Your
Roadmap to Internet Profits
By Terry
Dean
http://www.netbreakthroughs.com
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 from $20 - $20,000. If
someone else has created a product that you know your targeted
market is interested in, offer them an 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 marketing
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 marketing 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 our 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 Email 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
marketing 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.
Terry Dean,
a 5 year veteran of Internet marketing, will Take You By The
Hand and Show You Exact Results of All the Internet Marketing
Techniques he tests and Uses Every Single Month" Click
Here to Find Out More
http://www.netbreakthroughs.com
