Do you spend the majority of your time trying to convince your prospects that they absolutely must buy your product? Are you experiencing low conversion rates and high negative-response rates? Are you starting to feel like internet marketing success really is just a myth? Do you think everyone is lying to you?

These are all symptoms of MCN, marketing in a crowded niche. If you're dealing with them on a regular basis, chances are there are just plain too many people selling a similiar product to your same targeted customer base.

But don't worry--this isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, realizing this information may be the best thing that ever happens to your business.

But now that you do know you are marketing in an overcrowded niche, you must choose a specific path for your business if you want to acheive profit.

You must decide if you want to a) prepare for a long fight to the top (of your niche); b) market your same product to a different group of buyers; or c) abandon your product, find a profitable niche, and then build a new business around it.

Of course, there are pros and cons to each decision, but as long as you recognize the need to make a decision--and then create a clear, honest business plan to make money with that choice--you wont run into trouble.

Let's start with option A:

PREPARE FOR A LONG FIGHT TO THE TOP

If your niche is so crowded that you haven't broken into profit after several of months of marketing, this does not mean that your niche is unprofitable--it means the exact opposite: your niche is so unbelievably in-demand and profitable that everyone is trying to build around it.

You may not be making money with this route now, but if you stick with it and continually make progress, then you are almost guaranteed to make an enormous amount of money when your business reaches critical mass--when your website has a lot of backlinks from high-traffic sites; when your webpage is ranked highly in search engines for your specific niche keywords; when other marketers in your niche begin to seek you out for interviews and for joint ventures; and when you begin making your own products to fill the gaps in your niche. . .

'Preparing for a long fight to the top' also means not relying on your main business as a cashcow--as your source of income--for the time being. This is always a huge mistake.

Maybe you can write google adwords for affiliate programs to make extra cash while you wait for your business to take off; OR maybe you can budget your main business to save money; OR maybe you can pick up a part-time or full-time job to ensure you have enough money in the bank to live off of while you build your business.

There are a number of viable options, but whatever you choose, you must remember that your business absolutely will not earn you a full-time income until you become a big-player in your niche. You must recognize this and structure your business plan around it;

If this is not a good option for you, then you must consider option B:

MARKET YOUR PRODUCT TO A DIFFERENT GROUP OF BUYERS

When you think of your website, you may only be able to think of a couple words to describe it--the keywords you have been telling yourself you must use to make money, to get rankings, to make sales.

If these keywords are not working for you--if you either have a low conversion rate or poor rankings on search engines--then you must consider marketing to a different group of buyers. You can sell the same product to an entirely different group and radically change your conversion rate and profit margin.

You can begin by finding new keywords to better target potential customers. Pay-per-click search engine advertising is one of the best ways to do this. You can use overture's and google's tools to create a bigger, more specific set of keywords and then find out which keywords reach a respectable market and which ones draw a high conversion rate. Mix and match until you have the best possible set.

Use ad tracking as much as possible to scientifically determine which ads are doing the best. Once you have the best set, optimize your website for those keywords. Figure out what people are thinking when they type in those exact words--what solution they are looking for and for what problem--and then find those people elsewhere and market to them in different ways.

And if this option wont work for you, then you must resort to something entirely different--option c:

ABANDON YOUR PRODUCT AND FIND A PROFITABLE NICHE

Sometimes you just run out of options and have to switch products. I personally would never suggest taking this route unless it comes down to either a) quitting marketing altogether or b) giving up on your current situation.

If it comes down to this, just switch your products and find another one that you wont have to fight so hard to sell.

This time, when you select your product, make sure you lazer-target a niche that will undoubtably be more profitable and easier to break into. Again, you can use PPCs and adwords to find which niches are overcrowded and which niches desparately need sellers.

You want to pick a specific product to market to a specific crowd with specific keywords that will provide a specific solution for a specific problem.

Be specific.

When you find this specific niche, build your business around it. Profit will flow in naturally.

Copyright 2004 Isaiah Hull

Isaiah Hull is a business tips writer, a widely-published author, the publisher of two ebusiness training courses, the CEO of two web-based busineses, and the PTL of multiple affiliate programs. Hull teaches others to make an income with step-by-step profit systems. Some can be found at his site: http://www.workathomerightnow.net.