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Attract Your Dream Customer!
Copyright 2005 Kinesis, Inc. Have you clearly defined your target audience? These are the prime buyers of your products or services. It is the people or organizations you are pursuing actively as customers. You don’t need every customer in the...
Get Out of Your Head to Improve Your Business
The classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson tells the story of
one man's struggle with his duel personalities - Dr Jekyll, the
kind and respected physician, and the violent Mr Hyde.
But if you think living as two separate people is hard,...
Inexpensive Ways to Promote Your Business :: Part 1
Ok you have your business model, the I's are dotted and your T's
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Viral Marketing Techniques Every Web Site Should Be Using
Viral marketing can work wonders for any business, web site or product. It can be a great source of sales leads, one-way links and targeted traffic. Yet, many marketers are not taking full advantage of this 'viral factor' in their marketing...
Why does a business fail and what can you do to stop it?
I believe the number one reason why a business will fail is lack of planning. This can be due to various reasons, perhaps because the market research wasn't sufficiently carried out in the first place, or because the financial burden was higher than...
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The Newbie's Guide To Profiting Online Part 5
The Newbie's Guide To Profiting Online Part 5 How To Sell
There are plenty of creative ways that you can start marketing
your products to potential customers. Of course these aren't all
the processes of profit generation, but those listed are some
pretty darn good ones. Take some time to read up on each one and
try them out. Everyone's path to success is a different one, and
yours will be no exception. Most of the methods listed below are
more commonly used for selling information products online, but
can be adapted to selling physical products also.
Keep in mind, these methods I've outlined for you below are just
basic descriptions and there are many different products
available that describe each one or a combination of them in
lots more detail. Think of this as your "selling dictionary" so
that when you begin learning the actual process of selling,
you'll know many of the terms that are discussed ahead of time.
The Traffic Method Using traffic exchange sites is a great way
to begin sending floods of visitors to your online store or web
site. If people don't know about your business, then how do you
expect to make any money from it? That's where these exchanges
come in. Although, it's not without plenty of effort and time
that will get those visitors to your site. If you want to
participate for free, then expect to spend lots of time looking
at other participants web sites to earn credits that go towards
getting visitors to your own site.
An alternative is to pay for traffic if this is in your budget.
Understand though that just because you pay to get the people
visiting your site doesn't mean that they buy, or even stay
longer than 30 seconds. I would suggest that you try the free
traffic generation options available to test the waters. There
have been many informative ebooks written on the subject with
new ones cropping up all the time due to the popularity of this
method. A wonderful ebook on this is Auto Hits Machine.
The Forum Method This is a pretty simple, but effective method.
Forums have long been an incredible source for information. So
why not start participating in them?! Use a basic search engine
and find the right forum that discusses the subject matter that
pertain to the products you are intending to sell. Join the
forum. Read the posts. Offer your own unique perspective on
them. Be helpful. Be friendly.
Everything isn't always about selling, even though this is your
main goal. There are plenty of routes to get you where you're
headed. It's often said that you must give before you can
receive. No truer words were ever spoken. Especially when
selling online!
You must be prepared to give something away, even if it's just
your own experience, friendly advice, or much needed help by
those also participating and accessing the forum. Remember also
that there is an existing advertising space already available
inside almost every single forum. The signature. This is where
you want to place a link to your product, web site, or service
with a tiny bit of "mouth-watering" descriptive text. Use that
space! It's just as important as participating in the forums.
You want to get the word out, so do so in a rather unobtrusive
way with the signature tag.
The Blogging Method Starting your own blog is not only easy, it
can also be very therapeutic. And in some cases very lucrative!
Many bloggers are making nice profits just from their blogs
alone. How can you do this? Simple! Set up a product review
section that describes your personal opinions on those products
listed, and if you like them, be sure to add an affiliate link
to them. Or you could place banner advertisements on your blog
and even charge others for placing their advertisement banners
inside your blog. Also, you can add Google box ads inside your
blog along the side or even within your posts. You could even
have people interested in the information you provide inside
your blog pay a monthly fee to access it. There are plenty of
creative ways to profit from your own blog. If you have no idea
what a blog is, or how to begin one, then be sure to download
the Blogging Power Package. Everything you could need to know is
inside.
The Affiliate Method By far, this is the most inexpensive and
easiest method to use. Every single day people just like you
begin earning money from simply signing up for various affiliate
programs. It won't cost you a thing past a few minutes to begin
earning. That is, you need to become an affiliate before you can
see any rewards. Most all affiliate programs will give you all
the information and tools you need to begin seeing profits. They
want you to succeed.
Otherwise, if you fail, they do too and no money is made for
either end. A word of caution though, not all affiliate programs
are created equal. Or even close! Some actually pay their
affiliates and some, well, beat around the bush and it could
take up to 3-6 months to see even one dime from them. Be sure
that you read all information available on any affiliate program
beforehand. Time is an extremely valuable commodity when doing
business online, and you can't afford to waste it on crappy
products or programs that bring you zilch results.
The Auction Method Another popular method for newbies and
experienced sellers alike. Explosive sites like eBay have
millions of visitors per day, so it's easy to see why this is
such a popular choice for selling products online. It can be
incredibly easy to list an item for sale and make quick cash
when needed with the use of online auctions. However, you must
choose your prices, products, and descriptions very carefully to
make good profits. This takes time of course to learn the best
ways, but it can be well worth it so long as your earnings stay
in the "black", or positive numbers.
To sell through an auction site all you need is an account
through the site itself, which is normally free, a product, and
a payment processor such as PayPal to get your money as fast as
possible. And, most big auction sites like eBay offer plenty of
useful information along with step-by-step instructions to get
you up and "auctioning" quick as a flash.
The "Upsell" Method Upselling is a tactic in where you offer a
product to your customers, they purchase it, and then they are
given the choice on whether or not they would like to upgrade
their purchase with another product. There are different
variations of the upsell and it's purpose is similar to that of
the back end method. Take for instance a product that comes in
three different version, a lite version(usually something that
is free but with limitations put on functionality), a standard
version(most commonly with most features enabled within the
product but less "comfort creatures" such as 24 hour support,
upgrades, etc.), and a pro version(normally this one will have
all the "bells and whistles like free lifetime upgrades to the
product, a special license to profit from reselling the product,
either a resale rights license or an exclusive affiliate
program).
Using the lite version of the product, you can give it away as a
free gift and then those
people you give it to will have the
chance to upgrade the product to a less restrictive version.
This is upselling in a nutshell. There are plenty of products
created out there that use this method to earn more profits.
The Back-End Method This method is very popular in the ebook
information industry. What it does is gives you the power to
pull in more profits after you have made the initial sale to
your customers by providing you with specific links enabling the
reader of the product to buy other related products. Thus
creating a built in back-end sales force that runs on autopilot.
Imagine, if you will, having a product that you can not only
resell over and over again, but one that has additional purchase
links to other associated products within it bringing in more
profits to you without you having to do nothing more than
distribute the original file.
It's a very easy way to earn extra money after the first sale
when you have a good product with a strong back-end. Changing
these back-end links to point to your own special affiliate
links is also referred to as "rebranding". However, full
rebranding gives you special permission and tools to change
other important details that help drive traffic to your site by
providing you with other rebrandible links and text you can
change letting your customers know who has provided this rich
resource of information to them, and most importantly, where
they can get more!
The "FireSale" Method I'm sure you have seen this or at least
heard of it before. This is when a company or organization has a
massive sale at an extremely discounted price to move their
merchandise. Firesales have gained in popularity because of the
sheer amount of profits being pulled in from them. It's not
unreal to hear people say that they earned thousands of dollars
in just 3 days. That's the power of the Firesale. A good
Firesale will offer top quality products for an insanely low
price, with the price going up by any given percentage or dollar
amount throughout the length of the sale. It builds like a fire!
Until it's all over and it has burned out, or run it's course.
There are some marketers that sell products online who dismiss
these types of sales and never get involved in them. I feel they
are doing themselves a great disservice this way. If you can get
some great products for an unheard of price, why not? There are
specific tools you need to run such a sale, and speaking from
experience I have to say that John Delavera has one of the best
called JV Manager. It's pricy, but worth every single penny. Of
course there are others, but my money is on John all the way.
In addition, you'll need to have your own domain and web space
that allows you to upload and access .cgi and, or .php files
since many of these types of Firesale programs run on this
scripting.
The Membership Method Creating your own membership site is a
very profitable business. It also creates a stable flow of
monthly income on a regular basis. That's what makes this method
a great one.
Consider this, you could utilize a content management system
such as PostNuke or Mambo and run the whole thing just from it.
If you're more inclined to offer a place that is specifically
for downloading products like those of the information or ebook
nature, then a file hosting system like TradeBit may be the way
for you to go. Or, you could even run a membership website from
your very own web space with a script such as Membership
Millionaire.
It's not a very difficult method to use, but it is quite time
consuming. And there is a lot of stiff competition with this
type of site because it is such a successful method. So, you
have to think of a way to put a unique spin on whatever it is
you are offering. For instance, you could give your members
original content, private forums to build a helpful community,
video tutorials, etc. This will bump up the value of your
membership site over that of your competition. Usually, this
method doesn't do that well on auction sites since many of those
searching through there are looking for the lowest price they
can find.
The "Recycle" Method Recycling old products for profit is not a
new idea. People have been doing this with paper, cans, and
other assorted items for years. When you are offering an unused,
or used product in your possession for sale, you are recycling
it. So it is with information products too. But, there's a
difference here.
When you offer a used physical product for sale, you offer it
one time, get paid one time, and that's all there is to it. When
you sell an resellable information product, you can sell it as
many times as you are able to, and can profit with back-end
affiliate links or add a free sign up form for your mailing
list, generating new leads and more profits over and over again.
Now, when an information reseller has products that are a bit
older, they will take these and package them up.
In other words, they recycle them and are able to take something
that's been on the market for a while, give it a "face lift"
with new graphics, new sales copy, and BAM! They have an all new
profit generation system. However, they do need to add a few new
things within the collection of the recycled products. It makes
it much easier to get buyers this way. In my book, Info Product
Recycling, this process is clearly explained with more in depth
information on adding this method to your selling arsenal.
The Viral Method Ever heard the saying, "You don't get something
for nothing."? Well, this method power-blasts that into dust!
Just what is a "viral" product? Think of it as a nasty bug. And
this little bug carries itself everywhere until it creates a
full blown virus. That's what this method is all about.
You create your own unique product on whatever topic you decide
on, add lots of good information and affiliate links inside it,
and then give it away. Yes. I said give it away. Everyone likes
getting something for free. What makes this method even better
than just giving great information away is the fact that you
create a product that is chock full of back-end affiliate links
for those that receive it from you to change those back-end
links so they can profit by giving it away.
So how the heck are you suppose to profit after the downloaders
have changed all those links? That's easy! By adding your own
advertisements that cannot be changed with your affiliate or
direct purchase links throughout it! You could put one or two on
every single page or before every chapter of your informative
product. Even though all the other back-end affiliate links can
be changed, those ads cannot. So you'll still generate profits
or mailing list sign ups even though you're giving this specific
product away. This article has been brought to you by the
promtors of Information Today
About the author:
This article has been brought to you by the promtors of Information Today
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