Welcome to Internet Marketing

Posted on August 26th, 2007 in Affiliate Marketing, Business Mindset, Internet Marketing, Personal Preparation by Herb

Originally posted on July 22, 2007

Hello again! Let me begin by first apologizing for the long delay between posts. My job has been a bit intense lately, which is a problem and I’ve been in the process of laying plans for the website I mentioned in the last post on July 4th. With that said, I’ve been staying in the loop and continuing to educate myself when possible to identify the specific directions I want to go with my entrepreneurial goals.

As mentioned in my last post, I’m focusing my entrepreneurial efforts on the internet marketing realm. Out of all the avenues that are out there in the business world, I’ve decided to go with Internet Marketing for several reasons. The reasons are as follows: cost, time involvement, and freedom of location. In looking at cost, the cost of doing business using an internet business model vs. a “brick & mortar” business model is almost always staggeringly in favor of the internet business model due to the lack of overhead, human involvement, time involvement, and outside interruption. Now, depending on what one decides to sell on the internet and the “backend” needs (think www.amazon.com) of that business, the costs associated will vary, but will typically not reach that of a brick & mortar organization. Since I like to keep things simple and affordable, I’ve decided to focus on the sale of information & digital products since the backend infrastructure requirements are minimal, and the human involvement of others is minimal to non-existent.

In looking at the time element, an internet business allows an individual (especially working stiffs) to work on their business WHEN they have the time and minimizes the need of aspiring entrepreneurs to quit their job in order to attempt to build a successful business. In addition to cost, I was drawn to the idea of creating an online income instead of taking on a second job to make ends meet or have some extra cash.

Thirdly, an internet business allows an aspiring entrepreneur the freedom to work on their business from a location of your choice. I personally like this option because it allows me to work from my favorite location….HOME! Sure you see the infomercials with people on an island or on a ship or by an ocean on the laptop, but home is an excellent place for one to work, especially when you still have a job. Just like I mentioned in the initial posts about mindset, I could type all day about these internet business “pluses”, but I’ll stop here and begin to get into some “meat”.

In looking at some places to start to make some money online, I’ve discovered three internet marketing focuses to start with based on cost and time. They are called, Affiliate Marketing, Private Label Rights sales, and Public Domain Sales. Out of the three, I strongly suggest any new internet entrepreneur to “cut their teeth” learning the affiliate marketing trade. WHY? Because without question affiliate marketing allows any newbie to make money with no customers in find, no product of their own, and the lowest possible cost to get started.

What is Affiliate Marketing? Affiliate Marketing is a method of revenue sharing method between an existing, profitable business and individuals or third parties also known as…YOU! (for a deeper definition with pictures click HERE) Short version, here’s how you make money with as an affiliate marketer. First you find a company with products you have an interest in, use, or just see an opportunity (this includes adult oriented companies!) with an if they offer an affiliate program (find out on their site) sign up and follow their directions. Companies that offer affiliate programs all have different terms, products, ways affiliates are to operate, & commission/payment plans. Selling as an affiliate you get two huge advantages over jumping into business on your own immediately, you get to learn how to sell products (that aren’t your own) with little to no risk, and the products already have a good reputation in most cases.

From a total cost perspective, you’ll typically have to spend an absolute minimum of $10-20 for a website domain name (e.g. www.newinthebusiness.com) and $5-50 per month for website hosting (the “place” where your website data is stored). Total minimum cost to get started is roughly about $15-70. Not bad huh? If you look around the web hard enough you still may be able to find free website hosts, but I’ve learned this is STRONGLY recommended against. The catch with most free hosts is that you typically have to agree to allow the free host putting up advertisements of their choice on your site. With paid hosting, YOU control everything that is on the website. Now, there are several ways to go about actually marketing the products or services of your chosen affiliate, but be sure to check the affiliate’s site for getting started and marketing tips they may have available to you. Here is an example from Robert Kiyosaki’s affiliate program and getting started section.

When selecting an affiliate, I suggest looking around a bit for an ideal company and associated products you would be interested in. Also, check each affiliates terms/rules, commissions, and payout terms. I’ve found affiliate commissions to be payouts between 10% and 70% of the product sale price (this is the amount you make off of each sale). For beginners, including me, I suggest going with the large well known companies to start and learn. The commissions usually aren’t all that great (between 10%-15%) but they typically offer more training tips and resources to get started toward success, plus their products are already well-known & trusted by prospective consumers.

Here are a few well known companies that offer affiliate programs worth getting some initial training on:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Rich Dad (Robert Kiyosaki)

eBay

iTunes

ClickBank

GoDaddy

Bowflex

Popularity: 21% [?]

Share This

Updates & What To Expect

Posted on August 26th, 2007 in Affiliate Marketing, Internet Marketing, Personal Preparation by Herb

Orginally posted on July 4, 2007

Let me begin by wishing everyone a happy Independence Day!!!

As you’ve probably noticed, the first few posts were a lot about mindset and personal maintence, but not a lot about business. Well, I’m finally going to be posting more information on my business track in the near future. My intention is to cover what opportunities I’ve gotten into, what I’ve learned and am learning along the way, what mistakes I make, and what success I achieve. I’m hoping that my experiences will be helpful to those who frequent this blog.

The focus of the blog in the future will be on the wonderful how-to realm of information marketing, and the associated opportunities I run across during my process. I’ll be posting links to various sites, blogs, forums, etc as they pertain to my objectives.

Also, after putting up these first few posts, I’ve realized that I could use a more effective venue to get out my message and information. So, with the help of another aspiring entrepreneur, I’m beginning the process of creating a website for working entrepreneurs to be, that will likely include a forum/message board for better 2-way communication, and regular podcasts focused on specific business objectives and how-to’s. Stay tuned over the course of the next few posts as I will be publishing information about this project and others to follow.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Share This

Where To Really Begin Part 2

Posted on August 26th, 2007 in Business Mindset, Personal Preparation by Herb

Originally Posted On July 3, 2007

In my last post, I mentioned the new book 4 hour work week by Tim Ferriss. I’ll mention again, that I strongly recommend that you DO NOT attempt to read this book until you have read The E-Myth Revisited. In addition to the challenging personal & business recommendations Tim suggests, several key items & concepts from the E-Myth are directly tied to Tim’s content.

I strongly recommend any new or aspiring entrepreneurs to be read this book as close to the beginning of their ventures as possible. This is because this book covers old material in radical, yet relatively easy ways and gets to the heart of most entrepreneurial and even working employee issues…YOU.

First, Tim does an excellent job of not only identifying common people issues directly related to not getting tasks and goals accomplished. He puts these issues right in your face and forces one to address them internally and honestly choose a method of correcting course. For example, in each chapter, the reader is supposed to complete a “comfort challenge” which is exactly what it sounds like. You are given a specific time line, usually no longer than 2 days to do attempt something you probably are not used to doing, and likely would not do given an alternative. One such challenge from the book is to attempt to contact a famous person by phone that is typically difficult to get in contact with and get some advice from them based on your business needs. Once you have contacted that person, you need to be prepared to speak with that person with confidence to get the most out of an otherwise brief conversation. Another comfort challenge Tim requires is for any reader including females to attempt to get the phone number of several attractive members of the opposite sex. The goal is not to get the number perhaps, but instead to get used to uncomfortable situations, improving thinking on your feet, and eliminating fear in general.

Fear is a key item Tim tackles and in a very direct way his bluntness makes the reader really address their fears whether it be about quitting their job, going into business for the first time, asking your boss to work from home, etc. I personally found this part of the book to be key since it really let me know where my fears were and what I needed to do to address them. My favorite quote from the book is “Whatever you are afraid of is most likely what you need to do”. He even requires the reader to detail the worst case scenario that could happen once you quit your job today to start a business, and how you could get back to work in your field at your current level. All of his exercises are real eye openers if embraced and can really teach one about themselves and perceived fears vs. reality.

One of the other really huge keys this book identifies is the fact that there is way too much information available about most subjects and most of us try to consume it all, digest it all, and apply it all at the same time. Tim explains why less is way more and that any information that is obtained is ONLY useful if it is directly applied to some immediate action. This is definitely true of aspiring entrepreneurs like myself that is trying to learn about making decent money online but has little information on how. If you do not read any other part of this book at least check this out. Tim addresses all information consumption issues and directly ties them to human misuse such as incessant email checking, organization and handling, forms of mass media (blogs, casual internet surfing, tv news, non-fiction audiobooks, non-fiction books, newspapers, news web sites, general television.), and human interruption from phones, people in your cube/desk. All are integral parts of our lives but he has provided some unique but effective ways to screen all this information and train it all to come to you as you can use it. Also he addresses why the current ways most of us deal with the aforementioned information sources is not only wrong, but horribly unproductive for personal and business interests. One of the most interesting and challenging comfort challenges in the book is the 5 day information fast. That’s right, no tv, radio, books, audio books, blogs, web surfing, etc for 5 days. The exercise is not to drive you crazy but instead to teach you to use your time on items of action, including more interaction with those individuals or hobbies you may have been ignoring a bit. The management of information is a constant theme throughout the book and must be read in it’s entirety for complete understanding. Again as usual, I could write about this book and how it’s helped me, but I’ll just stop and restate the obvious….get this book, then get into your business!!

Popularity: 13% [?]

Share This

« Previous Page — Next Page »