Online Marketing From Home

Every week I receive several questions from new marketers relating to various aspects of online marketing. Most of these questions are about specific details, such as “I am a complete newbie. Do you think I should join the following membership site…?”

What I have observed from many new marketers is that they often get so caught up in specific details concerning a very small element of online marketing that they completely miss the bigger picture.

Based on the above I have created a new video that covers what I believe to be the four basic pillars of internet marketing:

I know many people have a slow internet connection so I have included some notes below in case you have any problems viewing the video…

The four basic pillars are:

* Product
* Medium
* Traffic
* Monetize

I believe that in order to build a strong foundation for your online business you need all four of these pillars…

1. Product

It can be your own product, a product you are promoting as an affiliate or even a product that you have acquired rights to.

2. Medium

You need a way to showcase your product. Your medium can be a website, blog, Squidoo lens or even just writing and submitting articles to article directories. 

3. Traffic

Let’s face it… Without traffic you do not have customers and without customers you do not have a business.  

4. Monetize

Having traffic is great but unless to can convert that traffic into cash it is pretty meaningless.

Only once you have your four basic pillars or foundation in place should you start getting into specific details. For example, what is the point of improving your sales copy or adding adsense to your website when you have no traffic? Why focus on getting more traffic when you know your website is a mess?

There are two other factors that I have not included in the four pillars but which are very important. I have not included them because you can make money online without them but I consider them critical long-term success factors. They are:

* Goals
* Niche

Goals

Your goals will have a direct impact on how successful you are!

For example, do you want to make $100 a day or $100 a week? How much money do you want to make and should this be a recurring monthly income?

Let’s assume your goal is to make $10,000 every month and you are selling an ebook for $10 a copy. This means you need to sell 1,000 copies a month, every month!

Assuming you are selling the ebook from your website and your sales copy converts at 2% this means you need 50,000 targeted visitors a month to gross $10,000 a month.

You may need to adjust your plan, for example establish an affiliate program, add a One Time Offer, add some affiliate products, or revise your goal…

What I find strange is how some people complain they are not making enough money online but when you ask them what their current income streams are you find out they don’t really have anything in place, are doing nothing to promote their product, or are trying to make a fortune selling a cheap $5 report that they have resell rights for that everyone else is giving away for free and that is completely outdated.

Niche

Niche discovery and research is one of the most important but often misunderstood or neglected concepts in online marketing.

You need to find a niche that is right for YOU and take the time to research the niche to ensure that it is viable. I have covered this important topic in great detail in my book Niche Marketing Uncovered and there is no need to elaborate on this point.

Just one comment… There are several membership sites that will provide you with 5, 10 or 20 niche markets on a monthly basis. I honestly don’t think this is a good approach. Trying to make money from a niche that you have no interest in is not ideal.

One example… Article marketing can be a good method to drive free traffic to your site. However, how many articles can you write on a topic that is as interesting to you as counting the warts on your average warthog?

Yes, you can pay other people to write the articles for you. But, it is going to cost you money and may not necessarily be well written.

In order to succeed to need to plan and take massive action!

Here are some steps that will help:

Step 1 – What are my goals?
Step 2 – Find the right niche for YOU.
Step 3 – Decide on your product offering.
Step 4 – Develop your medium.
Step 5 – Drive targeted traffic.
Step 6 – Monetize your traffic.    
Step 7 – Continuous improvement.

So, before you start wondering if it is a good idea to spend $47 a month on Mr. Marketer’s private label rights membership site remember there are no short cuts to building a profitable online business. 

Tip 1 – Use leverage!
 
Leverage basically means getting more done with the same effort. A good example is setting up your own affiliate program once you have developed your own product. Why try to go it alone when you can have hundreds of affiliates promoting your product?

Tip 2 – Over deliver!    

The internet can be a very crowded market place. You need to stand out from the crowd and one of the best ways is to over deliver. Work on exceeding your customer’s expectations and this will set you apart from the vast majority of online marketers.

Tip 3 – Focus on helping people!

Many marketers only focus on how they can stuff more money into their pockets instead of how they can really help people. You will make a lot more money in the long-term if your key focus is helping other people. And, it is a great feeling knowing you are making a difference!

Trust you have enjoyed this post. I am sorry it is a bit long… I tried to keep it as short as possible but did not want to cut out too many important points.

To YOUR Online Marketing Success!

Francois du Toit 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 8:17 am and is filed under Online Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.