Starting From Nowhere Part 5 - Attracting Your Customer

If you have only just joined us in this series about starting a home business from zero, we have looked at choosing the best home business for you and how to find your ideal niche.

In Part 4 we looked at the importance of getting to know your customer, in other words identifying your target market. Knowing your market and catering to their tastes is fundamental to your success: you cannot successfully market to everybody in the whole world. Think about how different people's tastes vary. For instance, if you were going to produce a TV program, you would need to know who your audience would be before you started to plan any other details.

If you decided to produce an educational program for pre-schoolers, everything about the program would need to be designed to appeal to very young viewers. This would include the content and the vocabulary used by presenters or storytellers. The whole look and feel of the program must appeal to the right age group. You would conduct research to determine the optimum length of the program so as to match it to the attention span of your audience. Every single detail must be tailored to suit your target audience.

Promoting your home business to potential customers requires similar considerations.
Who are your potential customers? Are they senior citizens, young men, parents with young children, students, teenagers? If your intended customers were middle-aged citizens, you would not use an in-your-face hip-hop presentation; the style of presentation must be carefully matched to the tastes of the audience you wish to attract. You need to think about the language you use in your advertising and make sure it is appropriate both to your product and to the type of person you are hoping will become your customer.

If you are directing your potential customers to a website, the color scheme, the type of graphics and fonts you use will need to be carefully considered. If you are trying to sell used tractor parts to farmers, you won't want a pink fluffy website decorated with pictures of flowers. That might appeal to the odd farmer, but generally speaking a more rugged and businesslike website would be more likely to bring you success.

If you are promoting something which would appeal to several sections of society, you need to decide whether you are going to invest all your efforts into promoting to just one section or whether you will have more than one advertising campaign so that you can tailor your advertising to promote different aspects of the same thing.

As an example, think about promoting a coastal holiday resort. You might advertise it to fishermen as an ideal spot for offshore fishing with keenly priced boat hire packages. You might promote the same resort to parents with young children by emphasising the safe sandy beaches and child-friendly hotels. It is your choice whether you promote to both these groups or just select one and concentrate all your efforts there. This way, you will be presenting benefits which will appeal to your target market and avoiding the situation where you would be trying to engage two completely different types of people with a single unfocused offer.

The questions to ask yourself are: "who is my audience?" and "What are their tastes?". You must know your audience and understand their tastes before you can work on attracting them.

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Niche Marketing

Starting From Nowhere Part 4 - Knowing Your Customer

Niche Marketing - Who Is Your Customer?

To talk about niche marketing makes it sound very high-tech but the phrase "niche marketing" is about avoiding the temptation to be all things to all people. Trying to market everything to the whole world is much harder than trying to sell one item to one person. Actually it's not just harder, it is downright impossible.

Different types of people have completely distinct interests. Think about pet owners. Forget for a moment, the people who create a mini-zoo at home because they just love keeping pets. A niche marketer would not try to target "all pets", it is just too wide to be successful. There are definitely "dog people" and "cat people" in the pet owning world but you would not be best advised to try to market to both types at once.

Having identified dogs as a niche you will need to dig deeper and look at possible narrower niches, for instance: puppies, guard dogs, miniature dogs, one particular breed of dog, dog toys, dog shampoo, worming treatments, dog insurance, dog travel baskets, dog leashes, dog collars, flea powders, dog training, poop-scoopers, dog breeding, dog psychology, dog feeding, weight loss diets for dogs, curing doggy flatulence, dog chews, dog beds, furniture protectors, dog hair resistant car seat covers, dog clothing, dog wardrobes, etc. You can see how this works, so I'm sure you don't need me to provide a list for cats.

It makes no difference whether you are a website owner or a shop-keeper, you must find your niche and market it to the right section of society. Think about niches as if they were shops. If you were trying to sell high-priced designer garments, you would be more successful if you were to market them through an exclusive boutique than if you had them on show in a shop alongside low-cost, low-quality attire. The consumers who will be interested in the two types of product are two entirely different sets of people and by trying to cater to both, you will attract neither.

Your customers must be able to see at a glance exactly what you are selling, otherwise they will move on to a store where the message is clear. The products you display should identify you as an expert in a particular field: eg you are either an expert at haute couture or at bargain basement clothing. You cannot establish credibility if you try to pass yourself off as an expert at too many diverse things and, if you lack credibility as a marketer, people won't come back to make further purchases.

Think about buying gifts. It is much harder to choose a gift for someone you hardly know. You don't know what they like, what they hate or if they are allergic to anything. The best you can do is go for the blandest possible item and hope not to offend. The chances of you hitting on something they will really want are so remote as to be non-existent.

Now think about buying a gift for your partner or a close friend or relative you have known for years. You know exactly what their tastes are and you can, almost without thinking, pick out a gift they will accept with pleasure.

Your niche marketing should be like giving a gift to someone you know well, it might be your partner, your brother, your girlfriend or even yourself; it doesn't matter as long as you know who you are marketing to and offer them something you know they will want.




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Scam Free Work At Home Jobs

Many people looking for scam free work at home jobs online are reluctant to trust any opportunities they see on the Internet. This is perfectly understandable: anyone could be hiding behind the facade of a website, all they need to do is pay a few dollars extra for private registration when they purchase a domain name and their details will be hidden from the public. Work at home opportunity seekers are left with the choice of trusting a complete stranger or not trusting anybody. If they decide to take the risk and sign up for an online work at home opportunity, they might be unlucky enough to get involved in a scam but they might find the income earning opportunity they needed. If they are not prepared to trust anybody, they will certainly avoid scams but they will never find a way to make money working at home online.

I received an email today asking me this question:

"How do I know you and the companies/programs you suggest are legitimate?"

This set me thinking again about the whole problem of knowing who you can trust when you are looking for scam free work at home opportunities online. I previously published an article about doing due diligence online but here are a few basic tips to help you.

1. Look out for hype. Advertisers are going to use language that makes their product sound like the best work at home idea you could ever wish to encounter. You have to decide whether the claims made for the product are ordinary advertising "puff" or if they seem over-inflated.

2. Check out who owns the website. Go to www.betterwhois.com, type in the website url and see if the details of the owner match what is published on the website. If the owner's details are concealed, this should be taken as a warning that they might be trying to hide something (they might just want to keep their information private, but take it as a warning anyway).

3. Type the name of the website or program or program owner into a search engine along with the word "scam". What you are looking for is forum postings. Visit the forums and read what has been posted (both for and against). What you are looking for is an overwhelming trend to say whether there is a scam involved. Never forget that anyone can post anything they like online and there are people out there who will post libellous statements because it gives them some sort of warped pleasure.

4. Look for "trust seals" - eg icop, BBB Online etc on the websites. Click on the seal to make sure it is a live link. If it is just a non-clickable image or takes you to a generic web page, this is a sign of a scam. If the website owner is a member of a respected authority, clicking on the seal should take you to a page owned by the authority which confirms that the website you were visiting is a genuine member. You might also want to read my article Avoiding The Better Business Bureau Scam.

5. Trust your own instincts. If all the evidence says you are looking at a legitimate scam free work at home opportunity, but you still feel uneasy, take your investigations further. You might find that your instinct was wrong, but I am a great believer in trusting gut feelings.

There are scam free work at home programs online, you just need to take some sensible precautions and investigate them thoroughly.

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Starting From Nowhere Part 3 - Finding Your Home Business Niche

What A Home Business Niche Is, and How To Find It

Having decided that you want to start your own home-based business, the next step is to identify your niche. You might have a general idea about the type of work you want to do, but you need to identify your exact niche before you start making a business plan.

The importance of finding your business niche is something you will see mentioned time and again on the Internet but it is not confined just to Internet marketing, it applies equally to any bricks and mortar business; to be successful, a business must fit comfortably into a niche. To find your niche you need to decide on your preferred area of work and find out what market exists for particular products or services associated with your preference.

For example: you might be interested in sport, but that is too wide an area to be a niche so you must narrow your area of interest. You can do this by choosing one particular sport, let's say you are a golfing enthusiast, so your niche is narrowed considerably but golf in general is still much too wide, so you need to look at aspects of golf to locate possible niches.

You might want to teach golf, or write books about golf, or sell things connected with golf on the Internet through your own website. Any of these areas can be further narrowed down but let's assume you want to sell things connected with golf. A possible niche here is selling golf clubs but that is still very wide, it can be narrowed down to bargain priced clubs, or children's golf clubs, or used clubs, or products from one exclusive manufacturer. You could also investigate golfing attire, golf shoes, or golf bags. Another possibility is selling golfing memorabilia or books about golf on eBay. These niches could be further narrowed to relate to one particular famous golfing personality.

Each time you think you have narrowed your niche sufficiently, you should do some research to find out if there is enough of a market for what you would be offering. Depending upon the results of your research, you can then look at refining your niche further or possibly combining two niches. One word of warning: don't try to invent a mixed niche. A niche selling golfing memorabilia and golfing books from the 19th century would make sense (whether it would be profitable is for you to decide), but a niche selling golfing memorabilia and rare motor vehicle parts would not work.

Having multiple streams of income (eg selling golfing memorabilia and sourcing scarce vehicle parts) is fine, but the two must be marketed separately. In the case of our example, you would need to operate a niche website for each niche and many people do exactly that. You've heard the term "niche marketing": well, that's how it's done. To be a niche marketer just means finding a product or service to appeal to a narrow section of society. If the potential market for your niche is very narrow, you expand your business by starting up in other niches, not by trying to make your niche wider. We'll look at this a bit more in the next article in this series.


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Starting From Nowhere Part 2 - Choosing The Best Home Business

Choosing The Best Home Business - A Question In Two Parts

Deciding whether starting a home business would be the right thing for you is bound to be tricky if you have never run a business before. The decision is really in two parts: you have to decide whether running a home-based business is the right thing for you and also what type of business would be best.

Finding the solution to the second part of the question will usually automatically answer the first part. Answering one question will usually give the solution to both. I'll explain how that works in a moment, but first lets look at the two parts of the question separately.

Many people shy away from the idea of running a home business. They need to make an income and they want to work from home but the minute you refer to this as a home-based business, they will back off. The talk of being self-employed, sole trader, or business owner seems to bring out the inner mouse in some people. I have to admit that I showed definite mouse-tendencies when working at home was what I wanted: I wanted a job I could do working at home, I had no ambitions to have my own business and the idea seemed very complicated and scary.

Look around at the people you know who are working from home. Examples of the ones I can think of myself right away are: the man who does the Kleeneze round, the lady who sells cosmetics from a catalogue, the lady who minds a couple of kids while their parents are at work, the man who cares for my neighbours' garden, the lady who painted the outside of my house, the home tutor,the window-cleaner.

If I were to sit and think about this, I would come up with many more examples including most of the repair men I have ever called out because they all seem to work under franchises. It’s only when you start thinking about working at home for yourself that you realise how many other people are already doing that very thing successfully. Then the penny drops! Of course, these people who are working at home are each running a home-based business.

The sort of things that scare most people about starting a home business are not knowing where to start and worry about what is involved in dealing with things like paying taxes and getting permits and licences. My big worry was about dealing with paying tax as a self-employed person. As I had previously worked as a bookkeeper for a small business, I fully sympathise with anyone who gets an attack of this kind of self-doubt. The trick is to recognise this stumbling block for the irrational fear it is and then use it as a step up.

It is better to start with the second part of our double question and try to think what type of home business would be best for you. The way to do that is to think about what you would like to do day and day out for years to come. Do you have a passion in life and a desire to devote more time to it? Do you have a hobby that could be the basis for your own business? Do you currently have a job that you could do as a self-employed person? Once you know what sort of thing you would like to be doing, the decision as to whether a home business would be right for you will be pretty much answered.

After making that giant leap, the next step is to find your niche, and we'll look at that in the next instalment.

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Starting From Nowhere Part 1- Is a Home Business Right For You?

Is a Home Business Right For You? See If You Have The Five Essentials

Is a home business right for you? To put it another way, are you right for a home business? This can be a tough question to answer because most of us have never had any sort of business before, so we can hardly be expected to know whether we could run one successfully or what would be the best home business to work at.

There is no single, foolproof test to tell you whether a home business would be right for you because the variety of home-based business opportunities is so vast. There are, however, five character traits that every business owner needs in order for the business to succeed. The vital traits are patience, persistence, self-belief, the ability to remain focused, and determination. Let's have a brief look at each of these traits one by one.

Patience is required because starting a home business will require you to keep working diligently even though months might go by before you manage to turn a profit. It is highly unlikely that your business will be an overnight success. It is far more likely that you will have to keep working with nothing to show for your efforts while you are building your business.

Persistence is vital because you will have to motivate yourself when things don't go to plan. You can't give up when something doesn't work out, you have to keep trying different ways to make it work. How many times can you bear hear the answer "no"? Suppose you give up after getting a "no" answer ten times and number eleven would have been a "yes". You can never give up: you must be able to keep persisting until you get "yes".

Self-belief is essential because you will be surrounded by people (often well meaning folk) who will tell you starting a home-based businesses is a big risk and that 95% of home businesses fail. You have to believe that you are one of the 5% who will succeed in running a business from home even if there is no sign of success during the early days.

The ability to remain focused will ensure that you work steadily towards your goals and don't procrastinate when you have difficult tasks to complete or get sidetracked by external distractions.

You must be utterly determined to succeed. If you start your home business with a wishy-washy, have-a-try-and-see-how-it-goes attitude, take it from me, you won't be successful. You need the attitude of an athlete who is going to win a big race.

Do you have what it takes to run your own home business? If you can see all these five traits in your own character the prognosis is good but there are other considerations to be taken into account. We'll look at those in Part 2 of this series of articles.




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Work at home - Internet Marketing Business Opportunities Are Not A Soft Option

What do you think when somebody mentions working at home?

The sort of things that usually spring to mind are not having to commute every day, being able to pick how many hours you work, having the flexibility to work when you like and wearing your pajamas if you wish and to take a day of when you want to. One of the top reasons for wanting to work at home running your own business is that you won't have a boss watching your every move.

People thinking of no alarm clock, not commute, no boss, will think internet marketing is an easy life. On a scale including firefighting, mining and military service, it is true that internet marketing would be at the bottom of the scale of hard ways to earn an income. Even the most serious internet marketer won't claim to be risking life and limb by working online but an internet marketing business opportunity does not represent a soft option when considering things you can do to make money at home.

Agree? Disagree? - Read more about
work at home internet marketing business opportunities




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Could You Work At Home As A Call Center Agent?

A couple of days ago I published an article about the increasing availability of jobs working at home. The fact that telecommuting jobs are becoming more plentiful is great news for the people who want to make an income at home but don't fancy the idea of starting their own home based business.

Working as a telecommuter often means you will be working as a contractor on a self-employed basis. Whilst this gives you most of the freedom and flexibility you would enjoy as your own boss running your own business from home, it is closer to the relationship you would have as an employee doing a job where your employer allows you to work at home.

Working at home as a call-center agent taking incoming calls for companies is one of the jobs now available due to home shoring (work outsourced to work at home contractors). If you are looking for home based employment or jobs you can do working from home, and want to find out if you have what it takes to be a telecommuting call center agent, read my new article about: Working At Home As A Call Center Agent



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My Credit Card Cash Review - A Get Paid To Give Away Credit Cards Program

Overview
My Credit Card Cash is an online work at home opportunity. The program is extremely simple: you get paid commission when you give away credit cards. There is no matrix, no team building, no recruiting of any kind. You don't have to sell anything, you don't have to buy anything through the company. All you do is promote a website offering a variety of credit card deals.

The My Credit Card Cash website describes the program as being 3 steps:

"1. Sign up and get your Income Generating Website Instantly!

2. People go to your Website and Sign up for Credit Cards.

3. Earn Great Money For Each Sign Up!"

When you join the program, you are provided with a pre-built website which you advertise, and you earn commission for every credit card that is given away through your website. The system is fully automated, so you receive your website immediately you join the program. The website contains over 100 different credit card deals for potential customers to pick from.

Training
The website promises "Free coaching and advice to help you every step of the way" and "6 lessons to teach you how to make $1000s per month". My Credit Card Cash host and maintain your website free of charge so there are no additional hosting fees to be paid and you don't need to learn anything about programming or website maintenance.

Cost of Membership
The cost of membership is an initial one-off payment of $1 to have your website activated and it is then all yours to promote. In order to keep permanent free ownership of the website, new members must get 4 or more credit card sign ups. There are no fixed quotas, the only requirement the company stipulates is that you get 4 or more credit card sign ups. If you fail to get the 4 sign ups within 30 days, you do not lose the website or your membership, but you will be required to pay a small fee ($37.95) to continue. This fee will be charged every 30 days after you sign up until you have obtained a total of 4 credit card sign ups. As soon as you get your 4 sign ups, the website becomes yours free of charge forever.

I know the above might sound confusing, but what it means is: if you get 4 credit card sign ups within your first 30 days of membership, all you have to pay is the initial $1. As soon as you have 4 sign ups to your credit, the website becomes yours free of charge. So, if you don't get your 4 sign ups within your first 30 days, but say on day 45 you get your 4th sign up, the total you will be charged is $38.95 and the website becomes yours forever.

Payment
Commissions are paid monthly at the end of the month by PayPal or Check.

Cancellation
According to the FAQ, you can cancel your membership at any time.

Bonuses
The program comes with some bonuses when you first join, including a coupon for $25 for pay per click advertising and 250 professional personalised business cards to help with your offline advertising.

For more information about this credit card business opportunity, please read Can You Make Money Giving Away Credit Cards?


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