July 9th Clock Is Ticking On Sharing My Beach Wedding Niche

Web 2.0 Properties

Not being able to type and "produce" beach wedding planning materials well right now due to my recent accident (and with no staff or outsourcers), I started drawing the ring of properties for my keyword phrases, then an outer ring. For variety, avoiding concentrations and utilizing new properties, I discovered some great new ones (for me) in the PDF's Howie Schwartz has made available recently. So I visited & explored them (one-handed clicks) to be ready to leap forward as I'm able. Howie's material makes all the difference!

Diversification

Diversification of properties is important, as is quick action that doesn't result in a magnum opus on a given social site you don't control. I learned the hard way.

Most of my (limited) productive energy since the accident has been consumed answering the "Squidoo Slap." I previously helped others build over 40 detailed lenses with the old SEO guidelines of getting in as many anchor text links as possible to different articles, products, pages on your main site (deep linking, which is still very important) - so it bleeds page rank here (and more than a couple of links to the same URL is apparently wasted).

More importantly, Squidoo announced a new policy limiting links to a single URL to only 9 per lens ... and these long, very instructive, public service lenses we created previously have many more links built in naturally as helpful references - NOT salesy or spammy. (I call them public service because the content is comprehensive and valuable - and links are many solely because of the sheer volume of content... not the way, apparently, to use a free site where rules may change on a whim!)

Lesson here?

• Use Web 2.0 properties as Howie teaches, tightly focused, quick. They drive the audience to what they specifically want, but should something happen to a property, your business is not damaged. "Next...?"

• Don't build a "website" on a property you don't control, or you may either lose it or be forced at the worst possible time to abandon profitable production to make corrections and engage in "damage control" - as I am in the midst of doing with severe injuries and only a few days left before lenses could be frozen... but I am committed to others!

Other Accomplishments Here?

• Commented on Howie's blog.
• Have email address dedicated to this niche.
• Set up this blog and linked it to IM Remarkable - http://www.imremarkable.com
• Twittered #imremarkable
• Friended @therealHowieSchwartz on Twitter
  
• Put more beach wedding Images on Flickr ready to use in new Animoto
  
• Created CJ account and have a couple of wedding product affiliate sites approved
• Will promote Howie's beach wedding planning ebook
  
• 2 new Beach Wedding Article drafts
• Have Aweber account to use when I create my "real" beach wedding blog / site and have planned the "carrot" for visitors to subscribe.
• Have a very good feel for what my visitors will want in terms of planning a beach wedding.
  

Steps In Refining The Beach Wedding Planning Niche

I know something about the beach wedding niche, but I addressed it from scratch - to find out what the market wants now, what keywords people are using in their searches, and what are the specific "long tail" phrases they use in their searches.

Keyword Research

I used these tools / approaches and more:

• Google Suggest to find related keyword phrases, then "more options" to search...
• Google Wonderwheel for fine-tuning related searches, and
• Google images to see what Google considers hot,
• Google product search,
• Videos that ranked.

Then I drilled down further...
I used tools such as Google Keyword Tool External and Google trends. I compared several different keywords, geographical concentrations, emerging keywords...

Commercial Viability

I explored the competition to test commercial viability of selected keyword phrases, starting with page 1 Google. What and how many were the sponsored ads for the keyword search? The Adwords ads?

What search terms attract mere browsers, and which draw an audience that is ready to buy?

What products are being promoted in this niche? How profitable? Do they satisfy market demands? Can I be an affiliate? How difficult would it be to create my own product?

Top Performing Sites

Why did Google give page 1 status to the sites appearing there? Who are the celebrities in the market? Why?

I used SpyFu to discover their top keywords, studied their ads and listings, and explored them in greater depth on Alexa and Quantcast. i plugged a couple of them into the Google tool.

Competition

Without endurance to go into depth reporting, suffice it to say that within acceptable bounds of numbers of searches, I ceased being concerned with competition as a possible deterrent.

What is "acceptable" in terms of competing pages? That depends...

• Who us the competition? Entrenched authority sites? How many positions?
• What's the real competition in "exact match?"
  
• Are they using web 2.0 properties? Is there a void to be filled?
• What web 2.o properties are ranking for this niche? Can I get page 1 rankings that way?
• What do advanced search operators such as "intitle" and "inanchor" show about mt key search terms?
  

I don't know that I am supposed to give my final lists here, but that's a major part of the process I followed as I was able to sit up.

Other Market Research

What are the current conversations in the market? I cannot now list all I tried to journal in scribbling sideways on a bed, but some asoects of mr inquiry included:

• Google Blogsearch
• EzineArticles and IdeaMarketers
• Google News
• YouTube videos
  

Bottom Line

The keyword phrases surrounding beach wedding planning met the criteria and complemented my on-going work with other beach wedding related terms. So I would not be abandoning my prior work, but rather, enhancing it and rounding out mt beach wedding presence further.

Future Planning?

I would like to improve skills and develop new skills in terms of testing the market to know what they really want (polling and PPC) and develop products to satisfy that. I want to design a profuct funnel and on-going relationship with me customers... Relationship, not just transaction.

Beach Wedding Planning Rides The Crest Of The Wave

Selecting "Beach Wedding Planning" - The Start

Howie Schwartz's IMRemarkable Challenge starts with a free video about how to select a profitable niche. With it he gives away an incredible free eBook in which he not only demonstrates how he finds the hot topics and keywords for which people are searching, but also shares 36 great niches now. Beach weddings were among them.

Having recently had a bad accident which crushed my elbow, severely damaged ligaments from my hand and wrist to shoulder, and shocked my whole body with severe blows, concussion and more (hey, when your head even bounces off the floor three times from the impact...). Well, I was not in a position to produce anything!

But then, Howie Schwartz is the best ever. So I didn't want to miss out on the planning and learning during moments of relative strength. So as possible and "moments" permit, I've followed what was transpiring, done my own research, and sought to learn from others. (I am especially impresses with our contributor at http://mybeachweddinginvitations.com.)

With typing very hard, my eliptical notes were handwritten and sketchy, but here are some bullet points of the early stages. Just realize that this will be an on-going process, with real production to follow over time... And along the way, please forgive typos, as one-handed pecking is quite new!

Beach Weddings Rose Above What?

Howie's 36 niches are intriguing. Among them are some that fit corporate focuses where I will be helping people. Some I hadn't considered before, but Id love to enter. Then several are niches in which I am already involved to some extent.

So the decision factors? There is no right or wrong answer. Each has its place. But what made me select "beach wedding planning" or "planning a beach wedding?"

• For success, we must focus in seriously on one niche at a time (unless you have significant back-up staff or outsourcers). So will I divert all current energies to the next "shiny object" that piques my fancy? Or will I go deeper into another keyword set of a market where I am already building a presence? I chose the latter. I am involved with beach weddings, especially beach wedding dresses, beach wedding ideas.
  

• Is this going to be a "quick hit" to make a splash then move on? Or is this exercise intended not only for learning, but to add to the foundation of something sustainable? I chose the latter. Beach weddings are with us - and growing with popularity given the economic climate and their lower cost for higher impact and enjoyment.
  

• Is this all about a commercial enterprise? Or is this to be truly real for me, a "profitable passion" upon which I can build over time, while bringing ever more value to the marketplace? I chose the joy of working in my passion - weddings, and in particular, beach weddings. (Now just wait until I am physivally able to produce all that's in my head!)