Just got done listening to the podcast. You have thrown out a lot of good suggestions and advice. I was really able to relate to you setting up an e-commerce site that wasn't specialized enough. Wish I hadn't made that mistake myself. Well worth listening too! Great Podcast.

Is there a good way to determine commercial intent for a product? Say I want to sell bookshelves online. Even if there are a ton of searches, how do I know they aren't just reviewing bookshelves so they can make a decision and go make a purchase from their local Target or Ikea?

I was at a marketing seminar last year and the presenter made a really weird point. He said something like 20% of ONLINE SEARCHES result in a sale online. So if you're spending time on SEO and money on PPC, consumers are most likely going to go to a local store… unless you're selling something that they can't easily get from a nearby retailer?

What do you think? Do people come to your sites and then just go to Pottery Barn? How do you engage your customers to buy from you?

Thanks,
Raza

That's a very interesting point. I don't sell anything that the big commercial companies sell, so I don't have to worry about that.

I would say the best thing to do is just target a specific niche as best you can. I heard once that a conversion rate of 1% is decent for an ecommerce store. That sounds way too low to me, but you have to expect that a large portion of your traffic will not purchase from you (at least not today).

Email marketing is a great way to stay in touch with potential and existing customers. “They” say it takes up to 7 communications to convince someone to buy from you.

Nowadays, there are also a lot of comparison sites. I'm sure many people who plan to purchase offline use these.

I'm really not sure how you would go about determining commercial intent. My advice would be to try to sell merchandise that's unique and not easily found offline. Try not to compete with the big dogs and become the leader of a niche market instead.

My customers buy from me because of:

A. My Variety of Collections
B. My Focused Niche
C. My Stores' Designs
D. My Phone Line – Customer Service
E. My Return Policy (60 Days)
F. Word of Mouth
G. Perceived Authority

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

Josh, you're always so supportive and sweet! I appreciate the feedback.

Even though we made mistakes, those mistakes brought us our current success. As long as we learn and grow from each error, our mistakes are just lessons.

Keller, I just finished listening to your podcast, really a good tips for me. You have shown me a good insight on internet marketing, how to choose a good niche. I will try to apply it in the future when I start my internet marketing business. I really appreciate it and hope to hear more of your experience in internet marketing. Keep the hard work! ^.^

Hey Keller,
As always you've got another great pod-cast on your hands. Everyone needs to be listening to your stuff when they start their online business.

I've got a question for you though. I'm in the process in setting up an online service business dedicated to serving other local businesses and helping them develop a strong online presence. My problem is that “local businesses” is a huge huge market… so I can't really target that. So I want to start off by targeting my specific area of local businesses – ie- “Local Business in Columbia, Mo looking for my service” I know my service is valuable and needed, but I don't really know how to do keyword research and targeting so that the businesses in my area can find me. Any ideas?

Thanks!

Thanks Jason! I really appreciate the feedback. If you ensure you put the effort into proper niche selection, the foundation of your business will be strong.

Thank you Richard! Using Google's keyword tool, I found the following search terms:

columbia mo
columbia mo hotels
missouri business
missouri businesses
missouri small business
mo small business

I searched for “Columbia MO business.” Here are a few ideas for you:

1. There are a lot of local business directories. Try visiting those to see what keywords people are targeting.

2. Try finding websites like yours that target different areas of the country, view their website source code and check out their keywords.

3. You will need to be more targeted with your keyword research. Try looking for keywords with the term “local” in them.

4. Adwords allows you to target specific regions of the US (if you decide to invest in advertising).

5. Check out your local yellow pages and see if you can spot keywords in it.

6. Conduct a poll and ask people what they search for when trying to find your type of website.

I hope this helps!

Hey Keller,

That does really help Thanks. I'm still in the process of designing and setting up everything and doing keyword research is a major part of that process. I've also decided that we will likely be doing some local off-line advertising. I'll keep you posted on how it all goes.

I would love to hear how it goes Richard! Please do let us know.

Thanks Keller: I'm still trying to get the importance of finding the right niche. Your site and this podcast are great!

I'm so happy I could help Ripplenet! I like your website. I love meeting fellow web designers. I hope to see you around my blog soon!

i am a Nigerian in Africa and i dont really know where to begin.I am trying to get the full scope of the internet, trying my hands on everything from using the various social media to studying photography which is my passion. I want to live the internet lifestyle as a part time venture, considering the fact that i have to work during the day but dont know where to start. Can you please give me some tips.

Like Keller said “I would say the best thing to do is just target a specific niche as best you can”…

I also try to get a good niche to start working online.But Keller I was sent email to you and ask for some advices.

For me I love to read article of tips(insurance,car,financial,etc)…Is it good if we make a up one stop blog tips?and I am just copy the article from other website ..please give me respond!

Absolutely Emmanuel! If your passion is photography, then we just need to discover a niche for you. Is there something specific you enjoy photographing? Landscapes? People? Fruit? Do some keyword research and find out what people usually search for in relation to photography.

If you work during the day, you may want to start your online lifestyle as a blogger. No customer service or client work needed – just write about your passion, post your pictures and engage your audience. You can write at night after work. I guarantee you, it will quickly become a new passion for you!

Your blog will need to be focused on the niche you discover during your keyword research. Let me know if this helps!

Inawsa, I really like your idea, but I want to make a few suggestions.

Please don't copy articles from other blogs. Due to SEO, duplicate content can hurt blogger's PR and rankings. Plus, you will want all of the content on your blog to be unique so that you can gain good PR and rankings.

Why not do something similar to Hesham's New Media Bloggers website? Spend your time asking bloggers to give your readers tips (like Hesham does with interviews). You can make each week focus on a specific topic.

EXAMPLE:

Week One: How to Get Lots of Comments on a Blog
Go out and find 7 bloggers who will offer you their best tip for getting comments on blogs. Then, post one tip each day that week.

What do you think?

Great podcast Keller, made me stop and think about a couple things I am currently doing. one being…my blog…I have an idea but at this point in time I am just going to sit on it. to see where my blog goes from here…thanks for the brain storm…
Larry

Great podcast Keller, made me stop and think about a couple things I am currently doing. one being…my blog…I have an idea but at this point in time I am just going to sit on it. to see where my blog goes from here…thanks for the brain storm…
Larry

Hey, that's a great idea to do marketing and create new bussiness models

Hey, that's a great idea to do marketing and create new bussiness models

when i start internet business….i dnt know what niche was….
by mistake i started celebrity websites…..and u dont believe i do my best in it…but
theres no money in it….worst niche i ever seen..and i lost my whole interest from it…maybe i read this article before….i lost my 6 months…now i have 1 education website and i am planning to start sublimation website…printing mugs, tshirts like photobox.com….
whats your suggestion dear….

when i start internet business….i dnt know what niche was….
by mistake i started celebrity websites…..and u dont believe i do my best in it…but
theres no money in it….worst niche i ever seen..and i lost my whole interest from it…maybe i read this article before….i lost my 6 months…now i have 1 education website and i am planning to start sublimation website…printing mugs, tshirts like photobox.com….
whats your suggestion dear….

What type of business model do you really want to work with? I noticed your current site seems to be an Adsense model. Is this the only kind you've tried?

Even though we made mistakes, those mistakes brought us our current success. So your post is helpful.
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