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I get dumbfounded. Another dozen “Sizzling Niche PLR Package” type offers float into my inbox. I suspect the niche markets they’re in aren’t quite all they’re made out to be. I do my usual check – crunching the numbers in overture, looking at the big ticket affiliate programs on offer and browsing over typical Overture/Adsense contextual payouts.

I shake my head in dismay. Click. Get into my trash where you belong.

The thing is I’ve been an internet business entrepreneur for years. I know how to separate the chaff from the wheat. Most newbies don’t and that’s worrying. That’s the point of this article – I want to share with you *exactly* how to analyse any and every niche market so that you can do your own research and never be tricked by another niche package that’s been developed by some greedy fly-by-night merchant that’s just cashing in on the PLR craze.

If you’re about to set-up a niche online business, for the first time or not, you must research the following very thoroughly before whipping out your credit card and buying the first niche package with private label rights that comes your way.

Here are some of the broad techniques that I use to analyse any potential niche that I’m considering entry into. If at least four of the five aren’t right, I’ll walk and move on to the next niche on my list.

(1) It All Starts With The Back-End & Existing Income Generating Opportunities – Do They Exist?

I’ve seen it all. Niche packages on internet marketing, pet grooming, how to make your own candles… the list goes on. With any potential niche you MUST start with the back-end opportunities that are available to you. By this I mean the additional income generation methods once you make the first eBook sale or after you get your prospect to the website. You’re not going to get rich on $29 book sales so you need to find some additional items that would interest your prospects. Here are some things you must look out for:

- Are There Big Ticket Products? Even if you convert a standard 1% of a $1,000 product (paying half of the sale value in commissions), you’re going to earn $500 from every 100 visitors to your site. Believe me, in some niche markets there are just no big ticket items (either because the niche isn’t big enough to support such a thing or the site infrastructure is not available as the niche operates largely in the old offline world).

- Multitude of products: I like niches that offer a multitude of different products. CD’s eBooks, DVDs, seminars, courses, software, membership sites. It means that there are lots of unique products to offer your prospects. In some niche markets there may be only one or two established packages for potential customers… they’ve seen it all before, may already have it and your chances of making that back end sale gets much tougher.

(2) Show Me The Numbers – OVERTURE!

There’s a debate with some online celebrities as to whether “numbers” matter – by that I mean the number of prospects in any given niche. I don’t want to perch on the fence. While I do think it’s possible to operate profitably in some smaller niche markets, I much prefer BIG ones. Niche industries that have a pool of prospects that number in the millions or even the billions. There’s just a certain comfort knowing that your niche enjoys that sort of demand and it increases your ability to create sub-products, put a spin on your products to target sub-niches and so on. That’s why I love niche markets such as investment & finance, real estate and travel – the numbers alone mean you have a fair chance of success.

(3) Cash Rich Prospects – Don’t Try To Sell A Porsche To A Beggar.

I don’t wish to sound insensitive with this but I’m here to try and help you make money – not win an award for humanitarian of the year. The simple fact is that if you want to make money, you need to sell to people who have money. That’s just basic common sense but you’d be surprised at the number of people who do not even consider this factor before jumping into a niche that has limited cash backing. Now combine a market that has MILLIONS of cash rich prospects and now you’re in a prosperous niche. People in such niches usually pay good money, often without too much thought. For example in the stock market and real estate niche market it’s common to spend $5,000 to attend a seminar and some real estate investors will splash out $300+ on the fly just to view a property that’s abroad (very common in the UK where cash rich investors jet off to Spain/Bulgaria/Portugal etc to inspect a potential buy). This is the sort of prospect you want to sell to.

(4) What Do Advertisers Pay To Advertise In Adsense/Overture? How Many Advertisers Are There?

I like contextual advertising – Google Adsense. Some people have been comically predicting the death of Adsense. Check Googles stock price and you’ll find that these people probably have IQ issues. See, in *their niche* (probably internet marketing) Adsense incomes may be on a short term downtrend so of course some set off into a magnificent panic while others sell hyped up reports to exploit the situation. Actually, Adsense in the internet marketing field isn’t all that great – the payouts to publishers can be low (though not always – I’ve had mixed results myself). In other markets it’s brilliant. In real estate returns of $5+ per click are not uncommon. In the investment niche it can be $8+. In these niches Adsense becomes your best friend – it also has an overwhelming ad stock inventory for popular niches and the ads are highly targeted – for example one of my niche sites reviews the Maldives as a luxury holiday destination including a page on each specific resort (eg Hilton). Thanks to Google Adsense, when a visitor comes to the Hilton review they are offered an ad that takes them to the Hilton resort (similar on many other resorts too). This is great for the advertiser, great for the publisher (me) and very convenient for the visitor. Everyone wins.

I divert somewhat – when you analyse a niche the point is that you should not only check that the bid values are high, but also that there are a fairly high number of advertisers (more competition means bigger bids means bigger commissions). In some small or unfancied niches there just aren’t enough advertisers. Why? Because the prospect base is either very small, has no money (or both).

(5) Pay Per Lead? We Love It…

I believe we’re going to see a lot more about Pay Per Leads in the near future. This is when you get paid for a particular action made by your visitor to the advertiser. Typically it means they fill out a short form, or download an eBook, or set up a free membership – the visitor doesn’t have to buy anything. Pay per lead can be very lucrative, particularly in industries such as real estate and foreclosures. I’ve seen some of these niches offering $5 to $20 per lead that you send them. Why? Because just one lead that goes on to buy a property or use their services can bring in several thousands or even hundreds of thousands for them in income. What’s $20 to get in that type of business?

Another big plus point about pay per lead is that once you know how to wield your own content with it the response rate can be explosive. For instance it’s quite easy to write an article on making money through foreclosures, and then prompting your prospects to take action by downloading a free eBook on foreclosures (for which you get paid $5 per download).

The above is the same basic blueprint I use to investigate my niches and I really urge you to do the same. Next time you see one of those junk PLR products trying to get you to pay money for content that has no potential or future you’ll be able to pick it out and trash it yourself.

Happy niche hunting!

Many people mistakenly believe that all home businesses will hit the ground running. Just like any other company or store, a home business requires the same things from an owner: capital investment, time, effort, diligence, interest, and so forth. More importantly, if you’re not willing to make the necessary adjustments and changes, it’s very unlikely that your home business will succeed.

5 Preparation Tips for a Successful Home Business
Are you truly committed to attaining success for your home business? If so, be prepared to make the following changes.

The main appeal of home businesses to most people is its personalized touch. Most products of home businesses are either handcrafted or homemade. These products are the result of a labor of love rather than machines. It’s what drives their prices up, and if you’re not ready to do the same for your home business – you’re going to find it very hard to market your products anywhere.

In relation to that, home businesses must be unique. You need to dedicate a good amount of your time prior to opening up your home business in thinking of any way that would distinguish your home business from all others.

Flexibility is one of the key advantages of home businesses over its bigger rivals, and your home business has to show their ability to become flexible as well. There are various ways that a home business could be flexible where a large company wouldn’t be able to. Your home business could focus on one or multiple ways, depending on your preferences and capabilities.

It could be flexible with its payment method. Since a home business is almost always small in size, you have the opportunity to build a solid relationship with your suppliers, partners, and clients.

The strong foundation of trust between both of you allows for uncommon payment methods. Whereas any company would never dream of sending the goods first before receiving payment – you could afford to do that because you personally know your clients.

Customizing options are also a must for almost all home businesses. With bigger rivals, designs of their products are rarely customizable since they are already pre-made. Home businesses, however, can’t afford to have large stocks in inventory. Most of their products are sold on a by-order basis, but they compensate with the waiting period by allowing clients to customize certain features like the color and design of their product. This may seem like a small thing, but it truly means a lot to clients!

Home businesses more often than not find success in the Internet. It’s through the Internet that they’re able to get much needed exposure and have the chance to stand on equal ground with older and bigger rivals. It’s there that they’re able to expand in size and number.

If you want your home business to succeed, you must be willing to invest in learning how things work in the Internet. You must understand how search engine optimization (SEO) works and use it when creating your own website.

Last but not the least, always remember that home businesses start with you: at its first stages of operation, it’s important that you personally oversee your home business. Hiring help is okay, but delegating everything to them is not. The time for delegating will soon come – you don’t have to worry about that – but for now, it’s your own blood and sweat that’s going to make your home business progress.

If you’re blogging on the Wordpress platform, I’ll bet my entire life savings that the first thing you ever did was try to install a new Wordpress theme. I’ll bet my future earnings that even today you’re still occasionally changing themes and wasting a lot of time doing minor modifications that when summed up merely distracts you from blogging itself.

Yet, it’s easy to understand why themes beg for so much attention. With the correct theme, you can accommodate all the nifty little widgets and codes, and may also mean better search engine rankings and tons of fresh traffic every day.

So what factors do you need to consider to make this whole theme-hunting business easier? Here are five important ones:

1) Theme Width and Columns

Typically, Wordpress themes come in 2-column or 3-column formats, with widths ranging from 500 pixels to 960 pixels wide. If you’re blogging for non-profit purposes, a 2-column theme can look more compact and reader-friendly. Since you have less images of products or links to other sites to display, you can focus exclusively on the content without leading readers away from your site.

On the other hand, if you’re blogging for profit, you may want to consider a 3-column Wordpress theme that will be able to accommodate your Google Adsense, Chitika and Text Link Ads codes comfortably without squeezing everything in the content area. 3-column themes allow room for expansion, but in the event that you’ve filled up all available space with ads, then it’s time you removed the non-performers and use only the advertising services that work for that particular blog.

2) Use of Images and Icons

A theme with images and icons can look good, but it rarely increases your web traffic or subscriber base. In fact, most “A-list” bloggers have plain vanilla themes with a simple logo on top. Reducing the amount of images also means faster loading time and less stress on your servers. This vital aspect of server load become apparent only if you have tens of thousands of visitors a day, but it’s worth designing for the future.

A image-laden theme also distracts readers from the content itself. This is the reason why blogs like Engadget and Tech Crunch use images intensively in the content areas to add value to a post, but the theme itself is simple and rather minimalist.

Ideally, a theme should allow you to use your own header image for stronger branding purposes, yet replace images and icons with links and text, or just not use them at all unless absolutely necessary.

3) Compatibility with Plugins

Another time-sucking activity is installing plugins that improve the functionality of your site. There’s a plugin out there for almost everything you want to do with your blog, but while most of them  are free and easily obtainable, it’s not always easy to install the plugins and insert the codes into your Wordpress theme.

If your theme is too complicated, it may be a headache to even insert that one line of code you need to make a plugin work. This is often the case with advanced AJAX-based Wordpress themes that have too many files and heavy coding. I’ve always preferred a simpler themes that stick to the default Wordpress theme as much as possible, so I can cut back on the learning curve and just get on with my life.

Remember that the purpose of your blog is to deliver timely, relevant content to your readers, Any theme that preserves or improves the reader experience is good, any theme that subtracts from the experience is bad.

4) Search Engine Optimization

A lot can be said about search engine optimization, but at the end of the day if you have content worth reading eventually you’ll get the rankings you deserve. However, that doesn’t mean that you don’t need SEO; it merely means that as far as optimization is concerned all you really need to do is to make sure:

(a) Your  tags are formatted properly, with the name of the post first followed by the name of the blog – some themes can do this automatically without modification to the code or use of a plugin

(b) All your blog content titles use the H1 tag, with the main keywords used instead of non-descriptive text for better SEO relevance

(b) Your theme has clean source codes, and if possible all formatting is linked to an external CSS file which you can edit independently

5) Plug-And-Play Ease of Use

Can the theme be installed easily on an existing blog without having to move things around? Can the same theme be used and customized easily on your other blogs? These are some additional things you may want to consider when theme-shopping, especially if every minute of downtime on your blog may mean lost revenue.

While it’s hard to make comparisons due to the sheer amount of free and paid themes out there, it’s still a good idea to have a test blog site. Test any theme you plan on using, and make sure your test blog is also fitted with all the plugins and miscellaneous widgets used on your real blog. The last thing you want is for your readers start seeing weird error messages on your blog.

At the end of the day, a theme is just a theme. Instead of spending your time installing them, it may be wiser to outsource the task and focus more on your readers. Alternatively, you may also want to consider buying “plug-and-play” themes for a reasonable price. Dennis De’ Bernardy of ProWordpress.com has probably one of the best themes around, but if you’re short on cash there are certainly cheaper alternatives.

What’s a Feed?
Feeds are a way of sharing content. When you make material from your web site, like articles and blogs, available for publishing on other sites, you have to provide them with a code that lets them post those things. There are different kinds of code — XML, RSS, Atom, etc. — but essentially, they’re all just different ways of accessing a feed.

According to Internet expert Sydney Johnston, of http://Auction-Genius-Course.com, “The great thing about a feed is everybody wins.” The article writer gains exposure, the reader learns about something valuable or interesting, and the online seller gets an endless source of pertinent content for their web site.

What Can a Feed Do for My Online Business?
Feeds are useful in a number of different ways:

• They Eliminate Spam Filters.
They’re 100% opt-in, so readers can subscribe and unsubscribe at will. Feeds are delivered directly to your subscribers, so you don’t have to contend with filters knocking you out of your customers’ inboxes.

• They Provide Free Content.
One of the best ways to differentiate your site is with quality content. Supply readers with interesting material; educate them on topics relating to the product you’re selling. If you sell preschool toys, you may not want to study child development and write numerous articles on the subject — so find someone else who’s already done that and make their feed available to your customers. The constantly updating, applicable subject matter gives your visitors a reason to come back again and again.

• They Can Improve Your Search Engine Rankings.
In the past, search engines were unable to read feeds, but software is now available to translate them into live links the engines can see (check out http://CyberWS.com). Search engines love fresh, dynamic content, so feeds are ideal. They provide relevant information that updates automatically. Not only do your customers get the facts they’re looking for, but the search engines like your site and give it better positioning.

• For Affiliate Marketers, They’re an Alternative to Banners.
You not only give your customer valuable knowledge, but if they click through and purchase something, you get credit. And unlike with banners, you don’t look like you’re putting up junk ads or spam.

• They Can Increase Your Traffic.
Anything you write, you should make available as a feed. When other sites pick it up, it’s free advertising for you. All their traffic is able to click through the feed to your site, so you gain new potential customers you wouldn’t have otherwise.

Feeds on any subject are easy to find. There’s a whole collection of search engines created just for feeds, like http://Plazoo.com and http://Feedster.com. Says Johnston, “The future of the Internet for entrepreneurs is feeds. If people don’t master them, they’re going to get left behind. Period.”