Marketing Insight: Keywords which don't tell you anything about the Gorilla in the room

(photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arcticpuppy/)

Marketing Insight: Not getting the right keywords
won't tell you anything about the gorilla in your room.

That's the problem with a lot of these niches we deal with. When we are simply trying to sell a product, we fail because some of these niches simply don't have buyers in them. And worse, some people are telling you that the way you find buyers is to see if people are advertising in that area. (Really? How come people are advertising where there isn't even any traffic? Google says they do - just look on their Adwords tool and see where there is "competition" even when there aren't enough traffic results to make up a monthly tally...)

Since I got myself all worked up with that (above-linked) post, I then had to see what was actually going on.

So I set up my Keywords Genies: Google Adwords Tool and RankTracker and started to get to work figuring this all out. I started using Google Adwords to see if it would give me bigger and bigger traffic keywords through its synonyms. After I amassed about 12,000 keywords, then I quit to digest them by OpenOffice database.

Now, this is completely the reverse of what my research says to do. I was purposely looking for stuff that couldn't possibly be a niche - waaayy too big. Of course, one of the first things I found out was that Google and WordTracker don't agree on what the traffic for something actually is. (Big surprise - all these tools only deal with their own estimates of traffic. Your mileage may vary, as well - only your own analytics knows for sure.)

But what I did find is that there seem to be a huge number of really good one and two-word keywords with decent KEI. Even though they could (and some did) have literally a trillion pages of competition. No, you couldn't dream of trying to get these on their own. So the niche theory of marketing empire-building still holds.

The review of these niches and their main keywords started showing something else (other than the fact I was really straining RankTracker and WordTracker - you can only check about 240 KW's at a time before WordTracker shuts you down). That something else was the point that people who search on Google are just that - lookers. Doesn't mean they are buyers. And you have to check that keyword on eBay or Amazon to see if people are actually able to sell something like that.

Even more striking was the observation that very little "stuff" was turning up with these keywords. Specific camera's, or toys, or gadgets or books or authors weren't coming up. But the big-ticket Maslow-pyramid-type phrases were. As niches.

But didn't I just say you couldn't sell anything in a niche that didn't have buyers in it?

Sure. The trick is that the motivations to buy are there, not the stuff you can sell.

This means that people are actually searching for their wants and feelings, not just specific stuff they want to buy - although that happens as well, but not in two words or less (most of the time, anyway).

Your niches show up in four-word or longer phrases.

But something even more interesting showed up - you aren't selling stuff, you're offering solutions.

All of these wants and feelings people put in their search engine forms - these are just problems they are having in their lives (more or less). What they are plugging away at searching for are solutions which would improve their lives.

Again, go back to Maslow and Cialdini. When you take these two giants together, you see what people as individuals and as groups/niches are trying to solve in their lives. All these things people buy are somewhere on Maslow's pyramid. And what you see selling on eBay or Amazon are translations of these items into the tribe-dominated Cialdini 6 (or 7) principle triggers.

Being blonde, young, trim, athletic, rich, famous, etc. - all of these have definite products associated with them. But below all these states are very definite wants and needs - and between those and the products that represent them are the person's feelings. Which are what all sales are based on - feelings.

My point in this actually goes back to what I've spend the bulk of this life on - personal improvement and self-growth. Recently, I've been studying marketing to see how selling this type stuff is done. And so, now I know how to sell almost anything - find out what stresses are hitting people's lines and offer solutions. Stresses are tied into feelings - and they come from a person's purpose, something seemingly disrelated to marketing.

The reason I'm telling you all this is to keep you up to speed with what I've been discovering.

Practically, with proper market research, starting with keywords and then finding what products are selling in that niche - you could conceivably sell sun-tan oil to Eskimo's if you wanted.

It's all sitting there in the keywords.

So, go ahead, compile your own list of 12,000 Google Adwords and see what comes up.

May you be just as pleasantly surprised.

Keyword Research Marketing Insight - Don't think the inmates know how to unlock the sanitarium gates...

(photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amagill/)

Marketing Insight:
Escaping the sanitarium profitably with your keywords
-- don't ask the inmates for directions.

Sometimes I get fed up with people who use advertising as proof that people are buying or not buying stuff in any particular niche.

I've been doing a heckuva lot of research on keywords recently and can tell you this - advertiser are generally clueless about what people are going to buy. And they are caught up in this insane addiction to buying advertising as a way to get leads which will convert to paying customers.

The reason I say this is I've pulled in my Ranktracker files from Google adwords KeywordExternalTool and found that there are some fascinating keywords being used that have a lot of advertising competition, but no one is actually visiting these sites. True.

Now, this doesn't say all advertisers are this way - but when I've now run into the fourth or fifth "authority" saying that you look at these sites which tell you what advertising is being bought as an indicator of whether people are buying products in that area - and I say "BULL".

If you want to see if people are buying that product, check out eBay with one of the free analysis tools out there. This will tell you if there is a real buying market for it. Now, eBay is a bit different from Google, as people who are looking (google) aren't necessarily buyers (google and ebay). But if you use Terapeak, you can see over the last two weeks (for free) if anyone is looking for a product in your category and what types of products (and prices) they are willing to pay in an auction. (One caveat - auctions are for 1] Collectors, and 2] Bargain Hunters. So prices are unreal here - both too high and too low.)

Right now, I don't know of any other area where you can find out actual sales data. You want to be able to look at the records of buyers buying. Terapeak and HammerTap both license eBay's database records to generate their data. Another source would be WorldWideBrands - even though their entry is rather high, even for a lifetime subscription. But they can tell you the rough value of an area and whether there are buyers for that product. WWB does have an online trial where you can check out your keywords in a limited degree.

Oh - but you could check out Clickbank, which does (in a round-about way) give what is selling and you can work out roughly whether you could actually make money at that stuff. Also has return rates (as some of those digital products aren't worth the digital paper they're printed on...)

But when someone tells you to see if people are advertising as an idea of who's buying what - just smile and nod and thank them - then go right on by. Because those people are probably going to be there for a very loooong time. And you should be out in the real world earning money by the carloads.

So:
Places to find out if someone is actually buying products for your niche:

• Terapeak
• WorldWideBrands
• Clickbank.

Good Hunting!

eBay can blame itself - info products found its weak spot

eBay can blame only itself for its performance - info products found its weak spot

While eBay moved over onto all-solid products, "eliminating" its digital downloads (which still exist here and there), it still has this problem in its fee structure which info products continue to drive large trucks through.

Here's the basics: eBay charges less for smaller entries and lower prices. They make their money on higher-ticket items. Now Skip McGrath tells me that there is a sweet spot for middle-range items where the profit is larger and you don't have to sell as many to make a living. He's got a few hundred items or so that he offers weekly on eBay. And that is a real business you have to work at.

The Internet, meanwhile, was built on information exchange - pure and simple. eCommerce really just allows the payment of a commodity called money for another commodity called information. Rare or exotic information can command top dollar as long as it remains rare or hard to get - something which is time-based, in our file-sharing modern world, so you can get that top dollar only for a little while.

Now, eBay and info products collided when some smart people realized that once you had a sale, you could continue to make sales by offering other items directly to that customer - because you now had his email address and he was a paying customer. In other words, a qualified lead - or the beginning of your "reverse funnel."

And so the rush toward cheaper goods being sold, which depressed the market for people who were actually trying to make a living off selling info products on eBay. Especially, since you had free delivery as it was a digital exchange - no UPS or FedEx to take your package anywhere. And you had unlimited supply, since it was only a file on your computer.

When eBay said you had to sell your info product CD, this didn't change the equation - at all. Ok, so you had to burn a CD and paste a label on it, then ship it. A blank CD costs you as little as $.20 at Wal-Mart, and you can get labels to print for about that at Staples. I've gotten one CD from a person which cost him $.53 to mail. Now we are up total to $.93 to create and ship a product out. (I spend more for that, but I want repeat customers.)

If you set your eBay price for $.97 and shipping/handling for $2.95, you cover your cost of production and your eBay fees. The guy sees your product and snatches it up because it's such a great deal. And you have someone who will pay at least $3.00 for something.

On that CD, you set up an autorun program that takes her to your website for the latest and greatest. There, she opts-in to your mailing list and starts to get your other offers through her email. If your sales pitch is continually great, and you consistently give her valuable data as well as good products, she'll remain a client of yours and your sales pretty much go on automatic. Your time is freed up to find more products to offer and deliver.

Now, on top of that, you can get your CD's drop-shipped through Kunaki - or have a company burn your CD's in bulk for less than I outlined above. So you only have to print off the postage and put it in a mailer to them. Again, you set your fees so that the client pays all your overhead when they buy any given product.

Basically, for a small investment, you get a proven list of buyers. Note that - Buyers, not visitors. The traffic coming to your site is now proved that they have available income to spend on your product. And if you take care of your buyers, they'll continue to buy from you from here on out.

To be fair, eBay didn't see this coming - and I don't see any way around this for them. They make their money off big ticket items, like everyone. So the low-end stuff really just got them complaints - which they mostly got rid of by making people offer CD's. That forced the real scammers to find somewhere else to play.

But it still left them a large hole in their marketing scene. You see, realistically, they don't take a final value fee on shipping and handling. They'd have a big revolt. But shoppers like free shipping - so they encourage you to offer free shipping - meaning that they can then take a final value fee off your total amount, which is higher to cover those same shipping costs.

Other than irritating, those fees really just ensure you keep to the standard shipping fees instead. You'll get the savvy shopper that way - someone you might want, instead of the blind "gottahaveitnow" type.

The bottom line - eBay isn't prepared for and can't handle the pure Info product. But you can - and use info products to improve your own bottom line.

Simple way to make money on eBay - profitably

Here's a simple way to make money on eBay - and keep your profits...

The basics of making profits and money on eBay consists of the following factors:

1. How many items you have in auction on a regular basis (during the week or month).
2. How many successful auctions you have during that period.
3. How much profit you average from those items - or your minimum profit. (This is actual profit, what you get in as payment minus all of eBay and PayPal's fees, and minus your actual manufacturing and shipping costs.)

These relate like this:

Items x successful auctions x profits = money made.

4 items with 4 successful auctions and $5.00 profit each is $80.

Now you can use this to figure out backwards how much money you want to get during your weekly/monthly period.

If your items average $5.00 profit each, and you want to make $1,000 per month - then you have to have a lot of successful auctions with a few items, or a lot of items with a few successful auctions - or some combination.

Divide $1K into $5.00 chunks and you get 200. So you need 20 items with 10 successful sales each. Or 200 items that sell once. Or 2 items that sell successfully 100 times.

Obviously, if you can make $20 or $50 per auction, then you need to have fewer successful auctions and/or fewer items.

Really, that's the simplicity of it.

Now if you have an item that sells 50% of the time, you are going to have to have twice as many auctions to meet the needed successful-auction quota. And this is why I bring up how many items, because you can actually be your own worst competition by listing too frequently. But the same doesn't necessarily go for having similar items in the same category - people may buy all of your items and so increase your items' success rates.

So you'll need to have some sort of research tool, or compile your own success data so that you can actually figure what you have to do in order to make yourself a pile of money on eBay.

But it can be done. And that formula above one good way to do it.

A weekly basis is tighter - but it can be done.

Stamps.com = just don't, Don't, DON'T use them.

Stamps.com = overpriced for the casual user, buyer beware!

My experience. Tried it out as a survey suggestion, as it had a 30-day trial. Unfortunately, I thought it was pay-as-you-go fee structure as the cost wasn't clear on sign-up.

Then I accidentally signed up again when I activated the software. So I was being billed twice before I got my credit card statement. When I thought I had it cleared up (she gave me credit for the other account and canceled it, plus was supposed to upgrade me to the $20 postage - but only moved my existing $5 on each to the original account, totalling $10).

Next statement arrived a few days later and I had been billed twice again for the next month. At $15 each billing, I was already out $60. And no, Stamps.com doesn't refund - unless you go through a supervisor. But they gave me a month's credit and I got them to send me that free scale they had also promised (which is usually jumping through hoops to get, from what I'd heard.

Scale arrived today. It is useless without the proprietary Stamps.com software, which only runs on a PC. Has no readout, just a USB cable. Good thing is that you can use it without having to have an active account. Bad thing is that it isn't worth the $49.95 you pay for it. Checking on ebay showed that it sold for $2.25, with a 25% success rate. Means people don't want and can't use this scale for anything else.

Three thumbs down. Extremely over-priced nonsense along with their habit for over-billing.

You have to save enough to pay off that $15 every month. Unlikely.

Here's how you can pay all your eBay and other shipping needs:

USPS ClickNShip will print labels and pick up priority and express packages for you and send you free supplies (you just pay shipping on the supplies). Their self-adhesive labels are pricey, though.

PayPal will also print Priority and Express labels, as well as First-Class Packages. You can print them on regular paper and tape them onto an oversized envelope (just don't cover the barcode). PayPal makes you pay for confirmation in order to guarantee their products, though. So it's a minimum of about $1.40 per first-class large envelope.

Want to know the weight? Get one of those cheap Pelouze scales. (I got one for just under $15, total with shipping.) Good enough for First Class. Then look up what you'll have to have for extra postage. Turns out the post office sells a wide variety of stamps right on their site - and plenty of 1-cent stamps to make up the slight difference.

Example: My info products ship out on a CD with an insert and come in just under 2 oz. And they are stiff cardboard, which can't be machined - so I need to pay a total of 79 cents per item. Get some 78-cent and 1-cent stamps and I'm in business for cheap. (Someone did send me a CD which had been put through their mechanical sorter, but it looked a bit beat up when arrived - still worked though - and only had a 53-cent stamp on it...)

Or - get one of those Stamps.com scales on eBay and download their latest software, and then don't register for it. Buy your stamps from anyone except Stamps.com and you'll be getting everything done a lot cheaper and faster.

Of course, they'll eventually upgrade and won't support legacy software, so the advice on their scale is time-limited. That Pelouze scale has been around for ages, though...

Going from eBay to the Real World - and taking your profits with you

Here's a snippet from a recent email I received from Socrates Socratous, the author of MyDigital Dispatch - which explains the core idea of getting into eBay and getting that traffic to come back to your own site:

" #1. Ebay visitors are people searching to Buy something
whereas Search Engine traffic are mostly looking for free information.

#2. When selling digital products you can modify the
product AS you wish to be able to target any keywords you
want. (this is a little known trick)

#3. When you use the right software such as MyDD from
www.MyDigitalDispatch.com then you can immediately upsell
more expensive products to your customers Immediately after
the sale. (here is where the REAL cash is being made)

#4. Use the products as BAIT to build your list. Frankly
I started out on ebay with no list or products of my own.
Today, I have put over 250,000 people on my lists by leveraging
the people I got from ebay. We added the feature on MyDD
( www.MyDigitalDispatch.com ) to automatically add your customers
to your autoresponder."

Now - it's not all that simple, but that is the core ideas.

I'm still struggling to get my own backend created and so here's some of the additional steps I've had to take:

A) You have to have some digital product ready to ship. Something that people want to buy.

B) For Kunaki (who will be creating your CD and probably shipping it for you) this means you have to create a CD and have it in your CD drive ready for upload -- but...

You have to do the artwork first, unless you simply like generic versions which they can provide for you (cute, but not really effective as good copywriting would be...)

So - do the artwork (using their templates) and create your CD, then upload the whole thing using their program.

C) Next, you need some follow up products to upsell them. These can be straight digital products - as you've left eBay and their restrictions. Means you can have additional income within minutes of the auction closing.

That's the extra steps. To these I'd also add --

D) Get a website with an ecommerce engine running on it - so you can sell more and people can shop at their leisure. (Additionally, you'd have a newsletter or some way to get them onto your autoresponder mailing list and send them periodic discounted bonus offers, etc.)

Now - in the interests of transparency - these are the exact steps I've yet to complete. I've been working with websites for years, along with other marketing lines, and I find myself so busy with eBay sales and production (burning the CD's myself and creating new info products to offer) that I haven't taken the necessary time to create full artwork to get these up and running and uploaded to Kunaki. I don't even have MyDD up and running - it has been a problem with my host, which has complicated things.

Time is too short for much of these things.

But - now we know what to do and the sequence. If it were an ideal world, we could simply move from one to the next. But for now, just concentrate on the vital things and the smaller ones will take care of themselves.

Luck to us all - and Good Hunting!

What to sell on eBay or any auction

What to sell on eBay or any auction - it's a widely-known secret...

That secret is: stuff that sells!

No kidding.

Let me explain how this can make you a ton of money:

eBay is a niche market. A big one, but still it's a niche. Probably a niche of niches. But stuff that will sell on other venues won't necessarily move on eBay. I've cross-checked several research tools and find that not only sales, but also keywords are different for eBay titles than in the "real world" of SEO. Hot niches you find on WordTracker don't necessarily sell as well on eBay.

So: again, the butt-ugly advice -
"Don't waste your time with trying to pitch things that a lot of people don't want."

Now, just because they don't want to buy your things at an auction doesn't mean they won't want to buy it online or in person. Selling fresh beef is best done over a counter, or in person from the farmer who raised it. Trading cards might sell much better from a booth at an industry event - or a convention.

There is this fascinating trend picking up - Amazon is continuing to expand while eBay shrinks. What this is attributed to right now is that buying habits have shifted over to wanting fixed prices. This last area is one where eBay is still expanding - and have changed their policies to adapt.

This means that Froogle and other such sites will continue to gain as well.

So put your best foot forward and write great sales pages for you items - and continue to promote them via social media while you only put those items which sell well on an auction platform over there. Keep the rest on your website, where the true niche denizens will migrate over and buy.