Martket tips that actually work.
Free, original marketing tips for aspiring marketing warriors.
Recommended: Warrior Tools: Four powerful tools for under $5.
Recommended: Warrior Tools: Four powerful tools for under $5.
Four-and-a-half steps to online income
Some of my friends asked me to write something about how I make money online. Okay guys, here it is.
As I see it, there are four major steps to making money online. Maybe four and a half, but I'll talk about that in a minute. Let's start with the big four.
Okay, let's start from the top.
1. Enthusiasm
First, you've got to be interested in what you're writing about and what you're selling. (Even if you're only talking about yourself, you're always selling something. Never forget that.)
If you don't have a product to sell, become an Amazon.com affiliate and recommend specific products there. They pay you a commission on every sale.
If you want to jump into something a little wilder, promote products from Clickbank. Some people get rich in a hurry with Clickbank products.
Mostly, start with a subject that you're excited about, and then find products related to it. (You're always looking for products with affiliate programs. All of them pay commissions when a sale is made.)
If you can't stand the subject or you don't like (or even know much about) the product, it's going to come through in what you write.
I swear, readers can see the imprint of the keyboard on your forehead, from where you fell asleep, mid-sentence.
Seriously, pick a subject that you can stay excited about. I mean really excited about. Something you'd skip the football game for.
(If there isn't anything you'd miss the game for, write about football.)
I mean it. After about two months of writing about anything, it can get pretty boring.
How boring? I'll tell you how bad it can get. You'll even go wash the dishes -- by hand -- rather than sit at your computer and write.
Choose wisely.
Also, only recommend products that you know about, have used, and would give as gifts to family members if you thought they'd actually use them.
2. Writing
Writing isn't as hard as your tenth grade English teacher made it out to be. Even if you had a C-minus grade average in English. Not that I'd know about that, of course.
Write like you talk. No kidding. That's what works best.
If you just can't get your tenth grade teacher's voice out of your head, or if you're a lousy typist, use voice recognition software. Like the ad says, "You talk, it types." I use it myself sometimes.
My favorite program is Via Voice 9.0
from IBM. Get whatever is the newest version. Amazon usually has the best prices.
You've got to train it, but the time you'll spend is worth it. Whether you hate to type, have carpal tunnel pain, or can simply speak faster than you can type, you'll use this program a lot.
When you write, use a spell-checking program. Most word processing programs (like Microsoft Word) include a spell-checker. Just make sure you save what you write as plain text, not as a Word document. (There are things like quotation marks that Word makes fancier. They'll look weird on your webpage.)
If you really can't write, you can hire someone to write for you. Sometimes, you can find a good, cheap writing team who'll handle the work. The cheapest possible articles are usually about $8 each, but you'll probably want to pay at least $15 each for quality work.
The lower the price, the greater chance you'll receive an article that... Well, let's just say that my hound dog, Sniffer, could write better.
Then again, I know people who swear that the quality of the writing really doesn't matter. It's all about keywords and having links that people will click on.
We'll talk about that some other day. For now, I suggest writing your own articles, or hiring someone who really does speak (and write) English.
Elance.com is a good place to start, but there are freelance writing services, too. Just search for them at Google.
You can also get free articles from places like EzineArticles.com. The catch is, you and about a thousand other websites will all have the same article. That's okay if you need to fill in a website in a hurry, but at least half of your articles ought to be unique to your website.
3. A website
You'll need a place to put your articles, and your links to whatever you're recommending or selling.
I always recommend blogs. They're easy to set up, easy to use, and people like them. My favorite blogging software (free) is WordPress, but Blogger is pretty good, too.
WordPress has free hosting for blogs, but you can't link to what you're selling. If WordPress hosts it, your blog can't be an obvious moneymaker.
On the other hand, Blogger is owned by Google and they encourage you to make money with your blog. It's easy to put AdSense on your blog, and you could start making money with it the first day. Not too bad for a free website.
Sooner or later, you're going to want your own website. You can put WordPress on it. That's a real plus.
To create your own website, you'll need two things.
1. A domain name. My domain name is SmartMarketingGuide.com. I recommend Namecheap.com for your domain name, or GoDaddy, which is usually cheaper.
2. A place to host your website.
That's where your website files are kept, and it's how people see what you've placed online.
For hosting, I like Hostgator. It's cheap, but not so cheap that you have problems and then can't reach anyone who actually speaks and understands English.
(If I said that last part with a sneer, it's because I've had too many headaches trying to explain simple problems to bozos who barely speak English and sure don't understand efficiency. Or even good manners.)
Hostgator is inexpensive and their phone staff (24/7) all speak real English. I like them. That's why I pay them to host almost all of my websites.
4. Marketing
There are a whole lot of people who can tell you more about marketing than I can. I'll link to some of them in future blog posts.
In my opinion, you can hire people to do some marketing tasks, but you generally don't want to outsource your whole marketing campaign.
That is, you can hire people to upload your articles to free article sites like EzineArticles.com. That's a good place to be seen.
But, if you leave all of your marketing in the hands of others, you'll have a much tougher time.
Your marketing plan needs to be cohesive. You know, it all has to work together. You can't sell yourself as a good ol' boy at one forum, and then say you got your MBA at Harvard at another forum. You can't sell yourself as a party kind of guy at forums, and at your website mention that you're married with three kids.
It's all gotta hang together.
4 1/2. After you've finished steps 1 through 4...
After you've at least started steps 1 through 4, here's what you'll do next.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
In other words, keep working on steps 2 and 4.
Once you feel comfortable with what you're doing, think about another topic that you're enthusiastic about. Start a new website about it. Follow steps 1 through 4, outlined above.
And just keep goin'.
Some websites will make money. Most will make at least a few dollars each month, if only in AdSense clicks.
Others will pay you nicely, month after month.
In my opinion, it's all in the numbers. The more websites you build and keep updating, the more money you'll make. It's that easy, which isn't exactly easy, but the money makes it worthwhile.
As I see it, there are four major steps to making money online. Maybe four and a half, but I'll talk about that in a minute. Let's start with the big four.
- Find something you're enthusiastic about.
- Write stuff, or get some articles that other people write for you.
- Learn to build a website, or hire the kid next door to do it. (Blogs are easy. That's why I use them.) Put your articles on your website.
- Market yourself, your website and the products you're recommending.
Okay, let's start from the top.
1. Enthusiasm
First, you've got to be interested in what you're writing about and what you're selling. (Even if you're only talking about yourself, you're always selling something. Never forget that.)
If you don't have a product to sell, become an Amazon.com affiliate and recommend specific products there. They pay you a commission on every sale.
If you want to jump into something a little wilder, promote products from Clickbank. Some people get rich in a hurry with Clickbank products.
Mostly, start with a subject that you're excited about, and then find products related to it. (You're always looking for products with affiliate programs. All of them pay commissions when a sale is made.)
If you can't stand the subject or you don't like (or even know much about) the product, it's going to come through in what you write.
I swear, readers can see the imprint of the keyboard on your forehead, from where you fell asleep, mid-sentence.
Seriously, pick a subject that you can stay excited about. I mean really excited about. Something you'd skip the football game for.
(If there isn't anything you'd miss the game for, write about football.)
I mean it. After about two months of writing about anything, it can get pretty boring.
How boring? I'll tell you how bad it can get. You'll even go wash the dishes -- by hand -- rather than sit at your computer and write.
Choose wisely.
Also, only recommend products that you know about, have used, and would give as gifts to family members if you thought they'd actually use them.
2. Writing
Writing isn't as hard as your tenth grade English teacher made it out to be. Even if you had a C-minus grade average in English. Not that I'd know about that, of course.
Write like you talk. No kidding. That's what works best.
If you just can't get your tenth grade teacher's voice out of your head, or if you're a lousy typist, use voice recognition software. Like the ad says, "You talk, it types." I use it myself sometimes.
My favorite program is Via Voice 9.0
from IBM. Get whatever is the newest version. Amazon usually has the best prices.
You've got to train it, but the time you'll spend is worth it. Whether you hate to type, have carpal tunnel pain, or can simply speak faster than you can type, you'll use this program a lot.
When you write, use a spell-checking program. Most word processing programs (like Microsoft Word) include a spell-checker. Just make sure you save what you write as plain text, not as a Word document. (There are things like quotation marks that Word makes fancier. They'll look weird on your webpage.)
If you really can't write, you can hire someone to write for you. Sometimes, you can find a good, cheap writing team who'll handle the work. The cheapest possible articles are usually about $8 each, but you'll probably want to pay at least $15 each for quality work.
The lower the price, the greater chance you'll receive an article that... Well, let's just say that my hound dog, Sniffer, could write better.
Then again, I know people who swear that the quality of the writing really doesn't matter. It's all about keywords and having links that people will click on.
We'll talk about that some other day. For now, I suggest writing your own articles, or hiring someone who really does speak (and write) English.
Elance.com is a good place to start, but there are freelance writing services, too. Just search for them at Google.
You can also get free articles from places like EzineArticles.com. The catch is, you and about a thousand other websites will all have the same article. That's okay if you need to fill in a website in a hurry, but at least half of your articles ought to be unique to your website.
3. A website
You'll need a place to put your articles, and your links to whatever you're recommending or selling.
I always recommend blogs. They're easy to set up, easy to use, and people like them. My favorite blogging software (free) is WordPress, but Blogger is pretty good, too.
WordPress has free hosting for blogs, but you can't link to what you're selling. If WordPress hosts it, your blog can't be an obvious moneymaker.
On the other hand, Blogger is owned by Google and they encourage you to make money with your blog. It's easy to put AdSense on your blog, and you could start making money with it the first day. Not too bad for a free website.
Sooner or later, you're going to want your own website. You can put WordPress on it. That's a real plus.
To create your own website, you'll need two things.
1. A domain name. My domain name is SmartMarketingGuide.com. I recommend Namecheap.com for your domain name, or GoDaddy, which is usually cheaper.
2. A place to host your website.
That's where your website files are kept, and it's how people see what you've placed online.
For hosting, I like Hostgator. It's cheap, but not so cheap that you have problems and then can't reach anyone who actually speaks and understands English.
(If I said that last part with a sneer, it's because I've had too many headaches trying to explain simple problems to bozos who barely speak English and sure don't understand efficiency. Or even good manners.)
Hostgator is inexpensive and their phone staff (24/7) all speak real English. I like them. That's why I pay them to host almost all of my websites.
4. Marketing
There are a whole lot of people who can tell you more about marketing than I can. I'll link to some of them in future blog posts.
In my opinion, you can hire people to do some marketing tasks, but you generally don't want to outsource your whole marketing campaign.
That is, you can hire people to upload your articles to free article sites like EzineArticles.com. That's a good place to be seen.
But, if you leave all of your marketing in the hands of others, you'll have a much tougher time.
Your marketing plan needs to be cohesive. You know, it all has to work together. You can't sell yourself as a good ol' boy at one forum, and then say you got your MBA at Harvard at another forum. You can't sell yourself as a party kind of guy at forums, and at your website mention that you're married with three kids.
It's all gotta hang together.
4 1/2. After you've finished steps 1 through 4...
After you've at least started steps 1 through 4, here's what you'll do next.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
In other words, keep working on steps 2 and 4.
Once you feel comfortable with what you're doing, think about another topic that you're enthusiastic about. Start a new website about it. Follow steps 1 through 4, outlined above.
And just keep goin'.
Some websites will make money. Most will make at least a few dollars each month, if only in AdSense clicks.
Others will pay you nicely, month after month.
In my opinion, it's all in the numbers. The more websites you build and keep updating, the more money you'll make. It's that easy, which isn't exactly easy, but the money makes it worthwhile.
Warrior Tools for Success
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Blog Warrior Tool
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Affiliate Warrior Tool
- Cloaks (disguises) your affiliate URL to protect your affiliate commissions and look more professional.
Tip: As of summer 2009, people can see a product that they like at Clickbank, create their own affiliate link for it. Throw that link on their website, even on a very shady looking webpage. Then, they buy through their own link and they keep the commission themselves!
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Free business promotion at Google
Do you have a brick-and-mortar store or office? (In other words, do you have more than an online business?)
Google is ready to give you a free business listing that can reach local customers in a hurry.
If you've ever used Google Maps to find a location that you want to visit, you've seen what I'm talking about. You search for an address, or a business name and a city or town, and Google shows you a map with likely possibilities.
Here's an example, looking at "computer stores nashua nh". I've added the arrow, pointing to one business in the listings. That's the kind of free listing that your business can have.
In that listing, you can see a small photo. Generally, you'll want your own photo there. The Internet is a very impersonal place, and a friendly face can help you stand out in the crowd.
If your storefront is distinctive and shows well in a tiny photo, you may want that in the listing. Then, when someone's driving to visit your store, they'll recognize it from the picture.
Or, if your product is visually unique (such as your art), use that in the photo. Your potential customers will look at it - even in a tiny thumbnail image - and say, "That's it! That's exactly what I'm looking for!"
But, if your storefront or visually unique product won't stand out in the photo, use a picture of yourself, smiling.
HOW TO GET THAT FREE GOOGLE LISTING
You'll need a street address and a phone number. In the US, Google may call you to verify the listing; in the UK, Google is more likely to send you a text message to confirm.
(If you're strictly an online business with only email contact, you may not qualify for this free listing.)
But, go to this link and see what Google can offer you. This is where you'll sign up for your free listing, too. http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter?gl=US&hl=en-US.
(This same kind of Google listing is available in the UK, etc. Go to your country's Google website and look for their Business Center page.)
HOW TO GET ON THE FIRST PAGE
Of course, these listings won't do you much good if you're on page eight in your category/location. Well, not unless someone is looking for your company or location, specifically. (That can happen, if someone clicks through the listings, looking for the nearest business.)
But, all other things being equal, you'll rank at the Google Map pages about the same as you rank when someone searches in the main Google listings.
In fact, if you can land on the first page in your category, your business may be listed at the top of the page (with a map) in those regular Google listings. Here's a reminder of what that could look like.
To land on the first page, you'll need to use the usual online PR techniques.
These include good incoming links, and lots of them, plus original, relevant, interesting content at your website.
(I include tips for PR techniques like these, with recommended resources, in my PR Cheat Sheet report.)
So, if you have a shop, gallery or business location, consider a free Google business listing. It could bring you even more business.
Thanks to PR Cheat Sheets for this tip.
Google is ready to give you a free business listing that can reach local customers in a hurry.
If you've ever used Google Maps to find a location that you want to visit, you've seen what I'm talking about. You search for an address, or a business name and a city or town, and Google shows you a map with likely possibilities.
Here's an example, looking at "computer stores nashua nh". I've added the arrow, pointing to one business in the listings. That's the kind of free listing that your business can have.
In that listing, you can see a small photo. Generally, you'll want your own photo there. The Internet is a very impersonal place, and a friendly face can help you stand out in the crowd.
If your storefront is distinctive and shows well in a tiny photo, you may want that in the listing. Then, when someone's driving to visit your store, they'll recognize it from the picture.
Or, if your product is visually unique (such as your art), use that in the photo. Your potential customers will look at it - even in a tiny thumbnail image - and say, "That's it! That's exactly what I'm looking for!"
But, if your storefront or visually unique product won't stand out in the photo, use a picture of yourself, smiling.
HOW TO GET THAT FREE GOOGLE LISTING
You'll need a street address and a phone number. In the US, Google may call you to verify the listing; in the UK, Google is more likely to send you a text message to confirm.
(If you're strictly an online business with only email contact, you may not qualify for this free listing.)
But, go to this link and see what Google can offer you. This is where you'll sign up for your free listing, too. http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter?gl=US&hl=en-US.
(This same kind of Google listing is available in the UK, etc. Go to your country's Google website and look for their Business Center page.)
HOW TO GET ON THE FIRST PAGE
Of course, these listings won't do you much good if you're on page eight in your category/location. Well, not unless someone is looking for your company or location, specifically. (That can happen, if someone clicks through the listings, looking for the nearest business.)
But, all other things being equal, you'll rank at the Google Map pages about the same as you rank when someone searches in the main Google listings.
In fact, if you can land on the first page in your category, your business may be listed at the top of the page (with a map) in those regular Google listings. Here's a reminder of what that could look like.
To land on the first page, you'll need to use the usual online PR techniques.
These include good incoming links, and lots of them, plus original, relevant, interesting content at your website.
(I include tips for PR techniques like these, with recommended resources, in my PR Cheat Sheet report.)
So, if you have a shop, gallery or business location, consider a free Google business listing. It could bring you even more business.
Thanks to PR Cheat Sheets for this tip.
Marketing books worth reading
Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?
Amazon Price: $15.57 (as of 01/05/2010) 
All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
Amazon Price: (as of 01/05/2010)
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Amazon Price: $7.49 (as of 01/05/2010)
Reminder - Five Warrior Tools for $4.95
Okay, now you know that I know what I'm talking about. My recommendations are worth listening to.
So, before you leave this webpage, be sure to take advantage of this $4.95 Warrior Tools package. (The price will go up by mid-June, when this set of tools will be repackaged with other products.)
So, before you leave this webpage, be sure to take advantage of this $4.95 Warrior Tools package. (The price will go up by mid-June, when this set of tools will be repackaged with other products.)
by FrugalMarketer
I write ebooks and reports, and published (printed) books, too. I'm also a frugal marketing cynic. If it doesn't work, I don't care how cheap it is.... (more)
