As I mentioned here, b5media is currently having a Blog-Off 24-hour blogathon, where many of my fellow b5ers have been posting one blog entry per hour for 24 hours. Since I was unable to participate here at JMMO, I thought I’d lend a hand by guest posting at another business blog, Interview Chatter, since Darlene McDaniel asked for help. My guest post is: 3 Ideas for Job Hunters on the Web.

Here are other b5 business bloggers who are participating in the Blog-Off:

Business and Blogging (www.businessandblogging.com)

Accounting Solver (www.accountingsolver.com)

taxgirl (www.taxgirl.com)

Doing Biz Abroad (www.doingbizabroad.com)

Home Biz Notes (www.homebiznotes.com)

Everyday Networker (www.everydaynetworker.com)

One Vote Matters (www.onevotematters.com)

Interview Chatter (www.interviewchatter.com)

Biz Chicks Rule (www.bizchicksrule.com)

Buzz Networker (www.buzznetworker.com)

Digital Money World (www.digitalmoneyworld.com)

Franchise Pick (www.franchisepick.com)

Yielding Wealth (www.yieldingwealth.com)

Small Business Boomers (www.smallbusinessboomers.com)

My Organized Biz (www.myorganizedbiz.com)

Viva El Negocio (www.vivaelnegocio.com)

I hope you all visit them and help support the Blog-Off project in some way.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Blog-Off Update: Ideas for Job Hunters on the Web

This is a guest post by Suzanne Falter-Barnes, author and entrepreneur. Reprinted with permission. See her bio below.

Recently I was coaching a client and the pungent question came up of just how much a platform needs to be niched.

By now the niching pundits have hit the drum hard enough that everyone knows what niching is and why it matters – the Web requires everyone to pick a specialty so they can be found.

If you’re a marketing expert, say, you’ll get lost among other marketing experts … UNLESS you are a marketing expert to lawyers, say, or mom-preneurs, or recently retired academics who want to start a web business.

But the question remains – just when do you stop tightening your niche? Often when I suggest to a consulting client that they need to go tighter, a certain common fear arises. What if I draw the niche too small? Won’t my market be too small?

The answer is yes and no, because it all depends on just which niche you’re plunging into … and just where you want to land.

First of all, you have to survey the landscape and see who else is out there doing what you do. If you Google ‘Marketing consultants’, for instance, you get 5,560,000 entries. That’s a lot. Look at the entries on the first page or two, and yep – there are many marketing consultants out there.

But if you Google ‘Marketing consultants for lawyers’ you get 365,000. Better. And yep, they are still mostly marketing consultancies working specifically for lawyers.

But then Google ‘Marketing consultants for women lawyers’ … well, then it all goes kaphlooey. The listings (and we’re talking about organic listings here, not those ads to the right) are mostly around an article or two that was written on the topic by an academic. Or really unrelated sites linked to women lawyers.

That would be a case, then, of over-niching.

Now I’m not recommending that you put all of your niching eggs in the Google basket. That needs to be only one of a few different considerations here.

If you’re working with me, I believe we have to go much deeper into that competition, learn more, and refine your offer more so you really stand out.

One way to do that is to consider what will bring you joy. What, in your gut, is a stand apart quality that defines you? What’s unique to your life that makes you you – that can also be applied to your business?

Note: No connection is too tenuous! The wilder the better because it’s ownable and memorable in a crowded niche.

Example: one of my clients wanted to create a coaching business in a very crowded corner of the field. We cast about a bit, looking for his unique hook, when he happened to mention casually he’s a world champion in his age group for a particular sport. World champion! That’s the stuff great platforms thrive on! We dug in and determined a way to fit that championship message into his overall philosophy and marketing message.

Another example would be Tuck Self, The Rebel Belle, who I love to talk about in my presentations. Tuck came to me with a desire to do motivational creativity coaching for clients — yet another crowded field. But all she had to do was hang on the phone a bit with her lovely South Carolina accent, and the answer was obvious – create a creativity coaching site that is a ‘Southern voice for bold self expression.” We named her the Rebel Belle, and she’s done gloriously with it.

It’s critical that your niche contain indelible pieces of you that no one can touch. Then you can niche within your niche – and still stand apart even in a crowded field.

Go forth and niche – and celebrate your full potential!

Guest Author Bio: Learn how to get known so you can not only find your biggest audience … but you can attract calls from major media and publishers. Check out Suzanne’s freebie, The Platform Jump Starter, at www.getknownnowblog.com

Photography by Shai Coggins

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

How Niched is Niched? How Small Should Yours Be?

Just concluded last month’s poll: Is making money online your main occupation?

And, as you can see from the chart here, it looks like majority of JMMO readers and visitors are only investigating the prospect of making money online (41%). They’re still researching, and finding out the best way to make money online, I suppose. I’m really amazed at this number. I thought this will be much lower. But, it does help me to think of what kind of resources to develop here at JMMO.

Other than the “research only” group, 17% of the voters said that making money online is just a hobby. So, it looks like a good 58% of folks are not in this area as a job. At least, not yet anyway.

Then, there are 23% of folks who said that making money online is a Part time job. And, only 18% said that this online venture is a Full time job.

A further 1% fall in the ‘Other’ category. Not quite sure what ‘Other’ is in this case, though.

What’s your take on this? If you can give some advice to the majority of the JMMO readers/visitors who’re in the “research only” stage, what would your advice be?

Anyway, thanks again to all who took the time to vote in our poll. I’ll be posting a new poll for the month shortly.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Poll Results: Making Money Online as an Occupation

Our recent server outages made a few us on b5media think more about crisis management in one’s businesses. As an online entrepreneur, do you have a crisis management plan for your business? What happens if your server goes down? Or your payment or email systems become inaccessible? Or you encounter difficult clients? What kind of strategies do you have in place to handle these types of issues? And, how will you advise newcomers to the online business field?

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Open Mic Monday: Crisis Management

Yes, we’ve got a new poll up for the month. If you’re like most online entrepreneurs, you probably have tried several web businesses and ventures – from providing content to selling on eBay. Whatever it is that you’ve tried so far, which one is your favourite? If you haven’t tried anything yet, which one would you like to try the most?

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

New Poll: What’s your most preferred way of making money online?