Sunday, November 23, 2008

Why Is the People Search Niche So Hot?

By Samantha Carterson

To find out right away why the people search industry is such a hot niche, go to Google and Yahoo, the two largest search engines on the web today, and enter "people search" in the search box. You'll get results in the millions. This niche is a hot trend, and it's one that is predicted to continue for a long, long time. Why? For one thing, it's fast and easy. Faster than looking something up in your local phone book -- and who uses those anymore anyway? And it's way easier. Plus I think internet users are just curious as well, and they know the information they are looking for is only a click away.

There's more than one way to get started in the people search business. You could set up your own website, of course, but you'd still have to develop your database with all the names, addresses, and phone numbers of people. And that could certainly take a lot of time, plus it would probably be extremely expensive to do. A more practical approach would be for you to join someone else's program. Many of the people search sites do have affiliate programs, and this is probably the easiest route to take.

It's really easy to start with an affiliate program. But how do you choose a good program? It is essential that it include a good training program, and the training should be easily accessible right there in the member's area of the site. The program should have easy setup instructions. And the website should be easy to navigate.

The next thing you need to do is plan your marketing campaign. It does not need to cost a lot of money. There are lots of ways to market -- here are a few of them.

Article marketing takes time to develop, but it's effective and it's also free to do. There are thousands of article sites and directories where you can submit your articles. But why do it at all? Well, the reasons are many first of all, some of the article sites are very attractive to the major search engines like Google and Yahoo, so your article can appear there very quickly, sometimes in a matter of days. Plus, many of the services allow others to use your articles as long as they credit your name and copy it exactly, including all your links. This can result in you getting many, many back-links, just what you need to drive traffic to your site.

Posting ads on free ad forums is another marketing method, at least for those who have the time to do it. It can be effective but it does require a lot of discipline to keep reposting ads all the time. And your ads won't stay on page one very long, so you definitely have to keep reposting them. But it is free to do.

Forums generally will not allow you to post advertising messages, unless it just happens to be an advertising forum. It's a great way to network with others, though, and you're usually allowed to post your link in your forum signature. And always, always, read the forum rules before you post anything.

The best known, and most lucrative, of paid advertising is sponsored ads on the two giants -- Google and Yahoo. But if you are new at internet marketing, be careful and go slow. You can lose your shirt doing pay-per-click. If you are brand new at internet marketing, my advice is to enroll in some free e-marketing courses. But for right now concentrate on free or low-cost advertising until you learn the ropes a bit more.

Do not waste your money on buying traffic. Many of the sites that sell traffic are outright scams whose only purpose is to separate you from your money. A real person will not visit your website; these sites use computer autobots to generate the traffic. Keep your money in your pocket.

The hardest part about any online business is just getting started. I hope my suggestions have given you the motivation to do just that.

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