Here's How to Get Noticed in Any Niche

From: Pat F.

Sent: April 3, 2012

To: undisclosed recipients

Subject: Fw: Here's How to Get Noticed in Any Niche

Hi!

After re-reading a lot of books lately (which I do all of the time), including my favorites like The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss, and Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk, I honestly think that anyone can get noticed and become successful in almost any niche. The books are great and go into a lot of the "what you can achieve" type stuff, but they don't really get far into the "how you can achieve" type stuff, which is obviously super important and probably more of what you need right now. That's why I wanted to take some time to write this email for you below.

I'm basing the following information on my success as an online businessman and blogger who pretty much came out of nowhere, with almost no business experience whatsoever. I've been able to succeed both in a super small niche, as well as in a super over-crowded niche of "making money online." So, with whatever niche you're in or looking to get into, you should try to apply these 2 simple rules as much as possible, which I've always applied to my own projects.

Rule #1: Stay the Course

Rule #1 is simple, but nothing works if you keep changing your mind.

Stop changing your mind. Stop doubting yourself and your decisions, pick something, believe in it, and go for it. This rule alone will get you where you need to go and stop you from falling short of success.

Remember this when it comes to rule #2.

Rule #2: Be Different

The point here is to stand out, and the best way to do that is to be different. That's why we can still find Waldo (with his candy-cane striped shirt and red cap) amongst a sea of people on a page. He's unique.

This is exactly how I've found success online. I saw what everyone else was doing, and did something different. What everyone else is doing is what consumers and readers all eventually get used to. Choose to go the same path, and you'll just blend in with the rest.

Here are some personal examples to prove it to you:

With my exam prep website, I was the only one to ever offer an audio guide. I pitched it as a way to study for the exam while in your car to and from work, or while at the gym. Because I was the only one to do this, it became a huge hit and helped me to earn over $30,000 in one single month.

Also, all of the other exam prep websites had "support tickets" that people had to fill out in order to get their questions answered. All I had to do was show a personal looking email address (with my name in it, which is important), that people could use to contact me if they had any questions. I included this in all of the products I offered as well. Whenever I received an email, I responded right away. Word spread, and my site became known as the only place to get an immediate, direct response to a question. Of course, because I wanted to keep things as passive as possible, I included FAQs on the site that people could read before contacting me, which totally minimized the amount of emails I'd get. However, just seeing my email address there anyways helped to make people believe that I was always there to help.

With the Smart Passive Income Blog, I do even more to "be different". There are so many other "make money online" blogs out there all doing the same thing, that it actually became very easy for me to stand out.

For one, I don't hide anything. I tell it all from my own experience, even the failures or that parts that I sucked at.

Secondly, I tell people exactly where my money comes from, down to the penny. If you're a loyal reader of my blog, you know that my monthly income reports tend to be the most popular and most commented posts I that write.

Thirdly, I made sure I had a totally customized blog theme that no one else had.

Fourthly, I blog a lot about my personal life. A lot of you probably know that I have a dog named Gizmo and a son named Keoni. Maybe you've even seen the wedding video of my wife and I who turned a boring wedding dance into a killer hip-hop routine. I see so many other owners of make money online blogs who don't even use their real name, or show one picture of themselves. Sad.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, I don't hard sell or promote anything. This has probably been the key to my success, but with so many people going online today to try and make a buck, everyone is getting tired of seeing ads and promotions. That's why you'll very rarely see them here in this newsletter, and why my blog is virtually ad free. Now that's totally being different, right?

Even though this is the case, I am still able to earn a lot of money from the blog. This happens because I've gained people's trust, and when I do mention a product I've used and one that I trust in my own businesses, other people are happy to click on my affiliate links.

So, how can you be different?

I'm sure there are a thousand ways, both small and extreme that you can do to be different. Check out what all of your competitors are doing, and don't do that. Find something common between the websites that are in your same niche, and do the opposite.

This is how The-4 Hour Work Week became a success. There was no other book like it, and it was a mindset that totally went against the norm.

This is how Gary Vaynerchuk of Crush It! became a success too, by streaming live TV and talking wine to "regular" people.

What are you going to do differently?

-Pat