Trillion Ponzi Scheme fits into all of this? Eleven trillion dollars of US national debt are backed by 167 billion (835 – 80%) of direct securities. And no profits. And an ever growing ‘army’ of investors. The US needs to lend (print?) more and more money to pay those foreign investors their interest. And to pay the 60% of investors that own the US national debt their interest. And what would happen when those (foreign) investors want their full investment back? The total collapse of the US and the US dollar!

So why is the dollar still such a relatively strong currency? Well, the main reason is because crude oil is paid in US dollars. The whole world is backing up the dollar, because the whole world lives on crude oil. For their cars, for plastics, for paint and for a whole range of products made out of crude oil. And this is part of the technical details of the US Ponzi Scheme, which you can read about in this interesting article and this very interesting video about how this came to be.

Be amazed!

As user generated content (blogs, forums, social media) is growing steadily, the long tail of keyword search possibilities is growing along. And now that the targeting (narrowing) options of Google Content campaigns are getting more sophisticated, setting up focused content network campaigns, and so limiting wasted clicks, has become very interesting.

But there are many questions among affiliate marketers on how to do this the right way or if it even works. Recently I found that Perry Marshall has embraced Shelley Ellis as a content network specialist. And when Perry recommends her, you can bet she is really good. So I nosed around a bit and found some interesting material. At her site she gives a nice example of the power of the content network and the traffic and conversions you can get:

As you can see in the ‘general’ example, where general search and content campaigns are compared, the content network traffic is 100x higher. Of course the clickthrough rate is lower but still, clicks are 600% higher, but more importantly the ratio between clicks and conversions (conversion rate) doesn’t drop, when compared to the search campaign. And that’s tells you that the content network can be very, very profitable!

Of course, the right way of targeting is very important here. So I nosed around a bit more and found a radio interview of Shelley Ellis by PPC Rockstar, where they delve deeper into the technical aspects of targeting the content network. Hear it for yourself and find out the ‘what’ and the ‘how’, I think you will like it!

By the way, she also talks about using social media networks, like MySpace and LinkedIn, in combiation with a content campaign. If you were told to never use them, listen carefully to what Shelley has to say …

Finally, here is a link to a case study by iCrossing (a company where Ellis has worked and did some client content campaigns) about the integration of search and social media. Social media are becoming more important by the minute and you’d better find out the best ways how to use them, because people online are relying more and more on social media for advice and to make their buying decisions!

Happy new Year to all of you out there!

The last few months have been full of financial turmoil, but I see a new year ahead of us that’s full of money chances. You may have lost money on Wallstreet, you may have problems with your mortgage and the prices of food have risen. But businesses will drop prices now. I just read that airline tickets are going down, because travel agencies need to sell more. Car prices will probably go down. Oil is down 75% since last July. And that all is just the beginning.

Christmas selling has been varying. High ticket items were down, but Amazon reports record sales for this season (secret tip: this Amazon sales report is a very interesting read anyway for affiliate marketers, you will get a lot of information on what’s hot and really sold well during the last few weeks). And although Wallstreet has slipped 35% or so, the last 10 to 14 days professional traders have been ignoring bad news an have been buying, relatively cheap, stocks in masses.

I have been diving deeper into stock trading the last few weeks and will write about it in one of my next posts. Until then. Enjoy!

When you are using Google Analytics to track your visitors and AdWords campaigns you can check the keywords that triggered your ads by clicking on ‘Traffic sources’ > ‘Keywords’ > Show: ‘paid’. But you will only see those keywords that are in your adgroup and NOT the real, exact keywords that the user typed in and triggered your ads.

Several people have found solutions (which all started with a post from GA Experts) to show the exact keywords that triggered your ads, that either work with filters or with javascript. Knowing the real keywords visitors are using can help you in several ways:

• find terms to add to your negative keyword list.
• expand your original keyword list.
• discover and add new adgroups.
• find ways to optimize your ad and landing page copy

But the problem is that the details in the screenshots or descriptions I found vary. I have experimented around a bit and can now give you the exact settings that will make this work. Others say that this solution doesn’t work anymore … well guess what? It still does!

The Real Google Analytics Data Exposed …

Before you start check that Analytics is connected to your Adwords campaigns and Auto-tagging be turned on (find it in: Account preferences: edit tracking). Now we are going to add a new profile (you do not want to overwrite any core data, so a new profile keeps everything intact) in Google Analytics.

1. Create a new Analytics Profile

Select Add a Profile for an existing domain, select which domain, and enter any name for the profile you choose. For example: ‘Real Keyword Data’.

2. Create the first filter

Important: create the two filters in the order given here, otherwise it will not work! Now locate your newly created profile and click Edit under the Settings column. Then click Add Filter.

Just copy and paste the following settings, to avoid typing mistakes:

Field A -> Extract A: Referral: (\?|&)(q|p)=([^&]*)
Field B -> Extract B: Campaign Medium: (cpc|ppc)
Output To -> Constructor: Custom Field 1: $A3

Be sure to copy all other settings as seen in the screenshot.
Click ‘Finish’.
You should now be back on the profile settings page where you can see this first filter has been applied to your detailed analytics profile.

3. Create the second filter

Locate your new profile again and click Edit under the Settings column. Then click Add Filter.

Just copy and paste the following settings, to avoid typing mistakes:

Field A -> Extract A: Custom Field 1: (.*)
Field B -> Extract B: Campaign Term: (.*)
Output To -> Constructor: Campaign Term: $B1 ($A1)

Be sure to copy all other settings as seen in the screenshot.
Click ‘Finish’.

It may take several minutes, but then you can start digging. In your new Analytics Profile Report go to Traffic Sources -> AdWords -> Keyword Positions or to Traffic Sources ->Keywords and you will see your normal keyword list and in parentheses the exact term that triggered your ads!

This is powerful stuff. And it makes you wonder why this isn’t normally available in GA (well, of course we know why not, Google would lose a lot of clicks). Let me know if it worked for you too …