Murder of the Internet Riches Dream
Yep, I've Ben there, done that and I want to make it easy for you to see your way clearly to making some money online. I know, I know, we all hear stories of these "internet millionaires," and there are many, but most of us realize that it would make such a difference to make a couple thousand online each month! I mean, that would free up a car payment, apartment rent or a house payment, along with dinner out and dessert to boot. So, let's bring our expectations down to the possible for the time being. In later reports, I'll show you how to link your starter project into bigger arenas for bigger profits. Agreed? Here's your plan.
Step One: You need to sell something of value. Specialized information is what sells well on the internet, so for the purposes of this tutorial, that is your product. What kind of specialized information? Well, what pushes your buttons? Do you like snowboarding, breeding dogs, collecting vintage jewelry, visiting state parks, mountain biking, or another interesting uncommon hobby? Are you a parent, a nurse, a mechanic, teacher, nutritionist, realtor, or coach? What is it you do or are that you can see building an information business around? That's the ticket to selecting where to look for your product.
Step Two: You now must create or find a product that you can sell. To create a product, you would assemble the knowledge you have in a particular field, organize it logically, and write an ebook, make a video, or make an audio presentation of that knowledge. To find a product, you would look for an ebook or other downloadable info product in the area that interests you, and re-sell it, or become an affiliate for it. You can find several sites online that allow you to purchase an ebook to sell. Be sure you buy one with private license rights (PLR) so you can put your own name as the author on your website. Don't worry that this is plagiarism; the authors have signed away their rights for some compensation, and have probably gone on to create other products! If you wish to go the affiliate route, go to ClickBank or Commission Junction, and sign up to promote other people's products. When the product sells because of your recommendation, you get a small percentage. ClickBank has an informative overview of how the site operates and pays you that would be helpful to review. Next, you'll need to promote your product, and for that, you'll need a website.
Step Three: Make your own website! Start at a site, like freewebs.com, or synthasite.com, that will give you a template to put your text into. Play around with what you want to say about your product until you are satisfied with the look and the message. You can also practice inside Microsoft Word, and then just copy and paste your work into a free template at one of the above sites. Following that, you need a title for your page, or
domain name.
Step Four: Create a domain name related to your product so people know what you are selling. For example, if you are giving advice to pet owners who want better behaved dogs, you might create the domain name gooddoggie.com. You will have to purchase the name of your site, and therefore you will have to see if it is available. Someone may already have named his site gooddoggie, and paid for the privilege of keeping that name exclusively for his site. Purchasing a name (a very small yearly cost and sometimes free with hosting costs) is like purchasing a copyright; it insures only you can use it. You can test your choice of domain name at domaintwist.com, where the site gives you several choices based on the words you select. Now it's time to choose a hosting service.
Step Five: A hosting service is the server that "holds" your webpage, and makes it continually available to all your potential customers. There are several large companies, like Hostgator and Godaddy, and these are reliable and I've used them. Hosting costs less than $100 a year, and you pay once a year or once every two. Therefore, be ready with your webpage all set to upload to your hosting service. The company you choose will have instructions and help on their website. If you need help, it may take 24 hours to get back to you, so be patient. If you would like more personal service, the company Flash Publishing is very accessible and hands-on with you. Their rates for web design and hosting are extremely reasonable, as well, which is a plus for many of us starting out on a small budget. Once your website is uploaded and has gone live, you need to tell the world about it so you will begin to have customers! That, of course, is the whole point of your efforts, so you need to direct traffic to your site.
Step Six: A wise web designer told me, "It's not if you build it, they will come," like in the movie Field of Dreams. That's fantasy. You must work to attract customers to your site, and fortunately, there are several good ways to direct traffic to your new site and bring in those customers. One way is to submit articles on your topic to ezines. These are internet "magazines" where internet surfers go to find information to solve a problem or concern they have. [See examples below.] Using our previous example, you might submit an article relating to effective ways to keep your dog from jumping on visitors to your home. Many people have this problem with their pets, and you can provide a good solution. At the bottom of the article, you would of course have your name, website address, and the title of the ebook or video you've produced to solve more pet problems. If readers are impressed with the effectiveness of your advice, they may well visit your website and become a customer. You can also supply helpful information on blogs written by pet owners, with a shorter format. You might say, "I noticed many people have asked how to keep their dogs from jumping on visitors, so I wrote a free article you can find at [a page on your website] for some helpful solutions." Readers can go from the blog to your article, and while there, learn more about the ebook or video you have published. Voila! You've got traffic! Then, when you really have some momentum going, you can hire affiliates to help spread the word for you.
Step Seven: Affiliates are salespeople who promote your product and get paid a percentage when someone buys. If you have an original product, or you've rebranded and tweaked a product that has PLR and has permitted you to do that, you can submit your work to ClickBank, for example, and hire affiliates. (The process of registering to sign up affiliates is outlined on the ClickBank website.) In order to entice a number of affiliates, you should agree to pay them well, say 40-75% of the price paid for your product. "What! You want me to give away that much of my earnings?" you may say. Just remember that 25-60% of something is better than 100% of nothing! Remember also, that the affiliate process is a building one, so keep promoting your product by means of helpful information through blogs and articles, and your sales force will continue to grow. If your sales force grows, your customer base will grow as well. Be sure to build an email list of those customers so you can let them know of new products you've found or you've developed. This will be a good source of income, too!
Step Eight: Give yourself a special payday with your email list. Once in a while, not too often or you may annoy people, prepare a new product, write a new sales page for it on your website, and alert your customer base by using your email list. Make each email personal, and thank them for purchasing from you in the past. Then, introduce your old customers to your new product. You may find that, if you have earned your customers' trust and your first product performed as promoted, you will have a burst of buying when you promote your next product. Following that, use the methods in Step Six to widen your exposure of the new product to interested consumers.
There you have it! Eight simple steps that you can repeat again and again to put cash in your PayPal account! Plan your work and work your plan and you will enjoy the results!