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84 Comments 
9 minutes
If you don’t know by now, the “cloud” is a way that myself and thousands of other people are now referencing the internet and the servers that power it. Cloud jacking is simply taking over the market in your niche and gaining mindshare. It doesn’t have to be as dirty as it might sound though. I completely believe in honest engagement and quality content to help you rise about the competition.
I like to think I have Cloud-jacked quite a few niches over the last four years. For example, I’ve managed to build a top 10 personal development blog in 12 months and I was voted the top social media marketer under 21. It all took a lot of work, but it also followed the same process. And this process, guys, is what I’m going to share with you today.
For the rest of this article, I will assume you have a niche in mind. If you don’t, then decide on one. What is it that you love? What could you write about / create videos on / talk about with ease?
What is it that you read about and study when you should be sleeping or dream about while you’re at work? Whatever you’re thinking of right now, there’s a good chance that should be your niche.
Step 1: Find Your Market
If you asked me where people who are interested in personal development hang out online, I could answer you easily. They hang out on blogs by people like Marc, Luciano and Tim. There’s also the ‘leave your job’ type bloggers writing excellent content such as Cody, Corbett and Christine. They can be found on the Steve Pavlina forums, forums for specific aspects of personal development (motivation, productivity, health) and they also like to spend time on Facebook Groups.
I know this because that is my market. When you have an idea in mind of what to offer people (content on a particular topic) then you need to find where they are getting it already. Step one is to simply find out the biggest websites in your niche and the platforms in place that cater to your future audience.
If you’re lucky, the top sites in your industry will be bloggers. Even if you’re not going to start a blog, authors of these sites are very often the influencers online and with real people behind them, you have someone to engage with. To find out where your audience is hiding, I recommend searching:
- Google: Try keyphrases such as “top blogs on [niche],” “[niche] forum,” “[niche] community”
- Facebook: Search using the form on the top right of the site for keywords relating to your market. There’s a good chance you’ll find groups focused around topics you want to cover
- Ning: You can think of Ning as a Facebook but for niche communities. You can use their own search function or try a Google search like “site:ning.com [niche]” (without the quotes)
- Reddit: Reddit allows users to create sub-reddits so you can read content on certain topics. The top articles here will probably also help you find the top bloggers.
There are many more ways to uncover your market online, but those should get you started.
Step 2: Identify & Locate the Influencers
The influencers behind most blogs are of course, the writers. The influencers behind forums are often the owners, but sometimes the moderators or just active users. The influencers behind Facebook groups not only include the creator, but the people who put in their time and effort to keep the group active. The influencers on Twitter tend to be those with the highest (natural) and most targeted follow count (maybe sad, but it’s true) and the influencers on Digg and Reddit are not the content creators, but the people submitting the content.
Ideally, I would locate no less than five influencers and no more than ten. If you choose less than five then you may not get enough engagement back from them and if you choose more than ten it will hard to keep active communications with everyone. It may be that your influencers are all bloggers which is totally fine. Just know who they are.
Once you have located your influencers, find out where else they are online. Do they run blogs? Have Facebook? Use Twitter? Friendfeed? The more places you can connect with someone, the better.
Step 3: Look for Gaps in How the Niche Operates
If you’ve done the last two steps properly, this one should be fairly easy. By now you should have a good idea of where your market spends their time online and what type of websites they like to visit. Your task now is to see if there is some way you can differ from the competition and still give people what they want.
- If there are tons of blogs in your niche, would people benefit from a forum? (and vice versa)
- If your market is spread out on tons of different sites, would they appreciate something like a niche Ning website?
- If the bloggers are used to writing short content, could you write something longer which provides more value? (or short content where most people write long-winded articles?)
It may also be the case that people can’t actually find what they are looking for. To find out some interesting data, I recommend you use one of my favourite tools: the Google Keywords Tool. What this does is tell you exactly how many people are searching for certain keyphrases each month in Google. So I want you to head over there, select All Countries and Territories, and enter a keyphrase that is relevant to your niche.
Make sure the drop-down on the top right is set to exact instead of broad. From here, you will likely see keyphrases that are getting thousands of searches every month. The next step is to head over to Google, type in those phrases, and see if there are actually relevant results. If there are thousands of people searching for something that nobody is offering (or there are no great results), that could be your gap.
All you have to do is find a gap in your niche or differ from whatever is already out there. It’s very possible to dominate a niche simply by doing what everyone else does and using something like authenticity as your innovation, but it’s not always enough. As an example, look at what I have done here in the internet marketing niche with ViperChill. 99% of bloggers in this niche write 500-600 word blog posts on the most generic topics.
Then, here I am writing 2-3,000 word posts and I’m actually someone who makes my living online and has worked with Fortune 100 companies. I am eliminating the people who want short content and nothing more, but I really stand out for those who are sick of the norm. You cannot interest every single member of your market, but you can certainly build your 1,000 true fans from a new way of doing things.
Step 4: Building Out Your Base (& Your Brand)
Even before you have produced any type of content, you should be out there and interacting within your community. I don’t care if you don’t have a website to drive them to and neither do they. The more human aspects you can put across online without trying to get things from people, the more trust you will build and the more they will engage.
Wherever you found your market in step one and the influencers in step two, I want you to be there. If the market hangs out on forums and leave comments on a few popular blogs then I want you to register on that forum and start commenting on those blogs. This is really simple stuff, but you will be amazed at how many people neglect things like this.
If the influencers use Twitter or have active Facebook fan pages, I want you to become a fan and register an account on Twitter.
Get An Avatar – An avatar is a simple image that will represent you wherever they go. It’s important to choose one because people are far more likely to remember you by an image than by a username or ‘identity’. I know this because it really confuses the hell out of me when people talk to me on Twitter and I have no idea who they are just because they changed their image.
An avatar can really be anything that you like. Here are some I’ve found from active social media users that might give you some inspiration:
The second one is mine which I used for my PluginID brand
Once you have an avatar it can be used on places like:
- Forums as your profile picture
- Blog comments as your gravatar
- Your Twitter profile picture
- Your Ning / Youtube / Delicious / Plurk account image and so on..
Spend time interacting in the relevant communities without being someone there just to gain something in return. If you have picked the right niche to start with (one that you abso-friggen-lutely love) then this should be enjoyable anyways.
Step 5: Regularly Produce Remarkable Content
Every other step in ‘dominating’ your niche is completely pointless if you miss out this crucial point. Whether your content is in text, audio, video or even eBook form, it has to be remarkable. And by remarkable, I simply mean that it has to be worth talking about. I swear that if I see another “10 Plugins for Your WordPress Blog” post that I’ll go insane. I’m sure a lot of other people feel the same way, which is why you’ll never see that kind of thing here.
With pretty much every single post, I want people to walk away (or click away) thinking their time was well spent reading this website and they should come back again. If I’m lucky, they’ll also tell their blog readers or friends and my audience will start to grow. I’m putting hours upon hours into every single article, but I believe that it is worthwhile. People just don’t talk about things that are mediocre.
As I said earlier, authenticity can be your innovation. If the influencers in your niche are robotic and not very personal, that could be your purple cow. That could be what people talk about. If you don’t set a standard for yourself on the quality of work you are going to put out there, your quality will probably drop as time goes on.
I have already made my motto for this site clear: if I’m not producing content that is better (just in my opinion, of course) than everyone else who blogs about marketing, I won’t click the ‘publish’ button. For PluginID, I wanted to be as honest as possible about the problems that have came up in my life and how I got over them (such as only having 3 girlfriends in 18 years and then having an abundance of women in my life). If I wrote blog posts as if I was perfect, nobody would be able to relate to what I was saying and feel engaged in my site.
Your remarkable content is your way of putting out hooks that people can grab on to. Remarkable can come in the form of humour, entertainment or education; but if you don’t have it, then your chances of achieving something great are next to none.
Step 6: Engage the Audience, And the Influencers
Now that you’re putting some great stuff out there, it’s time to put step 4 into overdrive. I’m sure you’re aware that the phrase “build it and they will come” does not apply to producing content online. A better adaption for the web would be “build it, engage, and they will come (and hopefully tell their friends)”. Yeah, I definitely prefer that second one, even if it is much harder to say.
Instead of giving very specific advice here, which I can’t because thousands of people will read this and your audience is in lots of different communities, I’m going to share ideas for how you can engage in different platforms and with different people:
- Twitter: I find that the people I engage with most in Twitter a) Retweet my articles b) Ask thought provoking questions or discuss thought provoking topics and c) bust my balls. If you want to get involved with others on Twitter, I can only recommend you do the same. The more human aspects you can bring to the service, the better.
- Facebook: Facebook is a tricky one and to be honest, I don’t spend much time there. What I do recommend though is that if you have a profile, put a link to it on your website. That allows people who are viewing your website already to get in touch and create a deeper connection. I know a number of people who have success with Facebook Fan Pages (rather than Groups) and I think you should start engaging with the ones that are out there already until you build your own.
- Forums: I used to be a forum (message board) junkie a few years ago and definitely built my authority in some. The most important tip I have for forums is to put your website link in your signature (if possible) and then just forget about it. Forget you might get visitors for interacting in the site…just interact. Start engaging threads and provide excellent replies and you might quickly find people naturally starting threads about what you’re working on.
- Bloggers: Bloggers are busy. Well, most of them are. So, instead of trying to get on a bloggers radar by annoying them through email, connect in a way that they will love. This could mean stumbling their articles, linking to their blog posts, commenting on their articles and even retweeting them. Giving before you get applies here more than ever. Once you’ve been giving for a while then start to engage in more personal surroundings like email.
- Offline: If you can meet your audience and the influencers in an offline environment, this will help you more than anything. You can create great relationships online, but they are absolutely nothing in comparison the ones you can create offline. If you can go to conferences, tweetups, seminars or anything of the sort then get yourself there. I’m far more likely to help out someone I’ve met than “some guy I spoke to on the internet some time.”
There are two things you need to remember about these sites:
- 1. There have not been built for you to spam an audience. They are there as communication tools that allow you to ethically engage with your market. I recommend you use them as such
- 2. They should not be what you do, they should be thought of like a megaphone to amplify what you’re already doing on your website.
Step 7: Please, Stay Consistent
I’m begging you, really. I know this is something you probably hear time and time again but I cannot stress enough how important this is. Around 4 months ago, there was a blogger in the personal development niche who was really started to get noticed. At 15, he definitely had his unique selling point down, and he was starting to grow his audience of a few hundred subscribers.
I watched an interview with him and I remember thinking, “Man, if this kid just keeps doing what he’s doing, he’s going to go far.” So, that’s exactly what I told him. I sent him an email and said “Dude, the only advice I have for you is this: do not give up.” He assured me that he wouldn’t because he loves what he is doing. Two weeks later I never heard from him again.
No blog posts, tweets, emails or anything. I actually have a bad feeling something might have happened to him, but I think it’s more likely that he just gave up one day and never got back into things.
All I have to say to you is exactly what I said to him: keep doing this. If you are providing excellent content and continue to hustle, things will start to work out in your favour. I blogged here at ViperChill for over 2 years before I made a single penny. I did not care about building an audience, I simply wrote for myself. I didn’t care that I didn’t make money of course, because I absolutely love what I’m doing.
If you’re relying on the internet as your big break to make money in 3-4 months so you can quit your job then it’s possible, yes, but probably not by building a remarkable site. I’m afraid (I’m glad actually, as those who are willing to put the time in get the rewards) you’re more likely to wait a year before you can do that. Depending on many factors, of course.
Now don’t let me down, I put hours into this article so you can start to dominate your market by giving your audience the best content they can get. It’s time to cloudjack, baby!
84 Comments
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Copyright ยฉ 2016 ViperChill, a Marketing Inc. Company : Contact / Privacy Policy / Earnings Disclaimer / More: Gaps / Glen Allsopp.com
Yeap,I couldn’t agree more on step 7. Consistency is key. There was this saying: if you call 20 different persons on the phone daily, in 2 years you’ll get a job. That was a sad joke, of course, relating to statistics. But if you do for at least 2 years something consistently you’ll start being perceived as someone who’s into that thing. From there, there’s little distance to become an authority, and, as we all know, authority sells ๐
Hey Dragos!
Yep, in that example, it is definitely a numbers game.
Thanks for your comment, bro!
Excellent article, and excellent tips. I agree with Dragos about point 7, time is often the most important factor for success.
Thanks Oscar, really glad that you liked it!
Your advice here really embodies the way to get ANY business up and running, rather than just an online business. It’s some great advice and clearly useful – a simple how-to guide that anyone can follow.
You only touched on the point of needing to have an idea to employ your tactics, but I would say that you don’t necessarily need to have an idea to start your online branding. Simply getting online and posting to a blog allows people to find their voice. Rather than finding top bloggers in a niche, simply look to popular blogs that you find interesting. Eventually you’ll find your voice and a topic you’re interested in writing about.
Finding your voice and the topic you want to cover before getting into extensive networking helps ensure that you will remain consistent with your message.
Great info in this post!
-Brian
That is a great point Brian. I definitely ‘found my way’ in the earlier years just by writing and seeing what happens. From there I helped bring my offline self, online.
Thank you for the excellent comment!
Well now you tell me. Had you written this article a year or so back, it could have saved me a lot of trial and error of figuring out things from various places. This distills it down to one place and is definitely a great start to those who want to get going in the online world, whatever the niche.
I’m off to write a โ10 Plugins for Your WordPress Blogโ post to see if you’ll really go insane ๐
Do it! (Just don’t send me the link or I’ll speak to my buddy, Matt Mullenwegg, so every comment you ever leave on a blog ever again will be caught as spam — thanks to Akismet)
๐
Glad you liked the post James, even if it was a little late
HA! It wasn’t late. What fun would it be if you just told us everything ahead of time? ๐
Glen,
I probably don’t tell you often enough, but you rock! Thanks so much for the continued support and the excellent content.
If you’re ever in the San Diego area, hit me up. ๐
Marc
Hi Marc,
Of course! Always happy to promote great content ๐
Keep well!
– Glen
Great post! You’ve shared some really useful advice here. One point that’s so important is providing great content and I think that’s what most people really struggle with.
Yeah Dani, I totally agree.
Great to see you over here again!
Great guide Glen! It’s one of the best stuff I’ve read in a while! Keep up the good work!
People often don’t realize (or just don’t want to) the importance of connecting, learning and meeting the influencers. And just as you say, there are good and bad ways of connecting with others!
Thank you Mario, I was really hoping someone would say what you said in the first sentence there.
Thank you for stopping by!
Step 7 is a biggie, definitely – and this can be applied to any part of life, not just business. Part of it has to do with the niche you selected and how passionate you are about it. I’ve selected niches before that I know would of done well, but I gave up just because there was no heart in it.
Also, I think people doing business online are not patient enough. Results, although they can come overnight, usually do not happen straight away. We hear about overnight successes all the time, so when people find out that that’s not them, they think they’ve failed, which in most cases, they just haven’t reached that tipping point yet.
Monster post Glen. Thanks, and thanks for your wonderful guest post over at SPI today.
Cheers Pat!
Once again, thanks for the opportunity over at SPI! You make a great point. I think the success stories from others can definitely make you feel like you’re going wrong somewhere.
Appreciate your comment, bro.
– Glen
Great post and so true…especially like #7 around staying true.
Also, interesting you said to ID 5 (to 10)…think that’s a fault as well in that we try to go after a ton of folks to make things interesting…
Keep up the great work!
I have made that mistake myself Jeff so can definitely relate to it. Thank you for stopping by ViperChill and I hope to see you here again soon.
Totally agree with all the points, Glen.
The most important of them all is consistency. As Gary Vaynerchuk says “If you pump good sh*t, people will follow”. If you do it consistently, you can dominate your niche. And ironically, this is something I lack.
One more tip: Guest posting is a really cool way to get yourself in front of many new people/potential readers. Since we have already found the influencers, it is only a matter of time to contact them for a guest post.
Cheers
Hey Ram!
Yeah, I’m a huge advocate of guest posting as it has helped out my own online businesses drastically. I don’t think you necessarily need to guest post on someone’s site to stay on their radar. Ideally, you get to a stage where they are naturally citing you in their work because of your quality output.
Thanks…..I just wish you’d written this months ago as it would have saved me countless hours trying to organizing this in my head!
Great job. Helpful.
You’re the second person who has said that now.
Time machine, anyone?
Hey Glen!
I’m amazed at these awesome posts you keep on coming up with. Such value.
I cannot understand people moaning and complaining about not achieving things, all they have to do is find Viperchill and Plugin and read your posts and get off their butts and take action:) And keep at it ๐
Keep it up man!
Thanks man.
Sleeping is for when you’re dead, right? ๐
Awesome post, Glen. Thanks for the mention. Your tips have obviously worked for you, so they have a certain weight that other writers couldn’t bring to an article like this. I’m with everybody else about point #7. Consistency (sticking with it) is the thing most people struggle with. Keep up the long articles. You’re right that other people in the Internet marketing space usually write short posts that lack depth. Articles like this one are refreshing.
Any time, Corbett. I definitely value information differently depending on who is saying it. I guess that is just very much human nature. It’s nice to know someone values what I say ๐
Thanks buddy!
Glen: Excellent. This article is a definitive guide for “best practices” and true SEO. I’m an art director and web designer whose mission in life is to bring brand integrity to the internet. In the spirit of this article, I submit the following creative guidelines that have helped my clients generate superior content and work a little less.
Addendum to STEP 5: Write Creative Content
Use poetic devices to create more fascinating headlines. Creativity and honest communication are the basis for creating “remarkable” and memorable content. Keep the tone or “voice” of your articles consistent to legitimize your blog brand. Think of your blog as a unique personalityโeach article should reveal more character and build authority. Links should also have a similar tone. Concentrate on frequent quality (like Glen) and not shear volume. If you have a great article that’s lengthy, break it into multiple volumes or chapters. Revisit and update previous successful postings while adding new insight and inviting guest speakers. Unless you’re a notorious celebrity, most people cannot get away with using profanityโso don’t do it.
Some great points here Todd, thanks for sharing.
I don’t really agree with cutting up long articles (as you see, I haven’t done that here) but can definitely understand why most people like to do it.
– Glen
Some great thoughts. I think I am still finding my niche, but know what my readers have enjoyed. Let me clarify…My readers like one topic and I have gone out and provided much more of that content through another site I run called The Minimalist Path. But, what I want to write about most is in a different niche as well as expanding on current successful niches that I haven’t touched yet. I think evolving with your readers is a great way to put it.
David Damron
LifeExcursion
As an experiment, try writing a few posts about what you really want to write about and see what happens. Do readers disappear or do they realise they actually like the new direction?
I think you’ll be (pleasantly) surprised with the results.
Step 5 tends to get overlooked so many times. I think people believe they can write one article and think, “This is it, this is what’s going to make me huge!” But in reality it’s a constant stream of good stuff.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you John, well put!
Think I’m starting to get the gist of all this. You can read bits of it here and there but it’s great to have it all compiled in one check list like this.
I think my main question is whether the rewards will merit the time and effort involved? I think you have to really love doing it to keep it up and that’s a major key to blogging success. I’m looking at it as a rather time-consuming hobby at the moment but secretly hoping that perseverance will pay off in the end – not pay much but maybe a little bit so I can carry on doing it!
Hey Annabel, great to see you here!
I guess the answer to your question depends on what you’re hoping to get out of it. If you want income, then it certainly won’t happen overnight, but if you’re not putting out information that people want, it won’t happen no matter how hard you work.
I know things can seem overwhelming at times with all of these different angles and steps needed to take, but small, consistent action in the right direction will take you far.
You are seriously right about the last fact.
you could be a freaking genius with blogging but if you don’t persist at it, there is no chance of success.
Thanks for providing the very detailed and extensive post you’ve done there. I know you’ve spent a LONG time for this post, so you get a cookie for that lol.
Steven
Any chance you can make that a Millies Cookie?
In the UK, they’re the best available.
Very interesting article. Thanks for these tips. I think it is difficult to create top content but the key is to be honest with yourself and your audience in a consistent way. If you are able to share your thoughts without having an “advertisement” strategy in your mind – then it can work ๐
You’re welcome Hakan, thank you for taking the time to comment.
Hi Glen
Thank you for this. Some interesting reminders here. I feel like Dave at Life Excursion, in that I feel like I am still finding my niche. I know it’s in the personal development niche but I still have more to discover I think. I am finding no 7 (which a lot of people told me before I started blogging and I have really tried to do) a great reminder. I think through writing consistently I am getting clearer too, on what i want to do.
Thanks also for the info re ning and reddit – I will check those out.
Thanks Jen
You’re welcome Jen, thanks for your comments as always.
My advice (and as you know, I’ve struggled with this myself) is to focus on the ideas / niche you do like and see what happens when you write about it. Does it feel right and does the audience respond?
If so, you could be on to a winner.
Dude…you just keep busting out the great content!! I love it man!
I’m still working hard on my niche. I started a website (not blog) as my first foray into the internet and I’m finding that I probably want to change and focus on a more targeted niche, which is the personal development area. I’m still working in figuring the best way to go about doing that, which is frustrating because of the insane amount of time and effort I’ve put into what I have. It’s a bit frustrating, but at the same time I’m glad I’ve overcome the hurdle of non-doing. Of just saying, ‘oh, that looks cool, I should do that’ and then not doing anything. Finally I am starting to take some action.
This advice helps puts some things in context.
Hi Glen – I love your posts! I totally agree with your point about staying consistent. I’ve been running a street fashion site for over two years now, and things have slowly (albeit very slowly) gotten better.
In the first year-and-a-half, I had many days when nobody showed up. Now, I’m getting about 40 or 50 visits a day, have started building a mailing list, and a major magazine in my town recently expressed interest in interviewing me. I’ve been learning lots of little things to help improve my blog – especially from sites like yours. ๐
It’s still tough getting people to leave comments, and I need to work harder on getting more content posted (especially during the winter months), but I can feel the steady move forward. I think it also helps that I really love what I’m blogging about.
Keep up the fantastic work!
[…] Cloud Jacking: 7 Steps to Dominate Your Niche […]
What an eyeopener – sign me up!
You’re right on the money Glen. This is solid, real strategy, that anyone can use to drive success for their blog and online business. There are probably easier and more effective ways to generate fast money, but i’m starting to believe that a blog is de-rigeur for ANYONE who plans to make an impact in the world, and an especially indispensable part of any entrepreneur’s long-term strategy… your voice works.
– Cheers
Glen,
ditto on all of the accolades you’ve recieved on here. Tis true everyone is trying to make a buck and you could have enticed us to an online PDF for purchase. It would’ve been well worth it but I more than likely wouldn’t have purchased due not being certain of the quality once purchased. I am so in need of this support and great advice. I have written a small gift book for women in bad relationships and chose to self-publish and let me tell you I was not aware of what I would be in store for in trying to break into the big retail stores. I know my product is salable and its appearance is very marketable. I must prove myself, sales before I can get through to these venues. So THANK YOU!, your words of advice will be followed in hopes of seeing my goal through. Which is to help women and also donate to animal causes through a portion of proceeds and be able to make a living at this passion. I do have a question. Will it be a problem for me that my domain name is not on topic? If so, can I get the domain name specific (point the A record to my current site…..Oh can you point more than one A record to a site? I am already doing that. I’m a mess huh. LOL) and link all the others to it. I have 3 blogs as well as a website, twitter, facebook, myspace, yelp, and silly me they all have different names. What says you? I’m afraid of the response. Thank you again, Tina
Glen,
You’ve received lots of (well-deserved) praise, and it’s because you pour your heart out into your posts. I’ve read a few and can tell this already. Seems like most of us fail because we want lots of money without doing the actual work. Kind of a universal problem I guess… human nature. But, successful people like being challenged, so I do have a few ball-busting questions for you:
1). How do you manage your time? Between Facebook, Ning, Twitter, and forums (for just one niche) it gets kind of overwhelming. I have a full-time job and a 2 year old son. I believe in chunking tasks so any workflow tips would be helpful. Like I said, I’m taking on a pretty tough niche (500k monthly searches) and I’m building a blog which will eventually turn into an e-commerce store. Here’s what I do to keep the blog up: 1). produce daily articles based on news I receive from Google alerts in my niche 2). Scan Yahoo Answers for interesting questions related to my niche 3). Scan Neatorama, Digg, etc. for posts related to my niche 4). Once a month, I build links from Angela’s backlinking packet 5). Try to post comments on blogs and forums in my niche. I’m creating a few link bait articles, widgets, and articles for submission, but the above 5 tasks keep me plenty busy. Any advice on managing it all if I can’t outsource?
2). Most people who start blogs in a niche aren’t really experts… and their content shows. I’m thinking of buying a few physical books related to my niche and writing blog posts based on what I read from the books. It will not only be educational for me, but it’ll give me tons of great content. All I have to do is find a cool image to place on top of the post. How do you suggest people create great content if they aren’t experts in their topic?
3). What’s the best way to use contests to promote a site? I’m thinking of launching a contest where I ask for tips related to my niche. The best one every month will win a Nintendo Wii or iPod or something. Is it a good idea or too cheesy?
If you’re interested, I can share my niche with you personally. Again, it’s pretty big, but I think I can tackle it. I’d rather do this than focus on 50 smaller niches. If this one works, I have like 3 more niches that I’ll do as well. Maybe I’ll sell a million dollar website myself!
Best,
Raza
[…] Cloud Jacking: 7 Steps to Dominating Your Niche […]
Nice blog Glen…
I have taken the liberty of trying to model the key points in a Knowledge Gene:
http://www.knowledgegenes.com//home.aspx?kgid=10571
Cheers,
Ollie
That’s very cool Ollie,
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Glen,
Great content as usual – no frills, just totally real world and useful. One thing that does really interest me and where I continually struggle against – time management. Could you give us a brief view of your system which seems to work so well? Would really appreciate it.
Cheers
Paul
Once again, awesome tips and information, Glen. To the point and filled with great reminders, like building relationships with the influencers, connecting with them online and off, and focusing on your niche and being consistent with great, helpful content your readers want to know.
Cheers,
Cheryl
”If youโre lucky, the top sites in your industry will be bloggers” Surely if you’re lucky, they won’t be bloggers and then you have a niche gap to fill. With the amount of saturation in most markets, finding a niche to blog about like this would be amazing.
If this post were only talking about building blogs then you might have a point. I cover all types of websites here though. It’s easier to get a blogger to talk about you than a link on the homepage of a popular news site.
Fair point Glen. Thanks for the reply, it’s appreciated. Still new to all this and learning the ropes.
I am amazed how much wisdom you manage to pack into each post – no wonder it takes you hours.
Well, I have to say, I am inspired. I refuse to believe that a newbie can’t do much in competition with influencers; every influencer started as a newbie.
So off I go to claim my own piece of internet real estate.
Best,
Ana Hoffman
Another remarkable post by you, Glen. You’ve got no limit. Just keep up the good work.
[…] If you need tips on building your current following then I recommend these articles on learning how to utilise social media, optimising your website for search and dominating your niche online. […]
This is my first time visiting your blog by searching ‘how to become authority in your niche’ through Google Search Engines.
I totally agree with all your 7 points. Especially on the last part which you advice that we need to be consistent.
From my opinion, consistency can produce any success if you manage to do it and it will be a bonus if you are loving what you are doing.
Thanks Viperchill. I think this post has answered all my question on how to dominate every niche.
To your success dude. ๐
Good reading here. I have been developing a site on meditation using the content-niche style. I’ve been using a method and tools from a company called Site Build It or SBI. Going through their 10 day action guide has taken me 6 months so far and is like getting an e-MBA. Seriously. I’ve learned so much. As my traffic continues to build I will get to the point where I’ll start to monetize. I’m not quite there yet. The SBI formula is one to commit to memory. It goes: Content, Traffic, Pre-Sell, Monetize. Note that monetizing comes LAST. That’s a tough one for sure but it really makes sense once you see how it works. It’s a great thing to be able to carve out and dominate a niche. I’m committed to seeing this through.
Hey Glen,
Thanks for this post. I recently came across Viperchill via Smart Passive Income and really have to say that I am learning a ton. Most other stuff out there on these topics are superficial and fluffy, but you keep it real and practical. I’m really working to wrap my head around this and move forward and you make it doable. What stood out to me the most was the importance of consistency – I haven’t posted in over a week because I have been feeling like I’m not getting anywhere and have been questioning what I need to be doing. This encouraged me greatly!
Thanks
Very late to the game on this one, but thanks again Glen for putting in hours for remarkable content. The value you add here for all of us is incredible. Keep up the great work!
Well it’s good to see that you’re using proper grammar.
Youโve shared some really useful advice here. One point thatโs so important is providing great content and I think thatโs what most people really struggle with.
@Glen,
I found an amazing checklist and I wanted to share: http://www.chromaticsites.com/blog/the-official-successful-website-checklist-challenge/
It seems pretty similar to what you always say, but in checklist format!
Really great read! I think I just got few more steps on my stairway to heaven.
Wow! It’s like you handed me the roadmap I’ve been looking for! It seems like everyone else wants to keep this kind of stuff a secret! Thanks to your blog your assisting us newbies to not drive around endlessly!
awesome man! I’m definitely gonna bookmark this.
Glen, i have been looking for this type of info for a long time. i was just looking in all the wrong places. Thank You
Hi Glen,
Persistence absolutely, a very passionate post. I really see the need to doing it right the first time. There are ways to make money online and off. How neat is it to actually contribute to someone else’s life or move them into the right direction and change it.
If you do something anything for the right reasons then you cannot help but be successful. The money will come and it will be there for the duration. It’s a shame that guy who you never heard from again just vanished. It’s definitely a waste. I love the long post concept. You really feel like you have well spent the time you stay on the site. I took an afternoon and read your entire site and now I am going back to study the most important sections.
A great read I might add. I look forward to more to come…
Thanks,
Pamela
Glen, Thanks for a great article that’s clear, concise and informative.
I have blogged for many years without thinking of monetising, but maybe I will now due to the global economic crunch!
Cheers,
Bip
Glen,
This was a fantastic article!
As someone absolutely NEW to internet marketing, it is great to hear advice from someone who genuinely cares about people he is dealing with, rather than robotic support people working for the various customer support teams(we will keep names out of it).
This article shows how much I have to learn and (as one of the older crowd) how much I missed out by NOT getting involved in the social media scene years ago. With all the hype on things like identity theft, marketing scams and the such, it was something my generation (me especially)had major concerns about. I have never been, nor am I still, a social butterfly and this article points out many glaring mistakes I have made and, while I am just starting out, may be able to correct them by emulating and following your advice. Believe me when I say, you are wise beyond your years and I am more than happy to take the advice of someone who is an expert in their field, regardless of age. I will be a constant visitor to your blog and am now learning on your cloudblueprint video lessons… Even though I stumbled on your site by accident… somebody was definitely leading me to you…lol
Thank you
Thank you
Hello Glen
thanks for the great ideas, I have already implemented a few of them and it has been really interesting. I have always thought of Twitter as a silly gadget for “how r ya” type comments, but you said I should so there I am to follow the influencers – will need to get in there and make some comments. Still feeling my way around and am going back to your tutorials, which I did not fully understand…anyhow, I am really seeing a new side to things thanks a lot, I will keep going and get a better understanding…from Durbs south africa
Glen I must say you don’t hold back with your articles they are incredibly focused and packed full of relevant content.
Many thanks for this one.
Regards
Russ
Hi.
That was the kind of information I was looking for. It was very easy to read from start to end. It inspired me and allowed me to dream that i too can succeed online if i apply those seven principles.
Thanks for taking the time to write it.
I came across your blog yesterday from a post I saw on FB and sure glad I did. Great stuff all the way through and THEN. You reaching out to that 15yo kid with encouragement and inspiration. Now that’s what it’s all about.
This article was exactly what I needed today, thanks. Stay strong.
Hi there Glen,
I’ve found a potential Niche but it isn’t something that I’m an expert in. Any tips on how to write great content and research for great content for a site like this?
Damn, what a great article man !
Just so know ;
So far, you’re the best ressource I’ve found on internet marketing ๐
Keep rocking it !
Thanks for the motivation and informations
Kevin
Hey just found this website, great content. A guy could learn a lot from this site. I hope if i keep at it, I can accomplish half of what you accomplished at 18, by the time i’m 30.
cheers!
The article was pretty impressive.. But what happened about that kid? Did you ever got a chance to contact him/her again?
Also I read this article pretty much late. Anyway it was fun wasting money (actually i didn’t meant that. I got a chance to learn many things)
Great article Glen.
Just when I was feeling pretty discouraged about my site I found your article and it gave me some new inspiration. I just need to keep plowing on!
ViperChill,
I came across this site out of no where and have found the information here to be totally useful. The warrior and 10k subs were also great reads.
David.
This was a great read. I had heard most of it before in various forms online, however things like “Authenticity can be your purple cow” were new to me. I appreciate your work a lot.
Thanks.
Jon