VGsportsinc.com
| Owner: | Bert Ingley |
| Launched: | October 2001 |
| Revenue: | $187,000 in 2003, expected to double this year |
| Target Market: | Serious sports video gamers aged 14 to 40 |
| Product/Services Offered: | Sports video game strategy eBooks and memberships to password-protected gaming forums |
Strategies You Can Apply to Your Business:
Target a focused niche market with a strong Internet presence:
When Bert started out, he knew he wanted to write video game strategy guides, but he wanted his products to appeal to a select group of people who were easy to reach. So he decided to focus only on people who played Madden NFL Football -- and not all players of that particular game, but serious gamers only. This targeted approach made it easy for him to track down his potential customers in gaming forums and target his marketing specifically to them. As the popularity of his product grew, he began to write more strategy guides for other sports video games as well.
According to Bert, it's important to make your niche as focused as possible, while still ensuring that it has a large enough buying population to support your business. The more focused you make your niche, the easier it'll be to reach the people who are most interested in your product.
Automate your site as much possible:
Bert has automated his site as much as he can, and is currently in the process of automating his tech support service as well. He says that automating his site has saved him countless hours and allowed him to devote more time growing his business instead of running it. And if he takes the occasional vacation, the business keeps on running without him!
Keep on top of your search engine listings:
Bert gets a lot of his traffic through the search engines and knows how important it is to maintain a high ranking. He subscribes to the Search Engine News newsletter to stay informed of the latest developments in the industry and learn new strategies for keeping his sites in their top spots in the search engine results. He also makes a point of regularly updating his keyword lists and checking his sites to make sure his keywords are optimally placed in his copy and source code.
Cross-link with other popular sites:
Bert has built a community of cross-linked fan sites, each of which focuses on one of his products and drive a lot of traffic to his main sales site. Not only is cross-linking a great way to boost the number of visitors a site gets, it's also a good way to ensure a site gets a high ranking with the search engines. Many of the main search engines factor "link popularity" into a site's ranking, so the more relevant and popular sites you can get to link to yours, the higher your site will be listed in the search results.
Build your own discussion forum:
Bert's free forum site is a valuable part of his marketing strategy. As he says, the forums "legitimize" his business and reassure new visitors about the quality of the products he sells. Because his forum site focuses on a hot topic (sports video games), a lot of new visitors come to the forums without even being aware that VG Sports offers products for sale. However, many of these visitors become customers within a few weeks of hanging out on the forums!
Give your employees a sense of ownership:
Bert's employees all work on commission, so their incomes are tied to the fortune of the company. If sales double, they make twice as much money! Because they earn a portion of each sale, they're fully committed to putting out the best products possible. Everyone wants the company to do well and is always looking for better ways to market their products.
If you're not currently marketing your business with e-mail, you're missing out...
Contrary to the belief that spam has ruined its effectiveness, e-mail marketing is absolutely still one of the most profitable Internet marketing tools at your disposal.
According to DoubleClick's 2005 consumer e-mail study, one third of consumers have made an immediate purchase as the result of an e-mail, and 33% have clicked through to get more information, then returned later to purchase online.
Obviously, there's no question that e-mail marketing is effective when your e-mails are delivered. But what if your e-mail is being accidentally filtered as "spam"?
According to Jupiter Research, 4 out of 10 Internet marketers report that e-mail deliverability is their greatest challenge. It's also been estimated that as much as 20 percent of permission-based e-mail messages are mistakenly blocked.
The good news is that there are proven methods for instantly improving your e-mail deliverability:
These three tips can drastically increase your e-mail deliverability rate... so don't wait to make these simple changes to your e-mail marketing campaigns!
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Use Keywords In The Name of Your Home Business Website
If you're hoping to be close to the top in the search results (the so-called organic SEO),
having your keywords in the name of your website gives you a huge boost.
Once the user comes to your site the name just needs to be memorable enough so they type
it in to get there the next time. Or they may forget and Google you again. I do it every
day. No matter how great your name is, if the content is lousy they won't come back anyway.
So should you buy a domain name? I don't know - I bought this one.
I would try to come up with my own name before I bought someone else's. Hëre are some tips:
1. Try to go with a .com. It's the name everyone associates with the Internet. Any other
Top Level Domain (TLD) like .org or .net is just going to confuse people, unless it
sounds better than the .com. For example, if you are about networking or a network,
a .net is more natural. If your site is informational, you should use .info if it
sounds okay. One of my favorite $10 domains is seosecrets.info. I think it sounds good.
Hands down the most ingenious use of a TLD is del.icio.us, the social bookmarking site.
The use of the .us TLD is absolutely brilliant.
2. Leave out the dashes and meaningless numbers. If it's a choice between this-domain.com,
thisdomain123.com and thisdomain.net, take the .net. No one remembers to put the dashes
or the numbers in, unless they are an integral part of the name like studio54.com.
3. Use the fewest letters possible to describe what you do. Remember, every additional
letter is a potential typing errör.
4. If you have a domain name that needs to be reinforced, get a good logo and sprinkle
it liberally on your web site, along with some slogan that will reinforce the name in
people's minds. You would be surprised at how inexpensive this can be.
5. If you can save a few bucks with your own domain name or by buying a cheaper domain
name, do it, and use the monëy to get yourself placed higher in the search results or
Adsense placement.
6. If you can't come up with a descriptive domain name, go the other way. Depending
on your site's focus, pick a memorable short name that will stick in people's minds,
get a great logo and include the name prominently in your advertising and marketing.
It's called branding, and it's tried and true.
7. Ask your wïfe, friend, boyfriend, husband, dog, lawyer, associate, Mom, Dad,
cousin, uncle, blog writer. They're smarter than you anyway, and they are going
to be the one looking for the site, not you. Some of my best ideas have come just brainstorming.
Can't get started? - Go to a site that sells domain names, and put in a word that
describes your business. See if the name is taken (it probably will be). Open your
word processor or go to thesaurus.com and put the word in. Get a few more words.
Check those. If there's a .com available and it looks good, grab it. If not,
add the word site or blog or online to your word, and see if that works. Don't wait.
If you think it might be useable, spend the $9.00. Just chisel loose the nine bucks
(or less) and buy the domain.
You might try who we use for our domain name and hosting, just go to our home page
and scroll to the bottom where it says: Powered by Bravenet and simply click on that.
Bravenet.com