What do you really need to go into business on the internet?

 

What do you really need to go into business on the internet?

Word Count:
853

Summary:
There are some essentials you will need (assuming that if you are reading this that you already have an email account and internet access) but you really can start out at the ground level with nothing but an idea and build your internet business up from there. You can start your business on a shoestring budget of just $10 a year. If you are ready for the fast track then you can start with as little as $10 month. If you are aiming for the penthouse then you can up your monthly budget to $30.

Keywords:
internet business, make money online, internet profit, internet income, make money from home, work from home, home business, work at home

Article Body:
I have lost track of the number of discussion board posts and emails I have answered about that topic. I admit for those first venturing into the uncharted waters of internet business it can be challenging and more than a little daunting. There is a flood of products out there clamoring for your money and all claim to be absolutely essential to your success on the internet. Don't buy it, they are all selling snake oil!

There are some essentials you will need (assuming that if you are reading this that you already have an email account and internet access) but you really can start out at the ground level with nothing but an idea and build your internet business up from there. You can start your business on a shoestring budget of just $10 a year. If you are ready for the fast track then you can start with as little as $10 month. If you are aiming for the penthouse then you can up your monthly budget to $30.

What are the essentials?

Ground level approach:

Create a blog account at one of the free blogging sites available online (we used to use Blogger.com but there are many other good options). This will serve as your internet base. It really is the cheapest and easiest way to get online today. Yes, you could create a free web site at one of the many available but blogs are more attractive to the search engines. Plus they offer you the ability to personalize it but most of your energy will be spent on content which is the king of the internet and the real reason you want an internet presence.

Now sign up for a free ClickBank affiliate acccount which will give you immediate access to something to sell --and the added advantage that many products also come with some handy content you can use to fill out your new blog. Sign up for a contextual or pay-per-click advertiser such as Google's Adsense or Chikita and you'll start earning from visitors as well as customers.

That's it! You are now in business. Keep filling your blog and promoting it as well and you will soon start earning!

Shoestring approach:

This method is similar to the previous approach with one crucial difference -- you purchase your own domain name. A domain name will cost you between $5 and $10 a year depending on whether you go .com or .info (or one of the many other options available). You don't need to find a web host or create a site. Simply point the domain at your blog for now and continue with the development and promotion of your blog. The advantage of owning your own domain name is simply that later when you have the money, time, and knowledge to develop your web site that domain name will already exist and have filtered through the search engines. It also offers some marketing advantages that a free blog cannot.

Fast-track approach:

You host your own domain and offer your blog either as the site or as an addition to the site. You should be able to do this for between $10 and $20 a month with a reputable host that offers all the tools and utilities you might need for your current site. Maybe down the line you'll need to upgrade but by then you'll know your income and your needs.

Penthouse approach:

You add one final tool that will make your internet business complete -- a mailing list tool. You can do this for just $20 a month and it will be worth every penny for sales, customer service, and promotional tool.

That's it for just $90 you can have every tool you need to make hundreds or even thousands from your internet business and you can actually get by with a lot less than that for your initial startup.

Two final notes.

First, I did not include any budget in here for advertising because there are a lot of free ways you can get started advertising and promoting your site and I would recommend exhausting those options before you begin looking into spending money on advertising. By that time you may well have started to earn a profit from your internet venture and so you can have a better idea of the size of your advertising budget.

Second, if you plan to sell products yourself then you will need a payment processor. You can sign up for free with PayPal so that is no additional expenditure (you pay a percentage of each sale so it is self-funding) or you can sign up for vendor account with ClickBank which will cost you a one-time fee of $50 plus a percentage of each sale. I would not lay out a lot of money for a shopping cart program or one of the other programs that charges a monthly fee. I have done business with PayPal and ClickBank as my exclusive payment processors since 1999. Every so often I will investigate my other options and every time I stick with these simple, effective programs.

Good luck with your new internet venture!

 

What Does it Really Take to Make Money Online?

 

What Does it Really Take to Make Money Online?

Word Count:
555

Summary:
What Does it Really Take to Make Money Online?  Learn the basic structure for developing a strong online money making presence.

Keywords:
make money online, online business

Article Body:
Probably the most important step to making money online is the desire to do it.  The internet, contrary to so many of the headlines we see, is not a 'get rich quick' scheme.  Strong internet incomes are achieved the same way brick and mortar incomes are achieved—via hard work, long hours, and dedication to making money online.  To make money online, you must be willing to work hard, often long hours, study the latest material on marketing and traffic generation, and be willing to stick with it before you start making the big money online.

• In order to make money online, you must develop a basic understanding of why people buy.  The psychological motivations of internet purchases are much the same as offline purchases.  People buy things online because they feel the purchase will make them feel younger, sexier, happier, or because it will make them rich or well-liked.

• You must find or develop a product that is well-suited to making money online---it must primarily meet the emotional needs of people online---making them feel younger, sexier, happier, rich, or well-liked.

• To make money online, you must learn everything you can about marketing, both offline and online.  You must understand what makes people buy; you cannot simply cut and paste from templates to get good at online marketing.

• You must be willing to test everything you do.  Many times what you do online is in massive quantities, unlike some offline marketing. You might send out a million emails, or purchase a thousand PPCs, or receive hundreds of visitors a day.  You must be able to identify which types of visitors make you money or you will fail.  In many marketing campaigns you run, you will have segments that are profitable and segments that are not.  If you cannot identify which are which, for the purpose of eliminating those that are not profitable and increasing spending in areas that are, you will fail. 

• You must be willing to reinvest much of your initial profits back into your business.  When you first begin marketing, you are excited and you are willing to spend untold hours, until the wee hours of the morning, placing inexpensive classified ads and requesting links with directories and other web sites.  However, once you have a thousand subscribers, you will be more focused on conversion rates and your web site and have less time for low-cost traffic generation.  You will need to develop a budget for more expensive (and usually higher-quality) traffic. Although it is not always the case that paying more gets you a better lead, it is generally the case that paying less gets you an inferior lead.

• Last but perhaps the most important.  You must be willing to stick it out.  The first few months you may not make much money online, but you knew that going in and you are excited about the internet riches about which you dream.  After a few months of 80-90 hour weeks, you become tired and can become tempted to quit.  If (and only if, note) you have been testing every ad you run and every response you receive, you will be able to start making smarter decisions and become profitable over the next few months.  But if you burn out and quit, you lose everything you put in.  Don't give up!