Your
Roadmap to Internet Profits
By Linda Overstreet
Would you ever consider going on a vacation
across the country without bringing a map?
It is hard enough to find your way in some
places with a map. How hard would it be if you tried this adventure without one?
Yet, this is exactly what people do every
single day in the online world. They tried to build their own businesses online
without having a roadmap to success.
Then, after months or years of just
wandering around online, they give up in frustration and quit. They walk away
saying that the Internet doesn't work for them. The reason it didn't work is
that they didn't pick up a map and follow it!
You don't have to end up lost in the online
shuffle. Below I will give you ten steps to help you map out your course and get
you started in the right direction. It isn't everything that you need to know by
any stretch of the imagination, but it will give you a basic foundation to build
upon.
Consider it your beginner's map to Internet
marketing profits.
1. Choose a
targeted market
The biggest mistake most people make when
starting a business is that they choose a product and then try to find people
who want to buy it. If that is the direction you are starting from on your
journey, then you are going the opposite direction from your destination.
Wise businesses operate from a different
concept. They pick a market first, and then they pick a product those people are
searching for. In other words, instead of trying to find leads to sell their
product to, they find targeted leads and then ask them what they are wanting to
buy.
Don't even consider starting a business
until you know exactly where you are going to get your leads from. Think
targeted customers first. Then, you can come up with a product for those
individuals. Would you rather have 1,000 hits a day at your site of a general
audience OR 10 hits a day of people who are desperate and willing to pay any
price to buy your products? If you are smart, you will choose the people who are
ready to buy!
2. Develop a
Product
Next, you need to develop a product or
service for this market. Don't just jump on the bandwagon of affiliate programs
when you come to this step. There are three major ways to selling a product
online:
a. You create your own exclusive product.
This is the best opportunity you have. If
you develop your own product, you can pick it's price, sell reprint rights to
others, set up an affiliate program, etc. Don't tell me you can't do this. Tens
of thousands of innovative entrepreneurs have used their own information
products to get their careers started. You can to.
Throughout your life, I am sure that there
is something you have learned that you can share in a How-To product. Maybe you
know someone else who has the right knowledge for a How-To product and you could
offer to help them create a product if you both shared the rights to it.
Don't just jump past this opportunity and
say it can't be done.
b. You buy the rights to a product or you JV
for an offline product.
You can buy the rights to successful
products for $500 - $20,000. If someone else has created a product that you know
your targeted market is interested in, offer them a large up-front fee for the
rights to it. This way you can get your own product and never have to pay a
penny in royalties.
You can also search through magazines your
targeted market reads and look for products people are selling. Then, give them
a call and ask for the exclusive Internet rights to their product for a certain
percentage of the profits or an up-front fee.
c. You join an affiliate program.
If you are just starting out online, this
can be a good choice. You do have to keep in mind though that it doesn't offer
quite the profit potential that creating your own product or obtaining rights to
one has.
When choosing an affiliate program, make
sure that it is something your targeted market cannot be without. They
absolutely have to have it. Also pay special attention to the profits you
receive from each sale.
If you are only be paid 5% commissions on
the sales of $10 books, you will only be making 50 cents per customer. It would
take 2,000 customers just to product $1,000 in profits. You cannot make money
like this online! Look for higher priced products and higher
commissions...especially commissions in the 25% or higher range.
3. Create a USP
Create a Unique Selling Position for your
product or service. Too many companies are just trying to be me-too companies
online. You cannot be just like the next guy and expect to make a profit in a
global economy. Just going to the next guy's web site to order is too easy for
your customers.
You have to create a Uniqueness to your
product or offer. What can you offer that no one else can? Can you offer better
guarantees, better customer service, more technical support, faster shipping, or
lower prices. Think of something that will set you apart from all of your online
competitors and tell in complete detail what it is.
4. Pick a Domain
Name and Hosting Service
The next step is to pick a domain name that
describes your company, USP, and offer. Try to keep them as short and
descriptive about your business as possible. Avoid using dashes or misspellings
of your product. Both of these things will cause people to leave out part of
your domain if they type it in. Someone else will be getting free traffic that
you worked hard to obtain.
For hosting, I personally choose to use
host4profit since they have great technical support. Not only that, but
they have a great plug in profit program. You get tons of service and you
get products to sell all in one easy application, plus you can have a way to
take credit cards all in one easy set up. Plus they are very cost
effective, only $24.95 am month.
Click below to read about all of the options
they offer your Internet business:
5. Develop a
Customer Friendly Site
The next step in the process is to develop
your web site and put it up for the world to see. If you are planning to own a
full-time Internet business, I recommend that you learn how to design the site
yourself using one of dozens of programs which are readily available at any
software store.
You will save so much money if you can do
the work yourself on just the editing alone as your site grows. If your main
business is offline and you are just adding a secondary income, then you may
want to consider having a professional do your site for you.
When designing your site, keep the customer
in mind always. Provide order forms for online credit card orders. Make all of
the links easy to understand. Try to keep your site simple. Think like a
customer, not the business owner.
Your customers are not nearly as interested
in your business as you are. Make sure to put the benefits of your site and your
USP right on top of the site. More than half of the web surfers never drop down
past the first screen full of information. So, you have to give them the
information they need as quickly as possible. The rules for any type of business
are Benefits, Benefits, and more Benefits.
6. Offer a Freebie
One of the major keys to developing traffic
and sales at your site is to always offer some type of freebie as a drawing
factor. For example, I offer dozens of free reports, weather reports, news, and
more. My greatest drawing factor throughout the past 8 months though has been
the two free e-books which we offer on our site to people who subscribe to this
newsletter.
You need to come up with a freebie no matter
what type of business you are in. Create a free report and give it away. Add in
a message board or some other type of CGI program on your site. Give a free demo
of your software. Create something that you can give away for free on your site
to draw in the visitors.
7. Start Your Own
Opt-In List
Almost every full-time Internet marketer I
know has developed their own Opt-in email list of some type. For most of them,
it is a weekly newsletter they send out by email. For others, it may be a Tip of
the Day. Other people might just have a list that they send out important
updates to.
No matter what you choose to do, odds will
be on your side if you concentrate on building a list of loyal email
subscribers. Very rarely do customers purchase from you the first time they
visit your site. Most of them will get on your list, hang out for a few weeks or
months, and then they buy from you. They have to get to know you before they are
willing to spend their money with you.
8. Submit to Search
Engines
Although search engines are not the
advertising avenue they once were, they are still important to any overall
Internet marketing plan. You can submit and earn top positions on the search
engine using the secrets that are revealed to throughout the online world. The
biggest key to high placement is the easiest one to understand. Having important
and valuable content on your site can be the major factor to your top position.
For more search engine secrets, keep an eye
on our Search Engine Guru section that is published every single week. We have
received dozens of testimonials of how our readers have been applying what they
have learned every week and achieved top positions on the various search
engines. Make sure you are using this free resource in Web Gold.
9. Use Every Free
Advertising Method Available
Use press releases to offline publications.
Write informative articles and send them to online newsletters. Participate in
forums, mailing lists, and newsgroups. Place ads on free classified sites. Trade
links with other sites. Set up CGI programs such as Search Engines, Free-For-All
Links sites, and more.
Do everything that you can do to start
producing a consistent level of traffic using the Free Internet marketing
methods first. By going this direction first, you can use the profits as
investment capital to expand your marketing to paid advertising sources.
10. Use Paid
Advertising
Most Internet businesses rely more on paid
advertising than on the free sources of traffic...although I have found both
methods extremely important in my business. Ezine advertising can be the most
effective money you ever spend online. Add to that banner ads and links on high
traffic sites and you have several methods of buying hits on your site.
I have found that the most effective leads
come from offline advertising. For example, you could purchase ads in a popular
targeted magazine for your business. You could also purchase a postcard in one
of the card decks. Start up a co-op and get 10 other people to advertise with
you and run your own ads for free. Offline leads which come to your site often
turn out to contain a much higher percentage of buyers than any of the online
advertising methods.
Once you put our short 10 step outline
together you have a basic map to creating your own Internet success story. You
wouldn't consider going on a trip without a map. So don't try to go it alone
online without a map.
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You are invited to use this article in your publication or website. The only requirement is the inclusion of the following, after each article used...
* Article by Linda Overstreet. Linda's site has helped 1000's of regular folks profit online. Visit http://www.wealthhere.com for FREE "how-to" assistance, software, manuals, web services and more.*
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