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YOUR ROADMAP TO INTERNET PROFITS
By Terry Dean
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 Virtualis since they have the
Fastest customer service and technical support in the industry. Test them
out. They will respond to you within the hour...anytime 24 hours a day. No
other company I have ever been with has even come close!
Click here to read about all of the options they offer your Internet
business:
http://www.virtualis.com/vr/tdean2/index.html
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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Terry Dean is the webmaster of Netbreakthroughs and a dozen
other domains online...Visit today for up-to-date training
reports, our weekly ad diary, personal support, and more. Visit
http://www.peakconsultinginc.com/nbt.htm |
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