Friday, March 31, 2006

Tips To Help You Start Making Money Online

Well, you've got a new online business, Have you? That's great, but let me ask a question. You are certain you are going to make a lot of money, because somebody told you so, right? The problem is, that you probably haven't really checked out the internet information resources available to help you get started. Whatever caught your eye about the possibilities of making money on the internet told you what COULD happen, but it probably didn't go very deep into HOW to make it happen.

That's what this article is about. We are going to provide some basic tips to help you start making money online.



If you bought a brick-and-mortar business, you would realize the necessity for patience and work. You would realize that you wouldn't be rolling in the dough overnight. You would be prepared to do research and you would be prepared for a learning period during which you might not seem to be having much success. The same is true of a business you start in order to make money online.

No matter how simple your online business seems, you really should write out a business plan. This doesn't have to be incredibly deep or complicated, but it should always be a dynamic plan. You should be ready to revise your plan as your business grows or your knowledge increases or as your market changes, and so on. You will probably start with some ignorance, so as your knowledge grows, change your plan as needed.

Obviously, for an online business, you will need web hosting and a web site. There are many pre-packaged services for attractive and professional appearing web sites, and web site templates, but, as your business grows and changes, these pre-fab products might prove difficult to alter. If you cannot learn, or do not want to learn, web page design and html and/or java coding, you might want to find a web designer who will create the web pages for you. These freelance designers abound on the internet, and often advertise on other media in your home town. If you can learn code, purchase your own domain, and get the site up and running yourself, you will have saved money and you will have learned valuable skills to help you make money online.

Many an online business fails because the owner does not realize that just because a business is online and is supposed to work 24/7/365 it still requires all the attention and discipline and has all the responsibilities of any other business. In addition to the online aspects of the business, there may be time required for offline matters as well, such as writing copy for advertising or preparing tax documents.

Advertising, marketing, and search engine optimization are some important areas that you will have to address once your web site is up and running. In fact, you should be learning about these as you prepare to start your business online. You will not only have to promote your site, but you will have to keep promoting it. This will be one of your biggest responsibilities if you want to make money online. Without this constant promotion, your business will sink out of site beneath the weight of the thousands of new businesses constantly coming online. Therefore, as you make your business plans and increase your knowledge, you need to concentrate heavily on the area of search engine optimization (SEO). If you find this task to be daunting or beyond the reach of your time or experience, it may be worth the money to hire an SEO professional.

There are many other ways you can market your business and make money online.

You can:

  • Find web sites in the same field as yours to link to your site
  • Write and publish articles that relate to your business
  • Create a blog on the area of your business with links to your web site
  • Encourage friends, neighbors, and satisfied customers to deliver your message
  • Use pay-per-click search engine listings and services such as Google adwords
  • Print information and your web site on business cards or flyers
  • Place advertisements in print media
  • Put magnetic signs on your car. One company, I.D. IT! Plates, provides a unique and highly effective alternative to magnetic signs.
  • Use vinyl lettering to place your message on your car.
  • Print return address labels with reference to your product and your web site.

    The scope of this article has been limited to an overview of a few of the basic steps necessary to make money online. While neglecting or ignoring these simple steps can contribute to a lack of success of an online business, these steps are nowhere near a complete listing of all the things you need to learn or do to make your online business a complete success.

    With an online business, anyone can become a business owner for a minimum investment, and, based on my own experience and the experiences of others, the potential for regular online income is almost measureless. There are people working a little to make a little money to help with bills, and there are people who make their entire living on the internet. Some make a few hundred dollars a month, while some make amounts that allow them to buy yachts and huge homes. The difference often rests in how hard someone is willing to work or how much they strive to learn about internet business and marketing. It has nothing to do with your skin color, sex, religion, or personal beliefs.

    Anyone can make money online with the right attitude and a willingness to learn and grow.


    The author is retired from the Army after 21 years of service. He has worked as an accountant, purchasing agent, optical lab manager, restaurant manager, instructor and long-haul, over-the-road truck driver. He has been a member of Mensa for several years, and has written and published poetry, essays, and articles on various subjects for the last 40 years. He has been an active internet marketer since 2000, and now makes his living online. He has blogs on the subjects of Internet Business and Marketing, Health and Weight Loss, and Real Estate Investing.

  • Niche Marketing is the Simple and Proven Secret to Making Money Online

    Niche markets, or specialized areas of demand for a product or service, are key to generating an income whether it be an online or offline business. We are going to discuss a very simple concept that will allow you to identify a niche and how you can then use that niche to generate more income.

    Let's start with a very basic category of pets. If you decided to sell pet products on the internet, this category would be very broad and would immediately put you in competition with extremely large vendors like pets.com for example. So, rather than competing with companies that have been around for many years and may have greater advertising and financial resources than you have, you will want to dig a little deeper and find a niche that you can focus on while building your business.

    Some people immediately think that by focusing on a smaller niche that they are limiting their number of potential customers. That is true to a certain degree. However, it is often far more profitable to have a smaller group of customers that truly want what you have to offer than a larger group that is being bombarded by hundreds of your competitors.

    So, let's get back to the category of pets. We have already determined that this group is very large and that you will need to be more specific. Here are some possibilities...

    Level 1-Pets
    Level 2-Dogs
    Level 3-German Shepherds
    Level 4-Puppies
    Level 5-Training Puppies

    Potential niche: "Best Way to Train German Shepherd Puppies"

    Once this niche is chosen, it will do two things for you. First, it will give you a greater focus and allow you to promote your service to a targeted market segment. Secondly, it will bring you potential customers that already know exactly what you have to offer. In return, they will be far more likely to purchase from you.

    This basic concept can be applied to literally any category of business and anyone can use it to select a niche. Let's look at one more that you have probably seen online many times.

    Level 1-People
    Level 2-Women
    Level 3-Women Entrepreneurs
    Level 4-Women Entrepreneurs Working at Home
    Level 5-Women Entrepreneurs Working at Home with Children

    Most experts will tell you to choose a niche that you enjoy or one that you have experience with in life. However, if you do a little research, you will find out that some marketers have been able to capitalize on various niches even with little to no experience in that specific area.

    In the long run, niche markets have been proven to work for anyone taking the time to study them. Have some fun and use the technique shown above to find a niche that you will not only enjoy but one that will allow you to profit as well.

    Distributed by E. Kinton, Jr. http://www.nationalnetworkers.com/nichemarketingsystem Article can be freely reprinted provided above link is shown.

    Make Money Online Fast - A Reality Check

    If you spend any time researching how to make money online you will no doubt come across hundreds of websites selling you the promise of riches if you buy their product or service. The sales pitches used at the majority of these websites are not necessarily untruthful or inaccurate - they simply leave out the full story.

    The idea that you can make money online fast, without effort, time, computer knowledge or a financial investment is very alluring. Most people dream about winning the lottery, coming into an inheritance or finding a buried treasure. Although the chances of any of these are remote at best, the odds are not likely to be much worse than your chances of getting rich online overnight.

    Some of the smartest minds and largest corporations in the world have a presence on the Internet; the competition is tough. Making money on the Internet is a business and to be successful you have to approach it that way. Like any business, there are some realities you will have to accept:

    - Making money online takes effort.

    How much effort will depend on what money making approach you are using, where your starting and how much experience you have.

    - Making money online takes money.

    Domain name registration, pay per click advertising, marketing and web page creation are just a few possibilities of the costs new businesses may incur.

    - Making money online takes time.

    Patience and perseverance may be the most important qualities an individual can have when it comes to making money online.

    If you attempt to start an online business with little effort, little money and little patience, your results will most likely disappoint you. As the saying goes, you get out what you put in.

    The Internet allows people to work from home and earn a second income or perhaps even enough money to quit your job. As long as you approach the task with your feet planted firmly on the ground the reward can be financial freedom.

    James Wood has worked in the information technology field for the past ten years and holds two degrees. He collaborated on the eBook "The Wealthy Skunk - Make Money Online" found at http://www.wealthyskunk.com

    The Rich Jerk Website and Why it Works to Make Money

    Have you heard of The Rich Jerk? If not, it's probably just a matter of time as his e-book appears to be one of the top sellers on the internet based on some stats.

    However, this is not an article about the contents of his e-book and whether or not it's worth the current $49.00 price tag. This is about the simple, on-the-surface basics of the website itself and how you can easily learn a few tips from successful online marketers just by taking a look at their home pages.

    So, let's take a quick look at Rich Jerk's site and identify a few things that you might want to consider when you decide to produce a website.

    1. Easy to read...Notice that the colors used on the site are easy on the eyes and the layout is not too complicated. I would probably skip the scrolling ad copy at the top of the page but that is just a personal opinion.

    2. Limited use of pictures...Although he has various pictures on the site, they are not too large and situated in a way as to not take away from his ad copy. Ultimately, it's the ad copy that will make the visitor click on "buy now" and not the photos.

    3. Establishes Trust...Rich Jerk doesn't use his full or personal name anywhere on the site because he says that he doesn't want anyone bothering him or begging for money. However, he does use a little logo from Trust-e (privacy policy) and also various testimonials that help to establish trust and credibility. He even makes a comment that his testimonials are real and not faked like he sees on other websites.

    4. Uses long ad copy...There has been a long running debate online as to whether short ad copy or long ad copy works the best. I'm not sure if anyone has done any official studies but my vote would be "long." There is a reason why most of the top internet marketers use long copy on their sales pages and it's probably the same reason that Rich Jerk uses it as well.

    5. Key words...if you view the source code on Rich Jerk, you will see that he does in fact use key words that apply directly to his target market. There are many online marketers that still don't include basic key words.

    6. Bold and highlighting...Some websites can go overboard in using the bold command or when highlighting specific text. But, it can be an effective way to bring out key points provided you don't use it too often.

    7. Clear order instructions...One of the things that Rick Jerk does very well is outlines the benefits of his package in bullet form right before he asks you for the sale. He also makes the order process easy to understand, outlines his guarantee, and gives you instant access to the e-book once you decide to purchase it.

    Those are some very simple observations when it comes to The Rick Jerk's website. But, they could be invaluable to you down the road. The next time you are visiting what appears to be a successful website, don't be afraid to take a few notes and learn from those that are making it happen.

    Distributed by E. Kinton, Jr. http://www.nationalnetworkers.com Article can be redistributed provided link is shown.

    Tips For Making Good Money In Affiliate Marketing

    How would you like to get paid for selling products that you don't own and not go to jail for doing it?

    That is what affiliate marketing is all about. Somebody else goes through all of the trouble to develop a software program, service, or digital content product. They build the web site; they process the credit cards; they deliver the content and they handle the after-sale support and customer service. You collect the money!

    What is affiliate marketing?

    Affiliate marketing is a revenue-sharing arrangement between the product developer, called the affiliate merchant, and the affiliate marketer who is anyone willing to promote the sale of the product by independently advertising it using any legal means.

    This relationship allows the affiliate merchant to grow their revenue by only paying for advertising that actually results in a sale. The affiliate marketer profits by making a commission on a sale that he does not have to manage after the fact. It's a win-win for both parties.

    How do affiliate marketers get paid?

    That depends upon how the affiliate program is set up. Some affiliate merchants run their own affiliate program. They have special software that assigns each affiliate marketer a special URL to be used in promoting the product or service. The software tracks sales by each affiliate marketer and the merchant pays the commission on a periodic basis using PayPal or some other method.

    Other affiliate merchants use third-party affiliate management programs like ClickBank, Commission Junction, ShareASale, and others. The tracking functionality is the same but the payment process and procedures vary among the different services.





    How to select a profitable product or service to promote?

    Because your income is directly tied to how well the selected product or service sells, and the size of the commission that you will earn, it's important to choose carefully when it comes to choosing an affiliate merchant to partner with.

    Choose programs that you're not embarrassed to promote and that you would feel comfortable recommending to family and friends if you were asked.

    You will do better if you promote things that you understand and are familiar with. That way you will be able to write better ads without having to strain yourself trying to come up with good things to say.

    Only promote products and services for companies who have gone through the trouble to provide you with a training program and sales aids like banners, sample classified ads, and other marketing materials that you can either use directly or model yours after.

    Look for programs with commission rates of no less than 50%. Give preference to programs that pay commissions on multiple levels. That means that you will also earn commissions on sales made by people who buy the product through your link and then go on to become an affiliate themselves.

    Google the company and the product to see if the company has a good reputation and to see how many affiliate ads are already out there. If the competition is too stiff, find a different product to promote.

    Once you have your product just write your ads and start promoting. Remember – NO SPAMMING!

    Good luck and hope that you make a lot of money!

    Jim is the owner of free online business website, where it is for anyone who need free resources and idea to make money with affiliate program.

    Affiliate Marketing: Fuel Your Passion

    "Tell me the secret to being a successful affiliate marketer!" I get this type of email on occasion. I always dutifully read the email and send a polite reply. In the reply email I always try to stress the following points:

    There are no secrets in affiliate marketing! I don't care what the guru's tell you. Being successful in affiliate marketing isn't a matter of luck, or the result of some type of magical wizardry. Being successful in affiliate marketing involves knowing the ingredients that makes other affiliate marketers successful. One of the common threads that I have observed in all successful affiliate marketers is their ATTITUDE toward their affiliate marketing business. Jim Martell, Rosalind Gardner, Jim Edwards, Allan Gardyne and many other highly successful affiliate marketers, that you may not have even heard of, all LOVE affiliate marketing. They have the passion a burning desire to be successful in their affiliate marketing endeavors.

    Passion for affiliate marketing has to be the one key ingredient to achieving success, not only in affiliate marketing, but in any pursuit you undertake in life. Without a passion for your affiliate business, you are traveling down the road to failure. Your passion is what will keep you moving forward one tiny step at a time when your affiliate marketing business is going through difficult and trying times. That same passion will be the key factor in ultimately moving your affiliate marketing business toward the rewards of financial success!

    Do you have this type of passion? I don't know. Only you can answer that. I do know that without belief, interest, and determination you will never develop the passion that pushes other successful affiliate marketers to extreme heights of affiliate marketing success.

    Let's take a look at some of the traits that will fuel your passion to be successful in affiliate marketing:

    Belief

    Do you believe in the opportunity you have to be successful with affiliate marketing programs? If you don't, then you need to start right now. You MUST believe that you will be successful in your affiliate marketing efforts. How do you get this belief? Simple, do some research on affiliate marketing. You will find that many ordinary people, like you, can and are doing quite well in the world of affiliate marketing. Some people who were once in the same position you are in right now are earning thousands of dollars a month through their affiliate program marketing efforts. Don't be fooled into thinking that only the Cream of the Crop, the Super Affiliates with their names plastered all over the internet are the only ones making money with affiliate marketing. That isn't the case. Many people you have never heard of are making a very nice income from affiliate marketing; they just choose not to attract attention to themselves.

    What is your goal for your affiliate marketing business? Maybe you can't answer that right now. Do your research. Set a reasonable goal for this month. Write it down. Do everything in your power to make that goal a reality. Once you've achieved that goal, move on to your next goal. You have to crawl before you can walk, walk before you can run, eventually you will be off and running. Affiliate marketing is a marathon, it isn't a sprint. Pace yourself. These frustrating days you may be experiencing now will soon be a distant memory. BELIEVE that you will be successful. It can be done. It isn't going to be easy, but then again anything worth having is going to take time and effort.

    Interest

    As an affiliate marketer you have to have a genuine interest in the merchant products that you are promoting to your prospects. To me, it means you should own and use these products. Why? You can give your prospects a fair and honest evaluative review of the product or service. Point out the features that make this particular product unique. Stress the benefits that your prospective customer will receive by using this product or service. The benefits that you have derived are probably some of the same benefits that your prospects are looking for. They need validation!

    Think of it this way. If you have a genuine interest in the product and service you are promoting and you own and use the product for your own benefit, you have the advantage of putting yourself in the shoes of your prospective customers. You will become acutely more aware of their needs and are in a much better position to answer those needs.

    You can truthfully share your interest in the product and experiences with the product. Even the most casual and curious browsers will be attracted to your product because you wrote a review or gave a testimony to a product you already own and use! Honest reviews and powerful testimonies about the benefits of a product or service are two of the most powerful tools that you have in your affiliate marketing arsenal. Use them often and use them wisely. Remember, your credibility is at stake!

    Determination

    Be Determined! You must set your chin and be determined to succeed in your affiliate marketing business. I am a huge College and Pro football fan. I am firmly convinced that the Pittsburgh Steelers are the world champions today because of the determination of their head coach, Bill Cowher. He willed that team to victory throughout the playoffs and the Super Bowl. He was not daunted by several previous setbacks in AFC championship games. He found new and better ways of getting the job done. Today he is a world champion.

    You can do the same with your affiliate marketing business. You cannot get too high or too low in the world of affiliate marketing. Don't let a few setbacks get you down. Chalk each set back up to a lesson learned. Go back and rework your idea or plan. Find another way of approaching a problem. Find new and better ways of promoting and pre-selling your affiliate products.

    When belief, interest and determination are present in your affiliate marketing business your passion for affiliate marketing and the goods and services you are promoting will shine brightly. All of your prospects will be able to see and feel your passion. Find your passion and you will have captured the most highly sought factor for your success in the world of affiliate marketing.

    David Cooper is the editor of the Affiliate Marketing Articles Newsletter. David specializes in helping people fuel their passion to be successful in affiliate marketing by offering real world tips and strategies. Subscribe to his FREE newsletter at: http://www.affiliatemarketingarticles.com

    Affiliate Marketing – In Simple Words

    I took quite sometime to understand what an Affiliate is and what is the so-called Affiliate Marketing. Until I took time to understand about the concept of Affiliate Marketing and its earning potential I had not taken it seriously. This article may be of some help to those who want to start their Home business with Affiliate Marketing, but are not familiar with its concept and potential.

    1. Who is an Affiliate?

    An affiliate is someone who joins with another merchant’s website to sell their products or services, on a commission basis.

    2. Do we have to pay anything to become an Affiliate or join in an Affiliate Program?

    Affiliate membership is free with most of the companies. There are companies where you have to buy their product and then automatically you become their affiliate. To start your career it is better to join with free affiliate programs.

    3. What is Affiliate marketing?

    An affiliate through his/her own efforts drives traffic to the company’s website to generate sales. The affiliate gets the commission from the company for his productive efforts.

    4. How does an affiliate drive traffic to the company’s site in order to produce a sale?

    Most of the companies teach their affiliates in their member’s area for free, and also through their newsletters. If you educate yourself with the proper training it will not be difficult to get more visitors. They educate their affiliates to succeed because their success lies in their affiliates’ success.

    5. Which types of companies are best to join?

    Any company that offers a decent percentage of commission to their affiliates are good to join and do affiliate marketing for them. The companies who offer two-tier payments will be better to get more commission.

    6. What is meant by “two-tier” payments?

    The company rewards their affiliates for their own sales generated and also a smaller percentage of the commission of the sales produced by their sub-affiliates who are recruited by these affiliates. For example, if an affiliate gets 30% (or whatever percentage) as commission for his/her own productive efforts and also gets paid for the efforts of his/her sub-affiliates (say about 50 in number) a smaller percentage (say about 10%) of all the 50 sub-affiliates, the Affiliate gets a better income for his Affiliate Marketing business.

    Lakshmi Menon is involved in Internet Marketing and recommends you to visit her website for more details. http://www.net4homeincome.com/

    Sunday, March 12, 2006

    Simple Strategies For Flocking Traffic To Your Website

    Every online business owner knows that having a website running a virtual shop needs customers for sales, and make sales turn into profits. But there are so many competitors that owns websites just like any other online business owners too. So the question is how do the customers find your website?

    Here are some simple strategies that I've put together just for you, so you don't have to go through a hard time testing which strategies work best for bringing traffics.

    The first most important strategy in marketing your website is to get a high search engine ranking. Unless your name is already all over the internet, otherwise, search engine is the best tool for customer to get to your websites.

    There are certain rules to get your website to rank high in search engines.

    1. Stick to the subject. Always keep everything on your site relevant to the subject. This obviously makes a pretty good sense for search engine to index you and refer to a group of niche targeted traffic to your website, and only brings in quality prospects to you instead of just load of useless traffic which will only waste your website bandwidth.

    2. You may also want to spend some time to choose a domain name and website title that fits perfectly well with your business keywords. Always make your title easy to be remembered.

    3. Link popularity is definitely going to help your website rankings, so do also spend time find and contact websites that offer information complementing yours and ask for reciprocal links.

    Important: Be aware that this information can change as search engines redesign their methods for relevant results.

    4. If you have some money to spare for advertising your websites, pay-per-click advertising will be a cost effective method to market your website fast. A very well-known online advertising program is google adwords; but I would highly advise you to master its feature and secrets before you start using it. You can find various of courses and tutorials online.

    5. Web logs or blogs are the latest trend for internet marketing. Many blogs rank well on the search engines. This is the best method to market your products and ideas especially if you are a darn good writer that can provide content that 'suck' readers into your articles. Blog can be written in both formal and casual. You can even use blog as a business journal for public. And if you have any event coming up in your business, your readers will the first to know through your business blog.

    If you have any fantastic ideas and marketing strategies for your online businesses, always keep in mind that the core purpose for applying all these strategies is to increase your website traffic and hence online profits; otherwise, this isn't marketing anymore.

    Aim for success when marketing your online businesses. Use the above methods and watch your traffic grow.


    Copyright (c) Edwin Lim

    About the author:
    Edwin Lim is a freelance copywriter living in Malaysia. For more article writing and marketing insights, visit his Website at http://www.webblogerz.com

    How To Build A Responsive List In Any Niche

    I want to talk to you a bit about building a responsive opt-in list. Building a list is a must, The money really is in the list.

    The best thing about building a targeted list is that they can cost virtually nothing to build, they are highly targeted, and will give you instant credibility with you customers. They are in constant high demand by website owners.

    Here are the top five methods for building a resposive opt-in list and how the will benefit you with your list building efforts.

    1. Write special reports.

    Special reports work amazing because they allow you to go into more detail about the topic or problem in question. Then it will lead to your products or services and how it can fix their problem.

    Special reports give you credibility and it will build trust between you and your customer that you are an expert in your field. Besides, there are many website owners that are always looking for quality free stuff to give away or offer to their visitors or subscribers. This is where you can really cash in, especially if you make your special report rebrandable.

    Your information will always remain intact, no matter what. As your report is speading around the net, it will always lead your potential customer back to your site where they could sign-up for your product or service and read more about what you have to offer them.

    Try to take a few hours each month and write something with useful information about your feild that your customers will keep and pass around. Make sure your logo on the top so they can be reminded of you and your site when they see it.

    You can use this material on your website aswell, so it can be found by people searching for related words and topics through the search engines.

    2. Put together an eBook.

    Free eBooks work very well and have the some of the same benefits as a special report.

    The only difference with using this approach is, you can create a free ebook in alot less time then it would take to create your special report. That is because eBooks do not have to have your own content inside you can use someone else's. Just be sure when you create your ebook, it has quality information inside.

    3. Write articles.

    In my opinion writing articles is one of the best and most effective ways to build a constant and steady flow of traffic to your website because there are tons of website owners that need fresh content to feed to their visitors and subscribers.

    Using this method, you can target your traffic specifically. Imagine your article being picked up by a newsletter editor with a large list and a high traffic website. If they use your article in their publication, you can expect instant surge of targeted traffic overnight.

    That is the reason for your resource box. It does not matter how much your article gets passed around, there will always be a link pointing back to your site.

    4. Become active in the forums.

    Forums are a great place to learn the problems of your market and potential customers. You can do this easily by scanning the posts and looking for active and the most common threads. Doing this you will know the solutions you can provide to that specific market.

    5. Make use of an auto-responder.

    This is the foundation for your list. You must have an auto-responder account setup before you create your mini-site. This is where your potential customers are going submit their name and email address. That way, you can start building a list to send your offers or related information to and watch your profits explode.

    Internet marketers all have a very good reason for using these methods. They are the most effective and they work like crazy. Remember to stay in contact with your customers. Always understand their needs and be there if they need you again.

    Always remain in contact with your customers, why build a list if it is just going to sit in the corner and collect dust. Send your regulars Christmas cards, invite them to meet with you for lunch. Anything you can think of, and watch your profits soar.

    Jason Oickle reveals secret email marketing methods and uncovers how to make an absolute killing with email marketing in 2006. Check out Email Marketing In 2006 today!