Friday, November 28, 2008

Hottest Niche on the Market Today Is People Searching

By Samantha Carterson

To find out right away why the people search industry is such a hot niche, go to Google and Yahoo, the two largest search engines on the web today, and enter "people search" in the search box. You'll get results in the millions. This niche is a hot trend, and it's one that is predicted to continue for a long, long time. Why? For one thing, it's fast and easy. Faster than looking something up in your local phone book -- and who uses those anymore anyway? And it's way easier. Plus I think internet users are just curious as well, and they know the information they are looking for is only a click away.

How can you get started in this lucrative business? Well, you could come up with your own search engine, but that would take a long time to develop (probably years). Or you could hire someone to create it for you (would take a lot of money to do that). The easiest way by far is just join someone else's existing program. There are lots of affiliate programs out there that provide you with this very opportunity.

It's really easy to start with an affiliate program. But how do you choose a good program? It is essential that it include a good training program, and the training should be easily accessible right there in the member's area of the site. The program should have easy setup instructions. And the website should be easy to navigate.

Don't forget to plan out your marketing strategy. Some training should have been given to you by the program owner, but just in case you didn't receive any, here is my basic marketing advice for promoting your people search engine.

To drive traffic to your site, you need back-links. There are many theories on how best to achieve that, but one effective method is article marketing, and it's free to do. It does require time on your part, but those articles you write can send a lot of traffic your way. Plus the search engines like Yahoo and Google pick them up pretty fast, so your articles appear on the search pages. What's so great about that? Well, your links are in your articles (in the resource box where you make a brief statement about yourself as the author). In addition your articles could very well be picked up and displayed on other people's websites that will generate even more traffic to your site.

There are tons of free advertising sites on the web; just do a search for "free ads" or "free advertising." This method is free, but it does have some drawbacks. On free sites your ad won't stay on the first page very long, so you will need to repost it frequently.

Forums generally will not allow you to post advertising messages, unless it just happens to be an advertising forum. It's a great way to network with others, though, and you're usually allowed to post your link in your forum signature. And always, always, read the forum rules before you post anything.

The best known, and most lucrative, of paid advertising is sponsored ads on the two giants -- Google and Yahoo. But if you are new at internet marketing, be careful and go slow. You can lose your shirt doing pay-per-click. If you are brand new at internet marketing, my advice is to enroll in some free e-marketing courses. But for right now concentrate on free or low-cost advertising until you learn the ropes a bit more.

Do not waste your money on buying traffic. Many of the sites that sell traffic are outright scams whose only purpose is to separate you from your money. A real person will not visit your website; these sites use computer autobots to generate the traffic. Keep your money in your pocket.

The hardest part about any online business is just getting started. I hope my suggestions have given you the motivation to do just that.

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