About.Me is this week’s Website of the Week. About.me is a custom profile and personal analytics dashboard. You sign up to quickly build your personal profile page that points users to your content from around the web

If you have a website that is regularly updated, whether it be with new product information or events or even using a blog then looking into RSS feeds is important. This will let you stay connected to visitors to the site because they can choose to have all future updates sent directly through to their program or browser. Consumers will not be expected to remember to visit again later, and all of your new information is delivered to targeted readers.

It might seem difficult at first but if you’re using some of the pre-designed blog websites they often have the option built in. It’s worth checking for this because it’s very handy for your customers to get information as soon as it’s listed.

One of the easiest ways to add an RSS feed to your website is to look at third parties who have options available or list instructions. The RSS feeder website suggests it may take you only a few minutes to add a feature that could connect you to consumers with real interest in your brand.

RSS basically stands for really simple syndication which is fairly self explanatory. Generally those who subscribe to your RSS feed will receive in their browser or program a title and first paragraph from the new information. If you post to blogs this means people can choose to click through based on what it seems the content includes and every single post is delivered. Other programs allow users to view the full details of every update meaning they don’t need to come to the website to get your information – this is a great way for consumers to stay in touch and gives you individual contact with many users.

Adding an RSS feed to your website makes total sense as it is a very simple set up and once arranged you are able to fire off feeds to numerous consumers.

Article Marketing Resources

Articles can be a useful source of extra traffic to your website. The first and most obvious results will be traffic from incoming links from article directories. There will also be some traffic from those sites have reprinted your article because of the bio or “resource” box you include which has a link back to your website.

The article marketing process can be boiled
down to just a few key points:

• Write your article
  (and “resource box”)
• Distribute your article
• Link to your article

EzineArticles and my EzineArticles bio.

Go Articles

ArticleDashboard

ArticleAlley

Isnare

Example of one of my Resource boxes: ” Grab your free onlinemarketing ezine which explains how to DIY your websiteoptimization with my compliments ”

Articleghostwriting services also check out Elance.

Automated article distribution to bloggers and to Article directories.

Google Alerts should be a key part of monitoring the success of your search engine optimization. It’s very simple to set up and gives you important real time information about your website.

Cool Reason # 1

Tracking Backlinks Google Alerts enables you to track whenever a backlink is connected to your website. By using this method as soon as your site gets a new backlink you’ll be informed. The solution is at http://www.google.com/alerts Go to that URL and enter this Search Term: link:www.yourdomain.com Type: Web How often: as it happens Deliver to: Now as soon as your site gets a new backlink Google will send you email to let you know.

Cool Reason # 2

Finding Out When Your Web pages Are Indexed. You can use Google Alerts to discover when new pages from your website are indexed. This time you use the search term site:www.yourdomain.com

Cool Reason # 3

Discovering Where Your Competitors Get Their Backlinks From A smidge sneaky but you can use Cool Reason # 1 to track your competitor’s backlinks. Everytime their site gets a new backlink you’ll receive a notification from Google. This means that you can monitor their linkbuilding campaigns. You can then also get your backlinks from the same sites.

In today’s interview series, we talk with Liza O’Donnell with Dress Ups

My name is Liza O’Donnell.  I am the mother to 2 fantastic little boys, Max (6yrs) and Paddy (4yrs), and wife to the Ramollescence Ryan.  I adore being a part of my wee family …so much so that I couldn’t bear to go out to work … so I bought work to us!

Dress Ups epitomizes innocence and all the lovely sweet and grand things of being a child.  In case you don’t know who we are (Shame!) Dress Ups is a niche, online children’s boutique, retailing wholesome and handcrafted children’s dressing up costumes.  Dress ups do not even attempt to compete with the large, mass produced costume companies and our customers are always very happy to find us.

“Dress Ups, Dress Ups, and Make Believe…  Take me to the place where I can dream.  Take me to this place where young minds are the pot of gold, and play our never-ending rainbow!”

Why did you start selling online ?

Because we couldn’t keep Dress Ups a secret …we just had to share with the world!

What has been your biggest online marketing challenge?

In one word …budget!  Advertising is very expensive.

What do you like best about your website?

Our products … and our images … and all our little quotes are real!

Your top online marketing tip?

If you are on a budget … social marketing.  It is time consuming but free.  You must be very disciplined, though.  It is not too much about being personal and it is not all a sales pitch either.

I like blog advertising as well … it is generally priced well and fits into that slightly more personal category that sets Dress Ups apart.

In today’s interview we catch up with Victoria Dixon of Enhance Me

My name is Victoria Dixon and I live in the beautiful Orkney Islands. I have two young children. Milly who is 5 years old and Robbie who is 2 years old. I offer a range of personalized Magical portraits that make a very unique keepsake or a wonderful gift. Having had over ten years experience using a variety of different computer programs and effects I am able to take everyday photos and transform them into fantastic, enchanting works of art. I am providing a unique and beautiful way to add something completely different to a photograph. I am able to add a little bit of magic to make a beautiful personal gift for a friend or family member. I work to achieve an as photo realistic effect as possible – Sometimes photographs just don’t capture the magic you feel they should. I just pulled a lot of my skills together – web design, creativity and photography and www.enhance-me.com was born.

Why did you start selling online?

For me being able to sell online was the most cost effective way of running my business. I have a worldwide customer base…many opportunities to be able to market my products and services and a huge network of like minded business contacts right at my fingertips!

What has been your biggest online marketing challenge?

My biggest online marketing challenge would have to be SEO and tying this in with promoting my services to potential buyers. It’s tricky to get it right and make sure I have the correct keywords and information. Keeping track of competitors and making sure I stay high in the search listings can become quite time consuming.

What do you like best about your website?

I am easily bored with my website – I want to keep changing it – making it fresh. When I first launched ‘Enhance-Me’ my website was far too busy – way too much information packed into each page which I feel can be quite off putting for some people so I always aim to keep my website simple and clear. I like that I have the knowledge and am equipped with a husband who is a web designer to make any changes I feel are necessary to keep my website ‘current and up to date’ I get really lovely feedback from my customers who say my website is easy to navigate and clear though I am feeling that it is time for a change!

Your top online marketing tip?

Social media is a great way to market a business online. I use it in a number of ways and find that it has been invaluable for my business. It’s like an online word-of-mouth and allows me to connect with people and other businesses that I may never have had the opportunity to before. I use Facebook, Twitter, Squidoo and a variety of other networking sites to promote by services.

I use Twitter to announce news, competitions, new products and to connect with businesses and bloggers. This has resulted in a number of marketing opportunities and very beneficial business contacts. I also feel that twitter allows my customers to see the person behind the business to an extent and adds a new level of personalized care. I also have a blog which I update as often as possible – I think the great thing about social media is that you can connect everything together – when I update my blog a tweet is automatically sent out announcing the update as well as a post on Facebook which saves valuable time!

For today’s interview series, we hear from Anna Seager of Little Crab Designs…

My name is Anna Seager and I run Little Crab Designs (www.littlecrab.co.uk).   I create and sell nursery pictures and wall art for children.

Why did you start selling online?

Initially I started selling through craft fairs, school fairs, house sales etc – but soon realized that the best way to make the business work for me – round my children and based at home – was to get the online sales going, so I set up my own website.  I chose a Mr Site website working on the basis that for the £25 it was at the time – if it didn’t work – I hadn’t lost a huge investment.  Three years later I still have that Mr Site website and it is working wonders for me!

What has been your biggest online marketing challenge?

My biggest challenge was working out and learning how to turn a pretty looking website that couldn’t be found, into one that was.  At my first business review, I remember the adviser saying to me – “it’s a lovely shop window – but that is all it will remain if you don’t start getting some passers by!!”  I have trawled the net, watched loads of seminars online on SEO – been to various events on SEO and worked my way through two books.  After a lot of trial and error, hard work and patience – my site is now listed on the first page of Google, yahoo and bing for most of my keywords and I even hold position one for some of them.  Not bad for a “package” deal website at £25 that a lot of people told me would never work!!

What do you like best about your website?

My website is very simple – I guess I am lucky because the artwork provides all the colour and interest it needs.  As I don’t want to detract from that, as after all, that is what I am selling – I keep it very simple and plain – and I like that about it.

Your top online marketing tip?

My top online marketing tip would be to keep chipping away at it a little every day – trawl the internet, forums etc for advice – and do a little bit each day and get a book called ‘Search Engine Optimization An Hour Day’.  It has done wonders for me!

In the latest in our interview series, we catch up with Diane Hurford and her online company, Brolly Sheets , a company selling waterproof bedding that is attractive and easy to change.

My name is Diane Hurford and I live in Auckland’s North Shore with hubby Glenn, and children Mia (8) and Lewis (6).

I came up with the idea of a Brolly Sheet when Mia was sleeping in a bottom bunk bed and we just started night time toilet training. Every night when I had to change her bed I would hit my head on the top bunk.  I don’t know about you but the sooner I can get back to sleep, the more reasonable I am the next day. There had to be a better way to get her bed changed.

I couldn’t find anything on the market that made it easier for me to get back to bed as soon as possible.  The few options available were either too expensive, too complicated for a 2:00 am bed-change or looked too sterile.

So I went to Spotlight and bought some PVC and some pink fabric and made a very basic “Brolly Sheet”.  After an accident, it was quick to pull off and replace with another in seconds rather than minutes.  Gone were the days of completely stripping and remaking the whole bed, gone were the bruises from the top bunk!  After I made the first couple of sheets, friends at Playcentre wanted one, then it just grew.

The reason I decided to sell online was mostly due to my husband.  He has extremely “itchy feet” and we have lived in Washington DC, Hamilton, Auckland and Sydney.  I wanted a business I could “take with me” if we moved again.  The funny thing is – now the children are older his itchy feet have past and we are happily settled into “domesticity”.  (In fact he has left corporate banking and is now full time with Brolly Sheets).

What has been your biggest online marketing challenge?

The biggest marketing challenge would be finding the right publications to advertise in to drive customers to our site.  It is all very well having a web based business – but if people don’t know you are there you won’t be in business for long.   This has been an even bigger challenge since we launched in the UK last year.  Trying to take our message to the Brits has been tricky.

What do you like best about your website?

The best thing about our website is how easy it is for our warehouse to pack orders directly off the back end.  It is simple and quick for them which in turn means less errors and time spent.  The best thing about Brolly Sheets is simply having Glenn working with me from our home office.  He is able to spend more time with the kids, makes the school lunches – we are just having an amazing time.  Life is good.

Your top online marketing tip?

Make your site easy to navigate around.  I have checked out hundreds of sites over the past few years.  Some look amazing but you can’t find what products are available.  The worse thing I hate is not knowing the shipping fee till I get to the check out.  Everything has to be visible and easy to find.  If you are putting together a web based business – check out other sites.  Look at their “about us” pages, “customer service” pages etc.  Look at what you think works and doesn’t work.

Today’s interview series is with Claire Willis of Snugbaby.

I am Claire Willis, and I live in Cumbria with my husband, Lee, and our two sons, Ben, 5, and Josh, 3. In 2008 I began SnugBaby, selling my brand of soft baby carriers, through my website, www.snugbaby.co.uk

In 2009, I also set up another website, www.getyourhandsback.co.uk to raise the awareness of babywearing, and promote the use of baby slings to a wider audience in the UK. Through Get Your Hands Back I publish reviews, news, special loffers and updates about slings and baby carriers from UK sling companies.

Why did you start selling online ?

I started SnugBaby after being unable to find a carrier for myself and Josh, when he was a baby. I made a sling, and got lots of comments about it from strangers in the street. Friends asked me to make them one, and I thought there may be a business to be built, although it took me until he was over a year old before I was able to put my plans into action.

I wanted to sell online as it is easier to appeal to a wider customer base – my local market would not have sustained a shop selling baby slings, but I knew I could make an impact if I was to sell nationally.

What has been your biggest online marketing challenge?

To start with it was quite hard to encourage people to visit my website. Although Lee has good technical knowledge, SEO is very difficult. I invest a little in advertising, but I am constantly working to improve the quality of my links to raise the visibility of SnugBaby in search engines.

What do you like best about your website?

I like the overall style of my websites. SnugBaby is very much a shop, with a blog attached, whereas Get Your Hands Back is basically a blog, with a lot of information and internal links. They look very different, although the writing style is similar, as you would expect. I think the colour schemes and the fonts used reflect the different purposes and the different messages tat I am trying to get across.

Your top online marketing tip?

The majority of my new customers come to me from personal recommendations, so getting myself known is really important to me. I use social media marketing  effectively, and have gained lots of new customers that way. I give a mix of personal and business news – I think people like to feel they know the people behind a company too. I also think it’s really important to keep in touch with existing customers, so I send out regular newsletters and updates to all my customers to remind them of what I can offer them, so I get a lot of repeat business too.

In the latest of our interview series, we talk with Sarah of PhotoFairytales

My name is Sarah, and I run an online business called www.PhotoFairytales.co.uk. I’m a married mum to Amy who is now 7, and I run my business from our home in Norfolk. I specialize in creating unique personalized gifts, keepsakes and portraits for my customers – my aim is to offer something really unusual and individual. After studying art and design, my career took a turn into marketing. From time to time I’ve returned to working in graphics and design however, and this is where my passion lies. I love the fact that I have now found a great way to combine my creative and artistic side, with my marketing experience. I’m passionate about PhotoFairytales in a way that is unlike any other job I’ve ever done – I’m constantly striving to add new products and increase the range of items on sale, and I work hard to ensure my customers are delighted with their purchases.

Why did you start selling online?
I started an online business as it seemed the perfect way to achieve a good work/life balance with my family after we had Amy. The internet provides a fast, effective and low-cost way of joining the retail market. I wanted to find a career that I could adapt and work around being a mother, and wife to someone who runs his own business too (and therefore works weird and wonderful hours most weeks!). Flexibility was high on the list of requirements, and working for myself running an online business seemed to be the obvious direction. Although I work full-time, my hours and the style of work I do are flexible enough to enable me to adapt to the things being a mum throws at you: school holidays, sick days, etc.

What has been your biggest online marketing challenge?
I was determined when I started PhotoFairytales that it would be on a shoestring. It was important to me that this would be a low-risk venture. I think this was mainly due to two things: having a partner who is also self-employed made me want to be especially cautious, as did being a parent. In the past, my husband and I had sold everything we had to buy a business – we were happy to take that risk in those days as it was just the two of us. Being a parent does tend to focus things a little more though! I guess my biggest challenge is always how to raise the profile of the business, and promote it, on a minimal spend. Having said that, this is where an online business can really come into its own – the internet provides the ability to reach customers in a low cost way. However, I’ve had to learn from the ground up and although I had experience in marketing in the past, I had never applied it online so I had a lot to learn (and still do!). It can be very time-consuming if you’re working on a strict budget. Whilst it is easy to pay for advertising online, it is much harder work to achieve results with little or no outlay.

What do you like best about your website?
I think I’ve now managed to organize my site in a much more user-friendly way. As new lines and products have been added over the last year, PhotoFairytales has grown into a large site. I took time recently to take a step back and try to review it as a customer would – I’ve now arranged it in such a way that it is much easier (I hope) to navigate around and ultimately easier for customers to find items they love and wish to order! Although I’m only a small business, I always work hard to make sure the site is professional and gives a good impression. I hope I’ve achieved that…

Your top online marketing tip?
Without doubt, when you don’t have much to spend, social networking is by far the most effective online marketing I have so far found. Link building, SEO, etc, is all extremely important of course, but getting involved with sites such as Facebook, Twitter, forum/networking sites, etc. is the most effective of all for me. Not only are they great for meeting potential customers and telling them about your product, but they are great avenues for running competitions, discounts and giveaways. Plus you make some invaluable contacts and friends, particularly on business networking sites that can give you the inspiration you sometimes need. I’ve found a huge amount of my customers come to me on the recommendation of others too, and social networking is a great way of spreading the word.

Continuing our interview series, we are talking today with Jessie Pengelly

My name is Jessie Pengelly, I am a working mom to my 3 year old amazing daughter Alexandria.  I suffer from Endometriosis, Postnatal Depression and Narcolepsy.  I find working full time and balancing that with the needs of my daughter a constant battle.  I felt that I needed to look for another alternative to generate an income and started my nutritional products business.  The company I work through has always been direct to customers in order to keep the costs low and be available to anyone, anytime and anywhere.

The biggest online marketing challenge aside from costs that it attracts is to figure out who you want to target and how you are going to do it.  You want to ensure the site is functional and easy to look at but draws in the customers your are looking for.  It’s the balance of too much info can put people off where too little makes them feel you are not genuine.  Its also trying to get the important facts across like our products is Pharmaceutical grade and Doctor recommend without coming off boring.

What I like best about my website is that the company that I work through supports me in it and has linked its online shopping cart to it! So customers can purchase online without any hassle!  It’s such a blessing!

My top online marketing tip is to talk to as many people you can before going with a web designer and web hosting company. Some of the charges are ridiculous! And prevent home based business from getting started. This is what drove my husband to start his web design and hosting company!  Good service and support at an affordable cost! Also its important to look at what is already out there and find a point of difference to make you stand out!

In the latest of our interview series, we hear from Tracie Heasman and her home-based business generating 2D & 3D floor plans.

Hi, I’m Tracie.  And I generate 2D and 3D floor plans for or real estate agents, builders & private home sellers. It’s useful for people wanting to see their prospective home in 3D before the building has even started, as a lot of people have trouble visualizing a home in a 2D floor plan.

Why did you start selling online ?

I started selling online because it’s the easiest and cheapest way to market my product while looking after my one year old son.  I consider it similar to a brochure, for a fraction of the cost. I can let clients know about my product by referring them to my website, as all the information they need is there.  This also cuts out any bulk printing and posting costs.

What has been your biggest online marketing challenge?

This would certainly be getting a decent number of visitors to my website.  I get most of my business through self promotion by phoning businesses.  I only average about 4 unique visitors to my website a day.  I’ve submitted to all major search engines, as well as NZ online directories, and have even tried link reciprocation, but my numbers don’t seem to be increasing.

What do you like best about your website?

I’m quite proud of my website because I designed and produced it myself using a helpful site builder website.  I think it has a good amount of graphics as well as information.

Your top online marketing tip?

I think an immediate reply to queries from your website is vital.  The one downfall the web has is how impersonal it is, and when you buy something online, or ask somebody a question it never feels like you are dealing with a real person, which can be a little unnerving.  So I think to reply to somebody’s query in a fast, friendly and informal yet professional way can make all the difference to a sale.

Alison Pinney

In the latest of our interview series, we hear from Alison Pinney, mum of 4, and wife of 8 months. She runs Teeny Munchkins and Mums Business Club (Cambridge) and is also a full-time childminder!

Teeny Munchkins was set up in August 2008 and is going from strength to strength. It has recently has a site makeover and this has seen the comany’s sales figures increase dramatically. Teeny Munchkins has just launched a dropship service of its party bag fillers and Manhattan Toys range and within 4 weeks they have had over 30 resellers sign up.

Why did you start selling online ?

It was more to make a bit of pocket money so I could give those little extras to the children.  Before Teeny Munchkins I worked in party plan but left due to being crippled with a bout of arthritis.  This eased with medication and I decided that, rather than line somebody elses pockets with the money I made from sales, I could run my own business and line my own pockets.  I do not intend to go down the party-plan route though!

What has been your biggest online marketing challenge?

Getting our name out there and ranking well with Google.  Many of my customers tend to know what they are looking for when it comes to the Manhattan Toy range and I am starting to rank very well with some of our top sellers on Google.

What do you like best about your website?

It has recently been re-vamped which I am absolutely delighted with.  I have had many comments from customers and visitors saying how much improved it is and just looking at my stats tells me that most visitors are now bookmarking my site ready to come back to later.

Your top online marketing tip?

I use Facebook a lot!!  I also use Twitter but not as much.  I would say to use both these tools as much as you can to attract potential customers to your site.  They are very powerful and can quickly get your brand name known.

In the latest of our interview series, we catch up with Karen of Chloe’s Mummy.

Continuing the series of interviews with online business owners we meet Sarah Williams, owner of slogan baby wear company, Bibble Dribble.

Why I started a website

I decided to set up my own website because I wanted to show off the many designs my partner and I were constantly coming up with for baby clothing. It was one day when we were talking about setting up a business that I knew we had to go for it – what’s there to lose? Starting any new business seemed a bit daunting but I was pretty determined and before I knew it we were up and running. I used the Mr Site package in the hope to build on my fairly limited SEO and website design skills and also because it was reasonably priced. I wanted to learn the ropes first and do the majority of the work myself. We wanted a funky, vibrant theme for the website so its was pleasing to the eye and fun to use. The majority of our products are light-hearted and so we wanted to portray this in the design of the website.

Toughest SEO challenge

Although, I am fairly IT competent, I was still a beginner in terms of SEO and networking. I was actually probably quite naive to start with in that I thought that by simply having a website would guarantee a place on Google. It then dawned on me that I would be spending a large chunk of my time on SEO optimization. I decided to research this area and although I am not by any means an expert I am gaining knowledge all the time. I also underestimated the power of social networking and now allocate a lot of my time to this. Not only do I network with lots of other WAHM’s, but I have also made a lot of online friends after joining forums and discussion boards. Probably, the toughest challenge so far has been the steep learning curve of getting that sought after position on the search engines. I’ve spent so many hours reading posts on forums and can safely say we are getting there!

What I like best about my website

In terms of my website, I am really pleased with the look of it. My partner and I have spent so much time tweaking it and we now have over 60 designs which are all our own work. Hard work but definitely worth it. Its nice to know that an idea which we had so much confidence in, is now in motion and we will have no regrets in the future.

My top seo tip

My top SEO tip would have to be, to research the topic of SEO. Get to grips with concepts of it don’t expect instant results. The more work you put into it the more you will get out of it. I registered for Alison’s e-mail information service and can honestly say it has helped me no end. I am now a confident user of Twitter for personal and business purposes amongst much more!

Some of you may have caught some of my tweets on Saturday (from @selfemployedmum and @alisonrothwell) and been a bit mystified as to why I was promoting a product for you to buy, as I don’t normally do this.

On Saturday I was a guest speaker at an Internet Marketing seminar, organised by Nick James. Nick is a mentor of mine and an information product guru. For those of you unfamiliar with the phrase “information product” these are literally the products you see for sale on the net solving a problem someone has with the aid of books, audio CDs, software, DVDs etc, on all kinds of subjects from puppy training to crochet. I’ve bought quite a few information products and have always been interested in how they are put together.

On Saturday, in front of a live audience, Nick showed how easy it was to create your own quality information product, and, just like Jack Bauer, did it in “real time.” The product research was done in advance – Nick put together a package for people to learn how to make their own information products (!) The 24 hour Product Formula for a very reasonable price of £15.00. On Saturday he put together the webpage, blog and ran live direct marketing campaigns. The tweets you saw from me, were part of this.

The webpage went up, with minutes to spare, at the planned time of 11.00 a.m. (just as in real life there were a couple of technical glitches!). At 11.17, the first order came through. Every hour after that, the sales were announced and the Paypal account figure shown on the screen. I have to say it was amazing to see that whenever some action was taken (like launching the blog), you were able to see the effect on the sales figures.

My presentation focused on using SEO to promote your product, and I shared some SEO tips for quick returns. Other speakers explained how the graphics were put together for the product, how to use video marketing, set up a blog etc.

And the best thing?

Not only did Nick show how easy it was to create and market a quality information product (to an audience of Newbies), every penny of the money raised from each sale of the 24 Hour Product Formula is being donated to Oxfam, for their Haiti appeal.

By 5pm, Nick had reached his target of 100 online sales. By 2300, just 12 hours after launch, this had doubled to just over 200  orders. Yesterday, the total was 260 online sales and he’s hoping to make $10,000 within 48 hours of the product launch.

What I learnt:

• That putting together an information product is so much easier than you think
• You have to “take action”, make things happen and not dither about
• That creating an information product could work really well for lots of businesses e.g. PR, accountancy, VA services, for both marketing and making money. For example, one delegate at the seminar had created products to help the self employed put together a SA tax return quickly.
• If you create a quality product, for an audience which has a reason to buy, and market it properly, then you will make money.

Could you create an information product to help your customers?

You can check out the sales page here and also the blog.

photo credit: John Griffiths

Have you got an idea for an online business but don’t know where to start? Then, join me as I write about my new bizz “journey” from start up idea to launch…

In an earlier post I talked about getting your big idea.  My idea came to me as a result of another business I run, a seo consultancy, which manages internet marketing for small businesses. I noticed a gap in the market and decided I could fill it.

Of course, it wasn’t quite that simple. Oh no! It’s all very well thinking you have a great business idea, but what happens if noone else (apart from your best friend) agrees? It’s all very well thinking ‘If you build it, he will come” (apologies to Kevin Costner) but I’d rather root my businesses firmly in reality

The answer is to do some research. If your idea fits into a pretty much mainstream area (such as setting up a baby shop) then you’ll be able to access market research through your local business link, or similar. If, however, like me, your idea is outside the box, then you’ll need to do your market research yourself.

Here’s how I did mine:

I identified my customer and found websites and forums where “my customer” hung out. I read their conversations and joined in and asked questions. From this I learnt that my idea was sound but I needed to have a clearer understanding of exactly what the customer wanted so that I could fulfil that need through my initial idea.

Next, I put together some questions for potential customers and used online survey company Survey Monkey to collect, store and analyse the data. I advertised the survey on forums and put together a small “bribe” (a freebie mini-guide) to encourage peeps to answer the questions.

Using this research I was able to plan the next stage of developing my idea….

photo credit: richard winchell