Selling to Make Money Online With 5 Easy Methods

October 10th, 2009 | Posted in Home Business   Comments Off
Ian Davis asked:


At a time when people are struggling to make ends meet selling to make money online offers many a possible solution. The problem is that so many people are also trying to make money this way that competition is fierce and when you are competing with thousands, even hundreds of thousands of other sellers profit margins are going to be squeezed.

Therefore to be successful selling to make money you need to make sure you have a great product that people need and want. You will need to market it to as many potential customers as possible and provide genuine value to them in order to encourage repeat custom.

If this all sound familiar that’s because I’m talking about Internet marketing. Selling to make money online can not be separated from Internet marketing. If the world wide web is your shop window then you need to understand how to make your products stand out in that window, and that means learning how to market.

You need to learn how to research markets; keyword optimisation; product sourcing and development; promotional and selling strategies. All of these are part of the Internet marketers toolbox and every successful marketer can work from home selling to make money. So if you are serious about selling to make money you also need to be serious about learning some effective Internet marketing strategies. Get it right and the rewards can be considerable. Giving up the day job could be a real possibility.

Assuming you have an understanding of marketing what are the best 5 ways of selling to make money on the Internet:

1. Selling digital products through your own website.

2. Selling on auction sites like eBay.

3. Selling affiliate products.

4. Selling through an online store.

5. Selling your own products through other peoples websites.

Before we continue it should be pointed out that this is not intended to be an exhaustive list and that, whilst you can use these ways of selling to make money on there own, it is probably worth considering using most, if not all of these techniques if you want to be successful.

1. Selling your own products through your own website: - If you know how to train a dog, wire a house, restore silver or host the perfect dinner party you’ve got a great chance of developing a top selling product. In fact whatever knowledge you posses that others would want to know can enable you to start selling to make money online. All you need to do is write down your ideas, explain your methods and develop your processes so that you can create an ebook about what you know. Similarly if you can create software products or applications, or have inside knowledge about something you can create a great digital product (providing that you don’t infringe any copyright or libel laws in doing so.)

If you want to start selling to make money then digital products sold from a content rich website can really get the ball rolling. You don’t even need to be a skilled writer or software developer. Providing your idea is a marketable one there are plenty of ghostwriters and software developers out there who will be willing to deal with you to make a top quality product.

The big advantage of selling digital product is that once you’ve funded product development (and this need not be too expensive) your reproduction and delivery costs are practically zero so your profit margin will be good (providing you’ve got customers.)

2. Selling On Auction Sites: - Ask most people what they would think of selling to make money online and they will probably think of an auction site, particularly eBay. Selling on auction sites has an immediate advantage as you are more or less guaranteed access to a high volume of customers. However, so large and diverse are sites like eBay that you will still need to have a well planned marketing strategy to succeed. Furthermore the listing fees and postage are extra costs that you need to factor in when your calculating your profit margins. However there are many people who are so successful at selling to make money through auction sites that they have completely abandoned all other methods.

Apart from effective marketing the most important aspect selling to make money on the auction sites is to either produce your resalable goods or source them for the lowest possible cost (whilst maintaining quality.) For example if you sell hand painted figurines look at continually shop around for better deals on raw materials or consider outsourcing some of you tasks in order to reduce costs.

Similarly if you have a specific product line, such as DVD players or motorcycle accessories, then seek out the best wholesalers or dropshippers. Be wary though as there are many services that purport to offer directory lists of quality wholesalers and dropshippers for a fee. Many of these are simply information freely available to all with a little research and the worst are lists of dead links and bankrupt suppliers.

Nonetheless there are some wholesale lists that can prove very useful if you are interested in selling to make money online. The best solution is to read the reviews and select a reputable directory provider.

3. Selling affiliate products: - Selling to make money with your own product can be advantageous and is a valuable part of most successful online entrepreneurs businesses. However selling other peoples product can be just as lucrative and can have advantages over selling your own. For example you don’t have to concern yourself with product development, storage and distribution as this is the responsibility of the vendor.

Many products available over the Internet, whether they are digital or physical, offer so called ‘affiliate programs’. If you sign up to an affiliate program, and are accepted, you can advertise that product on your website, blog or landing page and will receive an agreed commission if someone buys that product via your link (in fact some even pay out for a simple ‘lead’ rather than a sale). Selling to make money this way is relatively simple to set up and the better affiliate programs will provide you with plenty of support and advice.

You can find affiliate programs in a number of different ways including research via the search engines and directories but one of the best ways is to search the affiliate networks such as ‘Commission Junction’ or ‘Linkshare’.

Again, you need to use your common sense and should carefully select the affiliate products you wish to promote. It is certainly better to start with the affiliate networks if you are new to affiliate marketing as they check the products they list for quality and legitimacy. Even though you need to keep your wits about you ‘affiliate programs’ still represent a very good way to start selling to make money on line

4. Selling through an online store: - One of the most direct ways of selling to make money is to set up your own online store. This can sell your own or your affiliate digital and physical products. There are a number of pre designed ‘storefront’ solutions and ‘turnkey’ websites that you can use to quickly set up your store.

One of the advantages of this kind of selling to make money is that any body visiting a ‘store’ is already looking to buy. In other words your visitors are already presold on some if not all the products you have to offer. Again, this is extremely reliant upon your marketing strategy, but those who are successful at this kind of direct sales technique are amongst the highest earners on the Internet.

However, competition with such websites (and that’s exactly what an online store is) is extremely fierce and dominated by some absolute giants such as Play.com or Amazon. Therefore you ability to spot a profitable niche would never be more important than when using this way of selling to make money.

5. Selling your own products through other peoples websites: - Here is one of the best and highest earning potential ways of selling to make money on the Internet. Whilst affiliate marketing of other peoples products is a great way to start your career as an online entrepreneur one of the best ways to break through into the real top league is to offer an affiliate program. By combining you ability to create a great niche product with your best marketing techniques you can offer your prospective affiliate partners a high commission percentage and still make a fantastic income.

Imagine having hundreds or even thousands of affiliates marketing your products on your behalf. Even if you only make $20.00 per sale that’s soon going to amount into a considerable income. However you still need to have a clear marketing strategy. It’s no use having an army of affiliates driving traffic to your product if you don’t convert to a sale. Your affiliates won’t get their commission and will soon lose confidence, pull out of your affiliate program and your profits will dwindle.

It is therefore absolutely essential that the product you offer is of genuine quality and offers the customer real value for money. You can not hope to do well selling to make money this way if your product is sub standard or cheap. Customer loyalty is key for all Internet marketers.

In the same way that there are many ways to find affiliate programs there are also many ways to find affiliates to promote your products . However the most effective way is to sign up as a producer for an affiliate network such as ClickBank. This will give your product great exposure to affiliate marketers who are interested in selling to make money.

Conclusion. As previously said all of these techniques offer the possibility for you to make money online either on their own or in combination. However no matter which strategy you choose an understanding of market research and promotion will be essential for you to make the most of these opportunities. So good luck, learn as much as you can, apply what you learn and start selling to make money.

 

 



CLINT

Is Network Marketing Sharing or is it Selling

April 18th, 2009 | Posted in Home Business   Comments Off
joe@familybusinesstips.com asked:


Is network marketing a simple business where you just share your company’s products with a few of your friends and family, or is it really a full on sales business? This question is very heatedly discussed among network marketers, and this article will surely create a host of fiery emails from some who read this. Is it Sales or Sharing?

2 Questions To Help You Decide If Network Marketing Is Selling Or Sharing.

What Is Sharing?

When you share something, you typically have nothing to gain. As a matter of fact, when you share, you usually offer something with nothing in return. Could a person share products they believe is helping them with other people? Sure, it’s very possible. I suppose it’s a question of motive. If you think your company’s products are going to help someone, yes, I would call that sharing. On the other hand, if you’re making up a names list and calling people to tell them about your products or your business opportunity, then that’s probably not sharing. It’s not wrong, it’s just not sharing.

What Is Selling?

Selling is where goods and services are exchanged for something of value (usually money). Selling is an honorable profession. It’s a great thing to be able to persuade people to buy into your idea or product. It means you have influence with people! What makes it honorable is that you can help interested people solve their problems.

If you’re calling your friends and family to talk with them about your company or products, in the hope that they will buy into your program, then that is selling to. It’s actually a fairly aggressive form of selling, because that person never asked for your information or sales talk. It can be uncomfortable for both the seller, and the person being sold to. It doesn’t mean that it’s wrong, it’s just aggressive.

Many of us have experienced these tactics where selling was done in a bad way. Just the other day, my friend had it happen to him. He’s putting together a public works project to help abandoned children be able to turn their lives around, and he’s looking for investors to help fund the project. He was approach by a “millionaire investor” who was said he wanted to help my friend raise money for the project. To make a long story short, my friend met with this “investor” and the man starts drawing circles on a little white board, telling him how he can make a bazillion dollars with CompanyXYZ.

And then my friend realizes that he’s in a presentation to join a network marketing company. Can you imagine how angry my friend was? You better believe it. That wasn’t merely an aggressive form of selling. It was dishonest, and that’s not going to work for most people.

So What Is The Point?

1) Don’t resort to aggressive forms of selling that are dishonest. No one likes it, and you shouldn’t do it. It’s not honest. Don’t trick people.

2) If you sell your products to your friends and family it’s ok. Just tell them what you’re doing up front. Ask their permission first. Say something like “Hey Bob, I think I’ve found something that I think could help you. Would you be open to looking this over”? And then give room for Bob to say “No”. Believe me; you don’t want to drag anyone into this thing.



HOUSTON

Guru Tactics And What They Really Mean

April 18th, 2009 | Posted in Home Business   Comments Off
Kevin Sinclair asked:


If you’re in the internet marketing field, “guru” is a word you probably hear a lot of. In fact, you are probably well aware of who these gurus are. While most of them are very personable and nice, there are some who are quite the opposite. Even the nicest among them will employ the following tactics. You can have a clearer picture of what these gurus can really offer you once you are aware of them.

You’ve certainly seen something along the lines of: “You can work only 2-3 hours a day…” in a sales letter or on a website. Of course, the truth is if you begin your internet marketing career by only working a few hours a day, you are going to be disappointed with your income, to say the least. If this is going to be a hobby rather than a career, then 2 to 3 hours of work a day is perfectly fine. However, if you want this to be your career, than you are going to have to work far more than this, at least as you start out.

What gurus are showing you is the end product of the hard work which goes into internet marketing - they already have gotten to the point where they have other people handling the day to day tasks so that they can work only 2-3 hours a day. When they were just beginning though, you bet they worked hard to get their business off the ground.

This is one of the guru tactics you have to watch out for. They’ll tell you all about where they are now, but hardly anything about how they got to that point.

A guru will almost always leave out important parts of the picture. While any guru will tell you to write articles to build back links to your site - so you write articles and submit them, or perhaps use PLR articles. You check your traffic after a week - only 40 views! Another few days go by and you are up to 70. You decide to quit using PLR articles, thinking that original content will work better for you. You wait another week and look at the traffic; it’s down. So what are you doing wrong? Wasn’t article marketing supposed to be the best way to build your business? You’ve looked at the articles the gurus write - they’re not very good in many cases, yet they are getting thousands of views.

The gurus never told you the most important thing about article marketing. Which is…

The article that you write must be properly salted with keywords, especially long tail keywords. This is how you get lots of traffic. Have you ever heard a guru say that in one of their courses? Probably not.

This is the final guru tactic - half truths. They will tell you things like “I earned $67,000 in my first month of internet marketing”. Is this true? Maybe; but that’s not all there is to it. The full picture is they made $67,000 in a month, but spent 6,000 in expenses of all sorts. While spending $6,000 to make $67,000 is a great return on investment, most of us don’t have $6,000 to spend in a single month when beginning.

The courses offered by most of these gurus include a lot of hidden costs which their promotional materials won’t tell you about. Unless you’ve got a lot of money to begin with, you probably won’t be able to spend the amount you’ll need to while waiting for your revenue stream to grow.

These are all tactics which gurus will employ in the effort to get your business. Armed with the knowledge of the truth behind these claims, you can make a better decision about how to respond.



VICTOR