ONLINE

MARKETING YOUR WEBSITE

SECTION 1

Understanding How to Make Money Online

Section 1.1   The Benefits and Costs of Online Marketing

BENEFITS

To begin this manual, I want to share the benefits of taking your business online.

• Online businesses can be automated, freeing up your time. Your online business

requires little or no staff and is open 24 hours/day.

• You set your own pace. No one is looking over your shoulder or giving you deadlines.
• Access to new customers costs a fraction of advertising in traditional media sources.
• You have access to millions of potential customers from all around the world without

spending tens of thousands on advertising.

• Trying out new ideas, products, or sales promotions is easy to implement and cheap to

change if it does not work out.

• You can use your website to track the wants and needs of your customers, by determining

the things they are accessing on your site. Then you can

change your site to better meet the demand.

So those are all nice advantages of taking a business online. However, here are the most important three:

• Start up costs are very low compared to that of a traditional business -You have

instant access to the world wide web (a "global" marketplace). -Time required to run the
business is minimal once you've automated.

COSTS

Advertising in a traditional magazine can cost $30,000 or more for a full page

Ad! You have to get the ad to the magazine in advance, and you won't start to see leads until the month after publication. That is a lot of money up front and a long time to wait to see results.

If you want to really get going, hard and fast, you could spend more to purchase advertising, software for automation, and people to help you with the details. This would be an initial outlay of perhaps $1,500. This would be the fastest

Online, you can run the ad; see how the public responded and start taking orders immediately, which translates into money in your pocket. You can test as many variations of the advertisement as you like to determine which one is the most successful.

So how much does it really cost to take a business online? This is what most people really want to know. As I said before, you can start your business for even as low as $100, but you will have to do 

everything yourself, and it will be slow.

For around $500, you can get your site up in two weeks, and begin your online advertising campaign. This would include email promotions, web sites, co-op linking, etc.

If you want to really get going, hard and fast, you could spend more to purchase advertising, software for automation, and people to help you with the details. This would be an initial outlay of perhaps $1,500. This would be the fastest and most effective way to jump-start your online business, to start taking orders immediately, and begin seeing profits from your hard work.

Do not fall into the trap of scam artists out there that charge thousands of dollars to create a web site. They take advantage of people who are not web-sawy. As I said before, you can have everything for around $1,500, and that includes a terrific web site. So shop around and compare. Getting started on the Internet may not take a lot of money, but it will take a lot of hard work, at first. Eventually, you will be able to sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labors, but in the beginning you will have to work to get the business going.

REMEMBER

You want to set up your business to run automatically eventually, so that you will have the time to work on many marketing issues, not on order fulfillment. Once you have that business going by itself, you can start another online business. By diversifying your businesses, you can assure yourself multiple incomes and protection from shifts in demand.

You should go after a narrow "slice" of the market. You can't be Ford or GE and market to everyone, so it is far better for you to target the group of consumers that are most likely to purchase your product or service. It is extremely important that your target market can be identified and is an online audience.

There are five steps to success:

• 1 TARGET YOUR MARKET
• 2 MAKE CONTACT
• 3 ESTABLISH DIALOG
• 4 BUILD A DATABASE
• 5 MAKE MONEY

So the basically, following these steps, it boils down to this: Find a niche market, provide what they want, offer it to them online, and automate the business. By doing this and then creating new businesses to expand and diversify, you really CAN make millions online.

Section 1.2 Online Products and Services

You may already have your own business providing a product or service to

the market. You may be like many others and be searching for the right thing to offer the market

right now. Products and services are two totally different animals, and both have their pros and

cons.

PROS

Selling Products - Income is not dictated by the time needed to "perform" the service. The more products you sell, the more money you make. Once you automate the business, this is more so the case.

Providing Services - Profits are easier to come by because the payment for the service is paid to you.

Providing Services - Repeat business is likely with services because your customers, if they are happy with you, will return again and again.

CONS

Selling Products - Fulfillment issues. You have to stock and ship a product (or pay someone else to). The cost of fulfilling orders on a product will take money from your profits.

Selling Products - Unless your product has a very large profit margin, you may have to sell a LOT of items in order to make the profit you want.

Providing Services - Your income can be limited to the amount of time you are reasonably able to spend providing the service each day. Hiring employees can increase the services you can offer, but also cost money to employ.

If you dont already provide a service, I would recommend selling a product or offering information as a product. It is the best way to earn really big profits over the long term. However, if you do provide a service, try to find a way to transform it into a product. For example, instead of providing a service directly, create reports or newsletters that give key information to people so they can do it themselves. By doing this, you have translated your service knowledge into a saleable item, thus creating an added stream of income for yourself.

Another excellent way that companies use the Internet for their service-oriented business is, that they will give you coupons as an incentive for you to visit their site and then save money by simply printing out the coupon. By offering the coupons, they get you to their site.

Don't forget that most people use the Internet to gain information. It may be as simple as looking up a phone number or checking the weather forecast, but they are still looking for instant information. Information is the top commodity online, it is in your best interest to market information products such as books, reports, videotapes, how-to manuals, etc.

Information products are easy to sell, generate quick profits, and have a huge profit margin. Typically, books cost anywhere from one to four dollars to print. But how many books have you seen that cost less than $9.99 or so? Some even retail for $30 or $40. On a book that only costs a couple of bucks to produce, that's some profit margin! You also have to remember that if these items can be printed in hard cover, they can also be downloaded over the Internet directly to your customer, therefore eliminating the wait time for the information or book to reach your customer's doorstep.

If people are researching the Internet for information, and you are provider of information, then your clientele is already searching for you! Let's use a perfect example, Stephen King is a renowned author of hundreds of books. Chances are that you have probably read one. You can pick up any one of his books at a store such as Barnes and Noble. Yet, if you are interested in his newest book or want to see some of the books you haven't read without getting in the car and driving to the book store, you can simply log onto the Internet. You can visit his website where you can satisfy your craving for his literature, or perhaps even have the opportunity to read a portion of the book before you purchase.

If you don't have specialized knowledge already, you can summarize industry experts. Find out what the best-selling books are. Find books that all have the same hot topic that people are trying to find out about. Buy these books, read them, and then summarize the information you've digested. Believe me, people will pay to get a large amount of information from different sources in a more concise format. Most people don't take the time to read an entire book, but an "executive summary" version of several best selling books is a desirable commodity.

Ok, so what if you don't have a product or information to sell? Read on for some ideas for YOU to put into place on the Internet with your own online business.

Section 1.3 Product Ideas

I will cover each and every idea that relates to a product. But first take a minute to take stock in your hobbies, interests, and personal knowledge. Most people don't realize the potential that lies at their feet. Take at look within yourself, and see what it is that you enjoy most. What are the things you enjoy doing or how do you enjoy spending your time? These things can translate into a product or service for you to sell.

Ask yourself these 4 questions:

• 1 WHAT AM I PASSIONATE ABOUT?
• 2 WHAT THINGS AM I INTERESTED IN?
• 3 WHAT DO I KNOW A LOT ABOUT?
• 4 WHAT DO PEOPLE ASK ME ADVICE FOR?

Remember, you can take one of these ideas and be very successful with it. But if you take something you love and find a way to translate that into your product, you will be that much further ahead, love what you're doing, and feel comfortable in an area you already know. Have you ever said to yourself -I wish I could get paid doing what I love? Perhaps finally here is your chance.

Dont worry if you think your area of interest is very obscure or specialized; the Internet is where people are looking for the obscure! In fact, many successful entrepreneurs start businesses by finding a narrow or specialized market and then developing a product that market needs. Voila! Instant Market!

One way to target a specific market is to find products that already exist and find a way to improve them. You can look on consumer review websites for your competition's products and find out what people do and don't like about them. Some good sites for this are:

http://www.consumerreview.com/                   http://www.consumersearch.com/

http://www.epinions.com/

Another way is to surf news groups, discussion boards and chat rooms for your target market. This specific location on the Internet is referred to as the UseNet. I will discuss this more later on in the manual. You will find that discussions of these types can lead you to develop something that the market is hungry for. A place to look for discussion groups of these types is http://groups.google.com or just search any major search engine by typing in the words "newsgroup" or "chatrooms" and your specific search.

So you may be saying, "Great, that gives me the perfect idea to start!" or you may be saying, "None of that is going to work for me". If you saying that later, then read on. I'd like to give you some ideas.

CREATE AN E-BOOK

Compile interviews or articles written by others in a particular industry. Make sure you get written permission to republish their work before you do this. Taking others' knowledge and compiling it is a great way to make money online.

CREATE A SOLUTION IN YOUR OWN INDUSTRY

Whether you are a software programmer, a secretary, or a construction worker, you have knowledge of problems in your industry. What do you hate about something you have to deal with every day? What issues do others in your field always complain about? If you can find a solution to this problem, you have a certain best-seller in your particular field!

CREATE A TUTORIAL FOR SOMETHING

Do you know how to do something really well? A piece of software? A hobby or skill? A video game? Create a tutorial to show others how to do it too. For software, you can use a product called Lotus Screen Cam to create video tutorials to demonstrate what you want to teach. Go to www.lotus.com/products/ screencam.nsf to use a 15-day trial version. You can use this product to "record" what you are doing on your computer screen while recording your speaking voice to go along with it.

For demonstrating a hobby or video game, you can either digitally record a tutorial with a video camera, or simply create a written instruction booklet. People are always looking for ways to do things better or faster!

CREATE A WEB GRAPHICS CD

With the Internet explosion, people everywhere are publishing their own websites for everything from family reunions to online businesses. However, the average "lay­person" can't create their own graphics.

You can take advantage of demand by learning how to create graphics to sell on CD or downloadable zip-file. Learning to create graphics is easier than you might think, and you could take the time to put together a library of 100 or so graphics to sell. These types of graphics libraries can sell for up to $75 each, making it a very worthwhile endeavor!

If you target your images to a certain market, you are even better off. Find a market that has a need for specialized graphics and target your CD to that industry. It makes marketing easier, as well as creates repeat sales for future CD's with additional graphics.

CREATE A TIP OF THE DAY NEWSLETTER

This idea goes back to selling what you know. Set up a newsletter that will email a hint, trick or tip for your industry each day to subscribers. It doesn't matter what industry you are in, you can make this work for you. The trick is to keep the subscription cost low and aim for a high subscriber base.

Think about it. If you charge $5 per YEAR for your tip of the day email newsletter and get 10,000 people to subscribe, that's $50,000 per year! For a lot of people, its enough to quit the job they currently have! Think about the guy who came up with the "Joke a Day" website. Good ideas can put you right at the top very quickly. It takes some time and effort, but you can spend one day a week coming up with your ideas or maybe a few days a month, and leave the rest up to email automation to send them out at the right times. Talk about "hands off'.

CREATE AN ONLINE COMMUNITY

If you know of a topic that will appeal to a large group, you can set up a private online community and sell membership and advertising space. The community can have

resources and articles, chat rooms or forums, links, tools, and news relevant to the members. You can even have an online store to sell specialized items to your members. This idea can take a lot of time and energy, but can also be a huge money maker for you.

CREATE SOFTWARE TO SOLVE A MINOR PROBLEM

There are tons of irritating little problems in software out there, that the big software makers don't bother to fix. Find a way to fix the "everyday nuisances" and you will have a top selling item. You don't even have to be a programmer. You can find programmers at local universities or technical schools who are looking for extra money or experience. You can either pay them upfront or offer them a cut of the profits. Just remember to have them sign a non-disclosure agreement before you describe your idea, so it doesn't get stolen! Better safe than sorry.

CREATE A FANTASTIC ONLINE BUSINESS FOR SOMEONE ELSE

Find someone who has a great product or service and run THEIR online business for them. There are plenty of people who know nothing about computers or the Internet. You can use all the techniques in this manual to make millions using someone else's product, and then take a cut of the profits for doing the work. A small percentage of a million dollars is still a lot of money!

Section 1.4 Drop Shipping Arrangements Can Make You Money Online

Now that we've given you some ideas for your own product or service, you may still be saying, "But that's not for me. What else is there?"

Another money-making idea for utilizing the Internet for your online business, is to enter into a drop shipping arrangement with a manufacturer or wholesale distributor.

The beauty of this concept is that you don't have to worry about stocking inventory, maintaining warehouse space, shipping and receiving products, etc. A drop shipping arrangement allows you to sell quality products on your web site and the drop shipper handles all of the shipping details for you. They ship the product directly to your customer for you and also handle returns. This can be extremely lucrative in getting started, simply because you do not have to purchase the products up front. Once the client buys the product from your site, you can set it up so that an instant email goes out to the drop shipper, and they fulfill the product for you. Great isnt it?

EXAMPLE

I set up an online website to sell porcelain figurines. My website is set up to accept credit card orders through e-commerce. A customer visits my website and orders a figurine. My website automatically processes his credit card for the retail price of $200 plus shipping of $20. Once the order is placed, and the credit card is approved, an email with the order goes out directly to my drop shipper (either the manufacturer or a distributor) who will then fulfill the order and ship it. The drop shipper will send the figurine with my company's name and the drop shipper's address. Now you may be asking yourself why they would put my name and their address. Simple -- they handle all returns that may come back damaged or in need of replacement. They then email me the tracking number and shipment information. The drop shipper will charge me the wholesale price of $120 and shipping of $20. I have already collected this money from the sale, and it has been deposited from the buyer's credit card into my account.

Because I passed the shipping costs directly to the end consumer, I just made a profit of $80 for doing nothing more than simply taking the time to put the item on my website and then drive people to visit the website.

You can see how you can turn this kind of business arrangement into a huge money maker for yourself! Drop shipping arrangements can save you the cost of building and maintaining inventory on your own. You won't have to use start-up money to buy inventory to sell online.

Another advantage to drop shipping, is that because you do not have inventory to maintain, you also

don't have extra product that wont sell, should the item lose popularity or never get off the ground in

the first place. Because your product

line is entirely online, you can add and delete products almost instantly! By simply changing your

website, you can change the mix of products you offer; thereby, taking off the ones that aren't selling

and adding newer, better, more

popular products to replace them.

Shipping headaches are also eliminated through this method. You wont have to worry about packaging supplies, carrier accounts and pickups from companies like Fed Ex or UPS, or dealing with sending your products through the postal service.

So, what kind of products work well in a drop shipping arrangement? If you look online, there are

tons of online companies selling cheap, imported stuff

- hundreds and thousands of items for a very low price. Do NOT try to compete with giants like ABC Distributing or Oriental Trading Company. In fact, a smaller product base can be a huge advantage to you because it will not give your customers too many options to choose from, but the only the ones you want them to choose from.

As we mentioned earlier, a narrow market targeted to a specific group of people is the better way to go. Once you have determined the market you want to target, do some research to determine what your competition in that market is selling and for how much. By doing a bit of homework up front, you should be able to see what the "going price" for the products you want to sell, and thus you can figure your profit margin. You may find that you can't make enough profit to make it worth your while, and you can then find a different product or market that will net you a better profit.

One thing to remember is that if you want to put your own product out there on the world wide web. you may not be able to fulfill ttie shipping of your own product. You may end up needing to set up a drop ship relationship and even a manufacturing relationship just to fulfill the demand for your own product. Also, if you are still in the idea stage of your own product, do not hold back your success while waiting for the finished product. Go ahead and start selling an already existing product from a distributor in the mean time to help satisfy your investment costs for developing your own product.

CHOOSING A DROP SHIPPER

When looking for a good drop shipper to enter an agreement with, your best bet is to do some research up front. You should try to work directly with the manufacturer when possible, because this will net you the largest profit margin if you don't have to go through a middleman or distributor.

Search the Internet for the product you would like to sell. Look for manufacturers of that product and contact them directly. Ask if they will drop ship their products to your customers.

Some will be willing to enter into a drop shipping arrangement with you, others may not offer that service and direct you to one of their distributors. This still can be very profitable for you because these distributors, on many occasions, have to purchase in bulk from the manufacturer, so they will be able to give you good prices and mark up percentages, but you will still be able to purchase just the number you need at any one time. Still others may not be familiar with drop shipping arrangements, and you may need to convince them to work with you in selling their products. Just remember, they are going to want to sell to you in bulk. Keep that in mind. You do not want to become the drop shipper yourself

and end up warehousing product in your home.

If a company does not drop ship directly, you can ask to recommend one of their distributors. You can also find lists of distributors in trade magazines for the industry or product you want to sell. A little homework can go a long way here. Search the Internet for wholesalers or distributors of product. You'll be surprised at how much will turn up.

Once you've made a list of the manufacturers or distributors whom you'd like to contact, keep the following few things in mind before you contact them.

• You will need an official business name
• You will need a tax ID or resale number

• You may need a credit reference if the company will be billing you once

a month for the products you sell. You can give them the name and
number of your bank.

• When you call, ask to speak with someone about becoming a vendor for their products.

Once you are speaking to the right person, you need to ask some questions to determine how the company will handle your business, as well as to get a "feel" for the how the business relationship would proceed should you decide to go with them.

Some questions to ask are:

Price? - What is the wholesale price of their products to you? Is it low enough that you can have a reasonable profit without pricing your product out of the market?

Shipping and Handling? - How do they ship their products? Most companies use a nationwide carrier like UPS or FedEx. Will they include ALL of the shipping and tracking information in a confirmation email to you? Is there a handling fee or simply the straight shipping cost? You want to know this upfront so you can build it into your shipping costs to your customers.

MONTHLY MINIMUM OR MAXIMUM? - Will you have to sell a certain dollar amount per month? Is there a maximum amount of product they will ship for you? These are important things to keep in mind. If a manufacturer cannot ship as much as you sell each month, you may have to move to one of its distributors for fulfilling your orders instead.

Billing? - How will you be billed? Will they charge a credit card for each order or bill you once a month for all the orders for that month?

Returns? - How will they deal with product returns? Make sure they have some sort of warrantee or guarantee on their products and will be willing to handle returns for you. If there is a problem with the product, you can direct your customers to deal directly with the manufacturer.

Product Information? - How will you get the graphics and product information for your website? Many companies will simply direct you to use the information and graphics from their company site. Others may send a CD ROM with their product images and descriptions. Find out how this will work up front so it will be easy to set up your site.

Make sure that you ask these questions, and any others you can think of, to get an idea of how the company will conduct this business arrangement. If they don't answer your questions or you just don't feel "right" about the conversation, you may want to think about trying a different drop shipping partner. If your drop shipping arrangement isn't a solid one, you may end up with unhappy customers and no business.

There are a few things to look out for in the drop shipping arena. Do not pay money for lists of drop shippers. With a little research and hard work, you will be able to find your own companies to contact. People who are charging you for a list are probably giving you an out-dated, and useless list that will be 75% worthless anyway. One of the easiest ways for you to find a great list of potential drop shippers is to go to a major search engine online such as Google or Yahoo and type in the search "Wholesale Drop Shipper" or "Manufacturer".

Do not enter a drop shipping arrangement with a drop shipper who charges you a monthly fee. You are selling their products for THEM. They should not be charging you to do so. If they are, there is a

serious problem with their business model, product, or both.

Do not buy a "turn-key" solution from a online source. These companies usually charge a one-time or monthly fee, and claim to provide you with a website, products, and a merchant account. This is basically a scam to get you to pay to advertise and sell their products. You will not make a good profit margin with this type of business and could even lose money in the process.

Other problems can also occur even when you are working with a reputable drop shipper. They are common occurrences and easily solved if you prepare in advance for them.

Shipping delays - Sometimes a drop shipper can be sold out or be backordered on the products that your customers are purchasing. This can cause shipping delays that could lead to unhappy customers. To solve this problem, make sure that your drop shipper responds via email to all orders with the status and shipping information. Once you have received the notification of backorder and shipping delay, you can easily inform your customer.

Lost Shipment - What happens when your customer contacts you to ask where their product is? You have not shipped the product, so can you give them an informed answer?

Yes. To handle this issue, simply require your drop shipper to include shipment tracking information, including carrier such as FedEx, UPS, etc, in the confirmation email that is sent to you at shipping time. With the tracking number, you can easily track the package online and give the customer the exact shipment details. Problem solved.

Shipping Costs - If you have a variety of products on your website from multiple different manufacturers/distributors, your customers could end up with multiple shipping charges on one order. If the customer has to pay half again as much as their order, they won't order through you! To counter this problem, try to keep all of your products through one manufacturer or distributor. This way, there will only be one shipping charge per order, and you can keep costs down for your customers.

Loss   of Arrangement -  What  if your drop  shipper      

decides   they   no    longer   wish   to   maintain   a   business

relationship with  your company?  This can be a little 

harder to solve. It usually is caused by the drop shipper

deciding  that  it is  not  cost  effective to handle all the

packaging and shipping for you. If this happens, first contact

the company to see if there is a large distributor with which     to take the

you could establish a drop shipping arrangement. In this case, you 

would simply need to change the company

you are doing business with. If you can no longer carry the       homework

products, don't despair.  Simply go out and find another

manufacturer or product and start over. It was easy enough

the first time, wasn't it?

In closing the discussion on drop shipping arrangements, remember this - if this is the route you want to go, make sure to take the time to do your homework. Research the market, product, and companies. Find out what is out there in

the way of competition, pricing, etc. If you can find a great product in a narrow market, you have what it takes to make a lot of money using drop shipping, and you can spend your money marketing your business online rather than maintaining a space-consuming inventory.

Section  1.5 Types of Websites

The last thing I want to discuss in this section, is websites. There are three main types of websites available to you for using in an online business. The first is a billboard website or more commonly called a FREE website. These can be found with any major web provider. Basically, you just use their software to build your own insecure site on their server space. I don't suggest using one of these unless it is only used as a way to market and advertise business, driving potential customers to your main site. (Hence the name "billboard" site.)

The second type of website on the Internet, and one of the most popular, is called an e-commerce sales website. This is the type of website you see all the time when you visit a company's online site. This website is designed to offer the company's product or service online, tell the customers about it, and make it easy for them to purchase that product or service directly from the site as opposed to having to call in or order from a magazine or other source. An excellent example of this is the popular company called Omaha Steaks. Omaha Steaks has been around for a long time, and yet, they only sold their steaks through a mail order business. At the beginning of 1999, they set up their own e-commerce website and instantly, that same year, doubled their sales. Why? Because they opened their business up to a huge potential customer base on the Internet - millions of steak lovers across the world.

You can do this as well. You can put up a site to give your customers the option to buy from you, or you can offer free information that will draw them to another site where they can then find out about your core products or services. This is the most straight forward type of website, and one that most people are familiar with.

The third type of site you can utilize online is a portal web site. This type of site is an online "community" of sorts. Think about Yahoo and Alta Vista. These sites are designed to draw people to the site and keep them there for all their online needs such as weather, stocks, maps, traffic, shopping, etc. A portal offers information to its "citizens". A broad "horizontal" portal offers a large range of topics and information catering to "everyone". A narrow "vertical" portal caters to a narrow segment of the market, with specialized information that would be of interest to a smaller range of the population.

As you read on about portal sites, remember that this is not a quick cash generating business. It can take a lot of investment in time and money to get one up and running. However, the potential payoff down the road can be huge. So if a portal site is of interest to you, keep reading. If you are more interested in putting up your sales website and getting cash flowing in the door, move on the next section where I will discuss creating your successful online presence.

WHERE DOES THE MONEY COME FROM IN A PORTAL SITE?

A portal website can be a money maker for you, even if you don't necessarily have a product to sell. The reason for this is that once you have sufficient traffic visiting your site, advertisers to your narrow market segment will pay you to advertise at your portal.

A portal site can also help you become recognized as an industry expert, increasing sales to an already

established business venture. For example, suppose you are an online business selling scrap-booking supplies. You have a reasonable amount of traffic to your site, but let's face it; there are a lot of scrapbook suppliers out there.

You decide that you would like to create a scrap booking portal site. You can become THE online resource for all the crafters out there that are into scrap booking. You can create forums to

allow people to share their ideas and even images of their finished pages. You can add links to other websites and suppliers, you can include daily, weekly or monthly articles and ideas. You can allow your "citizens" to provide the information for articles and tips.

Think about it. Once you have established your portal site as an industry standard, people will be willing to visit YOUR online store to purchase their products since you are so helpful and knowledgeable about the industry.

And here's the best part, once you have a lot of traffic to your site, advertisers will pay you to advertise to those crafters that are visiting your site every day! By constantly adding information and ideas, you will encourage repeat visitors and establish an "online community" where people who scrapbook can visit often.

So we've talked about how a portal can drive potential customers to your core sales site to increase product sales. What if you don't have a product?

Use your portal site to refer your visitors to the products or services of others. And get a referral fee for doing it! You don't have to take credit cards, ship products, or maintain inventory - simply tell the customers who see you as an expert what is the best "widget" to buy and send them to that site. Then collect the referral fee from the company you just referred them to.

sections you have, the more money you are collecting in advertising revenues each month!

So how do you go about developing a portal site? You have the knowledge and want to move forward to establishing yourself as an industry expert, so what now?

The first thing I would recommend is move NOW. Don't wait. There are people out there that know as much as you do about your industry. You want to move in quickly and establish yourself before someone else does.

Another important element is that to be an industry expert, you can't just rely on the stuff you already

know. Do research! Read and increase your knowledge.

Communicate with people in your industry. Continue to learn as you

enrich your site for others.

Along the same lines of your continuing education about your industry, make sure that your site grows along with your knowledge. Keep your visitors coming back by maintaining a well-designed site with compelling and informative content. This is very important. Your main purpose on the Internet is running your business. So make sure to automate it, and make it as "hands off as possible. This creates and maintains a strong residual income for you.

You can do this in some very easy ways, but you must put the time in now to make this so. Keep your site looking "fresh". Change it often, daily if possible, to keep them returning to learn more. Stay focused and keep your target market in mind when you publish content. Communicate with your visitors through email campaigns or online surveys to find out what they would like to see added or changed, then do it and make sure to let them know it has been done. If you don't tell them that you made the changes they wanted, they wont come back and take a look. Customers need a little friendly reminder on occasion.

Diversify your income on the portal site by developing products or services that will appeal to the huge base of potential customers that are visiting your site all the time. By doing so, you will have a "built-in" client base for your product or service, AND you will already be seen by them as the industry expert.

So, whether you are building a billboard site, an e-commerce sales site, or a portal catering to a niche in

the market, you still have to do one thing. Build the site! You've heard that cliche statement from the

movie "Field of

Dreams" - "If you build it, they will come." Get started with something! Remember your business plan can

change monthly if needed, but taking action is what will start the flow of success. Now move on to the next

section, where I will discuss the basics of creating that successful online presence through your

website.  

7 Strategies to Maximize Your Google Adwords Campaigns

Strategy #1 - Identify a large number of low-cost but highly tageted keywords/keyword phrases

It is important to understand that Google AdWords is a pay-per-click system and you only pay when a prospect clicks on your AdWords ad - regardless of the number of impressions. And you can use this knowledge to your advantage by developing a huge keyword list for each campaign.

Here are some tools you can use to generate keywords and key phrases:

Google AdWords Keyword Suggestions tool: http://adwords.gooqle.com/select/KeywordSandbox

Good Keywords: http://GoodKeywords.com

Misspelled Keywords: http://SearchSpell.com

Strategy #2 - Develop various ad headlines and descriptions

Actually, Google AdWords does this for you automatically i.e. it displays the ad that receives a higher click-through more frequently. Here's a quick and dirty way to develop a killer ad headline and description - Model other Google AdWords ads! Notice I said 'model' and NOT 'copy'. All you need to do is type in relevant keywords in the Google search box and review the AdWords ads that show up. Ask yourself which AdWords ad attracts your attention and note down how the headline and description are written. Here's a Copywriting 101 Tip - Your headline and description should mention the BIGGEST benefit of your product or service.

Strategy #3 - Use the 'Keyword Matching' option to better target your ads

Unlike conventional pay-per-click models, AdWords ads are ranked based the following formula: Cost-Per-Click (CPC) X Click-Through Rate (CTR) Keyword matching helps you achieve a higher Click-Through-Rate (CTR) for your ads and therefore, a higher ad ranking - without increasing the Cost-Per-Click (CPC) of your campaign.

Strategy #4 - Limit the ad impressions to certain countries and/or regions

For example, if most of your customers are from the USA, you may wish to focus your advertising revenue on the US market and target your ads to only US customers. This strategy will also help you to achieve a higher Click-Through-Rate (CTR) for your ads.

Strategy #5 - Add a subscriber sign-up box on ALL the websites you're promoting

This will allow you to build your subscriber list at the same time! Place your subscriber sign-up box at the top left or right side of your webpage to increase subscriber sign-up rate.

Strategy #6 - Add a DHTML (Dynamic Hyper Text Markup Language) pop-up on your websites

Here's a 5-STAR SECRET Google doesn't want you to know: You CAN use pop-ups on your landing page (i.e. the page a prospect sees when he/she clicks on your AdWords ad) as long as the pop-up does not result in the OPENING OF A NEW WINDOW! A DHTML pop-up is technically not a pop-up - it is really a 'floating menu', made to look and act like a pop-up! Installing a DHTML pop-up on your websites WILL dramatically increase your sales and subscriber sign-ups!

Strategy #7 - Monitor and manage your campaigns

You'll be able to access valuable information and find out which keywords have the highest impressions, which keywords generate the highest click-throughs etc. once your campaign is live. And you should use this information to tweak your headline, description and cost-per-click accordingly - to maximize your campaign effectiveness.

Use the various strategies described above and monitor the effectiveness of each of them. It will help you maximize your Google AdWords campaigns and reduce your campaign costs.

 Automating Your Site

In this next section, I want to discuss creating a fully automated website. If you begin by doing this right from the start, it will save you a lot of time in the future. I realize this goes contrary to what I have been teaching you as far as allowing your business to make money first, then letting it pay for itself. However, it is very important with your website to start off on the right foot.

The answer is very simple. Too many online businesses fail because their owners try to do everything themselves in order to save money. Within a few months, the owner is spending all of his or her time processing orders, shipping, tracking, etc instead of growing their business. There has to be a happy medium, and you must establish this balance in the beginning days of your business. If you don't automate now, and you get even a little behind and orders begin to become backlogged, when are you going to have time to automate your business then? It can become a downward spiral much faster than you would expect, and it can be very difficult to take the time, later on, to automate.

So think about it. Do you want to spend your day filling orders, handling paperwork, shipping product? You may even still have your "day job." How will you have the time to do all this "after hours?" Remember, this can and will be a part-time business if you create it that way, but the only way to do that is apply correct principles first.

The solution is to automate the whole process and focus your energy on increasing sales and/or developing a new product or business thus multiplying your avenues of income.

So how do you begin? There are 4 key issues that I want to discuss in this section, and all of them apply to automating your business.

•1  EMAIL AUTOMATION OR AUTO-RESPONDERS

•2  CREDIT CARDS AND MERCHANT SERVICES

•3  ORDER FULFILLMENT

•4  SHOPPING CART FEATURES