Computers And Internet

Make Money Using Computers and Internet

$150,000 a Year Internet Business A couple of years ago a woman, Sheila, came up with a very simple, but powerful, method for making money on the internet. A method that anyone can copy and profit from.  

Here is what Sheila did:

On America Online there is a forum called “Business Know How.” Within this forum there is a section called, “File Libraries.” The file libraries contain articles that people have uploaded (posted) to the forum. These people may be marketing consultants, software publishers, book publishers or writers and other experts.

 They post the articles in order to get exposure to people who may be interested in their services, kind of like free publicity. By looking at the download statistics for the articles, Sheila was able to determine which ones were the most popular with the members of the forum. As a matter of fact, the number of times a file is downloaded is posted right on the main screen. And since you can sort the articles by number of downloads it is an easy task to find the most popular titles. Now, these articles are usually only 3 or 4 pages long but they contain a wealth of information on just about everything to do with operating a business including advertising, management, pricing, startups, business plans, organization, marketing, etc.

Sheila downloaded several of the most promising articles and wrote the authors to ask for two things:

1. Permission to reprint the reports on floppy disk.

2. Permission to transfer the reprint rights to others.

Now, why on earth would these authors give her permission to reprint their copyrighted material? For the same reason they had uploaded the articles in the first place: FREE PUBLICITY!!! You see, they know the more people who view their articles, the more exposure they get for their products and services and the better chance they have of making a sell. For them, it’s free advertising. And Sheila gets a never ending source of fresh, new reports.

After Sheila got permission from the authors to reprint their articles, she grouped them together according to subject matter and produced 12 disks that featured a different business topic. Each disk contained 5 - 8 different reports that related to the topic. At the bottom of each report there was a “plug” for the author. This “plug” is sometimes called a resource box and generally contains the author’s name, where to contact him and information about the product or service he is offering. It looks just like a classified ad. Now, this is where Sheila got really smart. Instead of just selling the disks herself, she came up with a opportunity catalog and offered the disks for sell four different ways:

1. Retail — You could buy each disk for 12 to 15 dollars.

2. Reprint — You could buy the reprint rights to a disk for 100 - 250 dollars and sell the disk to others at retail.

3. Unlimited — You could buy the reprint rights to a disk and also the right to sell the reprint rights to others. This option cost 300 - 400 depending on the disk. 4. Or, if you were really serious about making money, you could buy the “Business in a Box” which included unlimited reprint and resell rights to all the disks for $3,000. Many people went for the Business-In-A-Box option because Sheila included a discount coupon for $1,500 if they ordered within a certain date that was stamped in red on the coupon. The last I heard, she had sold 100 Business-In-a-Box packages for $1,500 each in less than a year.

Coaching and Training Business People are beginning to discover the benefits the internet affords to facilitating coaching and training through interactive websites, real audio and video, and software products. This is a industry that is getting ready to explode.

Here are several ways to exploit it:

CGI Programming Tutorials If you know CGI programming you can develop online tutorials that teach others how to write programs. You can then either sell access to the tutorials or offer them for free but sell more advanced courses. For an excellent example of this, see…. CGI 101

Web Connectivity Tutorials There is a lot involved to getting your first website connected on the internet. If you have the skills to put it together, people would pay to have a step by step guide — either a book, video or CD — that show them exactly what to do and what software to use.

Java Tutorials Java is the programming language of choose for developing database applications on the web. It allows much more flexibility, speed and bandwidth then CGI. However, Java is much more difficult to learn than CGI. I would approach this business by catering to software programmers who what to learn how to leverage there skills on the web. For example, you could create tutorials that show programmers how to establish database connectivity to websites.

Lead Generation Coaching As long as there are sales people, there will be a demand for prospect leads. And if you can teach sales people how to generate more leads, they will beat a path to your door to get your products. The key to this business is to specialize in one specific industry, ie: insurance agents, real estate agents, car dealers, stock brokers, mortgage brokers, financial advisors, etc. You could create a website that gives them some free information, tips, etc and then sell them more advanced courses in the form of videos or manuals. Here is an example of a site that sells a course to insurance agents: Leads 4 Insurance Internet Marketing Tutorial There are tons of internet marketing courses being sold on the internet. Most of these are in the form of manuals that are downloadable. I think there is a need for a muli-video internet marketing course. This video course would take the viewers from A to Z and SHOW them how to develop and market a website. They would also show how to use software tools, where to advertise, and how to install simple CGI scripts to boost their traffic.

Sales Coaching Unlike lead generation coaching, sales coaching does not necessarily need to be targeted to a specific market but can teach sales techniques in general to a wide variety of sales professionals.

Weight Loss Coaching Develop a website devoted to helping people lose weight. One way to approach this business is to develop a referral center to help people find partners in their quest to lose weight. Then sell weight loss videos, manuals, menu planning or even weekly teleclasses.

Health and Fitness Coaching Similar to weight loss coaching this concept could be adapted to helping people get in shape. Offer videos and manuals on exercise, weight lifting, nutrition, etc.

Online Golf Coach Help people improve their golf game by offering free tips on driving, putting, posture, etc. Sell videos, teleclasses, or manuals.

SAT Test Coaching Offer software training for college bound students who want to increase their SAT scores.

Build a High Profit Internet Community The heart and soul of the Internet are Communities. Usually focused on one particular subject, they provide information and allow people with a similar interest to interact and exchange ideas and information. Revenue from Internet Communities can be generated by offering advertising on the site and by selling products related to the subject. Here are some possible ideas for an Internet Community:

Sports Related A site devoted to a particular sport, football for example, could sell all sorts of football related products including: Autographed footballs, jerseys, helmets, etc. Videos, football cards, fantasy football league software, etc.

Software Downloads Offer free downloads of software demos and sell software manuals, templates, videos and other training tools.

Internet Marketing Provide free access to articles and information about internet marketing. Sell your own or others courses and manuals.

Pets and Animals Specialize on one particular type of pet or animal. Sell products related to that pet or animal. For an example of a niche site for dog owners see: Dog Problems

Health and Fitness This is a hot topic and will continue to be for many years as the Baby Boomers enter their 50’s and 60’s. there are a lot of different angles you could approach with this subject. For example, you could provide information and products on losing weight, body building, reducing the effects of aging, Jogging, etc. It’s tempting to try to cover everything but you will do better to concentrate your efforts on one narrow market.

Genealogy Site Provide information to people who are searching their family tree. Provide free resources and sell genealogy software, Census information, directories of families by state. Provide a family tree research service for a fee.

Shopping Site Build a site that sells a particular type of product and build a community around the product. Provide free articles about how to use the product. Here is a great example of what can be done: Ties… sells, believe it or not — ties! They offer informative articles about how to tie different types of knots.

Work at Home and Telecommuting Build a site that offers people information and articles about work at home opportunities or telecommuting jobs. Sell guides, manuals, books, and video’s about working at home.

Auto Related Target owners of a particular genre of auto — muscle cars, classics, Volkswagens, etc. Provide a way for them to interact and sell related accessories, repair manuals, etc.

Employment Site Target a specific industry — Computer Programmers, for example, and charge companies a fee to post help wanted ads. Provide job hunters with free access to ads and informative articles on the industry.

Develop a Database of Useful Information If you can compile information that is needed by a certain niche market, you can charge for the privilege of accessing the information. A database, or collection of related information, can be stored and accessed directly from the internet. You sell access to the database interface that allows the user to search for the specific information that they need. Here are a few examples of databases that could be set up on the internet:

Ezine database Compile a list of e-zines that sell classified ads. Include information such as: category, number of subscribers, ad cost, frequency, etc. You can sell access to the information to marketers who are looking for targeted places to advertise. For an example of this concept, see… E-zine Database

Media Contacts for Press Releases Similar to the ezine database, you could compile a list of media contacts. This information could be sold to marketers who wish to send press releases to targeted media.

Newspaper Advertising Database A list of all the daily and weekly newspapers in the United States along with their classified ad rates, circulation, etc.

Magazine Advertising Database A similar list of magazines that accept classified ads.

Resume Database Allow job hunters the opportunity to post their resumes in your database. Charge employers to access and search the resumes from the web. The best way to approach this is to target a specific industry, such as computing or accounting or sells.

Industry Specific Database Every industry has a need for specific information in a searchable format. Look at your own field of expertise and see if there is a need for compiled information that can be easily accessed from the web.

US Census Database As you probably know, the US Government conducts a census every 10 years. You can repackage this information for use in a specific industry. For example — one company uses the demographics compiled by the census department to cross reference zip codes by income level. It then sells this information to direct marketing companies who use it to determine the most desirable zip codes to target their direct mailings to.

Employment Database Compile a lists of jobs available for a particular industry. Sell access to job hunters.

Sports Stats Compile a database of sports related information for use by fantasy sports players. College

Scholarship Database Compile a database of all public and private scholarships available to college students. Sell access to the information to the parents of the students and school guidance councilors.

Make Money With Your Own Ezine E-zines are newsletters that are usually emailed to a list of subscribers. They are generally offered free but recently I have seen a few niche e-zines that charge a fee. In this section we will discuss free e-zines.  Just keep in mind that there is no law that says an ezine must be free. E-zines are considered by many to be the “work horses” of the internet. The reason why is obvious when you consider this: Web Sites are not the best way to generate sales on the internet! Does that surprise you? I know it surprised me until I actually started using e-zines — and then watched as my sales exploded!

There are a couple of reasons why e-zines are better sales tools than web sites. First, with a web site, it is very easy for a visitor to become distracted and leave your web site before they have had a chance to read your sales information. After all, they literally have the world at their fingertips. On the other hand, with an ezine you have a chance to reach your prospect when he has the time and interest to read your material.

 Since most people still access the internet with a dial up account, they can read your ezine anytime. Even if they are not online. Once they receive your ezine it will stay in their email box until they choose to delete it.

Second, e-zines allow you to build relationships with your reader because they will see your publication on a regular basis. This consistency leads to sales. Now, let’s talk a little bit about the profit streams that your ezine can tap into:

1) You can sell advertising in your ezine.

This is far and away the most popular way to generate income with an ezine. Actually you would be hard pressed to find an ezine that does not sell advertising in one form or another.

There are several different types of ezine ads: Classified ads — these are generally short ads either grouped together at the end of the ezine or sprinkled throughout the articles.
Sponsorships — this is generally an ad that appears at the very beginning of the ezine. Usually the sponsor has exclusivity — that is no other ads appear in the issue. A sponsorship ad is more expensive than a classified ad because of the exclusivity and placement at the beginning of the publication.
Direct Email — this is where an ezine publisher will email an ad to a part of, or the entire subscriber list. While this can be quiet lucrative for the publisher, he must always guard against over saturating his subscriber list with offers. Direct email works best when the publisher has a large subscriber list. With a list of 30,000 subscribers the publisher can sell 6 direct mailings of 5000 each per week. That way he can be sure that no one on his subscriber list receives more than 1 promotional email per week.

2) Promote your Products and Services.

More and more people are starting to see the benefit to promoting their products and/or services with their own ezine. And with good reason. As mentioned earlier, an ezine is much more effect as a sales tool than a web site. That’s not to say that a web site isn’t a valuable tool. It is. I like to think of my web site as a funnel that captures prospects and filters them to my ezine. The ezine then makes the sale.

One effective method of promoting a product or service is to publish an article in every issue that deals with one benefit or advantage the reader will gain by owning your product or using your service.

But, don’t write sales letters. These articles should be rich in content and give the reader valuable information while at the same time highlighting the reasons why they should buy. Give them some insider secrets. Show them how they would use your product or service to save time or money.

Just imagine that you have an ezine with 30,000 subscribers and you sell a product to just 1/10 of 1% of them in each weekly issue. A $40.00 product would produce $1200.00 in income every week.

3) Product Endorsements.

Ok, so you don’t have your own product. Tough luck? Not necessarily. There are plenty of people who would love to give you a piece of the action if you will promote their products to your readers. Generally, you split the proceeds 50/50 with the product owner.

Product Endorsements work best when you:

Work with product owners who have products that closely match your reader’s interests. For example, if you publish an ezine about grooming dogs a good product may be a book or video on dog training. A better product would be a manual or video along the lines of “Dog Grooming Secrets of Professional Groomers.” However, a product called “27 ways To Bathe Your Cat” would not be a good match.
Use the product yourself. If you don’t use the product you won’t know if you like it. And if you don’t know if you like it your readers will sense your lack of passion for the product and they will not buy.
Endorse the product to your readers. Don’t just send a sales letter to your subscriber list without first telling the reader why you are excited about the product. Your passion will come through and get them excited about owning the product.

4) Promote Affiliate Programs.

Another way to generate income if you don’t have your own product is to promote affiliate programs. Affiliate programs are revenue sharing programs that many internet businesses offer participants. Affiliate programs are usually free to join and only require you to provide a link to their web site. The link includes a tracking code that uniquely identifies you as the affiliate that provided the prospect.

If the prospect buys the product or service you will receive a commission. Commissions range from 5% of the sale to 50% or more.

There are literally thousands of affiliate programs available. Like joint ventures, for best results pick affiliate programs that closely match your prospects interests.

You can find a searchable directory of thousands of affiliate products at:

http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace.htm

Types of Ezines

There are many types of e-zines that you can publish. Here are a few ideas:

News Ezine

You provide timely, interesting and current news articles on a specific industry. To find these articles, scan news sites in your area of interest and summarize the news items into concise snippets of information.

Tip of the Day

Short, concise tips on just about any topic. Examples include — Marketing tip of the day, Software tip of the day, Stock tip of the day, Windows 2000 tip of the day. A variation of the “Tip a Day” are, Quote of the Day, Joke of the Day, or this Day in History e-zines.

Web Site Update

If you don’t have the time to publish a full blown ezine, you can send out regular weekly updates about what is happening at your web site. Someone post an interesting message on your discussion board? Publish an informative article? Let ‘em know with a weekly update ezine that practically writes itself.

Special Interest Ezine

This is the most common type of ezine. These are e-zines that contain articles, news, events, and tips that cover a specific topic or industry. Think of any topic and odds are there is an ezine or two (or two hundred) being published about the topic. And there is always room for more provided you put your own unique twist on the subject.

Ezine Based Training Classes

Publish a lesson a week to teach others a specific skill. Examples include: Sales Training, Software Development, Lead Generation, Web Design, Dog Training. Use your knowledge to teach others and develop a following of loyal subscribers.

Web Based Ezines

Instead of an emailed ezine you could publish a weekly or monthly web based ezine (or e-magazine.) This type of ezine is more difficult to produce but it also allows you to take full advantage of the technology available to web developers including: real audio and video, interactive discussion board and chat rooms, Flash, etc. Many technology e-zines are starting to adopt this format.

Affiliate Marketing Ezine

If you have a product that you sell through affiliates, you will definitely want to publish an affiliate ezine. Devoted to helping your affiliates sell more of your product, an affiliate ezine can provide marketing strategies, tactics, tips, and success stories from your top producing affiliates. An affiliate ezine will help the newbie’s and yourself make more money selling your product.
Cool Site of the Day Ezine

Similar to the Tip of Day E-zines discussed above. You basically surf the internet and find interesting and noteworthy sites within your particular niche. You then write a brief review of the site and publish it in your ezine along with a link.

Resources List

Publish a list of resources in your field. What types of software tools do you use? What sites do you visit? What equipment do you use? Keep a list of these resources and publish them in a weekly ezine.

Multi-Step Promotional Ezine

Promote your product or service to your opt-in list with a regular, timed campaign of emailed letters that both teach and sell.