Business Development Strategies

Posts Tagged ‘internet marketing’

Even as a middle-aged adult, I am fascinated by the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. It would be wonderful to find something like a goose that lays golden eggs. You just give it a warm place in the barn and feed it a little grain every day, and presto!, it provides you with an endless supply of riches. Just a little over two months ago, I stumbled upon just such a thing: marketing products through the internet. “Absurd!” you may say, or “What has this guy been smoking?” you may ask. But, consider the following factors before you pass judgment:

• You can set up your own internet marketing business in just a few hours for much less than $100 (yes, only two zeroes; this is not a typo).

• You can create and sell your own products for nothing more than the cost of your own time and the electricity it takes to run your computer; or you can create nothing yourself and sell other people’s products for unusually high commission rates.

• You can sell physical products if you wish, or you can sell information products, which require no physical inventory, no storage costs, no shipping costs, and involve absolutely no environmental impact (what about the electricity, you ask? Perhaps a valid question, but let’s face it, if you weren’t doing something useful with the few cents of electricity your marketing efforts consumed every day, you would still have your computer on while you are surfing the ‘net or playing video games, right?).

• You have light-speed access to a potential market of hundreds of millions of customers, but you don’t have to summon up the energy and wear out the shoe leather required to actually knock on hundreds of millions of doors.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about internet marketing is the existence of an enormous network of like minds out there in cyberspace who are willing and able to help you set up your own business, in many cases at no charge to you, through discussion forums, on-line courses and free or inexpensive software. The mysteries of domain registration, web hosting, e-mail autoresponders, e-book publishing, payment processing and web design are very simple to solve with a little work using easily accessible resources.

Internet marketing is the only business opportunity I know of today where a person can start with almost no capital and be up and running and collecting revenue within just a few days. Of course, there is no free lunch. You have to work at it (even Jack had to find grain to feed the goose . . .), but teachers are out there waiting for you if you take the time to look. You can find excellent resources at http://www.emarketingmeister.com.

I was chatting with a friend of mine recently, and we found ourselves on the subject of my website and ebook. I rambled on about how pleased I am with the way this project is going, and he asked me: “What got you involved with internet marketing in the first place?”

I thought about this question for a second, then gave him an honest answer. “I got involved in this business because I was a sucker.”

We both had a good chuckle at this. My friend laughed because my response caught him off guard, but I was laughing because what I said was true.

You see, I came to the wonderful world of net marketing without a shred of marketing experience. Sure, I had been a bit of an entrepreneur all my life, and even been self employed a few times, but I had no real idea of how to effectively promote a product, or even draft a business plan.

I was drawn to this niche by the residual effects of too many infomercials and “get rich quick” ads in the classified section of my local newspaper. Even before I owned a computer, I used to fantasize about making a ton of money with some “secret wealth system”.

I admit it folks.

I honestly believed there were “little known methods” that could make the average person rich with just a bit of hard work and an open mind. The mainstream population, I told myself, was just too brainwashed to accept these opportunities. All I needed to do was get myself a PC with an internet connection, tap into the right system, and I’d be on my way.

Yeah…

A few thousand dollars and countless hours of frustration later, I had a frightening thought. Had I been duped? Was all this internet marketing stuff just a scam?

Or… could it be… was it possible… that maybe I just wanted an easy way out, and was willing to believe in even the most ludicrous of proposals in a blind effort to find that golden opportunity that would have me basking on a beach somewhere while my replicated affiliate website did all the work for me?

Could I have been personally responsible for the wasted money and lost time, because I was buying into ideals that I knew deep down were nothing more that fluff and rubbish?

Ouch. Now there’s an uncomfortable thought. Sometimes the truth hurts.

The fact is, many people come to the land of biz opp affiliate programs and MLM systems in search of fast, easy money. In the end, just about every one of these desperate hopefuls ends up in one of the following situations.

1. They lose a ton of money and give up in complete frustration.

or…

2. They have a light bulb moment and realize how silly their original ideals were. Such moments of clarity are a fantastic opportunity to step back, change perspective, and have an honest look at where one might fit into the net marketing puzzle.

There is money to be made here. All kinds of different people have built successful businesses within this niche.

But these people are not the day dreamers, the star gazers, the whiners, or the suckers. They are marketers with clearly defined objectives, strong action plans, and tireless work ethics.

The good news is, even if you were a sucker coming into this business, every moment contains the possibility of a new beginning. I had my awakening after a few slaps in the face, and with the help of a few great people who are willing to share their knowledge and experience. If you aren’t making any money with what you are doing, maybe you just need a new perspective.

Network marketing is a numbers game. The more people you introduce to your opportunity, the more money you’ll make. To start generating a steady stream of traffic to your site, try these 7 creative techniques:

1. Write and Distribute Articles, Reports and Ebooks. Internet users are all interested in one thing – information. Use this to promote your business by creating high quality content and allowing others to reprint it for you. One great way to do this is to distribute a brandable ebook or special report. This is one that a website or list owner can change to include a reference to their website. This doesn’t mean that it looks like they are the publisher, it’s just a way for them to include information on where the ebook was downloaded from and (if applicable) to include their affiliate link for your products and services.

2. Participate in Newsgroups, Forums, and Mailing Lists. There are hundreds of forums online and you can find one for almost any topic imaginable. Most allow you to include a signature line that will be attached to every message. This is a chance for you to advertise your site. Visiting these forums to post thoughtful questions and offer your expertise will mean your signature is viewed by others and will bring you free, targeted traffic. Of course how much traffic you get depends on how often you post and whether your signature makes people want to visit your site. A good approach is to use an ad you’ve had success with elsewhere as your signature.

3. Join Networking Sites to Build your Personal Network. Networking sites are designed to make it easy for people to meet others in their industry and to advertise their products and service. Similar to offline networking events where lots of people come together for the sole purpose of meeting people, online networking sites work the same way.

4. Use Classified Sites and Traffic Exchanges. Classified ad sites and traffic exchanges have gotten a bad reputation, but they really do work if you know how to use them. If you’re promoting a product or service that advertisers can benefit from then they’re a great place to get traffic. Although not very many consumers visit this type of advertising sites, lots of website owners do in order to make sure their ad appears on the site. While there they can’t help but notice other ads and if one catches their attention you’re likely to get a visitor.

5. Run a Contest. People love the prospect of winning something – that’s why a contest can be a great traffic generator. The key is to choose a prize that will attract people from your target audience. If you make the grand prize a new laptop you’ll get entries from everyone who would like to win a new laptop (which is basically every computer user in the world!). Get more targeted traffic by choosing something that your target audience is interested in but wouldn’t mean much to other people. To start promoting your contest do a search in Google for “Contest Directories” and you’ll find lots of places to list your contest for free.

6. Include a Powerful Signature on all Outgoing Email. Every time you send a piece of mail you have the potential to get a visitor to your site. Simply create a “signature” that is automatically added to every outgoing message. Use the signature to briefly explain what you do, give your USP or slogan and add a hyperlink to your site. Once it’s set up you don’t have to think about it again!

7. Try Newsletter Classified Ads. There are lots of newsletter publishers who give classified ads to new subscribers. Although these don’t typically bring a huge response, they can generate some traffic if you offer something with a high perceived value but low price tag. They’re also a great way to test new ads to see which ones get the best response. Once you’ve found a winner use it in a PPC campaign, make it your new email signature, run it as a top sponsor newsletter ad or use it as your forum signature.