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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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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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Thanks to everyone who replied with such positive feedback about the Conversion Blogging video and the interview with Alborz, a million dollar blogger. It’s been truly overwhelming how many messages I’ve received plus there’s nearly 200 comments made to my blog in reply to the content, and it’s not even a week since I released it!

What I’m most happy about is how inspired you all sound and how you are ready to take your blogging seriously. If I can help a few more people realize the full time income from a blog dream, then I consider it job well done.

But we’re not finished yet!

How Does A Blog Make Money?

Next I have two videos, which are not quite as long as the previous videos, but definitely as compelling and full of great tips to help you make more from blogging.

Both videos are completely free and take you behind the scenes of this blog. The first shows you how I make money and the second shows how much I make. You can view the practical implementation and the financial outcome as a result.

These two videos should help demystify ambiguity you might be experiencing regarding how a blog like mine can make $10,000+ a month. Here are the videos…

Please reply with comments and let me know what you think of the videos.

Blog Mastermind Opens This Tuesday at 10 AM

By now you should well and truly realize that I’m not just giving away these videos because I can (well, I am in some ways… it is gratifying to see my work benefit people regardless of financial outcomes for me).

I’ve distributed all of this great content in part because I want to convince you to come work with me in my blog coaching program, Blog Mastermind.

I showed you some of the concepts I teach with Conversion Blogging and the Blog Profits Blueprint. I brought Alborz on stage to demonstrate that other, normal people just like you, can do this if you stick to it long enough to realize success. Today I’m showing you how I do it and giving you proof of what I earn.

All I want you to do in return is consider whether what I’ve shown you has been helpful and if so, whether more training of this quality, delivered in a structured format and all nicely packaged in a friendly community environment, is something you would like to take part in.

My coaching program opens on Tuesday July 29th - that’s this Tuesday. I’m aiming for a 10 AM EST USA time opening.

We should make that deadline, but of course I’ll let you know if there are delays. We have a couple of tests to run Monday and if they go okay, we will be good to go on Tuesday.

You might be wondering whether there will be a time limit or a limited number of spaces in the program. Let me put your mind at ease - I’m not closing the doors this time, nor will I be capping the number of people who can become members.

I will have some fast-action bonuses for the first 100 people who sign up, thus demonstrating their eagerness to participate (I like to reward the eager beavers with extra goodies). However, if you live on the other side of the world (Hi Australia - I miss you - I’ll be back soon!) or for whatever reason you can’t get to a computer when the doors open, don’t worry, you won’t miss out.

Get to a computer when you can and you will still be able to join my program.

How Much Will Blog Mastermind Cost?

The program is six months worth of training plus a members resources area and online community. You can participate in two ways -

Option 1: Pay $97 for the first month, try it and if you like it, continue to pay $97 a month for six months total. You will have immediate access to the member resources and online community and receive one lesson per week until you graduate in six months.

Option 2: Pay $497 upfront, save yourself $85 and get access to all the materials at once. You get instant downloads for all the lessons, the member resources and access to the online community.

There’s also a third “all you can eat” option, where you get all of the Blog Mastermind content (all of option 2 above) PLUS my second course, Membership Site Mastermind (currently not available to the public), which is my coaching program for people who want to start a membership site using a blog as a launch pad. You can get instant access to both these programs for the one time fee of $1497.

The sign-up page will break down every tiny detail about my coaching program, so bookmark the page below and on Tuesday you will be able to see all the details and join the program -

http://www.blogmastermind.com/coaching/

That’s it from me, enjoy the videos and get ready to begin your training with me from Tuesday onwards.

Yaro Starak
Demystifying Ambiguity

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