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  #1  
Old January 11, 2007, 06:22 PM
bobmcalister
 
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Default internet marketing stuff ...

I have stumbled along trying to find the methods used to really make money on the internet ...and guess the Old age factor ...or the ADHD kicks in and I just throw up my hands...

go to a site...and click on the freebies...and get this kind of stuff ...

http://www.butterflyriches.com/riches/oto.php

might be great, but who has 8 hours to sit and listen ...

just being grumply ...

bob

I need something like ...1....2....3.....4.....and I am finished...
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  #2  
Old January 11, 2007, 07:00 PM
Dien Rice Dien Rice is offline
Onwards and upwards!
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 3,357
Default Starting a Web Based Business

Quote:
Originally Posted by bobmcalister View Post
I need something like ...1....2....3.....4.....and I am finished...
Hi Bob,

There are lots of ways people make money online. The key is to pick one and give it a shot!

Here are some of the ways...
  • Sell stuff on eBay
  • Create a subscription-based membership web site
  • Create a blog and plan to make money from advertising (eg. Google Adsense)
  • Create an online store selling "physical" items (not downloadable items)
  • Write ebooks yourself and sell them
  • Pay other people to write ebooks (so you own the rights), and sell those ebooks
  • Become a master at creating web sites, and sell your web-design services
  • Become a master at Search Engine Optimization, and sell your services (this one isn't easy, because it always changes)
  • Promote and sell affiliate products
  • I'm sure there are many others too...!
Also, posts giving "step by step" methods do come up here every now and then... Here are a couple excellent recent posts like this...
Even if you don't know how to create a web site yourself, you can pay people to do that for you (if you have the money). You can get a pretty good web site created for $500 to $1,000, using freelance programmers and designers. (Use a web site like iFreelance www.ifreelance.com , Scriptlance www.scriptlance.com , Rent a Coder www.rentacoder.com , Elance www.elance.com , and other similar sites to find your freelancers...)

The key is to do something... Get started... Then build from there...

Dien
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  #3  
Old January 11, 2007, 07:40 PM
mtran2000
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: internet marketing stuff ...

Using the Internet to sell things is a great way to make some extra money, however getting to the point where you can make a living doing it is tricky. Too many people think it is as simple as making a website with a few products and the money will roll in.

E-Bay is a good cheap way to test whether your products will sell, if you can find a niche product all the better. I know a person that sells a lot of items and started on E-Bay and now still sells on E-Bay but has enough repeat customers that buy directly from an online store he created. The key was getting a client base and going from there.

Subscription based memberships web sites has been a hot item but a lot of the sites go under after a while because there was not enough value for the monthly subscription. You really need to be creative and come up with new things every month to keep paying members.

Hot sheets and E Books seem to be flavors of the month and market got saturated very quickly. Business opportunities are something many are trying to sell on the Internet and more often than not most buyers are disappointed and are not repeat customers.

I am not saying you can't consistently make money on the internet, what I am saying is you need a product or service that has value and keeps customers coming back. Like a store on main street, you need repeat customers to make a living.

My thoughts,
Mark


# Sell stuff on eBay
# Create a subscription-based membership web site
# Create a blog and plan to make money from advertising (eg. Google Adsense)
# Create an online store selling "physical" items (not downloadable items)
# Write ebooks yourself and sell them
# Pay other people to write ebooks (so you own the rights), and sell those ebooks
# Become a master at creating web sites, and sell your web-design services
# Become a master at Search Engine Optimization, and sell your services (this one isn't easy, because it always changes)
# Promote and sell affiliate products
# I'm sure there are many others too..
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  #4  
Old January 11, 2007, 08:34 PM
Dien Rice Dien Rice is offline
Onwards and upwards!
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 3,357
Default It's Not a Crime to Make a Dime Online...

Hi Mark,

Quote:
Originally Posted by mtran2000 View Post
Using the Internet to sell things is a great way to make some extra money, however getting to the point where you can make a living doing it is tricky. Too many people think it is as simple as making a website with a few products and the money will roll in.
It's not necessarily easy to create a successful business - online OR offline...

However, one good thing about many online activities is you can do it part-time, while you're still getting an income from a regular job... Because of that, your personal risk is lower...

Quote:
E-Bay is a good cheap way to test whether your products will sell, if you can find a niche product all the better. I know a person that sells a lot of items and started on E-Bay and now still sells on E-Bay but has enough repeat customers that buy directly from an online store he created. The key was getting a client base and going from there.
I'd say eBay is one of the easiest types of "online" businesses to start. Buy stuff offline, sell it online at a profit. Of course, you have to figure out what you can buy that you can sell online for a profit.

One guy I know supplements his income buying and selling second-hand books, and the occasional video (some obscure "cult" movies are still hard to get on DVD). I've sold various things on eBay for profit, including new Rio MP3 players (back in the early days of MP3 players), new DVDs, and hundreds of new music CDs.

Quote:
Subscription based memberships web sites has been a hot item but a lot of the sites go under after a while because there was not enough value for the monthly subscription. You really need to be creative and come up with new things every month to keep paying members.
As someone who once ran a paid-subscription membership web site for a while, the drawback is that you need new content all the time. Ours was profitable, but my partner in this venture lost interest - since it is continual work! But, it is a workable model.

Saying it's no longer viable is a bit like saying magazines are no longer viable. Subscription web sites are kind of like a "souped up" online magazine. As long as people still want the information, people will want to subscribe. And if you deliver on what you promise, people will be happy to continue subscribing.

Quote:
Hot sheets and E Books seem to be flavors of the month and market got saturated very quickly. Business opportunities are something many are trying to sell on the Internet and more often than not most buyers are disappointed and are not repeat customers.
Saying the "ebook" and "hotsheet" market is "saturated" is kind of like saying that printed books are outdated, or that audio books have become boring...!

The "key" is the "content" of the ebook or hotsheet... The "ebook" or "hotsheet" is just the medium for the information...

People don't buy because it's an ebook. They buy for the information! As long as people are interested in the information, some will buy the product...

My prediction is - I think the ebook market will "heat up" in the future - especially with new technology like the Sony Reader.

Quote:
I am not saying you can't consistently make money on the internet, what I am saying is you need a product or service that has value and keeps customers coming back. Like a store on main street, you need repeat customers to make a living.
Aiming for repeat sales is good advice!

Even if you don't get repeat sales (some products can be sold once-only, or very rarely - for example, how often do you buy a new car?), it still pays to please your customers because they may tell others about you, and that will bring you new customers - at no marketing cost to you!

- Dien
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  #5  
Old January 11, 2007, 08:42 PM
mtran2000
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: internet marketing stuff ...

In the USA it seems many buy a new car every 2 or 3 years. With the rebates and low interest loans, new features and models many people trade in car for a new one more than ever it seems.
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  #6  
Old January 11, 2007, 08:45 PM
mtran2000
 
Posts: n/a
Default I never said it was a crime to make money online (DNO)

NO MESSAGE
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  #7  
Old January 11, 2007, 09:02 PM
Dien Rice Dien Rice is offline
Onwards and upwards!
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 3,357
Default Repeat purchase vs. One sale only

Quote:
Originally Posted by mtran2000 View Post
In the USA it seems many buy a new car every 2 or 3 years. With the rebates and low interest loans, new features and models many people trade in car for a new one more than ever it seems.
Hi Mark,

A few people buy new cars all the time. My grandfather was apparently like that. He was a farmer whose farm was near Coldwater, Michigan. Every year or two he'd buy a new car when the money came in from the harvest. (I presume he traded in his old car, or sold it.) But most people don't buy new cars all that often, I think...

Perhaps I should have picked a better example. Washing machines? How often do people buy a new washing machine?

Most products are repeat purchase products. However, there are some products which people don't buy all that often. For practical purposes, these are "once only" sales. But a salesperson can still profit from a "happy sale", especially if he or she encourages referrals from his customers. (This was the secret of Joe Girard's* success - he was a Chevrolet car salesman, called "The World's Greatest Salesman" by the Guiness Book of World Records. He sold 13,001 cars in 15 years. See the book "How To Sell Anything To Anybody" by Joe Girard with Stanley H. Brown, for details on how he did it. It's what I'm reading now...)

- Dien

* Joe Girard on Wikipedia
* Joe Girard's web site
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  #8  
Old January 11, 2007, 09:19 PM
mtran2000
 
Posts: n/a
Default Products and Marketing

I would have to agree with washing machine example although I don't think the quality is what it used to be so longevity is in question.

Many products however are built to be throw away and buy a new one type of thing. A prime example is a computer, after warranty runs out if major problems occur it is cheaper to just buy a new one than to have it repaired.

Global competition has really made products cheaper to buy but also cheaply made so garbage dumps are full of broken products that were too expensive to fix or a person saw newest model and bought it and chucked the old one.

I think it is a change in society buying habits, majority want latest and greatest. I am always careful what I buy with thought in mind that I will keep it it until it falls a part. With cars, I consider it an accomplishment to run it as many miles as I can.

Marketing/advertising plays a huge part in buying habits, always has.

Last edited by mtran2000 : January 11, 2007 at 09:20 PM. Reason: spelling error
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  #9  
Old January 11, 2007, 09:20 PM
Dien Rice Dien Rice is offline
Onwards and upwards!
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 3,357
Default Doh! (Slaps forehead.) Here's a good example...

A great example of a "one sale only" product is a book or ebook!

For example, I bought the book, "How To Sell Anything To Anybody" by Joe Girard. Chances are, I'll never buy it again - whether I loved it or hated it! That's because, once I've read it, I've "got" the information... I don't need a second copy of the book!

However... People who are happy with the book will recommend it to their friends. (As I did.)

To turn it into a "repeat purchase" product, however, you can write a series of books on related topics... Even Joe Girard did this (on a small scale), with 2 "sequels" to his first blockbuster book... Robert Kiyosaki has taken this model to the extreme. I count 25 books now in the "Rich Dad" series of books! (He should rename his series of books to - "Read till your eyes pop!")

- Dien
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  #10  
Old January 11, 2007, 09:38 PM
jchengery
 
Posts: n/a
Default Taking Action is just as important as Reading/Listening to Products!

Hello everyone,

Bob - I think it's important to remember that you also have to take action to get results; reading or listening to something alone will not get you where you want to be.

In other words, you can't be afraid to try some techniques and such and fail at them - as Internet marketer Dave Vallieres mentions in his report, "Fail Faster," the more you fail, the closer you get to the methods you need to succeed online.

Now, granted, not everyone can throw a bunch of money at different tactics in order to find out if they work or not, or what needs to be tweaked in order for the tactics to work. However, it doesn't have to cost much; free advertising methods like word-of-mouth, signature files, article marketing, testimonials, etc. can still work wonders in bringing in qualified free traffic to your site, so it doesn't have to cost much or anything at all in order to try some tactics you read about to see if they will work for your particular business.

The main point is - don't be afraid to try and experiment with some techniques - reading and listening to many different products will likely increase your knowledge, but taking action on them is what will really make you successful online.

Hopefully, this is helpful! :-)

Take care and have a great day!

Sincerely,

Joe Chengery III
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