If you want to guarantee failure for your project then you can disregard this statement and go ahead with your venture. You'll learn the hard way.

Isn't it amazing that the reason most people fail in their business is right at the very beginning? It's like building a house on a swamp. I've been there before. I just couldn't wait to get started and I held on to the false belief that if the product was good enough then it would sell itself.....it never did.

The most important step you can take is finding a niche market to target. You must identify a "group of people" with a common problem who are easy to reach and actively looking for a solution to their problem. You MUST identify the niche before you can think about what product you're going to sell to them.!

It's worth mentioning this again. "Identify a group of people who are easy to reach and actively looking for a solution to their problem"

Most people come up with a product they ASSUME people will want and then they try to force it on the market, only to be left totally bewildered as to why no one wants it!

There is another common myth in marketing that you just have to meet people's needs. Well, there's a lot of truth in this................ but here's the naked truth.

PEOPLE DON'T ALWAYS BUY WHAT THEY NEED, THEY BUY WHAT THEY WANT

Try to find out what people want to buy instead of what they might need.

Carefully define your target market as this is the number one key to your online marketing success. Never try to appeal to too many people, because it's a very expensive mistake and you could kill your business before it even gets off the ground. GO NICHE!

Case Study ' Sue Morris ' www.ThailandExperience.org

Sue Morris invited me to join her when she was struggling to get her teaching organization off the ground back in 2002. I was backpacking around Asia at the time and I'd just discovered that I'd lost ALL my money on the stock market.......so I accepted.

Sue was running a teacher training program for young graduates who wanted a gap year teaching experience in Thailand. All new teachers must complete a 4 week TEFL (Teach English as a Foreign Language) course before teaching overseas, which was included in Sue's package. As the market was saturated with TEFL course providers Sue was having problems getting enough students to sign up even though she was offering an attractive package.

Sue believed she had a TEFL training course with a job package attached and was competing head on with the other TEFL providers. When I asked Sue what her customers/clients were really looking for, she said she "thought" her customers wanted to work in, or take a TEFL course in, Thailand but she wasn't sure.

I suggested that we run a one day telethon campaign to find out for sure. We simply spent a day calling everyone on the database and asked each one the Top Secret Magic Marketing question that few people ever ask. ............................."What do you want?"

You'll be amazed at what you'll find out when you ask these 4 magic words.

We discovered a trend in what people were telling us. No one mentioned anything about a TEFL course. Not once did it come up. They all said they wanted to teach English in Thailand, explore new cultures and travel around Thailand. Of course the TEFL training course was part of the vehicle to achieve this and they knew it, but it wasn't part of the conversation that was going on inside their heads.

We devised a marketing campaign that was built around "Teaching in Thailand" and "Experiencing Thailand". So by not talking about "TEFL courses" or "working in Thailand" as she had been doing, Sue increased her enrolments and sales by 300% within 6 weeks.

So the moral of the story here which also applies to YOUR business is:

"DON'T' GIVE THEM WHAT YOU THINK THEY WANT - GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT"

Tap into the conversation that's going on inside your prospects head and build your product, service, USP and marketing campaign around it.

To your success.