And of all the ways you could possibly make money online, I think the fastest and easiest way to go from zero to profitability as quickly as possible would be to start a niche store.  This is especially true throughout the holiday season.  I’ve operated several of them for well over a year, and they continue to provide a nice monthly income.  Although they’re fairly easy to set up for someone with a little computer knowledge, they can be tricky for newcomers. The niche store site provides some good reference material to help you get started, but feel free to ask me a question if you get stuck.

I’ve learned some interesting ways to create sites that attract visitors and keep them coming back.  And I continually look for ways to add value to my sites beyond just the products that are available to purchase.  This is very important because anyone can set up these niche stores and compete with you.  You have to find a way to stand out from the crowd.  And you have to know how to get the visitors to your store in the first place.

That’s why from now until the end of the year, I’m going to be offering lots of tips and tricks for getting the most from your online niche store. There are several store scripts out there, so you don’t necessarily have to go with the one I recommend.  In fact, I’ll cover a couple of the others as well.  But I happen to have my preference simply because I think it’s the easiest to set up and maintain.

Go ahead and subscribe to my online niche store blog to be sure to get every tip as I post them.  It’s time for the holidays, and you’ll want to be ready for making some good holiday cash.

Here are a couple of earlier posts that may be helpful as you begin to build your new store:

Choosing a good web host 

Getting content for your niche store

Reasons for starting an online business

Finding good niche keywords

Getting traffic to your online store

Most are Doomed to Failure

Most people that get started will make it through the early stages. They’ll invest a few hundreds bucks in courses, books, and seminars. They might even try the water by throwing up a website. But that’s when the rubber really meets the road, and things start to get interesting. At that point, 99 out of 100 will throw up their hands and say to themselves that it’s impossible. (Note: Thinking something is impossible is a good way to make yourself feel better about giving up on your dreams.)

The Brave Press On

But there are a few that have enough sticktoitiveness to stay the course. Those brave souls will likely face the scrutiny of their peers. They have to listen to the naysayers that will gladly tell them it can’t be done. They have to give up their get-rich-quick fantasies and get their hands dirty in the real world. They’ll have to brave the rushing current of change that occurs on the internet. To stay afloat, they’ll have to learn how to embrace change – and maybe even learn to anticipate it.

Anything is Possible

The benefits of operating an online business are well worth the investment of time and resources.  The ability to work from anywhere there’s an internet connection, a global market for your goods or services, and the ability to automate much of your day to day operations are just a few things that make doing business online so great.

The main thing to remember is that there is great potential to earn money online for anyone willing to acquire the skills necessary.  And in those areas where you may be weak, you can always find a partner or hire others to assist you.

1. Create a blog and use a tool like Feedburner to help you promote it and publish it in a format readable by most RSS readers.  Search engines love fresh content, and blogs are great sources of fresh content.  You can get your site noticed much more quickly with a blog.  If you use the low-competition keyword strategy I outlined in the last post, you’ll already have content full of good keywords.  Getting the search engines to index the content will likely get you a top position for one or more of your selected terms relatively quickly.

2. Post comments on blogs, in forums, and on social media sites.  Include a link back to your site or blog, and the search engines will likely find you.  But be intelligent about this.  Don’t just spam the sites of others for your own benefit.  If you provide value, you’ll reap the benefits.  If you spam, you may get a short-term reward, but you’ll have a hollow victory at best.  And as search engines become ever more sophisticated, you could eventually find your sites removed from their listings.

3. Write a few articles related to the content on your site and include a link back to your site in your author bio.  I’ve used this technique successfully on numerous occasions.  In fact, I like to use this strategy to send traffic to landing pages where I promote various affiliate products. (We’ll talk more about promoting products and services as an affiliate in future posts.)  Submit your articles to sites like EzineArticles.com or GoArticles.com.  When the articles are published, your link must be included.  This not only provides you with publicity, it also provides links back to your website all across the web.

4. Create a video and post it on YouTube.  Include your site URL as a caption at the end of the video.  Some of your viewers will look you up. 

5. Create a Squidoo Lens at Squidoo.com related to your topic.  Provide good, relevant content and include a link back to your site within a list of links to various other related websites.

6. To get traffic flowing to your site quickly and easily, set up a Google AdWords account and pay to have your advertisements displayed in search engine results or on other websites related to the content of your site.  Using AdWords effectively is a topic for another day, but take a look at the program.  If all of your other efforts fail to live up to your expectations, spending a few dollars can get traffic flowing to your new site.

We’ll look at other great ways to get traffic and effective use of AdWords and other PPC systems in a future post.

1. You must know if the niche you want to target actually has a market.  You wouldn’t want to try to sell products in a niche where there was little or no interest.  Remember the online grocery store delivery sites?  It may have been a great idea, but no one was interested. Creating new markets requires time and money.  Unless you have large amounts of both to spare, you should target existing markets.

2. You need to know what customers in your selected niche are searching for.  You may think they’re looking for product A when they’re really looking for products X, Y, and Z.  Or they may really want more information on a specific topic.  If you provide the information, they just might pay your site a visit and make a purchase.

3. You need to know how much competition you will be facing.  You can almost always find something within any given niche with little or no competition.  But if you don’t do the research to find these hidden gold mines, you could very well be competing with some large established online businesses.  I’m not saying you couldn’t compete with the big boys, but if you’re just starting out, it would be much easier to build a following around a specific element of a niche and expand from there.

So, how can you do the necessary keyword research to successfully compete online?  There are dozens of free keyword tools, and there are dozens of sites that provide historical search information.  But, if you’re really serious, you’ll want to buy a subscription to WordTracker.  WordTracker is probably the best keyword research tool available.  The free version of WordTracker is very basic, but it’s a great place to get started.  The paid version offers far more information, so you may eventually want to give it a try.

Okay, so now that you know where to find a few good keyword resources, let’s talk about how to use them.  First of all, you’ll want to begin with some keywords that you have in mind for searching within your niche.  For example, if you’re wanting to create a website about antique tractors, you would begin with the keyword phrase “antique tractors.”  From there, WordTracker will return a list of related terms that your potential visitors might use to find your site.  Along with the words, you’ll get the number of searches made by visitors for each keyword and the projected number of searches for those words over the next 24 hours.  Drilling down, you’ll get information for each of the major search engines, such as the number of competiting web pages for any given keyword.  You’ll also get the KEI (keyword effectiveness index) number, which compares the count of searches for a keyword with the number of competing web pages.  This number helps identify words that you could target with the best chance of getting a top spot in the search engines.

To summarize, don’t fly blind when it comes to creating content for your website.  First, find out what your potential visitors are looking for.  Then find out how much competition you’ll have for your selected keywords.  And finally, create content for publishing on your site that incorporates those keywords that will provide the best chance for getting located by potential visitors.  In an upcoming post, we’ll look at this in more detail.  Plus, we’ll look at some interesting ways to use what you learn from your keyword research to really boost traffic to your sites.

1. Search engines place at least some importance on domain names.  The name is only one component of getting a high position in a search engine’s database for a specific set of keywords, but it’s a good place to start.  So, you’ll probably want to begin with a domain name that includes one of your target keywords.  For example, if you’re creating a site to provide help for packrats, you probably would want to include the word packrats in the domain name.  To help with this, use a free tool like MakeWords.com to create a catchy name using your selected keyword.  And to learn what terms people are using in the search engines to find sites related to your topic, you may use a free keyword tool like the software available at GoodKeywords.com.

2. Never use trademarked names in your domain name unless you own the trademark.  I once purchased a domain name to promote an ebook that taught readers how to effectively buy and sell using a well-known web service.  I made the mistake of including their name in the domain name.  After receiving an email from their attorneys, I quickly let that one go.  I was just getting started, so I had no idea it would be a big deal.  You might actually be able to get away with it for a while.  But if you’re in this to make money, it’s best to avoid the issue completely.  At worst, you could face high legal costs.  At best, you could invest lots of time and money on a site only to be issued a cease and desist order many months later.

3. Try to keep the length of your domain name as short as possible.  The site name LearnToPlayGuitarNow.com, is a great example of a domain name that is too long.  I typically don’t purchase names that long.  But the domain name CoolGameConsoles.com is also quite long, and I actually like that one.  If you find a name that’s a long but catchy enough to remember, you should be okay.  Just keep in mind that shorter domain names are preferable.

4. Try to avoid dashes in your domain name if you want it to be easily remembered.  If you have to purchase a name with dashes to get the name you want, chances are good that the market you want to target is too competitive to try to enter without some experience.  Using MakeKeywords.com or GoDaddy.com’s search tool, you should be able to find a good domain name that doesn’t include dashes.  How many domain names with dashes have you visited recently?   I must point out that search engines don’t seem to view dashes negatively.  So, if you’re willing to invest the time required to get your site ranked highly for keywords within your chosen market, including dashes in your domain name is less of an issue.  (But it usually does take time and a good knowledge of search engine optimization to get your site ranked highly.)

5. Don’t use an odd name thinking you will create your own brand unless you have a good knowledge of marketing and money to invest to promote your site.  If you’re just getting started, it’s much easier to get traffic to your site if you create a domain name using words that people might type into a search engine to locate your site’s subject matter.

So, do some keyword research to find what words are being used to find sites like the one you want to create.  Then do some research (using a tool like MakeWords.com) to find what domain names may be available that use one or more of those keywords.  Once you find a name that you like, you should register it quickly.  Good domain names usually don’t last long once they have been entered into a search tool.  There are individuals who monitor these names.  If you wait a day or two to think about purchasing your name, you may return to find it has already been registered.

Next time, we’ll go into keyword research in more detail.  I’ve managed to get several sites listed on the first page of Google, MSN, and Yahoo’s search results for some fairly popular keywords, so I’ll share a few pointers with you.

1. You have a global market.  If your local economy is lagging, you can sell to the whole world.

2. People will always buy items they need or want.  They will always find the money, so why not let them give it to you?

3. You can get started with a very small initial investment.

4. You can start part-time while keeping your day job.

5. You can work in the comfort of your own home.

As I said in my last post, I will publishing a series of videos to show you how to create a website that can make you hundreds – maybe thousands of dollars per month.  If you follow the steps I’ll be outlining, your success will only be limited by your imagination and determination to do the work.  It will require taking some action, but it won’t be overly difficult.  And with the step-by-step instructions I’ll provide, it won’t require any special technical skills.

While I’m preparing the first video and supporting documentation, there are a few things you can do to prepare.  The first is to look for a web hosting account.  When choosing an account, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. You will probably want an account that will allow you to maintain multiple websites for one low price.  One site probably won’t produce the level of income you seek.  You’ll likely want to operate several sites.

2. Some of the scripts we’ll be looking at will require the Zend optimizer.  Don’t worry if you don’t know what I’m talking about.  You don’t have to.  Just make sure the web host you’re considering has this installed.  The majority of hosts provide this.

3. Make sure the host supports PHP and allows multiple MySQL database installations.  Most hosts support PHP – even those that use the Windows operating system.  But for the scripts I’ll be demonstrating, a Linux account will probably work best. 

4. Look for a web host that provides quick and easy installation of scripts like WordPress for blogs and Joomla for membership sites.  This will make your life much simpler in the long run, and most hosts that provide this are very affordable.  This is usually provided through the hosts CPanel (their web management interface.) 

It probably won’t matter where you host your sites if they meet the criteria listed. In case you’re wondering, I host many of my sites with HostMonster.  I’ve had accounts with them for over a year, and I’ve been extremely pleased with their service.  I’ve only had to contact their support a couple of times, and they were very helpful.  I run dozens of sites on their servers that earn me money day after day.  But the choice is ultimately yours to make.  Just be sure to get an account that will grow with your business.

Next, you’ll want to begin thinking about the market you want to target.  The best way to do this is to make a list of things you’re interested in.  Also create a list of anything you’re particularly good at doing.  These lists may or may not be the same.  Don’t rush out and buy a domain name just yet because there are a few rules to keep in mind.  We’ll get into that soon enough.  For now, just begin thinking about what you’d like your site to be about.  Have some fun with it, and stay tuned for our next step.