Starting your own Internet
business can be one of the most exciting and profitable
ventures you can do.
It will take some effort and
financial investment however this is minimal compared to a
traditional business. In the following pages we will take
you through a step by step process to help you work out
what you would like to do and also give you the resources
to help you make the various decisions along the way.
I have been doing this for
over eight years now and while I can show you the
different processes and tools to use, you will have to make
your own decisions, as there are many paths to travel. The
first thing to decide is what market you want to get into.
Many people jump into the Internet marketing training scene
straight away however this is very competitive and unless
you are very good it can involve a lot of time and little
return.
My suggestion is that you
look for a niche market that could do with a revival. This
is where people make fortunes, by specialising in a
certain markets.
What are you interested in?
What are you passionate
about?
This is your
key factor however also make sure there is a market. You
are looking for markets where people have disposable
income. Make sure you read the article on niche
marketing below. Remember that if your products take
off you will have to service this business. Make sure you
do not trade a job for a job.
Theory
– The Next Big Trends
Every 18 sec for the next 18 years someone will turn
59.
What Business do you want
to be in?
Not long ago, books, tapes
and programs were all the rage telling how easy it was to
make money in mail order. The ads are still running, and a
few people are still reaping the rewards. Remember the guy
making money from his kitchen table, wearing only his
shorts?
Now the playing field has
changed. Now it is the Internet that offers the lazy way
to riches. But don't be misled it will still take
work. Just work smart.
Thousands of folks bought
the books, and failed to get rich. The Internet will also
fail to deliver the expected riches to millions of
hopefuls.
But if you learn the
closely-held secrets of online success, YOU can be one of
the few who profit.
Well, that is what they
would have you believe. Truth is, the secrets are easy to
discover. So easy that I will tell you some of them right
now. And over the next few minutes, I will uncover all
that you need to know to really make the Internet work for
you.
The Internet is a 24/7, 365
day shop, just bursting with customers. Actually, it is
more like a giant Arts & Crafts fair. You've got to
get the customer's attention, while thousands of other
stalls are doing the same. Once you have attracted them,
they look at your stall. If they like what they see, you
get the chance to go into sales mode. At any time their
attention can waver and you lose the customer.
Remember also that next
week or next month there will be another fair and those
people will probably be back so by giving good service and
providing quality products you can be selling to your
customer base for years. Unfortunately most Internet
Business people forget this and go for the one time sale
and loose all the future business that really sustains
most businesses both online and off.
To
create an Automatic Money Machine,
you will need the following:
A Web Site that sells your product for you
Online payment processing
Instant Digital Delivery of your product
An email capture system, with follow-up for
Prospects
Customer follow-up
Affiliate (Reseller) follow-up
List Building strategies
Product and Affiliate tracking
This
may seem like a lot, and it is.But we’re going to walk you through it, so it'll
be easy. And once you have it set up, a lot of it runs on
autopilot. Then all you have to do is market. At that
point, you're only job becomes getting people to your Web
site, and the System does the rest - automatically!
Any
successful business relies on systems and this is what we
will show you how to set up but first we need to lay the
foundations for your business.
To watch the video
click on the play button. Must be Online
If you do catch them, and
they like what they buy, and you were polite, helpful and
courteous, then next time the fair is held, they will head
straight for you.
The Internet is exactly
like that.
The good news is that
making money from the Internet doesn't have to be a full
time occupation. You can run a business in a few hours a
day without risking your day job. Most of the hard work
can be automated, and there are hundreds of web sites
offering free or very inexpensive software solutions for
problems you don't even know you have got.
So why is it made to sound
so difficult? There is a lot of technical jargon out
there, and it gets in the way of developing a clear
understanding of what you need to do. Once you have
progressed along the learning curve, everything gets a lot
simpler, but in the initial stages, you just have to grit
your teeth.
The secret to not getting
information overload is to pick the area you are going to
learn to dominate and then only read and research this
area. It makes it a lot simpler. You have probably heard
about prioritising your goals and this is where it comes
in to play.
So many people run for the
next great deal and miss out on so many sales because they
missed the whole concept of consistency and specialisation.
The get rich quick concepts may work for a short while but
a good solid business will pay you for years.
There is
no substitute for knowledge.
Here is a list of 6
questions that will lead you to decide how you can start
making money with your own web site. It is not exhaustive:
new ideas are being developed all the time, but it covers
the bases:
Do you want to sell
hard products or digital products?
Do you want to sell
your own products, or someone else's?
Do you want to
concentrate on selling one product hard, or spread
over a wide range of products?
Do you want to accept
payments online, or let other people deal with the
money?
Do you want to capture
email addresses so that you can sell to them later?
Do you want to run an
affiliate program
The secret here is Knowledge
plus action = profits
Just
remember that all this information I am giving you is for
reference. You do not have to go out and buy anything
straight away. Go through this comprehensive Manual and then
make your decisions based on an informed decision. You
have this Manual so you can refer back to it any time.
Let's look at these one at
a time.
Hard
products, or digital products?
You can pretty well sell
anything on the Internet. However, if you are looking to
run a business in your spare time, digital information
products are the easiest to handle. Why? Simply because
there is no inventory to worry about. Also, the products are
delivered directly to your customer, instantly.
Do you
want to sell your own products, or someone else's?
Your own products can be
the most profitable. If you write an e-book and sell it
for $25, who gets the $25? You do. All of it. Every last
cent apart from a small commission to the credit card
company. 'But I can't write an e-book,' you say. Sure it
can be difficult if you have not written anything before,
and you may think you have nothing to say that people
would pay good money for. You are wrong! You do have a
book inside you. Almost everybody does.
Ken Evoy's outstanding
book, written with Monique Harris, *Make Your Knowledge
Sell!*, will open your eyes and get you writing anything
from a four-page report to a full sized book.
Do you
want to concentrate on selling one product hard, or spread
over a wide range of products?
This is a very personal
choice, and depends somewhat on the target audience you
will be aiming for and the expected profit-per-sale. If
you have a product that is fairly high ticket, aimed at a
niche audience, then you are probably best off building a
web site devoted entirely to promoting that product.
Why waste your time
diluting your efforts?
If, however, your audience
is broad, and/or your profit margin is small, then by all
means try to cross-sell them other products.
The choice has to be your
own, but a lot of money is being made at the moment from
both avenues so make your decision and then give it some
time before moving onto the next venture.
Do you
want to accept payments online, or let other people deal
with the money?
If you are starting out in
business and have no trading history, it will be difficult
for you to persuade your bank to give you a merchant
account and the accept credit cards online.
There are ways around this,
but they will cost you a bigger percentage of your sale.
Don't even think about
asking customers to send you a check. This is the
Internet: people just won't do it. Having said this I
have had occasion to send an invoice to a school or
college who then sent me a check however it is very rare.
If people do not have a CC a good alternative is Western
Union. They pay at one side of the world and you withdraw
the cash at your home town then just send the download.
One good solution is
Clickbank. If you plan to sell digitally deliverable
products only, Clickbank may be the answer. Their set-up charge and commissions are low, and there are no monthly
fees. Check them out here
Link on to your payment
system with a better solution and a
complete management system that will keep a data base of
your sales, customers and organise all your sales for you.
Remember we are looking at setting up a business so if you
can initiate a system you have a greater chance of
succeeding. It is sort of like hiring a secretary to do
all the work for you.
1 Shopping Cart - Will handle everything for you. Sales, newsletters,
upgrades for customers and so much more. You can use
Authorizenet, Paypal and 2Checkout which gives your customers
plenty of scope for paying. See our e-commerce section.
Remember that everything we
do should also have a chance of also making us money so
with your marketing and hosting you should choose one that
helps you offset the cost. I tried for many years running
my own scripts which you can do however I learnt quickly
that this also meant I had to maintain them and for such a
low fee it just wast worth it to save a few dollars.
If you don't want a monthly
service but a good management system on your own servers
then DLGuard
is he best solution and what we use.
Do you
want to capture email addresses so that you can sell to
them later?
An increasing acceptable
business plan is based upon the idea of building a
customer list and then selling to them at a later date. To
make this work, your web site must be capable of
generating a high traffic, and must have content that is
of real value to its readers.
Once you have established
that, invite visitors to opt in to your mailing list. This
act gives you permission to email them without risk of
spamming (sending out unsolicited email, which can get you
into serious trouble with your ISP). Then you set about
building a relationship with them through e-zines,
newsletters, special offers, tips, recommendations, site
update announcements and so on.
It can take up to seven
communications before you make a sale, so perseverance is
required.
This method is longer term,
but virtually all the Internet gurus agree that it is the
most effective way of making money online.
Do you
want to run an affiliate program?
Affiliate programs are
special relationships that you create with companies that
sell online. You advertise their products and direct your
visitors to their site. They do all the work of selling,
taking the money and delivering the product and you sit
back and reap the commission payments.
With an affiliate program
you can create a web site offering one, two, or a million
products. Create themed sites (books, music, jewelry, art,
you name it, there will be an affiliate program for it).
You can even create entire department stores online.
And every time a customer
buys a product, you will be credited with anything from 2%
to 60% commission. Just wait for those checks to come
rolling in!
Sounds easy? It isn't. Like
any marketing method on the Internet, it only works if you
put in the effort. You can design the best looking,
hardest selling storefront on the web and if nobody visits
it, that is how many sales you get. Zero.
Have no illusions, to make
money on the Internet you have to put in the work. Maybe
not 12 hours a day, seven days a week, but in the early
days you will need to devote some time to setting things
up.
Like anything in life, the
dream is alluring. But this dream can, with hard work and
perseverance, become a reality. Then maybe you can think
again about that day job!
"To
fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor,
to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes
of life. The money is the gravy."
Bette Davis (1908-1989),
actress.
This way you have added
value to the product and also you will get their email
address to send them more information. Listen to this
audio that explains the process.
Lets
Layout The Plan
1. Buy a Domain Name
2. Buy some Hosting
3. Choose your
products
4. Build a web site
5. Set up online
Payments
6. Organize some
advertising and drive traffic
7. Go Live
8. Add a mini course
or follow up system
9. Add some media.
10. Repeat the
process
How Much
Should It Cost
NB:
These
figures are only to act as a guide and in no way should be
taken as representative or comprehensive of any Internet
Business. You should do your own cash flow analysis
based on your own research.
Description
Cost
Required
Domain
$9.00**
Hosting
From
$6.00*
to 25.00*
Mth
Products
Variable
2
Checkout
$49.00*
Once
ASAP
Clickbank
$49.00
Once
Any
Time
Paypal
$0.00
Merchant
Account
Variable
Any
Time
1 Shopping Cart
$50.00*
Mth
ASAP
Google
Adwords
$30**
+ mth
So
a minium set up would be $53.00*
and ongoing
of $36.00*
a month
An
Optimal set up would be $163*
and ongoing of $105.00*
+
Cash
Flow Projection
You
should always do a cash flow projection and even a full
business plan. Here is a sample of what it might look
like. Always set some goals. It is better to aim at the moon
and miss than to aim at a skunk and hit it. We want to find
out what we need to get in sales to break even at the very
least.
Description
Month
1
Month
2
Month
3
Month
4
Income
Sales
My product
0.00
200.00
400.00
700.00
Sales
Affiliate
77.00
144.00
221.00
298.00
Sales
Hosting
10.00
20.00
30.00
60.00
Total
87.00
364.00
651.00
1058.00
Expenses
Initial
Set up
163.00
Advertising
30.00
40.00
50.00
60.00
Hosting
& Domains
25.00
25.00
25.00
25.00
1SCart
50.00
50.00
50.00
50.00
ISP
40.00
40.00
40.00
60.00
Bank
Fees
15.00
15.00
20.00
20.00
Donation
20.00
20.00
30.00
30.00
Software
0.00
0.00
0.00
300.00
Misc
40.00
40.00
50.00
50.00
Total
383.00
230.00
265.00
595.00
Balance
296.00
134.00
386.00
463.00
Gross
Profit
296.00
162.00
264.00
757.00
Notes to Cash Flow
Spreadsheet:
Income: I have assumed
we have a product worth $40 and we are selling this great CD/ebook
and off course we can also sell some hosting to our friends,
relatives and business associates.
Expenses: I have
included the general expenses for most of the things
associated with the business however I suggest you consult
an accountant for a more complete list. Misc are courses I
buy like for Google adwords or products to help me with my
business. It is also for bits and pieces like stationary
etc.
NB: In the
fourth month I now have some excess funds so I can buy say
Camtasia or other software which I can use to create more
products. Always reinvest into your business. I also give to
a charity as I believe in spreading my success.
Add more
products, sell the systems you're using as an affiliate and
over time you can add a few zero's to the above figures
mainly in the income section as your expenses will not
change that much unlike in a traditional business. You will
buy new domains, upgrade your hosting and also
increase your advertising budget but in proportion to your
sales they will become minor additions.
Lets face it
$7570.00 a months is a pretty good income and if you just
keep at it then it could be yours. It might take a few
months or a few years but however long it takes it will be
some great additional income.
Here is a
great site for doing a full business plan.
Sell this Manual. If
you want to dive right in you can sell this manual as an
affiliate by clicking
here and using the Clickbank
affiliate system.
Now that you have some
products and a plan you simply design your web pages and
start selling. Don't get to bogged down in managing your
business to much. If you set up your sytems and keep
adequate records then spend your time developing products
and promoting as this is where you make your money.
Remember that you want a selling site so there is probably
one more product you will need. It is a book that turned
my sales around from virtually nothing to thousands of
dollars. You will also be able to sell the product and get
commission. It is called Make
Your Site Sell by Ken Envoy.
Time
lapse to the future >>>>>>>>>
Finally you have now
developed your own products and been successful at
marketing and this is where the real money starts to pour
in. People will want to know how you did it and also you
can now help others to do the same. You can build web
sites for others and set up programs for other businesses.
After all you have now developed a whole range of skills
that are in high demand.
It will probably take you a
few months to absorb all the information depending on the
time and effort you put into this project. It is a very
steep learning curve but also very rewarding as all the
information you learn will help you in the future. I
actually did this part time for 5 years and was able to
get a better job because of the skills I developed until
finally I was able to run my Internet Marketing business
full time.
The
concept of "USP" is credited to Rosser
Reeves, chairman of the Ted Bates & Co.
advertising agency in the 1950s. He was one of the
first to develop a technique for communicating in an
overcrowded marketplace. His definition of what
makes a USP holds true today:
All advertising
must make a proposition to the customer: Buy
this, and you will receive a specified benefit.
The proposition
must be unique;
something competitors cannot claim, or have not
chosen to emphasize in their promotions.
The proposition
must be so compelling
that it motivates individuals to act. [more]
