In This Issue:

- Get Noticed with a Niche -by Barbara Casey
- Web Design Discount for NICHE NEWS Subscribers
- InfoGuru Marketing Manual
- Do-It-Yourself and Instant Web Sites
- Squidoo FAQ for InfoGurus and Experts


~ Get Noticed with a Niche -by Barbara Casey ~

How does a niche marketing crusader pronounce "niche?"

Well, sometimes neesh (it's from the French verb nicher, "to nest"). And sometimes nitch. However we choose to pronounce it, a niche is a powerful thing.

Picture yourself jumping off a diving board into a beautiful pond. Your cannonball makes a fabulous big splash, which everyone can see. Those closest to you get a bit (or a lot) wet. Some even cheer.

Then picture yourself in a regatta out on a churning ocean. You jump off the side of your racing yacht into the sea... but you're too far down for the folks on deck to see you. The other boats are too far away or too busy to notice your existence. And the fish don't care if you sink or swim.

Which would you rather make - A big spash in a small pond? Or a tiny ripple in a vast ocean?

A niche gets you noticed. Here's how:

My client, Carna Zacharias-Miller, chose a very focused niche for her emotional healing business. She specializes in EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) sessions for motherless daughters - www.missingmother.com.

Because her niche is so unique, Carna has next to no competition. On the other hand, the number of women who grew up with mothers who were absent physically (through illness, death, divorce) or were emotionally absent from the mother-child relationship, is HUGE. So Carna has a tightly focused "extreme" niche with millions of potential clients.

A few weeks ago, Carna submitted an article on her work with missing mother syndrome to the Number 1 EFT publication, which is emailed to thousands of fellow practitioners worldwide. The result was, in Carna's words, "an avalanche of emails, phone calls and, yes, new clients."

Why were people calling Carna for appointments when they knew the same technique (EFT) themselves? Because she perfected her skill level in a very specific area which the other practitioners hadn't even thought of yet.

And they had a need for her services in the unique area she specializes in.

A niche is a great way to (1) rise above the competition, (2) sign up colleagues as clients, (3) get referrals from colleagues who don't have your specific expertise and (4) get "slightly famous" in your field.

Carna made a big splash in her pond because she was the first - and only - person in her field offering this particular service. And those colleagues who saw the value in her work, whether for themselves or their clients - took notice.

Doesn't matter how you pronounce it... a niche gets you noticed.

Click here for a long list of niche ideas and examples: www.extremeniches.com


~ Web Design Discount for NICHE NEWS Subscribers ~

Betty Walker, owner of Holistic Web Design, specializes in creating websites that mirror the holistic nature of your business. Betty is not like other web designers. She is a professional who understands the business needs of holistic and personal growth entrepreneurs.

Betty makes it easy to set up a website for your business:

- Every detail of building your website is taken care of for you. Betty will help you with creating your website from start to finish.

- Your website comes with an easy-to-use online editor that allows you to make changes at any time. (Great tool if you have classes and speaking engagements to update.)

- Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. If you're not completely satisfied with your site, she will return 100% of your money. You owe nothing, you risk nothing.

Her website packages regularly start at $999, but I have arranged a special deal with her for my ezine subscribers who are on a smaller budget. Betty has agreed to offer NICHE NEWS subscribers a starter mini-site with 3 pages of content and a contact page for only $499. These mini-sites are smaller than her regular package, but they offer just enough to get you started.

In order to get this special mini-site offer, you must give her this special discount code: 206-124.

Visit Holistic Web Design or give Betty a call at (239) 645-4212 and tell her I said hi!

Click here to visit Holistic Web Design: www.holisticwebdesign.com


~ InfoGuru Marketing Manual ~

Robert Middleton's InfoGuru Marketing Manual is a great niche marketing resource for independent professionals, including coaches, corporate trainers, consultants, authors, speakers, body-mind-spirit professionals and more.

Everything Robert Middleton offers is high quality and aimed at making you "the" person to call in your field.

I own the InfoGuru Marketing Manual myself and I've been a subscriber to Robert's newsletter for 5 years now. It's simply one of the best marketing newsletters you'll find for home based business owners and independent professionals. I think you'll like his no-hype style and easy-to-follow information.

Click here for details about InfoGuru Marketing (and get a  free marketing plan outline, too).


~ Do-It-Yourself and Instant Web Sites ~

Mike Monastero is the web designer for
www.selfhealingexpressions.com and very kindly gave me some code for a website form I'm creating.

Mike's web design company is Volant Design, which offers custom web design services, do-it-yourself point-n-click web sites, ready-to-use instant web sites and web site hosting

Click here to view Mike's website portfolio: www.volantdesign.com


~ Squidoo FAQ for InfoGurus and Experts ~

WHAT'S A LENS?

A lens is one person's (lensmaster's) view on a topic he or she cares about. More specifically, a lens is a single web page filled with information and links that point to other web pages, to continually updated RSS feeds, or to relevant advertising. It's a place to start, not finish.

WHY SHOULD I BUILD A LENS?

There are a few reasons to build your own lens:

--Share the knowledge: When you know a lot about something, it feels good to share. Help other people discover what you found out the hard way

--Increase your profile: A popular lens gives credibility to the Lensmaster. A popular lens reinforces your role as an expert. And a popular lens makes you the go-to authority for those looking for help.

--Increase your traffic: Your lens points (if you want it to) to your blog and to your website. In addition, lenses have huge credibility with search engines, so a lens is going to increase the traffic to your website even for people who don't visit your lens.

--Lenses are totally free to make. Squidoo will never charge a fee.

--Coming Soon: Earn a royalty for you, your organization, or your favorite charity.

--Coming Later: Eventually, you'll be able to convert royalties into frequent flyer miles, points for free hotel stays and other prizes.

WHO SHOULD BUILD A LENS?

You should, if you...

1. ...have a Web site and you're not happy with your PageRank in Google, a lens will increase it. That's because a lens provides exactly what search engines are looking for: authoritative insight so people can find what they're looking for.

2. ...have a blog, a lens is a great way to highlight your best posts, to feature a commented version of your blogroll, and to point to the products and services that you write about, read about, enjoy, or want to see succeed. A lens will allow you and your blog to have a bigger share of the commentary and influence on your topic of choice.

3. ...are a yo-yo expert, your lens could be nothing but links to tricks. You'd rank your favorite 100 tricks and point, one by one, to the best examples of those tricks on the Web. And maybe you'd point to Infinite Illusions, the online yo-yo store. (This is one example of how to promote your OWN expertise on a subject.)

4. ...are a nonprofit or charity (say, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) you could invite all 45,000 of your most important donors to build sites on their favorite topics. The invitation would set the default royalty cash flow to "Donate my royalties to JDRF." If each lens generated as little as $2 a day, that'd be a whole bunch of money earned for the charity. You'd also earn a bounty on every successful lensmaster you brought in.

5. ...are a newshound, a lens allows you to highlight important mainstream and non-mainstream stories for your readers. And if you go on vacation, RSS feeds can automatically update your lens with select news stories.

6. ...are a podcaster, you should definitely have a lens. It would list the details of your podcasts, point to transcripts that some fan had posted, point to your six most recent podcasts, and include the RSS for subscribing to the podcast. The lens would also have a set of links for getting started with podcasting and getting a podcast reader.

7. ...are a fan, a lens lets you share your personal take on the object of your affections - without the grind of manual updates. Automatic feeds could add current sports scores and headlines, music news and iTune releases and more.

8. ...are an author, your lens could include links to all your books on Amazon. You could include links to other authors you admire. And an RSS feed from a Technorati search, showing surfers the recent blogs that have mentioned you. And links to conferences where you're speaking, and perhaps a top-ten list of the best ways to understand your writing. You could even have a box pointing to your best (and worst?) reviews.

9. ...are an entrepreneur, your lens on a popular topic could generate two or five or twenty dollars a day in clickthrough and affiliate income. Which doesn't sound like much, until you start thinking like an eBay PowerSeller and build twenty or even fifty lenses on a variety of topics. Did you know that 750,000 people make a full- or part-time living on eBay now? The same effect will probably happen with lenses.

10. ... are a person (and you are), you should have a lens about...you. A lens that lists your blog and recent posts and your bio and work history and your Amazon wish list and your Flickr account and whatever you want the public to know about you.

BARBARA'S COMMENT... A Squidoo lens is a great niche  marketing tool. The more popular lenses are those which give  detailed information and instructions about some area on which  the lensmaster is a specialist or aficionado. The above information is from the FAQ page at Squidoo.

PS: I currently have the lens for "Metaphysics" which I don't have time to update. If you would like to take it over, check it out first at www.squidoo.com/metaphysics and then email me at  Barbara@extremeniches.com. You can change the lens completely once you become the new lensmaster.

You have to sign up for Squidoo first... Click here to sign up for your own FREE lens at Squidoo.

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Barbara Casey's NICHE NEWS Marketing Ezine - Carrying the Niche
Marketing Crusade to Home Business Owners with a Dream.

Copyright 2006 Barbara Casey
New Radiance Corp., PO Box 86674, St. Petersburg FL 33738
727-397-2702 ~ www.extremeniches.com ~ www.newradiance.com