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How To Find A Niche That Makes Money Part 1

How To Find A Niche That Makes Money Part 1

There are a lot of bloggers out there who aren’t making money.
I mean, a LOT of them.
And, the biggest reason that they’re failing is that they haven’t properly chosen a niche. They’ve either decided to eat the world by choosing a niche which is SO broad that it’s unmanageable, or they’ve focused on a niche which is so tiny that there aren’t enough paying customers in it.
The happy medium is reached through strategic keyword research and the skill to analyze that research.
It’s no secret that the pro bloggers hone their niches long before the first words hit the screen. In fact, quite a lot of their work is done in the pre-planning, and keyword research is a small part of that.
While my Profit Blogging Blueprint gives you a start-to-finish blueprint of creating a six-figure profit blogging site, we’re going to talk a little more indepth about discovering your own profitable micro niche today.
Before the huge profits, the passion-based business, and the dotcom lifestyle, there was a niche. Before we discovered that knowing how to develop a gigantic email list in 6 months was the key to profits, there was a niche.
Finding a niche and building a foundation on that niche is where the real money is made. I’ve developed a simple 5 step process for finding those profitable niches and audiences.

Step 1: Find a Topic
This is where it all begins. After all, you can’t have a money blog about a topic if you don’t have a topic, right?
One of the biggest mistakes that new bloggers make when they’re searching for a topic is that they don’t narrow that topic down enough so that they can make money. While there are a lot of ‘tire kickers’ who will be satisfied with the general solutions, the ones who bring in the money are looking for specific answers to their specific problems and they’re willing to pay for those solutions.

Let’s start off with some industries:
* Weight Loss
* Personal Development
* Making Money
* Debt Reduction
* Gardening
All five of these topics are highly competitive but not very specific.
The person typing in these search terms could be looking for weight loss for their dog, making money with old socks, or debt reduction through the use of old fashioned methods.
Not only are the chances of getting ranked for these keywords fairly slim, but the likelihood of actually landing on what your customer specifically wants is fairly slim. The traffic for these keywords will be incredibly unfocused, which is why it’s best to dig a little deeper into the industry.
The other issue with creating a blog about these five terms (or any one of hundreds of general categories) is that it most likely will require a lot of money to compete with those who are already in the industry. With so much competition, you are fighting against both big fish and little fish.
This is why the topic needs to be honed down. While you might want to take on the world, you do want to eliminate as many contenders as you can even before you enter the playing field.
Narrowing down the niche will be your key to riches. While the search volume (we’ll talk about that in the next step) might not be as much, the pitch that you are making will reach people who are much more likely to purchase from you.
Would you rather have a million viewers and no sales or a 100 viewers and 10 sale?

How do you narrow down your niche?
1. First, pick a broad industry that you enjoy. You’re going to be immersed in this industry while you’re conducting your research, so you should be fascinated with it and otherwise have an interest in it.
I’ve found that if I’m passionate about the field or if the field has personal significance to me, the research that I conduct is more thorough. The more thorough research that I perform, the more likely I am to make money within the niche.
2. So, once you’ve got a broad category like weight loss, personal development, making money, photography, or any one of a hundred different industries, it’s time to narrow it down to a subset that fascinates you.
Perhaps you live in Arizona and want to learn about desert gardening. Maybe you live in a small house and are interested in container gardening. Perhaps, you’re interested in developing the entirety of your home into a greenhouse and are interested in indoor gardening or terrariums.
3. In many cases, finding a subcategory for your niche is enough, but sometimes you need to dig down a little deeper. For instance, if you’re thinking about debt reduction and you want to help eliminate credit card debt, you can focus even further on that topic with Visa credit card debt or wisely using your American Express card, or what have you.

Step 2: Discover a Need for This Topic
Is the topic that you chose in the first part something for which other people are searching? For instance, you might have found yourself curious about gardening in extremely tiny spaces, but are there people out there who are searching for ‘closet gardening’?
In this step, we will find out whether there are enough people searching for information in this niche to make it profitable. I have found that if there’s over 5,000 searches per month on a topic, there is a higher likelihood that money can be made.

How do you find out whether people are interested?
The easiest and most effective tool that I’ve found to discover the number of searches that a keyword has is Google’s Keyword Planner. It’s a completely free tool, one which can provide some very valuable information. Knowing how to use this tool effectively will save you both time and money in your searches and pinpointing viable (and lucrative) niches.

When you first open the Keyword Planner, you only truly need the first two options:
• Search for new keyword and ad group ideas
• Get search volume for a list of keywords or group them into ad groups
Where it says ‘Enter one or more of the following: Your product or service’ enter the keywords that you have. Leave the search for ideas broad for right now because you want to find out if there is enough general interest in the topic to blog about it.
Google will also be kind enough to give you ideas about other search terms which have to do with your topic. This is great for understanding what key words that you’ll need to use in your advertising, your blog posts, and more.
One of the better ways to see if the topic is lucrative is to turn the keyword phrase into a question. Instead of ‘how to get rid of credit card debt’ or ‘how to do container gardening’ try ‘how do I get rid of credit card debt’ or ‘how do I plant tomatoes in containers?’
Along with the number of searches, I also use the PPC amount to get an idea of whether the topic itself will be valuable. PPC stands for pay per click, and is the amount that advertisers are willing to pay for each click on a link. The higher, the better, as it’s an indication of how lucrative the term might be.


Step 3: Pinpoint Your Demographic
The next step in finding out whether you have a profit blogging niche is to research the audience of that niche. You want to be able to form a mental picture of the people who are in the niche that you’re pursuing.
Knowing who you’re talking to, what their pain points are, and other information will allow you to develop an emotional bond with them. The moment that you are able to create an emotional bond with your customer is the moment that they will treat you as an authority and let you in.
Go to Alexa.com and input your keywords. You will get a list of websites that are at the top of the field for those keywords. Take a good look at the results that come up for your keywords. This is your competition.

Here’s my view on competition:
You and an acquaintance spot a bear coming after you. You stop to put tennis shoes on. “What are you doing that for? You’re never going to outrun the bear!” says your acquaintance. “I don’t have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you.”
After you go to Alexa and find out your competition and people who are doing well in the niche, you also want to go to quantcast.com and discover the demographics of the sites that you received from Alexa.
When you put in ‘credit card debt relief,’ these are just some of the sites which come up as results in Alexa.com. You can see who the players are within the field that way.

After you discover the sites which are within the field, your next step is to find out who’s going to your competition. You can find out some of this information on Alexa, but you can also discover insights when you use Quantcast.com and Compete.com.
Creating a combination of the three will give you a better idea of the makeup of their visitors. Remember that different demographics each have different motivations. For instance, the 55+ male will have different reasons to get his credit in order than the 20 something female. Focus on only one demographic to start.
As an aside, Google’s Ad Planner is good for quite a number of other functions. You can find out the best approach to take if you decide to run a pay per click campaign. You can also take the time to discover the types of phrases that you want to use for your ads. It’s extremely useful, and it’s free.

How Did I Come Up With Blogging Business Tips?
Like you, I wanted to make enough money so I could provide for myself. I didn’t want to follow the same route that some of my friends did by joining the corporate culture.
So, the overall industry is ‘make money.’
If you look on Google, you’ll see that ‘make money’ gets a lot of searches every single day, but there are LOTS of ways to make money. There’s everything from mushroom composting to alpaca farming. I needed to hone it down.
I would rather work from home or from the place of my choosing, rather than being forced to go into a physical office every day. So, to be more specific, I wanted to make money online.
There are still thousands of ways to make money online. You can make money online by being an Amazon reseller. You can make money online by being a Google site rater. You can also make money online by selling products. You can make money online through a lot of methods. I still wasn’t providing enough value to my readers, as the ‘make money online’ niche is too broad.
While I was searching for my niche, I kept finding sites which detailed how I could make money online through blogging. Unfortunately, all of the tips and tricks that I found online seemed to conflict with each other. There was no easy system.
The people, in the comments and everywhere else, were clamoring for a single, steady voice to teach them how to make money online through blogging.
After performing a lot of keyword research, I discovered that there were thousands of people who wanted to make money blogging. These were the people who had created blogs and they weren’t profitable. These were the people who had been told that millions would be at their fingertips as soon as they created a blog. They were frustrated. That’s when I knew that I had found my niche and Blogging Business Tips was born.
It’s not enough just to have the niche for which people are searching. If you’re wanting to make money without having to use advertising on your blog, you need to have products to sell to that finely honed niche.
In the next blog post, we’re going to talk about Steps 4 and 5 which are finding products to sell to your niche and some ideas that will make your life a whole lot easier when it comes to discovering micro niche markets.

Dubai: Islamic finance qualifications in demand as industry takes off

By: Cleofe Maceda

Dubai: Companies in the UAE will require a lot more than 8,000 new employees trained in Islamic finance next year as Dubai positions itself as the capital of the $8 trillion Islamic economy, a source from an institute told Gulf News.

The bulk of the additional manpower will be required by banks offering Sharia-compliant products and services. Recruiters in the UAE are already seeing a 50 per cent growth in demand for candidates with Islamic finance experience.

Many companies are currently looking to fill positions across all levels, from relationship management, project management to risk management and marketing.

Tahseen Consulting, a specialized advisor on strategic and organisational issues in the Arab world, recently projected that some $87 to $124 billion could potentially enter the Islamic banking system in the UAE next year, creating approximately 7,800 new positions.

“It’s quite a positive industry right now. The growth is showing a lot of positive movements, so hence there is a good potential or possibility of the number even going higher,” Geetu Ahuja, head of GCC at the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (Cima), a provider of Islamic finance education, told Gulf News in an interview.

“The close to 8,000 projected manpower is only needed around Islamic finance banks, but if we’re looking at other institutions, there are a few more hundreds there itself which will be in demand by next year.”

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region is set to lead the expansion of the global Islamic finance industry, which is projected to post a double-digit growth by 2016. Estimates show that across the world, Islamic finance will need about 50,000 additional personnel by next year. Adnan Salam, principal consultant at Talent2, a recruitment specialist, said they have seen an increasing demand for Islamic finance professionals in the UAE and the wider GCC market, as conventional banks have been launching new Islamic products.

“At least 40 per cent of the overall roles we are currently working on within the banking and financial services team require Islamic finance qualified or experienced candidates. This is at least a 50 per cent increase compared to the same three-month period in 2013,” Salam told Gulf News.

“We are seeing positions that are in demand across all levels, predominantly within relationship management/sales, business analysis, project management, risk management more specifically credit risk and marketing, all related to Islamic finance.”

Analysts have said earlier that while the market is growing, there is a dearth of qualified personnel with Islamic banking skills. The Workforce Planning Study by Dubai International Academic City showed that 50 per cent of the GCC banks find it difficult to hire graduates for entry-level positions, while nearly a quarter (23 per cent) struggle to hire for mid-level roles.

Shailesh Dash, CEO of Al Masah Capital, said the talent shortage can be addressed by utilizing the existing pool of professionals working in banks and financial services firms, and providing them with Islamic finance training.

“Instead of relying solely on some sort of certification to determine the authenticity of the professional’s Islamic finance knowledge, one could instead use existing finance [employees] and convert them to Islamic finance experts by giving them the requisite training,” Dash told Gulf News yesterday.

“This would be a far more efficient and quicker way to reduce the gap. By setting up a world-class system, the UAE not only fills a gap in the market, it also provides its national population another opportunity for gainful employment,” he added.

Dubai has announced plans to be the global capital of the Islamic economy, which includes Islamic finance, in the next three years.

Dynamic facade "Kiefer technic showroom"

Dynamic facade "Kiefer technic showroom"

Post by Wonderful Engineering.

Windows XP End of Support Guide Microsoft support for Windows XP ends on April 8th, 2014

Microsoft support for Windows XP officially ends on April 8th, 2014. Are you ready to see this venerable client OS ride off into the sunset?
If you're facing a migration off of Windows XP, read our handy guide for some tips and tricks on how to make it a successful transition. ...

Windows XP End of Support Guide

Microsoft support for Windows XP ends on April 8th, 2014. Are you ready for the end? This helpful guide should help you survive the transition.

The April 8th, 2014 end of support deadline for Windows XP is rapidly approaching. As I’m writing this, Net Market Share is reporting that Windows XP in the month of February, 2014, still had a sizable 29.53% share of the overall desktop PC market. While most everyone reading this would agree that Windows XP is long overdue for replacement, the reasons why some IT departments aren’t upgrading to Windows XP are many and varied.

Windows XP was officially released on October 25th, 2001. That makes Windows XP more than 12 years old, and Microsoft is keen to get customers — both business users and consumers — off of Windows XP and migrated on to newer OSes, so much so that it's currently offering a $100 rebate to consumers who have Windows XP and purchase a new PC running Windows 8.1 from a Microsoft retail or online store. Microsoft has also launched a website for the computing masses that tells them if they're running Windows XP called  AmIRunningXP.com. The fact that Microsoft even needs a website designed to tell users what OS the PC they're sitting in front of is running underscores the immense marketing and communication challenges Microsoft has to surmount in order to get consumers migrated off of Windows XP.
In order to provide some additional information on the topic I’ve decided to put together a guide that serves as a resource for the Windows XP end of support deadline, and what that means for Petri IT Knowledgebase readers. I'll be updating this article with new links and information over time, so bookmark this page and check back often for updates.  

What is Windows XP end of support?

This is the date that Microsoft has selected when all technical support and security patches for Windows XP will end. After this date, Windows XP won't be supported unless you enter into a custom support agreement (CSA) with Microsoft to cover the gap between your migration off of Windows XP and onto a newer OS. A CSA requires a premier services agreement, and a post by a Microsoft employee on TechNet mentioned that a CSA could provide "...critical security updates, technical assistance and continued support for the product after April 8th." A story by The Register indicated that the support cost for a CSA could be as high as $200 per machine running Windows XP, and Petri It Knowledgebase Contributing Editor Aidan Finn says that "...the Irish government HSE (health service) and the UK NHS (national health service) have signed agreements. As far as I know [those agreements] start at $1 million and go up from there." So in a nutshell, a CSA would likely be considered only by the largest enterprises who are migrating from Windows XP to a newer OS and whose migration extends past the April 8th, 2014 deadline.

When does Windows XP support end?

On April 8th, 2014. It’s also important to note that Office 2003 support ends on the same date. While Microsoft has announced that is will extend anti-malware protection for Windows XP, the message is clear: Microsoft will no longer be supporting Windows XP, which means that bugs, glitches, and other vulnerabilities will remain perpetually unfixed.

Why is Microsoft so eager to get people off Windows XP?

There are several reasons that Microsoft wants people to migrate off Windows XP, but the biggest is that Windows XP is more than 12 years old, and vast improvements have been made over the years in OS design and development. Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.1 all offer significant upgrades over Windows XP, particularly in the areas of OS security and performance. More cynical system administrators and some critics have pointed to Microsoft’s struggles with Windows 8.1 adoption among both enterprises and consumers, and see Microsoft’s desire to get people to migrate onto their latest client OS in more financial terms. While I personally favor the first reason, there’s no doubt that Microsoft is also seeing Windows XP end of support as a chance to boost the fortunes of Windows 8.1. 

 

Does this mean Windows XP will stop working on April 8th, 2014?

Windows XP will continue to function normally after the end of support date, although there does seem to be a fair amount of mis-information on the Internet about this. For example, Google search volumes for "Windows XP end of life" outnumber "Windows XP end of support" by a fair amount.

Will Windows XP still get security updates?

Microsoft has said that Windows XP will no longer be updated or patched, and that includes security updates. That said, Microsoft has extended anti-malware protection for Windows XP up to July 14, 2015. And see my note about CSA agreements with Microsoft earlier in this post.

How many computers are still running Windows XP?

As stated earlier, data from Net Market Share indicates there were more than 29% of PCs throughout the world still running  various editions of the Windows XP operating system in February 2014. The Register has reported that more than 500 million PCs are still running Windows XP, which is worrisome from a global IT security perspective.

Why aren’t people migrating off Windows XP?

There are many reasons why some consumers and businesses haven’t migrated off of Windows XP, and I’ll list some of them below.

• Existing PCs are too old to run newer OSes
• Limited IT budget for upgrade
• Limited budget for user training for Windows 8.1
• Have business-critical applications that require Windows XP and/or Internet Explorer 6
• Windows XP meets their existing IT needs

What are the risks of sticking with Windows XP?

In operating system terms, Windows XP is a dinosaur. It was designed in an era when smartphones, tablets, streaming media, and many modern technological conveniences simply didn't exist. Even the world wide web was less then a decade old when Windows XP arrived on the scene, so Windows XP simply wasn't designed to take full advantage of all those advancements. Perhaps most importantly, Windows XP will no longer be patched or updated. In the words of Tim Rains, director of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group, running "...Windows XP when the product is obsolete (after support ends), will increase the risk of technology being affected by cybercriminals attempting to do harm." Rains makes a compelling argument on the security front for consumers and admins alike to get off of Windows XP onto a newer OS. Petri contributor Richard Hicks has put together a nice summary of the new security features in Windows 8.1 for those interested in moving to that OS, and even Windows 7 offers a vast improvement over Windows XP on the security front.
 

How do I upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7?

We’ve published a number of how-to articles that cover the upgrade process from Windows XP to Windows 7, so I’ll refer you to the articles listed below.

• Installing Windows XP Mode on Windows 7
• Upgrading from Windows XP Professional to Windows 7 Ultimate
• The Ultimate Guide to Installing Windows 7

How do I migrate from Windows XP to Windows 8?

We’re working on a number of articles that show how you can upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 8.1, and we’ll be posting them here soon. 

If I’m unable to migrate off of Windows XP, what are my options?

As mentioned previously, Windows XP will still continue to work normally after the end of support date passes. I’ve written a separate article that offers some tips and advice on what to do if you’ve decided to stick with Windows XP. Have any questions about Windows XP end of support you'd like us to answer in this article, or would like to comment on why you're not migrating off Windows XP? Feel free to add a comment to this blog post or reach out to me on Twitter or Google+ (see below for contact details).

• Follow Jeff James on Twitter (@jeffjames3) and Google+ (add Jeff to your circles)
• Follow the Petri IT Knowledgebase on Twitter (@petri_co_il)
• Follow us on Facebook and Google+ as well!

See Also: 2013 in Review - Resources for IT Pros

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Did you lose a laptop or smartphone at the hotel? It's theirs now, and the data too.

Hotels Play Finders Keepers with Lost Smartphones and Laptops

Security professionals are human, no different from anybody else. They're just as likely to check out of a hotel without remembering a smartphone charging in the bathroom, or a laptop in the closet. What happens to those abandoned devices? After the recent RSA Conference in San Francisco, Darren Leroux, Senior Director of Product Marketing at WinMagic, decided to find out.

Finders Keepers
After the attendees had scattered to their homes around the world, Leroux called 33 hotels in the area to ask about their policies regarding lost devices. He also asked whether any RSA attendees had left devices behind. Over half of those who responded reported a "finders keepers" policy. After allowing a reasonable time for the owner to lay claim, they eventually hand over the device to the person who found it.
Another quarter reported a policy of donating unclaimed devices to charity. On a positive note, none of the hotels noticed more lost devices than normal during the conference. You can read Leroux's full blog post here.
Losers Weepers
So you lost your laptop at a conference. It probably belonged to the company anyway. You may get a reprimand, but you probably won't have to pay for it. No problem, right?
Actually, there's a big problem, possibly a huge problem, because whoever gets your laptop gets all the data that's on it. Leroux reported that exactly one of the surveyed hotels reported a policy of erasing the contents of a found device before handing it over.
I'm sure most businesses require user accounts on company-owned laptops to be password-protected. However, an employee who has administrator privilege can easily set up automatic login. If you've done that for convenience, you've totally handed over your data to the finder. Even if your account is password-protected, your data is still at risk.
If it was a personal device or laptop you lost, you're on the hook for the replacement cost. You may not have lost corporate secrets, but having some stranger paw through your personal information is creepy. Identity theft? Yeah, that could happen.

Bad Habits
Last month I spoke with Leroux at the RSA Conference concerning another survey. Briefly, the survey showed that employees who don't take care of security at home carry those lax habits into the workplace.
What to do? Well, WinMagic does have a line of products aimed at securing sensitive information. Whole drive encryption combined with enforced backups can also work. And with an antitheft tool like LoJack for Laptops you can remotely wipe data from a lost laptop, and maybe even recover it.
LoJack for Laptops can help protect your personal laptop, too. You might also consider moving your important documents to the cloud and protecting them with a cloud encryption tool like DataLocker SkyCrypt. Data Discover 7.5 will scour your laptop for exposed personal information and help you encrypt, delete, or redact it.

Smartphones Too
Smartphones are even easier to lose than laptops, of course. According to our Mobile Security Analyst Max Eddy, Google's free Android Device Manager is a great product; Bitdefender Anti-Theft is our Editors' Choice in this category. Many general purpose mobile security packages, including those from Bitdefender and Avast include powerful antitheft components.
Got an iOS device? You already have built-in protection of Find My iPhone, but you have to activate it or it won't help. And security enhancements in iOS 7 let you keep the device locked to your account even after a wipe.
People aren't perfect. Laptops (and smartphones) do get lost. But with a little preparation you can ensure that the loss of a device doesn't cause a data disaster.