Lots of people get caught up in the hype of Internet marketing when they start out. They forget what they are actually doing. Sounds silly, I know, but Internet Marketing isn't a business model. It's a concept. Just a way of marketing your business -
Your business could be based online, or off-line. The Internet can be used to market both businesses.
Let's dive in and take a brief look at how to start business and some of the ways to make money online.
Afffiate Programs
Can be very profitable, if you focus on this. A lot of people are very naive when becoming an affiliate for a product. They see the high payouts, all the glossy material the website gives you to promote it, and they think it will be an easy ride. They set up a 'review' website with fake testimonials. Don't get me wrong you could earn money being an affiliate this way. But why make life hard for yourself? There are ways to make being an affiliate easy. With the ways I am about to tell you, you can really make your money grow ...
You need to find a profitable niche to promote to. A niche where people are already buying, and 'hungry' for products. Let's pick one from the top of my head - 'How To Play Guitar'.
If you have a look on Google, and do some keyword research on overture, you'll see this is an active niche. Money is being spent, things are being talked about etc. Now, I urge you not to dive blindly into this. Think of what your mission is before taking it on.
HUNGRY TRAFFIC LOOKING TO BUY. WEBSITE SHOWS THEM WHAT TO BUY. HUNGRY TRAFFIC BUYS.
Right, the system above is affiliate marketing in its simplest form. You need to get between the traffic and the product. There are many ways of doing this:
Google AdWords Quick and targeted, but costs! Research your keywords.
Article Marketing Not instant, works quite well. Again research keyword and target them with 300-600 word articles. Put your affiliate link in the signature of the article.
Advertising A lot of sites allow advertising, there are also link brokers that distribute your links across partner websites. Costs, but can be effective if shown on the right websites.
Directories Try using sites like Craigs List and USFreeAds for promoting affiliate products.
Forum Signatures Post in related forums and give your sig exposure with affiliate link in. Be careful, some forums don't allow affiliate links. DON'T SPAM!
Adsense Adsense is a nice way of monetizing information you have on a web page, and could work great with the right amount of traffic. The ads are relevant to the content of the web page, so it's 'invited' advertising. Some people make thousands a week off AdSense. That's great. But me? I'm not a big fan.
Adsense is reliant on Google. If they ever shut down your account, that's it. You've got no money, unless you have other streams of income. Google are not likely to shut down your account for no reason, but it happens sometimes, and you have to be prepared in case it ever does. Google also pays what, around a dollar a click normally? I always get around a dollar a click anyway, it does depend on the keywords etc. To get a nice pay out per day you would need a lot of clicks, which means a lot of traffic.
PLUS - I can't help thinking, are web masters LOSING money by letting their traffic go with AdSense? Okay, so they get a dollar for that visitor, but what if they put a related affiliate program ad in place of the AdSense block. They have the chance to make up to 50x more on that click if the visitor buys the product they're promoting.
I've seen some stupid websites that sell their own products, with AdSense blocks dotted around. Are these web masters mad? They are losing potential customers for a dollar.
What's worse, they are losing them to competition! If you have your own products, or affiliate programs to promote, I would NOT use AdSense, at least not as a main source of income for your site.
AdSense is a money maker though, and a clever one too. It should not be ignored. Use it for general topic sites, general community sites and search engines. Even then, if there are opportunities that pay out more than a dollar, use them. IF they're good enough.
What I tend to do, when I'm promoting one of my own products from my site, or promoting affiliate products, is strategically place my ads in places where I feel the visitor would not be interested in anything else. I would rather them click the ad than exit. Good places are right at the bottom of a page; They are searching right down for something they like, and if they haven't found anything they'll hit the bottom of the site. Rather than the visitor clicking away, and going elsewhere, stick some AdSense there. Also, if you have a links page, or related sites, stick a block on there, because if they click on 'links' it's likely they want to leave.
Promote your Website The last step in how to start business is to promote the website, this should be an ongoing job. It should be a daily task. There are many ways it can be done and I'm not going to baby you. Paying for ads is a quick effective way, and if you have the budget, you can put your affiliate master plan into action instantly. You should devote part of your time to SEO, building links and growing content, so that your squeeze page will eventually get organic free traffic.
Once you're getting traffic, you can move onto another niche to be an affiliate in. You can try moving onto a completely diverse niche, or one that's related. Totally up to you, and what you're comfortable with.
Affiliate marketing should be an ongoing practice in your Internet Marketing Business, and you have to remember to focus on niches, and NEVER promote on the front end.
You want their email address and that's it - So you can profit from that same visitor over and over again for as long as you want.
Imagine one niche - 100 subscribers (quite easy to get). You promote a product every week to each of those subscribers with a retail price of $50. You get $30 sale (a normal percentage). You can only expect a small percentage of your list to buy, but as your list grows, so does your buyer percentage! Out of your 100 subscribers, only 5 buy the $50. That's 5 x $30. $150 - every week. Give or take a few dollars. From one niche, on auto pilot for as long as you get new subscribers, and actively promote your website.
Imagine 2 affiliate websites. 10 x $30. $300 a week.
4 affiliate websites. 20 x $30. $600 a week.
I know some very successful marketers with over a 100 affiliate income streams.
100 x $30 = $3000 a week.
What if you super promote your sites, and get double the amount of subscribers, and double the amount of purchases? $6000 a week? $12000 a month. Unbelievable figures, but guess what. It's possible. Aim to do a site a week for a whole year. Spend one day a week promoting them all and adding content. You'll end up with 52 websites, and if you have promoted them correctly, a great lot of subscribers on your mailing lists.
Well, I hope this information has now got you thinking about your own business ideas online.
Good Luck
Afolami Johnson.O.
www.johnson-afolami.blogspot.com
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