Member 12 part course “Internet Business Know How” covers; The importance of building and email list and using it to make more money from your internet business. How affiliate programs work and why your internet business need them. The real truth about running and internet business including some of the disadvantages of online marketing! Some simple, yet effective ways to build a content rich website and why it’s important to your business. The different type of resell rights and how to use them to benefit your business. Member content > [membership level=”Free”]
Internet Business Know How
Internet marketing is a combination of marketing and selling products and services online. This type of business is growing in popularity, with millions of people now purchasing online every day. Internet marketing started in the early 1990s as mainly a means of product identification, consisting mostly of written descriptions.
As technology grew, internet marketing quickly grew to include photos and other rich graphics as a means of advertising for products and services. After taking notice of the incredible possibilities of this avenue of selling, internet-based businesses began to open their virtual shops for business. Unlike what is happening in what are now known as “brick and mortar” businesses, these e-businesses extend their merchandise to an increasing number of buyers, conducting almost all of their transactions in the virtual stores of the internet.
There are numerous kinds of marketing online. These include article marketing, blog promotions, e-mail sales letters, search engine marketing (to include search engine optimization), banner ads, pay-per-click ads, and pop-up advertising.
It is imperative to know that each of these methods captures the attention of the target customer in a unique way, and some work better than others depending on what is being sold, the target audience, and the method and goal of the business marketing itself. Among the things that may require using a varied method are customer service, sales, public relations and information management.
Internet marketing has also become an important part of many “brick and mortar” businesses, but online-only companies have offered some competition in the area of retail sales. While other online-only businesses have spread out into methods such as online auctions. There are even places that allow the consumer to set a price and others that help the consumer find the best deal. Affiliate marketers have appeared, adding another avenue for online marketers. These businesses work on what is called pay for performance. Even the homebound crafter has a place on the internet to sell creations.
Online marketing offers many benefits. A person can shop anytime, anywhere as long as there is a place to connect to the internet. Partnerships enjoy a greater chance of working. Online shopping has added efficiency and speed over the old way of doing business. Even costs have been dramatically lowered. Sales taxes have yet to catch up with the internet and most times these added charges to consumers are non-existent.
Online security and the sometimes unreliability of internet connections are two disadvantages of internet sales. Progress is slowly being made to rectify both these problems and it is a sure bet that the progress will continue until solutions are found.
2 Internet Business Know How
We are going to go over some of the disadvantages of internet marketing.
With everything, there are both advantages and disadvantages. It’s that way when it comes to managing an internet business too. Keep in mind that internet marketing isn’t static. As things change, what we consider a disadvantage today may become an advantage tomorrow. With that, new disadvantages will take the place of these.
The lack of human interaction is a big disadvantage in internet marketing. When a person enters a store, he or she can ask for advice, gain information, and interact with a human. Many people don’t like the impersonal feeling that comes from shopping online. Telephones and chat rooms exist, but these do not help internet marketing give the same feeling as having a live person in front of you. So, even if a customer goes online for product information, they may end up choosing to buy the product in person anyway.
Internet marketing is not a free activity. There are costs involved in building and maintaining a website and buying hardware and programs to help run your business. There are, of course, costs in running a brick and mortar store that internet marketing does not have. Depending on what angle you approach it from, the cost involved could be considered acceptable.
When websites go down, customers can’t get to you. You lose sales and they become frustrated about having to seek a product elsewhere. This may not deter the customer who is in this situation once, but repeated times will cause him to take his business somewhere he can feel is reliable.
Safety has led many customers to avoid shopping online. Many people are afraid of identity theft and other forms of fraud that stop them from buying things online. You might have done everything possible to insure your customer’s privacy, but some people still will not trust the internet.
While the number of people online is steadily increasing, not everybody has gotten there. A major portion of the population will never see your site because they do not have internet access. Finally, you may find yourself targeting the wrong population if you do all your business online and don’t take time to come face to face with the customer to make sure what you are selling is what the customer wants.
3 Internet Business Know How
Winning is what it’s all about, and in the internet marketing game, you’re going to have to be dedicated to success if you stand half a chance of winning. Competition is at its peak on the internet. Nobody sets out with any though less than winning. You have to reach the top before you will even think about succeeding. You need to become known even before you sell a product. That’s the very nature of an internet businesses.
You will need to know and successfully target the customers in your area of sales. With all the competition out there, consumers have a great deal of choice and you risk being skipped over if your sales tactics aren’t the best. You need to know your customer and understand how they make their purchases. If you have the money to do an actual market research that can definitely benefit your business. If not, you still need to become as familiar as possible with your target audience and their spending habits.
Article writing is a very effective way to advertise your web presence. With the right content, you catch the attention of those seeking answers and lead them to your website. You can write articles yourself or have others write for you. The object is to get people thinking of you as an expert in your field. They will be more likely to view your website if that is the case.
E-mail selling is one of the simplest yet most effective ways of reaching your consumers. You start out at an advantage because the customer has already signed up for your list and indicated he was interested in what you had to say. A personalized email message will help deepen the connection between you and your customer. This is the only method used by online marketers that has that advantage.
Whatever marketing methods you try, make sure you have done your homework and know exactly who your customer is and what they want to spend their money on. This is the first major step in success.
4 Internet Business Know How
Have you ever heard the expression “Two heads are better than one”? Or how about the idea that people “work together”? There are many other ways to convey the same message. The message is that people or businesses can accomplish more by banding together than they can alone. It’s been proven to succeed in any undertaking, and it has even applied in the world of internet marketing. Online, this idea is called an affiliate program.
Affiliate programs, also called partner programs, associate programs, or referral programs, are deals between you and an internet marketer in which you supply an advertisement or in some other way link to the merchant’s website. Every time you recommend this person, you are compensated for your referral. Depending on the what kind of affiliate program you join, and the conditions of participation, you may earn your commission either for sales resulting from your referral or simply for sending a possible customer-sometimes for both.
If you are a business owner, it will benefit you to join an affiliate program because you are boosting your visibility and that of your merchandise. This has been an important method of achieving success for a large number of internet sellers. You can literally increase you website visitors by thousands with one well-placed ad on an affiliate’s site. With this kind of traffic increase, sales, an profits, will also increase.
If you are offering only information, this could be your only means of realizing a profit. If you are providing information or entertainment free of charge to readers, you have to figure out another method of earning money. Affiliate programs will enable you to do just that. You start by joining an affiliate program that ties in with the information you offer and place an ad in an easy to see spot. If the ad is relevant to your visitors they will click it to get more information. The more people who click through, the more money you get. It’s really a very easy and smart process.
In the competitive area of internet sales, you have to find a way to earn the money you’re aiming for. Affiliate programs offer a way to accomplish this easily and efficiently. They really are an important source of income for any online business.
5 Internet Business Know How
You have probably thought about starting your own newsletter. Most of us have thought about it, yet most have not yet made the leap. There may be various reasons why, but there are numerous more reasons why you must.
First, let me get rid of any worries you may have about putting out your own newsletter. It really isn’t as hard as you may believe. You don’t have to publish it weekly, or even bi-weekly. You can publish a monthly newsletter that other love to see. You also don’t need a college degree to publish a successful newsletter. All you really need is proper spelling and grammar-and quality information. It doesn’t hurt to include special products also.
The greatest thing about having a newsletter is how greatly it will affect your business. There’s no arguing the fact that a newsletter will encourage your customers to make return visits to your site. A free newsletter will allow them to know you value their loyalty and patronage. This makes for a customer who will return because he is happy with you.
Your newsletter will not only help you by making your customers feel satisfied, but if put out in the correct way can also attract new customers. If you make sure your content is interesting to both your current customers and potential customers, the chances increase that the newsletter will be passed onto others.
For example, you extend an offer for a freebie or discount to new customers in your newsletter and distribute it to your present, happy and loyal customers. If they are satisfied, they will see your offer and pass it onto someone who may not otherwise know of this offer.
In addition to the reasons I’ve already mentioned, sending out a newsletter also marks you as somewhat of an expert. Your customers will see you a person who really understands the product or service that you’re selling and this will help build a trusting relationship with your customers. This can give you the edge over competitors.
It should now be obvious to you how effective a tool publishing a newsletter can be. You will see the benefits as sales increase and profits grow.
6 Internet Business Know How
In order for your business website to receive free targeted traffic you need to get good search engine rankings. This is done by providing good keyword rich content that both your visitors and the search engines are attracted to.
This is the most effective way for you to increase your visibility online. The greater the number of people searching for what you sell, the more customers you are apt to get. Keywords aren’t going to do the job alone. If they would, you could simply list every keyword you come up with and people would flock to your site.
But what are they going to see when they arrive at your site? If it’s just keywords in a list, they’ll leave. That’s why it’s essential that you create a site that is both noticeable and content-rich.
The internet is all about information. Regardless of what else people want, they are searching the web for information of one type or another. With this in mind, it is your job as the online marketer and business owner to create a site full of information that will not only bring customers to your site, but make them stay there long enough for you to get their business. If information is all you are providing, a content-rich site is even more important. If the content is lousy, people won’t be back.
The best methods of making your site content-rich consist of a great deal of writing. Writing articles that will inform and entertain readers is one way. These articles need to be related to your target customer’s interests. The greater the number of short articles you write concerning the many varied aspects of the focus of your site, the more effective they will be.
Adding news information will increase the site’s content richness. Information concerning some new aspect of the market will increase the value of your site. Something as simple as an interview, special report, or product descriptions will make your content better.
The last thing to keep in mind is that your content must be updated often. The same old information will become boring, so you need to keep adding new information to keep it fresh. Since keywords are what get the most notice, the more content you have, the more chances you will have to include those essential keywords.
When you update your content, be certain to add in as many keywords as possible to that content. It’s all about getting attention and making a profit, and keywords and content are the methods that will help you get where you want to be.
7 Internet Business Know How
There are several types of resell rights. These rights can be purchased from the owner of the product. They allow you to resell a product to others and keep the profits for yourself. Some products have strict restrictions while others can be more flexible and allow you to change the product, give it a new name, and sell it as your own.
Let’s briefly go over the more common types of rights available:
– Give Away Rights
This license allows you to give the item away to others as long as you don’t charge them anything for it.
– Royalty Rights
These rights are similar to that given to authors and publishers. Every time you sell an item, you have to give a certain percentage of the money earned to the original owner..
– Resell Rights
These rights not only give you permission to sell the item to anyone you wish, but you keep all money made on the sale.
– Basic Resell Rights
With these types of rights, you again keep all money made from the sale. You have permission to sell the item, but whoever buys it from you is not allowed to sell it.
– Private Label Rights
This is the most flexible kind of resell rights. With these, you can put your own name on an item as if it was yours to start with. You can change it, rename it and claim it as your own. You also have complete control over its sale and what rights you prefer to sell it with, if any.
– Master Resell Rights
With this type of right whomever you sell a product to has the ability to turn around and sell it to someone else. The unique aspect of these rights is that they are separate from the product and can be sold alone or attached to the individual product.
Utilizing resell rights as a way of earning income is gaining in popularity. This is only one of the numerous new methods in internet marketing that can be used to your benefit. The main thing is utilizing resell rights for your own benefit. Let me explain how you can do this.
More than likely, you have already decided upon a niche market you are comfortable with. The popularity of ebooks and other digital products makes the idea of having resell rights to at least one product is very appealing. It’s not only from the fact that you can earn money from the resale of these products, but also from the fact that they can add additional appeal to your business.
People love to learn, and what better way to make your current customers happy than by giving them an e-book or other digital product on a subject that you already know they want further information on.
If you’re new to online marketing you should look into resell rights as an option, also. Information products sell quickly in just about every business and even if it isn’t the most reliable market research method, finding out about the most popular ebooks will give you an idea for the existing demand in the market in question. As you do this, you will also become familiar with what kinds of products are available in your area.
There are a variety of ways you can benefit from resell rights. Initially, you can make a profit by selling the product and even the resell rights if you own them. This works very well for most individuals, especially if you have gained access to a great product.
The next way having resell rights can benefit you is by aiding you in establishing your trustworthy character and honesty with your customers. Advertising is a necessity, but it doesn’t hold the reputation it once did. However, if you can provide useful products full of information to your customers, they will start seeing you as an expert in your field.
Lastly, reselling products can be a business itself. Although there is definitely a lot of competition in this area, there is still a profit to be had. Keep in mind, however, that quality must come first. The competition in reselling digital items is fierce, but you can definitely earn a name for yourself if you can offer a quality product.
8 Internet Business Know How
Essentially a joint venture is two (sometimes more) business owners joining in partnership to increase visibility, sales and profits. This type of partnership offers the people involved several benefits, which makes them a great option for many business people.
Joint venture it a system of marketing that involves forming a partnership for the purpose of each partner making more money. Also known as a strategic alliance, this type of endeavor boosts the assets and resources of each company involved, and both parties realize benefits.
The partnership makes it possible for all parties to add the other’s customers to their own list. This is not link trading or banner trading. Those promotion methods do not utilize the invaluable benefits of good customer relationships and business integrity that are the main elements of successful joint venture partnerships.
The idea of a joint venture is wonderful for those who are attempting to target a certain niche market and there are additional businesses currently doing business with this market successfully. Entering into a joint venture with one of these businesses would make that market available to you quicker and with better results than if you tried to enter the niche without help. It also offers you a chance to become known in this area without having to spend a great deal of money.
There are additional good points of joint ventures. You may find yourself gaining immediate credibility through association as a result of your partner’s good reputation. More people will be seeing your advertising, so your sales will increase. You will also be able to offer your customers more merchandise by including that of your partner. You profit from this partnership while increasing your customer’s satisfaction by offering something they previously did not have available.
There are many ways that joint ventures are beneficial. You both get free advertising, access to an established customer list, increased credibility and access to more merchandise to offer to your customers, which will benefit both you and your partner.
9 Internet Business Know How
We are going to go over some simple niche marketing tips for your internet business. There is an interesting area of internet marketing that is referred to as niche marketing. While niche can mean different things, it is used here to indicate a very specialized market. Retail stores are an excellent example to illustrate what niche marketing is. A large department store can sell thousands of different products in the same building. A corner store only offers a limited number of products, but it is very likely that these items are limited to a special brand or are unique in some aspect. That’s exactly how niche marketing works.
Niche marketing is the ideal choice for new internet marketers who don’t have a lot of money or are limited in time. A major retail store would cost a lot of money for merchandise and require a ton of effort to be put forth. Niche marketing, on the other hand, offers drastically less costs and a much more manageable workload. These things will help someone who is new to this area.
This is how it works. First, you find out what products are needed and what people need them. Then you find out where these people tend to congregate. Forums, interest groups and chat rooms all offer people with a specific interest to get together. Posting to these boards by non-members is often allowed. Know the kind of person you are seeking in a customer and it will be easy to find them online. Join in the board discussions and eventually make a comment about your product and where to find it.
A paid ad on a website that focuses only on the area that your product fits into is another option. Before placing such an add, check out the website and make sure it is a place where you would want your ad. Is it a reputable site? Will they offer a good spot for your advertisement? Is it a site your target audience would actually visit?
When you specialize, you don’t have to contact people in all areas, but only those who would be interested in your niche product. Your efforts aren’t spread out but can be intensely focused on a specific market. This enable you to increase sales by being more likely to reach those who are interested in your particular product.
10 Internet Business Know How
Now we are going to talk about using auto responders to help automate your internet business. Do you often feel you spend more time answering customer emails then working on your business itself? Are your customers getting upset with how long it is taking you to reply? If you’ve answered “yes” to either of these questions then you’ll be able to comprehend the benefits of auto-responders.
Auto responders come in different forms. Some run along with your mail program and still others are completely separate. Either auto responder will accomplish many tasks. If you have specialized e-mail needs to deal with or have a lot of e-mail that needs to be handled, you may want to think about the auto responder program that’s run through your web host.
Auto responders are wonderful for maintaining customer’s satisfaction with fast answers to their most general questions. Say you have a newsletter that your customers can subscribe to. An auto responder can automatically distribute a newsletter without you doing anything. You can set this up for questions concerning general information like price lists.
Not only do auto responders make every day email tasks faster, but they can also be very helpful in mailing batches of other information to your customers. For example, say you’ve changed your price list need to inform your customers, or you’ve written an article that you want to distribute to your mail list. You can utilize an auto responder to take care of this chore for you.
Adding a personalized signature to auto responder messages is easy. You can include whatever contact information and message you like. When you give the messages a personalized touch customers will respond positively.
Auto responders are one of your best assets because they save time and money. Most auto responders are free to try and very inexpensive. They take the mundane, time-consuming tasks and make them easier. Consider how much other work you can accomplish while your auto responder deals with the routine email tasks for you.
They are also important assets because they keep your customers from becoming disgruntled with the slow reply that they would receive if you had to deal with your emails individually. Everyone knows that unhappy customers don’t make repeat purchases, which means you lose sales.
11 Internet Business Know How
We are going to go over some great ways to your mailing list to make more money. There are numerous ways to earn money with your mailing list. Simply having a large mailing list is no guarantee you’ll earn money with it, however. The secret to earning money with your mailing list is utilize it as a tool to not only get [people to your site but to tempt them into buying once they visit.
Below are some suggestions you can use to make the best of your mailing list.
The first way to make money with your mailing list is to continually seek new subscribers to your list. It is necessary to have a large amount of visitors to your site to do this. If you send out regular mailings to your customers, you can encourage them to forward the message by offering specials or freebies for new subscribers. You also need to make certain that your visitors can quickly find subscription information for your mailing list on your website.
Compelling offers will work wonders for helping you use your mailing list to make money. These can include free e-books, newsletters and free articles on relative subjects or a series of free how-to reports related to your product. Any of these things can be sent through e-mail, or you can place them on your site to encourage people to go there and download the item. Just make certain they won’t be hard to find.
While extending these offers, be sure to tell your readers, how much you would like to have them forward the newsletter. Make certain to include an easy-to-read signature on the mailing that lists your name, your company’s name and any other contact information. As long as the message is important and offers valuable your readers will gladly pass it along to others.
There are other ways of earning money with your mailing list. Some people with huge, established mailing lists have started renting, selling and exchanging mailing lists. A few words of caution about doing this:
– Make certain you find out any rules, regulations or laws regarding the trading mailing lists.
– Think about the feelings of your customers before agreeing to sell or swap your list. Many will feel like you have violated a trust by not asking for their permission ahead of time. Making money with your mailing list is a wonderful achievement, just remember it takes a little time and effort, but you will see profits increase and your customer list grow.
12 Internet Business Know How
* Finding in demand products for bigger profits.
The first step in running a successful internet business is providing something that a lot of people are looking to buy. It is a good idea to do your homework and know for sure that there is a big demand for what you plan to sell before you try to market it. You may get lucky, but the chances of that happening aren’t very good if no one is actively searching for what you have to offer.
Skimping on the research won’t work on this step. Make a list of every niche you are interested in, then, research thoroughly. Once you know if there is a demand and how much of a demand there is, you will be in a better position of choosing your product or service.
One way you can check the need for a certain item is to join the forums in your target area. Get an idea for what people are talking about while you interact with them. Listen for people saying they can’t find something they have been searching for. This is the best place to start your research.
The internet has numerous tools to help you with your search. Entering keywords and phrases will narrow down your search. Some tools will tell you how many people used that term to search in a certain amount of time. Another thing to look at is the number of clicks. Clicks and hits will tell you how much of a demand there is for your niche. The higher the number, usually the higher the demand is for items in that area.
Other tools tell you how many people have visited a site. You may decide a certain niche is in high demand. You don’t see many websites devoted to it. Checking how many people actually visit those existing sites will let you know whether there are so few because there isn’t enough of a market-or it will verify that there is indeed a market waiting for you.
By doing your research thoroughly, you will find some of your ideas workable and some not worth the effort. Use your common sense and make the decision for which niche is best. [/membership]
