Your friends are making money off the Internet, and your weird Uncle Joe, who once vowed never to touch a computer, is suddenly bragging that he’s turned the Internet into a passive income stream for himself.
“A few more websites to build, and I can just sit around, click my mouse a few times, and wait for the checks to roll in.”
You feel left out. And to think, you used to chide everyone for not being computer-savvy like you. It looks like they took your advice to heart and have outwitted you at your own game.
Making Money off the Internet – Any Ideas?
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and he and his reindeer live in cyberspace. The trick is locating him and discovering the strategies that will make you as prosperous as good old Nick.
Where does one begin? The answer depends on what you want to do and how you want to do it. That’s a very general answer, isn’t it? Certainly not a helpful one.
We can provide some guidelines here, but you’ll need to do your own research as well, since methods will vary based on the product or service you want to sell.
Take this guy Bill, for example. A decade ago, he was so overweight that he was treated as though he had no business being alive. He was excluded from school proms, couldn’t even get a date with the plain Janes on campus, and felt miserable. He thought about seeing a psychologist, but was afraid his family would find out and tease him—not only for being grossly overweight, but for being “bonkers” as well.
One day, Bill gets out of bed, looks out the window, and sees a vision. There she was—his guardian angel—smiling with such a heavenly grin. She flashed a sign with the message: “FIND A WEIGHT LOSS PRODUCT AND START LIVING.”
Bill blinked to make sure he wasn’t imagining things. When he opened his eyes, the angel was gone. Imagination or not, that “vision” stayed with Bill all day. He turned on his computer and typed “weight loss products.” To his surprise, he got over a million results. Which one would he choose?
There was no way Bill could look at all of them. He narrowed his search: “NATURAL WEIGHT LOSS PRODUCTS – FDA APPROVED.”
Voila! The entries were fewer. Who wants to buy a product that doesn’t have the stamp of approval from the almighty FDA? To make a long story short, Bill found a product that actually worked! In six months, he went from 385 pounds to 210 pounds. Suddenly, even the most popular girls on campus—who once couldn’t bear to look his way—were sending him love notes, begging for just one date.
One Saturday morning, Bill gets out of bed, stretches his newly toned legs and arms, and looks out the window. His guardian angel is back! She flashes another sign: “HELP OTHERS SO THEY TOO MAY BE HAPPY.”
Needless to say, Bill’s journey had only just begun. He was now determined to help other people lose weight and become happier souls.
Making Money off the Internet – Turning Your Help Mission into Cash
Everyone has a turning point in life, just like Bill. It doesn’t need to be a dramatic “turning point” either—sometimes it’s just an idea or a product that inspires you. You know it will inspire others, too.
The concept of making money off the Internet has drawn millions to cyberspace, and their success has made the Internet feel like the Gold Rush all over again. But the laws of attraction are based on the principle that many are called, but few are chosen. What do we mean by this?
We mean that every Tom, Dick, and Harry will venture into Internet opportunities hoping to make a fortune. There are millions of websites out there, but only a select few will actually be profitable. The ones who succeed are the ones who follow search engine etiquette. They respect the rules that govern ethical marketing, as dictated by search engines. They take the time to understand what needs to be done. They know it’s a time-consuming and laborious process—a good test of endurance.
More importantly, though, it’s not so much about making money off the Internet that should drive you. You must have a genuine desire to help people and truly believe in what you’re offering. This “help mission” is what will set you apart from the rest.
Bill—our overweight-turned-sexy guy—is now ready to help obese people. The wonderful thing about this desire is that Bill is creating opportunities for himself. How can he use the Internet to help people and make money at the same time?
Making Money off the Internet – Initial Steps
If Bill has read up on search engine optimization (SEO), he will construct his website in a way that makes it easy for search engines to “catch” it and index it properly. Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN use “spiders”—pieces of technology that crawl cyberspace looking for good websites to index.
For major search engines, a “good” website is one built with a minimal amount of flash and bothersome frames. Search engines essentially search for quality content—text—to facilitate their indexing work.
It’s essential for search engines to notice Bill’s website so he can sell his weight loss product. He needs significant visitor traffic.
Bill will start with keywords: weight, loss, fitness, exercise, health benefits, the name of the product, and other relevant terms. He will create content for his website—either writing the articles himself or outsourcing the task. The articles must be keyword-optimized so that search engines can categorize the site.
The next thing Bill needs to do is obtain quality reciprocal links. He will contact non-competing websites and ask them to link to his site. Then Bill hires a web hosting company to submit his website to article directories. The more directories Bill’s site is registered with, the higher his chances of attracting visitors. The company will also set up a payment system for customers who want to purchase his product.
As business picks up, Bill can strengthen his marketing strategies by offering free newsletters to visitors, sending out e-mails about the product with autoresponders, holding contests (visitors love contests), starting a blog to generate discussions, or creating forums on his site where people can share their thoughts. Bill won’t stop at creative marketing “how-tos” just to get more people to buy his product.
Making Money off the Internet – Affiliate Marketing is One Way
By the way, the product isn’t actually Bill’s. It belongs to a health food manufacturer. What Bill did was contact the manufacturer (or one of its distributors) to become an affiliate marketer. The more products he sells on his website, the more commissions he earns. Bill also signed up for Google’s AdSense and AdWords so that anytime a visitor clicks on a link, Bill earns a commission.
Using Wikipedia’s simple definition of affiliate marketing, it’s a way of promoting businesses online (owned by retailers, wholesalers, or advertisers) in which an affiliate (publisher) is financially compensated for “every visitor, subscriber, customer, and/or sale provided through his/her efforts.”
When people become sophisticated in affiliate marketing, they’ll talk about things like pay-per-click, pay-per-view schemes, and geo-tracking and targeting. They adopt tools like metrics and ratings to assess visitor traffic and determine which pages visitors like to visit most and how long they spend on those pages. This information helps Bill adjust his marketing methods to cater to this target niche.
Making money off the Internet is an “equal-opportunity employer.” Everyone is welcome to buy and sell on this even playing field. If you really want to turn your efforts into a pot of gold, it’s essential to understand SEO so you can tell which services are just hot air (“we’ll send your articles to thousands of directories to increase your sales by 150%”) versus genuine strategies. There’s more to SEO, of course, but for newbies, it’s a great place to start.
As you become a master of the safari, your creative juices will flow. You may even want to write sales letters and optimize your landing pages as part of your marketing plan.
There are hundreds of ways to make money off the Internet, and you can start anytime—turning point or not!
