Making money online – building a real business . . .
I came across this today :
https://www.facebook.com/yourFrightshop/about/
which is a FaceBook Page used to promote products on their website. Obviously this one will be likely to make most sales around Halloween, but the same principle can be used for many different product areas.
Note how they post lots of images (which are popular on FaceBook), some of them being links to their products on their site, but others just general related images which will get more visitors.
This strategy takes some time, because it’s optimal to post only a handful of posts on each Social-media channel each day, but of course, you could use multiple channels, such as YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr etc. all of which can use the same images. For YouTube, you can make a video using the SlideShow function on the YouTube site to make a video from still images (and text etc.), or use PhotoStory3 which is free and will slowly move or zoom each still image which makes the video look better than just static images. Both allow you to add some music, which makes the video more appealing to watch.
You can add more strategies such as free or paid traffic (as well as SEO) to boost the results.
There are a lot of products you can use to monetize a topic. I’ve made money from posters (using the AllPosters affiliate program) in the past, and there are products on sites like Zazzle, Tspring, CafePress, ShapeWays, as well as vast numbers of products on Amazon and similar affiliate programs (or even AdSense). Plus relevant Ebooks from sites like JVzoo, ClickBank etc. as well as relevant CPA offers.
You’ll need some sort of website to do this, because some social-media channels won’t allow you to put an affiliate link directly on their site, but will usually allow you to link to a blog post on your own site. If you want to do all this for free, use WordPress.com or Blogger for your site (at least to start with . . . re-invest some of the profits in your own website, for better results for the same work).
One strategy would be to do this for a variety of topics (each with its own website), then for the ones making the most money, create some of your own products for even more profit.
To choose a suitable topic, initially choose something you have knowledge or interest in, as that makes it easier and more fun to do the work (as well as lending more authority to the content, since you either understand the topic, or will be willing to do the research and think about it etc.), and which has some good monetization options. Once you are making good profit with this, you can easily outsource all the work needed.
Have fun with it 🙂
AND . . . make sure you have subscribed to my FREE ongoing series of training by real online profit experts . . . click here.
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Posting on forums is one of the easiest ways to get free traffic to your website, whatever the contents of your site.
There are forums on almost any subject these days, and most are easy to join. Always choose forums on subjects directly related to your website (or the web-page you want to promote), sign-up and join in the discussion.
Your profile is important, so make sure it is informative . . . people are more likely to click through to your site if they fell they know a bit about you, so add somethings about your site, and a little about yourself personally, too. Most profiles will allow you to add a link to your website.
Another way you can get links to your site from most forums, is to use a Signature (which appears just below your posts). Some forums require you to make a certain number of posts before your signature will appear, and sometimes your signature only appears on new posts after that, not on posts you made before that. But it’s sometime possible to get around that restriction by editing your previous posts, adding a little more info, then your Signature shows up on them too.
See if you can give better and more informed answers than others do. Some forums might allow you to add a link to a page on your site if it is genuinely relevant to the subject, but always give good information in the thread too.
You’ll get both direct traffic from your signature and profile, i.e. people will click on the links, and you will also improve your SEO ranking. For SEO, it’s best if you use forum-posting as one of many SEO techniques . . . don’t do too much of one method without doing some of other methods too, so it looks more natural.
After many years of doing forum posts for traffic, here’s something I spotted recently :
I’d been posting replies to forum threads, for a while, and getting some response from my Signature, when yesterday I posted a thread to ask a question about something I was considering, and got a much better response from my Signature.
The post was on a somewhat controversial subject about which people will tend to have strong emotions, and I replied several times as I got responses from others. I was surprised at how much more response I got from my signature from a Thread I’d started myself, compared to putting the same amount of work into replying to forum Threads started by others. I would guess that it’s the added authority and status of someone who starts a Thread, even though my threads was asking questions rather than giving away info.
So if you’re using forum posting to sell something (or to get opt-ins etc.), start some threads of your own! For Forum posts for SEO (back-links), it’s probably not going to make as much difference although I guess there’s typically a link from you as the Original-poster, to your profile-page, which will be an additional benefit, so to some extent it’s worth doing for SEO as well !
Chris
PS. Why not get my series of Free Trainings by real online profit experts?
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Online business can be overwhelming, with such a vast array of choices . . . different internet-marketing methods, lots of variations, different advice which is often contradictory and confusing.
This is a major cause of newbies getting confused to a standstill, and quitting.
Luckily, there is a simple solution, a simple 3-step formula which makes it really easy to discover which internet-marketing method is most suited to your personality, experience and situation.
First, subscribe to my series of FREE training calls by real online experts who’ve made millions on the internet . . . click here, then . . .
Click here, and make a start right now with my “Newbies Cash Machine Secrets” course . . .
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Did you know that you could be fined $11,000 if you post any opinion about any product or service (unless you follow the declaration rules correctly), on a blog, or even on social-media ? . . .
“People who blog, tweet or use Facebook to post opinions about consumer products could be fined $11,000 for repeat violations of new federal disclosure rules.” (according to the Public Relations Society of America). This also applies to affiliate links on a blog or if you might get paid (or even sent a free review item) to review anything.
But don’t worry, it is easy to comply with the rules and avoid any chance of problems. You just need to comply with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) rules for declaring any such relationships :
Disclosure A) No Material Connection.
This is a disclosure you can use if you don’t have any embedded links or a relationship with any of the products or services I have mentioned in the content :
“Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this content. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Disclosure B) Affiliate Links.
This is a disclosure you can use if you have affiliate links in your content:
“Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links on this website are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I might receive an affiliate commission. However, I only recommend products or services that I believe will add be of benefit to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Disclosure C) Review or Sample Copy.
This is a disclosure you can use if you reviewing a book or other product that you have received from someone in the hope that I will review it:
“Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned here for free in the hope that I would mention it in my content. The opinions I express here are my own and I only recommend products or services I believe will be beneficial for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Disclosure D) Sponsored Post.
This is a disclosure that you can use when someone pays you to write a post about a product, or service :
“Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored post.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value to write it. Regardless, my opinions expressed are my own and I only recommend products or services I believe will be of value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Disclosure E). Employee/Shareholder Relationship.
This is a disclosure you can use if you write content about a product or service owned by company you are a shareholder or.
“Disclosure of Material Connection: I am the CEO of the company that owns the product/service I am writing about here. Regardless, I only recommend products and services that I believe will be of real value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
One good place to put such declarations is as part of the “about us” page on your website, which you can then call something like “about us and FTC declarations” (as I have done on this site). For information on how an “about us” page, as well as such FTC declarations, can make you more money, see my SEO guide here :
PS. for anyone who reads this and thinks they have the “right to free speech” and so should ignore all this, note that such rights to not apply to commercial speech !
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One of the most common pieces of advice given to newbies at online-business, is to pick one method and keep doing it until it works.
While persistence of purpose can be a good thing, the problem with this advice is that it is so incomplete.
One unfortunate aspect of internet-marketing is that a lot of the information you can find on the subject, is either outdated, or just plain wrong. Many “internet marketing methods” just don’t work at all in the way they are stated . . . I know, because over the years I’ve tried several of them.
If, as most newbies do, you start out believing that every “internet-marketing method” you come across will do what it says it will do, then you are likely to be disappointed.
A much more effective perspective is to regard every method you try as a learning experience. That way, you’ll keep learning, and at some point you’ll succeed. Of course, starting with better quality information can make a big difference, so I recommend joining the Committed-Internet-Marketing mailing-list if you’ve not already done so, to get an ongoing series of FREE training calls by some of the most successful online millionaires in existence (click here and sign-up, it’s free forever).
Another factor is that different people with different personalities will get significantly different results even if they try the same method, particularly in terms of things like writing sales copy or communicating with potential customers in whatever way.
Luckily for the majority of people, who are not born salespeople, there are many online-business methods that don’t require selling at all. Affiliate marketing is one of those, where you don’t need to sell the product at all (the company you’re an affiliate of, will do that), all you need to do is to give prospective customers honest factual information about the product (or for better results, about comparison of similar products).
One way to succeed with business online is to learn different things from a range of different methods, and put them together to make something which works well. This is inevitable when you learn enough of a range of internet-marketing . . . you’ll be reading about a method and remember a different and maybe better way of doing part of it, from a different source, put them together and make a success of it.
As I’ve said in other posts here, there are ways which you can make better decisions about which methods to test, such as by being honest about your aims and situation etc.
The best time to do massive action, is when you’ve got a business-system that is fully tested and reliably profitable. Before that it is more efficient and effective to test it as quickly and cheaply as possible (even if it is not perfect, once you’ve got some fairly positive results, then you can improve things).
So, read all the advice here before you start, be realistic both about internet-marketing, and about yourself, and adopt the attitudes and perspective most likely to result in success!
Chris.
Commitment can make a big difference to your likelihood of success with internet-marketing, but only if you choose carefully what to commit to.
One major point that many people misuse, is goals. In areas like making money online, it is easy to assume that you should set a goal of how much money to make. This seems logical, but is typically a bad idea. Instead set ACTION goals. The reason is that how much money you’ll make depends mostly on others, so is not realistic to commit to, but it IS realistic to commit to actions that YOU can take yourself.
It is also vital to make the right choice of which internet-marketing business-system(s) to test, as there are a number of pitfalls to avoid. See some of the other posts here for more details on those :
Why taking massive action (or investing) is sometimes a BAD idea.
How to choose which online business-method to work with.
How the most common advice to internet-marketing Newbies, can be a disaster.
Once you understand all the information above, commitment can really help your results with online business.
One of the best things you can commit to now, is to keep learning and testing internet-marketing in practice, until you get the results you want. The Japanese concept of kaizen is a great approach . . . the philosophy of continual improvement. If you treat every experience as a learning-experience in internet-marketing, then you have a very good chance of success.
It is easy for newbies to look around some internet-marketing forums and maybe try some online business methods, and come to the assumption that the only people making money in internet-marketing are people selling “internet marketing methods” that don’t really work. One fact that will show you differently, is that 900,000 Amazon affiliates made more than 29 BILLION DOLLARS in 2013. That is all real money, all made online, and most of it is unrelated to selling internet-marketing methods. And that’s just one example . . . a lot of other people are making big money online (see below for how you can learn from some of the leading experts, for free).
So yes, a lot of people are making good money online, and before they started, they didn’t know how to do it either . . . if they can learn then so can you.
If you use the perspectives outlined above, every method you test will teach you something. Even if it is just what not to do. For example, I bought one internet-marketing method years ago, and was used on the private forum as an example of how to do the method perfectly. The method was even named stating how much money you could make in how short a time. After many times as long as that, none of the 88 members of that forum had said that they’d made any money at all. Yet I learned all kinds of things from that course (including many things not to do, such as not to get posted on 400 RSS aggregates at one time, which the method-author said would increase traffic, and instead decreased it by about 75%), and later took the same product that had made a loss using that method (I made one sale in 3 years, which didn’t even cover the domain-name costs), and with only a few minutes work, placed it somewhere where it has made me over $700 in 4 years, with zero additional effort.
So yes, it can be frustrating, but if you start from the philosophy of treating everything as a learning-experience, and continually improving, then you’ll have a very good chance of success (especially with all the information you’ll get here).
That’s something worth committing to right now 🙂
Chris.
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A common piece of advice to newbies in internet-marketing is to “take massive action”, and while this is sometimes a good idea, it can be a disaster at other times (we’ll be covering another of the common pieces of advice in a later post, that can also be a bad idea sometimes).
While taking massive action can be a great idea, it all depends on WHEN you take that action. Done at the wrong time and it can be worse than doing very little.
What order you do things in is one of the vital parts of success. This is known as “sequencing” in some business perspectives.
For most online business-systems, it doesn’t matter too much what is done initially, as long as some action is taken. Then one can see the results, test alternatives, and continually improve the system.
Typically first thing that you need to aim for in any business is to make some sales. Many start-up businesses offline make the mistake of doing lots of unnecessary preparations before even attempting to make a sale, and this is a bad idea. Without something (a product or service) being sold, there is no income and the business cannot succeed. Since that is the core of any business, it needs to be tested and confirmed as early as possible. Luckily for working online, this can often be done easily, quickly and cheaply.
A good approach is to start the business by finding the quickest, and cheapest way to test the method effectively. See what the initial income is, and if it is not profitable yet, estimate if improvements would be likely to make it profitable (taking your own time and effort into consideration). Then only once the method has proved to be consistently profitable, should you scale it up.
On internet marketing forums it is common to see newbies ask what they should invest their money in (before they’ve started). The best answer is to invest as little as possible in either time or money, to test a method and to see if it will be successful, and only then begin to increase either investment or time.
If you’ve watched any of those TV programs where entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to investors, you’ve probably seen examples where a business idea is losing money, and the owner thinks that just by doing the same thing on a bigger scale, it will magically become profitable. While some businesses certainly need some degree of investment before they will become profitable, and economies of scale can sometimes turn a losing proposition into a winner just by up-scaling, it is more common for the opposite to be true (big businesses can often be wasteful and inefficient).
Add to this the unfortunate fact that some “internet-marketing methods” sold, are not real tested methods, only some ideas that sound good in theory, and many of them have obviously not been actually tested by the author of a new online business guide, when you see things like the list of “websites they use every day” to make claimed incomes, and some of them have been down for several years and then you find the same out-dated list online somewhere else.
Many make money online methods will work, but only after you’ve carefully tested various alternatives to things like sales-copy, website-organisation, traffic methods etc.
So pick a method that is a good fit with your aims, and your strengths, and find the quickest and cheapest way you can to test it and see if it is at least somewhat viable, before you spend any more time and money.
I did that myself recently with an internet-marketing system that was new to me. I had the idea, thought it through (checked that it fitted well with my aims and strengths) and put up a new website quickly with just a default theme (I just customized the header image a bit). The first thing I did was contact potential customers and see if anyone was interested. It was only after I’d been paid by my first customer that I took the time to find a better theme, improved the text, clarified the description of the service etc.
And continue that testing and improvement until you have the very best system you can, before you really up-scale it massively. Even then, be very careful to test even the most “logical” assumptions, as it is easy to be caught out by things that seem like they “must work”, but don’t in practice.
An example from my own experience, is when I started a certain type of affiliate websites, tested a few small ones, then figured that creating a much bigger one, with a wider range of relevant products on it, would “obviously work better”, because it was better for the customers to have related products to compare on the same site etc. In practice, a bigger site did much less well, because Google gives more free traffic to narrower niches than to the exact same content on a broader site.
So make sure you test everything at every stage, no matter how “obvious” it seems that an “improvement” will work well.
If you do things in the right order, testing and improving, there are many different online business systems that can be very viable.
If you want to learn from some of the most successful online profit experts, subscribe to my Free Trainings?
Chris.
Internet-marketing has many great advantages over more traditional and offline business models.
One major advantage is that making money online usually costs very much less money than starting a conventional off-line business. There are certainly online businesses that can be started entirely free, although most of them will be more effective if you invest a little money in putting up your own website (which doesn’t cost much to do). Most internet marketing business-methods can be tested cheaply.
Another advantage is that making money online is often quick to start. There are some methods where you can make some money within a day, which is much less common with offline business-models. A typical internet-marketing idea will take only days or at most a few weeks to test and see some real results. Along with this is the advantage that many online business systems can be run without needing much time at all, so are ideal for making extra money or starting a long-term investment, without leaving ones current employment.
One really great thing about working online is that it is often very quick and easy to make changes, such as by editing a website, where the changes appear instantly to visitors as soon as you’re done editing.
There is a whole business philosophy which can be called “fail, forward, fast”. This means that all you need to do is to try something, then learn from what you do and adjust things as you go along. Many online business systems will work this way, as changes to a website can often be done immediately when decide what you want to change, and the results can typically be measured (in terms of traffic, clicks, sales etc.) rapidly, allowing you to learn and improve your results quickly and effectively.
A slightly more advanced technique related to the above paragraph is split-testing, where you directly compare two things to see which works best. This is often easy online, and can make a big difference in your results. For example, one online business I heard of, doubled their income from the same amount of traffic (website visitors) by just changing which of three offers they recommended most. Changes to email marketing, sales copy, and even graphics and layout, can often make significant improvements, and are typically easy enough to test and measure online.
For example, if you use the highly-recommended WordPress Content-Management-System, you can split-test two different versions of content by simply installing a Plugin which does everything for you. This makes it quick and easy to measure the real performance of changes, and steer yourself effectively to more profits.
Another really great point about making money online is that nearly all aspects of the business-systems can be outsourced. While it can be a mistake to outsource things too early before they are fully tested (despite some courses recommending exactly that), once a system is working well, it is almost always possible to outsource the work and still leave significant profit. This allows the owner to focus on improving the system further, or on developing other effective internet-marketing business-systems, or maybe taking time to focus on family, leisure and pleasure.
The common image of an internet-marketer sitting making money on a tropical beach with a laptop is certainly possible, although for some methods it can take significant time initially, to test and optimize. After everything’s working well, most online business-methods can be outsourced. Some areas of internet-marketing work can be outsourced very cheaply, and in general the prices of outsourcing make it easy to generate a profit without doing the bulk of the work, once the business-system is tested.
All of the above advantages work together, to result in perhaps the most significant advantage, which is up-scaling. For many online business systems, once the system is fully tested and outsourced while still making significant profit, the whole system can then be easily and rapidly expanded, with the profits growing correspondingly.
Since supply is far greater than demand for most outsource work, if you can find one worker to do a part of a business-process, it’s usually easy enough to find 10, 100 or 1,000 similar workers to do the same process, and profits will usually scale accordingly.
Chris.
PS. Another HUGE advantage of online profits is that you can learn from some of the most successful experts in making money online, from my series of Free Trainings?