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 screenfull 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.
YOU CAN EARN $5,000 A WEEK OR MORE ON THE INTERNET Selling Digital Information Products...Using our Step-By-Step System You can create a complete auto-pilot marketing system where your products are sold, processed, and delivered online automatically! http://www.ezinfo2000.com/online/i521p
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