The Turnfire Internet Marketing Blog - Learn More, Grow and Compete Online. SEO | Domain Names | Affiliates | Niches

Why is it that some of the worst ideas in history are the central focus of the public eye while some of the best ideas go unnoticed?

The saying “A lie is halfway around the world before the truth even gets his boots on” relates to ideas as well.  Just because you have a great idea doesn’t mean it’s going to succeed regardless of your efforts.  You need to find a way to make your idea stand out from the crowd and in a sense make it “sticky” so that people will remember it.  Well, in a recent book I read, “Made to Stick” written by brothers Chip and Dan Heath - they do just that.

The New York Times bestseller “Made to Stick” has made a dominant impact on the business world. It was ranked #1 on the Top 10 Business books by Globe and Mail and has been renowned by critics everywhere.

Chip and Dan Heath have done rigorous amounts of research on the marketing community and on business ideas and concepts.  Within every successful idea, the Heath brothers found many similarities and characteristics that were profound in all cases.  Using this information, they compiled a set of principles that they believe everyone should follow while developing an idea.  These principles were transferred into the acronym “SUCCES” which the Heath brothers stand by religiously.  The categories are as follows:

SUCCES

1. Simplicity

Find the core of the idea.  If you’re a lawyer and you argue 10 points in a case, when they get back to the jury room chances are, they won’t remember any of them.  You must learn to exclude things that aren’t the most important.

To make something simple doesn’t mean you need to dumb it down.  The best example for simplicity is “For something to be simple doesn’t mean there is nothing left to add, but that there is nothing left to take away”.

2. Unexpectedness

How do we get readers attention and maintain it? - By violating their expectations.  Something unexpected will throw a readers mindset off and keep them thinking about it in shock.  But after you get their attention you need to be able to keep it.

You can do this by creating interest and curiosity. The best way to do that is by opening gaps in the subjects’ knowledge and filling those gaps.
Example: After you have finished explaining a topic, lead into another topic with a question.  This will cause the subject to keep interest and have them wondering of the answer to the question.

3. Concreteness

How do you make your ideas clear?  This is where many businesses have problems.  When a business may release its Mission Statement, company vision or strategies there is usually so much “noisy” information that the meaning is almost pointless or impossible to understand.

To support a sticky idea, one must use concrete words and images such as “a bright red balloon” or “a steaming cup of coffee”.  Avoid the use of sayings such as “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”.  All of the audience might not understand the saying and it may be unclear.

Stick to concrete words and images that everyone understands.

4. Credibility

What is the key to making people believe your ideas? Having credible information is a big part of an idea.  If you were to state “ This song is great” or to say “This song was rated #1 on the America Top 100 charts for 2 weeks in a row” people would be more apt to listen to the second song because it is credible with a third party testimony.  People trust information that has credentials and they can test for themselves, kind of like a “test before you buy” concept.

Most people think using numbers and statistics is the best way to gain audience approval when in reality, name dropping and simple statements usually work the best.

An example of this was in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was running for president.  He could have used a pile of statistics to show the poor economic state of the economy, instead he said “Before you vote, ask yourself if you are better off today than you were four years ago”.  That had credibility.

5. Emotions

How do you get people to care about your ideas?  Tying a persons’ emotions into an idea is a great way to keep their attention.

An example used in the book was with health enthusiasts trying to stress to the public how unhealthy movie popcorn is for you.  Saying “Movie popcorn has 37 grams of fat in it” doesn’t mean much to people.  But if you show a picture of medium game of movie popcorn and show one bag has as much artery clogging fat as a bacon and eggs breakfast, a big mac and fries lunch and a steak dinner with all the trimmings it really gives an image to the idea.

People then can relate their emotions to all of that bad food rather than a statistic of 37 grams.  The same case is for the world aid ads.  The commercials don’t show a nation in need but instead show individual who have a name and a face.  A person is more inclined to give a donation to a single person instead of a country.

As you can see, tying peoples’ emotions into an idea can drastically improve its chances for success.

6. Stories

How do you get people to act on your ideas? You tell stories.  Another example used in “Made to Stick” is the stories of firefighters.  After a fire, firefighters naturally swap stories.  By doing this, firefighters build a database of different situations that they may encounter as a firefighter.  They can then use their database of situations to be better equipped for their next fire.  Research has shown that mentally rehearsing a situation helps us perform better when encountered with the situation in real life.

So, tired of having your great ideas fail once again?  Well look no further.  After reading the entire book, these 6 principles (also known as “SUCCES”) have “stuck” in my mind. I found them to be extremely helpful when developing ideas and I use them constantly in day to day work.  For anyone who wants to learn more about making their ideas sticky- Check out the book.

-Jarod Henderson

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Most avid domainers will turn your way at any mention of “niche marketing” because it has many opportunities in marketing and sales. For those who don’t know, a niche is a specialized category, or a category within a category. An example of one niche that I have recently found is “Kids Indoor Soccer Shoes” (KidsIndoorSoccerShoes.com). This is much more specific than soccer shoes, and even more so than “indoor soccer shoes.” This niche is the source of many advantages.

Niche Need-to-Knows

Using a niche to your benefit can be done in a couple ways. First, the high level of specialization creates high conversion rates. When a person is searching for a specific niche they aren’t generally browsing and if they do - make sure you know that and offer them a selection. For example, when someone opens up their browser and types “kids indoor soccer shoes” into Google - they already know what they want and take much less convincing for a quick sale.

Another major benefit to marketing a niche is the money you can save. By narrowing the target audience for your niche your can effectively market to them. When there isn’t a large presence of competition in your niche your advertising costs can be extremely low while having a large effect and wider exposure. This is especially true with Google AdWords or other CPC programs.

The majority of niche marketing sites generate revenue through the use of affiliate programs, which are constructed by companies that extend commissions to an external sales force. By promoting and selling a companys’ products through their affiliate program, you can generate revenue based off either clicks or commission on sales.

The Bottom Line - Know Your Niche

The bottom line is that it is important to know your niche as it will allow you to understand and connect with the target audience. Look for psychological hot-buttons that accompany your niche and clearly state the benefits of your products to your customers.

Now its time to put it all together.

In order to successfully take advantage of your new found niche through marketing its important to understand the niche or products and especially important to know your target market. By taking advantage of the low advertising costs and high conversion rates, you can find yourself earning money before you ever thought possible.

To expand your grasp on the niche you can find prestigious affiliate programs, do some minor copywriting and engage in search engine optimization. Before you know it you’ll have organic traffic (traffic that didn’t come through paid ads) and you’ll increase your profit margins.

When you’re done reading this I want you to act on that little idea ticking in your head. Go out, find that niche and make some money - it is easier than you think if you’re prepared to put in some work. Good luck with your business, and if you need a hand feel free to email me.

Some domainers are wondering why their domains aren’t selling, well for those of you reading this – I just discovered the secret! The cause-and-effect reasons, the deep dark information you’ve been waiting for, the super secret to make your domains sell like coke on a hot day!

Wait a minute, it’s not a secret. In fact, it’s common sense. Your domain isn’t selling right now because it’s sitting on a list and because you’re reading my post rather than making valuable connections with potential end-users. Don’t exit the window just yet though, I may not have the hidden secret for selling domains without work, but that’s because there is no secret.

Instead, I have a simple method you can follow to ensure that you are actively marketing your domains. These are the first steps to making the rest of your sales a bit easier, and for many of you the first steps to making your first domain sale. These five steps will get you actively marketing in no time.

Step 1 – Promote to Obvious Potential End-Users:

Some things are easier than you think, and simply making a couple logical connections might help you sell an otherwise dormant domain. Many domainers will stand there looking at you wide-eyed with a confused expression on their face – at the mention of an end-user. What do you mean end-user? How the heck am I supposed to find these end users!

Before you get too worked up, let me remind you that I’m talking about “obvious” end users. If your domain just happens to be GolfSaudiArabia.com then an obvious end-user would be in the industry of Saudi Arabia golf, or perhaps travel. When I search Google for “Golf Saudi Arabia,” a collection of private courses, clubs and organizations dominates the first page. So there is your first step – make the obvious connections, create a list of emails from these obvious potential end users, and let them all know what you have to offer. Project the value, and benefit in your offer and you might just make an easy sale.

Step 2 – Promote to Stakeholders in Your Keyword:

Now this may be a slightly confusing title, but the potency of this tactic is derived from the potential buyers “current” investment in a similar marketing venture.

For those who aren’t currently aware, a strong keyword domain can provide a distinguishable and permanent advantage for many companies. One major benefit to owning a keyword domain, is the potential optimization (higher rankings) in search engines. Let’s use the domain “AnalyzeROI.com” as an example. Want to know an effective way to market a similar domain?

Go to Google, open up another window right now and search the phrase “Analyze ROI” in the search box. On the right side you’ll notice a collection of sponsored links, the AdWords ads that companies are dishing out from 20 cents to upwards of 3 dollars just for a single click. These sponsored links, or potential buyers as I like to think of them, immediately provide you with a source of buyers for your domain. The added advantage is that these companies are already money for this keyword – why not give them the “once in a lifetime oppourtunity to capture that keyword, permanently. “

Step 3 – Using the Internet to Your Advantage:

Everyday it gets a little easier to spread the word, so why aren’t we all taking advantage of this?

The internet allows for instant and organized communication, from blogs and social networks to instant messaging and voice over IP(VOIP). A collaboration of users who have common interests gather in the masses to share their thoughts and hear others. So get in there!

Locate some blogs, social networks, facebook groups, twitter contacts or whatever you can think of to find and connect with people. Spread the word, if your domain is marketing related, then follow some marketing blogs, join a marketing social network and spread the word of your offer. Not only can you find user’s who have a common interest in your particular domain name (though maybe not the idea of domaining) but you are creating exposure and potentially increasing demand for your product. Leave some well-written posts or make lasting connections – the choice is yours, but there now you know one more way to get your word out there.

Step 4 – Create an Enticing Landing Page:

If you type your domains into the address bar what comes up? I would bet it’s a parked page littered with useless ads, or perhaps you’ve even found a nice affiliate template to scare aware traffic? For those of you who can type in your domain name and see something meaningful – you’re truly among the few who do so.

Alright, so clearly a developed website is going to be more attractive to a potential buyer than a collection of ads and a skyrocketing bounce rate. What if you can’t afford a developer, and you have little or no development skills of your own? Stop giving up, and start looking up – I’ve got a couple easy solutions.

Create a brief, but well designed landing page. Allow the potential buyer to envision themselves owning that domain, and being successful with it. Express the benefits, both instrumental and impressive, so that you can connect with your audience and plant a psychological hot-button. If you have absolutely no development skills, use a blogging platform like word press or blogger to create your content. These sites will provide you with tutorials to get everything going, and provide the crucial information you need to have your domain redirect to your blog page.

Step 5 – What They See Is What They Get:

It’s always important that your particular domain has something meaningful, whether it’s a copy written sales pitch or a collection of useful resources, the consumer needs to envision their own utility of the website, and how it can make them successful. So now you’ve spent all this work making connections and creating landing pages, but every time you search for your domain name, the old forum post pops up where a grudging appraiser told the world they would only pay $20 for your domain.

Most end users will look for third-party sources of information when making a purchase decision, especially a respectable investment like a domain name. If the search engines are topped with old forum posts or negative publicity – your potential buyer can find that information just as easily as you can. Now what? You could develop tens of websites and optimize them in Google to make your one domain look good, but really is it worth all that work? There is an easier way!

One tool I’ve used in order to sway the public relations of certain domain names is the use of press releases. There are numerous high quality newswires and press release networks, though many of them are expensive. You can find some great value in press releases, whether you look for an affordable press release tool or scout for a free one, a general submission of your press release will get indexed in Google.

Lately I have been testing a couple free press release tools, and while they seem to perform the task at hand, I am not personally recommending the use of them – though you’re welcome to contact me if you wish to discuss them more.

Now to recap, here is a checklist you can use to make sure you are actively marketing your domains:

1. Promote to obvious end-users;
2. Promote to stakeholder in a keyword related to your domain;
3. Use the internet to your advantage – make those connections;
4. Create an enticing landing page;
5. Ensure good public relations are tied to your domain name;

Next time you’re sitting around thinking that you wouldn’t mind some extra cash, for a little bit of your time – remember these 5 steps for success. Actively marketing your domains will fetch you a high selling price and likely at a sooner date. So stop letting your domains sit on a list, at the bottom of the pond – and actively market your domains so they can float above the rest.

Hello Fellow Marketers,

Every time I mention “domain names” a couple people in the room tend to get this shocked and scared look across their face. Most of them, I find out, are old computer technicians or retired web developers. As they back away from the conversation the entrepreneurs and business savvy programmers crowd around with a look of interest.

The good news is that domain names are not the same “investments” they used to be. Rather than spending ninety dollars a year you can now spend nine – though the availability has diminished a fair bit. The scary, exciting, gamble of a truth is that you can actually register a domain name for under ten dollars today, find the right person a month later, and sell it for ten thousand. It does happen.

These are the top recorded domain sales of the year – notice that two of them took place yesterday! Realistically, these domain names would have been registered long ago and “aged” until someone was willing to sell. As you can see, the value of domain names is exploding.

It may seem a bit confusing but I’ve got the information to get you started. Everything you’ll need to know about domains into three broad categories.

1. Domain Name Length

Length is a major determining factor in many domain purchases made today. A couple reasons for this are because shorter domain names are easier to remember and generally easier to pronounce.

The market for short domain names is popular among resellers. Check out the NamePros.com Forum to see an active domain name community – mainly used by resellers.

I personally register short domain names for the aesthetic reasons, and because of the simple and secure golden rule.

Every combination of four letters plus the dot com is registered. So no matter with four letters you can think of – somebody owns that dot com. The availability of short domain names is shrinking and the value is growing. The golden rule is that almost all domain names will grow in value over time because of scarcity.

I know my college economics teacher would love that I’m bringing scarcity into the mix, but it plays such a fundamental role in appraising domains and it adds some sort of urgency to their acquisition.

2. Domain Name Relevance

You can have a short domain name but unless it has some relevance to a prospect – it will never get more than reseller values. Domain names are like virtual real estate, and having one that is descriptive is like having a beachfront property with an incredible view.

Relevance plays an important role in the domain name market a couple of ways. One paramount factor is keyword optimization for search engines. If someone searches “Shop Kitchener” and your domain name happens to be “ShopKitchener.com” you have an immediate – and permanent – advantage over all of the competition.

Having a domain name that you can optimize in the search engine can save a bundle of cash when you’re looking at internet or search engine marketing – and it’s an exceptional way to drive traffic to any web based business.

Another “relevance” concept is based on the brandability of a certain domain name. A domain name can be a brand – think Amazon.com.

Brandable domains are difficult to rate or appraise, for example Coke.ca wouldn’t make sense if the soda pop giant wasn’t around.

3. Domain Name Extension (TLD)

The third but still incredibly important point is about the domain name extension. Is it a dot com or dot net?

In recent months the amount of extensions went from your basic country specific ones to a whole new era of opportunity. Now private investors can register extensions, like dot market or dot hotels.

So you ask: what are you supposed to look for with so many extensions? What’s the best?

I’ve always been a strong believer that in order to succeed in business you should either be the first or the best at what you are currently doing or offering. I feel the same way about domains – why settle for the dot ca when you could have the dot com.

The extension “.com” has had more publicity, more acknowledgment and speaks big business better than any other extension.

If that isn’t enough then I have one more reason for you. If you own any extension other than the dot com, people searching for your site will tend to enter the dot com version and you will loose traffic.

Now that you know about domain names I want to tell you how you can gain a great amount for so little – using domains.

You can register domains at many registrars, Fabulous.com and GoDaddy to name two popular ones. They will cost you anywhere from $7-$10 a year to claim an available domain and then you own that little piece of the web.

Say you find a couple that are good names but you don’t have a use for them. Why not give them away?

That’s right, give them away. It only cost you ten dollars and if you give a domain name to someone that will benefit their business, or spike their interest – you’re getting much more back.