I know how important a well-crafted lead magnet is for generating more traffic to your website, which is why I invited Marie, a graphic designer, writer and founder of SmartLeadMagnets, to share with you the ultimate guide to creating a conversion-optimized lead magnet for your business. Take it away Marie!

I would like to share with you the ultimate guide to creating a conversion-optimized lead magnet. How you do this is vital because simply offering a lead magnet won’t motivate people enough to subscribe.

As a business owner, the most important thing that you can do is create highly relevant content that your readers value. So much so, that it motivates them to provide you with their email address, which will add to your sales funnel.

Valuable content is the kind that grabs your audience’s attention because it offers them information on how to solve a problem that they are having. The first step is to do your research and find out what your audience’s biggest issue is, and what they can do to overcome it. Here’s how you can go about doing that.

Solid Research Leads to Success

Clearly, you cannot assume that you understand what your audience’s issues are without doing any research. If you try to do this, you will waste a lot of time and money. I once did this and I paid the price.

I tried to build a business, without first making sure that I had a solid enough foundation. Do not make the same mistake that I did.

If you’ve got an email list that you’ve already compiled, send out an email asking the recipients what they are struggling the most with. If you don’t have an email list, you can still move forward by engaging in the following strategies.

1. Use Buzzsumo For Research

Buzzsumo is an amazing tool that allows you to view which content is being shared the most. First, collect the keywords that pertain to your industry and niche. Then enter them in the search box and the posts that are being shared the most will appear. The titles, headings, and keywords will reveal which problems your audience needs solutions for and the issues that most concern them.

2. Search Relevant Forums

You can also search online for the most active forums pertaining to your niche. Look through all the topics that are being discussed and narrow down your search to bring up the posts that are getting the most replies. Search for the most popular ones as well. These posts are a virtual goldmine of the types of questions that your audience wants answers to.

3. Use Quora

Quora is a free platform for pinpointing the major obstacles that are facing your market. It allows you to question others on which challenges they are having the most difficulty with. You can also ask what features they are seeking in a product and/or service. Because there are such a huge number of questions being asked on all different topics, Quora can help you a great deal in coming up with lead generation strategies.

4. Use Analytics to Monitor Traffic

Having a tool like Google Analytics is a great way to to track traffic to your webpages, videos, posts and/or downloads. In assessing the data, make note of the type of content that is getting the most activity and ask yourself what problems or challenges you are helping your readers overcome. What solutions do you offer?

Method of Delivery Makes a Difference

When doing your homework, make note of the most popular manner in which your audience consumes their content. There are many different options: podcasts, courses, webinars, eBooks, blog posts, videos, newsletters, etc.

You need to determine which method will most appeal to your audience in delivering your lead generator or magnet. Do whatever you can to offer valuable, relevant content that resonates with your audience, and deliver it via the medium that they find most useful to garner the results that you want.

Critical Elements of An Effective Lead Magnet

Here is what you can do to make your lead generator so tempting, that it’s nearly impossible for people to resist it!

1. It must provide the solution to a problem.

If you want to convert your audience, you’ve got to deliver on the promise spelled out in your title or headline.

2. The more detailed you are, the better.

In order to get conversions, you must be as specific as possible in explaining or describing your solution.

3. Give them a quick taste of success.

Once your audience has consumed your content in whatever medium you’re presenting it in, he or she should be able to immediately go out and apply what they’ve learned to achieve a tangible result.

4. Offer something of “high-perceived value”.

Your prospect must believe that what you’re offering is extremely valuable to them. The easiest way to do this is by offering something of value for FREE. To establish perceived value, assign a dollar amount to what it is that you’re offering for free, and announce the value of your lead generator or magnet right on your opt-in or landing page.

5. Make it easy to read and comprehend

It doesn’t matter what topic you’re discussing or what medium you’re using to deliver your message, your lead generator must be easy to access, comprehend and digest. People have a short attention span, and they’ll just click out and look someplace else. Keep your audience engaged.

Tips To Convert Visitors Into Buyers

Once you have created high quality content that attracts visitors to your website, now you have to find a way to convert your visitors into buyers. Here are some guidelines for how you can boost your conversion rates to the maximum.

1. Write a compelling eye-catching title or headline.

Point out the specific problem that you are promising to solve and describe the benefit. Just naming the problem or pain point is not enough. They must be clear about how this is going to benefit them or they will not sign up.

2. Write your copy in an active, not passive voice.

This keeps your reader’s attention so that they will actually listen to your message. You want them to feel like you’re speaking right to them, so that you will get their full attention and engagement.

3. Be up front and direct.

When describing the problem that you will solve and how your prospective customer will benefit, do not meander. Ensure that your message is perfectly clear, without being confusing. You want your audience to feel confident enough to quickly sign up, in a matter of seconds.

4. Create a sense of urgency.

Unless your audience feels that there is a level of urgency to act, they will have no reason to decide. Tell your audience that you are only going to offer your eBook, for FREE, for a very limited time.

5. Visually represent your brand with your lead generator or magnet.

You want something this important to be well-designed. If you have the talent and time to do this without compromising quality, then go ahead. However, it might be wise to hire a professional to create this for you.

So, there you have it! That is the ultimate guide to creating a conversion-optimized lead magnet. Have you ever created a lead magnet to build your list? What tips do you have for someone starting out?

Marie is a graphic designer, writer and founder of SmartLeadMagnets, a done-for-you lead magnet service that delivers engaging, high-quality content, without the heavy lifting. Have a burning question about lead generation? Click here to get in touch.

This page contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of them, I will receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). I only ever endorse products that I have personally used and benefitted from personally. Thank you for your support!

Let’s talk about online marketing 101: The first rule you MUST know when marketing online.

Online marketing is imperative to the success of an online business. Someone once said, “Ignoring online marketing is like opening a business but not telling anyone.” This statement could not be more true.

It’s no longer a question of “Should I do online marketing?”, but rather, “How do I make sure that I do it effectively?”

With the large amount of information that is available online, consumers have become savvy researchers, who actively engage with content in order to influence their buying decisions.

Research shows that 94% of consumers have done their research online, and have become familiar with your products or services, before they even connect with you.

Are you ready to learn the first rule you MUST know when marketing online? You are one click away from discovering the secret to creating a successful online marketing campaign!

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

[smart_track_player url=”http://www.buzzsprout.com/9299/567339-plm-473-online-marketing-101-the-first-rule-you-must-know-when-marketing-online.mp3″ background=”default” ]

Do you want to learn how to master your online business? CLICK HERE to join my Online Business Mastery Accelerator program!

Let’s dive into the basics of online marketing 101. The end goal of any business is to convert traffic into sales. If you aren’t selling your products or services, your business won't survive.

There are countless ways of getting traffic online, whether that’s from Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, guest posting, press releases, or elsewhere.

Once you attract people to you, you want to direct them to a sales page, which promotes the product or service that you are offering. A campaign like this is most effective if the product that you are selling is less than $100.

In terms of pricing your product, it will depend on the niche or market that you are in. If it’s business or marketing, and it’s around a topic that helps people achieve a certain result, you can charge more.

However, it can be challenging to charge more than $100 in other niches, like health, fitness, or self-development, because the product or service isn’t targeted around a specific result. Whether or not your traffic will convert, and who will buy, is dependent on two factors.

The quality of the traffic

There are three different kinds of traffic – cold, warm, and hot. Cold traffic involves somebody who doesn’t even know who you are. Given that the trust hasn’t been developed yet, they haven’t warmed up to you or your product.

Warm traffic is someone who has already consumed some of your content. They recognize your brand and they have received value from you. Hot traffic is someone who has already purchased something from you or has consumed so much of your content that they are really eager to buy.

This is why I’m a big fan of value-added marketing, which involves adding value, upfront, in the form of free videos, articles, a podcast, a guide, or other forms of content. Adding value is one of the most important strategies that you can utilize in order to acquire and retain more customers, increase awareness of your brand, and differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Bob Hooey said it best – “If you aren't taking care of your customer, your competitor will.” Adding value is what turns people from cold, to warm, to hot, which will then make them more inclined to buy one of your products or services.

The quality of the sales page

The quality of the sales page comes down to the actual offer and the product itself. Do people perceive your product as valuable? Is it worth the cost? Is it adding more value than what you are charging?

In my experience, if you have quality traffic, then regardless of your sales page people are going to buy from you. The buying process will be even smoother if you already have followers and subscribers on your email list. In this case, you can simply direct them to your sales page because trust has already been established.

They have already decided that there is value in following you; so buying is an easy decision for them to make. The reality is that people do business with people that they know, like, trust and value. You could have the best product on the market, but if you aren’t generating leads, your business won’t grow.

The ability to convert traffic into sales is the first rule you MUST know when marketing online. If you can master this rule, you will master your online business.

Do you want to learn how to master your online business? CLICK HERE to join my Online Business Mastery Accelerator program!

Welcome to my in-depth Amazon product research criteria & tutorial! In this video interview, I interview Greg Mercer, the Founder and CEO of Jungle Scout, which is the #1 Amazon product research software on the market. Backed by a remote team of 20+ employees, Greg Mercer has created a collection of amazing tools to empower Amazon sellers, as well as multiple physical product brands.

I am a big fan of Greg’s Jungle Scout software. I’ve used it with my own Amazon product research, and I’ve recommended it to many people, who have gone on to have massive success on Amazon because of it. I’m grateful to be able to interview him again and pick his brain on the topic of Amazon product research.

In this video interview, Greg and I discuss everything from how to get started on Amazon, how to find the best product to sell, the value of product research, to a live training tutorial, where Greg walks you through the many benefits of Jungle Scout, and how to use it. Are you ready to be inspired?

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

[smart_track_player url=”http://www.buzzsprout.com/9299/525013-plm-439-in-depth-amazon-product-research-criteria-tutorial.mp3″ background=”default” ]

Do you want to have access to a tool that will help you master your Amazon product research process? CLICK HERE to receive an exclusive Jungle Scout discount!

This page contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of them, I will receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). I only ever endorse products that I have personally used and benefitted from personally. Thank you for your support!

Amazon has been a huge trend and has grown drastically over the last few years. What do you see as the opportunity that exists today with Amazon? 

To date, the best opportunity on Amazon is still the private label model. There are more sellers on Amazon than ever before, so it’s more competitive. That being said, the good news is that it is still very feasible to create a successful business on Amazon.

When I talk about the private label model, what I’m talking about is finding an opportunity on Amazon, and then finding a supplier for a product. They are generally in China, and you can find them on Alibaba. When I refer to private labelling, I mean that they are already making a product, but you put your brand or label on it to make it yours.

I would strongly argue that this is the best opportunity in the whole entrepreneurial, make money online type of world. I would go so far as to say that Amazon is the best opportunity of this decade. 

Can you talk about the value of product research, and why it's been so important for you?

The biggest hurdle with growing my business when I first started out was with product research. At the time, I was lucky enough to get a few of my products sold, fast, without doing any marketing. Being the engineer, data-driven type person that I am, I thought, “How do I find more opportunities to launch these products, without doing as much work?”

At the time, there wasn’t anything to help with that, and that is how Jungle Scout was born. From that, and from launching more successful products, I’ve been able to figure out which criteria works best. Jungle Scout has data that enables you to make well-informed decisions.

First, you want something with good existing demand on Amazon; that means that people are typing it into the search bar, they are finding it, and they are purchasing it.

Second, you want something with low competition. A great way to gauge the competition is the # of reviews on a listing. My personal rule of thumb is that when I search for main keywords, I want to see multiple listings in the top 10, with fewer than 50 reviews. That signifies that it is a young niche that will be easy for me to organically rank for that keyword, and therefore, make organic sells.

Third, we want something with good margins. I like to sell products that are $18 or more. If you are selling products that are $10 or lower, you aren’t going to make any profit. You don’t know the margins for sure until you connect with suppliers.

Finally, you want to stay away from any product that comes with potential legal issues, like patents, trademarks, etc.

Can you share with people how Jungle Scout came about, and what it does for people?

I'm a numbers-driven guy and the one number that drove me to start Jungle Scout was that I wanted to know how many product listings on Amazon were selling. At the time, there was no good way to figure this out. You are going off of your gut, which I don’t like doing. I wanted to estimate how many units/month a listing was selling on Amazon, and I figured out a way to do that very effectively.

It morphed into a chrome extension, which you can run on any Amazon page that displays products. It gives sellers all of the data that they need in order to make educated decisions as to whether or not a product is good to to sell on Amazon or not.

We also built a web-based application. In the web app you can track any listing on Amazon and it will tell you how many units it sells, in real time. We also have a product database. Essentially, we have e re-built Amazon’s catalogue in a way that’s user friendly for sellers to search through.

You can't go on Amazon and say, “Show me all the products that sell well, that have low competition, and that will make me a lot of money.” That doesn’t exist on Amazon.

Do you want to have access to a tool that will help you master your Amazon product research process? CLICK HERE to receive an exclusive Jungle Scout discount!

What advice would you have for someone that wants to start an Amazon business, but still has a 9-5 job?

I used to be in the same position. I had a full-time job, wife, and other priorities. I get it. I'm a huge fan of just-in-time learning. If you want to take advantage of Amazon right now, do the product research first in order to find the best opportunity, and then find a supplier. The great thing about doing that is that you are building momentum, and then you will be more excited about it and want to work on it more.

What advice would you have for someone that wants to start an Amazon business, but that doesn't have the financial means necessary to do so?

You can start on Amazon for smaller amounts of money. The one thing about selling any physical product is that you do have to invest in inventory, but keep in mind that you don’t have to purchase 1000 units to get started. You can get started with a dozen units, or whatever you can afford. Sell that, make the money, reinvest, and grow from there. You can start for a few hundred bucks.

AT THIS POINT OF OUR INTERVIEW, GREG CONDUCTED AN ONLINE TRAINING SESSION, WHERE HE DID A SCREEN SHARE AND LED US THROUGH EXACTLY HOW JUNGLESCOUT WORKS AND HOW YOU CAN FIND PROFITABLE PRODUCTS ON AMAZON. BE SURE TO WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE TO LEARN MORE!

What advice would you give to someone that is at the beginning stages of their Amazon journey? 

If I think back to when I was starting out, my huge goal was to quit my job. I didn’t like my 9-5 and I had a strong entrepreneurial spirit. I got hung up on reading about so many different strategies on how to get started. I would encourage you to pick one thing, stick with it and dedicate all of your time, effort, and mental energy for the next 6-12 months on it. If you do, I'm confident that you can be successful with it, just like me and thousands of other people have been.

I’m so grateful that I was able to interview Greg Mercer again. I hope this in-depth Amazon product research criteria & tutorial has inspired you to build your own Amazon business. Greg has graciously put together an exclusive discount for followers of PLM that are interested in checking out Jungle Scout. 

His software has helped thousands of people, including myself.  The Amazon world may seem daunting at first, but just commit to starting and work through the process one step at a time. Like anything in life, once you overcome a fear anything is possible. In the words of Nelson Mandela, “It always seems impossible until it's done.” 

Do you want to have access to a tool that will help you master your Amazon product research process? CLICK HERE to receive an exclusive Jungle Scout discount!

To build an online business, you need to identify a NICHE MARKET that you can build your online business around.

There are MILLIONS of niches and markets that exist.

It could be self-development, dog training, meditation, weight loss, guitar, gardening, cooking, raw food, etc…

If you can find a niche market that is related to a PASSION, INTEREST or HOBBY – then you'll have even more of a competitive advantage in the niche or market that you choose.

However, not all niches are the same.  Some are more profitable than others and have a higher potential for earning you money.

In this video blog, I share with you how to find profitable niche markets online to make money from in your online business.

If you're looking for my exact criteria and a step-by-step process, check out my Affiliate Marketing Mastery training program

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

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=> CLICK HERE for Affiliate Marketing Mastery <=

Video transcript

Hey, everyone. This is Stefan from projectlifemastery.com and I've got an awesome video for you guys today. I want to talk to you a little bit about how to find a niche or a market to build your online business around. If you're brand-new wanting to start your own online business, this is one of the first most important steps that you have to take. You’ve got to identify and find the niche, the market, or the industry that you want to be in, the industry that you can build a business around and actually profit from.

The great thing is we live in the world of the internet where there's literally millions of options. There are millions of niches and markets and opportunities and industries that exist that you can build a blog around, your own little website, you can build a YouTube channel, a podcast, you can build your own following and presence on social media, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, your email list in that niche and market.

When you're able to attract people and build your brand in that niche and market, a little following, you get traffic, subscribers, whatever it is, there’s so many ways to monetize that, there are so many ways that you can profit, whether that's affiliate marketing by promoting other products and services that can solve people's problems or meet their needs or a desire that your audience might have in that niche or market.

It could be creating and selling your own products. Maybe that's physical products you might sell on Amazon, physical products that you might create and sell yourself for private label. It might be creating and selling your own information products or digital products or Kindle books on Amazon.

There are so many different ways. Maybe even creating your own service. Maybe there’s a service that you can provide that you can solve people's problems or meet their need or desire in that niche or market. Maybe it's creating software or different tools and resources that can benefit people. Every niche and market are different.  Every niche and market will have its own strategy and game plan of how to build it up and how to actually profit because each one will have a little bit of a different business model to go with it.

Go through a brainstorming process

Now I think the first place to start, and this is often what I recommend for people, is going through a brainstorming process. There's no exact formula or niche that I can just give you and say, “Okay, build a business around this.” I think you want to think about, you want to have a few options to get started with before you decide the niche, the market you want to be in. I think the first place to start is asking yourself what's a passion, a hobby, or an interest that you have.

If you really want to go deep with this, I recommend take out a pen and paper, open a new document on your computer, and brainstorm. Write out everything that you can think of that is a hobby for you, or an interest, or something that you're passionate about. Because if you can build your online business and you actually have an interest or a hobby or a passion associated with it, you're going to have a huge advantage over the long term.

Now a lot of people, some people when they start a business, they primarily focus on making money and searching for a niche or market that they might not have any interest in but it's a good opportunity to make money from. There's nothing wrong with that. I did that when I got started.

The challenge with that is that once you start making money, and you might make more than enough money to cover your lifestyle or expenses, at that point you're going to lose motivation, because you're not really going to be passionate about it, you're not going to have the interest, that desire to really focus on it and work at it and really grow it over the long term, especially with all the ups and downs that you might have to face.

I know for myself I experimented and dabble in all these different niches and markets. I made money online. I did very well. But then I lost all my motivation once I was making enough to cover my expenses and lifestyle because I didn't have any drive to keep spending time. It was tough to get myself up early in the morning and staying up late and stuff. I had some motivation challenges with that because I didn't really have my heart and the desire and the passion and the interest in the niche, in the markets that I was in.

The great thing that came from that is it forced me to think and actually discover my passion and discover different topics and things that really interest me. That's why in 2012 I created Project Life Mastery, because I asked myself, “What's my passion? What do I love?” For me I love self-development, I love improving myself and being the best that I can be, to actualize my potential as a human being.

I love improving myself in all aspects of life, whether that's health and fitness and relationships, motivation, productivity, business, and marketing, and finances and spirituality, all these different areas I love and I’m passionate about. I decided why not create a business around that, why not identify it and jump into this niche and market and really build it.

You don't have to be a guru or expert

The great thing is you don't have to be an expert, you don't have to be a guru. In fact, I don't consider myself to be an expert or a guru. You don't have to know it all or be the best. For me, I just perceived myself as someone that is on this path to mastery in his life. I'm on this journey to being the best that I can be. I don't have all the answers.  I called my brand Project Life Mastery because I approach it as a project. Life Mastery, that's a project for me. It's a never-ending project because I think mastery is a never-ending cycle, a journey that you go through.

For me, I decided I don't have to be the expert, I don't have to know all the answers. But what I can do is I can use the Internet and I can share my experiences. I can share what I'm learning. If other people can benefit from that, great. The problems that I solve in my life, if I can solve these problems, I'm sure there are other people out there that have the same problems, the same challenges, the same needs, and desires.

If I can share what I've learned and share and help save people time and shortcuts and save them money in the process, then awesome. That's basically what I did, is I built my online business around that. Again, not having to be the expert, the know it all, but something just on this path and being transparent and sharing my life and trying to help other people in the process. I think that's the key thing.

If you want to be in the fitness market you don't have to be Arnold Schwarzenegger, you don't have to be a fitness competitor, or a bodybuilder, or anything like that. There are many people that they're just on their own path and journey, and other people want to follow them for that. They can share things that have helped them and help people along the way and build a business that way.

Find your passion and interest and make a list

There's many different industries and markets that exist, but again, ask yourself what is a passion, an interest, a hobby that I have. Make a list. It could be anything guys. Maybe it's weight loss. Maybe you're passionate about that. There are so many potential opportunities that lie within that. There are so many different ways you can market and attract people and make money in that space. Maybe it's building muscle mass. Maybe it's dog training, you love animals. Maybe it's traveling the world and you can build a business.

There are millions of people that all love these things. Millions of people search for weight loss every month. Millions of people search online and are interested in gaining muscle mass, or training their dog to be more obedient, or cooking, or raw food recipes, or different vegan diets and recipes, or photography, or gardening.  There’s millions of people that want to build their own garden, and they're looking to learn from other people and follow other people and maybe look for different products and services that might exist in that niche and market.

Maybe it’s sports. Maybe you love tennis. Maybe you love basketball. Maybe you love badminton or table tennis. I got a friend super successful in the table tennis market, killing it. Maybe it's a musical instrument. I got a friend who’s killing it in the guitar market, how to play guitar. He loves that. That’s his passion and he's built a whole business around that. How cool would it be if you can build a business around your passion, something that you're interested in, or a hobby? You don't have to be super passionate, but at least have an interest in it.

That's going to give you a huge advantage. It’s going to transform your quality of life. You're going to wake up early motivated and excited to spend time in that business. You're going to stay up late at night because you love what you do, you love, and you want to impact people, or you're growing and you have all your needs being met because of the niche or the market that you're in. That's going to give you a huge advantage like no other.

If you can really think and make a list and identify the interest and have a few options, that will help you get started. Maybe you love computers, maybe you love technology. There are many technology and gadgets blogs and websites and YouTube channels that exist. Maybe you love self-development. Maybe you love business. Maybe you love marketing. Maybe you love Facebook marketing or you love Instagram marketing.

Make sure there's a potential to earn money from that

There's a whole industry for that as well. There's spirituality and there’s meditation and there's yoga. Then there's astrology. There are so many different things that exist. Really that's the first place. Make a list. From that list, you want to make sure that whatever opportunity you pursue, whatever niche or market that there’s potential to earn money from that.  That's a key thing because you don't want to just put this time into something and not be able to actually monetize that in some way.

Now the great thing is you can pretty much monetize and make money from anything now if you're getting traffic, because if you're getting traffic that shows there's a demand there, there's a need, a desire. You've got to make sure that there is that. One of the best ways to do that is to do research online to see what other people are doing in that niche or that market. If it's meditation you’d want to look and find other blogs, other websites, other YouTube channels and people on social media. You want to follow them. You want to learn from them.

You want to see what they're doing, because they've already paved the way, they've already shown you what's possible, they’ve already seen how they’re marketing and how they're attracting people and how they're making money and monetizing their business. The Internet, everything is transparent. You can see how everyone's running their business. That can provide you ideas and validation that there's money to be made here and that there's potential for you to make money as well.

That's a really important piece, is doing the research in that niche and market online. Maybe look on Amazon, typing in those keywords to see are there products being sold, are physical products or e-books or whatever, is it a big enough niche on Amazon. Looking on Google, looking on YouTube, looking on iTunes, looking on Facebook, looking on Instagram, typing in these keywords relevant to that niche, that will give you a wealth of information right there.

Monetize with affiliate marketing

Those are the first steps you want to think about. Then you also want to think about the end in mind. What's the back end? How are you going to make money? One thing I teach in my Affiliate Marketing Mastery Training program, and I'll have a link below guys, affiliatemarketingmastery.com. I’ll have a link in the description you guys can check out.

I got a free video series and a training program. I teach, you want to make sure that whatever niche you get into there are potentially different products that you can promote or sell. These are products that you can be an affiliate for. You can promote other people's products because most products on the Internet, they have affiliate programs that anybody can join. You can promote these products. You can send traffic and have links on your blog and social media and YouTube that promote other people's products.

When people click on the affiliate link and they buy, you earn a commission from that. You want to make sure that again there’s profitability, there's potential for that. There are a few products that you can promote or sell to partner with because that will also tell you that there is big enough potential in this market for you to maybe one day create and sell your own products as well.

There's a certain criterion I follow. It’s just a little bit of what I share inside Affiliate Marketing Mastery. I recommend if you guys want to go deeper with this, check out that program because Affiliate Marketing Mastery goes into not just finding that niche but also how to build your business.

Once you find the niche you want to build a brand

You got to register the domain name. You got to make sure it's not trademarked and the .com is available for it. You got to build the blog. You got to get the hosting. You got to install WordPress and get all the right plugins and learn about search engine optimization so you can optimize it.

Then you got to be able to publish content and learning how to create content, and how to optimize your content for the search engines. You got to learn about YouTube if you want to utilize that, and how to create YouTube videos, and how to actually create content that people want, people want to see it or watch it or consume it that adds value because that's what's going to attract people to you.

You got to know how to market your content, how to get it out there and promote it. I know a lot of people, they're in a certain business, but they don't know how to get found, they don't know how to promote themselves and get themselves out there and attract people to get subscribers and followers and traffic. I teach all that stuff.

Then also Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and how to build a following online. Then most importantly, how to actually monetize it and how to make money and promote and market and sell and do it in a way where you're building a legitimate business that will last 10, 20, 30 years from now because you're building a brand. You're not just selling a product or a service. You're building a business. There's a big difference. Everything ties into one another.

If you're publishing a Kindle book on meditation, that's the niche, the market that you're in. There's more potential than just a Kindle book on Amazon. You want to build, okay meditation, I'm going to build a meditation blog, I’m going to build a meditation tips newsletter, I'm going to build a meditation YouTube channel, and I’m going to provide different tips and advice on meditation.

I want to create a Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest and all these different things, Snapchat and build an actual business in that niche rather than just sell a product. Because you build the brand, the business. You can promote your own products, other people's products. You can promote and sell meditation audio mp3s, you can create and sell your own physical meditation stools and chairs and everything associated with that niche in that industry because you're thinking bigger.

Think long-term, not just short-term

Think beyond just the product. You want to think about building a business, building a brand in a niche, and thinking about long-term, not just the short term. If you can think about those things now and those strategies when you identify the niches, the markets you want to be in, and kind of have a business plan long-term and thinking about it that way, that's going to give you a huge advantage.

Hopefully, these tips been able to help you. These are things that have helped me and many other people. But finding something you're passionate, interested, have a desire for, that's always a plus. Not required, but it’s a plus. Profitability. High demand. Competition is always good because the competition tells you can see what other people are doing.

You never want to be the pioneer, though. Pioneers get slaughtered. If you're the first one getting into an industry, there's no one else doing it, that's very risky because you don't know how well it's going to do. Whereas other people have already done it, they have proven the concept for you that there's a niche, a demand there and you don't have to get slaughtered as pioneers often do.

Look at Apple with the iPod. They weren't the first people that created the mp3 player. There are a few other companies, they had their own mp3 players on the market. They ended up getting slaughtered and Apple just came in and just dominated that, because they just had better marketing than everyone else.

Those are a few tips for you. Do some brainstorming, do your research, identify that niche and market. Once you got that man, that's the exciting part, a phase in your business to be in. You should be excited about it. Then it's just taking those next steps to build the blog, the website, the business, and sticking to it.

Thank you guys for watching the video. If you guys want to know more about how to do this, Affiliate Marketing Mastery, that's my course. I got a free video series. Go to affiliatemarketingmastery.com. I’ll have a link below. Head in over there. Check it out. 

You guys will love it. Make sure to leave a comment below. Let me know what you guys think, what niche or market, any questions that you guys have. Hit the Like button if you guys received value today and subscribe for more videos. Thanks for watching.