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!)

(Note: Stomping The Search Engines 2 launches TODAY at 2pm EST: Click Here To Get Stomping The Search Engines 2 For Free)

Yesterday, I reviewed the Stomping The Search Engines 2 home-study course. (To read the review go here Stomping The Search Engines 2 Review). At the end of the review I indicated that the guys behind the course, Andy Jenkins and Brad Fallon, were going to price it at one price… before deciding to make it so that EVERYONE would be able to get this course.

That wasn’t hype.

Originally, the price of this course was going to be $497.

But after Andy and Brad’s change of heart, the price of the course is now… $0

That’s right, you can get the entire DVD-ROM course for FREE. You only pay for shipping and handling (and that’s a real shipping and handling cost – not a padded one).

What’s the catch?

The “catch” is that when you order the course, you also agree to trial StomperNet’s Internet marketing journal, The Net Effect. (I also discussed that in yesterday’s review). The first issue is free but there is an ongoing charge of $39 per month after that. BUT you can easily cancel… yes, that means you can EASILY cancel (without being upsold or messed around).

StomperNet are, of course, hoping you won’t cancel. Otherwise they are taking a huge risk with this offer. But it truly is up to you whether you want to continue with your subscription or not.

Regardless, and given that canceling is not going to be a problem, there really is no reason NOT to order Stomping The Search Engines 2.

I said yesterday that the course won’t be suitable for either search engine optimization experts OR anyone who doesn’t intend to follow through on the work required for SEO success. While I stand by that, the course may still be worth getting purely to see how a high-quality home-study course is put together!

Seriously, though, if SEO is on your radar, make sure you get this course. Also, order it as soon as it becomes available at 2pm EST today, Wednesday September 3, 2008.

I say that because there is likely to be a HUGE rush for this course, and you don’t want to end up waiting for your copy in case StomperNet rapidly runs out of its initial batch of stock.

So put a reminder in your Outlook / Thunderbird / calendar / alarm to click here at 2pm EST:

==> Get Stomping The Search Engines 2 For Free

Wednesday 2pm EST is:

• Wednesday 11am in Los Angeles
• Wednesday 7pm in London
• Thursday 4am in Sydney
• Thursday 3am in Tokyo

==> Get Stomping The Search Engines 2 For Free

Source: Stomping The Search Engines 2.0

Amazing isn’t it?

You’re the one building an Internet business… you’re the one who’s taken the risk and invested your time, effort and money into making your business successful… you’re the one who continues to overcome challenges and setbacks… you’re the one who’s steadily achieving better results, more sales, more profits…

And yet everyone else has an opinion about what you should and should not do in your business!

Now, there’s nothing wrong - and plenty right - with considering different ideas, insights, observations and suggestions… FROM PEOPLE WHO ARE QUALIFIED to give you those ideas, insights, observations and suggestions.

But those people probably make up about 10 percent of all the people freely giving you advice on how to run your business. The vast majority of advice givers are probably the LEAST QUALIFIED.

You may love ‘em, but your friends, family, in-laws, old work mates and neighbors are probably not in the best position to judge whether selling widgets online is a good idea or not.

The fact is…

Most advice comes from most people… most people are not doing what you’re doing… and, consequently, most people’s advice doesn’t count!

Here’s my simple rule of thumb: before you listen, let alone follow, someone else’s advice about something - ask yourself: has this person achieved or are they achieving what they’re giving me advice about?

If not, you’re probably better off ignoring what they say (as harsh as that sounds) and finding someone who really is qualified to give you advice.

Of course, that’s just my opinion…

Apparently there are loads of people who’d rather be sold than informed, if the results of a cross sector merchandiser are to be believed.

In a split-test between an information-heavy email (subject line: “Prostate Cancer: Are you at risk? Find out today”) and a promotion-heavy email (”Save 5% on your next TestCountry order”), the promotion-heavy email received 89 percent more click-throughs and five (5) times more revenue than the other email.

Now, before you rush off and abandon all those “relationship building” emails with harder hitting emails, it’s important to consider this finding as “a” finding, rather than what will necessarily work in your market with your subscribers.

Factors such as which customer segment the email is going out to (how far in the buying cycle are they?), seasonality and other factors are likely to impact such results.

What this DOES indicate is that people may well respond to hard-hitting offers over than soft-sell messages. Ya just gotta test it!

Source: Case Study, “Case Study: Optimize Keyword Bids to Boost Conversions to 17% and Multiply Revenue Stream: 5 Steps”, MarketingSherpa, Aug 20, 2008