Enterprise Mastermind

Top 10 Wordpress Plugins – August 2009

Ant Harper — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:34:50 +0000

Another month, another line-up of fantastic plugins all tested by Enterprise Mastermind so you don’t have to! Some plugins are the same as previous months, and this is because they can’t be bettered and so must remain. I would recommend that you try these plugins for yourselves but do emphasise that you read all documentation and that I take no responsibility for any problems caused by the installation or use of these plugins. For more great plugins please see my last Top Wordpress Plugin post Top 10 Wordpress Plugins – July 2009.

If you think there is a plugin worth a mention here or you have developed a plugin and would like it reviewed please comment or contact admin@enterprisemastermind.com. This monthly post does get a lot of traffic so if you are a plugin developer it might be in your best interest to get your latest work reviewed here! I don’t charge a penny…

1. Dynamic Content Gallery

Go to download page
This plugin creates a dynamic gallery of images for your latest and featured posts. By linking your gallery images with individual posts, using custom fields, the plugin dynamically creates the gallery from your latest and featured posts. If there are none assigned then you can set default links. An Admin Settings page enables you to select which categories and posts are linked to the gallery images.

2. The Excerpt Reloaded

Go to download page
A great little plugin that displays an excerpt of a post on your home page which can be customised to vary the length and content to suit.

3. WP-SpamFree Anti-Spam

Go to download page
I have always been a fan of Akismet and in the past it has graced my Top 10 for quite a few months. I have noticed of late that just too much spam is getting through Akismet, no matter how much I tell Akismet it’s spam, it doesnt seem to learn like it should. So I decided to try out another plugin and I am glad I did. This fully featured anti-spam plugin not only stops comment spam, trackback spam and pingback spam but it also includes its own spam-free contact form. Update: 3 months of use and this plugin is working perfectly. A must-have plugin.

4. Ad-Minister

Go to download page
Ad-minister is a plugin that adds a easy to use WordPress management system for adverts and other static content. It supports ad-rotation (with content having different page-view percentages), schedueling (including multiple time periods) and is fully widget compatible.

5. Plugin Manager

Go to download page
Plugin Manager lets you to view, download and install plugins from wordpress.org from an AJAX’ed interface, instead of manually downloading, extracting and uploading each plugin. Doesn’t do anything you couldnt’ do yourself manually but it is a great timesaver.

6. LJ Custom Menu Links

Go to download page
LJ Custom Menu Links is a plugin that allows you to put extra links in the menus of most Wordpress Themes. The really great thing about this is that it doesn’t require any code changes to your theme because the extra links are added within Wordpress core functionality. Ideal if you were going to hack your Wordpress theme to add custom links or if you just want certain navigation items or links to appear when a user is logged in. This plugin does all this and more.

7. Easy Adsenser

Go to download page
Easy AdSenser manages all aspects of Google AdSense for a blog: insert ads into posts and sidebar, and add a Google Search box.

8. Post Google Map

Go to download page
Fantastic plugin (although I haven’t personally found a use for it yet!) that allows you to enter addresses into a custom field on a blog post and have it display in a Google map in your sidebar. In addition to this, the addresses are listed below the map with a description/or exerpt from the post it is from.

9. Random Pages Widget

Go to download page
Allows you to place a useful widget in your sidebar that shows random posts from your blog. Useful if you have a lot of old content that is still relevant but won’t now show on your homepage.

10. Vipers Video Quicktags

Go to download page
Use lots of embedded video on your blog from the likes of Vimeo or Youtube? Well, this useful plugin makes your life easier by simplifying the process adding buttons to the write page which when clicked allow you to enter the URL of the video you want added. You can also specify size and colours etc. An added bonus to this plugin is that it allows your site posts to remain XHTML valid, which they certainly wouldn’t be if you used the supplied embed code.

Check back next month to see which plugins I’m recommending!

Top Twitter Tips #1 – Maximise the power of Retweets

Ant Harper — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:02:57 +0000

Retweet Power

Unless you have been living under a stone for the past year you should need no introduction to the internet phenomenon that is Twitter (if you do please click here). As well as its original remit of letting the world know ‘what you are doing’ Twitter can be a great marketing tool for your online business if used correctly and responsibly. Retweets or RTs as they are known are when someone takes one of your Tweets and broadcasts it to all of their own followers. The power and potential of RTs should not be underestimated and getting people with a huge following themselves to RT your content can have a massive impact on your own reader numbers. The larger the number of followers a person has, the more likely someone amongst them will RT your Tweet again, so on and so forth until hopefully your content goes truly viral amongst Twitters vast network.

In this short article I shall try and show you how to maximise the potential of RTs and encourage others to RT your own content.

Supply quality content

It might seem a bit of a no-brainer this one, but if your content isn’t of a good enough quality no-one will RT it. When you RT you are putting your reputation behind someone elses work, no-one is going to RT something that is rubbish. If it is a great quality article it will sell itself and will be something that others will want to share within their Twitter network.

Be interactive

Keep people interested in Retweeting your content by offering an incentive. Many top sites have offered a chance to win a prize in return for the RT of a particular message. You can also make it easy for people to tweet straight from your blog or website by including some extra Twitter code in the link as follows:

http://twitter.com/?status=

Clicking that particular link will open the Twitter homepage with the “What are you doing?” field prefilled with whatever you put after the equals(=) symbol. Please remember to use %20 instead of any spaces:

i.e. http://twitter.com/?status=my%20message

If you are not willing or able to mess with code there are several plugins that will automatically place buttons that allow visitors to tweet your content.

Increase your following

It follows that the more you tweet and the more followers you have, the bigger the audience and the greater the chance of you getting a RT. If you want more followers try using a course such as Twitter Rocket which is a 5 day plan which if used correctly could increase your followers by as much as 1000 per week. Click here for more details.

Build a rapport

By talking to fellow bloggers and others that are experts in your field you have a greater chance of forming mutual RT ‘partnerships’ whereby you agree to RT each others content. You could go further and build an RT ’syndicate’ whereby a whole group of you agree to RT each others content a certain amount of times per week. These can be very efficient ways of spreading your knowledge especially if all the members of your syndicate are experts in the same or similar fields.

Always tweet your latest blog post

Make sure you tweet each and every addition to your blog. The simple truth is that if it hasnt been tweeted it can’t be retweeted so by following this simple rule you are pressing the start button on the whole process. I use a plugin called Twitter Tools which automatically tweets each post I write as they are published.

Top 10 Wordpress Plugins – July 2009

Ant Harper — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:46:32 +0000

Another sparkling line-up of fantastic plugins all tested by Enterprise Mastermind so you don’t have to! Some plugins are the same as previous months, and this is because they can’t be bettered and so must remain. I would recommend that you try these plugins for yourselves but do emphasise that you read all documentation and that I take no responsibility for any problems caused by the installation or use of these plugins. For more great plugins please see my last Top Wordpress Plugin post Top 20 Wordpress Plugins – June 2009.

1. Referrer Detector

Go to download page
Last month I showcased WP Greet Box, a great plugin that greeted each visitor to your site with a custom message according to the referrer. One thing that particular plugin lacked in my opinion was a way of tracking how many clicks you got from each referrer, always useful to know if you want to keep tabs on what marketing methods are working and which aren’t… You have probably guessed by now that this plugin not only greets you with the custom message but also tracks how many have been referred and by who. Super stuff.

2. WP Easy Paypal Payment Accept

Go to download page
A stayer from last month…here is a great Wordpress plugin to accept paypal payments for a services, products or donations in multiple currencies with just one click. Can be used in the sidebar, posts and pages of your Wordpress install.

3. WP Simple Paypal Shopping Cart

Go to download page
Written by the same author as the plugin above (Ruhul Amin), this one allows you to put shopping cart interactivity and ‘Add to Cart’ buttons on any post or page within your Wordpress installation. An excellent alternative to the hassle of a fully blown e-commerce website if you don’t have a large product range.

4. Twitter Follow Badge

Go to download page
Unless you are using Explorer 6 (get another browser!) you should be able to see a nice Twitter follow button on the left hand side of this screen. Now be warned, this isn’t exactly a plugin as such – the website above lets you enter details and then generates a block of code for you to manually add to your Wordpress Theme or regular website. The button is a great way of getting followers as it stays on-screen in the same position even after scrolling the window.

5. Plugin Manager

6. LJ Custom Menu Links

7. Easy Adsenser

Go to download page
Easy AdSenser manages all aspects of Google AdSense for a blog: insert ads into posts and sidebar, and add a Google Search box.

8. WP-SpamFree Anti-Spam

Go to download page
I have always been a fan of Akismet and in the past it has graced my Top 10 for quite a few months. I have noticed of late that just too much spam is getting through Akismet, no matter how much I tell Akismet it’s spam, it doesnt seem to learn like it should. So I decided to try out another plugin and I am glad I did. This fully featured anti-spam plugin not only stops comment spam, trackback spam and pingback spam but it also includes its own spam-free contact form. Over the 2 months or so I have been using this plugin it has worked impeccably. A must-have for any Wordpress user.

9. WP PhotoNav

Go to download page
Simple little plugin that once installed and activated allows you to use a snippet of shortcode in your post to display an interactive panoramic photo (see below).

10. Pauls Latest Posts

Go to download page
Pauls Latest Posts displays a list of your latest posts and comments in the sidebar with excerpts. Excerpts length can be modified or left out completely. Useful for sites that display one post on the main page, and want to link to previous posts.

Check back next month to see which plugins I’m recommending!

Get more followers on Twitter the easy way

Ant Harper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:53:06 +0000

Use Twitter? Want more people to follow you but don’t know how to entice them?

Twitter is evolving into one of the biggest marketing tools on the internet. Soon, those without followers may well find themselves at a disadvantage and their competitors getting sales from the massive Twitter audience.

I wont bore you with too many details but if you want to jump on this particular marketing bandwagon and get instant followers just click the link below and sign up for free.

Yes please, I want more Twitter Followers for FREE!

Elegant Themes at a bargain price

Ant Harper — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:25:12 +0000

As a Web Designer that uses Wordpress as a CMS ‘engine’ for quite a few of my sites, I am always on the lookout for innovative themes as starting points for my projects.

I had been watching Elegant Themes with interest for a while and recently decided that their latest offer was just too good to be missed. For just $19.95 per year you get full access to their entire collection of premium Wordpress themes plus access to any themes they might add in the future. Yes you read that correctly – $19.95.

Now a low price is all good and well, but are the themes any good? Well in a word, yes. Their themes just happen to be some of the best thought-out around with all the bells and whistles you would only expect to get from themes that cost more per theme elsewhere, than they are charging for the entire collection.

Need a highly polished, highly configurable Wordpress theme for your latest blog that will make it stand out from the crowd? What are you waiting for? Get on over to Elegant Themes and see the demos for yourself!

[cf]3 star rating[/cf]

Top 20 Wordpress Plugins – June 2009

Ant Harper — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:46:30 +0000

Back once again with the Enterprise Master… er …mind. Neglect. Thats all I can call it and I have to hold my hands up and admit that I have neglected this blog completely in the last few months. So in a small gesture of recompense my Top 10 Wordpress Plugin roundup for June is a Top 20. Some plugins are the same as previous months, and this is because they can’t be bettered and so must remain. I would recommend that you try these plugins for yourselves but do emphasise that you read all documentation and that I take no responsibility for any problems caused by the installation or use of these plugins. For more great plugins please see my now ancient post Top 10 Wordpress Plugins – February 2009.

If you think there is a plugin worth a mention here or you have developed a plugin and would like it reviewed please comment or contact admin@enterprisemastermind.com. This monthly (…excuse me?) post does get a lot of traffic so if you are a plugin developer it might be in your best interest to get your latest work reviewed here! I don’t charge a penny…

1. WP Ban

Go to download page
Ban users by IP, IP Range, host name or referer URL from visiting your Wordpress Blog. When a banned user attempts a visit they will be greeted by a custom ban message. Statistics are also recorded on how many times they attempt to visit.

2. WP Security Scan

Go to download page
You can never take the subject of your sites security too lightly. Use this plugin to scan your Wordpress installation for security vulnerabilities and get a list of suggested corrective actions to take.

3. WP Greet Box

Go to download page
A plugin to show a greeting message to your new visitors that is dependant upon their referrer URL. For instance, when a user clicks through a link from a particular referrer (example Digg, Twitter) they will be shown a message suggesting that they Digg or Tweet your post. You can also set a default greeting message for new visitors suggesting that they subscribe to your RSS Feed. Brilliant.

4. WP Easy Paypal Payment Accept

Go to download page
Here is a great Wordpress plugin to accept paypal payments for a services, products or donations in multiple currencies with just one click. Can be used in the sidebar, posts and pages of your Wordpress install.

5. WP Simple Paypal Shopping Cart

6. WP Thickbox Integration

Go to download page
Want a simple but elegant way of displaying larger images without having to open a new window? This nifty little plugin utilises jquery to open gallery images in a ‘Lightbox’ style once you have added them via the ‘Add an image’ button. Simply tick the extra ‘Open in the same window’ field and away you go!

7. Contact Form 7

Go to download page
Not the most fully featured contact form plugin out there, but I find this the easiest to implement. Supports Ajax-powered submitting, multiple languages but for captcha to work it now requires installation of the plugin ‘Really Simple Captcha’ (see below).

8. Really Simple Captcha

Go to download page
Designed to work with other plugins and not as a standalone form Captcha. By the author’s own admission its does not provide much security but does work seamlessly with the plugins that support it. It avoids any conflicts by using temporary files instead of using PHP for sessions.

9. MobilePress

Go to download page
With so many of us using mobile platforms (phones/PDAs) to browse the web now it is essential that your web pages are rendered correctly. MobilePress is a WordPress plugin that will render your WordPress blog on mobile handsets, with the ability to use customized themes. The plugin also allows specific themes for specific devices / mobile browsers, such as iPhone, Opera Mini, Windows CE Mobile and other generic handset browsers. Excellent!

10. Flipping Book Wordpress Gallery

See demo
Go to download page
Ever wanted one of those galleries where your users turn the pages like in a book? This great plugin lets you do exactly that. Please note that there is a paid for version of this plugin if you wish to remove the authors branding.

11. Google XML Sitemaps

Go to download page
If you don’t know how beneficial Google Sitemaps can be to your blog then read my articles on SEO. Once set up this plugin will inform Google of any changes or additions made to your site automatically. I find this plugin indispensable.

12. Quotes Collection

Go to download page
I was recommended this by a friend whilst trying to source something that would display a set of testimonial quotes on a client’s website in the sidebar. This does the job magnificently.

13. Google Translator

Go to download page
A blog knows no boundaries or borders and no doubt if you have a large readership, a sizeable proportion of that readership will not speak English (or whatever you speak) as a first language. You can set the base language and supports multiple languages. Remember, this translator may help but as with all machine translators it’s not perfect and is no substitute for a correctly translated page.

14. PageMash

Go to download page
If like me you use WP as a CMS to build regular websites then you will no doubt use a lot of pages instead of posts. The Wordpress interface basically sucks when it comes to having to re-order your pages and this plugin rectifies that suckiness. The Ajax interface allows you to drag-and-drop the pages into the order you like, modify the page structure by dragging a page to become a child or parent and toggle the page to be hidden from output. Just what we were looking for!

15. AX Sidebar

Go to download page
Gives you an extra couple of fields within your post admin. Input a title and some content (this can be HTML or plain text) and the content added will then show in the sidebar whenever that particular post is opened. A great idea.

16. Theme Changer & Showcase Plugin

Go to download page
If you are a theme designer or just want to give your visitors a choice of themes to choose from when visiting your site, this plugin is for you. Not only can you list the themes in a simple dropdown menu but you can also add a preview thumbnail to make choosing easier. Excellent in its simplicity.

17. WP-SpamFree Anti-Spam

Go to download page
I have always been a fan of Akismet and in the past it has graced my Top 10 lists almost every month. I have noticed of late that just too much spam is getting through Akismet, no matter how much I tell Akismet it’s spam, it doesnt seem to learn like it should. So I decided to try out another plugin and I am glad I did. This fully featured anti-spam plugin not only stops comment spam, trackback spam and pingback spam but it also includes its own spam-free contact form. Give it a try.

18. Pageear Page Peel Plugin

Go to download page
Not a massive fan of page peels, I think they are OK if they aren’t too obtrusive, which they all too often are. Nevertheless they are a tried and tested means of marketing and they are proven to work so I thought I would trial one for Wordpress. I found this one to be best, you can see it in action up in the top left hand corner of the screen (if you haven’t already clicked it!). Simple to set up with clear and comprehensive features. A great plugin.

19. WP-Cumulus

Go to download page
OK, I’ve succumbed to form over function (very unlike me!). Never been a big fan of Tag Clouds let alone spinny, swirly, pretty ones – but if you like that sort of thing then this is probably your cup of tea. The Author even admits that clicking the tags is a little hard (!?)… I despair.

20. Twitter Widget Pro

Go to download page
A widget that properly handles twitter feeds, including @username, #hashtag, and link parsing. It supports displaying profiles images, and even lets you control whether to display the time and date of a tweet or how long ago it happened (about 5 hours ago, etc). Requires PHP5.

Check back next month to see which plugins I’m recommending!

Top 10 Wordpress Plugins – February 2009

Ant Harper — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:33:58 +0000

I’m not managing much in the way of blogging lately due to a sudden explosion of interest in my Website Design and Development business which is not leaving me with a lot of time spare. Nevertheless, I think I should make the effort to at least keep this, one of my most popular monthly posts, alive and kicking. So here’s my Top 10 Wordpress Plugin roundup for February. Some plugins are the same as previous months, and this is because they can’t be bettered and so must remain. I would recommend that you try these plugins for yourselves but do emphasise that you read all documentation and that I take no responsibility for any problems caused by the installation or use of these plugins. For more great plugins please see Top 10 Wordpress Plugins – January 2009.

1. WP Easy Paypal Payment Accept

2. WP Simple Paypal Shopping Cart

3. WP Thickbox Integration

4. Contact Form 7

Go to download page
Not the most fully featured contact form plugin out there, but I find this the easiest to implement. Supports Ajax-powered submitting, multiple languages and has its own Captcha to filter out non-human sp@mbots.

5. Google Translator

6. Flipping Book Wordpress Gallery

7. Google XML Sitemaps

8. Theme Changer & Showcase Plugin

9. AX Sidebar

10. Pageear Page Peel Plugin

Check back next month to see which plugins I’m recommending!

Niche Markets and your Business – Part 2

Ant Harper — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:19:52 +0000

In Part 1 we took a look at why you need to find a Niche Market for your business. It helps to focus your marketing and ensures that your chosen market can be targeted and reached effectively. Finding a niche market that suits you personally is equally important and by asking yourself the questions below you will greatly improve your chances of being successful.

Do I know about my niche product or service?

Think about what you are good at. What skills do you have? Have you got any hobbies that you could turn into a product or business? If you don’t have any skills or hobbies that you could use, what would you like to try? Then consider whether this could be turned into a business venture and put aside some time to research the topic thoroughly, eventually leading you to the knowledge to build your own marketing niche in that subject.
By knowing your niche product and service you will ensure that you have the edge over competitors that don’t.

Am I passionate about my niche product or service?

Sometimes knowledge alone is not enough and enjoying what you are doing in your business venture will ensure that you devote the time and attention needed to make things happen. When the chips are down (and profits) you will be more likely to keep going with something you enjoy doing. Anyway, who doesn’t want work to be enjoyable?

Will enough people want my niche product or service?

If you choose a niche market that is too broad in its scope it may be difficult to make your business stand out against all the others in its field. Choose a narrow, highly targeted product and the lack of competitition will mean that anyone searching for that product will find you. Do research into your chosen product or niche and make sure that people are searching for your product by using an online tool such as those listed below.

Google Trends – http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends
Amazon Bestsellers - http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers
Magazines.com - http://www.magazines.com/
Shopping.com Top Searches – http://www.shopping.com/top_searches
AOL Hot Searches – http://hotsearches.aol.com/

Top 10 Wordpress Plugins – January 2009

Ant Harper — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:34:29 +0000

Well here’s the first of my monthly Top 10 Wordpress Plugin roundups of 2009. Some plugins are the same as previous months, and this is because they can’t be bettered and so must remain. I would recommend that you try these plugins for yourselves but do emphasise that you read all documentation and that I take no responsibility for any problems caused by the installation or use of these plugins. For more great plugins please see Top 10 Wordpress Plugins – November 2008.

If you think there is a plugin worth a mention here or you have developed a plugin and would like it reviewed please comment or contact admin@enterprisemastermind.com

1. ‘Branded Admin’ Plugin

Go to download page
If you are a web designer like myself, you will no doubt have set up a few Wordpress based websites for some of your clients. This plugin enables you to rebrand the /wp-admin pages to follow your own styles. Great if you want to remind your client just who put in all that hard work re-skinning and hacking that theme as they set about trashing your lovely site.

2. ‘Branded Login Screen’ Plugin

Go to download page
Completely hide the fact that your site is a Wordpress Installation (or at least make it less obvious) with this plugin and the plugin listed previously. Does what it says, allows you to rebrand the login page with your own graphics.

3. GD Star Rating

Go to download page
Want to put a rating systems on your post content? How about your comments? This nifty plugin allows you to do that and much more. Have statistics generated and displayed in your sidebar by using the GD Star rating widget and have full control over the look and feel of your stars (or whatever graphic you choose!) Looks great too! The author has even put together different star sets for you to upload.

4. Old Post Promoter

Go to download page
Allows you to promote old posts back to the top position on your home page and back into your RSS feed. The Old Post Promoter randomly chooses a post from posts in your blog and updates the timestamp. When the timestamp on the post is updated, the post will appear to be the latest post on your WordPress blog, returning it to the front page of your blog. Ideal if your blog sin’t going to get updated for a while but has planty of content to keep new visitors interested. **IMPORTANT – DO NOT USE IF YOUR PERMALINK STRUCTURE INCLUDES DATES – UPDATE YOUR PERMALINK STRUCTURE FIRST!**

5. Wordpress Backup

Go to download page
Something we should all do on a regular basis – backup. This handy plugin backs up your upload (images), current theme, and plugin directories. You can specify a regular scheduled backup that can be then sent to an email address of your choice. PLEASE NOTE: You will still need to make sure your database is backed up seperately!

6. Akismet

Bundled with Wordpress and for good reason. Without a spam blocker such as this your comment queue would be full of trash in no time at all. Requires a Wordpress API key to function. If you haven’t got this plugin activated already, do it now!

7. Google XML Sitemaps

8. My Adsense

Go to download page
Great plugin that helps you manage the Google Adsense ads that you wish to display on your blog posts or sidebars. Easy to use and fully featured.

9. In the Loop

Go to download page
Ever needed to add things to the end of every post or page but had to hack the theme to do it? Well if you don’t want the bother or don’t know how then this plugin may be for you. With this plugin you can add any code you like to your posts and pages without ever having to mess with templates or theme files. The plugin provides an options panel with two input boxes. One is for content you want to appear before your post, the other for after it. Each box comes with a set of options to control whether to show it on Teasers, Single Posts, Pages, The Feed and whether or not to execute PHP. Genius.

10. RSS Includes Pages

Go to download page
And this is STILL at number 10 because I just can’t dispense with this simple plugin. If like me you use Wordpress as a CMS to build websites as well as blogs you will no doubt have found that Pages are not included in the RSS feed. Well, with this plugin your problems are over. Simply install, activate and voila, your pages will appear within the feed.

Check back next month to see which plugins I’m recommending!

Niche markets and your business – Part 1

Ant Harper — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:02:21 +0000

What is a niche market and why do I need to find one?

With recession looming and predicted to last at least the next 2 years, more and more individuals and businesses are quite rightly deciding that now is the time to diversify. I have done it myself, blogging is only a hobby for me and my day-job is running my own Website Design and Development company, but realising that times are going to be tough and bills will still need to be paid, I also run an online store selling videogaming equipment and sell photographic services alongside my Website Design. The choices I made when deciding how to diversify were easy for me, both of these other businesses closely relate to my hobbies (being a keen videogamer and photographer in my spare time) and my Website Design skills enabled me to get them online with considerable ease.

It may not be as simple as that if you decide to start up a new business in your own spare time though and finding a market for a business that is going to be profitable is a tricky thing to do. Many markets are already saturated and getting a foothold and exposure in these markets can be a time consuming and cost-ineffective endeavour.

“Why find a niche market?” I hear you say. “Doesn’t that just limit the people I can sell to?”
Not at all. In fact, finding a niche market and marketing specifically to that niche is one of the most important things to get right in any Internet Marketing Strategy. Once you know who it is you are marketing to it is easy to spend your energy and money on the right things.

Here’s a simplified example:

I am asked by a garden building manufacturer and retailer in Manchester to come up with an Internet Marketing Strategy. They are not selling enough Summer Houses. The first thing I ask them is “Who do you market to?” They tell me “Anyone who wants a Summer House.” Now the chances of someone coming from Birmingham to purchase a garden building in Manchester is slim. So instead of wasting money and time marketing to ‘anyone who wants a Summer House’ I tell them they would be better marketing to “anyone interested in buying a Summer House within 50 miles of Manchester”. By narrowing their niche market down they now know where to spend their time and marketing money and are now at an advantage over the other garden building retailers in the Manchester area who are still selling to ‘anyone who wants a Summer House’.

Finding and defining a niche market before you start any Internet Marketing Strategy is important for the following reasons:

By targeting a clearly defined niche market you will know exactly where to advertise and where to look to find related sites that cater for your market therefore maximising your marketing budget.
You can build a website that caters specifically for your niche market. This makes Search Engine Optimisation easier and enables you to target your niche market effectively via the search engines.
By knowing your niche market, it will be easier to develop new products and services to cater for that market.
With time and effort you can become a market leader in your chosen niche.