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Make Money From Dreams: How To Niche Market

Make Money From Dreams: How To Niche Market | Startup Revolution | Scoop.it


As creatives, we all want to produce work that's unique and worthwhile, but this often seems at odds with the commercial pressure to cater to the lowest common denominator. Yet the mass market isn't the only market with money. Find the right niche market and you could be in business, producing work you love in a way that'll keep you going right up to retirement.

Marty Note
When my ex and I created FoundObjects.com (now gone except in the WayBckMachine) helping Magneitic Poetry Kit become a $50M specialty gift we discovered two important ideas:

* Everyone has a gift idea they want to share.
* Alternative distribution can create everything from a lifestyle business to a big win.

At Found Objects we used the web as a great B2C testing ground and to keep our B2B partners honest. If our B2B partners passed on something we thought was cool we could make a market for it ourselves via direct sales.

This Creative Bloq post updates our Found Objects experience with the many contemporary tools that can help a dreamer realize their dream even without a FoundObjects.com. Great Brian Yanish Scoop and post.




Via Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com
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Creating Digital Marketing Ecosystems For Traffic & Money - Curatti.com

Creating Digital Marketing Ecosystems For Traffic & Money - Curatti.com | Startup Revolution | Scoop.it
Without revenue a small business is just a hobby.  So, how does a typical small business go about getting clients and revenue?
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:

Without revenue a small business is just a hobby.

Typical small business marketing follows a path of diminishing returns. 

 

Great Curatti.com post by @CogentCoach Michael Nelson. Agree, " Without revenue a small business is just a hobby." Also agree, " Typical small business marketing follows a path of diminishing returns", but have a thought to add there. 

Michael discusses the diminishing returns of a reference network that slowly decays out (from previous employer). Diminish returns also applies to many things Small to Medium Sized Business do to "advertise" their business. 

All the networking, advertising and hand wringing a SMB does WITHOUT a viable website / blog is diminished by more than half. The ONLY way to assure what you did today GROWS is to create a "getting bigger everyday" online presence (period, full stop). 

Important to find marketing that produces the opposite of "diminishing returns', marketing where you get MORE back from less effort over time. Michael describes this well too:

This saturation and frequency of use make digital marketing a great option for marketing and building relationships with your prospects and clients.


"While digital marketing is a great option, it is a confusing milieu of platforms, services, tools, etc.  Rather than chasing about trying to do a bit of everything, it’s best to create a system and measure your results.  When you get comfortable, you can add a bit more or expand your reach with your system."

"Create a system" or as P&G taught me all those years ago, "Work your plan" is important. Here are some tips for that system:

* Do a core set of activities DAILY.

* Always reserve 20% (or so) of your time to test new ideas, tools, websites, and partners. 
* Reserve another 20% of your time to respond to and curate content from your previously shared content. 
* Follow people who help you (since it is an online Thank You Note) and follow people you can learn from. 
* Keep life and business in balance and don't get discouraged since it can take months or a year before content marketing begins to scale. 
* Don't worry about "breaking" anything. Internet marketing is like building sand castles on the beach and the tide is always about to come in. 
* Learn to SURF trends, don't try and wrestle them. 

Great post and YES you must build a viable, sustainable and growing Digital Marketing Ecosystem if you want to do anything these days. 
Marty 

 


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Pssst...hey man you got the Crowdfunde Enterprise Crowdfunding Biz Plan or What?

Pssst...hey man you got the Crowdfunde Enterprise Crowdfunding Biz Plan or What? | Startup Revolution | Scoop.it

Waterboarding or Business Plan Reading
I "retired" from my Marketing Director post at Atlantic BT last week to start my fifth company. Yes that's right the Shuffle Board World Championships will have to wait a few more years as we try to build a new tool to help B2C and B2B content marketers tap a rich new vein of User Generated Content gold - "enterprise crowdfunding".

Yes we realize "enterprise crowdfunding" sound like an oxymoron, but we think crowdfunding will become a new marketing channel for e-retailers and B2B content marketers. Our plan is due Monday. If you would like to be a "reader" and pass up the waterboarding let us know and we will make sure you get a copy of the Crowdfunde business plan.

All ides, comments and suggestions are much appreciated no matter how much we disagree (lol). Marty

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Lean Content Movement Brings HUGE Startup Opportunities

Lean Content Movement Brings HUGE Startup Opportunities | Startup Revolution | Scoop.it
Making the most efficient and effective use of strategies, tools, and technology for content marketing.
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:

Understanding The Lean Content Movement
I just wrote my second piece on the Lean Content Movement being created by the team at @Scoopit (http://www.atlanticbt.com/blog/scoopit-and-the-lean-content-movement/ ). 

Here are just a few opportunities that are out there for courageous startups to tackle:

* Tools capable of publishing to multiple locations simultaneously.
* Tools to create PERSONAS (customer archetypes). 
* Tools to create Segments (financial groupings such as VIPs). 
* Mobile content management tools.  

* Better Metrics tools (tie top of funnel TRAFFIC to bottom CONVERSION). 

Here are a few of the cool startups creating tools to support the Lean Content Movement:

http://www.Scoop.it  

http://www.compendium.com/

http://www.topsy.com 

http://www.storify.com 

http://www.tweetreach.com 

How about you? What are your favorite "lean content" tools? Comment them in and I will curate into the post. As as content publisher I offer my feedback services to any startup creating a tool to help curate and create for the Lean Content Movement. 


Lars Bredahl's curator insight, April 26, 2013 12:39 PM

"Underneath it all, we do want to be sold. But first, we want to be entertained."

Beach Buzz Media's curator insight, April 30, 2013 4:17 PM

Indeed it does!

Beach Buzz Media's curator insight, April 30, 2013 4:29 PM

Beach Buzz Media-- Perfect example!

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Triangle Startup Factory ACCEPTS CrowdFunde For Spring 2014 Class

Triangle Startup Factory ACCEPTS CrowdFunde For Spring 2014 Class | Startup Revolution | Scoop.it

CrowdFunde Accepted Triangle Startup (TSF) Factory
Thanks to friends who wrote cards and letters and thanks to the team at Triangle Startup Factory, our Durham, NC based startup incubator, who are willing to take a risk on CrowdFUnde as we smash content marketing and crowdfunding together to see what happens.

Our TSF session starts March 10th and we hope you will join us as we share this great startup adventure.

CrowdFunde
http://www.crowdfunde.com

Haiku Deck Pitch to TSF
http://shar.es/QFOzU


Triangle Startup Factory
http://thestartupfactory.co/


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SEO For Content Marketers: 5 Quick Tips - via @Curatti_

SEO For Content Marketers: 5 Quick Tips - via @Curatti_ | Startup Revolution | Scoop.it
SEO for content marketers shares 5 "Quick Tips" to avoid SEO bear traps like: dupe content, keywords as friends, little things, & it's a SoLoMo world.
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:

Turns out the only QUICK thing about writing 5 SEO Tips for Content Marketers is reading it (lol). I quickly realized I'd bitten off more than I can comfortably chew (a familiar state). Each of these 5 tips could command several thousand words to fully 'splan it

Every startup entrepreneur is a content marketer whether they realize it or not. Startups need to do content first, but they rarely do. Trying to explain every aspect of SEO for thoe new to content marketing like startps would take 10,000 words.

So I didn't try to explain content marketing SEO soup to nuts. Instead of getting deep in the weeds I shared experience with each tip and links to learn more.


No one should attempt to do all 5 at the same time anyway since any 2 of them will be a full time job for a 3 to 5 person Internet marketing team for several weeks to a month.

BUT, do any 2 of these tips and your website's traffic, conversions and profits go up. Want to know why conversions go up? Read my GPlus intro: https://plus.google.com/102639884404823294558/posts/4kWa3aorYCc


janlgordon's comment, December 17, 2013 12:49 AM
Marty, this is excellent, going to definitely apply a few of these to Curatti immediately! Great to have you on the team!!
Rescooped by Martin (Marty) Smith from Digital Delights - Images & Design
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Easy To Use Webydo Creates Websites Even Designers Love [Video]

Vimeo is the home for high-quality videos and the people who love them.

Via Ana Cristina Pratas
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:

Cool web design app from a trusted source (Ana).

DeBorah Beatty's curator insight, May 11, 2013 8:41 PM

This looks like something to check into! Too bad it's frame based, though.

MrAnalytic's curator insight, May 12, 2013 6:44 AM

very nice design!

Ana Cristina Pratas's comment, May 12, 2013 12:43 PM
Too kind of you Marty! Thank you!