Following on from yesterdays Feature Article, let’s discuss five (5) ways you can build barriers to entry in your niche business.

1. Deliver quality - always strive to be better than everyone else.
2. Be unique - provide something that’s original and different.
3. Build a brand - build a strong connection between your name or your company’s name, your unique selling proposition (USP), and your products / services. Ultimately, you want people to think “valuable, quality products/services” whenever they think of you.
4. Integrate yourself personally into your brand - be recognizable as the person behind the brand. No one else can be you.
5. Protect your brand and business. Make sure you have the financial and legal resources to protect your brand and business. That means registering trade marks, etc and not hesitating if you see someone ripping you off. We were ripped off by two big companies a few years ago… but we didn’t have the $ to go after them. We suffered as a result.

Now, you can certainly take and benefit from these steps if you sell your own infoproducts… But what if your business is based on Adsense revenue or Affiliate marketing?

Let’s take each one in turn:

1. Adsense

If you churn out Adsense sites like everyone else… you’re vulnerable. Now, if you create 100s of these sites then sure, you may be able to make a significant amount of total revenue without getting a lot of competitors competing in ALL the same markets as you. Lots of eggs in lots of baskets, in other words. But any one Adsense site is at risk…

Unless, you don’t think of it as an “Adsense” site and position it as a “media” site. In other words, you think of the site like any reputable magazine/newspaper site. You provide quality, unique content, build a brand around providing that content, and sell advertising space (whether Adsense or otherwise) in order to generate revenue.

2. Affiliate

If all you do is put up the same sales letter webpages as all the other affiliates… then you’re not building a sustainable business. Instead of thinking of yourself as an “affiliate” position yourself as a “value added reseller”. Sure, sell other people’s products, but add value so that you in turn, can deliver quality, unique value, build a brand, and so on.

Of course, none of this means that you or any “guru” has to tell everyone everything you’re doing! You’ll naturally want to keep your most powerful strategies and techniques secret (unless you are paid megabucks to reveal them). This is because they are part of your competitive advantage and thereby contribute to your barriers to entry.

However, you should be able to tell people what business(es) you’re in without fear (and maybe benefit from the promotion)… (If you want to!)