How To Discover Profitable Money-Making Ideas

The Internet is filled with millions of websites and almost any business idea you could think of. Some Internet business types are so common that the market is saturated and the competition is plentiful. But there is still hope!

How would you like to discover the ideal topics, products, or services for your business that people are actually searching for? Finding your Niche Market is the key, that will unlock the door to making money beyond your expectations!

To be successful you have to come up with a unique idea or a better solution to an idea already available online! Targeting a niche market is an ideal way to build a profitable business on the Internet, which requires less overall investment.

What is a Niche Market?

A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focused. The market niche defines as the product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs.

For example, there are all types of dolls and materials and methods used to make them, “dolls” is a small segment or niche of the toy manufacturing industry and the doll collectors industry. Instead of focusing on the Doll industry as a whole, you would build a profitable business on a small part of that industry, an example is handmade dolls. Handmade dolls are a small segment of the doll industry!

There are two important ingredients that go into finding your million-dollar niche market, it should be something you are passionate about! Your passion will keep you pumped up and energized through the ups and downs of the business. You will not want to give up so easily if it is something you are passionate about! And of course, it should be something you are knowledgeable about!

In the following example, Ms. Mary Flower-head (not a real person) researches the profit potential of her Niche business idea! Ms. Mary Flower-head is an ordinary person, just like you and I. She is a teacher by day and a hobbyist by night. Her hobby is making “handmade dolls” which she is passionate about!

One day an idea struck her so powerfully, that it almost blew her brains out! She could make and sell handmade dolls on the Internet, she thought! Ms. Mary Flower-head is actually targeting a niche market.

I think we all can agree that one of the biggest advantages of business is knowing what people want. Surveys are based on the idea of gathering information that would lead to the discovery of what people like and want.

Google Trends makes it easy to research what people are actually searching for. Simply put Google Trends- is a window into what people on the Internet want. It is a great tool for market research to identify topics to write about hot selling products and even services people are looking for.

GoogleTrends allows you to tap into Google’s database of searches. Google Search, shows how often a particular search term is entered relative to the total search volume across various regions of the world, and in various languages. To begin using Google Trends visit https://trends.google.com and enter into the search bar your desired niche business idea, topic, or product you want to sell.

In this example, I will enter handmade dolls. If there is enough interest in the search term “Handmade Dolls” Google Trends generates a report. The Google Trends report answers the following questions based on the search term entered:

The interest Over time in Handmade Dolls, by default the past 12 months is selected you can select a different time period by clicking on the drop-down arrow. If you run your mouse over the peaks in the chart you will be able to see which months have the highest interest.

Listed below, Interest by subregion answers the question of which regional areas have the most Internet users searching for handmade dolls, listed by the state. In the chart below you can see that treading right now people from the New Your State area have a big interest in handmade dolls.

Scrolling down the page under the related queries which means they are showing up for the first time. A lot of people are searching for this particular query at this time you can see Waldorf dolls are trending.

In The Related topics Section, you get an upfront advantage of knowing what related topics people are searching for. Knowing what people are interested in and searching for can trigger solid business ideas.

Is it a Profitable Business Idea?

The next step is to research the competition. Internet competition is a key factor in determining if an Internet Business idea has the potential to be profitable. Million-dollar niche ideas will be the ones with little to no competition.

We will turn to Google.com for the answer. Google.com is considered the top search engine used by millions to search the Internet.

Armed with all the information gathered on possible niche business ideas, topics to write about, and or products to sell enter your search term into the search engine. In my example, I will enter Handmade Dolls. Below you can see there’s a lot of competition for Handmade Dolls 97,900,000.

Keep in mind that a potentially profitable business idea will be the niche market idea that people are searching for, that has little or no competition on the Internet.

Continue to use this method, until you find your niche business idea that people are searching for that has low competition. Try experimenting with various search terms related to your niche idea. The lower the competition the greater the success rate!

On the Google Home Trends home page you’ll see the popular topics people are talking about. Google provides you with a list of all the hot topics and it’s a good way to stay informed about what the internet is talking about.

 

What You Need to Know About Internet Marketing

In short, Internet Marketing is the way that businesses develop relationships with customers over the Internet. Internet Marketing strategies, use advertising and marketing efforts that use the Web and email to drive traffic to your website in addition to sales leads from Web sites or emails! The Internet offers a lot of opportunities for a person with only a small advertising budget to do the majority of Internet marketing themselves, working with little or no money!

If you’re thinking about advertising on the Internet, keep in mind that many of the same rules that apply to other forms of advertising apply to electronic marketing. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), their rules and guidelines protect businesses and consumers and help maintain the credibility of the Internet as an advertising medium. The following will give you an overview of some of the laws the FTC enforces.

Online Ads

The FTC Act prohibits unfair or deceptive advertising in any medium. When it comes to online ads, the basic principles of advertising law apply:

-ADVERTISING MUST TELL THE TRUTH AND NOT MISLEAD CONSUMERS.

– IN ADDITION, CLAIMS MUST BE SUBSTANTIATED.

-ADVERTISEMENTS CANNOT BE UNFAIR

In interpreting Section 5 of the Act, the Commission has determined that a representation, omission or practice is deceptive if it is likely to:

-mislead consumers and affect consumer’s behavior or decisions about the product or service.

-In addition, an act or practice is unfair if the injury it causes or is likely to cause is: substantial not outweighed by other benefits and not reasonably avoidable.

-A claim can be misleading if relevant information is left out or if the claim implies something that is not true.

For example, a lease advertisement for an automobile that promotes $0 Down may be misleading if significant and undisclosed charges are due at lease signing.

-In addition, claims must be substantiated, especially when they concern health, safety, or performance.

-The type of evidence may depend on the product, the claims, and what experts believe necessary.

-If your ad specifies a certain level of support for a claim test show X you must have at least that level of support.

Sellers, Advertising Agencies or Website Designers and Catalog Marketers

-Sellers are responsible for the claims they make about their products and services.

-Third parties such as advertising agencies or website designers and catalog marketers also may be liable for making or disseminating deceptive representations, if they participate in the preparation or distribution of the advertising, or know about the deceptive claims.

Advertising Agencies

– Advertising agencies or website designers are responsible for reviewing the information used to substantiate ad claims. They may not simply rely on an advertiser’s assurance that the claims are substantiated.
In determining whether an ad agency should be held liable, the FTC looks at the extent of the agency’s participation in the preparation of the challenged ad, and whether the agency knew or should have known that the ad included false or deceptive claims

Selling Online

Catalog marketing is a sales technique used by businesses to group many items together in a printed piece or an online store.

-Most important, catalog marketers should trust their instincts when a product sounds too good to be true. To protect themselves, catalog marketers should ask for material to back up claims rather than repeat what the manufacturer says about the product. If the manufacturer doesn’t come forward with proof or turns over proof that looks questionable, the catalog marketer should see a yellow caution light and proceed appropriately, especially when it comes to extravagant performance claims, health or weight-loss promises, or earnings guarantees. When writing an ad copy, catalogers / online sellers or promoters should stick to claims that can be supported.

Online Disclaimers and Disclosures :

Although online commerce (including mobile and social media marketing) is booming, deception can dampen consumer confidence in the online marketplace. To ensure that products and services are described truthfully online and that consumers get what they pay for, the FTC continues to enforce its consumer protection laws. Most of the general principles of advertising law apply to online ads, but new issues arise almost as fast as technology develops.

Disclaimer

A disclaimer is a statement in which a person says that they did not know about something or that they are not responsible for something. The company asserts in a disclaimer that it won’t be held responsible for the accuracy of information

-Disclaimers and disclosures must be clear and conspicuous. That is, consumers must be able to notice, read or hear, and understand the information. Still, a disclaimer or disclosure alone usually is not enough to remedy a false or deceptive claim.

Disclosure 

The purpose of disclosure is to make available evidence which either supports or does not support claims about a particular product, service, or information.

-A disclosure is more effective if it is placed near the claim it qualifies for or other relevant information. Proximity increases the likelihood that consumers will see the disclosure and relate it to the relevant claim or product.

-For print ads, an advertiser might measure proximity in terms of whether the disclosure is placed adjacent to the claim, or whether it is separated from the claim by text or graphics. The same approach can be used for online ads.

-When advertisers are putting disclosures in a place where consumers might have to scroll in order to view them, they should use text or visual cues to encourage consumers to scroll and avoid formats that discourage scrolling. Text prompts can indicate that more information is available.

-An explicit instruction like “see below for important information on restocking fees” will alert consumers to scroll and look for the information. Dot Com Disclosures: Information About Online Advertising, provides additional information for online advertisers.

-Demonstrations must show how the product will perform under normal use.

-Refunds must be made to dissatisfied consumers if you promised to make them.

Advertising directed to children

Advertising directed to children raises special issues. That’s because children may have greater difficulty evaluating advertising claims and understanding the nature of the information you provide. Sellers should take special care not to misrepresent a product or its performance when advertising to children.

The Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus has published specific guidelines for children’s advertising that you may find helpful.

Read the complete guide to Advertising and Marketing for small businesses.

Selling Online

Selling Online is one of the fastest-growing sources of mail-order sales. It’s estimated that e-commerce sales have been growing nine times faster than traditional in-store sales since 1998. According to The U.S. Census Bureau’s report on retail sales in the US, the total e-commerce sales for 2019 are estimated at over 600 billion dollars, in revenue and it is expected to continue growing! It is also one of the quickest and easiest ways to begin making money online.

Many consumers have turned to e-commerce as a matter of convenience or to increase the variety of goods available to them. Whatever the reason, retail e-commerce sales have skyrocketed and the Internet will undoubtedly continue to influence how consumers shop. With so much potential in the market, it’s the perfect time for entrepreneurs to get started selling products online. As the Internet has become ubiquitous, many retailers have created websites and even entire divisions devoted to fulfilling online orders.

My Story

Selling online is also my success story! When my husband and I first started selling on the Internet, I looked at the fact that my husband was good at woodworking and he had a passion for it. Since I had extensive knowledge of how to use the Internet for business, I thought about my husband’s passion for woodworking, and my creative juices began to go into overdrive, thinking about his skills and my knowledge of the Internet.

To make a long story short we started in the business offering our very own unique designs of unfinished wooden products. The business did quite well and it took off quickly! One of our wooden boxes was featured on the Martha Steward Show back when she was hosting a craft show on TV. Our Wooden Box business was also featured on an episode of Extreme Home Makeover!

Benefits of selling online

• Direct access to your customer base.
• E-commerce sales can reach a large customer base locally, regionally, or nationally.
• For customers, ordering through a well-designed website can be more convenient, allowing them to make purchases from anywhere on their own schedule.
• Receiving customer orders or inquiries via email or online allows you to respond when it is most convenient and can reduce data entry.
• Websites are highly “sharable” via social media and links which can facilitate connections among the target market.

Is it a Hobby or A Business

No matter what you decide to sell online according to the IRS, it is not a hobby if you are buying and selling goods online to make a profit which most people selling online are, then you are in Business.  Therefore you are required to report your income earned from selling products or services online to the IRS.  

Getting Started In E-commerce

E-commerce is commercial transactions conducted electronically on the Internet. E-commerce is not just about using a website, email list, or social media to promote your products to customers, though those are important marketing tools. E-commerce also includes processing orders and sales transactions online via your website or through an e-commerce marketplace.

It can be difficult to keep up with all the options for selling online, websites, mobile phone apps, various credit card, and electronic payment options, as well as new ways of delivering products. To get started, it can help to consider two primary ways to sell products online:

1. E-commerce (Shopping Cart) Software:

An e-commerce shopping cart is a piece of software that facilitates the purchase of a product. Web-based E-commerce systems are used to manage online sales. Having your online store gives you the most control and cuts out the middleman and added fees charged in online marketplaces. Build your own online store and save.

2. Sell in A Third Party Marketplace

The ideal situation would be to utilize marketplaces along with having your own store since online marketplaces can expose you to more potential customers when you are first starting. Three popular online marketplaces are eBay, Etsy, and Amazon.

Sales Tax Permit

As a retailer, you may be required to collect sales taxes on behalf of your State Revenue Office if your State imposes a sales tax.

The Sales Tax ID Will Serve Two Purposes:

The Sales Tax ID gives the seller of retail products the right or permission to collect sales taxes from their customers on behalf of the government. You are required to remit the sales tax to the state revenue office monthly or semi-annually depending on your state tax requirements.

The sales tax permit enables you to purchase products or supplies from a wholesaler and not have to pay sales tax, as long as the products or finished product is intended for resale to the general public.

Apply For A Sales Tax ID:

Contact your State Revenue Office for more information on the sales tax permit or re-sellers certificate requirements for online sellers.

Accepting Online Payments

1. A Merchants Account:

A merchant account is a type of bank account that can help e-commerce businesses process payments over the Internet. It allows businesses to accept payments in multiple ways, typically debit or credit cards.

Most Banks offer merchant accounts for accepting online payments. In most cases banks will require you to pay a monthly fee or maintain a certain balance, otherwise you may be charged a fee whether or not you are making money. A merchant account is established under an agreement between an acceptor and a merchant acquiring bank for the settlement of payment card transactions. You’ll need a business checking account for your funds to be deposited.

Payments are processed through a payment gateway via your website and you will be required to purchase an SSL certificate to accept payments on your website. Depending on the hosting company you use, the cost of an SSL certificate varies.

If you are on a tight budget Let’s Encrypt offers free SSL certificates but there is a learning curve to installing it and you have to renew it every 90 days. Some hosting companies will offer free installation.

Free Merchant Account Providers

A quick and easy way to begin accepting online payments is to use one of the free merchant accounts services available on the Internet. They normally do not require you to pay a standard monthly statement fee charged by some banks and you can start quickly and easily by simply signing up for an account.

Paypal.com is an eBay-owned company, a trusted brand with a long history of processing payments on the web. PayPal allows individuals and businesses to transfer funds electronically. It is an alternative to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders.

Stripe is fairly new in comparison to Pay Pal but is quickly becoming popular. Stripe allows both private individuals and businesses to accept payments over the Internet.

Steps to Develop an eCommerce Strategy

-Objectives: What do you want your online presence to achieve?

-Are you looking for an active sale through your website, or are you educating potential buyers about your brand and products?

-Target Market and Audience: Who are your buyers? Businesses? Young consumers? This will determine how to build your online presence

-Competitor Analysis: Who are your closest competitors? What makes them successful online?

-Website Feature List: Create a simple mockup of what functions and abilities you want your site to have before you decide on a professional web developer to help you. Will it be mobile-friendly? Do you need to have a separate mobile app?

-Choose the Right Channel Mix: Select the best eCommerce sales channels to pursue sales in your target market(s) so that consumers can easily find your company and products and learn about your company.

Communicating with customers

Customers like doing business with businesses that offer live customer service. It is a good idea to have a  phone line for your small business separate from your personal phone.

PO Box Versus Using a Home Address

Setting up a small business Post Office box is very simple and the investment is minimal. A Post Office Box is like having a virtual office address. PO Boxes help to increase a small business’s professional profile by providing postal addresses that are indistinguishable from larger competitors. 

Some other reasons to consider a PO Box are:

It does not expose your home address in your advertisements.

It protects incoming packages from theft,

It provides home business owners with anonymity on the Internet.

It eliminates the need for a change of business address if the business relocates.

Hot Selling Items On Ebay, Etsy And Amazon

Thinking about selling in an online marketplace or planning to open your own online store, but not sure what to sell? Well, you are in luck some popular online marketplaces give you a window into what type of products are selling like hotcakes! Having an idea of what type of products have the potential to make money online, can give you an upfront advantage, and is well worth the research! Not only will it give you an idea of what is selling but can generate new ideas on what you could offer that would be similar yet unique!

Selling on eBay

EBay.com is one of the oldest and popular online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. Power-Sellers are among the most successful sellers on eBay in product sales and customer satisfaction. To qualify as an eBay power seller:

You have an account in good standing that’s been active for at least 90 days.

You must follow all eBay policies.

Maintain a positive feedback score of 98% or higher.

Seller Fees

eBay charges two main types of selling fees: an insertion fee when you create a listing, and a final value fee when your item sells. Insertion Fees: Also called listing fees, you get 50 free per month*, and beyond that, the fee for listing in most categories is just $0.35. (Some restrictions do apply.)

Final Value Fees: Also known as selling fees, they’re a percentage of an item’s total sale price. For most sellers, it’s 10% or lower! (Some restrictions do apply.)

Ebay Hot Selling Products

EBay top selling products..

Selling On Etsy

Etsy is a great place to sell your Handmade Items . Etsy is a peer-to-peer (P2P) e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items and supplies, as well as unique factory-manufactured items. These items cover a wide range, including art, photography, clothing, jewelry, food, bath and beauty products, quilts, knick-knacks, and toys.

Many sellers also sell craft supplies such as beads, wire and jewelry-making tools. Etsy has over 54 million users registered as members, and the online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods connects millions of active sellers with millions of active buyers.

Seller Fees:

The site follows in the tradition of open craft fairs, giving sellers personal storefronts where they list their goods for a fee of US$0.20 per item for a four-month period and a 5% of sale value, which an Etsy seller pays for each completed transaction.

Etsy Hot Selling Products

Do your research before jumping into selling on Etsy to get a feel for what people are buying. To give you an idea of what is selling on Etsy check out their popular selling items list and top-selling products list. Alicia Shaffer claims to be the most successful or richest seller on Etsy according to the business insider.

Selling On Amazon

Sell on Amazon and reach millions of Amazon customers. Amazon.com Marketplace is Amazon fixed-price online marketplace that enables sellers to offer new and used items alongside Amazon’s regular offerings. Customers can buy those items directly from third-party sellers.

Seller Fees

Individuals and businesses can list products on Amazon. Sellers may sell their items using either an “Individual Account” or, for an additional monthly subscription fee, a “Professional Seller” account. Individual Accounts may add the “Pro Merchant Option,” but Professional Sellers are required to have the “Pro-Merchant Option.”

The “Pro Merchant Option” costs $39.99 per month; it eliminates the $0.99 per-item sales fee. Other sales fees are still charged. These consist of a percentage commission fee and a flat-rate closing fee.

If you plan to sell fewer than 40 items a month $0.99 per sale + other selling fees. Sellers pay a referral fee on each item sold. Items in several categories have a per-item minimum referral fee (i.e., sellers pay the greater of the referral fee or the per-item minimum referral fee). These prices are subject to change check Amazons detailed seller fees listing for more accurate information.

Amazon Best Sellers

For an idea of what people are buying in the Amazon Marketplace – check out amazon’s best sellers list of the most popular products based on sales. updated hourly.

Common Work-at-Home Scams

Beware of work at home opportunities that sound too good to be true they usually are. A legitimate job shouldn’t ask you for any money to get started, some may require you to pay a small fee for a background check.  Even with a background check, you should not expect to pay any more than $30 or $40.00 give or take.

You may also be required to have or purchase certain products needed to run the business from your home. If the company you would like to work for is looking for you to purchase items from them other than a background check, to start a job with them,  I would look elsewhere, it sounds like a scam, run.

Some popular scams.

  • Internet businesses. You’re told you can earn thousands of dollars a month starting your own internet business. The company says that no experience is necessary because they have experts to coach you. You’re pressured to pay for the opportunity right away. Once you pay, the company says you won’t succeed unless you pay for more pricey services. Many people who pay for these “businesses” are left with a lot of debt and not much else
  • Envelope stuffing.
    Promoters advertise that for a “small” fee, they’ll tell you how to earn big money stuffing envelopes at home. After paying the fee, you find out there is no work. Instead, you’ll receive a letter telling you to get other people to buy the same envelope-stuffing opportunity or some other product. You’ll earn money only if those people respond the same way you did. But the promoters rarely pay.
  • Mystery shopping.
    Ads for mystery shoppers say they want people who are willing to shop at certain stores or dine at certain restaurants, and then report on their experience in exchange for money. To begin, you must register and pay a fee. Often, your first job is to evaluate the effectiveness of a money transfer service. You will unknowingly be given a fake check, told to deposit it in your bank account, withdraw the same amount in cash, and send it by wire transfer to a third party. The check will bounce and you will be on the hook for the full amount.
  • Rebate processing.
     An ad or email claims you can earn big money by helping to process rebates. The fee for training, certification, or registration is nothing compared to what you’ll supposedly earn processing rebates from home. What you get is poorly written and useless training material. There are no rebates to process and few people ever make any money.
  • Medical billing.
    The ads promise a substantial income for full- or part-time work processing medical claims electronically – no experience needed. When you call the toll-free number, a sales representative tells you doctors are eager for help. In exchange for your investment of hundreds or thousands of dollars, the representative says you’ll be provided everything needed to launch your business. Few customers who pay for medical billing opportunities ever find clients or make money.

Tips on How to Avoid Work-at-Home Scams

It’s not always easy to figure out if a company is legitimate. Try these five essential tips from the Attorney General of the State of New York:

  1. Check with the Better Business Bureau in your area and the area in which the company is located.
  2. Ask questions, including what specific tasks you’ll have to perform; whether you will be paid by salary or commission; and who will pay you. Also, ask about the total cost to you, including supplies and equipment.
  3. Be wary of overstated claims of product effectiveness, exaggerated claims of potential earnings, and demands that you pay for something before instructions or products are provided.
  4. Be wary of personal testimonials that never actually identify the person so you can’t investigate further.
  5. Contact your state Attorney General’s consumer helpline if you believe you’ve been victimized by a work-at-home scheme.

How To Start A Blog

Blogging is a trend on the Internet that has become extremely popular and can be very profitable! A regularly updated blog can produce a constant stream of good leads from all around the world and lead to a full-fledged profession.

What is a Blog?

The word blog is derived from the combination of the two words web and log. The subject of a blog can range from personal diaries to music personal hobbies to consumer product reviews to tips & tricks on everyday-life topics like saving money or parenting …where users post thoughts, comments.

People all over the world have begun writing on a variety of topics. Basically, anyone can easily share their knowledge on the Web. Updates are often frequent and done on a regular basis.

Benefits Of Blogging:

Every business owner should be Blogging, Blogging is an excellent way to establish yourself as a leader in your niche, increase brand awareness, gain new clients and strengthen relationships with existing ones. By writing on topics of interest, you establish yourself as an expert and your followers also know as subscribers keep on growing, you will build your Brand, and will ultimately be able to make money with your blog.

Getting Started:

If your goal is to start a blogging business with the intention of making a profit, then having a great idea for a blog is not enough because there are so many blogs on the Internet, it can be tough to distinguish your blog from all of the others. In the long run, a great idea just isn’t enough to propel your blogging business to success. Every great blogger started with a great idea, you can’t build a successful site that will last without one.

If you can fill a unique need in a way that no other website does, you’ll be able to build a lasting readership among web surfers. There are many great blogging sites and competition for the attention of this growing demographic is fierce.

Whether you are starting up a new blogging site or looking to make your existing blogging site more distinctive, the key to building and maintaining a site that will capture the interest and attention of the blogging community is finding your niche.

What Is A Niche Blog?

A Niche Website or blog is a site that focuses on specific information.  An often-used technique is to create an Internet-based niche segment of larger markets. For example, a website about handmade handbag making is a niche segment of the crafting or the sewing Industry. Niche websites can be developed and promoted quickly to uniquely serve a targeted customer base.

The Niche Blog Tips:

01-The Niche based site you create should stand out from the crowd.
02- It should be something you have extensive knowledge of and are passionate about.
03-It should offer something that no other site is currently offering or the same thing that an already popular site does but in a more impressive or valuable way.

One way to discover an ideal model for your blogging web site is to look at the sites that have successfully captured a blogging audience already,  to determine if you can appropriate some of their strategies to help realize your vision. Of course, you will also need to add a unique flair to your project in order to stand apart from your competition.  

Many people agree that the web sites that do the best in today’s market are the sites that have the most personality. The fiercely individual surfers who are bloggers are a demographic that responds especially strongly to personality. Consider how you can give your site a unique and attractive feeling by lending your own voice and sensibility to your site’s design and content.

How To Monetize Your Blog

A popular way bloggers make money with a blog is with Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Marketing is a partnership between you and a business owner with a product or service to sell! You don’t have to stock any products or actually sell anything in the traditional sense. The Internet is filled with ways to make money with a blog, none the less the idea is the same to make you and the affiliate money.

An affiliate pays you a commission for sending traffic:  potential customers to their website.  You as the Affiliate Marketer earn a commission, how much depends on your contract agreement with the Affiliate.

Establishing Credibility

The niche-based blog you create should be something you have extensive knowledge of, and /or are passionate about. The fact that you are knowledgeable and passionate about what you are writing about, gives you the upper hand on recommending certain products and giving input on the does and don’t s, based on experience, and therefore you establish credibility.

Think about this, you read a book and gain a lot of knowledge from it, the author recommends things to purchase to further your interest in the subject matter, you would be more likely to purchase those items knowing it came from a credible person because of the knowledge you have gained, through reading their book.

The idea is to pre-sell, recommend your affiliate companies as a place to purchase products in the course of educating your visitors on your theme topic.

For example: say your niche is bowling, you could recommend books, bowling equipment, and related products your affiliate offers. When the visitor clicks on your affiliate links and makes a purchase you make a profit. It is important that you believe in the products or services you refer to visitors, to maintain your credibility!

Common Mistakes New Affiliates Make.

# 1 Mistake

The number one mistake many Affiliates make, is, they put up a lot of banners and links expecting people to just click through and make a purchase, but that is not normally the case.

#2. Mistake

Putting up a lot of banner ads and links unrelated to your blog topic or subject matter is not a good idea. There are many Internet surfers who can go online line to purchase products if that is all they wanted to do.

If you plan to make money with your blog you need to establish a pool of potential customers. You need to give people a reason to visit your website or blog and a reason to want to purchase the items or services you are marketing.

Niche websites can be developed and promoted quickly to uniquely serve a targeted customer base, giving the affiliate a small but potentially continuous source of revenue. This technique can then be repeated across several other niche websites. Some niches may become saturated with marketers, increasing competition and thus reduce the slice of the pie available to each competitor.

Digital Products 

Another way to make money with a blog is by selling your own digital products. Blogging helps to establish you as an expert on particular topics and people love to learn and there is always someone around looking to learn what you are knowledgeable about. Once you establish credit-ability you can create and sell your own digital products through your blog such as:

-Online courses 

E-books

-Membership site

-Host Webinars 

-When your blog becomes popular you can sell ad space directly to advertisers.

What makes a win, win situation in the blogging business, is good content, using the right affiliate programs specific to your niche site, updating your content regularly, and generating ongoing traffic to your site. Put it all together and you are bound to make a good income in affiliate marketing.

Different Ways To Make Money In Affiliate Marketing

Make money Recommending Vendor’s Products! Affiliate Marketing AKA PERFORMANCE MARKETING is the single fastest-growing industry on the Internet. It’s also true that affiliate marketing is one of the most creative ways to make money and have a career on the Internet.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is also known as revenue sharing, Affiliate marketing involves an online merchant (someone with a product or service to sell) and you as the Affiliate or web publisher.

Any company on the Internet with a product to sell can offer an affiliate program. Most if not all big-name companies online offer an affiliate program.

-It is Free to Join

-It is a partnership between you and the business owner with the product or service to sell.

-An affiliate pays you a commission for sending traffic:  potential customers to their website.

-When a visitor clicks on an ad you posted on behalf of the business owner, visits the business owner’s site, and makes a purchase you make a commission.

How much you would earn depends on the affiliate’s contract agreement. In some cases even if the visitor from your site did not make a purchase the same day of the visit, you could still earn a commission if they go back 30 days later and made a purchase.

As a member of an affiliate program, you will have access to their:

Banner ads, Product ads, Coupon Codes, and Deals banners, and in some cases based on approval, their data feed files.

Different Ways To Enter Into Affiliate Marketing:

There are different ways to make money in affiliate marketing but the purpose is the same, to make money for the affiliate and earn you a commission.

1. Content Publishers

Content publishers publish web content such as news, gossip, entertainment, sports, lifestyle articles, etc. Bloggers are content publishers who write articles about any subjects they have knowledge of. Facebook and forums are user-generated content publishers meaning their content is normally created by their users. They make money by posting affiliate banners and coupon deals. Besides affiliate marketing, content publishers can make money with the following popular money-making programs.

Pay Per Click Programs with Pay Per Click programs you make money when someone clicks on an ad or link you post. As a member of Google Adsense, Google will give you a code to post on your blog or website which will produce links to articles and/or ads based on your website or blog theme topic. When someone clicks on an ad or the link you post you make money.

Pay Per Impression with Pay Per Impression you would post Cost per Impression (CPM) ads on your site and when a visitor to your site sees an advertiser’s ad posted on your site you make money. No purchase is necessary. You would need a lot of visitors to make any substantial money with this type of program.

Sponsored ads and ad space
When your blog or website becomes popular generating substantial visitors to your site, you can sell ad space and possibly get paid sponsors for your site.

2. Coupon Affiliates

It is a known fact that the average person loves a bargain! It is no wonder Coupon or Deal sites are some of the most popular types of affiliate sites on the Internet.
Coupon Affiliates offer coupons or discount codes to their users and earn commissions on any sales that result from someone clicking through one of their coupon links to a merchant’s site and makes a purchase.

3. Data Feeds Affiliates

Data Feed affiliates use data feed files to upload and display their affiliate’s products on a website or blog. Comparison shopping sites are an example of sites using data feeds. If you visit a comparison shopping site in search of computers you will see various companies offering computers such as Walmart and amazon.com and many more listed in the results, these products would be linked through affiliate links.

4. Email Affiliate

Some email affiliates put out newsletters or collect an email list and send out regular emails full of their affiliate links and banners. Working with email affiliates can be risky, especially if they’re not CAN-SPAM compliant. The CANSPAM Act establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations. … That means all emails – for example, a message to former customers announcing a new product line – must comply with the law. To learn more about email marketing check out our post on email marketing.

5. Loyalty and Incentives Affiliates.

These affiliates would offer an incentive, say, cash back or points or virtual currency.  They will share a part of their payout, a part of the payment received from the affiliate merchant. Cashback offers, donations to charitable organizations, and contributions to scholarship funds are by far the most popular forms of incentives used by this type of affiliate.

6. Mobile and Pay Per Call Affiliates

Mobile affiliates focus on mobile marketing or pay-per-call marketing specifically. Certain sites build affiliate links to their apps. That goes for coupons or data feed sites that have an app, but it also goes for standalone apps themselves.  Popular apps like Pandora use affiliate links to send users to Apple’s iTunes Store.

7. Social Media Affiliates

Social media affiliates use social media channels to market the merchant’s products that they promote.

8. Video Affiliates

Video marketing is a type of commission-based marketing. These would be affiliates that focus on video creatives, which are known to yield higher conversion rates. Affiliate video marketing is a type of commission-based marketing that is managed by affiliates. These affiliates create videos to endorse products and services for a specific business.

Working through an affiliate network offering videos to their affiliates you can select the Videos you want to promote. Using tracking software the merchant company can tell if someone clicked on the advertised product and made a purchase you would get a commission.

Make Money Selling E-books Online

Indie authors are becoming overnight sensations in the New York Times and USA Today, on Amazon, and everywhere e-books are sold, proving there’s no longer a stigma to self-publishing. Publishing your own ebook has never been easier!

How would you like to have the title of ‘author’ added to your name without going through the difficulty of book publishing? With the technology of e-books, you could make money by writing your own books and selling them online.

Benefits of Creating E-books:

There are so many ebooks available on the market today, covering every imaginable topic and catering to a different audience. In some genres, self-published e-books even outsell those from traditional publishers, because readers are looking for fresh new authors and stories that aren’t written using a formula. If you’re in business, an e-book can be your new business card and play an important part in your content marketing plans.

Popular Ebook Genres

Nonfiction books with a well-defined topic and a nice hook to them can do well, especially if they have a target audience that you can focus on. Religious books are a perfect case in point. Some genres such as fiction do better than others. Indie romance/erotica novels, for instance, have thrived in the e-book arena.

How-to information offers important assistance on learning a new skill, enhance existing knowledge or provide an innovative approach to doing certain things. It can cover different topics such as cars, bookkeeping, playing the piano, cooking, learning a new language, attracting women and so much more.

What Makes a Good ebook Publisher?

If you can use a word processor, have a book written—or have an idea for one—and want to see your name in print, you just might have what it takes to succeed in self-publishing E-books. A flair for writing is desirable or you feel you can share expert advice and information on a specific field. But of course, not any ebook will do. You will want to come up with one that will best appeal to your target audience.

What Is An Ebook?

E-books, as the name implies, are simply electronic books that can be compiled with special software and read on a personal computer (PC) or an electronic device designed specifically for reading e-books (e-book reader). E-book readers are becoming more and more common.

Ebook Formats

 Two of the most popular today are the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader line. Unfortunately, the two different brands don’t read the same kinds of e-books. The first thing a person should do is figure out what formats an e-reader device supports. For more detailed information please the Mobile Read Ebook Formats wiki.

Popular e-book formats :

EUB = Nook, Sony PRS, Ipad, and etc…

MOBI/PRC = Amazon Kindle and the Cybook

An ePub is, essentially, a small self -contained, pre-packaged website. There are a few abbreviations associated with creating EPUBs. IDPF is the Trade and Standards Organization, for the digital publishing industry. The focus for this tutorial the abbreviations associated with EPUB and Kindle in general. EPUB is a combination of two words electronic and publication.

With the Kindle, we’ve got MOBI. Which is a shortening of Mobipocket. And that’s a format for the earlier Kindle devices, such as the E Ink and Paperwhite technology devices. It’s a subset of EPUB itself. It just has extra features built-in. As does the newer KF8 format, Kindle Fire 8. And that’s the newer, glossier, full-color devices.

You might also hear mention of AZW. That’s the very early device format which is DRM or Digital Rights Management free. And that’s essentially what Mobi and KF8 have built into them. They’ve got DRM technology built in to prevent unauthorized sharing and so on. KDP is Kindle Direct Publishing.

Ebook-formats For Kindle Devices

The following formats are applicable to publishing to Kindle devices, and why you’d use them. We’ve got two formats in practical terms. We have EPUB2, which is repackaged as the Mobi7 format on Kindle, and that’s supported by all Kindle devices.

And then we have the newer EPUB3, some people call it the fixed-layout format, which can be republished in the KF8 format. But that only works on the newer devices. If you’re writing a novel or a piece of text with supporting images or figures, then EPUB2 is for you, it’s also the easiest of the two to deal with, plus, of course, you have the potentially larger audience with both kinds of devices.

If you’re looking at a fixed layout publication, then your only choice is EPUB3. which is good for graphical in terms of layout like a book with a lot of pictures such as a children’s book.

 
 
 

 

How To Publish A Website

It takes only 3 simple steps to set up a website online!

1. Choose a Domain Name:

A Domain is a user-friendly string of characters that can be used to access a site on the internet. The domain name is the web address of your online business, for example, http://yourbusinessname.com, it is the way visitors enter your website, http://Google.com is a domain name. A domain name registration is a requirement of every website owner.

2. Purchase a Hosting Plan

A Web hosting service is a service that runs Internet servers, allowing organizations and individuals to serve content to the Internet. A hosting company provides the space you need on the Internet to publish your website or install your Website Building Application such as WordPress. When you purchase a hosting plan you are in complete control over your business on the Internet. How to choose a hosting company.

3. Publish Your Website

Once your website has been created and published it will be live on the Internet and reachable through your domain name. Anyone will be able to reach your new site by entering your domain name into a web browser.

Build Your Website for Free

Building your own website can give you complete freedom and control over your web business on the Internet. Using free Web Building Applications can save your thousands of dollars!

Build Your Own Store With WordPress E-commerce

Building an eCommerce store from scratch is the most traditional option. It takes some work to get all of the pieces together. But it also gives you the most control and cuts out the middle man and added fees charged in online marketplaces. There are many different free open-source options you can use to build your online stores such as Joomla, Magento, Opencart, an old favorite ZenCart, and many others. WordPress Woo-Commerce is by far the most popular e-commerce solution.

WooCommerce is a good choice for newbies because it is built on the WordPress framework. The only requirement is that you are familiar with how to use WordPress. WordPress is easy to use and it produces professional results without any knowledge of coding. WooCommerce is a free add-on e-commerce plugin, designed for small to large-sized online merchants.

You may have to add additional plugins to get the specific features you want but, otherwise starting with WordPress woo-commerce is a great option that can save you hundreds of dollars on your eCommerce needs!