Build a Niche Store - Getting an Edge Over Your Competition

Here’s a great trick for getting an edge over your competition using your Build a Niche Store sites…

1. Go to Google Alerts and enter in a search term for your niche. For example, if your niche was the “Nintendo Wii” then your search term might be “Nintendo Wii” or maybe even just “Nintendo.”
    
2. Next tell Google what types of alerts you want. “News” is good if you just want to see news items relating to your niche. “Blogs” is a great way to stay updated on the latest blogging activity surrounding your niche. “Comprehensive” gives you everything. Just pick one and try it, you can always change it later.
    
3. Next tell Google how often you want the alerts. I suggest you choose either “once a day” or “once a week,” again depending on your own preference.
    
4. Finally enter in your e-mail address that you want Google to send the alerts to.
    

Now here’s how this gives you a jump on your competition…

Let’s say that Nintendo is coming out with a brand-new controller for the Nintendo Wii. It’s not out yet and won’t be released for a few months, but Nintendo has announced it early in order to start creating buzz. This controller is going to be hot, and you’re going to want to feature it on your BANS site once it comes out and there’s auctions for it on eBay, won’t you?

Well why wait! Do some keyword research or at least take your best guess on some good keywords for the new product (the actual product name itself does wonders) and create a new store landing page on your site for it. Configure it as though there were auctions for it on eBay, even if there aren’t any at the moment. Maybe even put some text on the page with information about the product. In the example I’ve been using, you’d go to Nintendo’s site and get information on the controller and add it to your store page.

Now here’s what you’ve just done… you’ve just created a keyword optimized store page on your BANS site for an upcoming product. Do you think the search engines are going to notice that? You bet they will. So when the product is actually released and available on eBay, you’ll already have an established store page that’s been indexed by the search engines. This gives you an advantage because the moment the product becomes available, you’ll already be positioned to get organic search engine traffic. In addition, as people search for the product before it’s released, they have a good chance of finding your store. Imagine… someone interested in the specs for the new upcoming controller finds your site and then orders something.

If you really wanted to take this up a notch, you could include an opt-in form inviting visitors to join your mailing list to get notified the moment the controller is available for sale. That way you can reel them back in when there are sales to be made, and you’ve just obtained a new lead for your mailing list that you can use for e-mail marketing.

Hopefully you can see the possibilities here, and maybe even come up with some creative ideas of your own. The point is that if you utilize Google Alerts to stay informed on the latest news and buzz surrounding your niche, you can use that knowledge to give yourself an edge over your competition.

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