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Internet Based Businesses

Do you have a topic you're interested in that you could write about?

Why not build your own website?

Have you got a product or idea you can sell on the internet?

Use the internet to sell either products or information.

Make money through:

Many people are not technical and will be put off by the idea of building a website. It is not as hard as it sounds. There are a lot of short cuts such as buying a web template, and if you have a good business idea, but no technical skills or desire to learn them, there are plenty of web designers who can help.

Learn the basics of what you need for an internet business:

  • Domain names

  • Web hosting

  • Software


Sales on the web

Do you have a product/products you want to sell? Run a home based shop. The internet provides the medium for selling from your own home.

For example, a friend of a friend, designed pyjamas for kids, and set up a home based business selling these over the internet (and ultimately to high street retailers).

You obviously need to have the idea, and the means to develop it, as well as enough understanding of the retail world to make this a success.

Multi Level Marketing (MLM)

If you are not up for going it alone, there are thousands of multi level marketing (MLM) businesses out there that can be run over the internet.

Please be aware of scams, and don't mistake a Pyramid scheme for an MLM business.

Pyramid schemes are illegal. They cost people a lot of money. You pay to join a scheme and the only way to recoup your money is to recruit other people to join. In contrast, a legitimate MLM has an actual product it is selling and participants make money two ways:

  • The sale of product to a Customer (Retail Sales)
  • The recruitment of new Distributors to expand the Distributor Network for the products (Sponsoring)

(Watch out for Pyramid schemes that include a product that is hard to sell, as a cover for the underlying scam.)

One example of an MLM product I have come across recently is Xango. Our babysitter persuaded me to buy some Xango juice - it is a fruit juice that contains the juice of the Mangosteen fruit which has been shown to have long term health benefits in a wide range of areas. I bought a bottle to try and later agreed to one a fortnight.

The babysitter's partner is a rep for Xango juice. For every bottle he sells, he gets a commission, and I believe he would also be compensated if he persuaded someone else to start selling as well.

As far as products go, if you believe the health benefits (and my babysitter is quite passionate about them) then this is not bad. It is a repeat product. Unlike something like jewelry which we only buy occasionally, once signed up, customers could continue buying Xango juice for years.

So how do you find the right MLM business for you?

As with Party Plan sales, I believe that you are only going to be successful in internet sales, if you are passionate about the product. I'm therefore very wary of any advert that suggests I can make lots of money, but doesn't tell me what I'll be selling.

Please also be wary of schemes that have big up front costs.

You need to be able to see the business in action and try the product. If you are convinced it is a brilliant product, you are going to be able to sell it honestly.

If you are concerned about scams, the website below has some useful information:

http://www.scamwatch.gov.au

Selling on eBay

It is possible to make money buying and selling on eBay, if you understand the marketplace and what and when to sell.

You can also set up as an online trader with eBay and run your own store through their website.

There have been several books written to teach you how to make a profit using eBay. If you're serious about it, they are worth a read.

It is easy not to make money, for example, if you time your auction wrong. Most people don't bid on an item until the last half hour of its listing. If you list an item to end midweek at school pickup time, and you are selling children's items, you will miss a lot of your market. Sunday evening appears to be a popular time to end an auction, as most people are thought to be home at that time.

 

Affiliate Marketing

If you have a website that people visit, you can relatively easily make some money. How? Through Affiliate Marketing.

Affiliate marketing is a web-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer that comes to them from the affiliate.

Organisations set up affiliate schemes. You become an affiliate and set up a link or advert for that organisation on your website. When someone clicks on that link and goes through to the affiliate site, you potentially get commission. Some affiliates pay per click. Some pay per actual sale.

Sounds complicated? In most cases it's not, as most of the work is done for you.

For example, Google is an affiliate network. It acts as an intermediary between publishers (affiliates) and (merchant) affiliate programs. It allows publishers to find affiliate programs, which are suitable for their website and it helps websites offering affiliate programs reach their target audience.

As you can see, I have Google ads on my website. I have registered with Google, and downloaded their code to include in my website. It is smart enough to analyse the content of the web page and include relevant ads. For every click on one of these ads, I get a few cents - 20 to 60c, roughly, depending on how much the advertiser is paying Google.

Can this make lots of money? It depends entirely on the traffic to your website and the relevance of the information.

Other affiliates:

There are plenty of Affiliate networks out there, to which organisations can subscribe. e.g. clixgalore.com, commissionmonster.com.au

There are also individual organisations managing there own affiliate scheme. e.g. Amazon.com.

What you need, is a link that is relevant to the content of your web site. For example, I have a section on being a Happy Mum. In here is a link to amazon advertising a book by the same name. If you are interested in what I have to say, you might decide to buy the book and will click on my link to Amazon. Once there, you may buy other books aswell. I get commission for each of these.

Another example is the one below. The Rich Pom sells you information on how to make money through the web, largely using affiliate marketing. I bought his guide to how to earn money on the internet and I genuinely believe his formula works. Why? Because it is logical, it makes sense; because my other half has already been using this approach to earn money from his websites and made $1500 in December. Ok, so we're not rich yet, but there's the potential!

Check out the other half's websites (Sydney100.com, and WordofWeb.com.au) to see affiliate links to Google and Clixgalore.

 

Writing an eBook

The basic formula here is as follows:

- Think of a topic for a book. It might be something you are knowledgeable in, or just interested in. It has to be something other people are interested in.

- Test your market. Write a survey page to publish on the web asking people if they are interested in the topic you have chosen. Advertise it with Google for a specified period. Monitor the number of hits you get and the feedback you receive.

- If it is a winner, go ahead with the book.

- Write the eBook, or get someone else to write it for you.

- Write the marketing page for your ebook.

- Set yourself up with an eBook seller.

- Re-start your Google ad campaign. And hopefully your book begins to sell.

Sounds straightforward??

I have no idea whether it works in practice as yet. The Life Coach I have been seeing has written her own eBook, which is about to be launched. I will be checking in to see how she goes....

She has followed a methodology 'sold' by Andrew and Daryl Grant in Australia. I have read their approach, and it seems sensible, but I have yet to test it. Also, the skeptic in me wonders whether they make more money telling people like me how to make money from eBooks, than from the eBook itself.

When I have more first hand feedback and have checked it out further, I'll let you know.

We are also thinking of writing an eBook to complement my partner's Sydney 100 website, which lists the top 100 + things to do in Sydney. I will let you know how this progresses.

 

Blogging

Apparently it is possible to become a professional Blogger, and be paid to write content for other people's blogs or be paid to write your own blog.

Blog is an abbreviation for 'Web Log'. A blog is a website usually maintained by an individual, with regular comments and entries usually listed in reverse chronological order. A blog might focus on one particular topic, or might be a diary. Usually blogs include text and images, and links to other web pages or media relevant to their topic.

Most blogs have the ability for other people to leave comments in an interactive format.

The most important thing about a blog is that it is updated regularly, so has return visitors continually looking at the website.

So why would you get paid to blog?

There are two main avenues for revenue.

One is to be paid to add comments to other people's blogs. Why? Because they need continual feedback and new information to keep their blog current.

The other is to be paid to write your own blog. There are organisations out there that connect advertisers with bloggers. The 'blogosphere' and online social networks provide a medium for reaching millions of people on line with advertisements. Advertisers compensate bloggers to promote their products, services and websites.

One example, which I still need to check out, is payperpost.com. In order to work with them, your blog needs to meet certain requirements. e.g. it must be at least 90 days old with at least 20 posts. You basically get paid for writing about particular products or sites on your blog.

I need to check this subject out a bit further. I'll be back with more details and examples...

 

 


 
 

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