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During the last few live question and answer sessions with my Blog Mastermind students at least one person every call asks for help determining whether they have a good choice for a blog topic.

Given that new people join the program each week, it’s not surprising that question crops up over and over again. Everyone new to blogging faces the challenge of topic selection as the first big hurdle, and while I can never offer the “right” solution, as only the market can tell you that, I do my best to offer my suggestions and tips for conducting research to aide with topic selection.

What Topic Is Right?

Topic selection for a blog is similar to niche selection for a business. What you decide to write about determines what type of audience you attract and how you make money from that audience. In today’s e-commerce landscape, content is the driving force behind traffic and purchasing decisions online, so topic selection is a big deal.

Today I want to offer a simple answer to this problem, to help choose what topic and niche is right for you. I say simple because it’s possible to make this a very complicated choice, with in-depth keyword research, market analysis and other assessable factors weighing in on the decision process.

Unfortunately I find that many people who do extensive research become paralyzed. With more data comes more awareness of the different variables at play. Sometimes knowing less is a good thing because it gives you a clear next step - an action you can take that actually moves you closer to a result.

This is especially important for newbies and people with personalities that demand they know everything about everything before taking that first step into the big wide world. As someone new to Internet marketing, learning about all the different ways to research a potential topic may be so much work and such a big learning curve that it takes months before any action is taken to actually test the topic in the market.

You have to learn how to choose a niche before even choosing a niche!

I’m not saying you should bury your head in the sand and take a leap of faith when choosing a topic, but you can certainly make it easier on yourself.

Spotting Opportunities

Let me explain how I have selected topics for the businesses I have run in the past. In almost all circumstances the process has gone something like this -

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I wanted to use the word “honesty” in the title for this blog post, but I expect the word “Lying” will pull more attention. However don’t let that mislead you, this article is about using honesty in your marketing, not lying.

At the start of September you may recall StomperNet offered their Stomping The Search Engines 2 course for the cost of shipping if you were willing to try their new print newsletter. They made money off this offer because of the multiple upsells involved during the ordering process and the potential for rebills if customers decided to stay subscribed to the print newsletter.

I had no problem with this offer, in fact I thought it was a good deal and promptly blogged about it and sent a notice to my newsletter too.

Besides a brief hiccup that killed the opening day, StomperNet did well, and many of you, my readers, grabbed the offer.

A few days later Brad and Andy at StomperNet decided to up the ante a little and with the help of many of their top Internet marketing friends, put together a bonus package that was, well, a little over the top.

Guys like Ed Dale, Jeff Johnson, Jeff Walker, Rich Schefren, Mike Filsaime, Paul Colligan and Shawn Casey (and others) gave everything from teleseminar downloads, audio files, free months in coaching programs, reports and more on top of what was already offered by StomperNet, just for the cost of shipping. That offer has since passed, though you can still buy the course and trial the first month of the newsletter if you pay for sending it to you.

Why Do They Do This?

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It’s not quite as easy as the title makes it sound, but bear with me, this article will explain the three steps that are the foundation of every Internet business, why so many people go wrong and give you some realizations that might just be the key to take your Internet business to the next level…

I’ve been studying resources lately designed to teach Internet business, but not just introductory materials, content that goes beyond beginners and is intended to take you to making making millions online.

In my case I’m interested in advanced topics that I can apply to what I do and fill my current knowledge gaps to take the next step forwards. While hunting for those elusive gold nugget ideas I invariably scan the introductory materials and learn with interest how this particular person or organization cover the basics - how they suggest you get traffic and make sales.

My studies have led me to the conclusion that Internet business is actually quite easy. Explained in simple terms (which I will do in a moment), the structure of a successful online enterprise is comprised of a few components, that when linked together can deliver hundreds, thousands and even millions of dollars in online profits.

Easy As 1-2-3

While we all have different ways of presenting what we do and the tiny details of getting a result vary, most Internet marketing experts teach the same few principles, which are in fact no different from what direct marketers have been doing and teaching for decades.

It goes something like this…

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There’s a well known story that the only people who got rich during the gold rush era were the smart business folk who sold the tools to help the prospectors search for gold - the shovels and picks and so forth.

There were thousands of miners and a limited supply of gold. Those who got in first or were lucky, struck it rich. Their story spread far and wide, encouraging others to chase the same dream, feeling the hope and motivation that comes when you hear others success stories.

Sadly, most left empty handed, in debt and bitter (or dead!).

Smart entrepreneurs saw a much more reliable opportunity. When you have thousands of people experiencing a desire for something with such passion, you can sell them tools and resources to help them meet that desire. While there was no guarantee of gold, there were enough people trying to find it, that businesses who served the gold-digging industry profited a lot more than the average miner ever did.

A comparison has been made between the gold rush era and what we are going through online today in the Internet marketing industry.

• We have a bunch of people “mining for gold” trying to make money from the Internet.
• They are inspired by those few success stories they hear about others who have “struck it rich” online.
• And there’s a small crowd of business folk teaching how to make money online, who are themselves making good money supplying the “miners with tools”.

So the question needs to be asked: Are the only people profiting today selling tools to the struggling miners who are foolishly digging for gold by trying to make money online?

One Point Of View

It’s true a lot of people make money teaching others the techniques to make money, or selling software that exists to help with this activity. If you read my blog for long enough you will see plenty of coaching programs, scripts, reports, MP3s, DVDs, seminars and conferences that all exist to serve the needs of the prospective Internet marketer.

Unfortunately, many people who never actually earned a dime on the web are spending their entire time trying, and usually failing, to sell the manuals, courses and scripts that help people to earn a living online.

They are selling make money products without every having made money, or put another way - it’s like the blind leading the blind!

On quick inspection you might even look at the Internet marketing industry as a modern day pyramid scheme, with the few profiting marketers at the top - those who got in first or early when the craze began, making money selling hope to those who came after, pushing the dream of making a living online knowing full well that most people will never realize that outcome.

What Is The Truth?

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Last night I attended a special movie screening of the documentary, “Food Matters“. Here’s the trailer -

The gist of the film is that our medical system at the moment is not good at dealing with diseases. We focus on symptoms rather than the root cause of the problem and - here’s the big deal - doctors rarely consider nutrition as a cure or preventative solution, instead it’s all about cutting things out, or radiation treatments and drug therapies after the fact.

The drug companies like this because they can sell more product. If you have a culture like ours, which tends to react to problems only after they occur and then treat them using drugs, you have a formula for a billion dollar industry. We tend to think about popping a pill when something is wrong, rather than eating good food to stay healthy.

Food Matters looks at nutrition - the food we eat - as the best prevention and cure for health issues. It’s ridiculous how much sense this makes, yet people don’t follow the advice.

What’s The Key Ingredient For Business Success?

You might think the answer to the question in the heading above is marketing, or customer service or a superior product, but for every business in existence today, the key ingredient is people. If you don’t have healthy functioning people, then your business is not going to thrive.

In the home business, solo entrepreneur and professional blogging world, it matters even more because you work independently as the main cog that keeps the business going. If you can’t work, you can’t earn a living.

The message in Food Matters is a simple one: Eat organic foods, if you can - eat raw foods, and add superfoods to your diet too. Look to food as the best prevention and even the cure to any ailments you suffer from.

I’m not saying take on board the ideas in the movie as fact, you can make your own mind up, but the core message - you are what you eat - is just so obvious, yet it needs to be stated. Even those of us with the best intentions have trouble sticking to healthy eating all the time.

How Hard Is It To Stay Healthy?

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