mechmanuk I kind of relate to you more than you could know. I got into the Internet game at a fairly late age (early forties). I'm now 51 and making a decent living, though I still keep a "regular job" that provides me benefits and because I like working with special needs kids. Anyway... be aware that no matter what you do on the Internet to make money it is going to be work and in the beginning, not very profitable. When I say "work," I mean that you will be spending a lot of hours writing, learning basic html coding, and other knowledge that you will need. The learning curve is a bit steep in the beginning, but you can and will learn. When I started, the most I could do was browse the Internet and thought attaching a picture to an email was an accomplishment. Now, everything you've been told is good and honest advice - a credit to those who responded. I would like to point out a couple of things, though. A website about fishing? Totally saturated and it would be difficult to get found among the thousands that already exist. In my opinion, the key to success is a micro-niche. This is a term used to indicate a specific category of a general subject, such as Fishing->Freshwater->Rivers->Trout->Rainbow->Nevada The above is just an example, but can be applied to any general subject. So, rather than trying to rank highly for everything about fishing (which you will never be able to compete against the big boys like Cabellas and hundreds of others), you are targeting a narrower field of people interested in fishing for trout in the rivers/streams of Nevada. You will end up ranking higher in the Google returns when people use search terms looking for your area of expertise, because your subject matter will relate directly to them. Blogging is a good start. I have a few on different subjects, but they take a lot of time. I use them to not only provide information, but to direct people to my affiliate websites (scripts specifically designed to send people to those websites where I can earn a commission from a sale). I do not recommend free blogging services such as eBlogger and others. You have no control over the backend of the script and you have to answer to the whims of others who just want to screw with you for whatever reason, by "reporting" your blog to the administrators of those free services. Get your own domain name and your own hostserver account. A cheap investment. A domain name is about $10/YEAR and a hostserver costs less than $10/month with the ability to add as many additional domains as you want without incurring additional costs from the hostserver. Most newbs don't know how to get their website on the Internet in this manner, but it is also not difficult. Just stay away from outfits like "Homestead" and others that offer free drag & drop template websites to use their hosting services. They are far more expensive than doing it yourself and you are limited in what you actually receive unless you upgrade your subscription with them (at a higher cost, of course). Most of the things you will need to work your own website is free. An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program, Image Editors, etc., can all be downloaded for free from safe sources. Avoid any offer that tells you that you'll become a millionaire, or will make $10K/week, etc. Avoid those who advertise on TV telling you how easy it is. I know a number of these marketers and have met a few personally at conventions. Joe Ritchey's Internet Paycheck comes to mind as one to avoid (he recently started advertising on TV). Yes, he's a millionaire, but he made his money ripping people off he sold "get-rich-quick" schemes to. Be aware that 95% of people who start websites for the purpose of getting rich don't last more than 6 months. Mainly because they started with the wrong outlook, or believed the hype and give up. About 1% are still around after 1 year. That 1% are the people who actually are successful at creating additional income. Personally, I only made about $20 my first month, but I saw it as a start and continued on through that first year, even during times when I wanted to throw my computer through the window because I thought I would never figure out how to implement some coding properly. I have a love-hate relationship with eBay. They treat affiliates like crap and are constantly changing rules to stay within their affiliate TOS (Terms of Service), but they are hard to beat when it comes to making money when you send them customers. They are also extremely difficult to be accepted into. It used to be that you only had to apply (even if you didn't have a website) and were accepted. Now, they review your website for content, disclaimers, privacy policies, appearance, and other factors that they feel makes your website beneficial to them. I am no longer an active seller on eBay, just an affiliate for them because I refuse to pay their seller fees. Clickbank is another good source for earning revenue, though they have more than their share of rip-off items. I don't promote them, but some people do offer honest items of information in the form of downloads on Clickbank. You earn a commission for each sale. I've earned a reputation of honesty by never promoting those I recognize as rip-offs, even though they offer some of the highest payouts to the affiliate. I realize this is getting long winded. Just know that it isn't hard to get started on the Internet with a very low investment. It may take time before you get your money's worth for the time you put in, but eventually you will only be putting in just a few hours a week to make more than your regular job. When I started, one of my brothers laughed at me because he figured my hours (many!) I put in and what I made from my efforts. He took great pleasure in informing me I made about 20 cents an hour. I make him apologize now, every time he asks to use my boat and vacation home. A different scenario than when I was living in a single-wide trailer 10 years ago and he was pouring the crap on me. If you would like any additional information or advice, please feel free to contact me.
Ebay is just too expensive. Too many hands in the cookie jar. If you sell products or want to sell dropshipped products, its better to get your own online store for very very little per month, keep all of your money from your sales (excluding taxes ect. of course) market in the beginning to your local market thru seo, google local, site submit, press releases and such. It doesn't happen over night but it will happen.
sorry for the late reply, didnt get any email notifications through for some reason, anyways i just want to say many thanks for posting and giving me your good advise. Im definately going down the blog road for starters, my mind is full of ideas and im gettin a picture now how it works thanks to you people. Im not sure if people will enjoy reading my everyday antics (theres a few) and all my wild ideas of which one will make a million by the way, just dont have a million to start it lol, but ill give it a go and see what happens. thanks again for all the help john.
Just like John hinted at, you probably will not have immediate success. It is not impossible, depends on what you are doing and how you are marketing. You may be sick of work but don't quit your job unless you are earning an amount that you can survive on. One of your best ways to immediately get your brand out there is to create your own self-hosted blog. It doesn't matter if you are selling your own products, in MLM, direct sales or affiliate marketing. As long as you are writing good content and providing value to your readers, then you will be OK. The main issue is attracting traffic to your site. Learn as much as you can about video marketing and social networking and you have a great start to blogging. Your blog is your central hub and all your material on the Internet will lead back to it. Good luck and look forward to reading about the launch of your blog and your results. Tommy D.
I noticed that droppshipping is not highly reccommended what do you suggest for an e-store then. I am trying to put an e-store on my website and I can't find anything I like so it is one area that is letting me down on my site. If this is spamming sorry but if it helps my site is www.all4romance.com. I have no idea how to make money off it. I have added affiliates but that isnt really making me anything.
Hi Belinda, If you don't have your own products to sell, you really don't need an e-store. You can use something like popshops to give your site visitors a selection of products related to a specific category quite easily. I use popshops on some of my sites. It is for promoting affiliate products in some of the major affiliate networks like commission junction, linkshare, GAN, shareasale, etc. Anyway, I took a look at your site and I would suggest that you first concentrate on getting more visitors to your site by creating more content related to your topic. Learn to do keyword research and build your content in a search engine friendly way so that you are found for the information you are providing. You can have the best 'store' in the world, but without traffic, it's not going to make you any money. Content comes first, then traffic. Monetization is the last concern. Blessings, Angie
Thanks for that Angie, I realised that it needed more work. I am just not sure which way to go with it but I do know that I need to put key words in and do some promoting of it.
Hi Belinda, Is this site topic a real passion of yours (no pun intended)? If it is something you really enjoy writing/talking about and want to really make a solid business out of, then you need to learn as much as you can about how to build a successful web business the right way. By seeing what you've done already, I have no doubt you CAN do it, if you just know the HOW. That was my biggest hurdle when I started online. I'm not a genius, but I can follow good instructions. Once I found a clear blueprint on HOW to go about building a successful website business, all I had to do was take the ACTION. I'm sooooo glad I did. There are some free ebooks I used to help me get started (below) and then I purchased my first site building package with SBI - best decision I made. It's been nearly 4 years and I'm still a very happy customer. They have the HOW laid out better than anything else I've seen as well as all the tools you need to take those ACTION steps each day. I hope you have great success once you determine which way you are going to go and take action. Blessings, Angie
happywife: They have the HOW laid out better than anything else I've seen as well as all the tools you need to take those ACTION steps each day Amen! And Angie was my angel when I got started! Hey Angie - we may be going to South Africa to do mission work in a year or so - as it is FINALLY becoming a reality that we can go and have my internet stuff support us!! I am so excited. I got passport papers today for the kids to get that started.... Just wanted to tell you.
Viola, that's wonderful news! How exciting for you all. It's a big step, and you are sure to have obstacles, but the rewards and blessings will be well worth it. Thanks so much for sharing it with me. I know exactly what you are saying about the support. With the US dollar falling so dismally, our own support has practically halved. I praise the Lord for my site income now as I don't know how we'd manage without it. My sites actually bring in more than our regular missions support! The great thing about your online income is that if you continue to work at it the income will continue to grow so that you will be in a better position when you finally do leave for the field. Keep me posted from time to time on the actual plans for departure. Blessings, Angie
I was reading some of the post and I just wanted to give my opinion. Alot of the info is great! but what I would do is learn a process that will get you to where you want to go. Now you are 47 i take it you don't want to work for another 20 years? So I would think you would want to focus on something that you can built and be able to retire off of. Affiliate Marketing is good for a quick sell but you need something that's going to produce income over and over again without you being their. That what I would do is follow a good systems..
I would definately agree with Affiliate marketing. You can use clickbank for eproducts and offervault to find physical products and commission junction for pay per call. I had an online friend who took a number that he received from CJ's pay per call and created some flyers or business cards...I can't remember which. But, he passed them out at a related event and made some real good money! So, just take the advice here and apply your own twist to it. Doing stuff offline is definitely something few people think of, too.
