The "Sex and the City" TV series made household names of brands like Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo – now a handful of small companies are hoping the film has a similar effect on their products.
Vintage apron company Jessie Steele had a big score: Its Audrey cupcake apron not only appeared in the film, it appeared in the trailer. Charlotte York (the brunette) wears the $32.95 full-length pinafore.
"Sales on that item have been huge since the release of the trailer," spokesman Tim Bayliss tells Inc.com. "We've gotten inquiries into the apron nationally and globally." The Berkeley, California-based company – started in 2002 by a collector of vintage aprons and her fashion-savvy daughter – says it had no idea the item would appear in the film until they saw the trailer. (The minute they did, though, they ramped up production. "We knew it would be huge," Bayliss said. The item currently is on backorder on their website.)
Colombian-born, Miami-based designer Adriana Castro also had a big score: Two handbags in the trailer alone, and five in the film. One bag, a $1,160 python clutch, racked up five minutes in screen time – no mean feat in a film where the characters changed clothes even in the desert. (See the bags Carrie Bradshaw & Co. carried.)
How did her luxe handbags land onscreen? "It was a surprise," Castro, who launched her collection in 2007, tells Inc.com. "They don't confirm product placement." Castro's exotic skin bags already have a celebrity following, which Castro says is thanks in part to her friend Loren Ridinger, senior vice president of internet retailing giant marketamerica.com. (Ridinger told her pal Eva Longoria about the bags, and the "Desperate Housewives" actress then toted the $1,145 lizard Annie clutch, a classic envelope bag. Other celebrities have since followed.)
more information :-http://www.inc.com/news/articles/2010/06/sex-and-the-city-small-business-cameos.html
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Even great new products need marketing
I've been keeping a careful eye on my friends at Madécasse, the chocolate makers in the States.
And it looks like I'm not the only person who is keen to see the brand succeed. Seth Godin has also been writing about the company in his blog, contemplating the brand, the package and the story, and wondering what the owners should do to get the chocolate bars leaping off the shelves.
So here's my view:
The product itself is pretty good. And so thinks the New York Times: "These days my favorite chocolate isn’t certified by the US Department of Agriculture and it’s not Fair Trade or Rainforest Alliance stamped. It’s Madécasse, made from cacao grown in Madagascar’s naturally organic forests. It’s traded fairly and is environmentally friendly."
One rave review, however, does not make a business.
So, does the packaging say "buy me, buy me"? Like Godin, I am not convinced they've got it quite right.
Here are a couple of one-liners that always come up fairly early on in my discussions about sales and marketing:
* Why should people buy from you if you're the same as the competition?
* What makes you different from the rest?
* Do you understand that marketing is not a battle for the product but a battle for the mind of the customer?
No-one disputes the quality of the product, at least not once they've tried it. But for Madécasse virgins, it is tricky – they will buy the product because it has either been recommended (in which case the packaging isn't so vital) or because the packaging entices them.
Currently the packaging doesn't make the chocolate leap off the shelves: it doesn't tell a story; and it doesn't scream "buy me".
I think Madécasse is being too modest and shy. For specific shoppers (green/organic/chocoholics/environmentalists/third worlders) this chocolate should be "the only one". Why would I want to put money in the hands of the global capitalist scum when I can give it direct to the workers via Madécasse?
So, here are two things Madécasse must do:
1. Identify a specific market niche. Get it sorted and sell specifically to them.
2. Work the word-of-mouth marketing systems. In this world of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and so on, you need to get your raving fans to help you sell your story.
more Information :-http://realbusiness.co.uk/sales_and_marketing/even_great_new_products_need_marketing
And it looks like I'm not the only person who is keen to see the brand succeed. Seth Godin has also been writing about the company in his blog, contemplating the brand, the package and the story, and wondering what the owners should do to get the chocolate bars leaping off the shelves.
So here's my view:
The product itself is pretty good. And so thinks the New York Times: "These days my favorite chocolate isn’t certified by the US Department of Agriculture and it’s not Fair Trade or Rainforest Alliance stamped. It’s Madécasse, made from cacao grown in Madagascar’s naturally organic forests. It’s traded fairly and is environmentally friendly."
One rave review, however, does not make a business.
So, does the packaging say "buy me, buy me"? Like Godin, I am not convinced they've got it quite right.
Here are a couple of one-liners that always come up fairly early on in my discussions about sales and marketing:
* Why should people buy from you if you're the same as the competition?
* What makes you different from the rest?
* Do you understand that marketing is not a battle for the product but a battle for the mind of the customer?
No-one disputes the quality of the product, at least not once they've tried it. But for Madécasse virgins, it is tricky – they will buy the product because it has either been recommended (in which case the packaging isn't so vital) or because the packaging entices them.
Currently the packaging doesn't make the chocolate leap off the shelves: it doesn't tell a story; and it doesn't scream "buy me".
I think Madécasse is being too modest and shy. For specific shoppers (green/organic/chocoholics/environmentalists/third worlders) this chocolate should be "the only one". Why would I want to put money in the hands of the global capitalist scum when I can give it direct to the workers via Madécasse?
So, here are two things Madécasse must do:
1. Identify a specific market niche. Get it sorted and sell specifically to them.
2. Work the word-of-mouth marketing systems. In this world of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and so on, you need to get your raving fans to help you sell your story.
more Information :-http://realbusiness.co.uk/sales_and_marketing/even_great_new_products_need_marketing
Monday, June 7, 2010
Top-10 Technologies Seen Most Likely To Have Big Impact On P&C Insurance
Property and casualty insurers must innovate to stay relevant to customers, improve profitability and transition into a business model that can shift with future market changes. To do that, insurers must face legacy-system challenges and adopt emerging technologies to support niche business processes.
Transformational technologies are at your disposal, so the issue then becomes one of prioritizing investments and building a business case for new technology use.
To help guide chief information officers in technology evaluation, Gartner generates annual “Hype Cycles” that profile emerging and new technologies to show the level of maturity, adoption rates and business value of each. This research helps further analyze those technologies, identifying the ones that will have the biggest impact on the p&c industry over the next five years.
These technologies will be “game changing.” They will challenge existing business processes, support the emergence of new business models and allow companies to successfully differentiate to drive revenue growth.
Determination of these technologies is based on Gartner observations and discussions with clients globally.
There is a long list of emerging technologies that p&c insurers can use to improve their processes—from product development through customer service. Many of these technologies, however, provide only incremental or minor improvements, have limited-to-no return on investment, or do not have the promise to help p&c insurers radically change their business models, reduce operational costs or generate revenue.
With budgets challenged, and with limited funding for discretionary spending, it is imperative that organizations prioritize their investments to those that will generate the greatest ROI and drive the most value.
Based on Gartner's review of the p&c insurance sector, software market, client priorities and past Gartner studies, the top-10 technologies with the greatest impact for p&c insurance have been identified.
Note that some are more applicable to personal lines because much of the industry change projected during the next five years is a result of evolving technology use among consumer groups.
The following are what we believe will be the top-10 technologies for p&c insurance, although not in any particular order. The importance of each technology depends on your individual needs and market niche:
• Modern Policy and Claims Management Systems:
There have been significant improvements in the software market during the past six-to-seven years.
Vendors have developed modern policy and claims management systems that are componentized (sold independently, rather than in a suite), offering enhanced workflow and business process management capabilities, with rules separate from the source code for easy configuration, supporting industry standards (for example, ACORD Standards), and built on newer technology platforms.
The adoption of these systems by personal and commercial p&c insurers can provide significant value, including reduced total cost of ownership when legacy systems are decommissioned, faster rules and workflow changes, easier integration with surrounding systems, reduced challenges with staffing to support old technologies and programming languages, and improved long-term maintenance.
• Web Services and SOA Tools:
Insurers operate a large ecosystem of systems and applications that integrate for seamless processing. In the past, companies had to hard-code integration between systems, which was costly and time-consuming, created challenges when applications were replaced and integration had to be redone, and often was difficult overall due to technology incompatibility.
The use of Web services/service-oriented architecture enables companies to deploy services instead of using one-to-one integration, and will help insurers improve their straight-through processing capabilities and reduce integration costs.
more information :-http://www.property-casualty.com/Issues/2010/June-7-2010/Pages/Top10-Technologies-Seen-Most-Likely-To-Have-Big-Impact-On-PC-Insurance.aspx
Transformational technologies are at your disposal, so the issue then becomes one of prioritizing investments and building a business case for new technology use.
To help guide chief information officers in technology evaluation, Gartner generates annual “Hype Cycles” that profile emerging and new technologies to show the level of maturity, adoption rates and business value of each. This research helps further analyze those technologies, identifying the ones that will have the biggest impact on the p&c industry over the next five years.
These technologies will be “game changing.” They will challenge existing business processes, support the emergence of new business models and allow companies to successfully differentiate to drive revenue growth.
Determination of these technologies is based on Gartner observations and discussions with clients globally.
There is a long list of emerging technologies that p&c insurers can use to improve their processes—from product development through customer service. Many of these technologies, however, provide only incremental or minor improvements, have limited-to-no return on investment, or do not have the promise to help p&c insurers radically change their business models, reduce operational costs or generate revenue.
With budgets challenged, and with limited funding for discretionary spending, it is imperative that organizations prioritize their investments to those that will generate the greatest ROI and drive the most value.
Based on Gartner's review of the p&c insurance sector, software market, client priorities and past Gartner studies, the top-10 technologies with the greatest impact for p&c insurance have been identified.
Note that some are more applicable to personal lines because much of the industry change projected during the next five years is a result of evolving technology use among consumer groups.
The following are what we believe will be the top-10 technologies for p&c insurance, although not in any particular order. The importance of each technology depends on your individual needs and market niche:
• Modern Policy and Claims Management Systems:
There have been significant improvements in the software market during the past six-to-seven years.
Vendors have developed modern policy and claims management systems that are componentized (sold independently, rather than in a suite), offering enhanced workflow and business process management capabilities, with rules separate from the source code for easy configuration, supporting industry standards (for example, ACORD Standards), and built on newer technology platforms.
The adoption of these systems by personal and commercial p&c insurers can provide significant value, including reduced total cost of ownership when legacy systems are decommissioned, faster rules and workflow changes, easier integration with surrounding systems, reduced challenges with staffing to support old technologies and programming languages, and improved long-term maintenance.
• Web Services and SOA Tools:
Insurers operate a large ecosystem of systems and applications that integrate for seamless processing. In the past, companies had to hard-code integration between systems, which was costly and time-consuming, created challenges when applications were replaced and integration had to be redone, and often was difficult overall due to technology incompatibility.
The use of Web services/service-oriented architecture enables companies to deploy services instead of using one-to-one integration, and will help insurers improve their straight-through processing capabilities and reduce integration costs.
more information :-http://www.property-casualty.com/Issues/2010/June-7-2010/Pages/Top10-Technologies-Seen-Most-Likely-To-Have-Big-Impact-On-PC-Insurance.aspx
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Area farmers develop their niche
Dori and Kent Baxter’s small farm on Carlos Road north of Greens Fork raises 300 meat chickens, sells eggs from 150 layers and supplies a variety of vegetables to 11 local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) members. CSA members buy a “share” of the Baxters’ farm products, money that stays in the community.
“I didn’t think of myself as a farmer for a long time. I thought you had to have 100 acres and a tractor and grow corn to be a farmer,” Dori said. “But we are farmers. We’re niche farmers, and we work hard every day.”
Agriculture once considered only full-time farmers raising grain and livestock to be “real” farmers, but the definition is changing. Only about one-third of Wayne County farmers work exclusively on the farm now, with the other two-thirds also working at other employment.
The mix of crops and animals on an Indiana farm now might include grass-fed beef, goats and llamas, grapes and wine, and homemade goat cheese or soap.
Seeing agriculture as a part of a community’s economic development is still a connection many people don’t make, said Brian Bergen, agricultural specialist with the Eastern Indiana Development District. It’s a gap in understanding Bergen is determined to fill.
“Agriculture is a very significant part of the Wayne County economy, probably much more than most people realize,” Bergen said. “In the five years I’ve been here, I’ve heard that agriculture is not economic development. It’s a multi-billion dollar business in Indiana, probably the largest business in the state. Farmers are running a business that’s a very vital part of our economy.
more information :-http://www.pal-item.com/article/20100606/NEWS01/100605021
“I didn’t think of myself as a farmer for a long time. I thought you had to have 100 acres and a tractor and grow corn to be a farmer,” Dori said. “But we are farmers. We’re niche farmers, and we work hard every day.”
Agriculture once considered only full-time farmers raising grain and livestock to be “real” farmers, but the definition is changing. Only about one-third of Wayne County farmers work exclusively on the farm now, with the other two-thirds also working at other employment.
The mix of crops and animals on an Indiana farm now might include grass-fed beef, goats and llamas, grapes and wine, and homemade goat cheese or soap.
Seeing agriculture as a part of a community’s economic development is still a connection many people don’t make, said Brian Bergen, agricultural specialist with the Eastern Indiana Development District. It’s a gap in understanding Bergen is determined to fill.
“Agriculture is a very significant part of the Wayne County economy, probably much more than most people realize,” Bergen said. “In the five years I’ve been here, I’ve heard that agriculture is not economic development. It’s a multi-billion dollar business in Indiana, probably the largest business in the state. Farmers are running a business that’s a very vital part of our economy.
more information :-http://www.pal-item.com/article/20100606/NEWS01/100605021
Friday, June 4, 2010
Mark Maupin, Internet expert on Niche Market Products, Works with New Niche Product Tool
Niche market products are used by many savvy internet marketers and affiliate marketers who are making money on the internet while they sleep. Niche market products help you determine how effective your key search phrases will be and how much competition is using similar phrases with their marketing.
Ralph Marcus Maupin (Mark) is the founder of Right Now Marketing Group, LLC, a Michigan internet marketing company that is very well-known and highly respected by business owners in the Metro Detroit area. Mark Maupin has been promoting tool that has made a huge difference for many of his internet students. Maupin said at Michigan internet marketing club “ The Micro Niche Tool is best. There are many of additional applications included in the software that can compliment your keyword research in ways you can’t even imagine. And, it can be utilized for various online endeavors such as Search Engine Optimization, Google AdWords, Google AdSense, and its real power is displayed when it comes to Niche Marketing. However, in order to make use to its complete potential, you need to go through few of its critical aspects. Hang on and continue reading as will peel off everything that you need to know about MNF one after the other…”
Just a few of the Applications of this new Tool:
Strength of Competition (SOC)
The Strength of the Competition is something you wouldn’t want to miss out on as it gives you a clear-cut idea of the competition existent in any particular niche. Usually, the lower the SOC for a keyword is, the easier it is for you to rank it. Why? Because lower SOC simply reflects the fact that there is absolutely no competition and you can easily dominate it.
Domain Availability
Apart from giving an option to find laser-targeted and profitable keywords, you can even learn if the .com, .net or .org domain for that particular keyword is available for you or not. With this, you save your time of going through to a domain availability site and checking if it is there or not! So, it’s an all in one piece.
The Click Rate
If you’re a PPC marketer, then there’s good news, Micro Niche Finder with its keyword research allows you to learn the average click rate that advertisers are paying for those keywords.
The Hot Trends
The Hot Trends feature is probably my favorite, once you realize the power of being up-to date with trends that can help you yield more benefits, you can straight away move on to them and get started with generating some smooth cash flows.
more information :-http://bignews.biz/?id=880284&keys=Internet-Marketing-conference-seminar
Ralph Marcus Maupin (Mark) is the founder of Right Now Marketing Group, LLC, a Michigan internet marketing company that is very well-known and highly respected by business owners in the Metro Detroit area. Mark Maupin has been promoting tool that has made a huge difference for many of his internet students. Maupin said at Michigan internet marketing club “ The Micro Niche Tool is best. There are many of additional applications included in the software that can compliment your keyword research in ways you can’t even imagine. And, it can be utilized for various online endeavors such as Search Engine Optimization, Google AdWords, Google AdSense, and its real power is displayed when it comes to Niche Marketing. However, in order to make use to its complete potential, you need to go through few of its critical aspects. Hang on and continue reading as will peel off everything that you need to know about MNF one after the other…”
Just a few of the Applications of this new Tool:
Strength of Competition (SOC)
The Strength of the Competition is something you wouldn’t want to miss out on as it gives you a clear-cut idea of the competition existent in any particular niche. Usually, the lower the SOC for a keyword is, the easier it is for you to rank it. Why? Because lower SOC simply reflects the fact that there is absolutely no competition and you can easily dominate it.
Domain Availability
Apart from giving an option to find laser-targeted and profitable keywords, you can even learn if the .com, .net or .org domain for that particular keyword is available for you or not. With this, you save your time of going through to a domain availability site and checking if it is there or not! So, it’s an all in one piece.
The Click Rate
If you’re a PPC marketer, then there’s good news, Micro Niche Finder with its keyword research allows you to learn the average click rate that advertisers are paying for those keywords.
The Hot Trends
The Hot Trends feature is probably my favorite, once you realize the power of being up-to date with trends that can help you yield more benefits, you can straight away move on to them and get started with generating some smooth cash flows.
more information :-http://bignews.biz/?id=880284&keys=Internet-Marketing-conference-seminar
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Niche cloud computing firms in M&A spotlight
With sales of web-based business software soaring, companies that focus on cloud computing are slipping into a sweet spot as technology giants look to bolster their presence in this fast-growing segment.
Cloud computing, or software as a service, allows businesses to cut back on hardware and space by having their software hosted in remote datacenters they access over the Web.
Deep-pocketed technology firms like IBM (IBM.N) or Oracle Corp (ORCL.O) might be looking to snag deals in this area to complement their own traditional, mostly on-premise services.
Human resource management software makers SuccessFactors Inc (SFSF.O) and Taleo Corp (TLEO.O) and retail-focused software firm DemandTec Inc (DMAN.O) could be the early targets, according to analysts.
"The themes of cloud computing and software as service (SaaS) are so real, and it's still so early, that I think there should be lot of activity," said Raymond James analyst Terry Tillman.
Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Sasa Zorovic believes companies like NetSuite Inc (N.N), Rightnow Inc (RNOW.O), Kenexa Corp (KNXA.O) and Constant Contact (CTCT.O) could all be attractive takeover targets.
Most big players delayed entering the cloud space and now want the scalable platforms provided by these SaaS companies to build efficient applications.
"With the growth of software as a service, companies have an increasing need to integrate data and business processes across on-premise and cloud systems," IBM said in a recent statement.
Customer relationship management (CRM) software provider Salesforce.com Inc (CRM.N), which helped pioneer software as a service and is one of the fastest-growing software stocks, might also be considered as a takeout target. However, its size and rich valuation might not make for an easily digestible deal.
Since these companies deliver their software products over the Internet, it saves clients the cost of buying licenses in advance and running programs on their own computers.
The adoption of software as a service is expected to far outpace market growth through 2013, a Gartner report shows.
Currently, Salesforce.com accounts for about half of overall web-based CRM software sales, according to the report.
NICHE SELLS
However, firms with niche products like SuccessFactors and Taleo are also seeing explosive growth, as smaller companies queue up to vie for a share of the pie.
"SuccessFactors is adding a lot of potential total addressable market to the mix with all the stuff they are getting into," said Tillman.
The company, which makes software that helps firms manage staff performance, posted a 37 percent jump in 2009 revenue. Revenue for 2010 is expected to grow 18 percent to 19 percent.
The company trades at a whopping multiple of 1,138 times forward earnings -- 25 times the sector average. Its shares have risen more than two and a half times in the last one year.
In contrast, Oracle trades at 14 times forward earnings and SAP at 17.
DemanTec, another possible target, provides pricing and merchandise optimization for retailers. Its largest customer is Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N).
"For DemandTec, it was initially about fitting large global retailers like Target Corp (TGT.N) or Walmart to buy the best buy, but then they started selling software to their suppliers," Tillman said.
The company's products manage the same stores sales environment and help improve gross margins, he said, which could make it a valuable addition to large systems integrators that these retailers rely on, or even large enterprise companies.
Shares of the company have, however, dropped about 40 percent in the last one year.
more information :-http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6525EQ20100603
Cloud computing, or software as a service, allows businesses to cut back on hardware and space by having their software hosted in remote datacenters they access over the Web.
Deep-pocketed technology firms like IBM (IBM.N) or Oracle Corp (ORCL.O) might be looking to snag deals in this area to complement their own traditional, mostly on-premise services.
Human resource management software makers SuccessFactors Inc (SFSF.O) and Taleo Corp (TLEO.O) and retail-focused software firm DemandTec Inc (DMAN.O) could be the early targets, according to analysts.
"The themes of cloud computing and software as service (SaaS) are so real, and it's still so early, that I think there should be lot of activity," said Raymond James analyst Terry Tillman.
Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Sasa Zorovic believes companies like NetSuite Inc (N.N), Rightnow Inc (RNOW.O), Kenexa Corp (KNXA.O) and Constant Contact (CTCT.O) could all be attractive takeover targets.
Most big players delayed entering the cloud space and now want the scalable platforms provided by these SaaS companies to build efficient applications.
"With the growth of software as a service, companies have an increasing need to integrate data and business processes across on-premise and cloud systems," IBM said in a recent statement.
Customer relationship management (CRM) software provider Salesforce.com Inc (CRM.N), which helped pioneer software as a service and is one of the fastest-growing software stocks, might also be considered as a takeout target. However, its size and rich valuation might not make for an easily digestible deal.
Since these companies deliver their software products over the Internet, it saves clients the cost of buying licenses in advance and running programs on their own computers.
The adoption of software as a service is expected to far outpace market growth through 2013, a Gartner report shows.
Currently, Salesforce.com accounts for about half of overall web-based CRM software sales, according to the report.
NICHE SELLS
However, firms with niche products like SuccessFactors and Taleo are also seeing explosive growth, as smaller companies queue up to vie for a share of the pie.
"SuccessFactors is adding a lot of potential total addressable market to the mix with all the stuff they are getting into," said Tillman.
The company, which makes software that helps firms manage staff performance, posted a 37 percent jump in 2009 revenue. Revenue for 2010 is expected to grow 18 percent to 19 percent.
The company trades at a whopping multiple of 1,138 times forward earnings -- 25 times the sector average. Its shares have risen more than two and a half times in the last one year.
In contrast, Oracle trades at 14 times forward earnings and SAP at 17.
DemanTec, another possible target, provides pricing and merchandise optimization for retailers. Its largest customer is Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N).
"For DemandTec, it was initially about fitting large global retailers like Target Corp (TGT.N) or Walmart to buy the best buy, but then they started selling software to their suppliers," Tillman said.
The company's products manage the same stores sales environment and help improve gross margins, he said, which could make it a valuable addition to large systems integrators that these retailers rely on, or even large enterprise companies.
Shares of the company have, however, dropped about 40 percent in the last one year.
more information :-http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6525EQ20100603
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Android - smartest thing Google has done lately?
Many observers have noted that Google’s Android operating system is making nice progress in capturing market share in smartphones. A good percentage of those observers say “so what” because Google gives away the software to all comers and makes no profit from it.
Perhaps “so what” is the wrong response. Let’s look at a few factors that might show that giving away Android is a pretty smart move.
Factor #1 --
On May 21, the Federal Trade Commission signed off on Google's $750 million acquisition of AdMob, a move that originally created antitrust fears because the two are the biggest players in the market of bringing ads to consumers' smartphones.
AdMob, one of the largest mobile ad networks, already services billions of personalized ad impressions (views). The company reaches 160 countries and provides a suite of data and analytics services to help marketers track the traffic their ads receive.
The AdMob acquisition gives Google "the dominant position in the mobile advertising space," says Kartik Hosanagar, an operations and information management professor at Wharton. "This not only opens up a new growth opportunity for Google but also has great synergies with Google's existing offerings. Google can now offer advertisers a single platform to access the lion's share of search and mobile ad inventory."
Factor #2 –
The iPhone’s wonderful operating system and the new iAd functionality will only appear on Apple products. Android has the potential to appear on many products from many different manufacturers. As Android features catch up to iPhone and iPad features, the Apple devices may not dominate these hardware niches as they do today.
As Noah Elkin, a senior analyst with eMarketer says "Apple won't be able to sustain the same reach with just a couple of devices, and advertising is fundamentally a medium about how many consumers you can reach."
Although Apple is hoping to capitalize on the desirability to advertisers of its customer base, users of the Android platform have a similar profile, Elkin says. They are affluent enough to afford a smartphone and are likely to be just as highly engaged with the devices.
Factor #3 --
According to Caris & Co. analyst Sandeep Aggarawal "There are close to four billion mobile phones globally vs. only 1.2 billion computers…" and "…Google generated $1.00 in paid search revenue per PC in the installed base in 2003, [a figure] that reached $21.50 by the end of 2009. Even if Google can generate $1.00 per mobile phone in the installed base by 2013, it can be a $4 billion revenue opportunity."
So there’s the bottom line: embed Android on many devices from smartphones to tablets to who know’s what next and provide the hooks for AdMob functionality integrated with Google’s formidable search and ad targeting technology on all those devices. A dollar per device per year seems like an achievable goal when you have the scale of the Google-AdMob combination.
more information :-http://beforeitsnews.com/news/71/751/Android_-_smartest_thing_Google_has_done_lately.html
Perhaps “so what” is the wrong response. Let’s look at a few factors that might show that giving away Android is a pretty smart move.
Factor #1 --
On May 21, the Federal Trade Commission signed off on Google's $750 million acquisition of AdMob, a move that originally created antitrust fears because the two are the biggest players in the market of bringing ads to consumers' smartphones.
AdMob, one of the largest mobile ad networks, already services billions of personalized ad impressions (views). The company reaches 160 countries and provides a suite of data and analytics services to help marketers track the traffic their ads receive.
The AdMob acquisition gives Google "the dominant position in the mobile advertising space," says Kartik Hosanagar, an operations and information management professor at Wharton. "This not only opens up a new growth opportunity for Google but also has great synergies with Google's existing offerings. Google can now offer advertisers a single platform to access the lion's share of search and mobile ad inventory."
Factor #2 –
The iPhone’s wonderful operating system and the new iAd functionality will only appear on Apple products. Android has the potential to appear on many products from many different manufacturers. As Android features catch up to iPhone and iPad features, the Apple devices may not dominate these hardware niches as they do today.
As Noah Elkin, a senior analyst with eMarketer says "Apple won't be able to sustain the same reach with just a couple of devices, and advertising is fundamentally a medium about how many consumers you can reach."
Although Apple is hoping to capitalize on the desirability to advertisers of its customer base, users of the Android platform have a similar profile, Elkin says. They are affluent enough to afford a smartphone and are likely to be just as highly engaged with the devices.
Factor #3 --
According to Caris & Co. analyst Sandeep Aggarawal "There are close to four billion mobile phones globally vs. only 1.2 billion computers…" and "…Google generated $1.00 in paid search revenue per PC in the installed base in 2003, [a figure] that reached $21.50 by the end of 2009. Even if Google can generate $1.00 per mobile phone in the installed base by 2013, it can be a $4 billion revenue opportunity."
So there’s the bottom line: embed Android on many devices from smartphones to tablets to who know’s what next and provide the hooks for AdMob functionality integrated with Google’s formidable search and ad targeting technology on all those devices. A dollar per device per year seems like an achievable goal when you have the scale of the Google-AdMob combination.
more information :-http://beforeitsnews.com/news/71/751/Android_-_smartest_thing_Google_has_done_lately.html
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Newspapers are finding their niche
As publishers continue to face the dreary reality of sagging circulation and stagnating revenues, an increasing number are eyeing the production of niche publications to reach new advertisers and audiences.
McClatchy Co. and MediaNews Group were among the first newspaper groups to emphasize niche and specialty products as a means to generate revenue.
Three years ago, McClatchy identified niche publishing as being among its top-five growth areas and MNG has grown its niche segment in recent years to more than 240 different titles, with distribution in excess of 7 million (see News & Tech, January 2010).
Now, newspapers of all sizes are beginning to leverage niche products to increase - or supplant - their bottom lines.
"We are offering a variety of products that meet the needs of consumers and connect advertisers," Becky Brubaker, the Chicago Tribune's senior vice president of manufacturing and distribution, told News & Tech.
The Tribune has more than a dozen niche products spanning fashion, entertainment, food and wine and home improvement.
"This has been a large part of our organization and it's part of our growth strategy to create new products," Brubaker said.
Also on the Tribune's agenda: growing its business-to-business services, with endeavors like its recent project to begin digitizing and selling content from its massive photo archives (see News & Tech, April 2010).
The Tribune's sales team sells ads across niche pubs with dedicated sales reps assigned to concentrate on specific revenue markets.
Leveraging distribution
The Dallas Morning News, which counts 40 niche pubs among its stable of products, is exploiting its distribution platform to reach a variety of specialty audiences, according to Jason Dove, director of preprints and direct marketing.
"We deliver to a sub-ZIP-code level so we can pull up over 2,800 different filters to define and distribute to an audience," he said.
The Morning News' Neighbors community publication and its fashion magazine, F! D'Luxe, are among the paper's most popular products. It's also launched publications covering night life/entertainment, parenting and home improvement. Dove said The Morning News is constantly analyzing new and existing products year over year, based on its business plan and goals.
"We are always looking at eliminating products that aren't generating a profit and we are always open to new niche products and audiences that look like fertile ground," he said. "And we're always doing it from a competitive standpoint."
The Morning News has dedicated ad sales teams for community-focused products, direct marketing and preprints, but Dove said every salesperson can sell every product.
"There is a concentration in some areas, where some salespeople are better suited to sell ads in a particular niche," he said.
more information :-http://www.newsandtech.com/news/article_dc789db8-6a7c-11df-a26e-001cc4c002e0.html
McClatchy Co. and MediaNews Group were among the first newspaper groups to emphasize niche and specialty products as a means to generate revenue.
Three years ago, McClatchy identified niche publishing as being among its top-five growth areas and MNG has grown its niche segment in recent years to more than 240 different titles, with distribution in excess of 7 million (see News & Tech, January 2010).
Now, newspapers of all sizes are beginning to leverage niche products to increase - or supplant - their bottom lines.
"We are offering a variety of products that meet the needs of consumers and connect advertisers," Becky Brubaker, the Chicago Tribune's senior vice president of manufacturing and distribution, told News & Tech.
The Tribune has more than a dozen niche products spanning fashion, entertainment, food and wine and home improvement.
"This has been a large part of our organization and it's part of our growth strategy to create new products," Brubaker said.
Also on the Tribune's agenda: growing its business-to-business services, with endeavors like its recent project to begin digitizing and selling content from its massive photo archives (see News & Tech, April 2010).
The Tribune's sales team sells ads across niche pubs with dedicated sales reps assigned to concentrate on specific revenue markets.
Leveraging distribution
The Dallas Morning News, which counts 40 niche pubs among its stable of products, is exploiting its distribution platform to reach a variety of specialty audiences, according to Jason Dove, director of preprints and direct marketing.
"We deliver to a sub-ZIP-code level so we can pull up over 2,800 different filters to define and distribute to an audience," he said.
The Morning News' Neighbors community publication and its fashion magazine, F! D'Luxe, are among the paper's most popular products. It's also launched publications covering night life/entertainment, parenting and home improvement. Dove said The Morning News is constantly analyzing new and existing products year over year, based on its business plan and goals.
"We are always looking at eliminating products that aren't generating a profit and we are always open to new niche products and audiences that look like fertile ground," he said. "And we're always doing it from a competitive standpoint."
The Morning News has dedicated ad sales teams for community-focused products, direct marketing and preprints, but Dove said every salesperson can sell every product.
"There is a concentration in some areas, where some salespeople are better suited to sell ads in a particular niche," he said.
more information :-http://www.newsandtech.com/news/article_dc789db8-6a7c-11df-a26e-001cc4c002e0.html
Monday, May 31, 2010
Niche Marketing or Mass Marketing For the Affiliate?
Affiliate Marketing
When customers buy a product from a vendor the affiliate who directed them to the product receives a commission based on the sales price of the product.
The problem as to wether the affiliate should start with a mass market or a niche market is very common. There are two main arguments the mass marketeer reaches a larger audience and hence can expect a greater sales volume. But a niche by definition should be easier to conquer and so making it easier to become a major expert in that field.
It is important to understand the differences between the two in order to answer this question for yourself. The niche marketeer is attempting to specialise in a smaller market one where the small sales volume would not be attractive to a larger player, he may have a prior interest in this field and become an expert in it. Whereas the mass marketeer is providing a number of different products, not particularly specialising in any one but trying to appeal to a wide range of tastes and hopefully win on sales volume.
Niche marketing does have the lions share of new affiliates and the reasons for this are clear since mass marketing requires the knowledge and application of mass marketing techniques that are becoming obsolete and being replaced regularly whilst the niche requires mainly the creation of information and content to see any results.
If you are new to all this but want to become an affiliate then dont waste any more time reading blogs buy this automated turnkey system by Ewen Chia see below for more information.
more information :-http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978263970
When customers buy a product from a vendor the affiliate who directed them to the product receives a commission based on the sales price of the product.
The problem as to wether the affiliate should start with a mass market or a niche market is very common. There are two main arguments the mass marketeer reaches a larger audience and hence can expect a greater sales volume. But a niche by definition should be easier to conquer and so making it easier to become a major expert in that field.
It is important to understand the differences between the two in order to answer this question for yourself. The niche marketeer is attempting to specialise in a smaller market one where the small sales volume would not be attractive to a larger player, he may have a prior interest in this field and become an expert in it. Whereas the mass marketeer is providing a number of different products, not particularly specialising in any one but trying to appeal to a wide range of tastes and hopefully win on sales volume.
Niche marketing does have the lions share of new affiliates and the reasons for this are clear since mass marketing requires the knowledge and application of mass marketing techniques that are becoming obsolete and being replaced regularly whilst the niche requires mainly the creation of information and content to see any results.
If you are new to all this but want to become an affiliate then dont waste any more time reading blogs buy this automated turnkey system by Ewen Chia see below for more information.
more information :-http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978263970
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Nail down niche marketing with social media, word of mouth
The age of generic is over. If the success of craft beers or gluten-free, high-protein, organic nutrition bars are any example, the name of the game is now niche products that are low-volume and high-margin, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The success of niche products has been encouraged by the growth of social media and customer reviews, which means that marketers of niche offerings need to develop a presence in these areas and truly listen to customers.
"All that information … eliminates much of consumers' uncertainty about new niche products, since they can easily find reviews, ratings and comments on everything that hits the market," the Journal reported. "For decades consumer uncertainty blocked the launch of new offerings that were too focused to be supported by national ad campaigns; today's empowered consumer is truly listening to word-of-mouth."
For this kind of marketing, campaigns should be highly targeted and focused on consumer-generated content, said the Journal, adding that "marketing executives should watch for the first online comments about their wares with the same excitement and apprehension as Broadway producers waiting for opening-night reviews."
One audience in particular that niche marketers may want to pay attention to is Generation Y, the Globe and Mail recently reported. This generation tends to research purchases more so than other generations, and values unique offerings instead of trends.
more information :-http://www.ricg.com/marketing_articles/creative_design/nail_down_niche_marketing_with_social_media_word_of_mouth/
The success of niche products has been encouraged by the growth of social media and customer reviews, which means that marketers of niche offerings need to develop a presence in these areas and truly listen to customers.
"All that information … eliminates much of consumers' uncertainty about new niche products, since they can easily find reviews, ratings and comments on everything that hits the market," the Journal reported. "For decades consumer uncertainty blocked the launch of new offerings that were too focused to be supported by national ad campaigns; today's empowered consumer is truly listening to word-of-mouth."
For this kind of marketing, campaigns should be highly targeted and focused on consumer-generated content, said the Journal, adding that "marketing executives should watch for the first online comments about their wares with the same excitement and apprehension as Broadway producers waiting for opening-night reviews."
One audience in particular that niche marketers may want to pay attention to is Generation Y, the Globe and Mail recently reported. This generation tends to research purchases more so than other generations, and values unique offerings instead of trends.
more information :-http://www.ricg.com/marketing_articles/creative_design/nail_down_niche_marketing_with_social_media_word_of_mouth/
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Apple passes Microsoft as world's most valuable tech firm
Remember that little company that needed Microsoft's financial help just to keep going in 1997? Well, today that company - Apple - just surpassed Microsoft in terms of market value.
At the close of trading in Wall Street last night, Apple had a market capitalisation of $222 billion, compared with Microsoft's $219 billion. The valuation makes Apple the world's most valuable technology firm.
It marks an extraordinary turnaround for Apple, which was on the brink of collapse before Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997. Indeed, Apple accepted a $150 million investment from Microsoft that year just to keep the company afloat.
A year later, Apple introduced the game-changing iMac, its iconic all-in-one computer, and the company has rarely put a foot wrong since.
It has subsequently launched two genre-defining products: the iPod and the iPhone, and many suspect it may be on the cusp of a third with the iPad, which goes on sale in the UK tomorrow.
Consequently, Apple's shares are now worth more than ten times what they were a decade ago, with the company now raking in $13.5 billion in revenue in the last quarter (still about $1 billion less than Microsoft).
for more information :-http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/358243/apple-passes-microsoft-as-worlds-most-valuable-tech-firm
At the close of trading in Wall Street last night, Apple had a market capitalisation of $222 billion, compared with Microsoft's $219 billion. The valuation makes Apple the world's most valuable technology firm.
It marks an extraordinary turnaround for Apple, which was on the brink of collapse before Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997. Indeed, Apple accepted a $150 million investment from Microsoft that year just to keep the company afloat.
A year later, Apple introduced the game-changing iMac, its iconic all-in-one computer, and the company has rarely put a foot wrong since.
It has subsequently launched two genre-defining products: the iPod and the iPhone, and many suspect it may be on the cusp of a third with the iPad, which goes on sale in the UK tomorrow.
Consequently, Apple's shares are now worth more than ten times what they were a decade ago, with the company now raking in $13.5 billion in revenue in the last quarter (still about $1 billion less than Microsoft).
for more information :-http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/358243/apple-passes-microsoft-as-worlds-most-valuable-tech-firm
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Trendspotting: Investing in Smart TV
The long-awaited convergence of Internet and television is upon us. Google (GOOG) says so.
Okay, we’ve been hearing that one since Sergei Brin was sucking on a Zwieback cookie. But all the same, Google TV, which was announced last week and is expected to be available by fall, might actually work. If it does, it will become part of our daily lives, unlike the many earlier attempts -- by Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL) among others -- that were doomed to become little more than niche products.
Why would Google succeed where so many others, who aren't exactly dopes after all, have failed?
Partly because Google has got its priorities straight. Google TV is a natural extension of the company’s primary business, which is delivering targeted advertising. It's leaving both the content and the hardware to others.
Google’s not trying to create a cool new gadget that geeks will love and the rest of us will reluctantly learn to live with. Or not: In the earlier efforts, the actual content was secondary in nature and limited in scope, and thus pretty easy to live without.
Here, the promise is a clean merger of Internet and television, using nothing more or less than the interface and functionality that's become familiar and effortless to users of both devices. At least that’s what Google promised to deliver, and that’s certainly what the media audience heard.
So what is this thing, Google TV? As described, it’s simply Google search, but it collects matches to your queries across television programming as well as the Internet. And it uses the Google Chrome browser, so you can channel surf.
So, it’s a kind of online television and Internet guide that delivers one-click access to any programming from either source. If you’re obsessed with the Lost season finale, you can choose to watch it on television, or see a parody of it, or a rerun of an old episode, or discuss it on a blog, or see a recent interview with one of its stars.
God help us, there will be millions upon millions of channels out there, and they’re all going to be on at once.
With this project, Google is acknowledging the plain fact that television programming might seem like a business on the decline, but television viewing is one amazingly sticky habit, not least because it's absolutely not interactive, and therefore is effortless.
As noted in the company’s presentation, Americans spend five hours a day watching television, and advertisers spend $70 billion a year in the US alone to reach them. The worldwide audience is about 4 billion, and that’s about four times the number of personal-computer users out there and twice the number of mobile-phone users.
more info :-http://www.minyanville.com/investing/articles/google-tv-smart-tv-google-google/5/26/2010/id/28487
Okay, we’ve been hearing that one since Sergei Brin was sucking on a Zwieback cookie. But all the same, Google TV, which was announced last week and is expected to be available by fall, might actually work. If it does, it will become part of our daily lives, unlike the many earlier attempts -- by Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL) among others -- that were doomed to become little more than niche products.
Why would Google succeed where so many others, who aren't exactly dopes after all, have failed?
Partly because Google has got its priorities straight. Google TV is a natural extension of the company’s primary business, which is delivering targeted advertising. It's leaving both the content and the hardware to others.
Google’s not trying to create a cool new gadget that geeks will love and the rest of us will reluctantly learn to live with. Or not: In the earlier efforts, the actual content was secondary in nature and limited in scope, and thus pretty easy to live without.
Here, the promise is a clean merger of Internet and television, using nothing more or less than the interface and functionality that's become familiar and effortless to users of both devices. At least that’s what Google promised to deliver, and that’s certainly what the media audience heard.
So what is this thing, Google TV? As described, it’s simply Google search, but it collects matches to your queries across television programming as well as the Internet. And it uses the Google Chrome browser, so you can channel surf.
So, it’s a kind of online television and Internet guide that delivers one-click access to any programming from either source. If you’re obsessed with the Lost season finale, you can choose to watch it on television, or see a parody of it, or a rerun of an old episode, or discuss it on a blog, or see a recent interview with one of its stars.
God help us, there will be millions upon millions of channels out there, and they’re all going to be on at once.
With this project, Google is acknowledging the plain fact that television programming might seem like a business on the decline, but television viewing is one amazingly sticky habit, not least because it's absolutely not interactive, and therefore is effortless.
As noted in the company’s presentation, Americans spend five hours a day watching television, and advertisers spend $70 billion a year in the US alone to reach them. The worldwide audience is about 4 billion, and that’s about four times the number of personal-computer users out there and twice the number of mobile-phone users.
more info :-http://www.minyanville.com/investing/articles/google-tv-smart-tv-google-google/5/26/2010/id/28487
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Australian Macworld goes digital for the iPad
The longest-running Mac magazine outside the US, is now available as a digital download.
With the release of Apple's innovative iPad tablet computer, the requests for a digital version of Australian Macworld have reached fever pitch. Everyone wants to experience magazines on the beautiful new tablet, and no magazine is more suited to reading on an Apple device than Australian Macworld!
"It is with great pleasure that we can announce that Australian Macworld is available from today as a digital download for iPad, iPhone, Mac – and even PC – through the incredibly popular Zinio magazine marketplace," says Australian Macworld associate publisher Liana Pappas.
"We’ve held off releasing until now because of the multitude of options available – it was impossible to tell whether any of them would be successful," she says. "However, one look at the Zinio app on the iPad, and our decision was made. It is the simplest, most beautiful way to view print-formatted digital content."
The June issue is the first cab off the rank, being released simultaneously on Zinio and newsstands. Readers can buy individual issues or subscribe for 12 months at a discounted rate. Back issues will also be made available over the coming months so you can catch up on any that you might have missed. You can even buy a digital version of the Mac Basics Superguide 2, which is sold out on newsstands.
Our digital issues are full versions of the monthly print magazine, and include internet links to extra online content and relevant websites. If you’re reading on an iPad, it all happens within the Zinio app – available as a free download from Apple's App Store (iTunes link).
What if you don’t have an iPad, but still want to read Australian Macworld digitally? We’ve got you covered: Zinio has reader apps for iPhone, iPod touch, Mac and PC, or you can read online via a web browser such as Safari or Firefox.
Reading via Zinio is as simple as reading the print mag. It offers full-screen portrait and landscape views, easy zooming to see the finer details, and the ability to browse or search. See a great article on the contents page? Just click it and you’re there.
Better still, each copy you buy is yours to keep, and will work with any Zinio app you use. You can even print your favourite articles to read the old-fashioned way – great for keeping a copy of help features handy for when unexpected problems crop up.
“This new partnership with Zinio offers our readers and advertisers an exciting new opportunity: readers can get the latest issue anytime, anywhere in the world, and advertisers have a more interactive platform and more readers than ever to whom they can showcase their products," Pappas says.
The current print version will continue as it has for the past 25 years – offering the best in Australian Mac news, reviews, columns, and features. Australian Macworld online continues to grow with new staff, a boom in readership and, soon, a great new look.
more information :-http://www.macworld.com.au/news/view/australian-macworld-goes-digital-for-the-ipad-4978
With the release of Apple's innovative iPad tablet computer, the requests for a digital version of Australian Macworld have reached fever pitch. Everyone wants to experience magazines on the beautiful new tablet, and no magazine is more suited to reading on an Apple device than Australian Macworld!
"It is with great pleasure that we can announce that Australian Macworld is available from today as a digital download for iPad, iPhone, Mac – and even PC – through the incredibly popular Zinio magazine marketplace," says Australian Macworld associate publisher Liana Pappas.
"We’ve held off releasing until now because of the multitude of options available – it was impossible to tell whether any of them would be successful," she says. "However, one look at the Zinio app on the iPad, and our decision was made. It is the simplest, most beautiful way to view print-formatted digital content."
The June issue is the first cab off the rank, being released simultaneously on Zinio and newsstands. Readers can buy individual issues or subscribe for 12 months at a discounted rate. Back issues will also be made available over the coming months so you can catch up on any that you might have missed. You can even buy a digital version of the Mac Basics Superguide 2, which is sold out on newsstands.
Our digital issues are full versions of the monthly print magazine, and include internet links to extra online content and relevant websites. If you’re reading on an iPad, it all happens within the Zinio app – available as a free download from Apple's App Store (iTunes link).
What if you don’t have an iPad, but still want to read Australian Macworld digitally? We’ve got you covered: Zinio has reader apps for iPhone, iPod touch, Mac and PC, or you can read online via a web browser such as Safari or Firefox.
Reading via Zinio is as simple as reading the print mag. It offers full-screen portrait and landscape views, easy zooming to see the finer details, and the ability to browse or search. See a great article on the contents page? Just click it and you’re there.
Better still, each copy you buy is yours to keep, and will work with any Zinio app you use. You can even print your favourite articles to read the old-fashioned way – great for keeping a copy of help features handy for when unexpected problems crop up.
“This new partnership with Zinio offers our readers and advertisers an exciting new opportunity: readers can get the latest issue anytime, anywhere in the world, and advertisers have a more interactive platform and more readers than ever to whom they can showcase their products," Pappas says.
The current print version will continue as it has for the past 25 years – offering the best in Australian Mac news, reviews, columns, and features. Australian Macworld online continues to grow with new staff, a boom in readership and, soon, a great new look.
more information :-http://www.macworld.com.au/news/view/australian-macworld-goes-digital-for-the-ipad-4978
Monday, May 24, 2010
Insurance firms target low-end market via phones
The sale of insurance products through the mobile phone has opened a new door for the sector to roll out cheap products expected to spur growth in the Kenyan market.
The technology is set to cut the high administration costs that made it difficult for local firms to enter the micro insurance market that has been tipped to deepen insurance penetration, which has remained at a mere 2.5 per cent of the population for nearly a decade.
Micro insurance offers risk cover to the poor with its main features being small amounts of premiums paid by policy holders.
Equity Bank and Safaricom have launched a mobile based platform that allows consumers to make payments, which are as low as Sh530 annually or Sh10.2 weekly, that local insurance firms are hoping will help them capture the low end of the market.
The mobile-based payment is set reduce the insurers wage bill and distributions costs such as running branches and agents commissions, which are insurers’ biggest cost item.
“Collection of insurance premiums and payment of claims is one of the major challenges of the insurance sector and the ability to do these through mobiles will cut costs and reduce customer inconvenience,” said Joseph Kameri, the marketing and distribution manager at UAP.
He added that savings brought by the mobile based payment system will in turn create headroom for lowering the cost of insurance products, especially those targeted at the low end market.
Analysts say that the service will help in taking micro insurance to the bottom end of the market where they are needed the most but where insurance firms find it too expensive to operate because of thin volumes.
The low insurance penetration has been blamed low confidence in insurance products and lack of products targeted at the low and mid-end niches.
This has seen the local insurance sector perform dismally compared to its peers in the financial industry notably the banking sector.
“Micro insurance presents a major growth opportunity for the insurance industry in Kenya because it is inclusive of most of the population,” says Ashok Shah, the managing director of APA Insurance.
The entry into the down market is not only expected to guarantee a steady stream of earnings for these firms, but also offer an opportunity for individuals and SMEs to be roped into the insurance bracket.
In doing so, local insurers will be following in the footsteps of the banking sector that went down-market in 2003 -- leading to sharp a growth in the sector.
Banks have seen pre-tax profits grow from Sh7.1 billion in 2004 to Sh24.6 billion in 2008 compared to that of the insurance sector that dropped from Sh1 billion to Sh500 million over the same period.
Already, local insurance firms are angling to be part of the Equity-Safaricom deal, egged on by the large number of Equity and Safaricom clients who are uninsured.
more information :-http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Insurance%20firms%20target%20low%20end%20market%20via%20phones/-/539552/924200/-/wpmk1k/-/
The technology is set to cut the high administration costs that made it difficult for local firms to enter the micro insurance market that has been tipped to deepen insurance penetration, which has remained at a mere 2.5 per cent of the population for nearly a decade.
Micro insurance offers risk cover to the poor with its main features being small amounts of premiums paid by policy holders.
Equity Bank and Safaricom have launched a mobile based platform that allows consumers to make payments, which are as low as Sh530 annually or Sh10.2 weekly, that local insurance firms are hoping will help them capture the low end of the market.
The mobile-based payment is set reduce the insurers wage bill and distributions costs such as running branches and agents commissions, which are insurers’ biggest cost item.
“Collection of insurance premiums and payment of claims is one of the major challenges of the insurance sector and the ability to do these through mobiles will cut costs and reduce customer inconvenience,” said Joseph Kameri, the marketing and distribution manager at UAP.
He added that savings brought by the mobile based payment system will in turn create headroom for lowering the cost of insurance products, especially those targeted at the low end market.
Analysts say that the service will help in taking micro insurance to the bottom end of the market where they are needed the most but where insurance firms find it too expensive to operate because of thin volumes.
The low insurance penetration has been blamed low confidence in insurance products and lack of products targeted at the low and mid-end niches.
This has seen the local insurance sector perform dismally compared to its peers in the financial industry notably the banking sector.
“Micro insurance presents a major growth opportunity for the insurance industry in Kenya because it is inclusive of most of the population,” says Ashok Shah, the managing director of APA Insurance.
The entry into the down market is not only expected to guarantee a steady stream of earnings for these firms, but also offer an opportunity for individuals and SMEs to be roped into the insurance bracket.
In doing so, local insurers will be following in the footsteps of the banking sector that went down-market in 2003 -- leading to sharp a growth in the sector.
Banks have seen pre-tax profits grow from Sh7.1 billion in 2004 to Sh24.6 billion in 2008 compared to that of the insurance sector that dropped from Sh1 billion to Sh500 million over the same period.
Already, local insurance firms are angling to be part of the Equity-Safaricom deal, egged on by the large number of Equity and Safaricom clients who are uninsured.
more information :-http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Insurance%20firms%20target%20low%20end%20market%20via%20phones/-/539552/924200/-/wpmk1k/-/
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Six Strategies for Successful Niche Marketing
There's been a lot of buzz about the long-tail phenomenon—the strategy of selling smaller quantities of a wider range of goods that are designed to resonate with consumers' preferences and earn higher margins. And a quick scan of everyday products seems to confirm the long tail's merit: Where once we wore jeans from Levi, Wrangler or Lee, we now have scores of options from design houses. If you're looking for a nutrition bar, there's one exactly right for you, whether you're a triathlete, a dieter or a weight lifter. Hundreds of brewers offer thousands of craft beers suited to every conceivable taste.
It's not surprising that so many companies have embraced this strategy. It allows them to avoid the intense competition found in mass markets. Look at the sales growth that has taken place in low-volume, high-margin products such as super-premium ice cream, noncarbonated beverages, heritage meats and heirloom vegetables.
But the case for the long tail has frequently been overstated. This strategy can be expensive to implement, and it doesn't work for all products or all categories. It's surely better to produce a blockbuster film, for instance, than a smattering of low-volume art films.
In other words, simply avoiding the clutter of mass markets isn't enough. Companies need to stake out unique market sweet spots, those areas that resonate so strongly with target consumers that they are willing to pay a premium price, which offsets the higher production and distribution costs associated with niche offerings. We call this approach resonance marketing.
The vast amount of information available on the Internet has made this kind of niche marketing more important than ever and easier to do. More important because all that information encourages comparison shopping, putting tremendous downward pressure on prices and profits in highly competitive mass markets. And easier because it eliminates much of consumers' uncertainty about new niche products, since they can easily find reviews, ratings and comments on everything that hits the market. For decades consumer uncertainty blocked the launch of new offerings that were too focused to be supported by national ad campaigns; today's empowered consumer is truly listening to word-of-mouth.
Finding sweet spots in the market is especially important in these tough economic times, when so many consumers are strapped for cash. Many shoppers will compromise whenever possible by looking for cheaper alternatives to the things they usually buy—but keep buying products that don't have any direct substitutes.
With the right approach, resonance marketing can fulfill its promise. We have found that six marketing principles, taken together, will allow a company to manage the complexity of this strategy and reap superior profitability.
more information :-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704130904574644084205858424.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines
It's not surprising that so many companies have embraced this strategy. It allows them to avoid the intense competition found in mass markets. Look at the sales growth that has taken place in low-volume, high-margin products such as super-premium ice cream, noncarbonated beverages, heritage meats and heirloom vegetables.
But the case for the long tail has frequently been overstated. This strategy can be expensive to implement, and it doesn't work for all products or all categories. It's surely better to produce a blockbuster film, for instance, than a smattering of low-volume art films.
In other words, simply avoiding the clutter of mass markets isn't enough. Companies need to stake out unique market sweet spots, those areas that resonate so strongly with target consumers that they are willing to pay a premium price, which offsets the higher production and distribution costs associated with niche offerings. We call this approach resonance marketing.
The vast amount of information available on the Internet has made this kind of niche marketing more important than ever and easier to do. More important because all that information encourages comparison shopping, putting tremendous downward pressure on prices and profits in highly competitive mass markets. And easier because it eliminates much of consumers' uncertainty about new niche products, since they can easily find reviews, ratings and comments on everything that hits the market. For decades consumer uncertainty blocked the launch of new offerings that were too focused to be supported by national ad campaigns; today's empowered consumer is truly listening to word-of-mouth.
Finding sweet spots in the market is especially important in these tough economic times, when so many consumers are strapped for cash. Many shoppers will compromise whenever possible by looking for cheaper alternatives to the things they usually buy—but keep buying products that don't have any direct substitutes.
With the right approach, resonance marketing can fulfill its promise. We have found that six marketing principles, taken together, will allow a company to manage the complexity of this strategy and reap superior profitability.
more information :-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704130904574644084205858424.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines
Friday, May 21, 2010
GK: New niches for steady riches
Slough-based distributor GK Telecom has kept a low profile, but a pending airtime contract with T-Mobile,an expanding 3 sales base and a solid SIM-card business has turned heads
Slough SIM card distributor GK Telecom is not widely known in the industry beyond its core customer base and suppliers. It comprises just 23 staff, and has kept its head down and maintained a low profile.
However, that all changed in April when T-Mobile dropped airtime distributor Anglia Telecom Centres for missing volume targets in successive quarters, leaving HSC as T-Mobile’s only official airtime partner in the UK.
Anglia Telecom stockists were transferred to HSC to ensure continuity of business for T-Mobile, which at the time announced in tandem plans to put GK on a six-month trial period with a view to making it a fully fledged distributor for the network after that.
However due to the joint venture between Orange and T-Mobile in the UK, the trial could be delayed until July, when the merger takes fuller shape.
GK Telecom network director Debbie Young explains: “The trial has suffered a setback. The delay is a real shame but is unavoidable given the scale of disruption at both networks as they strive to achieve synergy in back office and sales functions. It would be crazy to think that the joint venture would have no impact.”
GK Telecom has been a 3 distributor for 18 months. GK Telecom chairman Gurminder Dulku and director Atul Patel (pictured) hired Young from HSC as network director to set up its back office for airtime sales and to recruit and train staff. GK Telecom now has full distribution with 3 for business sales, consumer retail connections, mobile broadband, prepay products and SIM cards.
Young has 11 years of experience in the airtime and dealer channel. She started at European Telecom where she was a dealer account manager for four years.
She then spent three years as a dealer manager at Hugh Symons (now HSC), and worked under the same job title for Unique Distribution between June 2005 and September 2007. Prior to joining GK Telecom, she was head of airtime at Advantage Cellular between September 2007 and March 2009.
more information :-http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/Features/489661/gk_new_niches_for_steady_riches.html
Slough SIM card distributor GK Telecom is not widely known in the industry beyond its core customer base and suppliers. It comprises just 23 staff, and has kept its head down and maintained a low profile.
However, that all changed in April when T-Mobile dropped airtime distributor Anglia Telecom Centres for missing volume targets in successive quarters, leaving HSC as T-Mobile’s only official airtime partner in the UK.
Anglia Telecom stockists were transferred to HSC to ensure continuity of business for T-Mobile, which at the time announced in tandem plans to put GK on a six-month trial period with a view to making it a fully fledged distributor for the network after that.
However due to the joint venture between Orange and T-Mobile in the UK, the trial could be delayed until July, when the merger takes fuller shape.
GK Telecom network director Debbie Young explains: “The trial has suffered a setback. The delay is a real shame but is unavoidable given the scale of disruption at both networks as they strive to achieve synergy in back office and sales functions. It would be crazy to think that the joint venture would have no impact.”
GK Telecom has been a 3 distributor for 18 months. GK Telecom chairman Gurminder Dulku and director Atul Patel (pictured) hired Young from HSC as network director to set up its back office for airtime sales and to recruit and train staff. GK Telecom now has full distribution with 3 for business sales, consumer retail connections, mobile broadband, prepay products and SIM cards.
Young has 11 years of experience in the airtime and dealer channel. She started at European Telecom where she was a dealer account manager for four years.
She then spent three years as a dealer manager at Hugh Symons (now HSC), and worked under the same job title for Unique Distribution between June 2005 and September 2007. Prior to joining GK Telecom, she was head of airtime at Advantage Cellular between September 2007 and March 2009.
more information :-http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/Features/489661/gk_new_niches_for_steady_riches.html
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Can the Kobo eReader compete with the Apple iPad?
REDgroup Retail has finally released the Kobo eReader device and eBooks platform, with the gadget to sell for $199 in Borders bookstores and online in an attempt to challenge the Amazon Kindle's grip on the market.
But analysts question whether the gadget will actually achieve success in Australia, as the Apple iPad threatens to topple the dedicated eReader market with a more powerful offering.
REDgroup, which operates the Borders and Angus & Robertson book chains, launched the gadget in Sydney yesterday. It is one of the first eReaders to be launched towards a mass-market audience in Australia.
While Amazon has already offered the international Kindle model for some time, the device is not actually sold in stores – one advantage the Kobo has over the retail giant.
About two million eBooks are already available on the Borders eBook store, and are in a format that can be read on any device including the iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and any Android-based mobile device. The company also hopes to push the availability of local authors as a key drawing card.
Setting the gadget's price at $199 will also provide an advantage over the Amazon Kindle, which costs $US259, and the iPad, which starts at $629. Books will sell for about $10-15, which is similar to the prices offered by Amazon and Apple.
But despite Kobo's first-mover advantage, some analysts are questioning whether the gadget will actually have any traction in the Australian market. While dedicated eReaders have been popular for some time, some analysts say they may be overridden by stronger, multi-purpose devices like the iPad.
Telsyte analyst Alvin Lee says while the Kobo has an attractive battery life, and the in-built books are a nice touch, it won't necessarily be able to compete against multipurpose devices.
"However, the fact that an eBook-store-app will also be made available across platforms including Blackberry, Android and iPad, might cause the device itself to be less attractive to consumers."
"Further comparing with Apple's iPad, it is missing the wow factor as a late comer to the market. Kobo eReader is now competing with Apple's iPad, who essentially offers not only eBooks, but a much wider range of applications and services."
But Ovum analyst Nathan Burley says the market is splintering into different types of niche products.
"If you look at what's happening in devices at the moment, you have a lot of different form factors which are emerging. We are at the point now where producing electronics is cheap, and cheap enough to create entirely new categories."
"If you look now, we are getting steps away from just a phone and a PC, we have tablets, eReaders, smartbooks as well as netbooks, which came on the scene about two or three years ago. There will be more and more devices like this, but the question is, do customers want one product that does something very well, or a multi-purpose product?"
Burley says the market will see both scenarios occur – while some users will choose single-use devices, others will opt for more complex gadgets.
"Look at cameras. Almost everyone has a camera in their phone now, but you still have people buying more complicated cameras to do more complicated things. Music players, eReaders all fall into that category as well."
One industry expert also expressed doubt the device would achieve much success in Australia, saying the local market is becoming used to more powerful gadgets such as the iPad, which will eventually overshadow single-use devices like the Amazon Kindle.
Nevertheless, demand for eReaders is set to grow. A new study from Boston Consulting Group revealed last week that 23% of Australians plan to buy an eReader or tablet within the next year, while 49% plan to buy one within the next three years.
more information :-http://www.smartcompany.com.au/information-technology/20100520-can-the-kobo-ereader-compete-with-the-apple-ipad.html
But analysts question whether the gadget will actually achieve success in Australia, as the Apple iPad threatens to topple the dedicated eReader market with a more powerful offering.
REDgroup, which operates the Borders and Angus & Robertson book chains, launched the gadget in Sydney yesterday. It is one of the first eReaders to be launched towards a mass-market audience in Australia.
While Amazon has already offered the international Kindle model for some time, the device is not actually sold in stores – one advantage the Kobo has over the retail giant.
About two million eBooks are already available on the Borders eBook store, and are in a format that can be read on any device including the iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and any Android-based mobile device. The company also hopes to push the availability of local authors as a key drawing card.
Setting the gadget's price at $199 will also provide an advantage over the Amazon Kindle, which costs $US259, and the iPad, which starts at $629. Books will sell for about $10-15, which is similar to the prices offered by Amazon and Apple.
But despite Kobo's first-mover advantage, some analysts are questioning whether the gadget will actually have any traction in the Australian market. While dedicated eReaders have been popular for some time, some analysts say they may be overridden by stronger, multi-purpose devices like the iPad.
Telsyte analyst Alvin Lee says while the Kobo has an attractive battery life, and the in-built books are a nice touch, it won't necessarily be able to compete against multipurpose devices.
"However, the fact that an eBook-store-app will also be made available across platforms including Blackberry, Android and iPad, might cause the device itself to be less attractive to consumers."
"Further comparing with Apple's iPad, it is missing the wow factor as a late comer to the market. Kobo eReader is now competing with Apple's iPad, who essentially offers not only eBooks, but a much wider range of applications and services."
But Ovum analyst Nathan Burley says the market is splintering into different types of niche products.
"If you look at what's happening in devices at the moment, you have a lot of different form factors which are emerging. We are at the point now where producing electronics is cheap, and cheap enough to create entirely new categories."
"If you look now, we are getting steps away from just a phone and a PC, we have tablets, eReaders, smartbooks as well as netbooks, which came on the scene about two or three years ago. There will be more and more devices like this, but the question is, do customers want one product that does something very well, or a multi-purpose product?"
Burley says the market will see both scenarios occur – while some users will choose single-use devices, others will opt for more complex gadgets.
"Look at cameras. Almost everyone has a camera in their phone now, but you still have people buying more complicated cameras to do more complicated things. Music players, eReaders all fall into that category as well."
One industry expert also expressed doubt the device would achieve much success in Australia, saying the local market is becoming used to more powerful gadgets such as the iPad, which will eventually overshadow single-use devices like the Amazon Kindle.
Nevertheless, demand for eReaders is set to grow. A new study from Boston Consulting Group revealed last week that 23% of Australians plan to buy an eReader or tablet within the next year, while 49% plan to buy one within the next three years.
more information :-http://www.smartcompany.com.au/information-technology/20100520-can-the-kobo-ereader-compete-with-the-apple-ipad.html
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
E-readers, tablet computers set to take off: BCG survey
Consumers worlwide are very interested in tablet computers like Apple's iPad and electronic readers such as Amazon's Kindle, and sales of the devices could take off when prices drop, according to a new survey.
"I think we're already at the starting point of mass adoption," said John Rose of The Boston Consulting Group, which conducted the survey of nearly 13,000 consumers in 14 countries.
"A million iPads in a month is a lot," Rose told AFP on Monday, refering to Apple's first month sales figures for the touchscreen device. Other companies such as Sony, Samsung and Google were expected to come out with similar products, he added.
Fifty-one percent of consumers surveyed who were familar with e-readers or tablet computers said they planned to purchase one within a year and 73 percent said they planned to buy one within three years.
"The survey suggests that e-readers and tablets are not a niche product for early adopters but could become the MP3 players of this decade," Rose said separately in a press release. "Grandmothers will soon be carrying them around."
The survey revealed prices will have to drop before e-readers and tablets become established consumer products alongside television sets, personal computers and mobile phones.
"As with other major mass market consumer devices the prices will come down," Rose told AFP. "They always do.
"I expect you'll see the prices come down in the next 12 to 18 months," he said. "The first iPod was a 400-dollar device so there's no reason why we won't see the same cycle."
US consumers said they were prepared to pay between 100 and 150 dollars for a single-usage device like the Kindle or 130 to 200 dollars for a multi-purpose device like the iPad, which can serve as an e-reader but also browse the Web or play video.
The Kindle, which was launched in 2007, costs 259 dollars while the iPad, which came out in the United States last month, costs between 499 dollars and 829 dollars.
The survey found most consumers would prefer a multi-purpose device. Sixty-six percent said they preferred a multi-purpose device while 24 percent said they wanted a single-purpose device for reading electronic books. The remainder were undecided.
"Consumers want to use these devices for a broad range of things, including Web surfing and email," Rose said. "These are easy and portable devices that'll make it easy to do such things."
In the United States, consumers are willing to pay between five and 10 dollars for digital books, five to 10 dollars for a monthly newspaper subscription and between two and four dollars for a single issue of an online magazine.
The BCG survey was conducted in March of 12,717 consumers in Australia, Austria, Britain, China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Norway, South Korea, Spain and the United States.
more information :-http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i1yUNfVY60wHNuXE50sf4kyaT9lQ
"I think we're already at the starting point of mass adoption," said John Rose of The Boston Consulting Group, which conducted the survey of nearly 13,000 consumers in 14 countries.
"A million iPads in a month is a lot," Rose told AFP on Monday, refering to Apple's first month sales figures for the touchscreen device. Other companies such as Sony, Samsung and Google were expected to come out with similar products, he added.
Fifty-one percent of consumers surveyed who were familar with e-readers or tablet computers said they planned to purchase one within a year and 73 percent said they planned to buy one within three years.
"The survey suggests that e-readers and tablets are not a niche product for early adopters but could become the MP3 players of this decade," Rose said separately in a press release. "Grandmothers will soon be carrying them around."
The survey revealed prices will have to drop before e-readers and tablets become established consumer products alongside television sets, personal computers and mobile phones.
"As with other major mass market consumer devices the prices will come down," Rose told AFP. "They always do.
"I expect you'll see the prices come down in the next 12 to 18 months," he said. "The first iPod was a 400-dollar device so there's no reason why we won't see the same cycle."
US consumers said they were prepared to pay between 100 and 150 dollars for a single-usage device like the Kindle or 130 to 200 dollars for a multi-purpose device like the iPad, which can serve as an e-reader but also browse the Web or play video.
The Kindle, which was launched in 2007, costs 259 dollars while the iPad, which came out in the United States last month, costs between 499 dollars and 829 dollars.
The survey found most consumers would prefer a multi-purpose device. Sixty-six percent said they preferred a multi-purpose device while 24 percent said they wanted a single-purpose device for reading electronic books. The remainder were undecided.
"Consumers want to use these devices for a broad range of things, including Web surfing and email," Rose said. "These are easy and portable devices that'll make it easy to do such things."
In the United States, consumers are willing to pay between five and 10 dollars for digital books, five to 10 dollars for a monthly newspaper subscription and between two and four dollars for a single issue of an online magazine.
The BCG survey was conducted in March of 12,717 consumers in Australia, Austria, Britain, China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Norway, South Korea, Spain and the United States.
more information :-http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i1yUNfVY60wHNuXE50sf4kyaT9lQ
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Two Books Offer Advice On Being Different
Businesses seem to respond to competition, rather than customers. When one company introduces a feature that appears to appeal to customers, others quickly adopt it. They follow the bellwether cow. Rather than break trail, the herd obediently follows the trail breaker. “The more diligently firms compete with each other, the less differentiated they can become, at least in the eyes of the consumer.”
“One acts; the others respond in-kind” examples: Coke and Pepsi introduced retro versions of their colas with natural sugar at approximately the same time. BMW introduced the “Bangle butt” rear end (named after its designer Chris Bangle) on its car series a few years ago. Other manufacturers made derisive comments about its look — until they found that consumers liked it. Now you can find the Bangle butt copycats from Toyota/Lexus, Honda/Acura and Buick.
Most companies also try to fill gaps (i.e. perceived weakness) in their product lines to broaden market appeal. Doing this often results in weakening brand.”
Dell and Gateway carved out unique market niches with their built-for-you, home-delivered PCs. They strayed from those niches and now compete principally on price in a commoditized PC market. It’s called product augmentation (i.e. “a growing profusion of alternatives, a shrinking proportion of which are meaningful).
My example of a company that embodies “Different” through product extension is Apple. While it had its share of product missteps with its computers, devotees are Apple to their core. Then it broke more trails: first with its iPod/iTunes, followed by the iPhone, the iTouch and now the iPad — and over 150,000 apps. Each product builds from its predecessors and appeals to different markets [i.e. portable music player (market leader), smartphones (market leader), portable gaming (catching up), laptops/netbooks/tablet (carving a new niche)].
CEOs should ask their marketing teams what can be done to become “Different.” After getting their responses, ask them to watch Moon’s book-promo video on YouTube — youtube.com/watch?v=26PVrm4iLA0. Then again ask them what can be done to become “Different.” If they come back with their original answers, consider getting a different marketing team.
“Escape from Cubicle Nation — From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur” by Pamela Slim, Berkley Books, $15.
Thousands in the unemployment lines are considering starting businesses; thousands who survived restructurings are doing the same. The appeal of business ownership has never been higher.
Do you have what it takes to succeed? Slim points the way.
Before choosing a business, you have to choose your ideal life. The business is your means to that end. You’ll need the support of your family to succeed, so their voice needs to be heard. Slim’s father embarked on a career in multi-level marketing against the wishes of his wife. He died at 63, divorced and alone — except for the multitudes of unsold products and motivational books/tapes.
more information :-http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news13206.html
“One acts; the others respond in-kind” examples: Coke and Pepsi introduced retro versions of their colas with natural sugar at approximately the same time. BMW introduced the “Bangle butt” rear end (named after its designer Chris Bangle) on its car series a few years ago. Other manufacturers made derisive comments about its look — until they found that consumers liked it. Now you can find the Bangle butt copycats from Toyota/Lexus, Honda/Acura and Buick.
Most companies also try to fill gaps (i.e. perceived weakness) in their product lines to broaden market appeal. Doing this often results in weakening brand.”
Dell and Gateway carved out unique market niches with their built-for-you, home-delivered PCs. They strayed from those niches and now compete principally on price in a commoditized PC market. It’s called product augmentation (i.e. “a growing profusion of alternatives, a shrinking proportion of which are meaningful).
My example of a company that embodies “Different” through product extension is Apple. While it had its share of product missteps with its computers, devotees are Apple to their core. Then it broke more trails: first with its iPod/iTunes, followed by the iPhone, the iTouch and now the iPad — and over 150,000 apps. Each product builds from its predecessors and appeals to different markets [i.e. portable music player (market leader), smartphones (market leader), portable gaming (catching up), laptops/netbooks/tablet (carving a new niche)].
CEOs should ask their marketing teams what can be done to become “Different.” After getting their responses, ask them to watch Moon’s book-promo video on YouTube — youtube.com/watch?v=26PVrm4iLA0. Then again ask them what can be done to become “Different.” If they come back with their original answers, consider getting a different marketing team.
“Escape from Cubicle Nation — From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur” by Pamela Slim, Berkley Books, $15.
Thousands in the unemployment lines are considering starting businesses; thousands who survived restructurings are doing the same. The appeal of business ownership has never been higher.
Do you have what it takes to succeed? Slim points the way.
Before choosing a business, you have to choose your ideal life. The business is your means to that end. You’ll need the support of your family to succeed, so their voice needs to be heard. Slim’s father embarked on a career in multi-level marketing against the wishes of his wife. He died at 63, divorced and alone — except for the multitudes of unsold products and motivational books/tapes.
more information :-http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news13206.html
Friday, May 14, 2010
Pfizer bags more products from India’s Strides
Pfizer has extended its agreement with Strides Arcolab which will see the Indian firm supply 38 oncology products to the drugs giant for marketing in the European Union, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea.
A second deal has been signed covering niche sterile injectables for the US market. The new pacts follow an agreement announced in January this year which covered 40 generics, many of which are oncology therapeutics, for the USA.
The companies noted that their agreement now extends to a total of 45 products “around the globe”. David Simmons, head of Pfizer’s Established Products unit, said the collaboration “reinforces our commitment to become a leader in the injectables market.” In May last year, Pfizer signed licensing deals with two other Indian firms Aurobindo Pharma and Claris Lifesciences.
Strides chief executive Arun Kumar said the expanded deal “validates our strategic intent to be a partner of choice to Pfizer and to be a leader in the specialty segment with a focus on specific therapeutic segments such as oncology”. Under the new agreements, financial terms for which were not disclosed, the first of the products is expected to be commercialised in late 2010/early 2011.
more information :-http://www.pharmatimes.com/WorldNews/article.aspx?id=17871
A second deal has been signed covering niche sterile injectables for the US market. The new pacts follow an agreement announced in January this year which covered 40 generics, many of which are oncology therapeutics, for the USA.
The companies noted that their agreement now extends to a total of 45 products “around the globe”. David Simmons, head of Pfizer’s Established Products unit, said the collaboration “reinforces our commitment to become a leader in the injectables market.” In May last year, Pfizer signed licensing deals with two other Indian firms Aurobindo Pharma and Claris Lifesciences.
Strides chief executive Arun Kumar said the expanded deal “validates our strategic intent to be a partner of choice to Pfizer and to be a leader in the specialty segment with a focus on specific therapeutic segments such as oncology”. Under the new agreements, financial terms for which were not disclosed, the first of the products is expected to be commercialised in late 2010/early 2011.
more information :-http://www.pharmatimes.com/WorldNews/article.aspx?id=17871
Thursday, May 13, 2010
E-book readers, tablet PCs set to boom
Electronic book readers and tablet PCs, known to be niche products for technology geeks, are set to become mass-market devices in this decade, a survey by the Boston Consulting Group has said.
According to the online survey of nearly 13,000 consumers spanning 14 countries, including India [ Images ] and China, e-readers and tablet PCs could become established consumer products alongside televisions, personal computers and mobile phones such as the BlackBerry and the iPhone.
Within the next year, as many as 28 per cent of all respondents and 51 per cent of those familiar with these devices plan to purchase an electronic book-reader or a tablet PC, claims the survey.
E-readers, or electronic book readers, have been around for several years, but gained critical mass only in the late 2007 when Amazon introduced the Kindle, which has gone onto become an instant hit.
This March, the technology major Apple countered with the iPad tablet recently, which is able to perform many tasks besides reading, such as Web browsing, video viewing, photo-sharing, and e-mail.
Within three years, a whopping 49 per cent of all respondents and 73 per cent of those familiar with the devices plan a purchase, the survey revealed.
"The survey suggests that e-readers and tablets are not a niche product for early adopters but could become the MP3 players of this decade. Grandmothers will soon be carrying them around," BCG's media practice global leader John Rose said while releasing the survey findings.
Consumers clearly want to do more than just read with these devices as 66 per cent of the respondents globally would prefer to buy a multipurpose device, as against a minority 24 per cent who prefer a single-function device, said the survey, adding, however, that the acceptance of e-readers and tablets is not guaranteed unless prices drop dramatically.
Even in the United States, consumers are ready to cough up only up to $200 for a multipurpose device, pointed out the survey.
It also offered a guarded piece of good news for content providers, as they have been looking to e-readers and tablets as a potential new revenue source to compensate for the loss of business from traditional products.
The BCG survey found more than 90 per cent of those interested in purchasing an e-reader over the next three years would use it for e-books, and over 80 per cent would use it to read online versions of magazines and newspapers.
more information :-http://business.rediff.com/report/2010/may/13/tech-e-book-readers-and-tablet-pcs-set-to-boom.htm
According to the online survey of nearly 13,000 consumers spanning 14 countries, including India [ Images ] and China, e-readers and tablet PCs could become established consumer products alongside televisions, personal computers and mobile phones such as the BlackBerry and the iPhone.
Within the next year, as many as 28 per cent of all respondents and 51 per cent of those familiar with these devices plan to purchase an electronic book-reader or a tablet PC, claims the survey.
E-readers, or electronic book readers, have been around for several years, but gained critical mass only in the late 2007 when Amazon introduced the Kindle, which has gone onto become an instant hit.
This March, the technology major Apple countered with the iPad tablet recently, which is able to perform many tasks besides reading, such as Web browsing, video viewing, photo-sharing, and e-mail.
Within three years, a whopping 49 per cent of all respondents and 73 per cent of those familiar with the devices plan a purchase, the survey revealed.
"The survey suggests that e-readers and tablets are not a niche product for early adopters but could become the MP3 players of this decade. Grandmothers will soon be carrying them around," BCG's media practice global leader John Rose said while releasing the survey findings.
Consumers clearly want to do more than just read with these devices as 66 per cent of the respondents globally would prefer to buy a multipurpose device, as against a minority 24 per cent who prefer a single-function device, said the survey, adding, however, that the acceptance of e-readers and tablets is not guaranteed unless prices drop dramatically.
Even in the United States, consumers are ready to cough up only up to $200 for a multipurpose device, pointed out the survey.
It also offered a guarded piece of good news for content providers, as they have been looking to e-readers and tablets as a potential new revenue source to compensate for the loss of business from traditional products.
The BCG survey found more than 90 per cent of those interested in purchasing an e-reader over the next three years would use it for e-books, and over 80 per cent would use it to read online versions of magazines and newspapers.
more information :-http://business.rediff.com/report/2010/may/13/tech-e-book-readers-and-tablet-pcs-set-to-boom.htm
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
BOOK REVIEW: 'The Risk Takers': Entrepreneurs Who Found Underserved Niches -- and Filled Them
In their new book "The Risk Takers: 16 Women and Men Share Their Entrepreneurial Strategies for Success" (Vanguard Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group, 288 pages, $25.95) Renee and Don Martin provide inspiration -- and useful advice -- for people trapped in the corporate world, looking for a way to develop their brilliant ideas into a business that they control.
All of the entrepreneurs profiled -- including co-author Don Martin -- were what the authors call "ordinary" people, all with good ideas, who faced daunting challenges, but took a leap of faith and started their own businesses.
I would dispute that "ordinary" tag: Ordinary people don't usually do what the entrepreneurs profiled in "The Risk Takers" did. A typical climbing-the-corporate-ladder executive wouldn't do what Maxine Clark, who was president of the Payless ShoeSource discount chain, did: Leave a seven-figure salary and beaucoup benefits to start Build-A-Bear Workshop, which gives kids the opportunity to create their own personalized teddy bears and other animals.
"The Risk Takers" describes the personal and professional journeys of sixteen men and women who built hugely successful, multimillion dollar companies. They started with very little, opted to strike out on their own, and struggled with disappointment and failure.
They overcame adversity and ignored the warnings of naysayers -- and through persistence and resiliency -- determined their own destiny.
The companies profiled are familiar to many Americans: Geek Squad, Curves, Liz Lange Maternity, Kinko’s, Paul Mitchell, Spanx, Amy’s Kitchen, along with nine others. Don and Renee Martin, successful entrepreneurs in their own right, personally interviewed these men and women whose inspiring stories demonstrate it’s never been easy to start your own business and navigate it through all the inevitable storms to ultimate success—in any economy, in any era.
But, as the people profiled demonstrate, it can be done.
The authors say that whether you're considering starting your own business -- or looking for ways to expand an existing enterprise -- there are three time-tested, business strategies that can help you to create a new business or push your company to the next level of success:
1. Go on a treasure hunt and find an underserved niche
2. Buck the conventional wisdom
3. Spot a new trend and pounce
If you adopt these strategies as your entrepreneurial mantras you're more likely to identify and take advantage of real opportunities to expand your company's product line and customer base, the authors state. The strategies are:
Go on a Treasure Hunt and Find an Underserved Niche
In the business world, there's nothing more exciting than finding an underserved niche that represents a lucrative market that everyone else has failed to spot and target, the Martins write.
That's what happened to Gary and Diane Heavin, founders of the Curves International fitness franchise system. When the company launched in 1992, the Heavins had just $10,000 in savings to invest in their company. Today, Curves is the world's largest fitness franchise system, with 10,000 franchise locations in 65 countries.
Instead of competing head-to-head with fitness giants like 24 Hour Fitness or Bally Total Fitness, the Heavins opted to serve the fitness needs of three underserved niches: middle-age and older women who are eager to get in shape but might feel intimidated by large gyms teeming with young, hard bodies; busy working women whose schedules could more easily accommodate the Curves 30-minute workout; and budget-conscious women who simply couldn't afford the pricey monthly membership dues charged by the major gym chains. Early on, Curves clearly distinguished itself from the pack of gym competitors; its services and clientele were different.
Targeting an underserved niche is a path that small start-ups can take. Even a huge multi-billion-dollar company can't offer everything for everyone. Targeting the right niche -- one that other business owners have neglected or ignored -- can help build a strong and loyal customer base while limiting competition.
Liz Lange was another entrepreneur who followed this strategy. She launched a phenomenally successful designer maternity clothing company -- Liz Lange Maternity -- which eventually sold for an estimated $50 to $60 million in 2007. She also partnered with Target to launch a secondary, discount version of her line.
Like the Heavins, Lange reached the heights of success by targeting an underserved niche. In her case, that meant zeroing in on the needs of pregnant fashionistas -- women who refused to let a pregnancy deprive them of their fashion sense. Lange used newly developed stretch fabrics to create chic, fitted and stylish maternity clothes. They were nothing like the tent-like and frumpy maternity clothes widely available in department stores.
more information :-http://www.huntingtonnews.net/columns/100512-kinchen-columnsbookreview.html
All of the entrepreneurs profiled -- including co-author Don Martin -- were what the authors call "ordinary" people, all with good ideas, who faced daunting challenges, but took a leap of faith and started their own businesses.
I would dispute that "ordinary" tag: Ordinary people don't usually do what the entrepreneurs profiled in "The Risk Takers" did. A typical climbing-the-corporate-ladder executive wouldn't do what Maxine Clark, who was president of the Payless ShoeSource discount chain, did: Leave a seven-figure salary and beaucoup benefits to start Build-A-Bear Workshop, which gives kids the opportunity to create their own personalized teddy bears and other animals.
"The Risk Takers" describes the personal and professional journeys of sixteen men and women who built hugely successful, multimillion dollar companies. They started with very little, opted to strike out on their own, and struggled with disappointment and failure.
They overcame adversity and ignored the warnings of naysayers -- and through persistence and resiliency -- determined their own destiny.
The companies profiled are familiar to many Americans: Geek Squad, Curves, Liz Lange Maternity, Kinko’s, Paul Mitchell, Spanx, Amy’s Kitchen, along with nine others. Don and Renee Martin, successful entrepreneurs in their own right, personally interviewed these men and women whose inspiring stories demonstrate it’s never been easy to start your own business and navigate it through all the inevitable storms to ultimate success—in any economy, in any era.
But, as the people profiled demonstrate, it can be done.
The authors say that whether you're considering starting your own business -- or looking for ways to expand an existing enterprise -- there are three time-tested, business strategies that can help you to create a new business or push your company to the next level of success:
1. Go on a treasure hunt and find an underserved niche
2. Buck the conventional wisdom
3. Spot a new trend and pounce
If you adopt these strategies as your entrepreneurial mantras you're more likely to identify and take advantage of real opportunities to expand your company's product line and customer base, the authors state. The strategies are:
Go on a Treasure Hunt and Find an Underserved Niche
In the business world, there's nothing more exciting than finding an underserved niche that represents a lucrative market that everyone else has failed to spot and target, the Martins write.
That's what happened to Gary and Diane Heavin, founders of the Curves International fitness franchise system. When the company launched in 1992, the Heavins had just $10,000 in savings to invest in their company. Today, Curves is the world's largest fitness franchise system, with 10,000 franchise locations in 65 countries.
Instead of competing head-to-head with fitness giants like 24 Hour Fitness or Bally Total Fitness, the Heavins opted to serve the fitness needs of three underserved niches: middle-age and older women who are eager to get in shape but might feel intimidated by large gyms teeming with young, hard bodies; busy working women whose schedules could more easily accommodate the Curves 30-minute workout; and budget-conscious women who simply couldn't afford the pricey monthly membership dues charged by the major gym chains. Early on, Curves clearly distinguished itself from the pack of gym competitors; its services and clientele were different.
Targeting an underserved niche is a path that small start-ups can take. Even a huge multi-billion-dollar company can't offer everything for everyone. Targeting the right niche -- one that other business owners have neglected or ignored -- can help build a strong and loyal customer base while limiting competition.
Liz Lange was another entrepreneur who followed this strategy. She launched a phenomenally successful designer maternity clothing company -- Liz Lange Maternity -- which eventually sold for an estimated $50 to $60 million in 2007. She also partnered with Target to launch a secondary, discount version of her line.
Like the Heavins, Lange reached the heights of success by targeting an underserved niche. In her case, that meant zeroing in on the needs of pregnant fashionistas -- women who refused to let a pregnancy deprive them of their fashion sense. Lange used newly developed stretch fabrics to create chic, fitted and stylish maternity clothes. They were nothing like the tent-like and frumpy maternity clothes widely available in department stores.
more information :-http://www.huntingtonnews.net/columns/100512-kinchen-columnsbookreview.html
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Nancy Barnes: New bylines in your paper
In the last few weeks, we've added three staffers to our business department, to fill positions created by departing reporters and to add some journalistic muscle to one of the most important sections in the paper. To fill these positions, we literally looked at applicants from all over the country, then invested in relocating those we hired to the Twin Cities.
You've seen some of their work already. Mike Hughlett, a veteran business reporter, is now covering the food and agriculture industry, and his byline has appeared frequently since he landed here last month. Hughlett was hired from the Chicago Tribune and previously had been a reporter at the Pioneer Press. Wendy Lee, formerly a business reporter at the Tennessean, has joined us to cover emerging technology companies, and Thom Kupper, a longtime business editor at the San Diego Union Tribune, arrived this week after driving four days cross-country (by way of Mount Rushmore) to be a senior editor in the business department.
Since fall, we have also hired two reporters for our political team and a veteran reporter to dig out in-depth stories, and we are interviewing for a data reporter for our investigative team.
These are just some of the investments we have made, and continue to make, to provide readers with strong, thoughtful and engaging content. Just last week, I heard someone in the community proclaim that newspapers were leaving beat after beat unfilled, failing to fulfill their core mission. That may be true at some newspapers in the country, but it's simply not the case at the Star Tribune. That perception may be born of a misunderstanding of what was happening at this company in the midst of a terrible recession that forced significant cutbacks, as it did at businesses around the country.
more information :-http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/93157394.html?elr=KArksc8P:Pc:U0ckkD:aEyKUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr
You've seen some of their work already. Mike Hughlett, a veteran business reporter, is now covering the food and agriculture industry, and his byline has appeared frequently since he landed here last month. Hughlett was hired from the Chicago Tribune and previously had been a reporter at the Pioneer Press. Wendy Lee, formerly a business reporter at the Tennessean, has joined us to cover emerging technology companies, and Thom Kupper, a longtime business editor at the San Diego Union Tribune, arrived this week after driving four days cross-country (by way of Mount Rushmore) to be a senior editor in the business department.
Since fall, we have also hired two reporters for our political team and a veteran reporter to dig out in-depth stories, and we are interviewing for a data reporter for our investigative team.
These are just some of the investments we have made, and continue to make, to provide readers with strong, thoughtful and engaging content. Just last week, I heard someone in the community proclaim that newspapers were leaving beat after beat unfilled, failing to fulfill their core mission. That may be true at some newspapers in the country, but it's simply not the case at the Star Tribune. That perception may be born of a misunderstanding of what was happening at this company in the midst of a terrible recession that forced significant cutbacks, as it did at businesses around the country.
more information :-http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/93157394.html?elr=KArksc8P:Pc:U0ckkD:aEyKUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr
Monday, May 10, 2010
Can electric cars break out of niche status in US, China market?
Nearly 52,000 people were wait-listed as of mid-April for General Motors' electric model, the Volt, due in November. As of March, almost 56,000 people had signed up to reserve Nissan's all-electric Leaf, due in dealerships by December.
•In China, leading automakers BYD and Chery have announced plans to roll out their own electric models within the next two years.
•Investors, too, are excited. Electric-car ventures made up nearly 40 percent of $1.9 billion invested in 180 green-technology companies worldwide in the first quarter of 2010, according to a study by the Cleantech Group and Deloitte.
Yet in the United States and China, automakers' caution, weak price incentives, and concerns over the electrical grid are slowing the electric car's introduction. If electric cars can't break out of niche status in the world's two largest passenger car markets, then a transition away from gasoline-powered vehicles could be delayed. And many would-be buyers are likely to be frustrated by the lack of available cars. "There is undoubtedly going to be a backlog, where demand exceeds production for the next few years, due to the trepidation of the automakers that the electric car is not something consumers want," says Marc Geller, cofounder of the advocacy group Plug In America.
Take the 56,000 people who have signed up for a Leaf. Nissan is planning to start deploying it in only five states. Total cars initially available: 4,700.
Other automakers are also proceeding cautiously. Bob Lutz, the outgoing vice chairman of GM, has said the company will produce about 8,000 Chevy Volts in 2011. BMW's Mini is rolling out its electric car in three phases. In 2008 the company released a test fleet of 450 Mini-E vehicles and is getting ready to announce its second phase. The third phase will be released around 2015.
Similarly, in China, the sheer size of the auto industry and the country's ambitious clean-energy goals suggest a potentially huge market for electric cars. China overtook the US last year as the largest auto market in the world.
Still, Chinese auto-makers hesitate to mass-market their electric models domestically. BYD's all-electric e6 production line at the company's base in Shenzhen was "ready for manufacturing" in March, but was only producing the gasoline-powered F6, according to Yang Binbin, who writes for Caixin magazine, a business publication based in Beijing.
In the meantime, the company is focused on government-funded mass- transit projects, which guarantee investment returns. In March, BYD chief executive officer Wang Chuanfu announced that in the first half of 2010 the company will sell only 100 e6 cars, to a taxi company in Shenzhen.
Chinese green-car subsidies on hold
The uncertainty surrounding Chinese demand for electric cars is tied to subsidies, Mr. Yang says. The government-run newspaper China Daily reported on April 8 that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had postponed its plans to launch incentives for private purchases of new energy vehicles in March.
more information:-http://www.csmonitor.com/Money/2010/0510/Can-electric-cars-break-out-of-niche-status-in-US-China-market
•In China, leading automakers BYD and Chery have announced plans to roll out their own electric models within the next two years.
•Investors, too, are excited. Electric-car ventures made up nearly 40 percent of $1.9 billion invested in 180 green-technology companies worldwide in the first quarter of 2010, according to a study by the Cleantech Group and Deloitte.
Yet in the United States and China, automakers' caution, weak price incentives, and concerns over the electrical grid are slowing the electric car's introduction. If electric cars can't break out of niche status in the world's two largest passenger car markets, then a transition away from gasoline-powered vehicles could be delayed. And many would-be buyers are likely to be frustrated by the lack of available cars. "There is undoubtedly going to be a backlog, where demand exceeds production for the next few years, due to the trepidation of the automakers that the electric car is not something consumers want," says Marc Geller, cofounder of the advocacy group Plug In America.
Take the 56,000 people who have signed up for a Leaf. Nissan is planning to start deploying it in only five states. Total cars initially available: 4,700.
Other automakers are also proceeding cautiously. Bob Lutz, the outgoing vice chairman of GM, has said the company will produce about 8,000 Chevy Volts in 2011. BMW's Mini is rolling out its electric car in three phases. In 2008 the company released a test fleet of 450 Mini-E vehicles and is getting ready to announce its second phase. The third phase will be released around 2015.
Similarly, in China, the sheer size of the auto industry and the country's ambitious clean-energy goals suggest a potentially huge market for electric cars. China overtook the US last year as the largest auto market in the world.
Still, Chinese auto-makers hesitate to mass-market their electric models domestically. BYD's all-electric e6 production line at the company's base in Shenzhen was "ready for manufacturing" in March, but was only producing the gasoline-powered F6, according to Yang Binbin, who writes for Caixin magazine, a business publication based in Beijing.
In the meantime, the company is focused on government-funded mass- transit projects, which guarantee investment returns. In March, BYD chief executive officer Wang Chuanfu announced that in the first half of 2010 the company will sell only 100 e6 cars, to a taxi company in Shenzhen.
Chinese green-car subsidies on hold
The uncertainty surrounding Chinese demand for electric cars is tied to subsidies, Mr. Yang says. The government-run newspaper China Daily reported on April 8 that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had postponed its plans to launch incentives for private purchases of new energy vehicles in March.
more information:-http://www.csmonitor.com/Money/2010/0510/Can-electric-cars-break-out-of-niche-status-in-US-China-market
Sunday, May 9, 2010
On the market: Southland niches heating up
As experts debate whether the housing market is headed for another dip, sales activity remains brisk in some areas.
Homes in strong markets with lower-priced properties (under $500,000 or under $300,000, depending on the market) are selling quickly, said Steve Goddard, president of the California Assn. of Realtors and broker-manager of RE/MAX Beach Cities Realty in Manhattan Beach. "I think people feel that this is the last chance to get in on a good interest rate before prices go up again."
Goddard pointed out that in 2009, about 55% of all the properties sold in California had multiple offers.
"Properties priced right in certain markets are generating multiple offers and bidding wars," said West De Young, branch manager for Dilbeck Realtors in South Pasadena.
In March, Carrie Bryden, a sales associate with De Young's branch, watched in disbelief as her client with 50% down lost a bidding war to a cash buyer offering more than the $747,000 asking price. Bryden says the client is still looking for a home.
"They are in counteroffers right now on a multiple bid in Echo Park," she said.
Bryden said another client recently came out ahead when bidding on a home in Montecito Heights. But it wasn't easy.
"There were nine other offers on the home, but my client had 40% down and removed her appraisal contingency, which is the reason her offer was accepted over the others," Bryden said. ("I don't recommend buyers remove the appraisal contingency unless they really feel that house is worth what they are paying and have the extra money to cover any difference between the appraised value and the purchase price, which would not be covered in the loan," she added.)
Experts say tax credits are one element driving the trend.
"I thought things would cool off once the federal tax credit expired April 30. But California introduced additional tax credits, and those incentives are keeping the competition in the market," said Bryden, who has been selling real estate in Northeast L.A. since 2002. California's tax credit, which went into effect on May 1, provides as much as $10,000 relief for someone who buys a new or first home, claimed over three years.
Bryden says affordability is another factor luring buyers back to real estate.
"In 2006, my home was valued at about $1.1 million. Today, the house would probably sell for about $850,000. So there is more incentive because prices have declined so much," she said.
Even some higher-priced areas are seeing action.
Alex Lombardo, broker-owner for the Sunset Team Inc. at Keller Williams Realty in West Hollywood, says his luxury home market is seeing some strong competition from buyers looking for quality homes.
more information :-http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2010/05/housing-real-estate-appraisal-tax-credit.html
Homes in strong markets with lower-priced properties (under $500,000 or under $300,000, depending on the market) are selling quickly, said Steve Goddard, president of the California Assn. of Realtors and broker-manager of RE/MAX Beach Cities Realty in Manhattan Beach. "I think people feel that this is the last chance to get in on a good interest rate before prices go up again."
Goddard pointed out that in 2009, about 55% of all the properties sold in California had multiple offers.
"Properties priced right in certain markets are generating multiple offers and bidding wars," said West De Young, branch manager for Dilbeck Realtors in South Pasadena.
In March, Carrie Bryden, a sales associate with De Young's branch, watched in disbelief as her client with 50% down lost a bidding war to a cash buyer offering more than the $747,000 asking price. Bryden says the client is still looking for a home.
"They are in counteroffers right now on a multiple bid in Echo Park," she said.
Bryden said another client recently came out ahead when bidding on a home in Montecito Heights. But it wasn't easy.
"There were nine other offers on the home, but my client had 40% down and removed her appraisal contingency, which is the reason her offer was accepted over the others," Bryden said. ("I don't recommend buyers remove the appraisal contingency unless they really feel that house is worth what they are paying and have the extra money to cover any difference between the appraised value and the purchase price, which would not be covered in the loan," she added.)
Experts say tax credits are one element driving the trend.
"I thought things would cool off once the federal tax credit expired April 30. But California introduced additional tax credits, and those incentives are keeping the competition in the market," said Bryden, who has been selling real estate in Northeast L.A. since 2002. California's tax credit, which went into effect on May 1, provides as much as $10,000 relief for someone who buys a new or first home, claimed over three years.
Bryden says affordability is another factor luring buyers back to real estate.
"In 2006, my home was valued at about $1.1 million. Today, the house would probably sell for about $850,000. So there is more incentive because prices have declined so much," she said.
Even some higher-priced areas are seeing action.
Alex Lombardo, broker-owner for the Sunset Team Inc. at Keller Williams Realty in West Hollywood, says his luxury home market is seeing some strong competition from buyers looking for quality homes.
more information :-http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2010/05/housing-real-estate-appraisal-tax-credit.html
Friday, May 7, 2010
Latest Internet Web Design Tool Applicable to Linux and Microsoft
The latest and vamped up web design tool deemed very effective for moneymaking websites. It’s the web design tool that is now available in the market for every web designer’s usage. It’s the new, fast, powerful and easy to use Site 2 Traffic web design tool.
Since web design tool is considered vital in order for a website to draw attention among the billions of other website in the digital ocean, Bronwyn and Keith Stringer created the perfect web design tool software that can be used by anybody who wants to create money–making websites.
Site 2 Traffic or S2T is not like the other popular but tiring web design tools like Dreamweaver or BBedit. S2T is the only kind of web design tool that doesn't require any background knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP, or graphic design. Building websites with the aid of this web design tool only lasts 3 minutes and 20 seconds.
The importance of upgrading the physical appearance of a money–making website is crucial among the clients who are looking for quality services from websites provided by the World Wide Web. That is why a very effective web design tool is needed in this kind of trade.
S2T web design tool is every web designers’ friend. It is specifically designed to be an easy, fast, and powerful web design tool. S2T serves the sole purpose of eliminating the tedious task of redoing the very complicated process of website building. This web design tool can build a complete SEO-optimized and monetized website in just a few clicks. It does not only design the webpage with built-in templates to choose from, it can also create RSS feeds and upload the website via FTP.
Professional web designers cannot do without a good set of web design tool. Because it does not only help them create a catchy company or private website but it can provide and meet the client’s preferences. A cost efficient and easy to use web design tool like S2T can enable a web designer create a marketing niche faster.
There are plenty of web design tool in the digital market. All a web designer has to do is find the perfect web design tool that can benefit not only the clients but also the him/ her in the process. Although there are plenty of web design tools out there that promises to assist in creating websites, it still requires the user to be well versed in hard encoding. The creation of niche websites will then be limited with the user’s knowledge and time. The process of other web design tools can be very intimidating to a novice niche affiliate marketer who’s planning to make money via the Web. That's why S2T web design tool was created to be user- friendly.
more information :-http://www.bignews.biz/?id=868873&keys=Internet-website-tool-design
Since web design tool is considered vital in order for a website to draw attention among the billions of other website in the digital ocean, Bronwyn and Keith Stringer created the perfect web design tool software that can be used by anybody who wants to create money–making websites.
Site 2 Traffic or S2T is not like the other popular but tiring web design tools like Dreamweaver or BBedit. S2T is the only kind of web design tool that doesn't require any background knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP, or graphic design. Building websites with the aid of this web design tool only lasts 3 minutes and 20 seconds.
The importance of upgrading the physical appearance of a money–making website is crucial among the clients who are looking for quality services from websites provided by the World Wide Web. That is why a very effective web design tool is needed in this kind of trade.
S2T web design tool is every web designers’ friend. It is specifically designed to be an easy, fast, and powerful web design tool. S2T serves the sole purpose of eliminating the tedious task of redoing the very complicated process of website building. This web design tool can build a complete SEO-optimized and monetized website in just a few clicks. It does not only design the webpage with built-in templates to choose from, it can also create RSS feeds and upload the website via FTP.
Professional web designers cannot do without a good set of web design tool. Because it does not only help them create a catchy company or private website but it can provide and meet the client’s preferences. A cost efficient and easy to use web design tool like S2T can enable a web designer create a marketing niche faster.
There are plenty of web design tool in the digital market. All a web designer has to do is find the perfect web design tool that can benefit not only the clients but also the him/ her in the process. Although there are plenty of web design tools out there that promises to assist in creating websites, it still requires the user to be well versed in hard encoding. The creation of niche websites will then be limited with the user’s knowledge and time. The process of other web design tools can be very intimidating to a novice niche affiliate marketer who’s planning to make money via the Web. That's why S2T web design tool was created to be user- friendly.
more information :-http://www.bignews.biz/?id=868873&keys=Internet-website-tool-design
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
InBoundMarketingPR Announces Free Resource for Company Websites
InBoundMarketingPR announced a new resource today for company websites. Companies that are interested in discovering how effective their websites are can submit their website url for a free report and recommendations to the InBoundMarketingPR team.
The report covers marketing effectiveness including all search engine optimization (SEO) parameters, including page titles, page descriptions, optimization of images, videos and other multi-media within the website. The report also will contain a “grade” for company news releases and recommendations for adjustments to ensure news releases have the best possible chance of being syndicated. The service is free, not a gimmick and those that submit their websites will not be hounded relentlessly to pay for other services.
“The great majority of smaller companies have websites that are deficient in one or several areas,” said Tom Allinder President of InBoundMarketingPR. “We created this tool for them so that they can make changes and adjustments to their sites for greater effectiveness. We believe that helping companies organically is the best and most inexpensive way. Advertising campaigns like email, regular mail, postcards, DVDs and what have you are finding their way to recycle bins, both virtual and real in ever greater numbers. Pay-per-click campaigns are great and provide short-term results but if you stop paying, you company’s website immediately plummets down the rankings; often into obscurity and oblivion. As it is said, Organic is forever while pay-per-click is temporary,” concluded Allinder.
On InBoundMarketingPR’s blog, Rosemary Sorg has written about 4 Twitter tools including what the tools do and how effective they are. Twitter is a powerful inbound marketing tool if used properly.
Tom Allinder has written once more on the use of inbound marketing for investor relations for small and micro cap companies.
About InBoundMarketingPR
InBoundMarketingPR is an Inbound Marketing Public Relations Company that specializes in investor relations and brand building strategies such as search engine optimization, search engine marketing, website design and redesign, social media and content development and marketing. InBoundMarketingPR's niche is publicly traded companies but serves businesses of all types and sizes on a regional as well as global scale.
more information :-http://www.onlineprnews.com/news/34303-1273069220-inboundmarketingpr-announces-free-resource-for-company-websites.html
The report covers marketing effectiveness including all search engine optimization (SEO) parameters, including page titles, page descriptions, optimization of images, videos and other multi-media within the website. The report also will contain a “grade” for company news releases and recommendations for adjustments to ensure news releases have the best possible chance of being syndicated. The service is free, not a gimmick and those that submit their websites will not be hounded relentlessly to pay for other services.
“The great majority of smaller companies have websites that are deficient in one or several areas,” said Tom Allinder President of InBoundMarketingPR. “We created this tool for them so that they can make changes and adjustments to their sites for greater effectiveness. We believe that helping companies organically is the best and most inexpensive way. Advertising campaigns like email, regular mail, postcards, DVDs and what have you are finding their way to recycle bins, both virtual and real in ever greater numbers. Pay-per-click campaigns are great and provide short-term results but if you stop paying, you company’s website immediately plummets down the rankings; often into obscurity and oblivion. As it is said, Organic is forever while pay-per-click is temporary,” concluded Allinder.
On InBoundMarketingPR’s blog, Rosemary Sorg has written about 4 Twitter tools including what the tools do and how effective they are. Twitter is a powerful inbound marketing tool if used properly.
Tom Allinder has written once more on the use of inbound marketing for investor relations for small and micro cap companies.
About InBoundMarketingPR
InBoundMarketingPR is an Inbound Marketing Public Relations Company that specializes in investor relations and brand building strategies such as search engine optimization, search engine marketing, website design and redesign, social media and content development and marketing. InBoundMarketingPR's niche is publicly traded companies but serves businesses of all types and sizes on a regional as well as global scale.
more information :-http://www.onlineprnews.com/news/34303-1273069220-inboundmarketingpr-announces-free-resource-for-company-websites.html
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
How To Make $1500 From Profitable Niches Monthly
One truth that website owners cannot run away from is the fact that the niche they build their sites on is very important to making money online. It will be a great mistake to just decide to build your website on any niche you finds convenient, interesting or acceptable to you- it is also very costly too. It will cost you money lost from a niche that is too broad or too narrow-in fact these are not really niches in the right senses of it, but mainstream.
Now if you understand how to choose a profitable niche and then dig deeper to find a sub-niche with less competition and good searches terms and use these as the basis that you build your site on then what you would have succeeded in building are money makers.
So how do go about doing this?
The first thing is to brainstorm for ideas that you suspect to be a good niche markets. You get a clue as to whether an idea is a niche or not from news, magazines, catalogs est. one sign of a niche that will be profitable is when you notice a persistent problem or a trend. Once you notice such you are then to do more research on it online.
The keyword tools are online applications that you can use to find out more about this niche. This are software that will reveal some important statistics about the niche that you want to start your site on or build other money making endeavor on your niche like production of information product.
One statistic that you will look out for is the money that advertisers are willing to pay per click on the keywords you have chosen to use in your niche. For our purpose here it should be between 50 cents and $2. Let us take the instance where you have a niche advertisers are willing to pay $1 per click then target making $5 daily through pay per click program and that will be $150 in a month. To meet the target of $1500/month just build 10 of such sites and making this amount monthly will be possible. I want to let you know that with this strategy even one of such sites alone will be making our target of $1500 if you did your research well and serve content that are optimized with the keywords on your site(S) regularly
for more information :-http://ezinearticles.com/?How-To-Make-$1500-From-Profitable-Niches-Monthly&id=4205470
Now if you understand how to choose a profitable niche and then dig deeper to find a sub-niche with less competition and good searches terms and use these as the basis that you build your site on then what you would have succeeded in building are money makers.
So how do go about doing this?
The first thing is to brainstorm for ideas that you suspect to be a good niche markets. You get a clue as to whether an idea is a niche or not from news, magazines, catalogs est. one sign of a niche that will be profitable is when you notice a persistent problem or a trend. Once you notice such you are then to do more research on it online.
The keyword tools are online applications that you can use to find out more about this niche. This are software that will reveal some important statistics about the niche that you want to start your site on or build other money making endeavor on your niche like production of information product.
One statistic that you will look out for is the money that advertisers are willing to pay per click on the keywords you have chosen to use in your niche. For our purpose here it should be between 50 cents and $2. Let us take the instance where you have a niche advertisers are willing to pay $1 per click then target making $5 daily through pay per click program and that will be $150 in a month. To meet the target of $1500/month just build 10 of such sites and making this amount monthly will be possible. I want to let you know that with this strategy even one of such sites alone will be making our target of $1500 if you did your research well and serve content that are optimized with the keywords on your site(S) regularly
for more information :-http://ezinearticles.com/?How-To-Make-$1500-From-Profitable-Niches-Monthly&id=4205470
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Internet and Websites : Student Launches Niche Website - Entrepreneur Resources that will TurboCharge any Business
Officially launching with this press release, EntrepreneurFreak.com invites business students, entrepreneurs, and professionals to gain an upper hand in life and discover new entrepreneur resources that will help them succeed in today's marketplace. Attending business school and reading guru books are not enough in 2010. “It takes specialized knowledge of specific entrepreneur resources to compete at a competitive level in this day and age.” -- Lars Knutsen founder of EntrepreneurFreak.com.
News ImageEssentially, EntrepreneurFreak.com is a dashboard to quickly and easily locate entrepreneur resources to effectively start a business, make money, and enjoy life. Entrepreneur resources are effortlessly found whether searching for ezine advertising, search engine optimization, wholesale/dropshippers, or information on how to trademark a business. The abundance of information available at Entrepreneurfreak.com makes it easy to find specific items as well as discover new resources that will help drive success.
Lars Knutsen is going to show the world that entrepreneur resources are what make dreams reality. Starting with this press release, EntrepreneurFreak.com will use entrepreneur resources featured throughout the website and showcase the results for all to see. Tune in and watch Lars take EntrepreneurFreak.com to the top!
more information :-http://www.prudentpressagency.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=16729
News ImageEssentially, EntrepreneurFreak.com is a dashboard to quickly and easily locate entrepreneur resources to effectively start a business, make money, and enjoy life. Entrepreneur resources are effortlessly found whether searching for ezine advertising, search engine optimization, wholesale/dropshippers, or information on how to trademark a business. The abundance of information available at Entrepreneurfreak.com makes it easy to find specific items as well as discover new resources that will help drive success.
Lars Knutsen is going to show the world that entrepreneur resources are what make dreams reality. Starting with this press release, EntrepreneurFreak.com will use entrepreneur resources featured throughout the website and showcase the results for all to see. Tune in and watch Lars take EntrepreneurFreak.com to the top!
more information :-http://www.prudentpressagency.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=16729
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
UK journalists start entrepreneurial niche websites
Although entrepreneurial blog sites are old hat in the United States, they are just hitting the scene in the UK and are quickly gaining momentum, reports the Independent.
The trend towards professional online news sites unrelated to established print papers started in the US and has since seen the foundation of multimillion dollar sites like the Huffington Post or the Gawker media sites. The Independent's Ian Burrell calls the UK versions of sites like these "expertly written websites that cater for the specialist audiences that are arguably no longer being served as they once were by more traditional media organisations."
Burrell cites recently founded niche website The Arts Desk as an example of this trend. The Arts Desk offers readers professional arts criticism from journalists formerly or currently employed by well-established papers, and aims to have the site updated by 2 am after opening performances--much quicker than most newspapers publish.
One such journalist, Ismene Brown, was laid off from her job as dance critic at the Daily Telegraph and went on to help found the Arts Desk, recruiting a group of 30 like-minded journalists and finding private investment for the site. Almost six months in, it already draws 60,000 visitors each month and has ads from from the South Bank Center and the O2 and London theatres.
101 Holidays is a similar venture, founded by former Sunday Times travel writers Mark Hosdon and David Wickers. They aim to provide a resource for travelers that is unique from most travel websites because of their background knowledge.
"One of the core principles of our site is expert recommendation," Hodson said. " We are trying to say 'Believe us' because we have been to all these places."
more info :-http://www.editorsweblog.org/web_20/2010/04/uk_journalists_start_entrepreneurial_nic.php
The trend towards professional online news sites unrelated to established print papers started in the US and has since seen the foundation of multimillion dollar sites like the Huffington Post or the Gawker media sites. The Independent's Ian Burrell calls the UK versions of sites like these "expertly written websites that cater for the specialist audiences that are arguably no longer being served as they once were by more traditional media organisations."
Burrell cites recently founded niche website The Arts Desk as an example of this trend. The Arts Desk offers readers professional arts criticism from journalists formerly or currently employed by well-established papers, and aims to have the site updated by 2 am after opening performances--much quicker than most newspapers publish.
One such journalist, Ismene Brown, was laid off from her job as dance critic at the Daily Telegraph and went on to help found the Arts Desk, recruiting a group of 30 like-minded journalists and finding private investment for the site. Almost six months in, it already draws 60,000 visitors each month and has ads from from the South Bank Center and the O2 and London theatres.
101 Holidays is a similar venture, founded by former Sunday Times travel writers Mark Hosdon and David Wickers. They aim to provide a resource for travelers that is unique from most travel websites because of their background knowledge.
"One of the core principles of our site is expert recommendation," Hodson said. " We are trying to say 'Believe us' because we have been to all these places."
more info :-http://www.editorsweblog.org/web_20/2010/04/uk_journalists_start_entrepreneurial_nic.php
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Council wants ‘uniform, neat and clean’ niches for cremains
It wasn’t quite “Tales From the Crypt,” but things did get a bit macabre Wednesday during a city study session on how to proceed with a proposed columbarium at the Nogales City Cemetery.
Raymond Kory, who donated the engineering for the project now being constructed by city crews, was asked rather indiscreetly by local mortician Tomas Martinez whether he still kept the ashes of a relative who died some time ago inside a plastic box rather than a pricier, more elegant urn.
“Yes, I do,” responded Kory, who is emphatic the city proceed with plans for a one-size-fits-all columbarium, which is a public storage area for cinerary urns.
Kory said he had yet to find an appropriate urn for his relative.
But Martinez said he was trying to show that family members should have the option of larger, decorative spaces for their loved ones’ final resting place.
In a moment of levity, he said: “For example, if I want to bury my wife (while she’s still alive) I would want something better than a plastic box.”
He and Ron Adair, of Adair’s Carroon Mortuary Chapel, argued that the city should not impede or compete in their private enterprise by limiting the size and types of urns they can offer families. They suggested the columbarium be designed to accommodate “drawers” for varied urn dimensions instead of Kory’s proposed size of five inches by eight inches.
But Kory was unmoved, pushing for uniformity that would allow for 2,940 compartments rather than a mixed design.
“I strongly recommend you not do that; don’t differentiate between the millionaire and the pauper,” he told the council.
“I recommend the city not privatize it because it’s basically zero maintenance,” he said of the project, noting that it would generate substantial revenues if each is sold at a suggested $1,000.
Mayor Octavio Garcia-Von Borstel said he preferred the “uniform, neat and clean” niches Kory suggested. He polled the council, which unanimously agreed.
“No,” said Councilman Nubar Hanessian to Adair’s suggestion of a mixed–use design. “Then you’ll get into and east-side, west-side story” where the rich are in one section and the less wealthy on another.
Councilman Ramon Felix said families still have the option of purchasing more elaborate urns for wake or church viewing, and the cremains can then be transferred to the “box.”
Councilwoman Olga Valdez said, “Why do we want a gold box. It’s not like we’re going to be brought back.”
The matter was referred to staff to come up with a final recommendation.
more info :-http://www.nogalesinternational.com/articles/2010/04/23/news/doc4bd1bda2e0d92807388256.txt
Raymond Kory, who donated the engineering for the project now being constructed by city crews, was asked rather indiscreetly by local mortician Tomas Martinez whether he still kept the ashes of a relative who died some time ago inside a plastic box rather than a pricier, more elegant urn.
“Yes, I do,” responded Kory, who is emphatic the city proceed with plans for a one-size-fits-all columbarium, which is a public storage area for cinerary urns.
Kory said he had yet to find an appropriate urn for his relative.
But Martinez said he was trying to show that family members should have the option of larger, decorative spaces for their loved ones’ final resting place.
In a moment of levity, he said: “For example, if I want to bury my wife (while she’s still alive) I would want something better than a plastic box.”
He and Ron Adair, of Adair’s Carroon Mortuary Chapel, argued that the city should not impede or compete in their private enterprise by limiting the size and types of urns they can offer families. They suggested the columbarium be designed to accommodate “drawers” for varied urn dimensions instead of Kory’s proposed size of five inches by eight inches.
But Kory was unmoved, pushing for uniformity that would allow for 2,940 compartments rather than a mixed design.
“I strongly recommend you not do that; don’t differentiate between the millionaire and the pauper,” he told the council.
“I recommend the city not privatize it because it’s basically zero maintenance,” he said of the project, noting that it would generate substantial revenues if each is sold at a suggested $1,000.
Mayor Octavio Garcia-Von Borstel said he preferred the “uniform, neat and clean” niches Kory suggested. He polled the council, which unanimously agreed.
“No,” said Councilman Nubar Hanessian to Adair’s suggestion of a mixed–use design. “Then you’ll get into and east-side, west-side story” where the rich are in one section and the less wealthy on another.
Councilman Ramon Felix said families still have the option of purchasing more elaborate urns for wake or church viewing, and the cremains can then be transferred to the “box.”
Councilwoman Olga Valdez said, “Why do we want a gold box. It’s not like we’re going to be brought back.”
The matter was referred to staff to come up with a final recommendation.
more info :-http://www.nogalesinternational.com/articles/2010/04/23/news/doc4bd1bda2e0d92807388256.txt
Friday, April 23, 2010
Why Not To Create Niche Websites With Blog Applications
There are many small niche websites on the internet that are created using a blogging platform like Blogger. While this can be very convenient, it isn't always the best option for a niche website unless you can modify your blog site heavily. Some of the disadvantages are that the site will be less static, and people recognize blogs much too well.
When creating a niche website, I find it very important that the website be static, with just a set of simple HTML scripts and no dynamic content. My strategy is to keep my sites very simple and somewhat ugly too. The less the website itself attracts my visitors the better, since then they may be more inclined to look at the ads instead of my header or navigation. If the whole point of your niche site is to make money with PPC or affiliate programs, then making it with a blogging platform can be bad since your website will automatically be dynamic. It has basically been proven that simple static sites will help you earn better when working with niches, and also let you rank higher in search engines. It is definitely possible to modify your blogging site to be completely static, but this may be more work than its worth.
Another reason that you shouldn't use blog sites for niches is that people are very familiar with blogs, and they are traditionally fairly bad for PPC advertising. When people view blog sites, they usually already know how to navigate them and where to find the content. You probably don't want this since you sort of want to push the ads directly into the users face right when they come to your page. You don't want them to know exactly how to navigate the site and how to use all its functions, or else they will initially already have no interest in clicking on the ads. If you insist on using a blogging platform though, just make sure to modify the template very well, to the point where it doesn't even look like a blog anymore. This can definitely help with conversions/CTR.
In my experience it is a bad idea to create niche sites on blogging platforms unless you want to modify the code and template a lot. I find it much more convenient to just create static HTML pages, mainly because the SEO will generally be better and my visitors won't know what to expect when visiting my site. Just consider this if you are planning on creating some new niche sites.
more info :-http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Not-To-Create-Niche-Websites-With-Blog-Applications&id=4120305
When creating a niche website, I find it very important that the website be static, with just a set of simple HTML scripts and no dynamic content. My strategy is to keep my sites very simple and somewhat ugly too. The less the website itself attracts my visitors the better, since then they may be more inclined to look at the ads instead of my header or navigation. If the whole point of your niche site is to make money with PPC or affiliate programs, then making it with a blogging platform can be bad since your website will automatically be dynamic. It has basically been proven that simple static sites will help you earn better when working with niches, and also let you rank higher in search engines. It is definitely possible to modify your blogging site to be completely static, but this may be more work than its worth.
Another reason that you shouldn't use blog sites for niches is that people are very familiar with blogs, and they are traditionally fairly bad for PPC advertising. When people view blog sites, they usually already know how to navigate them and where to find the content. You probably don't want this since you sort of want to push the ads directly into the users face right when they come to your page. You don't want them to know exactly how to navigate the site and how to use all its functions, or else they will initially already have no interest in clicking on the ads. If you insist on using a blogging platform though, just make sure to modify the template very well, to the point where it doesn't even look like a blog anymore. This can definitely help with conversions/CTR.
In my experience it is a bad idea to create niche sites on blogging platforms unless you want to modify the code and template a lot. I find it much more convenient to just create static HTML pages, mainly because the SEO will generally be better and my visitors won't know what to expect when visiting my site. Just consider this if you are planning on creating some new niche sites.
more info :-http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Not-To-Create-Niche-Websites-With-Blog-Applications&id=4120305
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Affiliate Marketing - Popular Markets Or Niche Products?
Many people come across a confusing crossroad when they first decide to try their hand at making money online in affiliate marketing. There are two main camps, or factions, when it comes to online commission based sales.
Some claim it is better to look for popular markets such as health and fitness, insurance or internet marketing. Others advocate the careful of niche - or less-popular - markets and the choosing of products with little competition in order to earn cash online.
Both certainly, have their merits but which should you choose? Here is a brief summary of both to help you with your decision:
Popular Markets
In this method you look for a market that has a lot of interest. The easy way to do that is to enter the category into a search engine and look at the amount of competing sites. This will give you a good idea that this market is popular. If you want to confirm this you can go to your favourite keyword research tool and do the same search, you will be able to get a better indication of the monthly searches the category term gets.
The next thing is to choose a product that is selling well in that market. You can either look at the search engine results when you did your first search and click on a few example and see what they are selling or else go to your affiliate network and see what the top sellers are in that category.
The advantage to popular markets and products is obvious - there is a huge potential customer base. Another up-side is that your keywords will be simple.
The down-side is that those keywords will be fiercely competitive and very expensive if you are considering PPC advertising. But your biggest problem may lie in getting yourself noticed - this is not a problem if you intend to promote the product on your site or blog and you have a good customer base. The problem occurs when you try to promote via PPC or through SERPs.
Niche Products
This is the other side to the affiliate marketing coin. Sales will be smaller and keyword research more arduous and time-consuming but if you get it right you can run very prosperous PPC campaigns or find yourself with high SERPs in no time at all.
In this method you need to weed out very select markets such as building a chicken coop, puppy crate training or specific medical conditions. There is software to help you with this but it can be expensive. An easy method is to rely on your hobbies, or listen to friends and see if you can draw any inspiration.
Once you think you have a niche market, you should research it as per the popular market example. Make sure there is sufficient interest but not market saturation. You will need to find a decent product to promote - this should be easy enough, there is huge variety available these days and if not you can always create your own!
If you decide on a PPC campaign you will have to look for what is known as long-tail keyword phrases. These are simply a string of 3-4 words such as "build a chicken coop". You will need to make sure there are enough monthly searches to facilitate a campaign but ideally you are looking for low competition and low CPC.
The reason for this is that you want to keep your costs low as you probably won't make as many sales with niche targeting so you want to maximise your profit from every sale.
This method can be very profitable but you will need to run numerous projects at the same time. You may need 5 of these niche projects to match one popular market product. The advantage here is that you have a greater chance of success selling niche products if your get it right.
The disadvantage is the added research, extra work and hit and miss consistency of niche marketing, however, if you do it right you can stumble onto a potential affiliate marketing goldmine.
This technique is probably the best option for anyone breaking into affiliate marketing and trying to earn cash online that doesn't already have a website with a large audience or a massive budget to compete in the popular keyword PPC market.
more info :-http://ezinearticles.com/?Affiliate-Marketing---Popular-Markets-Or-Niche-Products?&id=4070273
Some claim it is better to look for popular markets such as health and fitness, insurance or internet marketing. Others advocate the careful of niche - or less-popular - markets and the choosing of products with little competition in order to earn cash online.
Both certainly, have their merits but which should you choose? Here is a brief summary of both to help you with your decision:
Popular Markets
In this method you look for a market that has a lot of interest. The easy way to do that is to enter the category into a search engine and look at the amount of competing sites. This will give you a good idea that this market is popular. If you want to confirm this you can go to your favourite keyword research tool and do the same search, you will be able to get a better indication of the monthly searches the category term gets.
The next thing is to choose a product that is selling well in that market. You can either look at the search engine results when you did your first search and click on a few example and see what they are selling or else go to your affiliate network and see what the top sellers are in that category.
The advantage to popular markets and products is obvious - there is a huge potential customer base. Another up-side is that your keywords will be simple.
The down-side is that those keywords will be fiercely competitive and very expensive if you are considering PPC advertising. But your biggest problem may lie in getting yourself noticed - this is not a problem if you intend to promote the product on your site or blog and you have a good customer base. The problem occurs when you try to promote via PPC or through SERPs.
Niche Products
This is the other side to the affiliate marketing coin. Sales will be smaller and keyword research more arduous and time-consuming but if you get it right you can run very prosperous PPC campaigns or find yourself with high SERPs in no time at all.
In this method you need to weed out very select markets such as building a chicken coop, puppy crate training or specific medical conditions. There is software to help you with this but it can be expensive. An easy method is to rely on your hobbies, or listen to friends and see if you can draw any inspiration.
Once you think you have a niche market, you should research it as per the popular market example. Make sure there is sufficient interest but not market saturation. You will need to find a decent product to promote - this should be easy enough, there is huge variety available these days and if not you can always create your own!
If you decide on a PPC campaign you will have to look for what is known as long-tail keyword phrases. These are simply a string of 3-4 words such as "build a chicken coop". You will need to make sure there are enough monthly searches to facilitate a campaign but ideally you are looking for low competition and low CPC.
The reason for this is that you want to keep your costs low as you probably won't make as many sales with niche targeting so you want to maximise your profit from every sale.
This method can be very profitable but you will need to run numerous projects at the same time. You may need 5 of these niche projects to match one popular market product. The advantage here is that you have a greater chance of success selling niche products if your get it right.
The disadvantage is the added research, extra work and hit and miss consistency of niche marketing, however, if you do it right you can stumble onto a potential affiliate marketing goldmine.
This technique is probably the best option for anyone breaking into affiliate marketing and trying to earn cash online that doesn't already have a website with a large audience or a massive budget to compete in the popular keyword PPC market.
more info :-http://ezinearticles.com/?Affiliate-Marketing---Popular-Markets-Or-Niche-Products?&id=4070273
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The BEST Article Marketing Niches Revealed (No Keyword Tools Necessary!)
What are the BEST article marketing niches? Are you an affiliate marketer who is looking for an easy way to get more traffic, make more sales and simply OWN more eyeballs altogether? Are you frustrated with your niche market success so far...or simply struggling to see how you will EVER turn your online marketing business into something that makes real money?
If you said yes to any of the above...the simple truth is, you are NOT alone.
Honestly? Most people reading this right now will NEVER (ever) make $1000 online for ALL of their hopes, dreams and aspirations, and the fact is, if you're smart...you should eventually be able to make that in a day.
So WHAT are the best article marketing niches for massive traffic and easy sales as well?
My favorites? The 3 D's. Diet. Dating. And Divorce. If it BLEEDS it leads...and the pain markets are almost always the ones that have the most traffic...and equally as importantly, the most engaged and active audience who WILL take action on your offer.
STOP thinking micro niches...
You want to drink from the FIRE HOSE and not from the faucet. Competition is your FRIEND and any serious marketing mind knows you want to go where other people are HAVING success already. (not avoiding it like most) You can literally begin a genuinely profitable article marketing enterprise from HOME...starting right now, and you don't need to buy a single keyword tool to do it.
more info :-http://ezinearticles.com/?The-BEST-Article-Marketing-Niches-Revealed-%28No-Keyword-Tools-Necessary!%29&id=4145931
If you said yes to any of the above...the simple truth is, you are NOT alone.
Honestly? Most people reading this right now will NEVER (ever) make $1000 online for ALL of their hopes, dreams and aspirations, and the fact is, if you're smart...you should eventually be able to make that in a day.
So WHAT are the best article marketing niches for massive traffic and easy sales as well?
My favorites? The 3 D's. Diet. Dating. And Divorce. If it BLEEDS it leads...and the pain markets are almost always the ones that have the most traffic...and equally as importantly, the most engaged and active audience who WILL take action on your offer.
STOP thinking micro niches...
You want to drink from the FIRE HOSE and not from the faucet. Competition is your FRIEND and any serious marketing mind knows you want to go where other people are HAVING success already. (not avoiding it like most) You can literally begin a genuinely profitable article marketing enterprise from HOME...starting right now, and you don't need to buy a single keyword tool to do it.
more info :-http://ezinearticles.com/?The-BEST-Article-Marketing-Niches-Revealed-%28No-Keyword-Tools-Necessary!%29&id=4145931
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Earn Money on The Internet With Micro Niche Finder
Possibilities of earning money on Internet with Micro Niche Finder are countless. Today I like to discuss just one of many possibilities of Micro Niche Finder but first a quick overview of what is Micro Niche Finder.
Micro Niche Finder is a paid tool to determine profitable keywords that would Earn Money on Internet. It pulls it's data from the Free Google AdWord tool, which is the most accurate searched based data tool available in the market.Micro Niche Finder would pull exactly same data from Google AdWord data source each time you type a provable keyword and hit find at Micro Niche Finder.
Addition to AdwWords Tool data, this tool will bring you some additional data for keywords in a short time. These data can be achieved manually by carrying out an extensive research online which painstakingly tedious and time consuming. But you must get these data to determine whether your targeted keywords would be profitable or not.
In addition to AdWords tool data MNF will give you domain name availability data on your keyword with search engine friendly extensions. Classify the competition in the market for your keywords, rating low competitive, moderately competitive and highly competitive. It also gives you measure commercial intention and the measure of backlinks needed to rank in search engine for your keyword. These three results gives you immediate impression about your keywords profitability within short time. Without spending countless hours with painstaking tedious research you can determine whether your targeted keyword would be profitable or not.
Other than optimizing your websites with the keywords uncovered by MNF there are so many ways to earn money on internet with Micro Niche Finder. Here is one way how you can earn money on Internet. Uncover a keyword which is fairly high searched, commercially viable and domain extension.com is available. Register the domain name. You can do that with GoDaddy, Namecheap or Name.com does not matter. Now go to your web browser and type "domain name brokers". Research some of the Brokerage companies terms and pick up one which suits you. Submit your newly registered domain name for sale. You can make considerable amount of money this way within short time. There are many marketers earn money on Internet this way.
more info :-http://ezinearticles.com/?Earn-Money-on-The-Internet-With-Micro-Niche-Finder&id=3950490
Micro Niche Finder is a paid tool to determine profitable keywords that would Earn Money on Internet. It pulls it's data from the Free Google AdWord tool, which is the most accurate searched based data tool available in the market.Micro Niche Finder would pull exactly same data from Google AdWord data source each time you type a provable keyword and hit find at Micro Niche Finder.
Addition to AdwWords Tool data, this tool will bring you some additional data for keywords in a short time. These data can be achieved manually by carrying out an extensive research online which painstakingly tedious and time consuming. But you must get these data to determine whether your targeted keywords would be profitable or not.
In addition to AdWords tool data MNF will give you domain name availability data on your keyword with search engine friendly extensions. Classify the competition in the market for your keywords, rating low competitive, moderately competitive and highly competitive. It also gives you measure commercial intention and the measure of backlinks needed to rank in search engine for your keyword. These three results gives you immediate impression about your keywords profitability within short time. Without spending countless hours with painstaking tedious research you can determine whether your targeted keyword would be profitable or not.
Other than optimizing your websites with the keywords uncovered by MNF there are so many ways to earn money on internet with Micro Niche Finder. Here is one way how you can earn money on Internet. Uncover a keyword which is fairly high searched, commercially viable and domain extension.com is available. Register the domain name. You can do that with GoDaddy, Namecheap or Name.com does not matter. Now go to your web browser and type "domain name brokers". Research some of the Brokerage companies terms and pick up one which suits you. Submit your newly registered domain name for sale. You can make considerable amount of money this way within short time. There are many marketers earn money on Internet this way.
more info :-http://ezinearticles.com/?Earn-Money-on-The-Internet-With-Micro-Niche-Finder&id=3950490
Monday, April 19, 2010
Why Internet Marketing is the Most Profitable Niche
When somebody wants to start an online business, he has to begin with deciding which niche to choose. There are many and it is difficult to select one because the niches which are more profitable have more competition and the niches which have less competition are less profitable.
But Internet Marketing is a niche where you will still find a lot of possibilities and it is the most profitable niche ever known to man. Following are the reasons why it is the niche you must select for your online business if you really want to make real money.
1. People's biggest natural need is to make money and it is a universal need. As a general observation there are more people looking for ways to make money than people looking for ways to reduce their weight or to cure their acne or to train their dogs.
2. As far as internet marketing is concerned, people search about it on the internet itself. Think about it. People who want to reduce weight would probably go to a doctor or a gym. Internet would not be a primary platform for him to get his definite results. You get the point.
3. A serious internet marketer who is your potential buyer considers buying as an investment- something which will help him make money. They know that if they do not invest the money in their business, they will not make money. This psychology definitely helps you make far more sales.
4. There are hundreds of thousands of internet marketers who are already making money. So they do not hesitate to spend. It is the basic psychology that those who have money are more likely to spend it. A person who thinks twice before buying will not be a good customer of yours. Most of the internet marketers are making a significant amount of money with relatively less sweat. They are much more likely to buy.
5. This is a very important point that most of the internet marketers have already made up there mind to buy a certain product or service. They are just looking for the best product or service to buy. This simply means you have to present to him an unbiased description of the product and how your potential buyer will benefit from it. Since he is in a buying mode, it will not take much effort to convert him.
Now you know why internet marketing is the best niche to choose if you really want to make good amount of money. The best part is that it is a vast field and there are several sub-niches which you can explore to find out those with less competition.
more info :-http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Internet-Marketing-is-the-Most-Profitable-Niche&id=3650211
But Internet Marketing is a niche where you will still find a lot of possibilities and it is the most profitable niche ever known to man. Following are the reasons why it is the niche you must select for your online business if you really want to make real money.
1. People's biggest natural need is to make money and it is a universal need. As a general observation there are more people looking for ways to make money than people looking for ways to reduce their weight or to cure their acne or to train their dogs.
2. As far as internet marketing is concerned, people search about it on the internet itself. Think about it. People who want to reduce weight would probably go to a doctor or a gym. Internet would not be a primary platform for him to get his definite results. You get the point.
3. A serious internet marketer who is your potential buyer considers buying as an investment- something which will help him make money. They know that if they do not invest the money in their business, they will not make money. This psychology definitely helps you make far more sales.
4. There are hundreds of thousands of internet marketers who are already making money. So they do not hesitate to spend. It is the basic psychology that those who have money are more likely to spend it. A person who thinks twice before buying will not be a good customer of yours. Most of the internet marketers are making a significant amount of money with relatively less sweat. They are much more likely to buy.
5. This is a very important point that most of the internet marketers have already made up there mind to buy a certain product or service. They are just looking for the best product or service to buy. This simply means you have to present to him an unbiased description of the product and how your potential buyer will benefit from it. Since he is in a buying mode, it will not take much effort to convert him.
Now you know why internet marketing is the best niche to choose if you really want to make good amount of money. The best part is that it is a vast field and there are several sub-niches which you can explore to find out those with less competition.
more info :-http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Internet-Marketing-is-the-Most-Profitable-Niche&id=3650211
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