The challenge now is for me to take action and follow the advice of a pro. Thanks again Glenn!!

Sure, you can have another umbrella site with more general arthritis benefits (your example), but a subdomain sends a very different message to the world (e.g. “this is not a whole business about __________, just a little part of my normal business” than a full site.)

Though I knew in the back of my mind there was a reason behind doing things this way, your explanation finally gives it meaning.

Totally agree with exactly what you have said. I am trying to implement these tactics more and more in some of the niches I am working on as I found them to be so huge and competitive, breaking them down into small pieces makes it so much easier and profitable.

and Thank you John, a few points that I will kepp with me.

Ravinder

If you were a science student, remember how they drummed into your head Newtonian physics? After all that head-banging, they then told you that Newton was wrong (or perhaps generously half-right) and that relativity was the answer. (Then more corrections after that but I digress. )

Well, Glenn\\\’s comment in his response on this post was the unlocking nugget to me for marketing (as you say) what no-one\\\’s looking for.

It sticks to the underlying principles that Glenn espouses but strays in one particular way to accommodate the challenge. After months of agonizing over it, I\\\’m finally super-excited that this is the right way to go! Now I\\\’m in the process of trying it out.

Anyway, I should learn if I\\\’m right (or at least half-right ) in about 3-6 months. At that point, if the concept proves true, I\\\’ll find a way to get the word to Glenn and share my learnings. If I\\\’m wrong, well, I doubt I\\\’ll share that!

Off to the races…

Chuck

It’s difficult to try and sell something no-one is searching for, even if you have an alternative solution that would answer a common problem people are yet to approach.

In this scenario I personally feel it would be a possibility to ’spoon feed’ the basic answers to those symptoms to a select part of a largre audience at an earlier stage.

This would allow you to build trust with that audience and serve the more advanced alternatives you have to offer later on, when your audience meets those problems.

It’s no low hanging fruit however if you are confident enough to implemet it, theres no reason not to try it – IF you have a solution you believe in.

Although I have numerous small niches I’m working on myself that in themselves are nice little ‘mini-businesses’ for now, I think you still need to consider the ‘big picture’ which is to build a business that will eventually lead to something you really enjoy doing, even if that means going back-to-basics with the experience you have in any given specific field or even better, a combination of fields and to provide a solution to those who need an answer to the questions you previously struggled to resolve.

Maybe that’s one big mountain to climb, but I personally think that the view would probably be worth it! (even if you only made it half or even a quarter way up!)

In all honesty, the ONLY reason I can confidently say this, is due to the fact I do invest a small amount in personal tuition on a regular basis but only from those who really know how to get to the top of that mountain and deliver on their promises, not solely but that does also include of course Glenn’s ‘over-deliver’ club!

Cheers

John

The reason you gave at the end of your reply helps a lot with my own business challenge that I’m struggling with. I’m marketing a solution almost no one knows about it which leads to a number of apparently disparate symptoms that more people are aware of and searching to either study or resolve.

So my choice is to either keyword target the symptoms and funnel those into targeted pitches for this common alternative solution OR pitch this solution as an alternative to the principle competitive solutions for all those different symptoms.

The former approach allows for some leverage and would be the preferred solution once the awareness of this alternative approach increases (which may or may not happen). The latter approach is more work, risks the associated site issue with Google, is less future proof once awareness increases BUT is MUCH better aligned with the current conversations in the customers’ collective heads.

I’m not sure there is a precise optimum solution to this dilemma but your reasoning has helped me advance my thinking alot and I once again thank you.

P.S. Your information is top of the line- both paid and free. In my view, you are delivering WAY more value in your paid club than you’re charging for.

Life is tough enough and throws enough challenges at you.

Pick the easy stuff… and do it much better than anyone else.

Good advice back then and it is still good advice.

However, I do have a question/comment. Let’s take your arthritis example and assume for a moment that the marketer in question wants to pursue all 3 of those sub-topics (perhaps in seriatim).

My related question is this: should s/he grab separate domain names for each of those sub-topics OR should s/he make each one a sub-domain of the main one?

I think the latter probably makes the most sense but that’s based on reading data from others rather than from personal experience. The reason is that the topics on the 3 sub-topics are clearly related and so if we want those 3 sites to be seen as distinct in Google, we need to do some difficult gymnastics (otherwise they could be seen as associated sites).

Furthermore, if we keep them separate, we lose out on the ability to leverage any overlap that shows up. For example, what if one of the remedies/cures for arthritis knee pain is the same as for arthritis finger pain? It would be great to leverage that if we could without losing the separate conversation in the prospects’ heads that led them there.

Am I missing something?