The Silent Avatar Speaks

Do you really only need 4 things to make money on the Internet? Dan B. Cauthron seems to think so. To find out if I agree keep reading. Dan, a self confessed Internet Marketing expert who has been successfully earning a full time living from running his own Internet business since 2000  proposes that in order to make money on the Internet one only needs to 4 things to make money on the Internet. And those 4 things?

• something to sell (products and/or services) that people want to buy
• a registered domain name and a small business hosting solution
• a website (your own customised Internet storefront) - not somebody's clone
• methods to attract customers to your website (advertising and marketing)

Well Dan, whilst I do agree with the 4 things you have stated, it's a far cry from what you really need to know in order to make money. Let's look at each point closer.

1. Something to sell - This is not as easy as it sounds. Firstly, in order to identify what people want to buy it requires research - and lots of it.  And if you think research is asking a focus group for the answers you would be mistaken. Online business research today means you will need to know about Keyword research, Alexa, Page Ranks, Traffic Stats, Ebay Pulse, in fact there is so much you need to wrap your head around just coming up with a viable product is hard work!  First port of call with your research is using WordTracker. I wont go into what Wordtracker does (because it does a lot), suffice to say it's a tool to determine what people are looking for on the Internet. Click the Wordtracker link to find out more. Assuming you have done your Keyword research (and of course you would have to know how to measure your results to the information was meaningful), you would then have to check out comparable websites selling the same or similar product/s or service (more research). Then once you have found your competitor sites, you then have to dig a bit deeper into ascertaining how much business they get. Check out keywords used in potential competitors websites (just right click on the page, then View Source). You will see in their meta tags what keywords they have used - then input the first 5 keywords and see what results are returned. Here's where more research comes in. Check their website ranking and their traffic stats through Alexa. Check out if they are buying Pay Per Click Ads. Check their Page Rank. Google the prospective competition names and see how many references their are to the business (make sure you put in the product or service as well to eliminate any businesses with the same name selling unrelated products.
2. A registered domain name and hosting. If you have found a product or service people are willing to buy, coming up with a good domain name can be just as time consuming and frustrating. Consider using your dominate keywords for what you are selling in the domain name. For example; let's assume we are looking for a domain name to sell homemade, preservative free dog biscuits, vacuum packed, and shipped in a gift box. Which is the better domain name?  FussyMutts? UniquePetTreats?, SpoilYourPet? or maybe GourmetDinnersForDoggies? Which domain name would help rather than hinder anyone trying to find gifts for dogs? Pick a domain name and if possible go for one with the best keywords in the name relative to the search term you want to dominate.
3. A website with your own customized store front. Dan, Dan, Dan.... you make it sounds so easy peasy to make money on the Internet. Unless you have plenty of money to throw at an outsourcer to design your site and set the whole thing up (let's not even think about trying to maintain it with zero skills), you are going to have to embark on a steep learning curve. Even if you use a CMS Joolma or Drupal site you are going to have to  master  administrating the site.I've been putting together websites for over 7 years, and my first attempts were dismal (I can only say that by looking back on them, but at the time I thought they were fabulous). I'm not formally trained, but my thinking is the only difference between learning formally, and learning by trial and error is the amount of mistakes you make and the time it takes to learn. If you ain't got the money you ain't got the choice, though these days there are all sorts of neat packages designed to get you up and running in no time, and plenty available for a small cost if not free. But you still have to learn how they all work. But here's the kicker.. when I started building websites it started as a hobby and over the years I've had to teach myself everything from FTP to Cron Jobs, to mastering Cpanel, to MySql databases, etc. Come on Dan!  Just get yourself a website? And how about learn to change and upload pages, set up auto-responders, (ad nauseum)? Being realistic is about telling people exactly what they are in for.
4. Methods to attract customers to your website. The money's in the list! (the marketer's mantra I call it). Well building a list is a whole new learning curve yet again. First there was building a list through emails, but you have to get your name out there to get the emails coming in. Catch 22 isn't it? So you resort to writing articles, doing press releases, blogging, social bookmarking, link exchanges, AdSense, RSS feeds, and now we are moving into exploiting MySpace, YouTube, Facebook and lets not forget this all takes time. TIME.

Time is something which (if you are already working and doing this on the side) requires just about every spare minute you have to focus on making your fortune on the Internet. There certainly have been many who have "made it". But only 4 things to make money on the Internet? Hogwash. Baloney. Pull the other one Dan. Listen carefully... If I had my time all over again I would do this:

1. Find a niche product I knew people wanted (pay someone to find it if I didn't have the time) - preferably a digital product like an e-book or software.
2. Invest what money I could rake together and outsource the website (SEO optimised), and the product creation.
3. Automate the whole thing.
4. Split test the site using PPC ads with different sales copy, price points, colours, etc  to know which worked best.
5. Watch the money come in, then...
6. Sit back and duplicate the whole thing again.

For those of you who are time rich and money poor, next post I will reveal info on what you can get your hands on for free to get where you need to go.

Tags: Business Tips, Internet Marketing, SEO //