Niche Pursuits Podcast: Find Your Next "Niche" Business Idea!

Marcus Sheridan is an entrepreneur that truly understands content marketing. He was able to take his pool business from the brink of the financial abyss to strong profitability primarily through the use of online content marketing. I absolutely love the story that Marcus has to share, and it was a pleasure to interview him for today's episode of my podcast. To get the full picture, you really need to listen to the podcast; plus you get a better grasp of the fun personality that Marcus has. It was all I could do to keep myself from busting out laughing during a few parts... Content Marketing Advice However, here's a brief synopsis: Marcus started out as a partner in a small swimming pool business. However, for a number of reasons, the company started to go downhill after a while. At this point, Marcus knew he needed to do something differently and started learning about content marketing. He decided to give it his FULL attention and produce lots of great content on their company website: Riverpoolsandspas.com . It wasn't overnight, but the website started generated more traffic and a lot more interest in their business. By focusing on the questions customers ask for content (this is critical), he was able to rank well for lots of long tail keywords in Google. This free traffic, began converting into paying customers. Fast forward a couple of years and their pool business was thriving all because they started marketing their business with content online. Now Marcus focuses the majority of his time teaching others how to use content and inbound marketing in their business. His blog for this business is at: TheSalesLion.com . I highly recommend that you check out his site and download his free content marketing ebook. Warning, its over 200 pages long! Because of his experience with his own pool business and now his blog, Marcus consults other businesses on how to have an effective content and inbound marketing strategy. Follow Marcus on Twitter: @thesaleslion

Don't tell Jon Haws that he doesn't own a tech company. Even though he currently spends his days pushing lawn mowers and leading a crew of landscapers, Jon has embraced the internet and so much more to market and run his business. In fact, if you ask him about his business, the fact that he cuts grass may never come up. Instead you'll get an earful about long tail keywords, niche sites, subscription based business, auto-billing, lead generation, and more. Because Jon has been able to think of his company as a tech business, he's been able to build it to over $70k in revenue in less than 6 months! Yes, Jon happens to be my cousin (what up cuz!); which is how I got the scoop on his fascinating story. Not only is his experience very interesting to businesses of all kinds, but the priciples he discusses can REALLY help you in your marketing efforts. Rather than go over his entire story, please listen to the podcast below! Here are just some of the topics covered: Why Jon put nursing school on hold to start a landscaping business. How Jon got his first few customers without a crew, equipment, and living 1500 miles away. (A true lean start-up!) Why Jon had to write a business plan and executive summaries for his wife before leaving school. How niche sites and long tail keywords bring in 40% of his business. The importance of understanding the life-time value of a customer. How these online marketing tactics can be applied to any business (and local service businesses in particular). How average monthly billing, additional services, and "passive" tactics are all part of Jon's plan for business growth.

After a break of about 4 months, I’ve finally done another podcast! The podcast recording is just me…no guest this time. I felt it was important to say a lot of things that are hard to say in a blog post. I can talk for a half hour and make my points much better than I could if I tried to blog about it.

Last week, I released a podcast that I did with Hayden Miyamoto where he explained how he is pulling in $30,000 a month with small niche sites. As suspected, people loved the podcast! Hayden was able to share a lot of his "secrets" that he uses to build micro niche sites after Google Penguin in that podcast. So, today I am releasing a new podcast interview I did a couple of days ago to dig a bit deeper on how Hayden is using expired domains to build links to his niche sites. In particular, we discuss exactly HOW and WHERE he is finding the high value expired domains. These are some advanced tactics that most people starting with niche sites are not familiar with. In fact, I didn't even know you could find expired domains using these methods until recently.

I always love to hear the success stories from readers of my blog. And this story is a big one. I am absolutely blown away by the success that Hayden Miyamoto is having with small niche sites. In particular, Hayden has refined his process post-Penguin and is doing better now than before! Now only 2 months since Penguin, this new process has proved to be extremely fruitful - his income is already back up to $30,000 a month - all from small niche sites.

Andreas not only have a very interesting story of how he got started with his business, but he also has some excellent advice for creating a successful launch of an iPhone app. Of course I took and followed some of this advice as I launch my own app, and there are several other points that I will be doing on this app or future projects. I highly recommend that you listen to the podcast interview below if you ever consider launching a mobile phone app. The advice Andreas shared here is very unique to anything that has been shared or discussed on this blog before.

Pat Flynn discusses how he has been able to build his brand. This interview covers how he generates up to $50,000 a month from his blog, niche sites, iphone apps, and more.

Benny Hsu shares how he was able to outsource the creation of his very first iPhone app: Photo365, and make nearly $3,000 in one day. This is a truly inspirational story and offers great insights for anyone wanting to create an iPhone app.

Fraser Cain is the owner of UniverseToday.com, a highly successful space related website. He also owns Keyword Strategy, a keyword management software. He offers powerful insights on getting search engine traffic and much more.

Tyrone Shum shares his background that led him to the outsourcing business as well as providing SEO services.