Getting Traffic for Voodoo Dolls

I have to admit that getting traffic for Voodoo dolls has been a challenging endeavor. Partly because I consider myself an artist and not a charlatain, and partly because I really don't know what the hell I am doing sometimes. I mean, I receive emails on a daily basis about how to voodoo someone - be it get back an old lover or put a curse on someone. Each one of these emails is an opportunity for potential business, right? So how do I convert free information seekers into paying customers?

Well, I came up with a couple of ideas, and if anyone anywhere decides to ever read this blog and knows a thing or two about marketing, maybe you can give me some feedback. The first thing I did was write an ebook. In fact, it is the first ebook of its kind, and a very good one I might add. It is called How to Voodoo with Voodoo Dolls. It contains all the information most people who email me need -from how to make a Voodoo doll to what to do with a Voodoo doll. And it has very good illustrations, with patterns and everything. So far, this has been a good move and it has sold, although not as much as I had anticipated. One reason is because I am not letting anyone else sell it for me. Why? you might ask. Why don't I put it up at Clickbank or something? Two reasons: (1) who else other than me would try to sell such a book (maybe that's faulty thinking, I don't know), and (2) I want to try to get it published by a real publisher. I mean, we are talking about a real niche here, there is nothing like it out there. My content is good, and in print form, I would make it longer with more pictures and spells and such. So I don't want to ruin my chances of getting it published because I have lost control of its distribution. Am I on track here?

So how have I promoted this ebook? First, I wrote a press release. Well, before that, I put it on both of my websites, The Mystic Voodoo and Planet Voodoo. Then I put it on all of my lenses over at Squidoo, which is over 50 right now. Yes, I am the consummate expert on all things Voodoo at Squidoo, I have high ranks and good traffic and great original content. Although I can't make a living off of my Squidoo enterprises yet, I do get a "notification of instant payment" from Paypal every month. :) In fact, I have used the stats from my Squidoo lenses to determine what people are looking for when it comes to Voodoo dolls. Then, I did the usual social bookmarking and diggin' it and what not, and sent it out to my email list, Voodoo Muse.

Okay, the second thing I did was create a how to make a voodoo doll kit. That is one of the most popular questions I get in emails, and has remained my most popular lens at Squidoo for months. So I put together a very affordable little kit complete with instructions and three Voodoo doll spells.

The third thing I did was start an Adopt a Voodoo Doll contest. (This is a little spin off on my usual monthly Voodoo doll giveaway...something else that sets me apart from my competition. I actually give away a free Voodoo doll every month to some lucky winner. All they have to do is sign up for the Voodoo Muse and they are automatically entered into the monthly drawing.) For the Adopt a Voodoo Doll contest, people have to sign up for the Voodoo Muse (did I mention it's free?), sign up for a Squidoo account (did I mention it's free?), then give me their best reason for why they should become the adoptive parents. It's all free, but does require a little effort on the person's part. I designed it that way so I wouldn't have too many people to choose from. Knowing how lazy people can be, even for something free...

Okay, so that is that. Is anybody listening? Does anybody care?

Blessings,

Voodoomama

Check out my Slide Show!

Like Magick - Own the Internet!

I found out about this interesting little bit of internet voodoo this morning from a friend. It seems there is the potential to make a bit of cash here, so I thought I would pass it on to you...whoever you may be.

It is called AGLOCO, a global internet company that collects money from those companies on behalf of its members. (For example, Google currently pays AOL 10 cents for every Google search by an AOL user). And Google still has enough profit to pay $1.6 billion dollars for YouTube, an 18-month old site full of content that YouTube’s users did not get paid for!

Do you realize how valuable you are? Advertisers, search providers and online retailers are paying billions to reach you while you surf. How much of that money are you making? NONE!

AGLOCO will work to get its Members their share of this and more.

AGLOCO is building a new form of online community that they call an Economic Network. They are not only paying Members their fair share, but they’re building a community that will generate the kind of fortune that YouTube made. But instead of that wealth making only a few people rich, the entire community will get its share.

What's the catch? No catch - no spyware, no pop-ups and no spam - membership and software are free and AGLOCO is 100% member owned. Privacy is a core value and AGLOCO never sells or rents member information.

So do both of us a favor: Sign up for AGLOCO right now! If you use this link to sign up, I automatically get credit for referring you and helping to build AGLOCO.

http://www.agloco.com/r/BBCR1284

Check it out! You have nothing to lose and if you spend any time at all on the internet, why not try it?

More Information About AGLOCO

Here are some links to many of the places I have found to learn or update myself on AGLOCO and where I send potential new members to go read about AGLOCO. Feel free to use these resources if you decide to sign up and be part of the revolution. :)

Are there sites to send potential new members to read about why to join AGLOCO?

• I like the AGLOCO Company website learn more page - http://www.agloco.com/web/guest/howitworks

Is it really happening?

• AGLOCO Growing Geometrically http://mccallsnotes.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!9F2891B66EBAA762!566.entry
• AGLOCO wildly popular http://mccallsnotes.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!9F2891B66EBAA762!532.entry
• Why AGLOCO Wins http://mccallsnotes.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!9F2891B66EBAA762!449.entry
• Harold’s - http://haroldbbbg1619.wordpress.com/2007/02/05/how-does-an-internet-revolution-start/

Is it too late to join and do well?

• McCall – Time to Join is Now http://mccallsnotes.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!9F2891B66EBAA762!584.entry

Do you have a good referral plan I can read?

• McCall’s http://mccallsnotes.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!9F2891B66EBAA762!532.entry
• Here is what I did - McCall http://mccallsnotes.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!9F2891B66EBAA762!185.entry
• Jeremy – What’s worming for me - http://aglocoyou.com/2007/02/whats-working-for-me-part-2/
• John Chow - http://www.johnchow.com/3000-agloco-sign-ups/

AGLOCO economics spelled out (how much money can I make)

• Simmons Report - http://simmonsreport.spaces.live.com/
• Harold’s Series on Simmons - http://haroldbbbg1619.wordpress.com/tag/agloco/simmons-report/
• John Chow - http://www.johnchow.com/how-much-can-you-make-with-agloco/
• AGLOCO Blog - http://blog.agloco.com/index.php/post35/
• AGLOCO website learn more page - http://www.agloco.com/web/guest/howitworks

Is it spyware?

• Ray Everett-Church says “No Spyware.” http://blog.agloco.com/index.php/post15/
• John Chow http://www.johnchow.com/comment-from-ray-everett-church/

Can you give me a good email to send to friends?

• AGLOCO Company blog - http://blog.agloco.com/index.php/post6/

Can you tell me what to say to someone in person?

• 30 second pitch - http://blog.agloco.com/index.php/post38/
• Two minute pitch - http://blog.agloco.com/index.php/post39/

I want to create a blog to send people to – do you have some good samples?

• http://www.aglocoyou.com/
• http://nichevoodoo.blogspot.com/
• http://internetmarketing-schee.blogspot.com/
• http://aglocofiction.blogspot.com/
• http://aglocorocks.blogspot.com/
• This site has a quick slide show opening an an interview with a couple of AGLOCO founders - http://iownagloco.blogspot.com/

Success Stories?

• Start with Top Gun and click on many of the sites listed - http://agloco-top-gun.spaces.live.com/

Please read as many as you have time for. And try to remember to forward on to you direct AGLOCO team.

Blessings,

Voodoomama

The Mystic Voodoo
Planet Voodoo
Voodoo Mama's One-Stop Mojo Shoppe
Ju Ju Shoppe
The Body Shop At Home

Press Releases

Okay, so today I am testing the effectiveness of writing press releases. So I went online, checked out a few examples and templates, wrote a press release and then thought, "now what?" So, I Googled "press releases" and as I am no dummy, figured I wanted to submit my Press release to the big guys, MSN, Google, Yahoo, etc. But how? I tell ya, finding out the information is not easy, and there are numerous services that are available ready and willing to do the work for you.

I am still in grad school and operating on a shoestring budget here. I can't afford some big paid inclusion campaign, so, as usual, I will have to fall back on my own creative ingenuity to get the job done.

My next option was to check out some of the free press release submission sites. I went to free-press-release.com and dbusinessNews.com, signed up for free memberships and submitted my PR as well as my websites in the business directories, just as an aside. I have no idea how effective they will be but, if you are reading this and as this is an experimental journey to my online success, I guess we will find out together. They say if you link to your PRs that it will boost your SEO, so we will see about that too.

Here's the link to my PR: Announcing the Web's Premiere Voodoo Doll Resource Site!

I have not stopped at these two places to submit my PR, and plan to submit to more today. I will post anything I find worthwhile. Til then...

WITNESS MY JOURNEY TO ONLINE SUCCESS

Hello, and welcome to my journey to success with my chosen niche. What I have decided to do is to take my little corner of the internet, apply some of the concepts that the marketing gurus swear will work to make my online business successful, and see what works. Notice that I say "see" what works, rather than "if it" works. Because I believe that words are powerful. The spoken word, as well as the written word, have the power to manifest that which is spoken and written about. And I, my friends, am successful. You may not know me yet, but you will. And this blog is my public progress report and testimonial to this fact.

So you may be wondering, why did I choose to call my blog Niche Voodoo? Well, it seems fitting, given that my niche is Voodoo. Yes, I am a mystical artist, healer, and metaphysical consultant with the credentials to back it up. I won't bore you with that yet, though. I plan to use creative marketing techniques to explode my online business, and I invite you to bear witness to this process.

I believe in the law of attraction. The LOA is akin to the loa of the Voodoo. The loa are the pantheon of gods and goddesses that I draw upon for inspiration and help in activities of daily living. I use the LOA all the time, from finding parking places to removing perpetrators to making money. At some point, I will share all of these things with you. Now, however, I want to concentrate on setting the stage for this very public experiment towards success.

What is a Niche?

The concept of a niche is hardly new. It simply refers to having a business that caters to a highly targeted marketing group. I can't think of a harder niche to "make it" in legitimately, than that of Voodoo art. There are so many negative (and untrue) connotations associated with Voodoo that I am quite certain I don't have to mention them here. Yet, I am a serious and talented artist, and a gifted healer, and the Voodoo is my medium. Niche Voodoo is my business idea.

Ahh yes, Niche Voodoo, my business idea. Now the word "voodoo" has more than one meaning in popular culture. I have already discussed it in the metaphysical context of art and Voodoo dolls. The word "voodoo" has also come to mean things like "not real" or "hocus pocus", particulalry in the world of politics. I claim no association with word in this context. However, the word "voodoo" has also come to encompass a group of things, a blend, a gumbo of sorts, and so I claim this collective connotation as well as the metaphysical connotation. I have to claim a dual significance because of the fact that I am a highly creative individual whose mind never wants to shut off. As an artist who excels in a number of mediums, I am breaking these down into separate niches to be part of the pot of Voodoo gumbo I refer to as Niche Voodoo. In fact, I wrote an eBook today that is called Vintage Crochet Patterns, because, well, I love to crochet . :)

You see, though I operate within the realm of magick, niches are not magical. They are simply hungry markets within other markets, ready to devour with fervish our handiwork. Let me explain.

Niche Models

Basically, there are a couple of ways to think about niche markets. The first way is called the product-centric model. This model relies on selling what people are already buying. In order to compete with the Big Boys, you have to find a gap somewhere in this market and specialize in it. For me, this market is metaphysical products. Everyone is looking for some magickal means of getting what they want, and for some people it is Voodoo. So Voodoo is the area of specialization. But I can even narrow it down further to New Orleans Voodoo. And even farther to New Orleans Voodoo Hoodoo art. Thus, my best selling niche "products" are my New Orleans style Voodoo Hoodoo dolls.

The other way to think about niche markets is called the audience-centric model. This model takes areas of information and refines them into subtopics. These subtopics guide and inform you about the products you should sell. If you don't have a clue about what to sell, then this is the way to go. Find an area of interest, narrow down the topic, and let the product reveal itself. This is how a lot of eBooks and information products are written.

How to Begin: Evaluate Strengths and Interests

In order to be a successful niche internet marketer, I need to evaluate my strengths and interests. I have already mentioned that I am a serious and talented artist, a gifted healer and metaphysical consultant. I am also a psychologist and a scientist. One might think that these things are diametrically opposed to each other, but I choose to utilize these aspects of my Self as assets and as a means of maintaining balance. I am also gifted with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), which makes me highly creative and motivated. One may think that ADD is a deficit as opposed to a strength. I choose to experience it differently. Don't get me wrong, living with ADD can be quite the challenge if you have not come to embrace it. I often have stuff all over my workplace and home, evidence of my creativity and multiple projects. A person does not need to have ADD to be a clutter bug, though. Actually, the biggest difference between me and someone without ADD may be that I rely heavily on lists, now that I am no longer medicated. If I do not make, pay attention to, and keep lists, then life gets extremely hectic and overwhelming. Perhaps the best difference is my tendency to go off on tangents, like I have just done about my ADD. So bear with me as I get back on track...

Identify Your Niche

If you do not know what ytour niche is, you will need to write down what your interests are. Just brainstorm and write down everything you are passionate about. Then, write down everything you know about your interests. From these writings, you will do some research to find out if there is a potential market.

Take what you have written and pull out some keywords. Plug these words into the Overture keyword research tool and see what comes up. For my experment, I put in voodoo, voodoo dolls, voodoo art, spells. I was in the process of creating a specialized website that focused specifically on Voodoo dolls of all kinds, not just my own creations. I took the results and made categories for my website Planet Voodoo, the web's premiere Voodoo doll resource site. If you look at my left hand menu, and compare to a keyword search, you will see how the categories make sense.

More next time.