Making Internet Money Part Three

An eBusiness Action Plan

1.      Decide on a target market

2.      Research and price suppliers for products/services in demand by that target market.

3.      Decide on the product or service to be offered.

4.      Investigate production, fulfillment, or other issues specific to your products.

5.      Work out roles, obligations and agreements with partners or staff.

6.      Brainstorm company names and URLs.

7.      Research and register URLs appropriate to your new company’s activity or products.

8.      Set up company e-mail accounts for yourself, plus separate e-mail accounts for customer service and any partners or staff.

9.      Create or commission a logo and graphics to use when customizing your website template.

10.  Select an entity and follow through on all the rudimentary steps of forming a business - i.e. open a business checking account, get a business license, etc. (see how to start a business on this blog.)  

11.  Diagram the website for the business on paper.

12.  Apply for a credit card merchant account, if appropriate.

13.  Write the copy for each page of your new site; prepare your copy using Microsoft Word so it will be ready for easy cutting and pasting into the website template.

14.  Build out your website using a design template.

15.  Create a privacy policy.

16.  Build out an online store to showcase products/services for sale.

17.  Develop an inexpensive plan to test your new business online.

18.  Set up an account with an e-mail marketing list-management service.

19.  Create banner ads for use on Microsoft’s Banner Network or elsewhere.

20.  Have friends review and test your website online store.

21.  “Soft launch” the site to the public to do free testing and receive feedback.   

22.  Start marketing.

 

 

The Five Basic Pages of a Web Site

 

1. Home Page
2. Products or Services Page
3. Store or Online Shopping Pages
4. “About the company” Pages
5. Contact or customer service Pages

 

The Footer should contain copyright, ownership contact and legal information. E.g. – MySite.com – All Rights Reserved, Click Here to Contact Us

 

 

Email Marketing

Collect e-mail addresses early and often.  Offer up incentives and prizes to your customers in return for an e-mail address.  You can use companies such as Constant Contact to manage, create and send your e-mail marketing campaigns for a low price.  They will give you the code as well to put an e-mail capture on your website, a “sign-up for our newsletter textbox.”  This is a very cost-effective way to stay in touch with your customers and market to them. 

 

Most e-mail list companies charge by the size of your list not on how many e-mails you send so, you can compare companies based on this rate.  Constant Contact is one such company.

 

Example of a Successful Campaign

 

Two types of newsletters:  a monthly information letter designed to educate your audience and not push your products and two, a weekly sales edition that pushes the products. 

 

Choosing a third party solution such as Constant Contact will provide you with more information through their reporting tools and will reduce your bounce back rate since it your mail is coming from a trusted source versus going it alone through a solution such as Microsoft Outlook. 

 

Pay Per Click Keyword Advertising

You can use a service such as Google Ad words to create a small ad that will appear in search results based on keywords you select.  For example, if you have a page based on dividend stocks, you can take out an add referencing key words such as dividends and stocks.  When an individual searches on dividends, your add could “potentially” pop up next to an organic search, thus a qualified lead.  Now, you only have to pay if they click through your ad and if you use Ad words, you set your budget.  So, your hope would be that they click through and purchase something since you are paying for the click.

 

Associate Programs

Check out Amazon.  Join their associate program and you can load your site down with widgets chock full items for sale at Amazon.  You get paid a commission of course if someone clicks through your Amazon link and purchases an item.

 

Some Worthwhile Sites

 

CafePress.com

CommissionJunction.com

ConstantContact.com

CraigsList.org

DrudgeReport.com

eBay.com

Fark.com

GoDaddy.com

Google.com

InternetMillionaireSecrets.com

Payloadz.com

ScoobyMods.com

SweaterBabe.com