You Underestimate My Sneakiness Sir!

Ah..my favorite phrase from the movie, “Mr. Deeds” It still gives me laugh when I think about that movie. Well, the movie is not the point of this post. Today, I’d like to tell you one of the researching techniques that I use. This technique requires serious sneakiness :) j/k.

So, what is the easiest way to succeed in online business? well, in any business? yes, find the people who already done it and model their business. right? You can do the same thing when it comes to building niche websites.

I’m constantly testing various aspects of a niche website to have a perfect, or near perfect design of what a niche website should be. In the process, I take a look at hundreds of sites. I try to see what color they use, where they place ads and how they pre-sell and etc.

To do this, you need to find the right websites. Websites that actually generate high CTR or high volume of sales. In order to find these websites, you need to find the owners first.

As you know, there are hundreds of discussion forums on internet marketing and webmaster forums. What you need to do is, go to each forum and do a simple search. You will going to be searching for a specific thread where people discuss about how much they earn. Try the following terms.

“How much do you make?”
“Anyone making money?”

I bet you will find at least one threa per forum where they boast about their earnings. Then go to the thread and read through. When you spot a person who claims to make a certain amount of money through aff. or adsense, check his/her signature line. Very often, that person should have at least a one website listed there.

The next step is to visit the site and check if there are footprints on the site. I can tell you from my experience that you WILL find them. The common footprints are:

1) Owner’s name
2) Copyright information - ex: Copyright Blue Company
3) Email address used for their contact us page. - Do “View Source”
4) Image links. - People often use images hosted in other websites of theirs, such as bullets and cliparts.
5) Privacy policy

What you need to do now is go to Google and search the person’s other sites by using the footprints you find.

Now that you have a list of this person’s websites, go through each one and see what the person is doing differently. You know the person is making money and you know that he/she is doing something right. Search for the missing link and try to model it. Please note that I said “model”, not “copy”.

At the moment, I have about 70 people on my file that I monitor constantly. All of them claim to make more than $100 or more per day from their websites.

By doing this, you will learn what they are testing and how they design their website.

I think this is THE most effective way to learn. Learn from the people who’ve already done it.

Good luck!