During these rough economic times many individuals are looking to supplement and/or earn an income by starting an internet business. Web based businesses are the easiest to start and the hardest to succeed in. Our "guide to internet sales" is designed to assist you in your quest to excel. We teach you how to;
• Choose the right product(s) to sell
• Create an effective website
• Optimize your website
• Alternate sales techniques
• Learn from competition
• Develop worthwhile database
Product Choices
You can't do a thing until you determine which product(s) you want to sell. Find a product you like or have experience with and determine if there is a market. Trying to sell a product you have no interest in is difficult if not impossible. Don't do it!
How to choose the product you want to sell.
• What do you know about
• Is it tangible or intangible (an intangible is much harder to sell)
• Is there a market for product
• Competition
• Are there marketing.educationeasy.net affiliate programs for product
After you have your product its time to decide whether you are going to compete with what is already available with a completely new website or become an affiliate through an affiliate program either directly or through an affiliate manager like those above. An affiliate program is nothing more that a sales agreement between you and the product owner that you will market their product(s) and receive a commission usually between 15% and 75%. Scan the products that interest you and then go back to determining their popularity. If you already know the product you want to sell go to their website and sign up for their affiliate program directly if there is one available. If they don't have an affiliate program you can write them and ask if you can represent them.
Creating A Website
Now that you have decided on the product(s) you have some knowledge of, are interested in promoting and determined there is a good opportunity in representing, it is time to start the fun part; selling on the web! If you have decided on becoming a affiliate representative you can use their website, just establish a link to it and start "search engine optimizing" (SEO); if not you need to design and produce a website. Before you do either you need to determine what your new URL will be. I found that the best place to go for all your needs is godaddy.com godaddy.com. It has by far the best tools at the most competitive prices. I use it for all my needs including hosting, website site building, tracking, registrations, merchant banks, traffic, really terrific customer service and so much more.
Pick a website name that includes the primary key word(s) you wish to use but keep it short so people find it intriguing, remember it and is easy to write when they want to visit. MAKE SURE YOU REGISTER IT as soon as you decide on a terrific URL, you don't want it stolen while you are designing a website all around it. Don't be disappointed if it is not available, billions are already taken and you may have try many times before you find a great one you can use.
• To determine a market go to Google or Yahoo search your best projected keywords, check how many websites there pointing to that product, what is their popularity and how many hits they get.
• It is up to you to decide if the market is there but price is a consideration, obviously there are going to be a lot more hits for "Fords" than "Rolls Royce".
You are going to learn about the following methods for successful website selling and promotion.
• Adsense
• marketing.educationeasy.net Affiliate Programs
• Articles
• Blogs
• Classified Ads
• Forums
• Links (Relevant)
• Link Anchor Texts
• Pay Per Clicks
• Safelists
• URL's
• Product Choices
• Self Help Programs
• Auto Submitters
• Auto Responders
I repeat, never send money until you have checked thoroughly their reputation and never ever believe their claims that your money will be happily refunded with no questions asked, that's just bull, you will never see your money. To check something out go to their blogs or go to Google, Yahoo, MSM (GYM) put in their website URL and scan first 100 listings, usually you will find anything negative about them if there are any.
Search Engine Optimization
There is only one way to get significant amounts of website traffic and that is to succeed in attaining a high page listing for your key words on Google and Yahoo. Many organizations do offer legitimate SEO services but they charge considerable fees. Because of these fees the scammers also charge large amounts but give you much less. It takes 2 to 3 months before you see any real results which allow these frauds to string you along and sometimes procure even more fees. A very good indication, although not perfect is to research how high up on Google and Yahoo they are. Ask for names of some of their clients and see where they are. If they refuse due to "confidentiality" run away from them. Also ask for the keywords they use.
Another way to pick an SEO company is to find a new company who is hungrier than the giants and charge less to gain a reputation. One company we found who seems to be very good with great management is "BestBusinessPackage" who does an entire business package including, hosting, email, complete website with content, SEO, business.educationeasy.net business plan with review and critique of your business model all for $599. They will also provide credit card processor for a relatively small fee.
You can also do everything yourself but beware it takes an enormous amount of time, effort and computer savvy to do it. Go Daddy offers a terrific program to help neophytes called "Traffic Blazer" in conjunction with their "Website Tonight" program.
There some alternate methods but again they take a lot of time and will only be successful for a small percentage of website wannabe's. These include but are not limited to articles, press releases, blogs and web based classified ads. It will take a bit of practice and some writing skills to utilize these. If you do decide to use these methods please make sure you spell check everything you write, there is nothing that turns off a potential customer than poor spelling.
Websites
Websites development can cost anywhere from a $1000 to hundreds of $1000's although with moderate computer knowledge and some creativity using available software or the extra services some hosting companies provide it can be done. It is not easy and will take you many frustrating hours to accomplish. We do suggest getting a website designer as your website is the only link between you and your customer. We suggest you reread the SEO section of this article for an inexpensive and reliable alternative to doing it yourself.
New Corporations
Many entrepreneurs think the first thing they need is a new corporation, this is not true. The first thing you need is profit; there is always time to form a company when you are generating income then you can form a simple "Sole Proprietorship" or Limited Liability Company. Corporations are only needed to protect your personal assets and certain tax benefits. Check with your accountant.
Attorneys charge a substantial amount to create a corporate identity for a business but it can be done online in a few minutes for much less money, time and effort. If you want to set up an offshore corporation be very careful as there are numerous scams for these.
Merchant Accounts
Before an online business can accept credit cards they must establish a relationship with a credit card processor commonly called a "merchant account". Sometimes these can be difficult to attain particularly when you sell a "high-risk" product (travel, adult) now it has become even more difficult with any product or service due to the reluctance of financial institutions to incur more credit card debt and especially with a new company.
Internet thieves are capitalizing on this and charging hundreds of dollars to set up a relationship with sometimes unscrupulous processors who promise low fees omitting the add-on fees when you get your first statement. There are many ways to establish a direct relationship with a credit card processor who charges a very small set up fee, usually less than $75 and a small percentage 2.5% - 5% of each transaction which is standard through out the industry.
marketing.educationeasy.net Affiliate Programs
When a company wants to get more internet sales agents they offer an "Affiliate Program" whereas another internet advertiser selling a complementary product can sell theirs also (example: travel agency selling their luggage). The affiliate then earns a commission on every sale. You can make some money with them but the conversion rate is minimal. An affiliate program set up is free, if there is a charge find someone else. For best results go through a third party company which represents and handles payments for marketing.educationeasy.net affiliate programs; one of the better ones is "Commission Junction" - cj.com cj.com.
Classified Ads
Don't use any classified ad services that charge; there are numerous free services that are very good. They are particularly good for generating high placement on popular search pages. Just search for "free classified ads" on Google or Yahoo.
Reciprocal Links
Links are only good to assist your optimization efforts as most search engine algorithms take backlinks into account when spidering your website. Website visitors rarely pay attention to links since they are only coming to your online business for what you offer. Keep in mind that these links are also encouraging your visitors to go directly to the link provider and any links they have with a competitor of yours.
Pay Per Clicks
PPC's are advertisements on search engines for which you pay for each visitor you get as a result of your ad. We find these absolutely worthless and extremely expensive. Although it generates traffic to your online business the conversion rate is abysmal and only makes money for the search engines.
Safelists
Safelists are lists which encourage members to visit your site and vice versa. It is a never ending cycle which absolutely overwhelms your inbox. Very few are read as the response is so overpowering some Safelists contain hundreds of thousands or even millions of members and are just deleted You will ultimately come to hate it as you will eventually appear on every SPAM list imaginable. The only organization that makes money is the purveyors of this atrocious waste of time and money. We tested 3 and got over 1000 emails a day none of which had anything to do with what I was selling although I requested only targeted emails relating to my products. It was a horrific experience!
Auto Responders
Unless you generate an enormous amount of traffic you do not need this we find that a scheduled follow-up is much more productive and can be done at virtually no cost through your email account. Go Daddy offers a very good mass mailer you can use with your data base. For ideas on how to develop a worthwhile data base go to "Best Business Package" listed on Google and Yahoo.
Offshore Banking
Companies that prompt you to do this are some of the worst scammers. They get a large amount of upfront money and very rarely deliver. The following was just revealed on 2/18/08 which proves these type accounts are no longer safe. "UBS, the largest bank in Switzerland, agreed on Wednesday to divulge the names of well-heeled Americans whom the authorities suspect of using offshore accounts at the bank to evade taxes. The bank admitted conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and agreed to pay $780 million to settle a sweeping federal investigation into its activities".
Conclusions and Recommendations
Throughout this article we recommended individual companies we use who provide terrific products and service at no or minimal costs but like most enterprises they require an enormous amount of time, effort and perseverance. There is one organization I found which provides a complete business package at a very reasonable price ($699) for new or existing entrepreneurs who don't have the experience, knowledge or time to do it themselves. The name of the company is bestbusinesspackage.com [bestbusinesspackage.com] you can find them on Google and Yahoo. I thought this price unbelievable for what you get but when I sampled their services and found they were a group of retired American business executives who do this as a hobby I became a believer. Check them out you will be very pleasantly surprised.
This article was written not to discourage web based business entrepreneurs but rather to give them a heads up about the too-good-to-be-true scams. There are no quick and easy ways to make money on the Internet to succeed takes an unbelievable amount of hard work, perseverance, knowledge and dedication. It is not easy but the rewards in both money and the pleasure you get from creating a successful business are well worth it.
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