Archive for the ‘Internet Marketing’ Category

Financial stress is hitting a lot of people these days, me and mine included.  And to try to ease the pain of not having enough money to do what you want to do, a lot of people have started to try to earn a living online in a hope of staking their claim in the Online Gold Rush. 

But most of them will fail.  Harsh though that may sound, it’s the reality.  In fact, it has been estimated that fewer than 5% of all people trying to make money online, actually succeed.  So how do you make sure you are one of the 5% who is successful?

Well you could look in online forums (fora?) for advice.  After all, there are plenty of them, like the Warrior Forum, a fantastic forum for all things internet marketing and I highly recommend it to anyone who is marketing anything online…  But sadly even there, you can often see posts simply rehashing the “old faithfuls” of how to make money online. 

Take yesterday for example.  I was in the Warrior Forum, when I saw a post about what it takes to be successful online.  The gist was that the difference between the success and failure online is simply “taking action”.  In essence, if you would only “take action”, you would be successful.

Ouch!

Far be it from me to disagree with the formidable WF, but, in this case, I have to.  I agree that you will be unsuccessful if you don’t take action but the reverse is simply not a “given”. 

It really is not that simple.  Having tried a lot of things online, I know that it is perfectly possible for any newbie to be extremely busy taking all sorts of actions and STILL be getting nowhere!  I think every single newbie who ever comes online is VERY busy taking action because they are so full of enthusiasm. 

No.  Simply taking action will not guarantee you online success.

And it isn’t even focus.  Newbies can be very focused – tweaking and prettying their websites or using Google Adwords to drive traffic to other people’s squeeze pages for pennies.

The key to success is simple.

You need to follow a tried and tested method for success without deviation.  Do NOT try to reinvent the wheel. Do NOT miss out steps and do NOT “improve it”.  Find someone who speaks your language; someone who is successful (and can prove it) and COPY them.

The key to success online is following a successful blueprint to the letter.

Trick is to find the genuine article with so many wolves out there… 

Affiliate marketing with eBooks is one of the best ways to create a strong stream of income through Internet marketing.  Whether you promote your own eBook, or one that someone else has written, this can work well as a facet of your online business venture.

You can sell your own eBook, inviting affiliate marketers to promote it on their website or blog for you and giving them a percentage of each sale.  Or you can promote eBooks that others have written by joining an affiliate program such as ClickBank or PayDotCom and choosing a good product to feature on your own site.

When you choose to promote someone else’s eBook, it’s important to look for eBooks that will sell well and that offer a good commission.  Choose a good quality product that’s relevant to your niche.  Take a look at the sales page for that eBook.  Does it make you want to buy the product? If not, it probably won’t excite your website or blog visitors to buy either.

And don’t forget commission.  You get a percent of each sale that is generated by you.  The bigger the percentage, the larger the commission assuming the price of the product is the same!

You’re doing a lot of work to sell this eBook, so go for one with a good-sized commission.  Affiliate marketing with eBooks also requires that you do some work of your own – for instance – you have to make sure your website is search engine optimized for the most possible traffic.  Affiliate marketing with eBooks can be a lucrative business.  Follow these guidelines, and see what selling eBooks can do for you!

Some Internet marketers try to do all of their work themselves.  All Internet marketing activities are necessary components of a successful Internet marketing business, but take a huge amount of time and energy.  For many, outsourcing some Internet marketing tasks is the answer.

But what are the pros of outsourcing?  And what’s the true cost of outsourcing your Internet marketing tasks?  As you might expect, there are pros and cons!

Pros

1. Improved Focus
   You’ll be able to concentrate on the tasks that you are doing yourself better, because you won’t be trying to do so much multitasking.
2. More Time
   You’ll also have more time to yourself, which can be used to spend relaxing, or for tending to other priorities such as your family.
3. Less Procrastination
   You’ll procrastinate less because you can outsource those tasks that you either don’t feel skillful enough to do or simply don’t like to do.

Cons

1. Money
   Obviously, you need a certain amount of money to pay for your outsourcing.  And this generally means that people do not consider outsourcing until their online business has started to be regularly profitable.  But money spent outsourcing is well worth it when you factor in the time saved and the stress relief you get from offloading certain tasks. 
2. Worry
   Outsourcing can go wrong.  You might find that those that you’ve outsourced work to are not doing a quality job, or do not get things done to your timetable because they are prioritizing other clients’ work!   
3. Upfront Organizing
   And with outsourcing, you still have to do some organizing and you also have to take time to inspect the work you’re paying for – at least until you find that your contracted help is reliable and has high standards for their work. 

Outsourcing some of your work can be well worth it.  Just be sure that you’ve chosen good helpers with good reputations, so that outsourcing is a source of joy – not of worry and frustration. 

OK, I wasn’t being personal.  I was trying to get you to focus attention on your backend… sales.  It’s something that gurus bang on and on about, but still people sometimes forget about the importance of backend sales.  

In case this is new to you, the idea is quite simple. 

Once you’ve converted a site visitor to a customer, which means once someone has bought from you – you’ve accomplished a sale.  But what happens next is crucial.  Before you forget all about that customer and start attracting more new customers, remember that your existing customer could become a repeat customer – if your backend offers are big enough.  

After all, you know that the established customer already likes what you have to offer, so take advantage of that and offer them more of a good thing.  

But how, you say?

Well, why not get creative and use quality niche MRR (master resale rights) in your backend sales?  

Let’s see how that might work.

Well, depending on what you are promoting, you might find that master resale rights can play an interesting role in your backend sales.  You might have a fantastic info product that you’ve bought with MRR, one that you can offer to your customers as an additional product that they will find to be a good investment – especially since they are given resale rights with the product and can sell it to others!  In certain selling situations, this might be an exceptional opportunity for you to make more money… and for your customer to make money too (in the resales).  It’s a classic win-win situation.

So remember your backend sales, and don’t be afraid to think outside the box.  You can let MRR play a role in your backend sales and create some interesting opportunities for both yourself and your customers.

They’ll thank you for it!

I have read a lot of blog posts, opinions and teachings online, even from a previous mentor, saying that to be successful online, you have to brand yourself high profile, develop your own product, make it go “viral” and be the “buzz” on all the social networking sites.  And that unless you are adding thousands of new followers on Twitter each week, you don’t “get” the importance of it for developing your online brand.

Maybe.

And some act as if there is no place for you online unless you make yourself highly visible and position yourself as the “go to” guy.  So if you are don’t want to be in the spotlight, and are uncomfortable aligning yourself with the mega-star gurus, then you had better quit the internet now or focus on an online support role such as a forum moderator.

I totally disagree.

I think there is a place online for everyone who wants to be online.  If you play to your strengths, understand your core competencies and talk in “your own voice”, then you will find your own market.  And there are still very good businesses to be hard through automation – which doesn’t require you to have a “name” online.

I agree that if you thrust yourself into the spotlight, it’s highly likely that you’ll develop a wide customer base and more quickly, than people who don’t, simply because more people will gain “fast exposure” to you. 

But you will also have customers even if you prefer to fly “under the radar”.  After all, there are lots of people who have made very good money by doing just that, like Michael Green and Chris Freville.  And if you just said “who?”, doesn’t that prove my point?

So, which way do you go?  Follow the pack to guru status or fly under the radar?

Actually, the choice is not consciously yours.  How you become successful online depends totally on your personal style and preferred method of working. 

If you are independent, free-thinking and largely self-reliant, someone who doesn’t need a great deal of social interaction, you will probably be more successful playing to these traits and staying “low visibility”.  But remember that this strategy takes time and effort to build business momentum.  If your work is high quality, you will get more loyal customers.  In time you will be the big fish in your small niche market.  Having “cracked” one niche market, you will find moving into another easy because your name will not be highly identified as a niche specialist, outside your niche. 

On the flip side, if you are a party animal, someone who thrives on not just “playing hard” but being seen to be playing hard, someone who desires to be “known” as a guru, then you will get more out of being “high profile” online.  Becoming widely known and highly visible will certainly catapult a fledgling business into a cash cow far quicker than the “under the radar” approach.  However, there is a risk that a high profile “guru” cannot enter other niche markets without losing credibility as an expert.  (Hence the common use of “niche names”).

So when you start your online business, decide what kind of person you are (ask your friends and family if they agree!)  Follow the business development profile that suits YOU.  If you aim for “high profile”, when you’re really a “stealth flier”, you will be uncomfortable in your role and less successful than you would have been if you were “true” to yourself.  Likewise, trying to be a “best kept secret”, when you want to shout “look at me” is similarly doomed. 

Be yourself online.  Stay true to you when branding and marketing yourself online.  That’s what the true “gurus” do. 

These days, it’s almost unheard of for a business not to have a website.  The Internet is the place to be for any type of business, whether it’s a physical one, or one that is run solely online.

But Internet marketing can be a difficult thing to master.  Profits, PageRank, reputation and credibility all come into play.  If you don’t know what you’re doing, you could be spinning your wheels putting a lot of effort in and getting little in return.

That’s where an Internet marketing consultant comes in handy.  Internet marketing consultants are usually people who have been working in the field of Internet marketing for a very long time and are familiar with the ins and outs of how to market successfully on the Internet.

They spend time with business owners, discovering what the goals are for that business and then help to develop a plan that will increase the popularity of the business website, bringing in more traffic, and along with it, more business.

The main functions of an Internet marketing consultant are to assist in search engine optimization (SEO) for the company website, developing an active social marketing program, creating content, and building links for the company website.

The Internet marketing consultant may also offer training to help company owners and key employees learn to develop and implement Internet marketing strategies.  For both physical and online businesses, the help of an Internet marketing consultant can be invaluable in terms of increased website traffic, reputation building and profitability.

eBooks are gaining in popularity!  They have become a viable marketing tool and people love the fact that they are convenient, less expensive and do exactly what a print book does.

And eBooks are great for helping you to build your own personal brand as an expert.  It’s digital, but it’s still a real book – with you as the author!  This is yet another reason why you should learn about eBook writing as a useful form of marketing.

There are two distinct ways to get into eBook writing.  The first is to write your own eBooks and publish them online.  You can sell them as affiliate info products from your own website or from an affiliate network such as ClickBank.

This serves two purposes – bringing in money and establishing yourself as an expert in your chosen niche.  On the downside, you need time, creativity and energy to write your eBook – and if you have all these things then there is nothing from stopping you from starting right away!  Write an eBook that provides useful information to the reader.  Make sure it’s complete and that it looks good and reads well.

The other approach to eBook writing is to hire a talented ghostwriter to write your eBook for you.  You can find cheap but good ghostwriters in the Warrior Forum, or at Elance.  This is perfectly fine!  You have an idea for an eBook, you have someone with the time, energy and creativity write it for you at an agreed upon price, and when you pay for the service, you get the copyrights to that book and your name goes on it as the author.

You sell it and establish yourself as an expert in exactly the same way as you would have had you written it yourself.  Both ways are acceptable!

And don’t forget, you get to put all your affiliate links inside your eBook – and if you offer Master Resell Rights, then your eBook could go “viral”!

It’s hard to do a job or run a business well without the proper training.  Certainly, some people have a knack for specific things, but training is almost always a must.  It’s not common for anyone to be able to just start doing something and become a success without some education and knowledge.

This applies especially to Internet marketing, which is a relatively new and ever changing field.  Every time technology changes, the playing field changes, too. Many are of the opinion that Internet marketing training is well worth the investment of time and money it takes.

What types of things does someone learn when they go through Internet marketing training?  Depending on the program, they would learn the basics, which would include search engine optimization, article marketing, creating an effective website or page, social networking and marketing, and how to successfully choose a niche.

Above and beyond that, Internet marketing training may include learning about things like Google AdWords campaigns, and how to use AdSense to create a stream of income, creating your own info products such as eBooks, using podcasts and video to create more website traffic and more business and more.

Internet marketing training can cover a lot of ground and can be very helpful to both someone who is completely new to Internet marketing and to someone who has been in the business for awhile.  As with everything though, just make sure you know what you’re getting before you pay your money!