Six Ways of Making Money on the Internet Without Quitting Your
Day Job
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.
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 issues, 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.
************** 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 and read everything you can lay your hands on. Go to
www.google.com and type '"internet marketing" ebook' without the
single quotes.
You will be presented with dozens, if not hundreds of free or
'for sale' ebooks. Buy some. Get the free ones and read, read,
read.
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?
Let's look at these one at a time.
>>> Hard products, or digital products?
You can probably 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, it is all in
computer files on your hard disk. 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.
http://www.myks.sitesell.com/products43.html
>>> 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 single product sites.
>>> 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 so 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.
One good solution is ClickBank. If you plan to sell digitally
deliverable products only, ClickBank may be the answer. Their
setup charge and commissions are low, and there are no monthly
fees. Check them out at:
http://zzz.clickbank.net/r/?avisc
>>> 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. **************