by seller_bot | Oct 8, 2017 | Our Blog
One of the most common questions I get asked is “”What is the best drop-shipping niche?”
The first thing you must consider is how long you’re wanting to run the store for.
If you are planning to create a long-term successful business, then it is important that you are at least interested in what you are wanting to promote and sell.
We have found that people who try to run a business they are not interested in quickly lose focus, stop trying to make the business work and ultimately fail.
As far as a niche goes, from our experience we have found it is better to target an evergreen niche and then narrow it down.
For those of you who are unsure, an evergreen niche is a niche that will always be popular and should ideally generate sales throughout the year.
For example we could set up a store that targets Christmas decorations, however as soon as we pass Christmas time, we will have to wait another whole 10 months before we can generate any decent sales.
Again a narrow niche is also preferable. The reason for this is that a broad niche may sound like a good idea at first (i.e. creating a massive authority website where we can sell different types of products) but in practice a non-targeted store can make it very tough to generate any decent traffic and ultimately generate sales.
A few reasons to target a narrow evergreen niche:
- A true evergreen niche will generate traffic and sales all year round both now and in the foreseeable future.
- Targeting a narrow niche will give you a better understanding about what you’re going to sell and who you going to target.
- It is far easier to be a big fish in a small pond. Ultimately you do not have access to the massive advertising budgets of multi-international stores (like Amazon.com, OverStock.com, Walmart.com etc.)
- it is easier to rank higher in web searches if all of your stores content and products are complementary
- As you are targeting specialty area, people will be more likely to come to your store for information, advice and to purchase items.
- Focusing on one audience lets you easily plan and stream line your marketing strategies.
- A narrow niche let’s you deal with less suppliers which means you can build a better relationship with them (and better prices)
To help give you some ideas, we have put together a list of top evergreen niches that could be the right fit for you:
(note these are in no particular order)
| Personal |
Hobbies |
Sports / Outdoors / Fitness |
Food / Drinks |
Electronics |
Pets / Animals |
Work / Education |
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| Beards |
Witchcraft |
Hiking |
Pizza |
iPhone/Android |
Dogs |
Learn languages (Spanish, French, etc) |
| Quit Smoking |
Chess |
Swimming |
Beer |
Gaming |
Cats |
Nurse |
| Parenting |
Astronomy |
Camping |
Cooking |
|
Horses |
Lawyers |
| Children s Items |
Gardening |
Surfing |
Sushi |
|
Fish |
Doctors |
| Baby Gear |
Cooking |
Sky-diving |
Coffee |
|
Cows |
Teachers |
| Pregnancy |
Knitting |
Bowling |
Tea |
|
Ducks |
Military |
| Weight-loss |
Sewing |
Tennis |
Wine |
|
Deer |
Building |
| Dating |
Scrap booking |
Cycling |
Baking |
|
Pig |
Joinery |
| Wedding |
Painting |
Poker |
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Rabbit |
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| Acne |
Books / Reading |
Badminton |
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Hamster |
|
| Marijuana |
Gaming |
Badminton |
|
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Birds |
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| Adult Wear |
Sci-Fi |
Squash |
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Goat |
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| Novelty Items |
Wood working |
Lacrosse |
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Sheep |
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Graffiti |
Cricket |
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Farming |
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Guitar |
Volleyball |
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Piano |
Soccer |
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Magic |
Basketball |
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Photography |
Football |
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Landscaping |
Boxing |
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Chicken Coops |
MMA |
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Cars |
Rock Climbing |
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Motorcycles |
Scuba Diving |
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Rugby |
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Skateboarding |
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Snowboarding |
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Skiing |
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Kayaking |
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Yoga |
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Bodybuilding |
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Cross fit |
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Golf |
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Ultimate Frisbee |
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Bowling |
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Darts |
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Ping Pong |
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Cheer leading |
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Archery |
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Paintball |
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Running |
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Gymnastics |
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Fishing |
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Guns |
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Hunting |
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Boats |
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Pottery |
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Tattoos |
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Organics |
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Do-It-Yourself |
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Karaoke |
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Break dancing |
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by seller_bot | Oct 4, 2017 | Our Blog
Someone recently asked me what a great landing page consisted of. Before I began to rattle through my list of essential checkpoints, they modified the question and said, “Answer in two words.” I thought for a split second and then responded, “Content and Images.” Okay, that was three, sue me.
Still, my point remains. In order to have a really successful landing page, you really only need two things (aside from the obvious i.e. call to action, hosting site, URL, the ability to exist, etc.). When it really comes down to it, content is going to drive the traffic and then the sales and images are going to keep the viewer invested in the landing page. Done deal, right?
Doing Content Right on Landing Pages
Not so fast. It should be obvious by now that you can’t just slap up any old content up on a landing page and expect it to work. The content has to be done correctly. This means a few things:
– Content Focus. For starters, the content has to be very specific. Landing pages aren’t the place to write novels or go off on tangents. Tell the viewer where they are, what they can do here and what you want them to do. Get them in, get them informed, get their order/email/etc.
– Keywords. Of course you’re going to need keywords to rank on the SERPs, but don’t just keyword stuff. Use LSIs to trigger that oh-so important semantic search algorithm.
– Digestible Chunks. Don’t write huge paragraphs or walls of text. Keep it short and to the point, creating a lot of white space and nothing that will swallow your viewer whole.
– Pleasing Font. No comic sans, no 20 pt bold, no Times Roman—stick to Verdana if you want to be safe, but don’t be obnoxious or boring with your font choice, color or size as a general rule.
– Proper English (or whatever language you’re writing in). If there are spelling mistakes, grammatical mistakes, punctuation mistakes or anything of the sort, I’m leaving and I’m taking your viewers with me. These types of errors scream “amateur” and “scam artist” and will drive your leads to a better landing page (probably not owned by you!).
Don’t Forget to Optimize Images
And if content has to be done right, it follows that images can’t just be slapped up there either in order for landing pages to have the “bare essentials” for success. Here are some pointers to make sure your images are being all that they can be:
– Properly Sized. Images can’t be too big or too small. They should be scaled to fit on any device screen (responsive websites are the best way to do this).
– Alt Text. While not exactly essential, it is important to your keyword ranking and ultimate ability for your landing page to be found through a Google image search. Make your alt txt on images the keywords for your landing page.
– Content Appropriate. Make sure the pictures not only match what you are talking about, but are also situated in the right area on the page. For example, don’t talk about blue elephants at the top of the page and then post a blue elephant picture at the bottom.
As you can see, it doesn’t take many elements to have a killer landingpage, but what it does take has to be done properly.
by seller_bot | Oct 3, 2017 | Uncategorized
Being an entrepreneur is a multi-faceted endeavor, in addition to needing to be willing to work hard, you’ve got to be preparing your mind and body to do that work well ahead of time. Here are a few habits besides “wake up earlier” and “eat healthy” that you can put to practical use.
Don’t Go It Alone With Your Organization
People like to think that they will keep themselves perfectly in line with just a bit of note taking here, a bit of list making there, but the reality is that most people practicing this organizational ‘method’ end up with sticky notes everywhere and sheets of paper that tend to disappear before you need them again. Instead, consider using a web app like Trello or Evernote to keep everything organized and in sync.
Start The Night Before
When you are organizing your (now digital) to-do and deadline lists, it’s a good idea to get them set in place the night before. This has a couple of benefits. One, is that it’s easy to let this drag out when starting your work day, but you’ll likely want to be concise about it if you are cutting into your evening personal or even sleep time. Plus, if sleep is an issue for you, you can ease anxiety about the next day’s happenings by having them planned out in advance. Two birds, one stone.
Eat More Regularly
No one else needs to tell you what to eat, that’s up to you, but many of us do need to be reminded when to eat, as it can become too easy to sit and work away for hours on end without so much as a snack. Much of the time we begin to feel tired, especially during an afternoon slump, our bodies are actually dehydrated and/or in need of some caloric energy! Make sure you’re taking this into account in your own schedule, and try and have a hard cutoff so you don’t keep doing ‘one more thing’ until your mealtime has long passed.
Find a Break Schedule That Makes Sense
Focusing alone on one task for extended periods of time can be tedious and tiring, so make sure you’re doing right by yourself and establishing a schedule that gives you breaks. For some, this may mean you simply work for an hour, take a 15 minute break, etc. For others, it might get more complex. Some people swear by a quicker pace in which they focus on something intently for 25 minutes, then completely disconnect for 5.
As with all of these habits, this last one is less about what exactly ‘works’ but more what works for you. This can mean making lots of little tweaks for your own situation, but the end results will be the same – a healthier, more productive, less-stressed you.
by seller_bot | Oct 1, 2017 | Our Blog
In this content heavy market, blogs and reviews likely drive a large chunk of traffic to your site and sales from it. Unfortunately, this also means writing (or outsourcing) a steady stream of blogs for your website, which means you are working with limited resources. If you’re paying for your blogs, then unless they are making you more profit than they cost you to outsource, you’ll eventually run out of capital. If you’re writing your blogs, you’ll likely hit some dry spells where you don’t have any more good ideas for blogs (if you haven’t hit some already).
Three Techniques You Can Use to Create Fresh Blogs When Yours are Stale
For those that have run out of topics to blog about, take comfort in the fact that this happens to just about every internet marketer that doesn’t have a team of writers tirelessly wracking their brains for killer blog topics. So if you find yourself teetering on the brink of an empty tank, try these three techniques for refilling your think tank:
1. Play I Spy. Unless you are the only person or website in the world in your niche, in which case just say that in blog after blog since there’s no competition, you likely have saturated marketplace to deal with. While that’s difficult for any number of other reasons, for blogging purposes, it could be a goldmine.
Simply go on a little “spying” mission to your competition’s blogs and see what they are blogging about. This could give you inspiration in any number of ways, maybe you see things from a different perspective and find ways to differentiate yourself; maybe you think your competition is completely wrong and you can blog why.
Most importantly, see which topics have gotten the most social shares or comments, those are the topics that your demographic wants to read or talk about, meaning you need to be covering them. The point is, use your competition’s blog to not only stay relevant with everything that is going on in your niche, but also as some motivation to set your site up as more knowledgeable and authoritative than your competition’s. Do this through blogging.
2. Look Inside. After you look around you, you should start to have some inspiration or ideas for blogs. Now, take a look at your own personal journey as an internet marketer. Think about your successes and your failures, these are what interest people.
Without a personal spin or attachment to a blog, it simply reads as some research that some copywriter did and then threw together in a few minutes. You should have some sort of personal story to relay that shows why what you’re saying matters.
People want to learn from other people’s mistakes as well as follow in the footsteps of their success. Outline what went right or wrong for you, how and why it happened, and share what your readers should take away from that. (It helps if what they take away is whatever you’re selling, but not every blog has to be sales-driven.)
3. Use Buzzsumo. Buzzsumo is an amazing search engine that is geared towards filtering through the metrics and results of content marketing. You simply enter a search topic or keyword phrase and then find all of the content that’s been published on that topic or keyword.
You can filter by date, type of content (e.g. articles, interviews, giveaways, videos, infographics, etc.) and then see how many shares each link has gotten across the various social media platforms. This will help you keep your finger on the pulse of the industry as well as come up with fresh blog topics.
by seller_bot | Sep 28, 2017 | Our Blog
In part one of this series, we took a look at the first five predictions for changes to marketing trends in 2016. Many of our first half of the list focused on changes in tone of voice and public perception approach, let’s check out some other angles in the next five:
6) Managing your entire marketing cycle will be cheaper and simpler
As so many new companies have sprung up on online, the demand for awesome business to business software as a service (B2B SaaS) products has skyrocketed. Platforms like Hubspot, Kissmetrics, Intercom, and more have sprouted up to help manage campaigns, test conversions, schedule content, and more.
This innovation will only get more competitive and result in better platforms and tools for brands. More than a few brands in 2015 likely saved themselves a boatload of money by using such tools to bring their marketing efforts in-house.
7) Advertising and branding agencies will change
Let’s be honest, this one has been happening for a few years, but we’re really going to start seeing the dinosaurs die out in 2016. Agencies who are still only working with legacy brands, betting on them not bringing in fresh blood who want to expand beyond traditional advertising, or who want to simply ‘service’ social media and new communication platforms to appease clients rather than to actually innovate, are going to have trouble.
8) Consultants will have to get more clever
In the same way that agencies will have to adapt or die, those proclaiming to be experts or gurus who can do branding on a freelance basis will have to expand their skillset. For the most part, such people are driven to stay up to date and won’t have a problem with this.
That said, there will no doubt be those who struggle to adapt and want to keep on writing the same types of sales pages and pitching the same type of creative to their clients. As these wane in effectiveness, so will their businesses.
9) Wearable format
In 2016, wearable devices like the Apple Watch (and whatever gets rolled out in the next few months) will probably move from fringe and toward mainstream. With mass adoption comes mass opportunity, so brands will need to look into how they can get themselves in front of users of these devices in a native format.
Native means working within screen size restrictions, limited app offerings, and forming partnerships with companies who have some hold in relevant markets.
10) Smart automation
As time saving and automation tools become more prevalent, brands will develop best practices for automating their marketing process. Please note: this does not necessarily mean automating everything you can.
In fact, some of the strongest brands are able to pick out situations where automation can still be genuine while saving time, and then also hone in on areas where interaction should be kept more authentic and manual. Perhaps even a new meta market of products who help brands identify which parts of their process they should automate will even arise.
