To make money on the internet you need either a product to sell or a website that informs or entertains people in some way. Today we will be focusing on the most straightforward approach to creating a profitable niche website, which is to sell a product. It requires less creativity, and the only real content you have to create is directly related to your product. You can get some great content ideas from the niche product website itself, as long as you present the product content in your own words.
First find a product that you would like to sell. A great place to start out with is Clickbank. Create an account, then browse through the marketplace and select several products that interest you or that you think you could write a good article about.
Choose your favorite products, then write down any keywords you think a user might search for related to your product. As an example, lets say we chose a weight loss e-book product. Keywords to search for might include: dieting, weight-loss, weight loss, getting fit, lose weight, losing weight, lose fat, fat loss, weight loss diet, etc...
Now take your keyword list and check it with the Google keyword search tool.
Set match type to "exact" and sort by global monthly search volume. Look for keyword and keyword combos that don't have a great amount of competition. Select keywords that have a fairly low global monthly search volume, I try to look for niche markets that are not under 1,000 or so searches per month. Stay away from the ones that are too big when you are just starting out, the keyword combos with a high monthly search volume will have too much competition, unless you are an expert niche product affiliate marketer you will have trouble breaking into those markets.
You will be able to utilize all the keywords that you wrote down, when you create your niche product oriented blog or website, but for the moment really focus on just a handful of keyword combos. Once you have made a selection, try to think of ways to include those keywords in a domain name. Write all of your domain name ideas down, so that you can do your domain name research.
Lets say you chose the keyword "quick weight loss tips" the most straightforward domain name would be quick-weight-loss-tips.com, you can get some indication of whether or not a domain name is taken by simply opening a fresh blank tab in your browser and typing in the url you just made up and see where it goes. Optimally you want a "page not found" type of error. That means that the chances are good it is not taken yet. If it looks good initially, then to be completely certain the domain name is free, use a service like Network Solutions free Whois search.
Once you have a good idea about what you want your domain name to be, and you know its not taken, it is time to get hosting and register your domain name. Hostgator is an extremely affordable and reliable service. You can get a hosting account for as low as 4.95 a month. Having your own hosting account gives you much greater flexibility about the type of content you want to have to promote your niche product. Another major advantage of having your own hosted blog or website, is that every inch of advertising space will be under your complete control.
Promoting affiliate programs can be lucrative....for the people you are promoting!
When you are ready to make real money you will understand the need to promote yourself and your own products. I know a lot of you don't have your own product yet. Don't let that slow you down. You can still earn a substantial income and become an expert in subjects like content creation, website promotion, and monetization.
My point here is to pay attention to what you are promoting. If you are spending all your energy advertising affiliate links all over the place for worthless clickbank ebooks or mlm schemes you will most likely fail to make a decent income. Those types of products tend to make money for the people who own the products. Especially MLM schemes, to be successful in Multi Level Marketing you need to understand how to be a great sales person, and know the intricacies of website promotion, and how to be a teacher so that you can teach your downline sales distributors how to duplicate your efforts. I could go on and on about Pyramid scams and such, instead I refer you to a document on squidoo that speaks about the problems with MLM.
The Truth about Internet MLM Pyramid Schemes
Promoting affiliate products can be a very powerful way to make money, I use it and it is a valuable aspect of my money making strategy. However, I want to show you that your true pot of gold at the end of the rainbow will be found when you have your own e-mail database and a product that you really believe in to promote. Try to keep that in the back of your mind as you create your advertising system.
Later, when you have a niche oriented blog or website, and articles that you've written spread around the internet, you can go back to many of those tools and redirect them and tweak them to promote yourself and your own products, or a product that may not be yours, but you believe in it and are willing to invest your time to bring it to other people.
Focus on creating an internet presence that will last, and that does not destroy your credibility.
There are several major drawbacks to promoting affiliate products from places like clickbank. As I mentioned I am not against affiliate marketing or clickbank, I think clickbank is awesome, it is just good to keep these limitations in mind as you work towards your goal of financial greatness.
When a potential customer follows your affiliate link to the product landing page, clickbank tracks the hop and if a sale is made at that moment you will recieve a portion of the profits, at least if it is a decent product and the customer does not demand a refund, in those cases you get nothing.
You will notice, that on any good landing page there is a place where the customer can sign up to a double opt in mail list. That mailing list is where 80-90% of the sales are made. Using auto-responders, the internet marketer who actually owns the product can keep in touch with potential customers and build trust and loyalty. Later, 6 weeks down the road, they finally make the big sales pitch and sell a $400 product. The clickbank affiliate who originally provided this lead to the affiliate marketer gets zip, zilch, thanks for the lead, keep trying I love all the traffic you bring to my landing page.
I wanted to bring these ideas to your attention. When I began to realize these things some time ago, it completely changed the way I look at how I want to use affiliate marketing to build my own residual income streams.
-Wealth Research
Hi!
Ok lets talk about making money with a blog for a moment.
If you try a google search on "money blogging" you will note that you get over 20 Million hits.
You will get very similar results if you search for "Making money with your Blog" etc, etc..
Why is there so much interest in this subject?!
My thought on the matter is that it is so popular because it has been hyped as a very easy way to make money on the internet. In certain respects that may be true, however my own experience shows me that though there is money to be made blogging, it requires a commitment of your time and certainly if you persevere you will be successful.
Another reason why there is so much interest in that keyword or keyword combo, is because of all the people trying to sell you a book on "How to make Money with your Blog". While some (very few) of those books / ebooks might turn out to be absolute dynamite and worth every penny, 98% are almost certainly junk and the information you might glean from them can most certainly be found for free somewhere on the net.
I have one strict rule when endeavoring to make money on the internet. DO NOT send Money to some stranger Promising to teach you How To Get Rich Quick.
Ok, back to the subject at hand, how do you make money with your blog?
The basic idea is this:
1. You create a blog about a subject you are passionate or knowledgeable about.
2. Monetize your blog with advertising.
3. Promote your blog.
4. Keep posting new entries so that your blog gains substance and depth.
5. Rake in the cash.
Its a solid enough plan. Some people are most certainly succeeding all the way through step 5.
I want to see if I can do it too. And that is what this blog is all about, my attempt to create a successful advertising system that earns residual revenue. Creating a profitable blog is just one part of my overall plan, but its an important part.
Cheers! Wealth Research
