Internet Marketer, Graduate Student, Radical Dude.
Posts tagged making money
Forbes Does Internet Marketing: Hit Or Miss?
Dec 16th
It looks like Internet marketing has really hit the prime time these days – even Forbes is getting in on the buzz. In their marketing/sales section, there have been several articles aimed directly at web entrepreneurs. Here’s one of them: More >
Content Sites – Admitting My Weakness
Nov 26th
I feel like complete honesty is necessary – after all, if you can’t trust me to be honest then how can you trust me?
When I’m writing a sales letter, this would be the “damaging admission” section. The moment when you let down your guard and reveal yourself as human. You tell your lead, “Hey, I’m not perfect.” This psychological tactic lets your reader connect with you on a deeper level, and can win you a lot of business! But that’s not the lesson for today. You can learn more about damaging admissions later…
Today I’m here to admit my own weakness in this whole Internet business. When you get into Internet marketing, the first thing you realize is: wow, there’s a lot of ways to make money online. This realization either becomes your trap or your gateway to making real profits.
- If you see all those opportunities and start flailing your arms, swatting at them, trying to grab up as many money-making methods as possible – you will fail! You will spread yourself too thin trying to learn it all. And in the end, you won’t be good at any of the methods. Chances are you’ll end up that guy that knows a lot about marketing, but doesn’t have any results to show for it.
- If you see the variety of methods and settle on one (maybe two), you stand an excellent chance of becoming the master in that area. You can learn everything about your business model, dominate it, and apply it over and over again to different niches.
I found my method, and I’ve been dominating for a couple years now. But it’s time to expand. It’s time to look outside the box, and find ways to boost my existing income streams. Sure, I could always just create more products in more niches. But that gets old after a while. I know my strength is in ONE LITTLE TINY NICHE. And I make a killing there. So now I want to increase my market share in that niche.
My biggest weakness is content sites!
So what, you say? Who needs content sites when you can just put up a sales letter and forget it? Well, if you want to own your market, you need to provide value-add to your clients or customers. You gotta give them more than they ask for. And sometimes, providing that value to potential customers can win you new business.
Well I suck at creating and maintaining this kind of content. And that’s gotta change. For 2009, my plan is to put together a small network of content sites around my niche. These sites will act as a resource for existing customers, a place to gather opt-ins and build my list, and a portal for expanding the scope of my entire business.
There’s my early New Year’s resolution, and my damaging admission for the day. If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave them in my comments. Any encouragement is welcome, too.
And maybe you can learn something from this post – what’s your biggest weakness? What’s stopping you from maximizing your profits? Identify and eliminate it. If you put down a road map, you will have an easier time getting from Point A to Point B.
Good luck, and happy early Thanksgiving!
My Article Marketing Secret of the Day
Nov 24th
Some of you may know that part of my business is writing articles. In fact, if you do a little snooping, you can find dozens of articles authored by yours trulyfloating around. Why am I doing this? Articles submitted to article directories get backlinks! These backlinks are applied toward your Google search rankings. So you better believe this is important.
I thought I might share a little inside secret with everyone today. Any experienced article writers can probably skip over this posting, because you already know about this secret.
Check out this website:
JetSpinner.com – Your Article Spinning Resource
It should have openned in a new window, so you can continue reading here and checking out that page. Watch the video. See what JetSpinner has to say. You should quickly realize the benefits of using this tool.
So you spend a few minutes writing a quick article. How do you maximize the return on your work? Spin it! You’ll get multiple articles out of that one bit of work. These articles can be submitted to different article directories or posted on your blogs.
You might be wondering, “Why can’t I just submit the same article everywhere?” Because of duplicate content- the kiss of death from Google. If you post the same article in more than one place, Google sees through your ploy. They won’t count those backlinks toward your search ranking. That’s a waste of your time and effort.
So there you have it. That’s the secret of the day, and I’m glad to provide it. If you want to know more about article marketing (I know there are some new IMers here), check out UndercoverBum.com – my favorite little resource for learning about the basics.
Good luck, all! And go make some money.
ReubenRock.com Buys Another House
Nov 13th
Okay, so the title is a little misleading. I have not, in fact, bought another house. But I am looking to do so – and being in the market is a perpetual thing for me.
Why am I on the lookout? Because the deals are out there. EVERYWHERE. Right now is a bad time for the housing market. You’ve heard it on the tv, radio, from friends, and wherever else. Can’t sell a house right now, can’t get a mortgage right now. Not without stellar credit or a load of cash.
Well my friends… it pays to be resourceful. If you can locate these deals and mine them properly – then you have yourself a sweet cash cow of an investment.
If you don’t know anything about real estate, that’s not a bad thing. Sometimes knowing too much keeps you from buying great investment properties. But I do recommend learning a little before jumping in. For instance, find the worst house in the best neighborhood. Find motivated sellers, even desparate sellers! Etc. Etc. Etc.
This post is a little cryptic, but that’s ok. The fact is, you need to figure this stuff out for yourself. Find experts, ask questions, keep your eyes open. You’ll find what you’re looking for – but you have to be looking for it first.
In the mean time, I’ll be mining some gold.
Sell Something on eBay This Year
Oct 30th
Back with an easy tip that can get you started toward a new chapter in life. Let’s imagine you get into a tough financial bind – maybe you come up short for a utility bill. If only you had a couple hundred bucks to pay your bill, you could avoid falling behind in your payments.
With your credit on the line, what can you do?
Well, my favorite way to raise funds has always been to sell off old possessions. Lots of people quickly resort to borrowing money from somewhere, and I sincerely advise against it. If you just need a quick injection of cash, you don’t always need to borrow it! Instead, take a look around your house. You see all that crap lying around that you don’t use? You probably don’t even remember it’s there. Maybe those old school textbooks gathering dust. Maybe it’s the iPod you had to have, but never use. How about that birthday present from mom that just missed the mark? All of these things are sources of quick cash.
In the old days, people would throw together a quick garage sale or try to sell to their friends. Now, you don’t have to do that. In fact, you can usually get a better price for your junk by selling it on eBay. Of course, you probably know that by now. This is 2008! Everybody knows about eBay!
But do you actually use it? Are you a rabbid eBay buyer? Then why are you not an equally rabbid eBay seller? It’s so easy that once you’ve done it, you’ll never go hungry again. Go check out eBay’s seller info right now and see how simple it is to list something for sale.
Your new eBay selling skills will come in handy in the future, too. When I want a new guitar, how do I quickly raise funds to buy it? I sell some old gear on eBay to pay for the new guitar – and my wife smiles knowing that I’m not emptying the checking account. Instead, I’m de-cluttering the house by getting rid of useless stuff.
Try it out this year and you’ll see just how valuable this skill is. Raise quick cash, never be without!
