Ways To Earn Money Online
How To Make Money Online As An Infopreneur
If you were talking to someone brand new to the Internetand they asked you how could they make money in the shortesttime possible, what would you tell them? This is the answer which leverages passion, knowledge and experience to build a business on the Internet and make money online - quickly and easily.
The Web revolves around INFORMATION. It is still a medium to research, search out and consume information about various things, in addition to communicating with people globally.
One of the most effective ways to profit from this networked information-seeking universe is to sell information products (or access to information resources).
As an infopreneur, that's how I have worked on the Internet - and it is an approach I would highly recommend to anyone starting out with the same goal of making money on the Web.
Why information?
* Information products have high perceived value. If you want to know the solution to a problem and someone can share it with you, that has value.
* Information products have low production costs. You could create one with practically zero expense other than your time and knowledge.
* Information products have very low distribution costs. Digital files can be downloaded or emailed across the world nearly for free.
Because of these reasons, selling information products over the Internet can be very profitable and even for beginners.
What is the first step?
Many people mistake 'information' for 'data'. Data is made up of raw bits - facts, stats, news clips and the kind - which need to be compiled to become meaningful information that has actual
value to the consumer.
That's your job as an infopreneur.
The first step is to choose an area where you can provide such a service, and add value to your clients by doing it.
And the approach I follow and highly recommend to others is to begin with finding out what you have PASSION for.
There is a reason it is better to begin with what you love, enjoy, appreciate, like, derive pleasure from - you are more likely to stick with it.
Overnight success stories are nice to hear, nicer to dream about - but seldom happen. Most often, 'success' comes after a solid amount of groundwork is done. And that is, essentially, boring
- unless you have a special passion for the topic.
How to find what you are passionate about?
Sit down with a paper and pencil/pen and THINK.
* What are your areas of specialization or expertise?
* What do people most often come to you for advice or counselling on?
* What unique skills or knowledge do you possess?
* What are your special talents, strengths, advantages?
* What problems do you have the solutions for?
* What things do you find yourself fascinated by, spend most time on?
* What subjects do you curiously explore, read about, research avidly?
Take your time about answering these questions, because this is at the core of whatever future direction you decide to take with your work online.
And don't make the common mistake of thinking you are not 'expert' at anything! Everybody - yes, YOU too - are more knowledgeable than others in some, often many, things.
Finding out what they are is not always easy, but by thinking over those questions, you'll get close.
Match your passion to profits
The next step (which many beginners miss) is matching your 'passion' to the potential for 'profits'.
While working on what you love doing sounds nice, in time you'll get frustrated when your efforts don't make you much money. That's why you need to find out if what you love, enjoy and
relish can actually also make you a profit.
If it doesn't, drop it - as far as your plans to make money online goes. Instead, focus on one of your other passions that has bigger potential.
How to evaluate profit potential?
There are many approaches. Here are a few that may help:
* Go to Magazines.com and see how many PRINT magazines are there in the niche you select. If there are many, the chances are it is a profitable niche - because print magazines cost money to
publish - which indicates someone is making money from that niche.
* Go to www.Google.com/adwords and open an account. Log in. Use the 'Tools > Keyword Tools' link to test your niche. Type in a few keywords related to your subject of interest, and click
on the 'find keywords' button. Closely observe the number beside each one, which indicates how much an advertiser on Google Adwords is paying to 'bid' for top placement on that keyword. High dollar figures indicate many people are profiting from that niche/keyword.
* Go to ebay.com and click on eBay PULSE. It lists the hot trends on eBay every month. Since ebay is a buying/selling marketplace, what's 'hot' there very likely has profit potential.
* Go to Clickbank.com and explore the MARKETPLACE by category. Look at the top selling products on each category. That gives you an idea of what kind of products and market niches have more profit potential.
There are other, more sophisticated methods to test profitability, but the idea is to get moving, testing things small, and then modifying or tweaking to improve your results - so let's move on.
Keep one thing firmly in mind - nothing is cast in stone!
If you pick a niche, work on it for a reasonable period of time (say, 1 or 2 months) and do NOT see results that justify your effort, MOVE ON. Give it a fair trial, see what works, drop the losers and run with the winners. That's a short, quick formula for success online.
Pick your business model
As a beginner just getting started, with a plan to be an infopreneur and sell information products, the fastest way to get going is to sell existing information products - as an affiliate partner.
You *could* begin by creating your own information product - but it is a little more 'risky' and uncertain to start off this way. We'll get to this in a later phase of the plan, but if you
prefer doing this rather than being an affiliate, go for it! (Just realize your first ebook may not be a runaway bestseller!)
Where to find products to sell?
There are some affiliate networks that specialize in listing digital products for sale - and let you join as a partner to help sell them, in return for a share of the profits (typically between 25% and 75% per sale).
Clickbank is one - http://www.Clickbank.com
Paydotcom is another - http://www.PayDotCom.com
Go to these networks, and look for a product you like, complements your area of expertise or passion, and that pays out a reasonable affiliate commission. Then, click on the link and
visit that product's sales page.
See how it looks. Does the style of the selling suit your taste?
Would you be comfortable referring your prospects to the site to buy?
Would you yourself buy the product from that sales page (in other words, is it a compelling sales letter)?
Clickbank gives some data which lets you judge how well the product is selling. Pick the ones with a good 'conversion' rate, so that more people you refer to the site will end up buying the product, earning you a referral fee.
Chosen your product(s)? Here's what to do next...
Try and pick at least 3 products, preferably many more. Out of this list, choose the one where you will focus your attention first.
If you can afford to, buy it.
Nothing sells as well in an affiliate promotion that's a genuine review or endorsement. It is hard to get excited and enthusiastic (in a genuine way) about something you have not personally tested out yourself - and it gets even more unreal when you're urging someone ELSE to spend money on something you won't or haven't!
When you have bought the ebook, read it and jot down notes. Here's what you want to include in your review:
* What did you like about the ebook?
* What problems will it help solve?
* What benefit will readers get from it?
* Who needs to buy it - and why?
Here is a key point about writing such a review - don't try to sell the ebook, just PRE-sell your prospect so you kindle their interest and get them curious enough to want to learn more about
it... then, refer them to the sales letter which should 'sell' them on buying it.
You could also focus your review on explaining WHAT the ebook teaches a reader to do - without revealing the HOW about doing it. To learn 'how', they must buy the ebook!
Building your web presence
Whew! That was a lot of preparation.
But without this background, the rest of your work may well just end up spinning wheels while getting nowhere. It is time-consuming, even hard work, but will bring you the big pay-off down the road - so clench your teeth and do it!
Once you're through, you know:
* what topic you are passionate about
* how much profit potential that niche has
* what information products exist and are selling
* what is the value of those products to your audience
Now, your next task is to share this information with them - through your web presence.
Building a website used to be hard work. Today, it is relatively easy. But there is one way that's easiest for beginners - to publish a BLOG.
It's a point and click and type web-publishing system where you install a blog, type words into a text box, click a button and have your content published on your website.
There are many blogging solutions. You may begin with a blog on Blogger.com or if you have your own web hosting account, you could install a WordPress blog on it.
There are some things you can do with your blog to make it more search engine friendly, attractive and interactive - but I won't get into this as it would be far beyond the scope of such a
tutorial. There are many guides to blog optimization you can research this on.
Why use a blog?
There are many reasons to prefer a blog over any other alternative.
* blogs are easy to set up and use (as mentioned above)
* blogs get ranked in search engines more quickly
* blogs are designed for easy navigation and user friendliness
* blogs can be tweaked, customized and maintained more easily
Of course, if you don't like blogs, you can do this all using a conventional website too.
Post to your blog regularly
The key to getting visitors to your blog is to constantly provide them with something of value on it.
That's where the importance of tying your niche to your passion comes in - because you'll find it easy to blog about something you are passionate about. Plus, you won't run out of things to blog!
At a minimum, blog once a day for the first month or two.
Your blog posts do NOT have to be lengthy tomes, just a short paragraph or two will do - as long as it provides something of value to your audience.
Sometimes, just a set of links to OTHER resources on your topic will be enough.
Where does the money come from?
That's where you're being smart and subtle! You'll place links to the ebook you are recommending - on your blog!
Near the top, or at the end of each post, you can feature the short review you wrote for your 'Recommended Ebook' - so that a visitor to your blog will read your blog post, then your
endorsement, and if convinced about the value, will click on YOUR AFFILIATE LINK to visit the sales page. Any sales that result will earn you an affiliate commission.
The more compelling your review, the more sales you will refer. The more valuable the content on your blog, the more people will read your review.
You'll notice it all begins with ADDING VALUE - and that's where your passion and expertise come in.
Where to get your first visitors?
Blogging will get you some visitors - but not a whole lot, and not instantly.
To jumpstart your blog, you'll need to do some conventional 'marketing'. No, nothing fancy or 'cutting/bleeding edge' - just tried, tested and proven stuff like:
* directory submissions
* article marketing
* blog commenting
* forum marketing
* paid advertising (?)
I'll briefly discuss each.
Directory submission: Once you start blogging and when you have at least 3 or 4 day's posts on it, you can submit your blog to various directories. Most important of all is Technorati.com where you can list your blog.
There are close to 50 major blog-only directories, as well as other 'RSS directories' where you can submit your blog's RSS feed (Google 'RSS feed' to learn more).
Oh, and you can also submit your blog to other niche directories relevant to the topic of your blog.
Article marketing: Write 350 to 500 word articles on your topic and submit them to various directories. At the very least, submit them to these 3 top ones:
- Ezine Articles - www.EzineArticles.com
- Buzzle - www.Buzzle.com
- Idea Marketers - www.IdeaMarketers.com
The Warrior forum has an article directory, and many other forums do. There are even niche article directories that may get you more relevant traffic.
Simply writing articles won't get you many visitors. There's a trick to doing it right, and you'll gain expertise as you keep doing it.
Here's a short summary: DON'T reveal everything in your article itself. Hold back a bit - and then use your 'Author Resource Box' at the bottom of your article to mention how you reveal it all on your blog - and include the URL of your blog.
For instance, if I were to adopt that approach with this very article, I'd stop here and say something like:
"There's a lot more to making money online that you have to
learn as a beginner. I've got the rest of this article on my
blog where you can read it for free. Go to:
http://MoneyPowerWisdom.com
Blog comments: Done right, this can both drive traffic to your new blog and make you powerful friends and build your network in the blogosphere.
Every day, after you post a message to your blog, visit AT LEAST 3 blogs in your niche and read their posts. Leave your feedback or comment on one of the posts, with a link back to your blog.
DO NOT ABUSE this method. Blogs are published by PEOPLE. If you post junk or useless comments, the same bloggers who might become good friends will end up hating you and destroying your reputation. Use blog comments the right way - it's a VERY powerful marketing method.
Forum marketing: Search on Google for forums on your niche topic. Register at them. Follow discussions. Post comments that showcase your expertise. In your signature, include a link back to your blog, with a catch phrase that intrigues readers and makes them curious enough to explore it.
Like blog comments, forums can be places to build up your reputation - or destroy it completely. It's your choice how to do it - the right way is obvious!
Paid advertising: I put this last because you may be just starting out and not want to spend money you haven't yet earned. If you have a budget to drive traffic to your blog, you might
use PPC (pay per click) advertising, ezine ads, banners or classified ads and other methods to exchange cash for clicks.
Blog consistently
What drives a system like this is having a constantly updated blog with useful content being added, so that visitors to the blog keep coming back and telling their friends about it.
A system like this is not built overnight. It takes between 1 and 2 months of consistent action to 'prime the pump'. But once the flow begins, it is much easier and less effort-intensive to
sustain.
So be ready to work the system - until the system works for you!
Testing, tracking and tweaking
I asked you to pick 3 or more products to promote on your blog. While you bought and reviewed one of them prominently, the others can also be mentioned on your blog, or even rotated in
place of the first product.
Test different combinations, approaches and locations of the ad to see which brings in more sales.
Try out variations of short endorsements, longer reviews, images and ebook covers, experiment with different headlines, and track results with each tweak.
After your blog has received a reasonable number of visitors, measure your results and decide which approach works best. Keep it, drop the others, and test again to improve your results.
Most beginner systems being taught stop at this point. This is the hard stuff. What you'll do next to boost the power of the system you have built and leverage all the effort you have invested upto now in your business is EASY.
Yet too many people will not know about them - or lack the persistence to implement them and multiply their return!
Build your list
Once you know which of the products you are promoting is selling the best, you can take the next step towards making more money from this process - creating your own information product.
The easiest way to sell information products is to offer them to your own list... a group of people who have indicated they find what you give them valuable - and want more of it.
You can find that list from within the crowd of visitors to your blog. And you can do that by offering them a free gift - one with high value, but which costs you very little to create.
A Special Report
What should your special report be about?
Why, the very ebook you are making the most sales of! Take that ebook off your digital shelf, read it again and write a short report on any one element of what it covers.
For instance, if the ebook is about building your own water garden, your special report may be a review of all the tools you'll need to build your water garden.
Or if the ebook is about the various methods of list building, your report will go into greater depth about list building through blogging - which is what you're doing!
The catch is that you ask visitors to give you their email address and name in exchange for collecting your report.
That way, you have a method of communicating with them - and get to know them better.
There are many tools, scripts and services you can use to build and manage such a list, you can find some excellent reviews right here on the forum.
Develop a trusting relationship with your email list
Do NOT start pitching products to sell your list right away. Instead, communicate in a way that nurtures trust and confidence in you, your skills and expertise.
Every week or so, you can send them one email message with a link to the most interesting content you have published on your blog.
Once in a month (or every 15 days), you can also email them a review of one of the other products you have picked from the Clickbank list - and include an affiliate link, which will make
some more sales!
And most important, run surveys from time to time.
What to ask in your survey?
Ask about the most pressing problems they face.
Enquire about the solutions they have come across.
Find out what they are happy about in them, and what they felt was lacking.
Probe to see what they expect from their 'dream solution' to the problem.
Check to see whether they are able and willing to pay for such a solution.
How much will they pay? And what will they expect for that price?
You can get more people to respond by offering an incentive to answer your survey - a free copy of the product, or a discount, or another free report - something your audience will think is valuable.
The answers to these questions should give you valuable information in planning and creating your own information product - one which overcomes all the drawbacks and deficiencies of others in the market, and is tailored to the very needs your audience revealed in their survey response!
Creating your infoproduct
There are literally over FIFTY different forms of information products. The most popular are ebooks. But audio recordings, video tutorials, teleseminars, interviews and many more options
exist.
Pick the format you are most comfortable creating - and one that your audience desires. Create your own infoproduct or have someone do it for you. A complete description of the process is
far beyond what this tutorial set out to be, but there are some excellent guides to doing this quickly and effectively.
Selling your infoproduct
With your own infoproduct, tailored to the needs of your audience, you are now taking your infopreneur efforts to a higher level - and can keep most of your profits from every sale.
As your blog gets more popular and attracts more visitors, your sales increase, and your profits skyrocket.
You can scale this up even higher by getting affiliates to join YOUR affiliate program - and refer sales to YOU in exchange for a part of the profits!
You can team up with joint venture partners who will help sell your infoproduct to their audience. They get the money, you get the list of customers - to whom you can sell even more products
and services over time.
How long will this all take?
It depends.
* Do you have focus? You will have to stick with the plan, and execute it with consistency.
* Will you do the work? In the beginning, there will be a lot of effort involved, both to create your information resources and promote it through networking.
* Can you adapt and adopt? There is no single formula for success. A lot is trial and error. Some things you try will be winners, others will fail. You'll have to be ready to keep trying until you get many winners.
If you do this, and especially if you picked your niche right, you can see substantial success (even if you're starting as an absolute beginner) within a year.
Unfortunately, far too many people will read even such a step by step, tested and proven plan - and then get distracted by the next shiny, new thing... and go around in circles.
A powerful lesson I learned from an ebook was this:
Success is like the surface of a sphere. We all begin in the center. If we keep moving in one direction, ANY direction, but keep on moving, eventually we'll reach the surface. But if we constantly keep changing direction, backtracking and re-thinking everything we do, we'll just keep on moving in smaller circles - around the center!
I wish you every success in your online business.
If you want to learn more about creating and selling information products, the tutorials on 'Think, Write & Retire' may be of help, at http://www.ThinkWriteRetire.com
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