What Kind of Online Businesses Can You Launch?

Starting an online business can be one of the most exciting experiences of your life. It can also be the most confusing if you’re not sure what kind of business you’d like to have. There’s a popular saying that says, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” That means you need to make sure that your online income doesn’t all come from just one source. A way that you can diversify that source is to start selling info products. You can create an information product in as little as a day, depending on what the product is. One of the best info products to sell is to write and sell your own eBook. You need to write an eBook on a topic that people are searching for information about. The topic can be one that you’re very knowledgeable about or it can be one that you become knowledgeable about by researching the information you need to know. Other than eBooks, you can also create online courses or workshops sharing your expertise. You can also promote products as an affiliate. You find a product that you believe is good and will sell well and you begin to promote it for a commission. Promoting just means that you’re raising awareness about a product by driving traffic to it. You can promote products without cost to you and many people find this type of an online business one of the easiest to break into. You can promote products by writing articles about it and submitting them to article directories, or you can blog about it, promote it on your own website or on any of the common social sites such as Twitter or Facebook. Many budding entrepreneurs create membership sites. A membership site means that you get paid to pass your knowledge onto others. Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re an expert on how to fix computers. You set up a site where people can log in and get access to answers to their questions, they can participate in a forum there, etc. Once you’ve gotten the hang of how to set up and profit from your membership site, you can turn around and teach others how to do it by writing a how-to eBook or by setting up a course! Another way you can launch an online business is by offering freelance services. Freelance just means that you are your own boss - you can take on the gigs you want and turn down the ones that you don’t. There are so many ways you can branch into having an online service business. You can do graphic design work, build websites, edit what other people wrote or you can write articles from scratch for other people. What’s great about all of these businesses is that start-up costs are often cheaper than buying a meal out! To get started, you need to set up a website and you need a way to accept payment (PayPal is a great way to do that). Once you begin to get to work and build your reputation, you’ll be able to take your pick of the kind of jobs you’d like to take on. One word of caution, though - if you don’t take a freelance job through an online service that matches jobs with those seeking them, make sure you define the work you’ll be doing in email or message board documentation so that there are no surprises down the road.

An Introduction to Video Marketing

Video is a spectacular way to market on the Internet, especially now that so many Internet users have broadband access. More users are able to view and download video. Video sharing websites are more popular than ever. YouTube is one of the most visited websites in the world, and other video sharing sites are growing in popularity, too – including niche specific sites, like those for Internet marketing. As a result of the gain in popularity of video sharing sites, more marketers are turning to video as a way to promote their products and services. Almost any type of product or service can be promoted through video, but it’s important to do it properly. People generally don’t visit video sites to view commercials. There might be exceptions for people who want to watch classic commercials, funny commercials, or extremely popular commercials. But for the most part, people don’t want to watch commercials. They come to be entertained or to learn something. If you want your videos to be viewed a lot, you need to either be extremely funny, exciting, controversial or educational. If your free videos offer a ton of quality content, they have a good chance of going viral and making you a lot of money. Video is so powerful - not only because of the sheer number of people who view video sharing sites every day, but because it can be much more persuasive than the written word. Some people respond better to writing, but others respond better to video. Video can really help you to get your point across to people who don’t read well, or people who really hate to read. Many marketers feel they don’t look good on camera, or don’t have the budget to produce quality videos. That’s one big reason behind the popularity of Camtasia. Camtasia is a great program that allows you to make videos by taking video screenshots of your computer. You can select a portion of your screen to be shown, and then you can make your video by simply moving from through your online presentation. You can also use a microphone to record your voice explaining the process as you go through it. Camtasia is very easy to use, making it extremely popular for people who aren’t very good with technical things. Most people are able to make their first video with Camtasia within an hour of opening the software! This makes it perfect for almost any marketer. If you’re promoting an eBook about Squidoo, then your video could be a short tutorial about one aspect of how to use the site – like adding images to a Squidoo lens or setting up your own Group own Squidoo. You can do this with nearly any kind of product. If your product is a dog training DVD, you can post a couple of samples. Show how to teach a dog to sit, and another showing how to teach a dog to heel. If your product is about how to make money with eBooks, you could have a couple of sample videos on how to get affiliates, or how to get more traffic to your minisite, making sure you show proof of your results within the video production. Even if you don’t want to post your videos to the video sharing sites, you can post them on your own site or blog. You can even put video on your sales page for higher conversions. Video can be an important selling tool, but it’s also effective as the primary media you use to create your product, too.

Where to Find the Best Freelancers

There are so many places where you can hire freelancers, that it may be confusing. Where you go will depend on what it is you need done. Forums are one great place to find freelancers. Websites like WarriorForum.com are teeming with freelancers who need work and are willing to work at great prices for the members. Hiring people through forums has the added benefit of being a place where you can look around to see a person’s reputation before you hire them. You can search the forum for their name to see if anything negative has been said about them, and to see if any positive remarks have been made. You can also make a post on a forum and ask for recommendations. You can post something like, “I’m looking for a good graphics designer who works quickly and charges a fair price. Who do you recommend?” You’ll probably get a number of recommendations, as well as a few private messages from freelancers who want to work for you. Elance is a very popular freelance website. You can look through a number of different freelancers’ portfolios, and you can also see their feedback. People with high feedback and very few negatives are less likely to do a bad job than others might be. You can also post a bid request and have freelancers bid for your job. You can get a variety of prices and freelancers to choose from, but don’t automatically choose the lowest price. Lower priced freelancers are sometimes cheap because they’re less experienced. That’s not always the case, though! Sometimes they’re cheap because they’re new to the site and they need to build a reputation. Rent-a-coder is another popular freelancing site. They’re popular for being a place to find programmers, but they don’t only have programmers available. You can also find writers and graphics designers there, and sometimes people who will do things like site submissions and other menial tasks. Perhaps the best way to find a good freelancer is to ask for referrals from friends and acquaintances you’ve met while networking in this industry. If you’re really worried about outsourcing, you could go through a site like Escrow.com. They let you make a deposit for the job, and they tell the freelancer that you’ve paid. Then the freelancer can being work, knowing the money has already been funded. Once you’re happy with the work, you can tell Escrow.com and they’ll release the funds to the freelancer. Just be aware that some freelancers won’t do this. They worry you’ll claim you don’t like the work (and use it anyway). By using one of the more reputable outsourcing companies and checking references and feedback, you stand the best chance at finding a good freelancer that works at a reasonable price and will do a great job.

To Build a Business, You Have to Build a List

Here’s another phrase you’ll grow sick of: The gold is in the list. You might get weary of hearing it, but it’s smacking you in the face for a reason – it’s the truth! First of all, let’s answer the question, “What is a list?” A list in Internet marketing terms is a database of contact information for your prospects. So if you have a product or promote products about gardening and I sign up for your list, I’m a prospect that you can market to repeatedly until I unsubscribe. So why is building a list so important? Let’s say you start off as an affiliate marketer. You find a niche you truly enjoy and you start working what you’ve learned into some traffic for your affiliate links. Over a period of 30 days, you funnel 5,000 prospects from the World Wide Web who are interested in your niche straight through your affiliate link to the product owner’s site. They even buy – yea! You’ve made a 50% commission with a 2% conversion rate. That means 2 out of every 100 people you sent bought the product, and your share was $26.00 (as an example). You earned a cool $2,600 this month – good for you! But you’re leaving money on the table. Those 100 people who bought from your 5,000 clicks? They’re now on the product owner’s list, not yours. So what he’s going to do is send them more offers over the coming weeks. After all, they are proven buyers. Over the next 30 days, those buyers fork over some more money for products that complement the original one they bought. That money goes to the product owner, not you – because you passed on building a list the first time around. A better way to build an Internet marketing business is to start with a list from day one. Before you let a single person slip through your link without capturing their name and email address, have your system set up to build a list. You can have unlimited lists for different niches using a simple tool like Aweber, which costs $19.95 a month. Every day you can log in and see how many people have signed up, and you can create automated messages to send out to help convert your list into more sales. Why should the product owner get to cash in on that person again and again when you’re the one who brought him the customer in the first place? Stake claim to each prospect and leverage your relationship with him for future sales and commissions.

Who Is Starting Their Own Online Businesses?

Starting an online business is one of the smartest moves you can make to invest in your future. Now more than ever, people are putting their ideas into practice and becoming first time entrepreneurs. Beginning a new business owner in today’s world is much easier than it was even ten years. Booming online businesses make up a huge percent of products sold. It’s evident that e-commerce is here to stay. The beauty of running an online business is that the start up costs are very low - you can even start some businesses without having to come up with any money at all. Young or old, people of all ages can create a business they love from whatever they’re passionate about. Whether it’s selling antique pieces of history, gift ideas or selling services, there’s a niche tailor made for your talents. So who are the people who are breaking free from their ordinary routines, or from their cubicles and taking control of their lives? Many of the people who are first time entrepreneurs are moms. Whether they’re stay at home moms or currently work in an office, mothers make up a large majority of those running Internet businesses. Putting their years of expertise from both life and business to work for them, many baby boomers are stepping out and taking the plunge into a new endeavor of starting their own online business. Sometimes in a tough job economy, baby boomers are some of the first people to get laid off. Employers aim to keep the younger, less experienced people on the job because they can pay them less. No, it’s not fair, but it does happen. If you’re in that category, losing a job can be the springboard that catapults you into an adventure that can bring so much good into your life as you start working for yourself. In certain jobs, there are government mandates in place for when people must retire from that job, which is unfortunate in many cases because it’s those years of experience on the job that make them better employees than the newly hired. Thanks to smart financial planning, most retirees aren’t forced to work due to needing the income after retirement, but many choose to in order to keep their minds active and to give themselves something to look forward to. Changing from a life of active work to being home all day can be quite an adjustment and running an online business can make that adjustment a lot easier on the one retiring and his or her family. Plus, for those wanting to retire but who want to stay busy, there are plenty of opportunities available online to start and run a successful business.

New Journey

In addition to all that I do, I have started a weightloss journey. You can follow me in that journey along with my friend La-Vie on our blog http://​twopinksinapod.blogspot.com. I'd love for you to stop by and comment or ask questions.

See you at the top!

Long Time Away

I have been a very bad blogger! I have not posted to my blog since last June, but I am back on track now and will be posting again regulary. Stay tuned for new information to help you in your business.