Internet Marketing Q&A - Issue 1

In recent weeks I’ve been getting inundated with questions from my subscribers.

Some people just want information, but most people want some level of help with their business. I simply don’t have the time to give everybody personal coaching, but I really do care about whether you succeed or not. So I’m going to do something about it.

I’m going to start a new service just for you…and it won’t cost you a penny.

Starting now, every couple weeks or so I’ll send you an email with answers to some questions I’ve been asked recently. The subject line will be displayed as:

“Your Q&A Issue is ready…”

Even if you’re an expert already, I bet you’ll learn something from the questions other people ask.

This is just a simple way I can help you succeed.

I’ve included the first set of questions and answers in this email, so read on, and I hope you enjoy the learning.

————- CURRENT ISSUE ————-

I’ve had my own Internet business for a while now. One big part of my business is a set of my own products that I sell online. I frequently get asked questions related to product creation, especially by people who haven’t done it before. So I thought I’d collect a few of those for this issue.

First, though, I want to cover a question I get more often than almost any other…

1) Is it really possible to make money online fast, without having an email mailing list of 127,000 people?

MY ANSWER: Yes, it is, but you have to have reasonable expectations. Onlin business isn’t a scheme to make you Bill Gates overnight, or at least it shouldn’t be.

I’ve always found it helpful to break income goals down into smaller steps.

First make your first dollar online. It really doesn’t matter how much it is…just something. Then make some monthly target, maybe something like $500 or $1,000. Then start ratcheting that up.

Expecting to make a huge, consistent income from day one is unrealistic, but lots of people make that mistake. That gets them frustrated early, and they quit. If you focus on smaller goals, you’ll be amazed at how fast they can build to bigger ones.

2) I’ve always heard that creating my own product is one of the best ways to make money online…but where do I start?

MY ANSWER: Creating a product scares lots of people, but it really shouldn’t. The reason people are afraid is because they make one of two bad assumptions:

- They assume the product has to be huge, complicated, or flashy

- They assume they need to start from scratch

Your product doesn’t have to be “big” in any sense except one: The WANT has to be big. People have to want your product. If you give them something they want, they’ll buy it, even if it’s “only” a 10-page PDF report.

And your price doesn’t have to be big either. Maybe you’ve heard all the talk about the idea of creating $7 products. That’s a tiny price, but 100 sales of a $7 product is $700…and most people struggling to make their first dollar online would give an arm for $700 in a month.

But that second assumption is the one that stops most people cold. Trying to start from scratch is fine, but there’s no reason you have to do that. There are two easy alternatives:

- You can go to EzineArticles.com, find some articles on your topic, put the main ideas into your own words, and “assemble” an ebook…in a few hours

- You can use PLR material to jumpstart your product

That second one is related to another question lots of people ask…

3) What’s the best way to use PLR material?

MY ANSWER: For those of you new to the term, “PLR” is private label rights material. It’s stuff somebody else writes that you get to modify and put your name on as if you wrote it.

Think about how powerful that is. You didn’t do any of the work to write the material, but you can put your name on it and sell it. That’s like hiring a ghostwriter, but paying a fraction of the cost, because PLR material isn’t all that expensive. But how do you actually use the material?

It’s not complicated. Remember, you’re probably not the only one buying it, so you need to do something lots of PLR buyers fail to do: Modify the material so your offering can be unique. In other words, use PLR as the starting point for your own new product.

Buying PLR material and reselling it almost as-is with your name on it isn’t smart. If everybody does that, you’ll be a “me too” product. It’s much smarter to treat PLR as the starting point for your product. Add to it. Change it. Call it something different. Get different graphics for it. Make it yours.

If you’ll use PLR material that way, it can pay off big-time.

4) How can I create my own product if I’m not a writer?

MY ANSWER: The whole “I’m not a writer” thing is often an excuse not to do anything. Look, I’m not the best writer in the world either. But I don’t have to be. I just have to be good enough at it to be able to write when I have to.

There’s no getting around the idea that you have to be able to write at least a little bit to build a successful Internet business. If nothing else, you need to be able to write an email to send to your list occasionally. Writing well enough to do that takes some practice, but literally anybody can do it. Beyond that, you can come up with creative ways to hire writers.

Good writing isn’t cheap, but writing that’s not from scratch can often cut your costs a lot. For example:

- Using the PLR approach I talked about before, you could hire somebody at Elance.com to modify PLR material a bit, rather than doing that yourself

- You can write an outline, or perhaps even some core material for each chapter of an ebook, and hire somebody to finish it for you (reducing their research time often cuts their price)

- You can write some blog posts yourself, and pay somebody to do the work of assembling them and tying them together into an ebook

And you don’t necessarily have to write at all. You could record audio of an interview with somebody can sell that as an MP3…without doing any writing at all.

The point is, you don’t have to be “a writer”. You should be able to write a little bit, look at creative ways to create products that cut the writing effort, and be willing to pay for things you don’t want to do. That’s smart business.

5) What if I have a great product idea, but I find out somebody else has done it already?

MY ANSWER: No doubt about it, it stinks when you discover that your idea has been done already. But don’t give up on a good idea too fast. Just because something’s been done already doesn’t mean it’s off-limits for you.

You can do it better, or differently, and still make your product unique.

For example, there’s a huge number of products out there about list building. Literally hundreds of them. People still sell a ton of them, and constantly create new ones. How can that be? Because they come up with a new angle on the same topic and create a unique product out of it.

For example, maybe you can come up with an effective strategy for using Web 2.0 sites like Squidoo to build a big list fast. Then you can write an ebook about it give it a title like “List Building 2.0″ and sell it like crazy…because lots of people are interested in all aspects of the Web 2.0 phenomenon.

Remember, the unique selling proposition (USP) is what really matters, not necessarily the topic. List building might be a topic that’s been done to death, but the Web 2.0 angle is new, and that can still sell.

———-

All right, that wraps it up for this time.

If you like getting answers to questions like this, ask your own question! You can submit your question by filling out the simple form at:

http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/questions/

Every couple weeks or so, I’ll go through the questions and pick out 5-6 to answer in an email to people on my lists.

Your questions are what will make this email helpful, so please keep them coming. I can’t guarantee I’ll answer your question, but if the same question gets asked several times, I’ll try to answer that one. So don’t think, “Somebody’s probably asked that already.” Maybe so, but it’s worth asking anyway.

All the best,

Michael Rasmussen
CEO, BulletProof Marketing, Inc.

P.S. If you know any Internet marketers who would enjoy this article, just send them an email with this link:
http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/internet-marketing-qa-issue-1

About the Author

Michael Rasmussen is a successful Internet Marketing Consultant and author of many top-selling eBooks. Michael has been marketing online since the early days and he knows what it takes to make money and succeed online. Stop by his Web site and subscribe to his Free monthly newsletter full strategies and techniques for successful web site promotions that can help YOU! Go to http://www.MichaelRasmussen.com

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