Friday, December 28, 2007

Tips for a successful internet business

Like with any business you need to do your homework. Do not waste your time on the get rich quick types of Internet businesses. Even if the costs less then $10.00 to get started. If it seems to good or easy then it is. There are a lot of scams out there, do not be one of the people taken by them. Taking surveys from home is not going to bring in the money, just suck up your time. You get paid pennies for reading emails or surfing/clicking web sites. It all takes time and work. However you can make money as an affiliate getting people to sign up to do surveys, read emails, or surfing/clicking for money. Do the research on any type of business before you go ahead.

A business plan works just as well for an online Internet business a for a non-Internet business. You need to know what you want to do, and how to do it. You need to know what Internet business’s are out there.

1) The most common one is a retail site of your own. This can be costly to start, as you have to make it yourself or pay some else to make it for you. Then you will have to pay for your domains name every year and monthly hosting fees. However, you have control over content and revenue streams. You can sell product directly, sell dropship items, get money for being an affiliate with retail stores, or get paid for putting other peoples ads on your site, or have something like Google ads where you get paid each time some one clicks the ads.

2) You can also have a web site that sells a service like hits to websites, or connect advertisers to people with sites to put ads on or people to take their surveys or read their email ads. Or be an affiliate broker, getting sites that are looking for affiliates connected with people who want to be affiliates and you take a % of all sales through all the affiliates. You can sell a “How to run a successful Internet business” package for $7.00 or $9.00 a pop. You get them to register for $7.00 and then they get a letter that explains how to be successful making money on the Internet. You might even send them a monthly newsletter with tips for a successful Internet business so they feel they got their moneys worth.

3) A free web site that is really just an affiliate program where they provide you with your own storefront, but you sell someone else’s products that they dropship.

4) A free web site that is actually free. With most free web sites you are limited on your options of what you can do. The company giving you the website is usually getting advertising revenue from companies like Google ads. You may end up having to pay a hosting fee, and they give you the template for your website to work with. Just remember even free comes with a cost these days.

5) A free selling site like Kijiji, livedeal, or Blujay where you advertise products for free. There are usually some limitations to what or how many ads you can have. Though for a monthly fee on livedeal you can have a storefront that you can sell your items. Blujay does not charge you for your storefront. There are 1000’s of these types of sites out there you just have to find the right one for you. There are often limitations with these sites, such as not being able to do link exchanges.

6) There are the auction sites out there, most well known is eBay. You pay a fee to list your item, more fees for any extra features, and a fee if you sell it. You can have a storefront, for a monthly fee, as well as still having to pay all the other fees. Keep in mind that you have to pay a fee when you use an online payment system like Paypal. This all cuts into your profit, but for the most part people can find you and buy from you. So it is all a cost of business. You do not have to pay as much start up money as you would to have your own retail site, and the auction site does the marketing and advertising for you. If you do start selling on an auctions site just figure out what the real cost is so you don’t end up spending more money selling an item then you receive. i.e. all the $1.00 or less items on eBay. Look at the cost of the item, fee to list, end of auction fee, and Paypal fees. It actually cost you more then you made to sell the item. You can be very successful with this if you do your homework on what to sell and at what price to start your auction at.

7) Blogs. You can make some money from having your own blog. You can put advertisements from places like Google ads, or any of the other advertising companies out there. You get money whenever some one clicks onto one of the ads. You can also have affiliate links on your blog. If some one clicks on the link and then buys something or registers you get some money. If you are interested in being an affiliate, www.medievalmagic.ca has a good affiliate plan with contests for the top affiliates. However, you cannot just sign up and expect money to roll in. You have to use the promotional tools they provide, and promote the link or banner to the site, or the actual product links. You can always find sites that will match you with other affiliate programs as well.

8) Splash pages or sites that are just links to retail sites. This is for when you are an affiliate, you get a % of sales when some one uses your link to go to the store and buy something or registers for something.

9) Sign up to read emails, take surveys or click/surf for money. There are 1000’s of people waiting to sign you up so they can get their $5.00.

10) Write on blog sites that share the earnings from people clicking on the ads, like Google ads. There are a lot out there that claim to do this. You have to figure out what ones actually do. Helium not only gives you part of the revenue from the ads, they help sell your articles to publishers. You can make money several ways on Helium, compete to sell articles on the marketplace, compete to place or win in the many writing contests every week, and in the shared ad revenue.

You need to figure out what of all these options work for you. Then you have to realise no matter what option or path you take you only get out of it what you put into it. You still have to know if there is a market for what you are selling. Then you have to market and promote your website, blog, splash page so people can find it and buy, click or register. If you are doing surveys, read emails, click or surf or write for money, you still have to actually spend the time and do it. If you do not do the work, you don’t make any money. No matter what, time, energy and knowledge are required for any one to succeed on line or off line.

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