A Guide to Becoming an Infopreneur, Part 1
Written by: Don Miller
Posted on December 6, 2007
Filed Under Starting your Online Business
Today I am going to start a series of posts on becoming an internet infopreneur. I am planning 6 articles in the series and you wont want to miss any of them. These are proven strategies that work and will set a course for success in your Home Based Business.
Becoming an infopreneur is actually very simple, not easy, but simple. Real business will take some work, choosing the right niche will make it easier. When you discover YOUR area of expertise, valued content will flow from your resources easily, naturally and with passion. People will trust you and you will be successful.
Discover the niche inside you already. Before we go any further, do not think of how you are going to monetize your site or business. That comes easily and naturally later. It may seem out of sequence to you because that’s not the way the world thinks. I promise, you will monetize, but for now, it has to wait.
Discovering the knowledge within you
The problem for many is they get caught up in the hoopla, glitz and fanfare of the make money online niche. That may be your area of expertise, but know this on the front end of you decision. It is extremely competitive. Making your mark here will challenge even the most dedicated. What I will suggest may surprise you.
Start by looking at yourself. Whether you are willing to acknowledge it or not, you are already an expert in several areas. Repeat this to yourself right now “I am an expert already” Take a post it note and stick on your monitor, go ahead Ill wait.
Most people struggle with what area they want to provide information about. For others it comes easily. Write down a list of 3 things you are good at. Don’t worry too much about which one you will choose just yet. We will get to that.
Ask your friends what they think you’re good at. What jobs have you had in your life?
Reminder: Stop thinking about monetizing
You have your list of 3 things?
Let’s assume you have chosen the following, I will be using myself as an example for site concepts or niches that I have explored
Saltwater Reef Aquariums, I am an expert, please read here for evidence.
Sports: I have an extensive knowledge of all sports, served as a Fantasy Correspondent for ESPN for 3 years and learned how to read with the daily sports pages. Sports and I go way back!
Small Business Coaching and Mentoring. I cannot stop thinking about business of all kinds. I find it difficult to walk into a store without trying to figure out how they make money. It is my subject of choice for many of my everyday conversations.
Now its time to research your niche
Start with researching keywords and keyword phrases that will ultimately provide you traffic with search engines. This is where the rubber meets the road for the future of your chosen niche. Google provides this information for free with their keyword tool.
Supply and demand drive any business and you need to determine if there is enough demand to sustain your business. At this point you want to check on demand. Check what advertisers are willing to pay for these keywords and phrases. You want to see lots of high priced keywords.
In my case I started with Reef Tanks. What I discovered after research was that as much as I love reef tanks, there may not need to be enough demand to sustain a viable business. Perhaps, but the proposition and the data looked iffy at best. Supply was rather limited but if the demand is not there, don’t waste your time, unless you just want to have a hobby type site.
Ahh Sports, my love since I can remember. This topic proved to be too broad. What is too broad? It’s any idea where the market is too big. Choosing sports would mean I have to compete with ESPN, FOX Sports and those types. I took a pass for now. There is an exception here. Seems there always is, isn’t there? If I could narrow down that topic to appeal to a more specific audience, perhaps I could make that work. For instance what if you took that Sports Concept and narrowed it down to perhaps your favorite team. That could work.
Sports fans are among the most passionate people about their teams on the planet. That may work, so for the time being I have that idea on the back burner, slow cooking if you will.
Reminder: Stop thinking about monetizing
That brought me to mentoring and coaching.
People tell me that’s what I always do. They always have. I guess I always have. So I chose to ignore all that and try something that was sexy, the hottest market on the internet, Making Money Online. Bad Don, bad mistake, but I recovered. If you look at your address bar you will see my site is called Making Sales Making Money. In hindsight that was not the best choice for a domain name, but my site has evolved into providing information about home based business opportunities. We will get to domain choice a little later in this series. I just wanted to provide and example of my own mistake, to let you know, I have made a few, and paid tuition along the way because of it.
I work with a gal who coined a nickname for me. She blended the names Don , that’s me, and Oprah , who doesn’t know who she is, and from that day forward I was Doprah. Sounded kind of fun for most at first, but darn if it didn’t stick. Her reasoning was I seemed to be always counseling, mentoring, coaching and giving advice. Rather than get offended I ran with it. I admitted to myself that is who I am, and so why not provide information about my 50 years of living and the experience, success and failures . I opened my first business at 21 and have always done something for myself since. I did some research and the results indicated there was a market. So it was onward with Making Sales Making Money but with a new direction.
Now let’s talk about you
Have you been thinking about it? Are you willing to provide information that is in demand? Can you provide valued content day after day? I spoke with gentleman the other day about his travel business. He is an YTB Business owner. Seems like it’s an MLM business. We spoke for over an hour. Never once did he suggest booking a trip for me, exploring travel arrangements, airline tickets or anything else I have received from other travel agents I’ve encountered in the past. All he wanted to talk about is the system of YTB and how much money he was going to make enrolling people in his down line. When he took a breath, and I had an opportunity to speak I suggested he make a blog or a website that provided information about specific destinations. Information about where to stay, good restaurants, how to get there on a minimal budget, all the things potential visitors research when they plan a vacation. I live in Florida. People save their money all year long to visit a big eared rodent named Mickey Mouse. I don’t get it, perhaps I’ve lived here too long, but it’s a fact. He could provide a very simple website or blog all about visiting Florida and book travel plans through his travel business. His response was all too common, “Don I don’t make money booking trips I make it selling the program. Mark my words, this business will fail.
Start to develop your niche. It does not matter if it takes a day or week or month for that matter. Decisions made early in this process will become the most important decisions you will make. I am convinced that just about any subject matter can become profitable properly delivered with passion and purpose. I would love to help you in any way I can in choosing your niche. Please use the contact form to email any questions, I will do my best to answer them. Tomorrow we will explore choosing your domain name. Subscribe to my feed and you wont miss a post!
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Tags:blog, blog monetization, blogging, bz news, infopreneur, learn to blog, monetization, Niche Blogging, seo, traffic
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The more you say do not think of monetizing, the more I think about it. LOL
I really like your reminder “Stop thinking about monetizing”
They are at the exact point where I was thinking “hmm, that’s a high traffic keyword.”
Good to focus me back on track.
[...] Yesterday we talked about choosing a niche about what you already know. I don’t expect many readers to have zeroed in on your specific niche yet, but I do hope you have been giving it some thought. This is a very important decision in establishing your existence and survival as an infopreneur. Think about the home based business opportunities that may be presenting themselves to you. Remember you are an expert already! Let’s assume you thought about it and reached a decision. Good job! Thinking is a passive activity, but necessary. Let see of we can put some legs to your idea. Time for your action plan. [...]
[...] A Guide to Becoming an Infopreneur, Part 1By DonWhat I discovered after research was that as much as I love reef tanks, there may not need to be enough demand to sustain a viable business. Perhaps, but the proposition and the data looked iffy at best. Supply was rather limited but if …Making Sales Making Money - http://makingsalesmakingmoney.com/blog [...]
[...] done thus far. Not totally un-expected, he said yes he would love to. I was in the middle of my inforpreneur series , and told him I would send him the questions soon. Meanwhile, I met Vic Franqui and Court’s [...]