Randy Cantrell

We’re all interested in seeing what other don’t see. Bands often sell VIP packages at premium rates to give well-healed fans an opportunity to go back stage. Authors will often invite rabid reading fans to a high priced luncheon where they can interact, ask questions, hear the author speak and get a signed copy of the latest book. We crave greater access.

Equally compelling are the stories people share of their struggle. We watch the Biography channel and see how our favorite stars rose from obscurity to fame. It’s all very intriguing.

In business – especially online business – we’re all drawn in by people willing to share how they went from an idea to launching a website that gained thousands of daily faithful readers. We hear people talk about starting with an email list of only family members, but growing it to hundreds of thousands. How did they do that? It’s the question we all ask. It’s the question we all want answered.

Our assumption is, if they did it, then maybe I can do it, too.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

Still, the lessons are worthwhile. Whether we can ever replicate their success or not, there’s surely something valuable in seeing how they did it. If nothing else, it’s fun to hear the stories and to learn a thing or two along the way.

No, I’m not indifferent about learning. Or teaching. I’m quite ready to get on with it. So brace yourself.

Today, I begin a project that you can be part of. Wait, wait, wait. Don’t get too excited because I don’t know enough about all this online stuff to teach you much of anything – other than what doesn’t work!

I’m going to invite you to join me on my journey as a student. I’ll be studying some things. Investing in some things. I’ll tell you what I’m doing and why. I won’t promise you that I’m going to get it right. Shoot, I don’t even know if I’ll be approaching it correctly, but I’ll share with you anyway.

The project is quite simple:

to launch a successful website in a targeted niche and have that site serve as a lead generator for a client

My overall plan is to launch a WordPress site consisting of a blog, podcast and videos.

The content will be aimed squarely at people and companies who need a particular problem solved. It’s a targeted niche.

Many niches have a decent retention rate. That is, people are interested in something and their interest remains or grows over time. Every niche has folks who fall away, but hopefully we pick niches that grow.

For instance, people who are interested in classic pickup trucks enter that niche and continue to remain interested in classic pickup trucks.

The niche I’m going to dive into isn’t like that.

One, it’s a business to business niche. Specifically, it’s a high-end software solution whose target market are companies with annual revenues of $3M and up.

Two, it’s a niche that addresses a specific problem.

Three, when the proper solution is found and the problem is solved, the prospect has no further need for information about this niche.

So I strongly suspect the people who visit the site or listen to the podcast will consume the content as they’re trying to figure out a solution to their problem…but they’ll leave once they find that solution. That’s fine. Expected.

I could be wrong about that, but given the nature of the niche it just seems logical. The plan is to create as much useful content as possible for FREE. Along the way I want to attract as much traffic as I can, but I need that traffic to have high interest in the niche. It will be especially useful if the traffic needs a solution. It will be even more helpful if my client’s solution fills that need. But no matter, greater exposure for my client will benefit their business.

In conjunction with this, I’m going to launch another website with another blog, podcast and videos talking all about this niche project (we’ll call it the Bula Network Niche Project for now). This will be my behind-the-scenes, VIP project where I share with you what I’m doing to make this niche project successful.

What do YOU think? Send me a Tweet.

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