Lesson 9 - more clarification on getting potential buyers & updates

First an update:

Okay this is what I'm up to at the moment, when I go a bit quiet it is usually because I'm up to something, now in order to create my CD product and make it as I want, I've been reading a refresher on setting up article marketing websites - the free report I've been reading for that refresher is here: Content Cash Secrets

I'm going to combine this way of organizing articles with Russell Brunsons method of CD creation and using the two together should give me a whole bunch of items I can use to create various items for this niche.

Talking of which - I had a look at the niche through the eyes of Dean James method - and the difference between the healthy coffee niche and the coffee niche is quite stark - you could view it as an obstacle or a challenge - I'm taking on the challenge - it looks that even the spammers can't get a handle on this market at the moment - it's the word "health" or "Healthy" that causes the headache I guess because as some might say healthy implies health benefits - which gets the food and drugs people itchy. Where as it could be defined as healthy as in a "Healthy Appetite" as in you like lots of something - I will have to do some further thinking on this.

I've had a look on eBay again and in the food and drink section under coffee, there do seem to be some coffee sachets for sale in UK, but looking at eBay rules it says selling "food" is "Questionable" due to FDA rules and the sale of wild mushrooms is banned.

So I'm wondering how coffee and tea is sold, does it come under a "herbal" label ?

Ganoderma are a form of "wild" mushroom - but grown in a controlled environment, that farms them like a crop - this vagueness - combined with some issues with communication I'm having with the suppliers is making me seriously think of opening a subscriber based "coffee club" where I get a range of coffee products in, as they become available that might be the way for me to go to make the most of this niche.

Now with people just selling one product, people based in the USA, it seems there are much better established supplier links for the whole Ganoderma niche.

If you are an American you could maybe view the UK as a "State" that has alot of trouble getting things in to it - however there is still a multi-billion dollar industry in Internet sales and people here to catch on to American trends, so seeing as I'm in this State I am working on getting a system going - but it may have to be created differently than if I was doing it in the States.

Getting people to your website

Like I said - or tried to say, if I was in the USA, I'd be out delivering leaflets to mail boxes, getting business cards done and direct selling via eBay and my website - off-line marketing and on-line as the American product has a regular supply chain / logistics in the USA - where as the supply chain/rules aren't clear enough here in UK yet to do off-line promotion - I can only dip my toe - until a bigger fish can set a standard - as I'm not even sure the packaging is legal in this country - there are no company blogs or websites to clarify anything.

On-line Promotion
Promotion involves joining lots of coffee related groups that allow exchanges of business and getting the word out, that is what many dedicated niche people do, some combine it with adwords campaigns others do article marketing (the route I am looking into).

The reason I'm going into the article marketing route of generating sales, is because writing some articles of my own - is - a way to generating original content that can be used in other places.

There are no short cuts to generating sales on-line - Internet Marketing is providing the directions to the checkout and the reasons why they want the product in the first place - once the customer gets to your shop (website/blog) it's down to the shop to deal with the sale - if you are an Internet marketer rather than solely an Affiliate, it is likely you will use a splash page / landing page on your own website to capture people's emails - before - they use the link to the product you affiliate with, as a person that is interested in coffee is maybe interested in other coffee related items.

If you aren't getting sales it's because the customer isn't seeing their need to buy the product - or they don't understand the directions to get to the checkout.

Now Ganobrand has clear instructions on the website about how much the coffee costs to buy and how it's delivered - both those things are vital for a customer to know, so the affiliate part of the coffee buying process is there, waiting.

So the challenge for the Coffee Affiliate is - How do I drive traffic to this page ?

That is where the real work comes in - I've said in lesson 8 - people find products on-line by going to a search engine (in most cases) - and most people go to google - so if you want to get sales fastest you use the search engine that most people go to.

The way to get an affiliate link traffic in google is either to advertise it in google via a paid submission (adwords) or to make your own website and redirect people to your affiliate url from there.

If you do your own website, filled with content, you try and get it in the first page of googles search engine results page (as most people go to a result on the first page) - getting on the first page - this is done by making sure your HTML is correct and readable by google's robot AND your content is readable by people too! - you have to make sure your website is actually in google via submitting it first of course!.

The other main method is "word of mouth" meaning in this case - people finding out about your product via social networking, forums, chatrooms and other methods of social interaction, personal branding Niche marketers use this method - and do the search engines too.

The other well known method is by paying or swapping links to have your banner/advertisement shown on another Webmaster's network/website/blog - an example of this could be either free banner exchanges, link swaps or getting your advert on facebook, yuwie or MSN by paying for it - i.e you are not paying to show up in the search engines with this - you are paying for exposure of your brand on someone else's network and clicks through's - some allow affiliate banners some expect you to have your own website/blog.

What ever method you choose to get traffic - the common theme is you have to do the traffic generation yourself - i.e join the groups, and introduce your product, or open an account with adwords and figure out how to use it - unless you can afford to pay to have someone do it for you.

Webmasters help each other out (for free or lower cost) my allowing link swaps, blog roll additions etc. they are much more likely to add you if you have your own website or blog rather than an affiliate link.

So to sum up - if your aren't doing any of the methods above, it is unlikely you are getting the results you want. Action, exposure to others with your link and targeted visitors.

Exposure Big Time
Note: Coffee is very popular healthy coffee is much less well known - Nestle in the Philippines sell a brand of ganoderma coffee in supermarkets, they don't in UK, I've wondered what the impact would be of it being available like chamomile tea is or like the flavored coffees.

I'm coming to the conclusion that maybe to give this industry a boost - and make "healthy coffee" a more accepted part of the coffee community - a large commercial player might not do any harm to the healthy coffee industry.

As this publicity would bring this type of coffee to the mainstream consumer - we affiliates sell a "Gourmet" version so the impact wouldn't dent profits - as if you think about it you can buy supermarket brand coffee already and that hasn't stopped people buying branded coffee or people wanting to try different brands / flavors of coffee.

Once this kind of coffee has been brought to the mainstream it will have a "legal blueprint" in place for the country concerned - this will make it easier for suppliers to regulate the type of packaging allowed, terminology etc.

===============================
So, my plan is to continue to look at coffee and ganoderma coffee as a niche, but also look at coffee related items I can actually sell on eBay with no problems.

LOGISTICS - again if they are not clearly laid out simply for people people won't buy regularly - me included!

They are more clearly laid out in the USA - but so far I am still not satisfied with UK end of it all. I have opened up the option for people to purchase via links, the affiliate programs coffee shops are currently still the best value, clearly laid out - where as the network marketing programs still need better written English instructions, as the marketing directions are not clear to me.