When you start to get interested in starting an online home business, it is tremendously easy to lose focus. There are so many ways to go about it, so many models, a ton of “gurus” hawking this or that method “guaranteed” to bring you fame and fortune… it’s hard to know which way to turn.

And, in fact, this distraction and overwhelm is probably THE main reason why people fail at home business. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You CAN succeed. But focus… laser focus… is the key to success.

One of the best ways I know to stay focused is with a free program called Simpleology. It’s from one of the original internet marketing gurus, Mark Joyner. Mark’s a great visionary on the Internet, but he’s also just an all-around great guy who truly seems to have a mission to help people succeed.

What is Simpleology? Well, it’s kind of a goal-setting program, but that’s not really an adequate explanation. The best way to understand it is to sign up for a free account and just experience it:

Get your free Simpleology account here

But, in a nutshell, it’s a 15-minute daily program for focusing on what’s most important to you and then marching in a straight line towards those goals. There’s a manual to help you, but there are also animated videos that are quick to watch (most are under 3 or 4 minutes long), but that really bring the messages home. It’s also a learning program, I guess you’d say, that teaches you how to succeed.

As I said, it doesn’t cost anything to become a basic Simpleology member. You get full access from the get go to everything Simpleology 101 has to offer, and it’s a lot. Once you graduate from that course (which does take a while), you have the option of buying into the more advanced courses, but if you don’t want to do that, you don’t have to. You can continue to use the free Simpleology tools and system forever.

The system comes with downloadable software. I have to say, I haven’t really found that to be particularly useful and I don’t like it cluttering up my task bar. But you might feel differently. It’s optional and the system still works well even if you just stick with the web-based tools as I have.

So, if you’ve ever felt frustrated by your inability to get things done, whether in a home business or in any other area of your life, I really encourage you to check out Simpleology. It offers huge value for a free program, trust me. You’d be foolish to pass up such a valuable learning and focusing system.

Check out Simpleology NOW – For Free!

To your success,

Well, it’s been a while since I posted here, but that’s because this next step has been taking Jim quite a while to do. But it’s such an important one, I don’t want to rush him. Developing your keyword-supported site plan is essential to the future success of your site.

Here’s an overview of the steps involved:

• Brainstorm the topics and subtopics you want to cover in relation to your niche concept
• Organize these ideas into logical “chapters” and “subchapters”
• Find profitable in demand keywords (I recommend 3 per page) to match your planned content on each of the topic and subtopic pages

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? It’s not, though. So take your time with it.

When Jim’s finally ready to move on, I’ll post another installment here…

To you success,

Today, we’ll examine finalizing your niche and choosing a domain name. It’s important not to do this too quickly. In Jim’s initial keyword research, he proved his niche concept. In other words, he validated that there is sufficient demand in his topic. He also confirmed that, though there IS competition, it’s not so great that he has no chance of making his own mark in the niche. Those are important factors.

Next, we need to make sure the niche is robust enough to support the development of at least 50 pages of content on our website. I asked Jim to look at this in a couple of ways…

1. First, do a rough site plan to map out what topics and subtopics you want to cover.
2. Second, look at your keyword list. Can you pick out enough different keywords to support all your topics? If not, do some more research, using lateral searches, etc. to see if you can find enough potentially profitable keywords.

If, like Jim, your site plan and keyword analysis supports the viability of your chosen niche for a content website, you’re good to go. If not, you may need to either widen your focus a bit, or consider an altogether different niche. Conversely, you want to make sure your niche isn’t so broad that it will be hard to truly capture one target audience. You can’t be all things to all people. A tightly focused niche is always going to be your best bet.

So, once Jim had finally chosen a niche, confirmed it is a valid choice for him, and proved it’s robust enough to keep him occupied for some time writing content, I asked him to step back one last time before he leaps and ask himself… “Is this a niche I am excited enough about to stay motivated for a good long time in writing and developing the content?”

Be brutally honest with yourself. If you’re at all lukewarm about your niche topic, then I guarantee you… sooner or later, it’s going to feel like torture to have to keep writing page after page. On the other hand, if you’re especially knowledgeable on the topic and/or filled with passion about it, it’s almost like a labor of love, as the words come flowing out, one page after another.

OK, so Jim assured me that he is indeed passionate about his topic. He has tons of ideas for the site and sees it as an opportunity to launch a sort of grass roots movement. Good for him! I feel excited just listening to him.

So now, we’re ready to start thinking about a domain name for his content site. The first step is to go back to the keyword list and choose a keyword that has great demand and solid profitability potential PLUS is general enough to represent the niche content theme. Once you have that, you’re ready to start thinking of a domain name. A domain should:

• contain your main keyword phrase (maybe even a couple for added strength)
• also say something about what your site offers
• not infringe on any trademarks or copyrighted names

The debate continues to rage over whether to separate words with dashes or underscores or to run them all together. I happen to prefer dashes, as I believe it makes it easier for search engines to pick out the individual words.

When you have some ideas in mind, then go to a domain registrar (GoDaddy.com is my all time favorite!) and find out if your domain name of choice is available. If not, amend it as needed and try again. Just be sure you keep your main keyword!

Jim was successful with his first choice, so he got it registered and was on to the next step… planning a detailed, keyword-supported site plan.

Today, I’ll start to explore Jim’s odyssey to Internet marketing success. As mentioned in my last post, Jim has chosen the online home business model of a content site. It’s one of the easiest methods for a newbie to use and it’s my specialty.

The first step in starting a content site is to select the niche you want to build it around. Content sites must be tightly focused. Too broad a topic will prevent you from getting the search engines to see you as an authority site, an essential designation for success in search engine listings. You’ve heard the adage, “Jack of all trades, master of none?” That applies to a content site too. For a content site to succeed, you have to be seen as a master of a specific topic.

So, the first step in selecting your niche is keyword research. This can serve a couple of purposes:

• If you have no idea what niche you want to use, keyword research can help you hone in on your areas of interest to find one that is shared by lots of other people.
• If you already know what niche you want to use, it can help you prove that you’re not the only one who is interested in the topic.

You MUST prove your concept BEFORE you start building your site. There’s nothing worse than having a passion for a topic, spending weeks or months building your content, and then finding out hardly anyone else on the Web is looking for that information. It doesn’t matter how strongly you feel about the topic; you HAVE to be sure others share your passion, or all your hard work will be for naught.

When you start to look at keywords, you need to keep in mind  3 factors:

1. How much demand is there for the topic? You’re looking for monthly search numbers in the thousands, if possible.
2. How much competition is there, i.e., existing content sites already established?
3. What is the potential profitability (which you can roughly calculate by comparing competition/supply to demand)?

Jim was fortunate… he already had a niche in mind, and his keyword research revealed that it’s viable… tons of demand and very little supply at the moment. So he proved his concept and is now ready to move forward.

By the way, a good keyword research tool is essential. The gold standard is WordTracker and they do have a great free keyword tool: Wordtracker Free Keyword Tool

I find their metrics a bit complex to understand, though. If you’re looking for free, here’s another great free tool, called SearchIt: http://www.searchit.sitesell.com/

But what I use most for my keyword research is also from the same folks who produced SearchIt. It’s part of a robust platform for building super successful content sites, called Site Build It, or SBI for short. One of the key features of SBI is their Brainstormer tool. It quickly provides tons of keyword research data, with easy to understand numbers and flexibility with analysis of the numbers. Check out SBI here.

In the coming installments of this case study, I’ll be talking a lot about the many features of SBI. It’s how I built my main site that this blog appears on, as well as 4 other sites. And it’s extremely newbie friendly, which makes it perfect for Jim too.

That’s it for today. Next time, we’ll look at narrowing down the niche, and selecting a domain name.

To your success,

I thought a great way to educate people on how to succeed in internet marketing of an online home business would be to chronicle a case study, from start to (hopefully) successful finish. I am mentoring a friend of mine, a man named Jim, who is a complete newbie in home-based business on the Web. But he’s watched me grow & succeed over the past 7 years, and he wants in. He’s set himself a goal to make $100K a year by the end of the year so he can quite his J.O.B. (just over broke job) and enjoy total financial freedom.

I believe he can do it. He possesses immense creativity, a strong work ethic and the enthusiasm & motivation he needs to succeed.

The model he has chosen for an online home business is the one I’ve been most successful with… a content site. He has an emerging trend that is a huge passion for him and he’ll be starting a site about that niche topic.

Here are the general steps I’ll be taking him through:

• Researching & selecting a niche
• Planning the content topics & “voice”
• Building an organized and visually-pleasing website
• Optimizing for the search engines
• Driving traffic to the site via free traffic generation strategies
• Building a mailing list
• Adding community through interactivity & perhaps a membership component
• Monetizing the site through a variety of methods, including Google AdSense, affiliate marketing, and selling his own products
• Continuous improvement

As the months go on, you can come back here and read of Jim’s progress. In my next case study post, look for a rundown on the research and niche selection I’m putting Jim through. I guarantee you can learn from watching Jim grow!

To your success,
Kathi