Archive for September 2010

Is There Any High Competition Website Niches?

September 30, 2010 Advice, e-Marketing 919 comments

It is something that we always heard is that there are so many high competition website niches that you must avoid when creating a website. Those people also say that if you are going to build a website in such a high competition niche, then your website will be never shown on Google first pages. Is this really true? Are there any high competition niches? If they are there why they are said like that? These are some questions that we have to answer.

The Truth about High Competition Niches

We already know that website topics like weight loss, Forex marketing, make money online, computer gaming, mobile phones, and computer accessories (many of them) are mostly categorized as high competitive niches. The reason is that many people are interested in these things and have a better potential of making profits. But the question arises is that if they are already saturated by products and websites then how those who are involved in these areas make profits?

When many website owners fight for a certain limited number of customers, the potential profit tends to be decreased. Then we can expect that many online marketers will give up such niches. But that’s not what really has happened. Still many people start niche websites related to these niches and some of them still make profits too. Then how it can be a high competition niche as those people announces?

No Competition against High Quality!

No matter how furious the competition is, if you are determined to provide high quality products and services you have no competition. If you have high quality products and services there is no something called high competition niches! If you have an extremely informational website you have no competition at all from 99 % of the rival websites. If you have the confidence about what you have to offer, don’t fear about the competition and large numbers.

Can We Beat Giants Only by Quality?

The answer is yes and no! It is difficult to defeat well established rival websites in your niche even you have the best quality content and products in a very short time. It is a matter of time. Also it is how internet works. If you have the persistence definitely you will do it in several years from now. Then how to become a winner in a website niche with higher competition?

Just start in the usual manner. First plan your website. Then target for both very competitive keywords and low competitive keywords at the same time. If you are targeting weight loss, then first try to target for a low competitive keyword such as “acia berry weight loss” that has the main keyword (“weight loss”) included. As your website grows you will eventually be able to target higher competitive keywords.

In this way you have a place to start and enjoy small victories. That will be a real motivation to target higher and reach the top. But don’t forget that everything depends on the quality of your service. If you deliver what people deserve, then they will deliver you what you deserve. So understand the truth about high competition website niches. There is no something like that. Remember no competition against the true quality!

Your Strategy Plan for Building a Website. If You Fail to Plan, Then You Plan to Fail – Part 1

September 22, 2010 Web Designing Guide 1,029 comments

Developing a strategy plan for building a website is very important if you have long term expectations from your website. Properly planning a website is a challenge if you do it yourself without the help of a professional. If you succeed in this step you’ll have a better control over your website. Also you will be able to get the most out of your efforts in the long run. So what are the most important facts you have to analyze before starting your website?

Before explaining it I have to say something. This is going to be a really lengthy article. So I thought to divide this article in to two articles. I hope to publish second part soon.

Strategic Planning For a Website Is Important

1. What is Your Aim of Building the Website?

1.1 To Make Money (Everyone Wants to Be Millionaires. Sorry, Billionaires! )

Many beginners build websites because they want to make money from their efforts. But we have to accept the fact that only a very few of them manage to reach a certain level of income from their websites or blogs. If you have a better plan, then you have a better chance of becoming one of those successful website owners. If your aim is to make money from your website, you should have definite plans about your level of income. No matter if you want $500 per month or $50,000 per month; you should have a clear understanding of how to reach this target. Does your website have the potential of reaching target? If you want $50,000 per month, then it is difficult if you only rely on Adsense or other type of ad revenue. For higher level of income you have to plan for a website with affiliate products or certain type of paid service. This is one important fact you have to consider first.

1.2 To Provide Free Content or Just for Fun

If you interested in providing free content, then you have to think about how you are going to write them. You might want a website just for fun. Because it’s a great way to share your knowledge and help others. Also you may enjoy what other people talk about you and your website. Still you need some thoughts about the future of the website. One day if your website became popular you might be able to do lots of things with it. So be prepared to it.

1.3 Long Term Plan

Do you have long term plans for your website? Within a year you may want to launch a product or add a forum for your website. If you know your targets then it is very easy to adjust your content and website for that before actually launching it. So think what you can do after a year or two.

1.4 Additional Support for an Existing Website

If you develop a website as an assistant site to an existing website, then you have the experience of what’s going on. Then you can develop a proper SEO, content and promotion plan for this new website. It’s always good idea to target a specific niche from your each website for higher search engine rankings. That’s why adding a related website is a good idea for your existing website. If the second website also became successful you may think about another website. So plan for that too.

1.5 Adding a Blog

If you are adding a blog for your website, then it is a new consideration. Blog is a bit different from a website. So you have to think about how to get content and promote it in a proper way.

1.6 Branding

If you are thinking big you may want to develop a new brand. Then you have to provide a unique type of service or content for a better success. Strategy plan for building a website focusing on branding is a bit difficult process. You may need to work hard for it. In this case it is necessary to plan for a professional looking website.

2. How Much You are Going to Spend for Your New Website?

2. 1 Free Website or Paid Hosting?

Another important fact to think is how you are going to spend for your project. How much money can you afford? Do you going to use free services for your website instead of spending money? If have long term plans you need to spent at least for a domain name and a webhost. Otherwise your all efforts may vanish in a minute. If you have a bigger budget then you may think about a better webhost, a premium web template or a web design service.

2.2 Additional Costs

If you are going to launch the website in grand style then you have to think about costs for search engine optimization, promotion costs, etc. For better and quick results you need the help of such services if you are not experienced in those areas.

3. What About the Competition and SEO?

3.1 What is Your Niche and How is the Competition?

Competition is one of the most important facts when you are going to develop a business website for the aim of making money. Even if you have no intention of earning, still you’d better to think about this aspect. If you can target a low competitive niche, then you will have a better chance of getting more traffic and exposure to your website. There’s nothing worse than having a website with thousands of articles but almost no visitors. True thrilling of a website lies on the human interaction. So make a good keyword research to identify low competitive areas and keywords in your website niche and then target those keywords. If you are prepared to fight hard make sure you have enough knowledge or enough support to reach higher rankings.

Be Prepared for the Competition From Other Websites

3.2 Optimizing Your Website for Search Engines

If you expect most of your visitors through search engines you have to target less competitive keywords as mentioned earlier. If you are new to SEO then get the help of a professional or a friend. If you have other plans for generating traffic then you can pay less attention about this. But simply we can’t neglect the importance of search engines if you want a successful website.

4. How you are Going to Build the Website?

4.1 Hiring a Freelancer or a Company

Building a website might be a tough task if you want professional website with lots of additional services involved. But creating a good website is not a big task unless you are going to code it yourself. There are thousands of free tools, templates, services, tutorials, and articles to get enough knowledge about this aspect. But for an established and stable website, hiring a freelancer or a web design company is a good idea. You have to think about initial costs and any recurring costs. Can manage those costs? How you are going to recover your spending? These are the areas you have to address in your strategy plan for building the website.

4.2 Building it Yourself

If you are going to build the website yourself then it is better to create some similar websites for testing purposes. Create a free WordPress blog or Blogger blog and put some content in it. See whether the content, theme and your aims can be matched. Then you are ready to start your website. If you hope to build more websites later I think you have to do it yourself. First attempt is always difficult. But this experience will be quite useful when creating another website later. After several websites you will have a very good understanding about this subject. Then it might be a real money saver for you.

5. Who are the Hosting and Domain Name Providers?

5.1 Is It a Free Blogging or Hosting Platform?

Webhosting is another key area. You might start a free blog or website using a platform like Blogger.com. But for a long term project you need the complete control over your website. Paid host and a domain name is the best option. You can but a domain .com name for just $10 per year and monthly cost for webhosting is around $5 -$10. Use a reliable and trusted company like Hostgator and Bluehost for hosting your website. Remember that developing a website is a long term plan. It has to be there even after 5 or 10 years if you have long term plans. So make a wise decision.

5.2 Is Your Domain Name a New or Existing One?

When planning a website domain name also have a critical importance. Poor domain name might ruin all your efforts. As I mentioned earlier first you need to identify keywords for your website. Then it is great if you can buy a domain name with those keywords included. Make sure to buy a .com, .net or .org domain name. Avoid domain names like .info or .cc. If you want to build trust, you need a very good domain name and a website. It depends on your aims for your website. If you are looking for branding, then get a creative domain name instead of using keywords. If you are going to use an expired domain name make sure that the domain name hasn’t blacklisted in search engines and have a good reputation.

I like to hear your comments and suggestions about this website strategic plan. Come soon for the second part of this article.

Related Articles:

  1. A Complete Website Planning Guide
  2. Building Websites – The Options
  3. Lesson 2: 8 Easy and Quick Ways to Make Money for Beginners and Experts

List of Best Websites that Pay Upfront for Writers

September 17, 2010 Best Websites for Writers, Writing 603 comments

If you are a writer then you may like to know best web sites that pay writers upfront payments. Writing articles for residual income is very time consuming in most cases. You may need several hundred or several thousand articles to go for a considerable income. So writing for websites that pay royalties or upfront payments is always advantageous if you are looking to have a quick income. I have analyzed some of the best websites on internet for writers to make quick and easy money. Google PageRank, Alexa rank, payment details, etc. are also included here. So you can make a better decision before selecting a website that fits your needs.

Writing Articles for Upfront Paying Websites

1. Brighthub.com

Google PageRank - 6
Alexa Traffic Rank - 2120
Acceptance - Users from all countries
Upfront Payments - $10.00 per article
Other Earnings - About $3.00 for each 1000 page views
Payment Method - PayPal
Minimum Payment - $20
Payment Terms - Monthly

Brighthub.com is a relatively new website that has been able to become one of the leading article publishing website on internet. Getting accepted is might be difficult unless you have a proven experience in a certain technical field or as a writer. Payments are quite impressive compared to many similar websites as they pay $10 for each article. First you need to apply for a channel or several channels. Once accepted you can start writing by selecting topics from the writer dashboard. They have a group of channel managers and editors who edit and manage your articles. Brighthub staff is one of the best writing groups in terms of support for their writers. You also get paid for each thousand page views that your articles receive. It is very easy to rank higher with Brighthub articles. So I believe Brighthub.com is one of the best web sites that pay upfront for writers.

2. AssociatedContent.com

Google PageRank - 6
Alexa Traffic Rank - 559
Acceptance - US only for upfront payments. Users from all countries are accepted for page view bonuses
Upfront Payments -$1.00 – $20.00 per article
Other Earnings - $1.50 – $2.00 for each 1000 page views, Referral earnings, Competitions
Payment Method - PayPal
Minimum Payment - No minimum payment
Payment  Terms - Weekly

Associated content (A.C.) is probably the most popular website on internet for writing articles. But they don’t pay upfront payments for non-US writers. But they pay page view bonuses for those writers who are outside USA. One important thing is that you don’t need original articles for page view bonuses as long as they are yours. There is no acceptance process like Brighthub. So you can join and start writing. But articles must be accepted by their editors to get paid. If you are a new writer at A.C. your earnings for articles might be around $2.00 – 4.00. But when you became an established writer, they will pay you more.

3. Helium.com

Google PageRank - 6
Alexa Traffic Rank - 1510
Acceptance - Users from all countries
Upfront Payments - $0.50 – $2.50 per article + $1.00 empty title bonus, Marketplace articles up to $200
Other Earnings - Ad revenue, Marketplace, Referral earnings
Payment Method - PayPal, Check
Minimum Payment - $25 (PayPal), Check (min. $100)
Payment  Terms - Monthly

Helium.com is another free and supportive community for both inexperienced and experienced writers to earn residual income and royalties for their articles. You can create a free account and start writing. You may write almost anything including fiction articles. But some types of articles aren’t eligible for upfront payments including fiction articles. Also if under your title Helium has more than five articles written, then you are not paid for that article. This is a great place for new writers to create a nice online writing profile and showcase their expertise.

4. DemandStudios.com

Google PageRank - 6
Alexa Traffic Rank - 5434
Acceptance -US only
Upfront Payments -$15 (Minimum)
Other Earnings -Ad revenue
Payment Method -PayPal
Minimum Payment - $10
Payment  Terms - Weekly

If you are an experienced US writer then DemandStudios.com may be a useful place for you. Generally payments are better than most of other websites and they also offer ad revenue. But non –US writers can’t write here. Payment method is PayPal and they pay weekly for your content. This is a really good place to have a better full time income unlike many other online writing websites that pay upfront payments.

5. LoveToKnow.com

Google PageRank - 5
Alexa Traffic Rank - 1933
Acceptance - US only
Upfront Payments - $20.00 per article (Minimum)
Other Earnings - No
Payment Method - PayPal
Minimum Payment - $20
Payment  Terms - Monthly

LoveToKnow.com is another US only website that pays higher upfront payments for your content. This seems more family oriented website. So you may write articles related to home, garden, money, business, style, shopping, etc. Quality must be exceptional. So you need to be very careful about the quality of the content.

These are some of the best and leading sites that pay upfront payments for writing articles and getting paid. Before writing a website have a good look at the website and read the help section to understand about it. Then you could be able to decide whether it is suitable for you or not.

I hope to write more on this subject later. Because, many readers have asked about this type of articles. Please come back soon for more content. I like to get your ideas about upfront paying and residual income websites for freelance writers. So that others also can get more information regarding this matter.

Lesson 2: 8 Easy and Quick Ways to Make Money for Beginners and Experts

September 8, 2010 How to Make Money Online 592 comments

There are number of easy and quick ways to make money on internet. But not all of them are capable of making money to replace a general day job. If you seriously looking for a work at home job, then affiliate marketing, selling online, Forex trading, ,blogging , product creation , pay per click advertising, writing, and freelancing are the best ways to make money on internet. But if you work hard, you can succeed in most of the methods have mentioned here. As the second title of the article series of online money making, let’s see what the best ways to make money online are.

Easy and Quick Ways to Make Money

1. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is selling other people’s products for earning commissions. You join affiliate companies and they give you links for various products to promote. Then you can send people to that product through your affiliate link. When they buy products from the affiliate company, you earn a commission. Your commission per product may ranging from several dollars to several thousand depending on the value of the products you are promoting and the affiliate company. This is the best way to make huge amount of money if you eager to learn the basics and work very hard to promote products. This is how almost all the super internet markets make their living.

There’s a variation of affiliate marketing called CPA (cost per action) companies. Instead of actually selling something you can earn commissions for certain actions the customers take such as signing for an offer, completing a survey, etc. This is also very popular type of method for making money. Conversions are typically higher than affiliate sales.

Here are the best affiliate marketing websites and CPA websites you can join without any doubt about the credibility of the company. There are many fraudulent CPA and affiliate marketing companies too. Before joining a company, make sure to read reviews about them. That’s the best method to avoid pitfalls.

Best Affiliate Marketing Websites:

Best CPA Companies:

2. Selling Online

If you are interested in selling goods either online or offline, this is for you. You can create your own virtual store on the internet and sell goods for profits. If you don’t have anything to sell you can buy them at a lower price from retail companies and sell for profit at places like eBay. There are many successful businesses based on places like eBay. You can sell almost anything at eBay. It doesn’t matter it is new or used. These include computer stuff, video games, books, vehicles, electronic items, etc.

Best Places to Sell Goods Online:

3. Forex Trading (Foreign Exchange Trading)

Forex trading is another easy and quick way to make money on the internet. This doesn’t involve much work like other methods but you have to invest money to earn money. But there is a high risk unlike other methods. Higher the investment higher the profits. This is somewhat similar to what happens in the stock exchange where people buy and sell shares of companies. In the Forex trading you buy and sell foreign currencies through broker companies and sell them when the prices of your currencies went high.

I must say that Forex trading is a trillion dollar industry with perfect competition. According to Wikipedia, average daily turnover in global foreign exchange markets is estimated at $3.98 trillion, as of April 2007. Millions of people around the world actually engage in Forex trading. You have to learn the key points carefully and take decisions wisely to succeed in Forex trading.

Best Forex Trading Companies:

4. Blogging

If you are good at writing good content, search engine optimization and promoting your websites, then blogging might be a serious money making opportunity for you. You can start with zero investment or get a paid web host and domain name (best option for a long term plan) to start your blog. Select a less competitive topic for your blog and post content frequently. Optimize your blog for search engines and pay much attention to promote your blog for getting more traffic.

Blogging is a long term investment. If you are consistent at writing content and promoting I’m sure that you can have a very good blog within one year. You can make money from your blog through advertising techniques like Adsense, and affiliate links. Once you are getting lots of traffic you will be able to sell advertising spots and write paid blog posts. If you can start a blog with a long term plan, definitely this is the best way to make money on the internet.

Free Blogging Platforms:

5. Product Creation

You can create an eBook, software, website template package, article packages, etc. and sell them in various places. Many successful internet marketers use product creation as one of their main source of income. The key is to create an extremely valuable product with a long term value. Then you will be able to sell it for years and make a great residual income.

Even if you have no idea about writing eBooks or developing software, you can hire a freelancer to do it for you. Then promote it with a website and include an affiliate program. If it is an eBook ClickBank, Lulu, and Amazon Createspace are best places to create and sell your eBook. Product creation is a onetime investment. It is very hard in the beginning, but much profitable in the long run.

Top Resources for Product Creators:

6. Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)

If you want to make money without spending your time to build websites, write content, and promote products, then this is for you. But you have to spent money for advertising. You can join some affiliate programs and use a pay per click advertising program like Google Adwords or Facebook advertising to send traffic to your affiliate products. This is an easy and quick way to make money on internet if you are willing to spent money for making money.

Google Adsense is the reverse of pay per click advertising. Instead of displaying other your ads, you can display other people’s ads on your website and earn a small percentage of money when someone clicks on your ads. Other similar programs are Konterra, Chitika and Adbrite, etc.

Leading PPC Programs:

7. Writing

There are immense opportunities for writers to make from internet. You need to be perfect in English knowledge to get started writing for some of the leading websites. But if you are a talented writer and know where to find opportunities, believe me; you can easily make more than what you earn from a general day job. Even if you are a non English writer, still there are so many chances to find great writing opportunities.

As a writer you can write almost anything depending on the website you are providing content. Articles (technical, non technical), fiction writing, novels, poems, short summaries, eBooks, letters, reports, research papers, jokes, reviews , answers, forum posts, and epiphany are some of the main types of writings you can create. If you are an expert in a certain field or an excellent writer, then you have to select magazine writing and niche websites as they pay well for great content.

One thing to remember is that people are always hungry for information. 42% of global internet users spent their time for viewing content. People are always looking for valuable and interesting content. If you can feed them well, you can make money too. Have a look at these best websites for writers to start providing content.

Best Websites to Writing Articles:

8. Freelancing

If you have special skills like writing, programming, web designing, technical specialties (engineering designing etc.), search engine optimization, website promotion, etc. then you can provide your service for thousands of customers at freelance websites. The key is to create an attractive profile for attracting customers. Winning your first assignment (bid) is the first challenge. After that you can get more works and make money by completing assignments regularly.

Best Freelancing Websites:

These are the most effective, easy and quick ways to make money on internet. Easy means the methods are easy to understand, get start and to follow. But serious money making is never going to be easy. It always involves lots of hard work, time and effort. If you really want to know easy and quick ways for making money online (but not effective as these methods) please come back for the next of this article series.

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