The next step after figuring out what type of business you want to build is figuring out what business you should be in. Even though very few people cover it, it’s important to take the steps outlined in that post, because you might find some businesses just don’t fit the mold you want. For example, on the next few posts you’ll see that I like to research my market first and see what the competitors are doing.
What if I have an idea for a business, but when I look in the top ten of the Google results (both free and paid) and notice every single one of them has a phone sales process? They collect leads and have people follow-up in a long series to make the sale. If I have a growth maven personality, that’s fine. I’ll build up my in house sales team and build that business.
But if I’m the lifestyle guru type, that means I’ll likely have to team up with an outside call center. More than likely I’d need to partner with a call center to go deeper in this project. If I don’t have a contact to help me set this up, this likely isn’t a business concept I’ll pursue on day one.
The business model needed in that market is important to what you choose. When you look at your competition (top ten in Google and then on the Adwords side), whatever you see is likely what you will have to build to be successful in this field. Of course you can innovate and bring in new ideas, but consider your future business by what you see today. It’s the most practical and honest way to look at what your future holds.
In addition, are you passionate about the subject? Notice I didn’t ask if you’re a premier expert on the subject.
You don’t have to be “the expert” today, because your expertise will grow in anything you focus on for years. And that’s the key, remember you will be dealing with this subject for years to come. This means more than anything else that you must have a native curiosity about the subject. You’re curious and want to keep digging.
Let’s say you want to create an information product in the subject (my favorite business model). You don’t have to be the expert to create the product. You could find a collection of experts and do an interview series.
I’ve done many products as interviews both in doing a group of different experts and also digging in deep with one expert. For example I did an 4 hour interview with Fred Gleeck on how to do interviews.
Was I the expert there? No. But I was very curious about the subject. I wanted to find out how to improve my interviewing skills, and he has done over 700 products based on interviews.
That means he is a premier expert on that subject. And I wanted to know more. So I took advantage of my curiosity for the subject and really dug in deep to find out every step in the process. Now I sell that as one of my products (he does also).
But doing a one off product and studying a subject for years are two different things. What subjects have ALREADY interested you for years or will you stay interested in the future? Make a list of work experience, hobbies, and interests.
Make a list of what you’d love to be able to study intensively for years…such as if you were going to college on the subject. Although your school is going to be the school of life here the commitment is very similar. What is it you want to “major in” for your business?
Unless you’ve already chosen your subject, make your list now. This report will be waiting for you until you get back. Pull out a blank sheet of paper and write all your ideas down. DON’T judge them yet. Nothing should be marked out at this point. Just let all the ideas flow using your work experience, hobbies, and interests as guides. Use the judge of curiosity as the road map. Do it now.
OK. You’re back now. Hopefully you did your first assignment and you have a list of possibilities (none of which have been marked off yet). Next you’ll ask yourself the question, “What value can I add to the world?”
Add Value to the World
“When I chased after money, I never had enough. When I got my life on purpose and focused on giving of myself and everything that arrived into my life, then I was prosperous.”
Wayne Dyer
How can you best add value to the world? You’re a unique person. There is no one else just like you. You have skills and gifts no one else has. You have passion and energy that is unique to you. There are things that get you fired up that don’t excite others around you.
And you’re here for a purpose…not just to make money. Working night and day to build the momentum in your business won’t be worth it if it’s only about the money. It has to be about something deeper if you want to last. It has to be not just about what you can produce for yourself and your family, but also what you can do for your customers and clients.
What unique value can you offer the world? That’s what makes the internet so exciting. Your business isn’t limited just to your local area. It is a worldwide business you can run from your kitchen table. And there are people out there searching for the value you can provide.
Have you heard about all the “Google slaps?” People call it a Google slap when Google goes through and eliminates a group of advertisers by raising their bid prices to a ridiculous level like $10 per visitor. Usually when Google does this, they do it to a whole series of advertisers at once. For example, several times they seem to have targeted affiliates.
Was it all affiliates who were targeted? Nope. They targeted all those affiliates who Google feels were NOT adding value to the transaction. If the affiliate simply linked over to their merchant, they didn’t see that as adding value to the transaction. What did Google want? They wanted affiliates who added their own unique slants, content, and value before the click.
Their goal isn’t just to have advertisers. It’s to have advertisers who help their searchers find what they’re looking for. Google has a long-term view that we need to model in our own businesses. They could have continued taking those advertiser’s money and kept the bid prices higher.
Instead they canceled all those advertisers because in the long-term the best course of action is helping the end searcher find what they want. They’re looking for value. You’re the one to give it to them.
What knowledge in your life can you share with others? What curiosity can you build on to empower the world? What is that you’re passionate to talk about to all your friends? What value has been put into your life that is the key to your online business?
Here’s another exercise. Contact 5 to 20 of your friends/coworkers. Ask them what skills they see as coming naturally to you. Ask them what they rely on you for. You can send them over an email so it’s a little less scary to ask for this response. You’ll find that often other people are better at spotting your strengths than you are.
The majority of us are “too humble” to see our strengths. You’ll find as you start marketing whatever products and services you choose that one of the biggest motivators in almost every market is low self-esteem.
People buy products to feel good about themselves. The beauty product makes them feel beautiful again. The “make money online” manual gives them hope and confidence in themselves. Even the video game manual helps them pawn the noobs (win the game). I guess I could write it, “pwn da noobs.”
Your lack of self-esteem will get in the way here also. So ask your friends and co-workers. Let them describe to you what value you can provide the world. The likelihood is they won’t give you the complete solution, but they will give you some direction and a few clues to what you can follow.
I’m not someone who says, “Do what you love and the money will follow.” I’d really like to say that, but it’s not always true. What I found is what you love often becomes a PORTION of your business, not the whole thing. Sometimes you still have to do some things you don’t enjoy – at least until you can afford to outsource it.
You have to balance all these principles together. Will it fit your personality and business style? Do you have a natural curiosity toward the subject? What value can you provide to others? And are others making money from it today? For example, a lot of people love to be artists. But what if you don’t have the talent (value you provide to others) or what if you do have the talent but you just love painting? If I told you to do what you love (paint), and the money would follow.
That would mean you don’t have to market. Most people who love art don’t love to market, yet that’s a requirement if you want to be profitable.
Accept the facts. You can build a business around a subject you have passion for and something you enjoy doing, but it’s likely you’ll have aspects to the business you don’t enjoy. Some of those aspects like bookkeeping can be outsourced (or hired) from day one. Other aspects like the marketing will often require your participation at least during the initial growth phase.
Now onto to profitability. I don’t ever like being the pioneer in a brand new market. Several times while researching a market I was extremely excited when I found there weren’t any Google Adwords ads. The market was “wide open.” What I later learned in both of these situations is there was a reason there wasn’t anyone advertising there. The visitors wouldn’t buy. They wouldn’t subscribe. And they were a waste of money.
That’s why I told you earlier that you need to figure out what business models are succeeding in a field. If your goal is simply to sell low cost ebooks (maybe you love writing those) but you can’t find any ebooks that can afford to advertise on Google Adwords or aren’t listed well in the Clickbank marketplace, then you might be in the danger zone.
I like to spend some time looking to see what’s already selling. Here’s where you go to do your homework:
1. https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
2. http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace.htm
3. https://www.paypal.com/shops
4. http://pulse.ebay.com/
5. http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/
All the above links help you find what is ALREADY selling. On the Google keyword tool, you can find out what people are searching for. When you’re searching for potential keyword phrases, also try adding in a few modifiers like review, buy, purchase, shop, or even ebook. All of those phrases mean someone is looking for purchase something.
For example, if I sell camcorders (or am an affiliate for camcorders), I might look for a keyword phrase such as “Canon HV40 review” because it definitely means someone is considering buying this camcorder soon. Or someone could be looking for “online video ebook” which means they’re looking to spend money to learn how to do online video.
The Clickbank marketplace allows you to search in categories and by keyword phrase to find what digital products are being sold. In addition, they allow you to search by gravity score. While Clickbank uses a complex scoring system for their gravity score (basically each separate affiliate making a sale counts as a point but those points degrade over time), on average higher gravity scores means more affiliates are making sales for those products. So when I’m researching the market I like to look for higher gravity scores as proof those products are selling well.
Paypal Shops allows you to see how many Paypal sales a store has made. So if you go to a website selling fishing lures and it shows that they have 5,000+ transactions, you know they’re doing a lot of sales (as Paypal can’t track other sales if they use other payment processors or have their own merchant account). Again look for subjects that have a good amount of sales to prove that the business model is effective.
On eBay you can find out what the hot items are. A majority of these products will be physical products with a very small margin on them (eBay attracts bargain shoppers), but even if you’re planning on a doing an information product you can still see what industries and subjects are hot sellers on eBay. In addition you will find some information products that make it into this list. Choose category “Books” and then “Nonfiction” to find out what big nonfiction books are selling.
Over on Amazon you can find the bestsellers in any category. Normally I start in the book section to see what book sellers are hot (if people are buying one book they will buy others). I also will search other categories for potential ideas. For example if I had a site about camcorders I’d definitely be looking in the best sellers for electronics to find out what I should cover. You can find out a LOT about what people are really buying online by spending a good amount of time in the Amazon best sellers section. Even if you don’t sell any products of your own, you will still sell affiliate products from others and need to know what’s selling.
