“I don’t Have Anything to Sell, How do I Make Money?”

Yesterday, one of my followers on Twitter asked me this exact question. It’s a very important question that I’m sure many of you can relate to. I also bet that this question is holding many of you back from starting your own business. I’m here to clear up all the confusion on what to sell, what not to sell, and what to do if you have nothing to sell.

Making money is not about selling. As I said in my first blog post, the more you try to sell, the less you will actually sell. Making money is about providing value to people by capturing their attention with something you have to offer. With that being said, ALL you need to start making money right now is something you’re passionate about. Whether it’s be fishing, or baseball, or Yo-Yo’s, if you can constantly deliver information about it, you will make money. Now technically speaking, yes a sale does have to be made in order for you to physically make the money. But the beauty of it is, you yourself don’t have to come up with a product to sell! Yes, it’s true!

Now many of you may know about this already, but those of you who haven’t heard of the term, listen up.

Affiliate Marketing is a way for you can make money by simply driving traffic to a website, and selling someone else’s product. With Affiliate Marketing, you become an Affiliate of someone else’s product and earn commissions as high as 75%, each time you sell their product. It almost seems too good to be true! They supply the product, they supply the fancy websites, and you make 75% of the sale. On top of that, it doesn’t even cost any money to become an affiliate. The key to being a successful with affiliate marketer is selecting the right product. There are millions of products that have affiliate programs, but the majority have annoying websites that make it impossible to even locate the “Buy” button. The easiest thing to do is conduct a small survey. Narrow your choices down to about 5 products you think you can sell, and then ask 20 friends which they would be most inclined to buy.

You may be wondering, wow this sounds awesome, but where do I find these affiliate programs? This is very easy – just google Affiliate Marketing Programs, there are millions out there. However, arguably the most popular one and my personal choice is ClickBank.com . It has programs for just about every niche and is truly a wonderful site. So to wrap things up, I hope I’ve cleared up all the confusion regarding “what to sell”. If you have your own product that’s phenomenal, but if not, it shouldn’t hinder your progress as an online entrepreneur ONE BIT. Good luck guys and feel free to ask me any questions. Cheers!

The Basics of Targeted Traffic

No business makes money without traffic, that is for sure. You may have the best new method on how to to shoot par on a golf course, but unless people see it, it’ll always be your best kept secret.

In my first post, we spoke about the importance of GIVING value. Hypothetically, that would be your secret method on how to shoot par on a golf course. In my second post, we touched on how TARGETED traffic is the only kind of traffic you want. There’s a big misconception that all traffic is good traffic – it’s not. Today I’m going to speak about the basics of targeted traffic, and how you can start driving traffic to your page today.

The most basic way to drive traffic to your page is to build relationships with people in your targeted niche. It all comes back to trust; who’s website are you more likely to visit, someone you know as credible or some stranger spamming you?

When starting your website, you will have virtually no credibility. That’s why I cannot stress enough the importance of building relationships with other people on the internet. So enough of driving the point home, lets talk about how you can actually build relationships with people to drive traffic to your website.

Friendships are built on commonalities, and providing valuable information on that commonality. The NUMBER one place to find like minded people is on  Facebook.  This example should explain what I’m talking about: You just started a website that helps baseball players gain velocity on their fastball. You make a Facebook fan page for your company with the hope that pitchers will stumble across it. Next, you search Facebook and find THOUSANDS of groups where pitchers pass information back and forth – the group doesn’t even have to be about velocity, all that matters is that it’s a place where pitchers “hang out” and chat. Slowly, you build personal relationships with these Facebook users, by providing value and knowledge about pitching. Eventually, you start talking velocity with these pitchers, and give them a FREE offer on your website. Given that your information is credible, they will tell people on their baseball team, and slowly you will build a following. Simple enough right?

The same concept can be applied to forums. There are a billion online forums that discuss everything from gardening to how to escape from jail! It’s absurd! Try joining a forum in your niche and provide VALUE by posting relevant information and answering people’s questions. Include a link to your website in your signature and boom, traffic. If someone posts a question, try private messaging them an answer. This is one way you can build personal relationships. I can’t tell you the amount of people that helped me when I was starting out, and I ended up paying for some of their services because I trusted them. The good thing about forums is that you really learn a lot while simultaneously driving traffic to your site. You aren’t the only person trying to drive traffic to your page; a plethora of people are doing the same thing as you, and you end up learning from each other. It’s great!

In summary, to start driving traffic to your website, don’t think you have to spam the whole world, informing them about your site. On the contrary, build a small, personal, but reliable following that will start as the foundation for your traffic. Trust me, you won’t regret it. Rome wasn’t built in a day! Cheers.

The Simplest Way to Make Money On The Internet: Offer+Traffic

There is an enormous amount of information out there preaching various ways to make money on the internet. I’m here to tell you the most straightforward, no nonsense way, which I used to make money online. When I started looking for ways to make money online, I tried so many different methods – from making Youtube videos, to selling goods on Ebay, to searching countless forums for that magic pill. Now we all know there is no magic pill, but what we don’t know is there is one SINGLE business formula that all successful internet marketers use – whether they know it or not.

 

This formula is as follows: “Offer+Traffic=Success”.

 

That is the most basic business model for making money. So let’s go through it. It starts with the offer. An offer is anything you’re offering to your potential customers, whether it’s free or paid. But what makes an offer successful? VALUE to the buyer. That’s why, when starting out, it’s best to stick to a free offer. Free offers communicate the selfless message of “Here’s a wealth of knowledge from me to you, and I’m not charging you a cent” You may be wondering “Well how do I make money if I’m giving it away for free?” But remember, as long as your clients view you as a person of value, they will come back to you for more. After your initial free offer, you can sell a product for whatever price you want, because people will TRUST you. As long as your offers have good content and don’t bring in negative backlash, they will hit. The best way to make sure your offer has good content is to think from the buyer’s perspective. If you were buying your own product, what would you want to see in it? What would satisfy your wants and needs?

Now many people have great offers, but people simply don’t visually see the offer. This is where “traffic” comes in. Traffic is as simple as it sounds: internet users viewing your website. People often make the mistake of believing, “the more traffic the merrier”. If you’re driving Yankee fans to your website which sells Red Sox merchandise, you’re selling yourself short! In reality, “the more TARGETED traffic the merrier”. Targeted traffic is Red Sox fans being driven to a Red Sox merchandise site. Targeted traffic is people overweight being driven to a Fat Loss product site. Targeted traffic is your best friend and will make your offer your new favorite brother. The more targeted traffic you get, the bigger your list will get, and the more cash you will rake in. We’ll get more into detail about lists and ways to create targeted traffic in the next post. For now, try and internalize this method as it is ESSENTIAL to making money online.

The Ultimate Paradox of Making Money Online – Don’t TRY to make money.

We’ve all been to websites with fancy graphics, and endless “BUY NOW” buttons begging us to spend 200 dollars on some breakthrough product. We all know that uneasy voice that dawns upon us as we scroll through the same website : “Wow..these guys are rather desperate for us to buy, no?” And after seeing about 20 of those websites, we become very leery before buying, because we wonder whether the companies’ focus is selling x amount of products, or genuinely helping their customer’s pain.

That right there is the exact formula for how NOT to make money. Think to yourself right now – Who are you likely to buy a product from. It can be anyone, really. Say you’ve always been an avid Basketball fan, and LeBron James comes out with a new training device that he supposedly used to improve his jump shot. You would be highly inclined to buy this product, without even thinking twice about whether Lebron is just a brand name on a product that he’s never used in his life! Now why is this? One word : Value. LeBron James has an incredible amount of value in the Basketball world. Therefore, anything he does, says, or even breathes will be followed closely by other Basketball players.

So how does this tie into making money online? No one is going to want to buy from you if you have no credibility, and cannot provide value to that customer. Think about it, why would someone buy YOUR product? Honestly, why? Who are you? What does the world know about you? I know these questions are harsh, but these are the same questions I had to ask myself when venturing into online money making.

Your goal when starting out should be to earn credibility online. You want there to be a buzz around you and the information you provide – whatever the niche may be. DO NOT focus on selling selling selling, because nobody will buy your product unless they know that you can provide value. The easiest way to do this is to provide free information to people. Write an eBook, make a youtube video – FREE is your FRIEND when starting an online business. I’m a drummer myself, and way back when I made a drum video of myself, which got around 40,000 views! I originally uploaded it just for my friends to view, but it literally took off. Next thing you know, I have people messaging ME asking them for tips on how to increase their speed, and even asking for online lessons. It was a real eye opener, and taught me first hand that once you provide value, the opportunities are endless. So I’d like you guys to be creative and find a way to provide value to your target niche on the internet. Think outside the box. Videos are great, so are articles – but do something that people haven’t necessarily seen before. It’ll give you more credibility. Let me know how it goes!

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