Marketing 101 for a Niche Message by Saundra Goodman

Our guest blogger today is Saundra Goodman, author of Got Teeth? A Survivor's Guide "How to keep your teeth or live without them." Saundra also operates the blog, Got Teeth? A Survivor's Guide. She is a great example of how to take a niche subject and market it. In fact, she will be sharing her marketing skills with us in a post entitled, Marketing 101 for a Niche Message.

Before we get to Saundra's post, I wanted to announce that my new video tips for authors is out. In this video tip, I walk through using a free tool that will help anyone create banners for their website, including how to add pictures to the banner. You can also create buttons and ad boxes as well. The great thing about this is that it does not require a lot of technical knowledge or inherent creativity on your part to create great banners.

The video is available for subscribers to my marketing tips newsletters. If you have not subscribed to the free newsletter, you can do it now and you can even view a sample video before signing up.

Now, on to Saundra's post...


Marketing 101 for a Niche Message
By Saundra Goodman

Thank you for inviting me to be a guest blogger, Tony. I love your marketing tips because I learn so much from them.

Here's how I created a platform for my book without knowing what I was doing.

I had a negative experience in my life (tooth loss and denture gain) at a time when there was no information and nobody to talk to to help me or others go through this experience. I followed my heart and wrote a non-fiction book about my experience, a subject I am passionate about, without knowing anything about Internet marketing, websites, or blogging. I just wanted to help people get this information and I knew my book would help them get through the same experience I had with humor and hope.

I needed to learn what to do, so I signed up for ezines and teleseminars and read and listened until I found someone I connected with who taught me the basics about websites, blogs, autoresponders, and building book sales. I still didn't know enough.

With a limited budget and the help of a friend of a friend, I hired a webmaster to create a my website, a press release was issued, and I did three radio interviews. I made sure I got the MP3s from the radio stations to post on my website. I also gathered book reviews from dental professionals and regular people to put on my site.

I learned to blog on Blogger. It took a while, but I was getting some great comments on my blog, selling some books, and I knew I was helping people. I thought I reached my goal.

After blogging for over one year, I was invited to be a featured blogger on Wellsphere.com in the dental community. My writing was recognized as useful and helpful and I was recognized as a Patient Expert. That was thrilling and it gave me a larger audience. That's how I learned I had more goals.

I realized that my website was a static site and my blog was active. I had all of this great information in two separate places and I needed a site that would combine everything. So I read more and listened to more people and found another person I connected with. This year I took an on line class and learned how to build my own WordPress site that combines all of the information from my static site and my blog.

Here's a few tips I learned along the way:

1. Be persistent in your content and your passion.
   
   
2. Use numbers and bullets in your blog posts.
   
   
3. Share free information about your subject in blogs, tips, and reports.
   
   
4. Use an autoresponder to get people on your mailing list.
   
   
5. Write articles and submit them to www.ezinearticles.com with a link back to your website. (Somehow I got locked out of ezine articles and am trying to find my way back in.)
   
   
6. Stay on message in your niche.
   
   
7. Libraries will buy non-fiction Print-On-Demand books that are researched and offer great information.
   
   
8. Enter contests related to your subject (there are none in my subject).
   
   
9. Don't get stuck spending all of your time in your email account. It's okay to unsubscribe from some of the ezines you signed up for. (I'm overwhelmed again and have to clean mine up.)
   

I'm still learning how to improve my WordPress site and I don't use video yet, but I can use youtube in my blogs. I want to break my book down into two ebooks targeting more specific niches in my subject. I'll have to build a new site with squeeze pages and shopping carts on both sites. (I'm gonna to need more classes.)

Really, I had no idea what I was doing or what would be involved when I began my journey. I discovered the Internet late in life. I had passion, an idea, and information (both experienced and researched) and I continue to research for my blogs. I consider myself a non-techie and I'm struggling to learn more. I have to if I want to help people, so I just hired a marketing coach. You can't do it alone.

Since I began my journey, the market has grown exponentially. I am the only woman who had the experience who is writing about it and that helps me stand out. And I know what they don't tell you in that little piece of paper with your home-care instructions.

I write about oral health, the mouth/body connection, periodontal disease, jawbone loss, tooth loss, and gaining a denture – basically, keeping your teeth or learning to live with replacement teeth. Over 75% of the population has some form of periodontal disease and many don't even know they have it until they go to a periodontist. Gum disease is the #1 cause of tooth loss.

I promise you that if you begin to lose your teeth, nothing will be as important as the time and money you spend trying to keep them. Make your dental appointment now.

Please visit my website at www.gotteethguide.com Leave me a comment and tell me how I'm doing. If you like my blog, please vote for it in the 2nd annual Peoples Health Blogger Awards. It's on my site.

What I know for sure is that it's all connected.

Saundra Goodman
Got Teeth? A Survivor's Guide
How to keep your teeth or live without them.
www.gotteethguide.com