Internet Marketing Q&A - Issue 11

It’s time to answer another set of questions from my readers. You’re in that group, so you get the benefit of the great questions your peers ask me.

A lot of people wonder why I do this. There are really three big reasons…

First, I care about whether you succeed or not. Internet marketing really isn’t rocket science…once you know what you’re doing. Before you “get it”, though, it helps a ton to have somebody actually answer real questions that real people ask along the way.

Second, even after you’re an “expert”, it’s great to get new ideas from other people. You never know when an answer to a question will press just right button in your brain…and boost your profits.

Third, I get literally thousands of emails every week, and it’s impossible to answer them all. So I set up this system to help me manage email better, while still giving you the information you need.

So read on, and I hope you enjoy the learning.

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Last year I released Get More Buyers (you’ll find it at http://www.GetMoreBuyers.com). I put up a blog to during launch week to get feedback and to answer people’s questions. The response was stunning, and the most common set of questions were all about how to start a successful online business. That’s also the most common type of question I get asked every single day.

In this issue, I’ll answer some of the most common questions about how to get started online. Let’s jump right in…

1) There’s so much junk out there about getting started. What essentials do I REALLY need? (asked by Jessie Allis)

ANSWER: Yes, there’s a ton of junk. Wading through it can be a distraction. Let me try to simplify things.

First, you need a market to sell to. Not having one is like trying to set up a business in a ghost town. You might get some customers, but they won’t come around much!

Second, you need a product to sell. That could be your own product, or it could be somebody else’s product you promote for a commission (called an affiliate product). This is what will put money in your pocket.

Third, you’ll need a domain. I suggest starting with a “.com” address, because it looks much more professional. And pick a domain that’s your own name, if it’s available, like my MichaelRasmussen.com site. That will give you a foundation to build on, no matter what direction you want to go, and will let you build your personal brand.

Fourth, you need a website. It just makes things so much easier if you have a site that you control and can change however you want.

Fifth, you need an autoresponder. This lets you build a mailing list and keep in contact with the people on it. That’s where your long-term income will come from. I recommend http://www.AutomateYourList.com. And once you have your autoresponder set up, check out http://www.EmailPromosExposed.com to learn how to write promotional emails that convert like crazy.

Sixth, you should consider setting up a blog at a separate site. This is a great way to keep your content fresh, which will get you more free traffic from search engines. And linking to your main site from your blog can help your search engine rank for your main site as well.

Seventh, you’ll need a payment processor, which is a way to take credit card payments online. I strongly recommend ClickBank, because they’re reliable and secure. They’ll also give you a built-in affiliate program, and they’ll handle paying your affiliates for you.

That’s literally all you need. There are other things that you CAN have, but those are the essentials.

2) How can the “average Joe” get started online? (asked by Neil Bier)

ANSWER: I get this one all the time. What shocks most people is that just about everybody who starts an online business begins as an Average Joe! I did.

The way to get started is to find a market that needs a product you can offer at a profit. That’s as fancy as it gets.

You can offer a physical product or a digital one. To keep things simple and low-cost, I suggest starting with a digital product, meaning one that people can buy and download immediately.

Here’s where I might shock a few readers…

Your first product can be VERY simple. You might write a brief report called something like “10 List Building Tips If You’re Starting From Zero!”

The point is, find a market, find what they want to know, then offer it to them. What most people just starting out overlook is that most of the information is available for free online.

Use Google to research your topic. Visit sites like EzineArticles.com to get ideas. Track down sites that already exist and see what information they offer for free. Then you can create a relatively short report that saves people the trouble of doing the research on their own.

You can hire somebody to write your report, or you can summarize existing material in your own words. About 10-15 pages should do it.

Once you have your report, you can sell it for a low price, maybe something like $7. Most people will be willing to part with that kind of money, since it’s almost as much as they spend on coffee or sodas in a typical day.

The next trick is to drive some traffic to your website where you sell your report. The easiest free way to do that is to write an article and get it accepted at EzineArticles.com. Target a keyword that gets okay traffic, but doesn’t have a lot competition.

I’ve never run across ANYONE who couldn’t use that approach to get started. There’s no guarantee you’ll succeed, but it’s a quick process you can keep hammering on until you find a winner.

3) With everybody trying to succeed fast in the Internet marketing niche by making a big splash and becoming the next guru, how can I make myself stand out in the crowd? (asked by Sophia Malachi)

ANSWER: There are really two answers to this question.

One option is to avoid the Internet marketing niche. There really are plenty of other niches out there. Do some digging on Google or at EzineArticles.com or even at Amazon.com to find them. Here are some niches that have been popular (and profitable) for years:

- Personal development stuff, like boosting your self esteem

- Relationship topics, like improving your dating life or marriage

- Debt or credit-related topics, especially with the economy doing so bad

- Health topics, like curing acne or fixing back pain

The list could go on. All you have to do is find a niche that’s not as cutthroat as Internet marketing. Odds are good that people in those other niches are even more eager buyers than in the IM space.

But I don’t tell people to avoid IM entirely. It’s a great niche, and I make good money there. The challenge is standing out from the crowd, so here are a few simple ideas:

- Talk about a NEW topic. If there’s a new social networking site out there, for example, write a report about how to use it. New information sells great.

- Present your product in a unique way. That could be doing videos when everybody else does ebooks, for example, or offering overwhelming value that nobody else does.

- Offer help to buyers. Lots of people sell IM products and then abandon buyers to figure everything out. Simply offering email support for a small fee and a limited time can make you stand out.

- Offer stuff that works. Not so hard, right? The market is full of junk that makes money but doesn’t live up to its promises.

And one more piece of advice for standing out…social proof counts most of all. So give your product away to some limited number of people and ask them for honest feedback. That will help your sales presentation be more genuine and more likely to sell.

4) I know I need a website, but I’m so overwhelmed by the technical stuff (which I have no experience with). Can you recommend any short cuts? (asked by Max Coltharp)

ANSWER: I can understand when anybody says they’re a bit afraid of the technology of online business. But there’s really nothing to be afraid of.

The first thing to keep in mind is that your website can and should be very simple. You’ll need a page to present your product, a way for people to buy, and a page to deliver the product. That’s it. Three pages can do the job just fine.

You might want more than that, but that’s fine to start with.

The second thing to keep in mind is that you need to find a good tutorial about how to build simple sites. Frankly, I thought there wasn’t a really good one out there, so I created my own:

http://www.MiniSiteProfitsExposed.com

It doesn’t cost a dime, so feel free to sign up for your copy and put it use. The video course walks you through everything you need to know to set up your own mini-site, which is a simple site to sell a single product.

You’ll learn how to get your domain, set up your hosting, create your pages, hook up your autoresponder and payment processor…everything you need. If you take the plunge and get stuck on something, don’t panic. You can find a cheap freelancer to help you on Scriptlance.com, or even have them develop the entire mini-site for you from scratch.

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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-10

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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