New In The Business

Originally posted on July 30, 2007

Hello All! As the title suggests, I’m currently on vacation time from my job as of this post. I’ve taken off this time not for fun, but rather to provide a brief full-time kick-start to my online income stream generation aspirations. In preparation for this week, I sat back my last week of work and thought of the key objectives that would benefit most from a large chunk of time devotion. Once I defined the items that should be on this list, I created a formal to-do list complete with a brief note of the objective, brief notes of keys I wanted to address when working on the objective, and some prospective how-to techniques I would use to tackle the task. At the end of each objective/task, I defined a “hard” time window that defined how long I would spend on the specific task.

Here is an example:

Affiliate Marketing:

• Herb, this is your primary goal of the week!! Need to research a few key IM focused websites about affiliate marketing to learn some tricks to market, draw traffic/enhance SEO, and convert visitors into sales. 2-3 hours
• Get domains if necessary, up to and including tinyurl.com masking. Find ways to draw traffic, convert and DO THEM!!! ½ hour.

This list is much longer, but I think this gives you a good idea. One of the major lessons from the book 4 hour work week requires that deadlines be set to force not only task completion, but also force action based on prior research and minimize paralysis by analysis (which I’ve been guilty of in the past).

Once I had the list created, there was only one more step to take…….GO DOWN THE LIST AND COMPLETE THE TASKS!!!

As previously stated, my income generation focus is on internet marketing, beginning with affiliate marketing. As you can see in the “to do list” example provided, I’ve got some work to do in order to get things going. Although the objective may seem short, I have already made a manual list of sites, and other resources I’ll need to cover in that time frame to get myself up to speed on some of the best techniques out on the web currently. Based on what I find on those resources, I’ll define the best options I can put to use immediately, and as stated in the sample objective….TAKE ACTION!

Prior to this week, I’ve already established affiliate marketing accounts with several companies and individuals, such as the examples provided in the last post. For those of you trying this at home, and also learning this process, I suggest learning to market 2 or more affiliates to test different techniques at the same time. This should let you know relatively quickly what tools, tips, information, techniques etc. are working and which you need to dump.

Since Affiliates already provide the reputable product/service/information, I’m sure the 2 hardest parts of the process will be defining how to best draw consistent traffic to your affiliate sites both from search engines and regular marketing, along with how to convert visitors into buyers once you get them to your affiliate site. I’ll be keeping notes on what I’ve tried and their success levels both manually and with website tools where possbile. Two of the best tools to track website traffic sources are Google Analytics and statcounter.

As I stated in my first ever post, one of the reasons I created this blog was as a motivator for me to ensure I’m accountable, and follow through on the plans I lay out. Plus, you the reader provide feedback, questions as additional motivation and
probably provide some much needed insight or a different spin/approach.

Success or not, the next post or three will include updates or reports on what I’ve found, what worked/didn’t work, the website resources I found to be the most useful, things I learned along the way, “gotchas” to look out for, and most importantly, whether or not my efforts bore any financial fruit. For those following along, feel free to share any thoughts, questions or insight as you see fit. You’re feedback is always greatly appreciated! Until next time, please wish me luck and be sure to check back for future updates! Thanks!

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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

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