Internet Marketing Made Simple – Page 7

How To Produce Content For Your Membership Site: Questions To Ask Yourself

Three Questions to Ask Yourself

Are you going to do everything yourself or outsource some (or even all) of the tasks needed to set up your site? Ask yourself these three questions:

Which tasks do you hate? These are the ones you tend to procrastinate on (and that means it’s better to outsource them).

Which tasks do you do really well? These are the tasks you’ll likely complete yourself.

Which tasks are low-value tasks (meaning the return on investment of time is low for you)? These are the tasks to outsource.

Next…

Three Productivity Tips for DIYers

If you plan on creating your membership site content yourself, then check out these three tips for getting more done in less time:

Block out distractions. Figure out what distracts you the most, and then block it. For example, if you keep checking your phone, then put your phone in another room.

Set a timer 20 minutes. The idea here is to challenge yourself to get as much done as possible in the 20 minutes. Once the timer goes off, rest for a few minutes. Then re-set the timer and again challenge yourself.

Group similar tasks together. Multitasking doesn’t work. Focus on one task at a time, and group similar tasks together to boost productivity.

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How to Stick to Your Production Calendar

The key to sticking to your production calendar is to be sure you create daily and weekly goals and to-do lists. That way, you’ll know immediately (in one day) if you’re off track. If you only create monthly goals, then you won’t know just how far off track you are until the month is nearly over.

9 Ways to Find Freelancers

If you plan on outsourcing all or part of your membership site content-creation and other tasks, then the first step is to cast a wide net to find as many potential candidates as possible. Here’s how:

Post on a freelancing site such as upwork.com, fiverr.com, guru.com, or freelancing.com.

Ask colleagues for recommendations.

Blog about your need for a freelancer.

Post your request on social media (and ask people to share it).

Run a Google search.

Post in a business group or forum.

Network at masterminds or offline business groups and ask for recommendations.

Place a want ad in a local newspaper (including university publications).

Place a want ad on a local site (including sites like CraigsList.org).

Note: once you find several potential candidates, then do your due diligence to find the one that best fits your needs and budget.

5 Ways to Make PLR Content Unique

If you plan on using PLR as the basis for your membership site content, then you need to tweak it to make it unique. Here are five ways to do it:

Rewrite the introductions and conclusions.
Tweak the content so it matches your unique writing voice/style.
Compile multiple pieces of PLR content to create something unique.
Insert your own unique tips, examples and stories.
Convert content into a different format (such as turning a report into a video).

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3 Places to Research Your Content

One of the keys to creating a good piece of content is to make sure you research it thoroughly before writing. However, you need to also be sure you’re researching credible, trustworthy sources. Check out these three ideas:

Google Scholar, where you can research academic research journals.

Other known experts in your niche. For example, if you were researching dog training, you might research Cesar “The Dog Whisperer” Millan’s site.

Other credible sources. For example, respected news organizations like the BBC and NPR tend to fact-check their articles and sources before posting.

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A Simple Outline for Training Lessons

If you’re sending out training lessons, the you can use this outline as the basis for all your content:

Introduction. Remind readers of what they learned in the last lesson. Build anticipation for this upcoming lesson, using curiosity if possible to keep people reading. E.G., “In just moments you’ll discover my #1 tip for keeping readers hooked and engaged…”

Body of the content. Share your training materials. You might organize the content in these ways:

Chronologically, for step-by-step information.

Categorically, where you arrange categories and list information within these categories.

Complexity, where you organize information from simple to complex.

Conclusion. Recap what your readers just learned and reiterate the benefits of taking action on this information.

Assignment. Here’s where you give readers an action step to take which will put them one step closer to their goals (and will help them implement what they just learned).

Next…

Keep Reading: How To Produce Content For Your Membership Site: How To Gather FAQs To Answer

Previous: How To Plan And Research for Membership Site

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How To Plan And Research for Membership Site

Three Best Practices for Market Research

The worst thing you can do is go through all the work of setting up a membership site, only to find out no one is interested in the topic. That’s why you’ll want to do your market research. Here are three best practices to follow:

Use multiple methods to do your research, but remember that the best predictor of future buying behavior is to look at past behavior.

Look for gaps in the market. Is there a particular subniche or topic that no other expert has fully claimed or specialized in?

Avoid relying on surveys. What people say they’re going to do and what they actually do often tends to be different.

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Three Characteristics of a Good Topic

Got a topic in mind that you think would work well delivered in a membership site format? Check that it has these three characteristics:

It’s focused enough to attract a targeted market, yet broad enough for a membership site. Typically, you deliver many months’ worth of content, so be sure you have enough information to cover across multiple lessons.

It’s a pressing problem or “obsessive” hobby for your audience. If the audience is lukewarm about the topic, they’re not going to stay members beyond a month or two.

It’s something that you’re knowledgeable about and find interesting. This will keep you motivated to keep running your site. Plus, it helps establish you as an expert once members see how knowledgeable you are on the topic.

Here’s the next thing to know…

Three Dos and Don’ts for Picking a Model

One of the steps in planning your membership site is to pick a model, such as an ongoing site, a fixed-term membership site or a vault-style site. Check out these dos and don’ts:

Don’t pick an ongoing membership site model if you can’t plan out a couple years’ worth of content.

Do consider where your membership will fit into your sales funnel. For example, a vault-style site may be a good entry-level offer, while a fixed-term site may make a good core offer.

Do create a list of pros and cons for each model to help you make the best decision. For example, if you’re teaching a process that takes months for the user to complete, then a fixed-term membership would be a good choice.

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2 Tips for Profiling Your Customer

One of the keys to creating great content (and great sales copy) for your membership site is to understand how your customer thinks, how they feel, and what they want. To that end, follow these two tips:

Gather basic demographics with a Google search. E.G., search for “dog owner demographics,” and then gather data from well-known research organizations.

Spend time talking to your audience. The best way to understand how they think and feel is to do what they do, and talk to others about their experiences. E.G., if you’re targeting bodybuilders, then join gym to both become a part of the niche and to talk to your audience.

Here’s the next tip…

#1 Tip for Creating an Awesome Membership Site

What makes a great membership site? To answer this question, join popular membership sites, and then reverse engineer their success. Ask yourself:

What do you like about the site?
What could you use improvement?

Then use your answers to ensure you create a great site for your customers.

Three Survey Questions to Ask Your Audience

You shouldn’t use survey questions as a standalone method for gathering market research data, but surveys can help you gather insight into how your audience thinks and feels. To that end, here are three open-ended questions to ask your audience:

What are your biggest [niche/topic] challenges?
What one thing would help you the most to [get a good result]?
What tools would make it easier for you to [get a good result]?

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The Key to Running a Smooth Membership Site

The #1 key to starting and growing your membership site is to NOT try to do everything yourself. To that end, always be on the lookout for ways to automate your site (such as using a good membership site platform) and ways to delegate/outsource the tasks you need to do.

For example, don’t get tied to your computer sending out new membership content. Instead, use an autoresponder or a membership site platform or plugin to drip-feed content to your members automatically and on a schedule.

Which brings us to the next point…

What to Do When You Get Stuck

If you’re new to creating a membership site or even new to online marketing in general, then there are times you’re going to get stuck. For example, maybe you don’t know how to install a membership site platform (like aMember), or maybe you don’t know how to create a video for your members.

What should you do when you get stuck? Outsource. Go to a site like upwork.com and find a pro who can do the work for you, which will keep you moving forward and on track.

Creating a Schedule to Keep You on Track

Creating and launching a membership site is a big process. To keep you on track, you’ll want to create a calendar or schedule. You can break it down this way:

List all the tasks you need to do to start your membership site (this is your master list).
Estimate how long it will take you to do each task.
Set a deadline for EACH task on your list.
Decide which tasks you’ll outsource.
Break your master list into the tasks you need to do each month.
Break your monthly lists into weekly tasks.
Use your weekly task list to create your daily to-do lists.

Now on any day of the week you can check your to-do lists to see if you’re on track to get your site up and running on your desired timeline.

Ask These Two Questions Before You Begin

Before you set up your site, ask:

What is your income goal with this site? This will help you make decisions about pricing, what model to choose, etc.

What do you want members to learn and do? This will keep your site focused on helping members achieve a specific goal.

Now the next major component of setting up and running a membership site…

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How To Trace The Issues: Batch Tasks

Batch Tasks

As you create your to-do lists, try to batch similar tasks together. That’s because you’re likely to stay more focused if you don’t have to completely switch gears to complete a different task.

For example, if your tasks include writing a blog article and creating a lead magnet, then do those two tasks back to back since they both involve writing.

Track Your Progress

If you’re a visual type of person, then you may want to create a visual representation of your progress.

Take the example of a fundraiser that uses a thermometer-style graphic with $0 at the bottom and the fundraiser goal amount at the top. The thermometer is then colored in as the organization raises more and more money. This builds excitement and motivates people to donate.

You can take this same idea and create your own “thermometer” (or other graphic) which represents your progress. It’s a good reminder of how far you’ve come, and it becomes motivating to see you get closer to your goal.

Focus on One Idea

If you have multiple ideas, you may be tempted to scatter your efforts and try to tackle all these ideas at once. But don’t do it, as you’ll dilute your efforts. In the end, you probably won’t accomplish any of your goals or execute any of your ideas.

Instead, pick ONE idea to start with, create a plan, and take steps towards implementation. You may want to choose the low-hanging fruit first by selecting ideas that are easy to implement and will likely produce quick results. This will help you build momentum as you start implementing your other ideas.

Let Go of Perfectionism

Yes, you should do the best work you can when you’re implementing an idea. But at the same time, you need to let go of perfectionism. That’s because perfectionism will have you tweaking an idea endlessly without ever launching it. It’s better to make it good at launch, and then tweak it on the go later.

For example, if you tweak a sales letter endlessly, you won’t really have any idea as to whether the tweaks are actually profitable and useful. Instead, launch a good sales letter – but not a perfect one. You can achieve “perfection” by tracking and testing it with your market. That way, you’ll actually be making money as you improve your conversion rate.

Be Held Accountable

If you have troubles with implementation, then you may want to bring on an accountability partner to keep you on track. This is someone who knows about your plans and goals, and then asks you about them regularly. (As often as daily if you need a lot of help in this area, otherwise weekly at a minimum.)

Here’s why it works: you don’t want to lie to your partner about the progress you’ve made, and telling the truth if you haven’t made any progress is embarrassing. So, most people will simply do the work in order to avoid these uncomfortable feelings.

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Balance Work and Life

Implementing a new idea is fun, but don’t spend all your time doing it. Seek out a work-life balance to avoid burning out. Make time for plenty of fun, including taking entire days off, so that you can come back to work fresh and feeling renewed. (Both of which will boost your creativity and productivity.)

Conclusion

If you’re like a lot of readers, you may be feeling some excitement right about now. You have a clear plan (Generate, Validate and Implement), plus 101 tips, hacks, strategies and ideas for putting this plan to work for you. So, go ahead and use the tips you just learned to start generating your next idea!

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How To Trace The Issues: Keep It Simple

Keep it Simple

Any big idea has a lot of complex, moving parts. It’s enough to make anyone feel overwhelmed. That’s why you’ll want to focus on implementing your idea in as few steps as possible.

For example, let’s say you’re starting an information product business. You can start with ONE product, one traffic source, and one platform (such as a mailing list). As you get those pieces into place and running, then you can add additional products, traffic sources and platforms.

Understand the Risk

Launching an idea is inherently risky, so you need to be prepared to deal with this risk. In some cases, you need to mentally prepare yourself (such as by preparing to lose some money in the venture). In other cases, you may be able to offset some of the risk by diversifying.

For example, if you diversify your traffic sources over time, then you won’t be out of luck if one of those sources disappears.

Be Patient

You probably wanted to have your idea launched yesterday. But keep in mind that good work takes time, and it’s better to do it right the first time. Stick to your plan, be patient, and don’t rush any part of the process.

Define Your Purpose

Here’s a question: WHY are you pursuing this particular idea?

Because here’s the thing: if your idea merely sounds “fun” but it doesn’t really hold any meaning or purpose for you, then you’re not going to stay motivated for too long. That’s why you’ll want to be sure to define your purpose at the outset. Better yet, create a mission and vision statement based on the purpose, which will help keep you and your team focused and on track.

Avoid Busywork

Sometimes you’re busy all day long, but at the end of the day you realize you really haven’t accomplished all that much. This is the problem with engaging in busywork.

The solution? Prioritize your to-do lists, and then focus on completing the most important tasks first. If you find yourself “busy” but not accomplishing much, then you need to reassess your plans and how you’re executing your idea.

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Five Ways to Stay on Track

When you’re implementing an idea, it’s easy to get distracted and go off track. Use these tips to keep you focused:

Block time off on your calendar each day to work on your idea.
Ask household members to not interrupt you during your work time.
Shut down distractions such as the TV, phone, unnecessary browser windows, etc.
Use an app like ColdTurkey.com to block distracting sites and boost your productivity.
Get organized so that you can work more efficiently.

Next…

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How To Implement The Idea: Launch In Stages

Launch In Stages

If possible, roll out your launch in stages so that you can tweak your process and work out the kinks.

For example, if you’re launching a business with an entire sales funnel full of products, then do a soft launch after you create the lead magnet. The bonus here is that you can begin making money even before you’ve created all your products.

Another example: if you’re launching a service business, then start by only accepting one or two clients. As you gain experience managing the workload, you can then accept additional clients.

Prepare for Loss of Motivation

While you may have a burst of adrenaline when you first start working on implementing your idea, there will be days where your motivation wanes. You need to prepare for these days, and come up with a plan for counteracting those feelings so you can keep pushing forward.

For example, maybe you like pep talks, in which case you can have an enthusiastic friend on call to give you a pep talk and remind you of all the reasons why you want to pursue this idea.

Avoid Naysayers

Sometimes you’re going to get pushback from naysayers in your life. Many times these will be the people who are closest to you. It may hurt to hear them say things like, “You’re just dreaming… that will never work.”

If you run into this problem, the best thing you can do is simply avoid the naysayers until your idea is full implemented and launched. If avoiding the person isn’t possible, then certainly avoid talking about your idea.

Get Support in Place

One thing that can bring down the greatest business idea is poor customer service. If the product is awesome, all people are going to remember is their poor customer service experience. What’s more, they’re even likely to tell others about their poor experience.

Point is, be sure your customer service staff is trained well and ready to handle anything… and this applies no matter what type of business, product or service you’re launching.

Build Your Platforms

If you want to start making money with your idea sooner rather than later, then build your platforms while you are in the process of implementing your idea. That way, you’ll have an eager, warm audience just waiting for you to launch.

TIP: Focus on building platforms you own that allow you to reach your contacts any time, such as your mailing list. Secondarily you can focus on social media platforms and your blog.

Here’s the next tip…

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How To Implement The Idea: Key To Creating Effective To-Do Lists

The #1 Key to Creating Effective To-Do Lists

If you’re going to implement your idea yourself, then you need to create daily to-do lists that are based on your plans and goals. Here’s a key: create bite-size tasks to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

For example, if you put a task on your list such as “set up a website,” that can feel overwhelming. You’ll find it easier to tackle this task if you break it up into mini steps such as finding a domain name, getting hosting, changing domain name servers, installing the WordPress files, and so on.

Delegate Other Tasks

Outsourcing isn’t limited to your business-related tasks. You can outsource and delegate in your personal life too, which will free up your time to focus on idea implementation.

For example:

Delegate household tasks to other members of your family.
Hire someone to do tasks, such as clean the house once per week.

Next…

Look for Shortcuts

To cut the time it takes to implement your idea, look for shortcuts.

For example, if you need lot of content to start up a blog, then purchase the private label rights to high-quality content. This takes less time than writing it yourself, and it’s less money than having a ghostwriter do it all for you.

TIP: How do you uncover shortcuts? Ask other business experts what they do to save time.

Next…

Set Deadlines

A plan or a to-do list without a definite deadline is just a wish. That’s why you’ll want to attach firm deadlines to your plans. It’s a good idea to set up milestone deadlines as well (which is where you complete certain parts of an overall task by a certain day).

Budget Accordingly

Be prepared to invest some money in developing your idea. This may be for outsourcing, other development costs, advertising, and similar. Sit down and create a budget for each potential expense. That way, you won’t have the unpleasant surprise of running out of money halfway through implementation.

Four Ways to Fund Your Idea

If you don’t have a trust fund set aside to implement your idea (and who does?), then you’ll find to find ways to come up with the C.A.S.H. Check out these four ideas:

Crowdfunding. If you’ve got a great idea, then try funding it using platforms such as kickstarter.com or Indiegogo.com.

Ask for a Loan. This is a last resort, but don’t be afraid to use it if you truly need it. Avoid credit card debt, though. Instead, seek out loans with lower rates through your local financial institution or even a crowdlending site like Prosper.com.

Stick With Your Day Job. Sure, not the most exciting option, but a steady pay check will help you fund your idea until it gets to the point where it’s funding itself. You can also moonlight as a freelancer on a site like upwork.com.

Haggle With Vendors. You can barter to get what you need, you can ask for discounts, or you can even seek out freemiums to cut costs.

Next…

Be Prepared to Make Adjustments

You’ve got a plan, but just be sure you’re not 100% married to that plan. Some piece of information may come along or some event may happen that could change your plan.

Point is, be flexible and ready to make adjustments to your idea-implementation plan as needed.

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How To Implement The Idea: Create a Plan

Create a Plan

Don’t even think about implementing your idea until you’ve actually created an implementation plan – not just in your head, as you need to write it down. Plan for how to implement the idea, pay for it and launch it.

Plan for Opposition

Despite your best-laid plans, you’re going to run into roadblocks. Your best bet is to plan for opposition and roadblocks upfront to the best of your ability.

Take these steps:

Brainstorm all the possible things that could go wrong with your idea.
Ask one or more experts (such as a mentor) what they foresee as potential problems.
Then brainstorm ways to get around these problems.

You won’t be able to foresee every potential problem, but taking these steps may save you a lot of time, money and heartache down the road.

Consider Outsourcing

You don’t need to implement your idea yourself. Instead, find one or more freelancers to set your plan in motion.

For example, if you’re starting up an information product business, you might hire the following team:

Customer service staff.
Technical staff.
Content creation specialists.
Product creation experts.
Marketing and adverting experts.

Next…

Three Places to Find an Awesome Freelancer

So, you’ve decided to hire one or more freelancers to implement your idea. Here are three places to start your search:

Search Google. For example, search for “hire copywriter” or “hire freelance writer.”

Seek out freelancers on freelancing sites. This includes upwork.com, freelancer.com and guru.com

Spread the word through your networks. Ask your friends, colleagues and contacts for recommendations.

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6 Steps to Take When Doing Your Due Diligence

Not every freelancer is a dream-come-true. Be sure to pick the best candidates by taking these steps:

Check the freelancer’s feedback ratings on sites like upwork.com.

Browse the freelancer’s portfolio.

Ask for references (and follow up with them).

See if the freelancer’s rates suit your budget.

Search the freelancer’s name and business name in Google to uncover any red flags.

Do a small test project first to see if you work well together with the freelancer.

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How to Create an Awesome Project Brief

Your freelancer isn’t a mind reader, which is why you want to be sure your project brief includes the following components (where applicable):

Working title.
Outline of the project.
Instructions on formatting/style.
Examples of what you want.
Reference sources.
Any additional notes to help freelancer create a great end result.
An invitation to ask plenty of questions.

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Next…

3 Questions to Ask Before Doing It Yourself

Are you considering implementing your idea yourself? Ask yourself these questions first:

Do you have the skills to create a good end result?
How much time will it take you to create it yourself?
What does it cost you (your time per hour) to do it yourself versus how much would it cost to hire a freelancer?

In many cases you’ll find that hiring a freelancer is an investment rather than an expense, so it’s well worth freeing up your time by hiring someone else to do the work.

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How To Validate Ideas: Factors That Affect Your Research

Two Factors That Affect Your Research

Sometimes your idea may actually be pretty awesome, but your research isn’t showing it. Here are two factors that can affect your conclusions:

Poorly worded survey questions. If your surveys and focus groups aren’t enthusiastic, check that you don’t have a biased survey or otherwise poorly worded questions. Get feedback from those who do market research to see if they can uncover any problems with your questions.

Low-converting sales copy. This is a problem if your competitors don’t have good sales with similar product ideas, and/or if you’ve tested an idea with a lead page or sales page and your response rate is poor. You may want to have a professional copywriter look it over.

Next…

Launch a Fundraiser

Want to know if you’ve got a good idea? Try crowdfunding your idea by using a platform such as Kickstarter.com or IndieGoGo.com. If people are really interested in your fundraiser and your idea, that’s a sign that your prospects may be interested in it too.

Review Other Niches

The idea here is to do some research to see if your general product idea works outside your niche. If it works in other niches, then there’s an increased chance it will work in your niche too.

For example, if you’re decided to start a “busy moms” line of weight loss products, then check outside your weight-loss niche to see if “busy mom” positioning works in general.

Understand User Priorities

You can have a good idea for a product, service, business, ad campaign, or anything else – but if you don’t understand your user priorities, the whole idea can do a belly flop.

Let me give you an example…

Let’s suppose you design baby shoes, and you focused on creating tough shoes that would last “forever.” This is your whole schtick. This is how you planned on separating your shoes from what everyone else is selling.

Guess what?

Parents don’t want shoes that last “forever,” because the baby is only going to wear them for a few months before he or she outgrows the shoes. In other words, the “long-lasting” benefit is NOT a user priority, so the idea is likely to fall flat. Instead, focusing on comfort, style or other features and benefits would make the audience more receptive to your idea.

Bottom line: you’ll need to do some research and some thinking in order to understand what your market really wants and what they prioritize, so that your idea can reflect these wants and priorities.

Test Your Value Proposition

Once you’ve figured out what your prospective customers’ priorities are, then you need to select a value proposition based on those priorities. A good way to validate your ideas is to test out these various value propositions to see which ones your audience responds to the best. Here’s how:

Tweak your lead page to feature your value proposition.
Try placing a paid ad with your value proposition predominantly features.
Test a sales page that features your value proposition.
Transmit your value proposition over social media.

If you’re not getting a positive response to the value proposition, that’s a sign that it may fall flat with your audience.

Think Through Your Idea

When you’re working through the idea validation process, you’ll want to spend some time thoroughly thinking through your idea. Ask yourself these questions (take note that not all of them will be relevant to your situation, depending on the type of idea you’re validating):

Is the market reachable?
How will you reach them?
What will your sales funnel look like?
How will you position your idea in the market?
Is this the type of idea where you need to educate the market (because they’ve never really heard of this solution before)? If so, what is your plan for educating them.

TIP: In some cases, it’s easier to be the second or third person to bring an idea to market if the idea requires a lot of education. That’s because someone else can go through the time and expense of educating the market, and then you can swoop in to a waiting audience.

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An example: autoresponders. When autoresponders first came about, the market had never heard of them and needed to be heavily educated about how they worked and why marketers needed them. The first autoresponder companies struggled because they had to invest so much in this education, while others coming after them flourished.

Next…

Outsource the Validation Process

You don’t need to validate your idea all your own if you don’t have the time, experience or inclination. Instead, search for “outsource idea validation” and choose an experienced company to do it for you.

Now the next step…

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How To Validate Ideas: Create a Related Lead Magnet

Create a Related Lead Magnet

Another idea is to create a free lead magnet that’s highly related to your idea (but not necessarily a “lite” version). If people are interested in your lead magnet, that tells you that there is a market for your idea.

For example, if you’ve got an idea for a diet guide, then try offering a lead magnet with recipes related to this guide. If people eagerly claim and use this lead magnet, that’s a sign of a viable market.

Design a “Fake” Sales Page

Yet another way to test a product or service idea is to create a sales page for it. This is a full sales page, with the only difference being that clicking on the order button does NOT lead to an order form (since you don’t have a product ready yet). Instead, it leads to an opt-in form where prospects can be notified when the product is ready.

To gauge interest, all you have to do is look to see how many people clicked the “order” button. As an added bonus, you’ll develop a list of prospects who’ll be ready to buy if you decide to pursue the idea.

4 Ways to T.E.S.T. an Idea Fast

If you’ve created a lite product or even a sales page to test an idea, then you’re going to want to test this idea fast. Here are four ways to T.E.S.T. your idea by getting traffic quickly (sometimes in less than an hour)”

Try Google AdWords. Be sure to pick extremely targeted keywords and create a high-converting ad to get the clicks.

Enlist Help From Partners. If you have one or more really good traffic partners (affiliates), then enlist their help to drive traffic to your page.

Set Up a Facebook Ad. Narrow your audience by demographics and interest so that your traffic is as targeted as possible.

Tell Your Existing Platforms. If you already have communication platforms set up (such as a newsletter, blog or social media), then spread the word across these channels to test your ideas.

Here’s another validation idea…

Look for an Audience

One of the keys to validating your idea is to make sure you have an audience. And one way to check your audience is to look at Facebook’s ad platform.

Now heads up…

For this strategy we’re NOT talking about actually running an ad campaign. Instead, all you’re doing is checking if there is an audience who’d be interested in what you’re selling. To that end, what you’ll do is set up an ad campaign so that you can check audience demographics – but do NOT actually start the campaign.

For example, let’s suppose you have an idea related to blind dogs. You can pretend to set up an ad campaign on Facebook and pick an audience based on those who’ve expressed an interest in blind dogs (such as those that have liked blind dog pages or are members of blind dog groups). This is a quick and dirty way to gauge the size of a market and whether it’s worth pursuing your idea.

Get started here: https://www.facebook.com/business.

Be Sure There is Enduring Interest

Earlier you learned about how Google Trends can help you generate ideas. You can also validate your existing ideas using this tool. Simply enter your keywords, and then double check that not only are people interested in the idea now, but they’ve shown steady if not increasing interest in the idea over time.

Check it out here: https://trends.google.com/trends/.

5 Questions to Ask Yourself

As you work through your validation process, you want to be sure you’re really clear about your idea. Ask yourself these questions:

What problem are you solving?
What is the #1 key benefit of your idea?
What key feature/benefit will others in your field have a difficult time copying?
How much time and money will it cost to create your idea? What is your break-even point?
What potential stumbling blocks/obstacles/problems do you foresee in launching this idea?

Next…

Get Your Ideas in Front of Existing Customers

The easiest sale you can ever make is to sell something to an existing customer. That’s why you should put your ideas in front of your customers (such as a “lite” version of your product) to gauge interest. If you can’t get this very-warm audience to bite on your offer, then you’re going to have a tough time selling others on it.

Keep Reading: How To Validate Ideas: Factors That Affect Your Research

Previous: How To Validate Ideas: Avoid This Costly Mistake

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How To Validate Ideas: Avoid This Costly Mistake

Avoid This Costly Mistake

Have you ever had an idea so exciting that you couldn’t wait to get started working on it? Maybe it’s the kind of idea that keeps you up late at night, and has you jumping out of bed early in the morning.

I’m sure you know the feeling. But hold up for a second, because this is the place where you could make a costly mistake.

And here’s that mistake: just because YOU think it’s a great idea doesn’t mean your market will think it’s a great idea.

You are not your market. You might be thinking your idea is the greatest thing since sliced bread. You might be thinking this is the business, product, content or advertising business that’s going to make you rich. But if the reality is that your market is just “meh” about your idea, then it’s never going to get off the ground.

Point: don’t depend entirely on your “gut” to make business decisions. Instead, do your research and make decisions based on data.

Which brings us to the next tip…

5 Marketplaces to Research Ideas

One good way to get a feel for what your market wants is to find out what they are already buying. If you see that people in your niche are snapping up a product similar to the one you’re thinking of creating, then there’s a good chance they’ll buy your product too.

Here are 5 marketplaces you can search to research your ideas:

Amazon.com
ClickBank.com.
JVZoo.com
The Apple app store: https://www.apple.com/ios/app-store/.
Google Play’s Android app store: https://play.google.com/store?hl=en

Look for bestsellers in each marketplace, as well as multiple products that are similar. Both of these factors are evidence that a particular product is popular.

Use Google

Another way to find out what people are buying is to run a Google search for your niche keywords (such as “golfing” or “weight loss”). Then check out these two key areas:

Search results. Check out what the biggest websites in your niche are selling. See if these results are similar to what you found when you searched the online marketplaces.

Sponsored ads. Check out what sort of ads other marketers are paying to place alongside Google’s regular search results. Even better is if you can check out these ads over time. If someone is willing to pay money to place an ad week after week, that’s a sign that their product or service is selling.

Here’s the next validation idea…

Survey Your Market

The idea here is to ask your market if they’d be interested in the product, service or overall business idea that you’re thinking about creating. You might also get some information about how much people are willing to pay for this product or service.

But this method comes with a warning tag: what people say they’ll do and what they’ll actually do are two different things. People may even believe what they’re saying, but when it comes time to act (pull out their credit card), they hesitate.

Here’s the point: do not rely on this method in isolation to validate an idea. Instead, use it as one step in gathering information and getting a better insight to what your prospects want and what they’re thinking.

Talk to Experts

Another way to validate an idea is to talk to trusted experts in your niche. For example, if you have a mentor, then run your idea by him or her. If the mentor or other expert has a lot of experience in the niche, he may have already tested this particular idea. He may also be able to give you additional ideas for features, benefits, positioning the offer and so on.

TIP: If an expert tells you the idea will fail because he tried something similar and it failed, then inquire a little further. See if you can figure out WHY it failed. If you can figure out the reason, you might be able to launch something similar with success.

Here’s another way to validate an idea…

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Produce a “Lite” Product

Instead of launching your entire business or creating a full-featured product, simply create a lite version instead. This is sometimes called an MVP (minimum viable product). If your market likes the lite version, then you’ll know it’s a worth investment to develop the full product.

For example, if you’re developing an app, then develop a “lite” version first with minimal features.

Related to this…

Keep Reading: How To Validate Ideas: Create a Related Lead Magnet

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