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Two Basic Approaches to Making Money Online
Available with courtesy of MarketingTips.Com
Check "The
Insiders Secrets to Marketing Your Business on The Internet"
-Internet Marketing Bestseller
Basically, there are two key approaches to making money with your
website. The first is what I call a "portal website" and
the second I refer to as a "sales website."
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PORTAL WEBSITES:
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If you run a portal website, your goal is to get as many visitors
to your site as possible by enticing them with something special
(and often free). You might provide free tips, content, software,
entertainment, etc -- there are countless possibilities!
Hotmail offers free email, Yahoo gives away search information,
financial portals provide instant financial news, etc. You can attract
traffic in the same way, by offering something they cannot get anywhere
else -- and giving it to them for free.
Once you are established and attracting high volumes of traffic,
you can convert that traffic into a profit model at any time by
selling advertising space on your site or by offering products or
services on the site. This is a great way of turning traffic into
money, even if you do not have anything to sell.
The TRAFFIC itself becomes your ASSET! Here's an example:
A friend of mine, who we'll call "Michael" for the sake
of
privacy, had a new car dealer invoice business. If you want to know
the price that a local car dealership pays for a vehicle when they
buy it from the manufacturer, you can just go to his site, pay Michael
$15, and he'll send you an email with a breakdown of exactly what
that dealer paid for the car.
With this kind of knowledge, the customers can now go back and
haggle with the dealer, get a really good price, and probably save
a couple of hundred or even a couple of thousand dollars (because
he or she knows what the dealer paid for that car).
Often, people were buying three and four reports at a time for
different makes and models. Michael was making $100,000 a year doing
this and it was taking him between one and two hours a day.
I have a second friend, "Chris," who rented the actual
database that provides these car dealer cost invoices -- for $2000
a month in rental fees. Believe it or not, he then started giving
away for FREE the same information Michael had been charging $15
for.
The next thing Chris did was approach all of the big car magazine
sites, like "Road and Track" and "Motor Trend,"
asking them to link to his web site instead of Michael's. These
links generated hundreds of thousands of visitors every month because
of such a great, free service. Instead of linking to Michael, they
not only linked to Chris but also published editorials about his
site.
So after six months, no one was linking to Michael -- he just couldn't
compete. His income dropped from $100,000 a year to barely $15,000.
In six months, Michael had LOST HIS BUSINESS.
However, Chris wasn't making any money EITHER! He still had to
find a way to live -- the database was costing him $2000 a month
in rental fees, and including his basic living necessities Chris'
monthly expenses all totaled probably about $3500. So now what?
Well, imagine how powerful a site like his could be!
The traffic he generates is very specific -- these people are all
in the market for a vehicle. Even better, after six months his site
was already generating high volumes of traffic -- 300,000 people
every month! So Chris called up people like Toyota and Honda and
said, "Hey guys, would you like to advertise at my site? I'll
only charge you $35,000 a month each."
When compared to $30,000 a month it costs to put a one page ad
in 'Car and Driver' magazine, Honda said: "What? You're going
to let 300,000 people that have a direct interest in buying a car
see our ad? That's a GREAT deal! Of course we'll advertise with
you!"
In his first month CHRIS MADE OVER $100,000 IN REVENUE.
But he wasn't done yet! Next, he called me up and said, "Corey,
can I sell your book 'Car Secrets Revealed' at my site?" "Sure,"
I said. "I'll give 10 bucks for every one you sell." (My
book is focused on how to buy cars cheap and avoid ripoffs. So people
visiting Chris' site would be a perfect market for my book!)
I'm sending him a check for thousands of dollars in sales each
month! Even better, he then started selling extended warranties
and insurance quotes at his site, generating even more income for
himself through referral fees. It was incredible!
But that isn't the end of the story.
Within a few months, Chris was approached by a venture capital
firm that offered $1 million for 20% of the business, plus all of
the venture capital he can use to develop it. Today, Chris is running
a big office with lots of employees.
This is an incredible example showing the potential of Internet
marketing. Portal sites DO NOT generate instant cash -- they require
a good six month investment (or more) of time and money. But once
these sites are successful, they pay off BIG and the time commitment
involved from that point on is minimal.
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SALES WEBSITES:
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The other approach to making money from your website involves directly
offering a product or service for sale -- either right away or at
some later point in time. For example, you can offer a product or
service, or provide free information designed to lure people to
another page where you have a product available.
This is the most popular way of making money online, because:
1) it's relatively easy to set up, and if you do it right,
2) you can begin making money almost overnight.
Just about everyone decides to set up their website with the
intention of selling a product or service first, because they do
not have the time and/or the money that is required to develop a
portal website. Besides, there are some pretty significant advantages
to selling a product online.
First of all, thanks to the wonderful technology available these
days your business can be completely automated so that it takes
very little time to run. I have only five or six people running
a business that generates over six million dollars a year.
That's a million dollars PER EMPLOYEE!
Your products and services are available globally 24 hours a day
without any need for a retail location. Your customer simply connects
online, visits your site, clicks a few buttons, punches in their
credit card number... and there you have it!
Your overhead is unbelievably low, too -- your staffing costs are
minimal, the expense of attracting new customers is a fraction of
what it would cost to use traditional media, you have access to
a broader customer base, and it is far easier to test new ideas
to learn what your customers want and are willing to pay for!
The first step obviously involves increasing traffic to the site.
We do this by using advertising techniques that are both creative
and effective. But we don't do it like everyone else.
For example, our banner ads are so potent, that while the average
click-through rate for a banner is 0.3%, our banners receive an
average of 4-10% click-through, and some as high as 24%!
Once people arrive at our site, we lead them through our sales
letters. Keep in mind that people do not go online to buy -- they
go online to research! So you need to turn their desire for information
into a desire for your product.
After entering their credit card information and once the order
is approved, the customer receives an email message thanking them
for their order and letting them know that they will receive the
electronic version of "Car Secrets Revealed" within approximately
three minutes and that the hard copy within 2 to 3 days by mail.
While this is going on, the money is deposited into our bank
account, an email copy of their order is sent to the fulfillment
house who will ship out the hard copy of the book, an email is sent
to the customer (as mentioned above) and the electronic version
of the publication is immediately downloaded.
THIS IS ALL DONE AUTOMATICALLY... I NEVER have to be there!
We then instantly and automatically follow-up with customers to
offer additional products. In the case of the "Car Secrets"
book, we also recommend insurance quotes, extended warranties, etc.
And we receive a fee every time a lead goes through!
Ultimately, if you understand the importance of the "lifetime
customer value," then you really know how powerful a sales
website can be in the long term as well as the short term.
"The
Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on The Internet"
-Corey Rudl Click here to learn
more!
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