Trying to find a market to make a profit is getting harder and harder as there is more competition on the internet. There is however one market that is relatively untouched and is massive.

Local Business

Local small businesses make up 63% of the US economy and the vast majority of them know nothing about internet marketing.

Now about 80% of people go to the internet first to get information before they buy, but most of these local businesses don’t even have a website, and if they do, it is so bad that it is not ranked and not getting them any results.

This is where we come in. Having the knowledge and understanding of how to run a business on the internet and drive high quality traffic to these local business websites can sometimes double and triple their profits. It can be the difference between going out of business and having their best year ever.

Small business owners know nothing about internet marketing and they are willing to pay handsomely for someone who does.

They have no time and no interest to learn the stuff that is needed to make a business rank in the local and organic searches, not to mention pay per click.

They also don’t know what they are missing until you present them with the facts and a plan that will help drive their business.

You can ask for a fee up front of $1,000-$5000 for set up and a monthly fee for ongoing maintenance. You can also make a contract for a percentage of the profits generated from your work. Depending on the client, this can be five figures a month or more from just one client.

Here are the things that you can offer to sell your clients that will make their mind boggle and get them to throw money at you.

Keyword research, Personal Branding, SEO Optimization, Online Domination in Local/Organic/Pay per click searches, Ranking with different search engines, Online Business Directories, High Quality Backlinks, Article Marketing, Blog, Video Marketing, Press Releases, Geo-Targeted PPC, Testing, Tracking and Optimizing, Craigslist and Classifieds, Discussion Forums, Audio Podcasting and List Building.

If you know how to do all, half or even a bit of that list, then local businesses need your services. You may know some small business owners personally that you might want to approach and practice your skills before going to some bigger clients, but the fact is, local small businesses need and are desperate for these services and will pay you well for doing it for them.

Article Marketing is a simple, effective low-cost way to bring very high quality visitors to your website. You can establish yourself as an authority in the industry, and build trust with your audience through articles. You don’t have to be an expert writer to have an effective article campaign.
Here is an action guideline for getting some effective articles in circulation.

1. Define your target audience
2. Select a keyword
3. Choose Your Topic
4. Write Your Article
5. Write the title
6. Distribute the article

Here we go, step by step.

1. Define Your Target Audience

This is a fundamental step in writing effective articles. “People who want to make money” is a very broad audience, that needs to be further defined, to be effective. There are many different types of people looking to make money, all for different reasons. The more closely you can define your target market, the more this audience will relate and respond to, your articles.

Here is a list of questions you can use to define your target audience:

1. What do they do for a living?
2. What struggles do they face?
3. What is important to them?
4. What are their values?
5. What is their current income?
6. What are their income goals?
7. What types of activities do they enjoy?
8. What is their definition of success?
9. Do they use any industry specific “lingo” or terminology?

2. Select Your Keyword

You will want to optimize your article for long tailed keywords as this helps them show up in the search engines.

Here are a few examples:

“BMW” (short-tailed)
“Black 7 series BMW” (long tailed)

“Luxury Home” (short-tailed)
“Luxury 5 bedroom Beach house in Destin, FL” (long-tailed)

“Online Business” (short-tailed)
“Best online home based business opportunity” (long-tailed)

3. Choose Your Topic

Once you have your long tail keyword, choose a topic specifically related to that keyword.

For example, if your keyword is Luxury 5 bedroom beach house in Destin, Fl. Write about something a bit more specific like, How to find a luxury 5 bedroom beach house in Destin, FL, or where to find reviews for luxury 5 bedroom beach houses in Destin, FL

This way, when someone is doing a search in google, your article has a better chance of coming up on the first page as it is so specific.

Here are a few ideas for coming up with topics:

Here are 5 ideas for article topics:

1. A how-to article
2. A review article
3. A problem, then solution article (define a problem, provide the solution)
4. A personal experience article
5. A comparison article (compare your former profession to what you are doing now)

Here is another fantastic way to come up with article topics if you are involved with Carbon Copy Pro like I am:

1. Write down the top 5 concerns you had, about starting a new business before you joined CarbonCopyPRO
2. Write out the solutions that CarbonCopyPRO provides, to these concerns.
3. You now have 5 article topics!

Whenever possible, your articles should have an emotional aspect to them. Try and use the problem; agitate; solution format, where you describe a problem. Point out in the most excrutiating detail why it is such a problem and the feelings it imparts, then show that your product offers the best possible solution.

4. Write Your Article

Writing articles is easier than you think! Your goal is to complete this step in 20 minutes or less. Do not worry about making your article perfect. The most important thing you can do, is just sit down and start writing. Here’s how to do it quickly:

1. Make a list of 3 main points you want to get across in your article (one sentence each).
2. Write down 3-5 sentences that backup each of your three points.
3. Your three main points will be the first sentence of three paragraphs.
4. The 5 sentences you wrote will make up the body of each paragraph.

You now have 3 paragraphs, and just need an introduction paragraph.

1. Write 3-4 sentences that sum up your three main paragraphs.
   This will be your introduction paragraph.

Now you just need to finish it up!

1. Write a 2-3 sentences that sum up your three main points, and gives people the final solution.

5. Write The Title

Most people write the title before they start the article and then get pulled in a different direction as they write. Make sure that your title goes with the content in the article, otherwise your readers will be thinking they are getting one thing and read another.

Here are some ideas for writing compelling Titles:

• Whenever possible, include your entire keyword in the title.
• Move your keyword as close to the beginning of the title as possible.
• If you are doing a review or comparison article, don’t reveal “the end of the story” or your final opinion in the title. People will be less inclined to click on your article and read the rest.
• Questions make great article titles. The human brain has a specific chemical reaction when a question is unanswered, it does NOT like it! People will be drawn to do whatever it takes, to get their question answered, which can include reading your article and seeing what you have to say, and clicking through to your website.

6.Distribute Your Article

The most important step. Get them out there.

You can distribute them to free sites like:

ezinearticles.com

goarticles.com

amazines.com

A couple more tips:

• Your article should be assisting the reader. Your article is not the place for a sales pitch, this will turn people off.
• If you are writing a “how-to” article, never be afraid of giving away your “best stuff.” The better content you give your audience for free, the more inclined they will be to listen to you, and ultimately, spend money with you!

Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle in the evening, for you do not know whether morning or evening sowing will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good. Ecclesiastes 11:6

Do you have a marketing plan for your business? Do you have a variety of things working for you and bringing results? Or are you trying out one thing and hoping it produces?

There are so many ways to advertise you business now, especially with social media, which is free, that it would be foolish to just pick one method and forget about all the others.

You never know what is going to work for you and where your next lead or customer is going to come from, so it is important to be as many places as possible and get you business in front of as many eyes as possible.

Social media has developed now to where all your advertising efforts can be linked together and directed to your sales page or content page.  Services like pingfm.com and traffic geyser will send your message out to all your sites at the touch of a button, so a blog post or a video can be sent to a hundred different social media sites and get in front of 100 times more people.

But social media is not all that works any more. There are still avenues like article marketing, ezines, paid advertising, direct marketing, classified ads, TV and radio, JV projects, telemarketing and much more.

It would be crazy to try and learn all of these methods at once, but you need to be getting to a place where you can add a different method each week or so, as you don’t really know what is going to be most effective for your market.

Personally, I was in information overload for about 3 years and tried to read about every new thing that came out. What that got me was a bit of knowledge about the marketing industry, but I spent all my time reading that there was no action.

What I eventually found was a system that required action on a daily basis to eventually produce the results I had been reading about for years.

If this sounds similar to you, as I know it is for many people in the online business world, you may want to try the system that has a step-by-step plan to tie all these things together.

Stop procrastinating by reading about what you need to do and get a plan and go do it.

Go give it a go.

TheCupPromotions.com

Article Marketing is a simple, effective low-cost way to bring very high quality visitors to your website. You can establish yourself as an authority in the industry, and build trust with your audience through articles. You don’t have to be an expert writer to have an effective article campaign.
Here is an action guideline for getting some effective articles in circulation.

1. Define your target audience
2. Select a keyword
3. Choose Your Topic
4. Write Your Article
5. Write the title
6. Distribute the article

Here we go, step by step.

1. Define Your Target Audience

This is a fundamental step in writing effective articles. “People who want to make money” is a very broad audience, that needs to be further defined, to be effective. There are many different types of people looking to make money, all for different reasons. The more closely you can define your target market, the more this audience will relate and respond to, your articles.

Here is a list of questions you can use to define your target audience:

1. What do they do for a living?
2. What struggles do they face?
3. What is important to them?
4. What are their values?
5. What is their current income?
6. What are their income goals?
7. What types of activities do they enjoy?
8. What is their definition of success?
9. Do they use any industry specific “lingo” or terminology?

2. Select Your Keyword

You will want to optimize your article for long tailed keywords as this helps them show up in the search engines.

Here are a few examples:

“BMW” (short-tailed)
“Black 7 series BMW” (long tailed)

“Luxury Home” (short-tailed)
“Luxury 5 bedroom Beach house in Destin, FL” (long-tailed)

“Online Business” (short-tailed)
“Best online home based business opportunity” (long-tailed)

3. Choose Your Topic

Once you have your long tail keyword, choose a topic specifically related to that keyword.

For example, if your keyword is Luxury 5 bedroom beach house in Destin, Fl. Write about something a bit more specific like, How to find a luxury 5 bedroom beach house in Destin, FL, or where to find reviews for luxury 5 bedroom beach houses in Destin, FL

This way, when someone is doing a search in google, your article has a better chance of coming up on the first page as it is so specific.

Here are a few ideas for coming up with topics:

Here are 5 ideas for article topics:

1. A how-to article
2. A review article
3. A problem, then solution article (define a problem, provide the solution)
4. A personal experience article
5. A comparison article (compare your former profession to what you are doing now)

Here is another fantastic way to come up with article topics if you are involved with Carbon Copy Pro like I am:

1. Write down the top 5 concerns you had, about starting a new business before you joined CarbonCopyPRO
2. Write out the solutions that CarbonCopyPRO provides, to these concerns.
3. You now have 5 article topics!

Whenever possible, your articles should have an emotional aspect to them. Try and use the problem; agitate; solution format, where you describe a problem. Point out in the most excrutiating detail why it is such a problem and the feelings it imparts, then show that your product offers the best possible solution.

4. Write Your Article

Writing articles is easier than you think! Your goal is to complete this step in 20 minutes or less. Do not worry about making your article perfect. The most important thing you can do, is just sit down and start writing. Here’s how to do it quickly:

1. Make a list of 3 main points you want to get across in your article (one sentence each).
2. Write down 3-5 sentences that backup each of your three points.
3. Your three main points will be the first sentence of three paragraphs.
4. The 5 sentences you wrote will make up the body of each paragraph.

You now have 3 paragraphs, and just need an introduction paragraph.

1. Write 3-4 sentences that sum up your three main paragraphs.
   This will be your introduction paragraph.

Now you just need to finish it up!

1. Write a 2-3 sentences that sum up your three main points, and gives people the final solution.

5. Write The Title

Most people write the title before they start the article and then get pulled in a different direction as they write. Make sure that your title goes with the content in the article, otherwise your readers will be thinking they are getting one thing and read another.

Here are some ideas for writing compelling Titles:

• Whenever possible, include your entire keyword in the title.
• Move your keyword as close to the beginning of the title as possible.
• If you are doing a review or comparison article, don’t reveal “the end of the story” or your final opinion in the title. People will be less inclined to click on your article and read the rest.
• Questions make great article titles. The human brain has a specific chemical reaction when a question is unanswered, it does NOT like it! People will be drawn to do whatever it takes, to get their question answered, which can include reading your article and seeing what you have to say, and clicking through to your website.

6.Distribute Your Article

The most important step. Get them out there.

You can distribute them to free sites like:

ezinearticles.com

goarticles.com

amazines.com

A couple more tips:

• Your article should be assisting the reader. Your article is not the place for a sales pitch, this will turn people off.
• If you are writing a “how-to” article, never be afraid of giving away your “best stuff.” The better content you give your audience for free, the more inclined they will be to listen to you, and ultimately, spend money with you!