Webmaster's Tools And Resources

Guest Post by Paul

I wanted to write an article that covered the high level concepts behind a long term internet marketing plan (1 year+) so that you can see into the future and understand the income potential that can be earned from consistent and intelligent action.

I am an online marketer that believes in creating sustained, long-term and secure growth just like any offline business. It’s not a get rich quick scheme but it’s an absolute proven model that I always advise my subscribers to pay attention to. There are many top internet marketers (I’m actually at a conference with one as I write this) who follow this exact model – so this article can be worth gold if you follow it to the letter.

Here’s where you start:

First of all, let’s take a long term view of this. Many businesses evolve over time, each step is taken one at a time. So you need to think of an area in which there is ample room for growth. Here is your growth path:-

1) Affiliate marketing
2) Product creation
3) Membership sites or recurring monthly incomes

For those of you who are new to the industry I’ll translate. Firstly, you sell other people’s products. Then when you’re ready and consider yourself an expert in your niche then you create a product. Finally, and the most powerful of all, you need to set up a membership site and start trying to create a recurring income out of your subscribers.

This strategy is hugely powerful and it’s a long term approach – something that is going to bring an income that has longevity.

Choose Your Niche

With the three steps that I have just mentioned in your mind you are now in prime position to choose your niche. Remember, in the long term you want to create a recurring income through a membership site – this means you need to choose a niche that you can see yourself being a voice of authority in. Take my advice and choose something you’re interested in.

Build Your List

Building your list sounds really hard but actually it’s pretty easy. You need to create what’s called a squeeze page – a squeeze page is a simple page that is designed to capture the names and email addresses of those people who visit your site.

This is a must. Build your subscriber list.

Not sure how to? Don’t worry – it’s easy. Like I said at the start of this article – I am talking concepts, not technicalities because technicalities are always easy to overcome, so we’ll go into how later.

Build A Relationship With Your Subscribers

People who know and trust you will be more inclined to buy from your web sites. FACT. You need to provide your subscribers with relevant and useful information that provides real value. This means no sales pitches for the first few weeks at least. You’re an expert in the field (even if you’re not, you should have done your research so that you’re more educated than the average person) and so you should be able to provide your subscribers with real value.

Only Then Do You Monetise Your List…

Once you’ve built a relationship with your list you can pitch your first product. The product must be excellent and it must genuinely help your subscribers by solving a problem.

Not sure what products are good and what are bad? Email the product vendor and ask for a review copy – he’ll usually be more than happy to send you the review copy as long as you can demonstrate your expertise in internet marketing (they’d be mad not to – you’ll be driving sales for them!).

At This Point You Start Looking At Product Creation

Once you really feel like you can add some value of your own to the niche that you’re in, you can start looking at creating products of your own. The powerful thing about product creation is that you can attract an army of affiliates to do the sales for you – this creates a snowball effect and is where you can start to make some really good money without doing a whole lot of work.

Finally, recurring income time…

Your final step – and by this stage you should already be earning a good amount online – you need to create a recurring income. This is where you start looking into building your own membership site.

It’s a heck of a lot of work, and so you may want to outsource some of your work, but once you can populate a membership site to a level that provides real value to your subscribers then you can start using your list to promote it.

If you can get 20 membership site sales per month every month then your recurring income can grow at $400 / month (assuming your membership site costs $20/month to join).

Furthermore, you’d then build an army of affiliates to drive traffic to your membership site and take home 50% of the income of those sales too.

This Is The Only Strategy You Need To Follow

Save your money – you don’t need to buy any more information products about online marketing because this is the high level strategy that you need to follow to create a long-term, profitable and secure online business.

Resource Box:
If you’re serious about creating an online business and want to learn the specifics that I’ve outlined in this article then don’t miss what I have here: http://www.amshortcuts.com/cfs. You’ll also be able to contact me if you have any questions about this article.

Guest Post by Shane

Whether you sell expensive items on eBay or low cost merchandise, how you market the item is what ultimately determines the success or failure your listings may have.

This does not mean you should start placing ads all over the internet; you want to keep your marketing at the eBay website. The truth of the matter is that whenever you list an item on eBay, that auction actually becomes your automated marketing campaign.

Determining the value of your item should be your top priority and this is done in three different ways. Following this step will help you in deciding what your reserve price is going to be. (This being the lowest amount you’re willing to accept for your item on eBay) You first have to find out what the real market value is for that expensive item you have. You do this by researching similar items that have already ended and seeing what those items sold for. Lastly, you need to figure out what the real value of the item is to you. Once you have all this information it should be easy to determine and establish what the lowest amount that you would be willing to sell the item for is.

Now you will set your reserve price while setting your opening bid as well. The opening bid should be no greater than $50 no matter how high you set your reserve. In essence you are using a great marketing tactic where you will offer an item worth thousands of dollars at a low starting bid of $50 or less. This will guaranteed that you attract and bring in many potential buyers looking to steal a deal. The catch is that since you have your reserve price in place, you won’t have to sell your item unless the final bid matches or surpasses that amount. All the while, you are using a marketing gimmick designed to simply get customers to ’set their foot in the door’.

Providing as many details as possible when describing your item is also very important. Choose your words carefully when describing your listing. If you provide as many details as possible – including information that proves the authenticity of your item – will sure to go a long way in attracting potential customers.

However, be sure to include any scratches or marks the item may have. The pictures you take should convey this fact to the buyer. Let the buyers know how much it will be for shipping and insurance, which must be purchased in case the item gets lost or damaged once you ship it.

Most eBay sellers feel better using an escrow service for higher priced items. You can offer this option to the seller explaining to him or her that one, the buyer must pay for the service and two, this helps protect the both of you from scams or fraud. There is an escrow serviced which eBay has partnered with especially used for high priced ticket items.

Author Bio:
Finding ways to increase income is more essential today than ever before. One definite way to boost your finances is to use Ebay. We’ve got the ultimate inside scoop on how to make money on ebay now on http://www.dropshippingplanet.com.

Guest Post by Joe Land

Beginners at anything almost always have trouble when they start because they have no idea what they are doing and they are inexperienced in what is going on. The same basic concept holds true to beginners who want to start making money online. They are very susceptible to online scams and programs that will lead them nowhere in terms of making money online. In this post I will not necessarily give you names of specific programs, I will give you some valuable tips that will help you make your own decision and help you get off on the right foot so you can make money.

Start Simple And Build Up

One of the most important things you can do as a beginner is to start simple. The phrase keep it simple stupid is perfect for the making money online business because simpler means that you are less likely to get scammed. Now keeping it simple forever is not the best idea either. You should start out fairly easy and work your way up to more complicated ideas that will earn you more money. This way you can learn as you go and not have to worry as much about getting scammed.

Avoiding Nasty Scams

There are millions of online scams out on the world wide web that are waiting to take your hard earned money. A general tip for beginners is to start out with programs that are free and that you have nothing to lose with. These include paid survey sites and article writing sites. There are numerous sites out there in these categories that are free and that will provide beginners with a legit way to begin making money online. The key in the beginning is to stay away from the sites that charge you a fee in order to join in their site. While these sites are always tempting, even for me, they are almost always scams and were designed for one thing. Taking your money! Avoid these sites at all costs.

Researching Is Key

When it comes to making money online, one of the most important things you can do is research. Lets say you have come across a nice site that looks like a good opportunity for you to make money online with. The first thing you should do is google the site and see what experiences others have had with it. If a site is a scam then other people will have written about it on Google or other places. Remember to do your homework about a site.

These three tips if followed will help any beginner make money online. Remember that making money online takes time and effort and a person will not become rich. Most people are just looking for an extra income that they can use in one way or another. The most important tip to when it comes to making money online… Don’t get to greedy.

Author Bio:
Joe Land has a blog about making money online for beginners. He also makes money with survey sites such as CashCrate.

Guest Post by Michael-John Wolfe

The internet is full of websites that claim to help you make money online or earn residual income. The problem is, 95% of these websites are simply scams or MLM schemes that want to take your money. I have spent the last two years scouring the web in search of legitimate ways to make money online. Only a select few websites actually back up their claims and really do provide results and I have listed these websites on my blog – Residuals and Royalties.

There are three ways that I prove to my readers that I am actually earning a profit from these websites and I will list each one for you. These three forms of “proof” help my readers have a little faith that if they put some effort into these websites, they WILL get paid. The three ways that I prove my earnings are: screen shots, check proof videos and auto-calculating banners.

Proof of Earnings Screen Shots: Every time I get a payout from a website, I usually like to take a screen shot of my earnings to post on my blog for the world to see. The only downside to screenshots is the fact that they can easily be photoshopped or changed, which causes some people to be skeptical of my earnings. I can tell you that I don’t have the time or interest in trying to photoshop my screenshots.

Check Proof Videos: To further prove my earnings to others, I like to take videos of the checks that I receive in the mail from various sources. Not all of the websites that I work with provide actual paper checks, but when they do – I always record a video of the check. If you do the same, be sure and cover the personal information like you address, the check number and anything else you don’t want visible to the public. There are two primary checks that I have been video taping every month – my CashCrate check and my Google Adsense check.

Auto-Calculating Banners: I have a CashCrate banner atop my Residuals and Royalties blog that automatically updates when my earnings change. This banner shows the exact number of referrals I have made and how much money I have earned for the month as well as my total earnings overall. This banner is an excellent way to prove my earnings, since I have no way of altering the figures.

If you have another way that you use to prove the legitimacy of your online earnings, please let us know by commenting below.

Resource Box:
You can see all three forms of earnings proof on one webpage by clicking here: Make Money Online.