Have you heard of the Pareto rule, the Pareto pool, or the Pareto principle? The Pareto rule is very simple. It states that 20% of people will achieve 80% of the results. This applies to almost all aspects of life. It can apply to date, it can apply to study, it can apply to make money, and yes, it applies to niche marketing.

The truth of the matter is that 20% of all niche marketers make 80% or more of the income. This means that the rest of the 80% have to content themselves with what’s leftover. The sad truth is in that 80%, most of those people are generating zero sales. So the lion share goes to a small minority. Wouldn’t you like to be part of that 20%?

Unfortunately, many niche marketers inadvertently fall into the other 20% because of one painful truth. They just can’t seem to get their minds wrapped around this painful truth and learn its basic lessons. They can’t seem to apply this painful truth to their actions and strategies.

They can’t seem to plan their niche marketing campaigns and businesses based on this painful truth. Maybe the truth is too painful. Maybe the truth is too shocking. Maybe the truth just gets in the way of comfortable and convenient preconceptions that they had. Regardless of the resistance, it doesn’t matter.

The truth is still the truth, and this painful truth was true back then, it’s true now, and it’s going to be true in the future. Unless you accept this painful truth and conduct your niche marketing activities accordingly, nothing’s going to happen to your business. You are not going to make any progress.

What is this painful truth? There are no shortcuts. That’s right. It may seem simple, but it’s very profound. You can’t imagine the huge numbers of niche marketers going into the market and trying their hand at buying a domain, getting an auto-responder, putting up a website and then failing because they think that there is some sort of shortcut.

There are no shortcuts. Unfortunately, the whole internet marketing business is built on getting people believing that there is such a thing as shortcuts. Once you understand this painful truth then you will know how to find the right coach, you will know how to find the right products, and you will know how to conduct yourself in such a way that you have an increased chance of making money online. The sooner you get out of this bad mentality of finding a shortcut, the sooner you will make money.

The common sense approach to niche marketing is to find a niche where there’s not that much competition. You’re doing this not so much because you fear the competition, but you are trying to increase your chances of success. The best way of course to beat the competition is to just provide a better value than your competition.

In other words, you increase the level of value that your potential customers can get from you. When you do this, your competition has to worry about you instead of the other way around.

But there are certain situations when it makes sense to go into a highly competitive field where it seems that everything has been pioneered, all the routes to success have been mapped, and the whole market segment is very established — in other words, targeting a niche where it seems that everybody and his dog is trying to make money.

When does this make sense? – If you have a competitive advantage. The competitive advantage that you can bring to the table is usually fairly simple. The competitive advantage is when you actively listen to people who buy in a very competitive market and pay attention to their needs.

Once you figure out their needs profile and you come up with a completely different product configuration that answers their questions differently, you quickly set yourself apart from the competition. This is when targeting a high competition niche makes sense.

Don’t let haters and doubters discourage you. They might say, “Well, you’re trying to fish from the same pond where 1000 fishermen are fishing from.” They would be absolutely right if you’re going to be doing the exact same thing those other fishermen are doing.

However, if you’re bringing different bait, you have a more powerful net or fishing pole, you would come out ahead. In other words, don’t fear competition as long as you have the proper information and the proper strategy.

If you don’t have this, then you would reduce yourself to doing what other people are doing. If you find yourself in that situation, then find a lower competition niche quickly. If you’re just going to do what everybody else is doing, don’t start, find something else.

There are much different software out there that are marketed in such a way that they supposedly help make your life better. Don’t fall for them. If their marketing approach is that at a click of a button, you will start making money, a runaway from the software. Chances are it’s all hype, and you might not get the results that you’re looking for. There are, however, legitimate niche finder software out there but you have to be very careful. You have to be very careful. You have to know what to look for. Follow the tips below, so you don’t get burned. The truth is there are tons of software out there, and there are tons of shady operators looking to get you to buy their software. Their software works, but if you don’t know how to use it or it’s a bad match for whatever it is that you’re trying to do, then you’re now going to make money. That’s the bottom line.

1. Must have a money back guarantee

This is your safety net. If you’re going to buy software online, make sure that it has some money back guarantee. There is much deceptive money back guarantees out there. Some guarantees will only extend as far as one month. Others only cover you for 14 days. As a rule of thumb, look for software that will give you money back guarantee for at least 2 months at the bare minimum. Why? You need to be able to use the software to figure out if it meets your needs; and sometimes if the trial period is only two weeks, it may not be enough time especially if you have a busy schedule. So the longer the refund period, the better.

2. Avoid hyped sales pages

There are many niche finder software tools that are being marketed by very hyped and over-the-top sales pages. Don’t fall for this. If a sales page makes an income statement, runaway from this. You don’t have time for that BS. You’re looking for a real solution. You’re looking for real software. You’re not looking for a get rich quick deal. You’re not looking for a shortcut. You’re looking for something that your work easier. In other words, you’re still willing to work; it just helps make it easier and automates it. So avoid hyped up sales pages.

3. Must be based on real metrics

Real niche finder software doesn’t use arcane or systems that only the software maker knows. Real niche finder software uses feedback from Google, Yahoo! and social media sites. In other words, it uses feedback and data from proven websites, sites that you can verify. If you are dealing with niche market software where the internal operation behind the results that it will produce are kept “secret,” runaway. Chances are you might be dealing with a bogus product that is not based on reality.

A lot of people want to get into making money online by getting into niche marketing. A lot of people just fall for the buzz words and also the pipedream of making money in your pajamas. Make no mistake about it; making money online will take work. It’s not something that is easy. It’s not something that you just turn a key, and the money will start flowing in. There are a lot of people that would like you to believe this way so you can buy their product. Unfortunately, when you buy their product, you would quickly learn that it takes actual work, and as a result, these products sell, but most people fail to follow through. Keep the following tips in mind, so you don’t join the vast ranks of people that fail to make money on niche marketing.

1. Buy a product and follow through

This may seem like common sense, but there seems to be a cottage industry of cranking out make-money-online products with the idea that most of the people that buy the product will not follow through. As a result, there is a churn and burn mentality. The usual suspects of make-money-online publishers would crank out product after product to the same pool of people, and these people would invariably buy and buy these products, but they never act on it. The person who creates the products is morally blameless. Why? It’s not his fault that you didn’t lift a finger. If he is not lying and he said that his system does make thousands of dollars every month, the fault lies on you if you didn’t put in the work. If you can’t follow instructions or you’re too stubborn, or you just come up with so many excuses for not acting, the fault is with you. He has your money, and you are out of luck. So if you want to change this situation, you have to take action on the stuff that you buy. Be that to death. Don’t stop until you succeed.

2. Don’t stop until you succeed

The last sentence of the previous tip is a good segue for this tip. This is one of the most common reasons why people fail to make money online. People fail to make in niche marketing because they start but then they stop. They start, and then they face discouraging set of circumstances, and they stop. The key to succeeding with making money online is to remember that making money online is a marathon; it’s not a sprint. This business rewards people who have staying power. So you have to experiment a lot, fail a lot and keep going. If you don’t quit, you’re still in the game, and you don’t lose.

3. Always experiment

This is the most important and most difficult part of these tips because this is where the rubber meets the road. You can be a hard worker, and you could be a very stubborn worker, but at the end of the day, you will still fail. Why? Working hard is not enough. Being determined is not enough. Persistence can only take you so far. If you are persistent in doing the wrong things over and over again, you will continue to do the wrong things and get the wrong results. You have to experiment and change up the things that you’re doing until you could see a pattern where certain things are working. When you see certain things working, then you build on the things that are working so you can improve your overall results. That’s how it works. You have to continuously experiment, continuously push the boundaries, and continuously tweak.

Niche marketing is like working out. Just when you are working out, you build up your muscles, you build up your stamina, and you lose weight. However, the moment you stop working out, your body starts slowly packing on the weights and slowly starts getting flabbier. That’s how it works. If you don’t put in the effort, all your hard work starts to slip.

You never stay in place. Many people have this mistaken assumption that if they work out hard enough or if they work enough at their business that things will maintain on equilibrium and then it will continue for a long period until they can put in more effort down the road. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. This law is called the law of entropy.

Things don’t remain constant; they always tend to degenerate. That’s why it’s really important when you are trying to make money in niche marketing that you have to always stay relevant in your niche. If you become irrelevant, all those list members, all that traffic you work hard to recruit, they’re going to go away. Why? They’re going to go to the relevant person.

It’s all about the old saying of “what’s in it for me.” That’s what you have to focus on. You have to give them what they are looking for, and the main thing that they are looking for is relevance. So here are some quick tips on how to stay relevant in your niche.

1. Network with other niche marketers

You may have a lot of competitors, but they don’t necessarily need to be your enemies. Network with them. Figure out what’s going on, figure out with the latest news in your niche, and be friends. People share information freely. For you to receive, you have to give. So share the stuff that you know so that you can get stuff that you didn’t know.

2. Build blog relationships

If you are using a blog platform for your niche marketing efforts, build blog relationships by doing blog exchanges, blog alliances, doing blog commenting; in other words, just get into the thick of your niche. The more data gathering you do every single day, the more you will know where your niche is headed.

3. Listen to your customers

This is the most important thing you can do. You can throw away the previous two tips but don’t screw this one up. You have to have a contact form. You have to actively put text in your messaging to your clients so can actively solicit for their feedback and for information. The more information you get from them, the more relevant your website will be. In fact, it is your users that will tell you how to stay relevant. Don’t blow this opportunity.

SEO or PPC for search engine marketing? What are the strengths as well as weaknesses of both methods? Basically, SEO is accomplished by optimizing webpages and by increasing Link Popularity by paying for or acquiring links that point to your site. In turn, this gives your site improved search engine rankings for your chosen key terms.

On the other hand, PPC or pay-per-click search engine advertising is accomplished when you purchase clicks from a search engine. This method allows you to get top search engine placement quickly by “bidding” or paying for key terms related to the product or service you are offering.

Search engine optimization

Natural SEO usually will give you a higher return on investment compared to PPC. This is because searchers click natural search engine results from more than the PPC ads so that you will get more traffic for less.

SEO is better than PPC in terms of return on investment because paying for or acquiring links that point to your site gives you lasting results; it gives your site top rankings from the search engines. Also, these links significantly boost long-term traffic.

However, one of the major weaknesses of natural SEO is the time you need to come up with links and “tweak” your keywords and web pages to obtain the valuable high rankings you desire. It can take you about three months to finally reap the benefits of your SEO campaign.

The myth is that natural SEO is easy and inexpensive. If you want your site to have a high ranking for the key phrase “debt consolidation” or “life insurance,” then you will need to have a minimum budget of $50,000 to $100,000 every year.

PPC search engine advertising

One of the major benefits of the PPC search engine advertising is that it gives you an immediate boost of visitors, lead, and sales. A PPC advertising campaign is your best bet if you want really fast results and a nice return on investment. It can give a fast result within hours or days.

Additionally, PPC also lets you track your conversion rates (leads, opt-ins, and sales) and test your website quickly. In addition, this method also allows you to easily turn keywords (visitors) on and off.

As a short-term strategy, PPC gives you a clear advantage over the SEO method. But the disadvantage lies on the cost. Depending on the demand for your clicks and keywords, your PPC campaign can create tons of traffic and can sometimes cost thousands of dollars daily. Using various SEO strategies can lower costs. Over the long term, SEO will be more beneficial than PPC.