Niche Marketing Tools – What I use to Dominate Niche Markets
March 5th, 2009 | 48 comments
As you may know, I’ve been profiting from niche markets for several years now. I do more email marketing, blogging and authority site building now, but I still keep up with what works and what doesn’t and I’ll still stick up a little niche site every now and then.
As you probably know, Internet Marketing strategies change frequently. Algorithms are updated, trends change, new tools come and old tools go etc. We simply can’t do things exactly the same way for years and years, not with niche marketing anyway!
For that reason, I’ve decided to share what tools I currently rely on to find, target and profit from niche marketing. First off, like I’ve said before, if you have the money to invest in it, I highly recommend FirePow simply because it cuts off 95% of your time and effort! But, not everyone has money to invest, so the following tools will help you start making money with niche marketing with a much smaller investment.
Finding a Profitable Market
SpyFu (Free) – This is what I use to find highly profitable markets. Type in a main market (mortgage, credit etc.) and see what the “Cost/Click” shows. If it starts at $1 or more, you have a profitable niche (usually.) That’s all I use this for! This is a PPC tool, so that doesn’t mean that’s what your adsense clicks are going to be… I just use it to see what advertisers are paying big money for, so I can get some of that big money.
Digging in and Finding Long-Tail Phrases
Google Keyword Tool (Free) – There are alot of paid keyword research tools out there, but they aren’t needed. For years I relied on the SEO Book keyword tool and although it’s still fairly accurate, it doesn’t compare to Google’s newly refined keyword tool. I’ve been using it over the past few months will great results. I try to stay in the 1,500-2,500 monthly search range for my long-tail phrases.
Competition Analysis
I don’t use a tool for this… I use a VERY simple technique to determine what phrases are worth competing for and what phrases aren’t. Here is my extremely easy keyword research technique.
Themes & Templates
Niche Adsense WP Themes & HTML Templates – I’ve been recommending these themes and templates for a LONG time because they WORK. They look almost identical, but one is for WordPress and the other is for static HTML sites. These are the themes and templates that bring in up to 30% CTR in some markets and a higher than average CTR in ALL markets. Small investment for huge returns! Use the wrong template/theme and you’ll get a low CTR, get a low CTR and you’re just wasting your time!
Promotion
Automatic Article Submitter – I promote my mini-sites almost entirely via Article Marketing, so it’s nearly a necessity to have an article submitter! I’ve been using Article Post Robot for a few years now, but there were a few things I need on top of what was already available, so I spoke with a friend of mine, Milan Kosanovic, and he’s decided to created the ultimate article submitter! It’s not done yet, but it’s almost ready!
That’s it! Aside from 2 one-time investments (templates/themes and the article submitter) which pay for themselves after your fist site, it’s all free and very effective!
img credit: geishaboy500
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5th March, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Josh,
Thanks for the ideas!
You keep mentioning this new article submitter that’s not available yet.
How is it better than Article Post Robot or Article Drip Robot?
Love to hear your thoughts!
Thanks!
5th March, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Glad to help!
Lots of things… more options, no sites with virus, multi-author support etc. etc.
You’ll be hearing more about it soon.
5th March, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Firepow looks so great…but right now that cost isn’t justified for me. I’m glad the free (and cheap) tools do a great job as well.
5th March, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Thanks, Josh!
I’m considering several options in my efforts to enhance my article marketing campaigns, so I’m always open to options and new ideas.
5th March, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Great list thanks for the tips. Those templates are great. I bought them off last year from your recomendation
5th March, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Great list Josh, can’t wait for the article submitter, have signed up to the list..
5th March, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Josh
You always forget to make internet marketing complicated and promote an expensive product!!!
Seriously – you just tell it as it should be. – No BS. No Hype, just sensible, helpful posts.
If only all newbies found you before the rip-off merchants.
Cheers mate
Paul
5th March, 2009 at 6:45 pm
I accidentally got involved with Blog commenting as my favorite Niche Marketing Tool to dominate certain markets.
While on a blog for PPC Classroom most of the comments seemed to be about how many people were still having troubles. I wrote a comment about an Adsense article I wrote where most people were so anxious to start their campaigns they were neglecting to create their plan of action. Although Adsense is not the same as Adwords, they were still like 2 different sides to the same coin.
The comment was about 4 paragraphs long and I put in some good information.
I was surprised the next day, when my traffic picked up to that article, just because I took the time and made some effort to make a good comment on another related blog.
Blog commenting is a great tool to help build great traffic to your site (or blog). The key is to actually want to help your readers. Sure I want traffic to my site, but my primary focus is to “TRY” and provide the best information you can so that others can benefit from it.
In summary, there’s lots of great and free ways to dominate your niche, but when you boil it all down, it comes down to two things you need to do:
1. Care about your people enough to provide great content for them to use and…
2. Type really really fast ; )
Joe
5th March, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Josh – your marketing advice has been invaluable to my family owned business. In these economic times we need as much help as we can get. I have put many of your practices to action & they work!! I can’t wait to be financially free enough to get more of your products into place. Thanks!! Sommer
5th March, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Josh,
Thanks for sharing your list of tools. It’s great to see someone recommending free tools that really work.
Steve
5th March, 2009 at 7:39 pm
I’ve just gotten back into article marketing and am waiting eagerly — well, no , better make that impatiently — to find out more about your friend’s software.
Am using the free version of Brad Callen’s Article Submitter, but need something more industrial strength.
Any clues on how soon “soon” is?
5th March, 2009 at 7:44 pm
@ Courtney – I can understand that… I don’t recommend it to anyone who can’t easily afford it… it’s very powerful, but the ROI usually comes later on.
@ Paul – haha well I’m a realist. I just call it how I see it, thanks for the compliment!
@ Joseph – It’s not a bad way to help promote a site, but it shouldn’t be the only technique used.
@ Sommer – Great, glad to help!
@ Rosana – I can’t wait either… it will be worth the wait though. I’d say it should be ready sometime in the next couple weeks… I’ll announce it here at the blog and to my list as soon as I have an official date.
5th March, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Great information Josh. One thing I hae to say about you Josh, you always offer value to me, and apparently, you are NOT a greedy marketer.
Thanks again,
Anthony
5th March, 2009 at 8:12 pm
[...] out his latest blog post to see the tools that Josh uses. The great thing is that most of these tools are free and that’s why I’m telling you [...]
5th March, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Great list of recommendations, Josh, and very helpful for people that are new to internet marketing. I’ve linked across to you from my site because – quite honestly – my visitors will learn more from you than me!
I’m just getting into Article submissions so will be checking out the Article submitter. Sounds like a VERY handy tool.
5th March, 2009 at 8:46 pm
I am going to get FirePow, after some research it and several times that you have mentioned, I think it might be a great tool!
Thanks Josh,
JR
5th March, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Thanks a million. You’ve just ripped of a vale of fear off me. I read sometime ago that one should not submit the same article to multiple directories. This I understood as something that google frowns upon.
I’ve just learned from you that this is not the case. Now I’m empowered knowing that I can get some valuable mileage from my articles submissions.
5th March, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Josh – so refreshing to have a marketer be as “up-front” as you are with your information and strategies.
Do you use Roboform or similar to keep track of your username and passwords?
To Your Success
Suellen
5th March, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Josh,
Im new & a Noob, but not a green noob, lol.
Anyway, when analyzing competition I don’t get the point of looking at PR. I have seen PR0 sites sitting #1 in the serps that would be extremely difficult to outrank and PR6 sites ranked #1 that would be easy to beat (bad niche though) Like I said, I’m a noob and I’m doing competition research daily. The only thing I look at is backlinks. How many, how they got them, are they anchored, are they relevent, etc….
If I see a PR2 site with 1000+ anchored relevant backlinks in a similar nich I might think twice about persuing it.
However I would go after a PR6 with 13000 backlinks but only 50 of them are anchored with relevant keywords.
Im actually building a campaign now for such a situation.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
btw nice blog
5th March, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Hey BK,
When looking at toolbar pagerank on a page by page basis it’s inaccurate. When looking at the overall average toolbar pr of a group of pages in a tight niche it’s pretty accurate.
I do it and I make alot of money with niche marketing… You can do your competition however you like
You don’t have to listen 
5th March, 2009 at 11:31 pm
J
Since I have not made any money niche marketing I don’t have the credibility that you do but I will say this. If you intend to compete in a niche I don’t see how you can evaluate the competition without digging into their backlinks.
6th March, 2009 at 12:41 am
@ BK – Luckily I do see how
Like I said, I’m not too worried whether or not you believe it works.
-edit- just to be clear, backlink analysis etc. IS very important when doing competition analysis for competitive terms, it’s a waste of time when researching long-tail phrases, which is what I’m talking about in this post.
6th March, 2009 at 1:11 am
It’s nice to see some of the free tools that are available for those who want to try to learn online marketing, but don’t have or are unwilling to spend any start up money.
I struggled miserably in the beginning because I didn’t really understand a lot of the IM “language.” I didn’t have any internet experience, so it was doubly difficult.
I eventually ran across SiteBuildIt and had such relief in discovering they “spoke my language.”
I made the investment for their site building package and have been using their tools ever since.
One of the benefits of that has been that they keep updating their tools so that they don’t become obsolete.
Still, if I am considering a new niche, or even helping someone else do a bit of research, I often refer to some of the free tools you mentioned. If learned enough of the “lingo” by now to be able to benefit from them and put the various strategies together.
I believe the way you’ve laid out the basics will be helpful for those who want to get their feet wet.
6th March, 2009 at 2:11 am
Hi Josh,
Thank you for the great list of your tools. Do you prefer the article submitter to other online services that take much less of your time to submit to 100s of directories? How long have you been using Brad’s submitter?
6th March, 2009 at 4:11 am
@ Suellen – oops, missed your question. Yes, I do use RoboForm and love it.
6th March, 2009 at 4:33 am
Thanks so much Josh for your excellent advice. It’s so refreshing to find someone with some integrity in the online world! Much appreciated.
Kristy
6th March, 2009 at 6:17 am
Hi Josh
Thanks again for the informative input. I am working on some mini sites and this is very timeous help.
I too would like to see a new article submitter – I have been very disappointed in Article Post Robot, and ended up doing it all manually any way.
Thanks again
Rob
6th March, 2009 at 8:44 am
Wow these are bunch of useful tools. Can’t wait to try out them out and see what they can do for me. Thanks for the suggestions.
6th March, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Awesome, this is the proof that you don’t need to break the bank to make money.
Thanks for sharing,
Franck
6th March, 2009 at 2:35 pm
These tools seem to be interesting to try, as it’s the first time I heard some of them.
I have been following Mark Mason for quite some time though.
Thanks for sharing.
6th March, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Hey Rich — I follow Josh too. An I agree with all the recommendations here. I am particularly excited about that article submitter. We have been working with the developer on that one, and it is going to be killer. Be sure to get on the early notification list.
Regards,
Mark
6th March, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Josh,
Ok, that makes sense with the long tails.
6th March, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Nice & helpful list, Josh. Getting kinda curious about Milan’s article submitter.
7th March, 2009 at 4:33 am
I’ve been using APR for the past couple weeks now and it has allowed me to greatly increase the number of articles I submit. I can’t believe what Milan is coming out with will be even better! It’ll be like light upon light.
8th March, 2009 at 8:17 am
Thanks Josh for superb tips on various tools you are using for your business. I am also a full time Article Marketer and I thought that There should be more additional tools like link building tools or tools to build backlinks to your articles. I know you mus be using some kind of automated tool for that and I would love to know more about it. Thanks.
9th March, 2009 at 3:19 am
In your ‘Keyword Research Technique’ (link under ‘Competition Analysis’ ), you say:
“You can also use Google’s tool if you’re more familiar with that, but for this example we’ll use the one at SEO Book because that’s what I use and I know it’s fairly accurate.”
I find this in contradiction with what you suggest above: “…it doesn’t compare to Google’s newly refined keyword tool”.
Please clarify.
Thanks.
9th March, 2009 at 3:29 am
@ EssEtch – Take a look at the date of each post.
9th March, 2009 at 10:14 am
I also like the firefox add ons you can get, I saw another new one today which you helps you utilise google analytics. Really good tool suggestions that people would benefit from with their blogs or websites
11th March, 2009 at 12:13 am
Josh – unless you feel comfortable sharing the exact number, could you give us a range of the number of niche sites you operate?
11th March, 2009 at 2:42 am
@ Dave – I own approximately 50-60 sites… not sure how many of those are mini-sites.
13th March, 2009 at 12:01 pm
What about Keyword Elite,SEO Elite and BMD?
16th March, 2009 at 6:29 am
Hey Josh – thanks for the information. I use a bunch of those tools already and am starting to see the benefit on my first completed mini-site.
I just wanted to point out to you that you do had a spelling mistake you overlooked in you post here. Its at the very bottom – “….which pay for themselves after your fist site…” Should be FIRST I believe
18th March, 2009 at 2:11 am
Good list of tools … the google one will always take the cake as a free service but it’s a PITA to really round up anything useful.
18th March, 2009 at 5:41 pm
I agree Josh. You do not need thousands of dollars of software to make money online. Your $5 minisite formula rocks.
Rick
26th March, 2009 at 6:57 am
Josh, I just bought the wp themes from your link… I’m going to try out these templates on my sites and see if I can improve my ctr!
2nd September, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Josh,
Instant Article Wizard Pro appeared on your last list. Did you encounter problems using this tool?
Was the labor savings as significant as advertised? Were submitted articles rejected?
Why did you stop using it?
Thanks for all of your help, and your attention to this.
Will
2nd September, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I still use it. Please see http://ez-onlinemoney.com/blog/internet-marketing/10-must-have-internet-marketing-tools/
21st December, 2009 at 7:37 pm
Hi Josh, this article is great. I failed at my first blogging attempt two years ago and am preparing to launch 5-6 new ones, targeted at niches.
One of the things that confuses me is keywords within the niche, for when it comes time to set up your blog categories and ensure you have the right keywords in your copy. Can you recommend a resource for selecting blog categories and keywords for once you’ve selected the right niches?