"HOW TO SET UP YOUR OWN INTERNET BUSINESS, WITH THE LEAST FUSS AND THE LEAST COST"
This is a step by step tutorial, on how to go about the daunting task, of selecting and starting a successful internet business. This is a report written to help you to avoid the many pitfalls that face Internet Marketers. This is based on our own personal experiences.
CONTENTS.
Chapter 1 - Welcome
Chapter 2 - Introduction to this report
Chapter 3 - Introduction to the author
Chapter 4 - The history of Bags Of Money
Chapter 5 - Some of our experiences
Chapter 6 - Your expectations
Chapter 7 - Calculate your viability
Chapter 8 - Selecting the right type of business
Chapter 9 - Let's get going
Chapter 10 - How to set up
Chapter 11 - Summary
Chapter 12 - Results from our experimental site
Chapter 13 - Conclusion
Chapter 14 - In A Nutshell
Chapter 15 - The End
Chapter 16 - Resources
1) A WARM WELCOME TO YOU.
Hi! Welcome to this special tutorial report. Our names are Derek and Sally Robson from the old "Bags Of Money" website, now named Dersalsites and we have written this report, in an attempt to help you, to find and set up a worthwhile internet business, as easily and as cheaply as possible.
We try to take the fuss and bother out of this daunting exercise and show you a few shortcuts. Thanks for your interest in our report. Please take your time and read the whole report. There is a lot of advice here. We have provided links, at the e4nd of this report, to other useful resources, so you will need to be connected to the internet, for the best results.
2) INTRODUCTION TO THIS REPORT.
First, we must state that we are middle aged folk and have never ever had any formal computer training, whatsoever. We experimented and taught ourselves. We had no tutor, guide, mentor, or help. Everything we have learnt, we found out the hard way.
We know how daunting this task can seem and that is why we are offering our help to you. Sometimes, it is a good thing to be thrown in the deep end and forced to swim, but why not learn to swim first, before you enter the water? At least, then you won't drown.
When you have finished going through this report, there will be no reason why you can't start trading successfully, on the internet and actually make some money. It will be far easier for you, to not get caught up in the lies and nonsense, that abounds on the internet these days. We will walk you through the process, from start to finish.
Once you have read this report, you can keep coming back to it, for more help. Be sure to check each of our resources links. There are hidden treasures amongst all this information.
We know how frustrating looking for a good internet business, can be. There are so many sites out there, many offering "wonderful opportunities to earn millions while you are asleep". Millions of ads have been placed, many by new conscripts, desperate to recoup some of their ill spent money. The free classified sections, of numerous sites, are littered with these aspirant marketers, many of whom have lost the plot, or, are so desperate to find new customers, that they make totally outrageous claims, as to how much money you will make.
We will teach you how to sift through these sorts of ads and only to look at those, who can back up their claims. We will also show you how to set up your business, at minimal cost and minimal risk. We have tried and tested many, many, different programs, over the years and warn you of some of the pitfalls.
We explain the basic requirements that you will need, in order to start a profitable business. We will show you how to make viability calculations and checklists. You cannot buy a program first and then think how you will run the venture.
Many people are feeling the need to try a business from home, for whatever reason, but do not do their research thoroughly enough, in order to make informed decisions.
We have helped hundreds of people, over the years and many of them have gone on, to make a success of their businesses, because they took our advice.
3) INTRODUCTION TO THE AUTHOR.
Let us introduce ourselves. My name is Derek Robson and I am married to Sally. We are ordinary, everyday people, who, like you probably are, are struggling in this fast paced world, to survive and to make a reasonable living. We are middle aged, white, South African folks, who are aware of all the hype on the internet and having been caught ourselves and having lost a lot of money, have dedicated our time and resources, to helping others to find reasonable business opportunities, without the unpleasant and costly mistakes, that happen all too often.
I love music and have played functions since I was 16 years old. Sally loves gardening and has written hundreds of articles on gardening matters.
We had two children, Cindy and Clinton. At the age of 18, Cindy was critically injured in a car accident and was taken to a much better place, by the Lord on 3rd August 1998.
Clinton is 27 now and sports crazy. He thrives on extreme sports and excels in triathlons, canoeing, skydiving and other thrills. He is a Personal Trainer and has done a contract on the cruise liners, running the gymnasium. He wants to open his own business, within the health and fitness industry. He writes articles on fitness, training and weight loss.
Being from the "old school", both Sally and I had a very limited knowledge of computers. As I have always collected music and played at functions, I suggested one day, how nice it would be, if I could put all my music on computer. It would be so much easier to control.
Well, for my 50th birthday, back in 2003, they gave me a computer, for my music. At first I was lost, but through sheer determination, I struggled on. I never took any lessons, but soon learnt how to get around the system. Slowly, I became more adventurous and tried more things. I then taught Sally, what I had learnt. We played music at functions and then started publishing a newsletter. This led on to the usual cards, flyers, logos, photos etc. that all of you have also probably done, at some stage.
This inevitably led to us to getting the internet and more adventure took place. We soon became adept at this whole process and this led to the eventual conclusion, that all of you have also reached. Why waste time working for somebody else, when I can get my own business going on the internet? I wanted more time to myself and thought to hell with the boss. That is what you are thinking, isn't it?
We started our foray into internet marketing, got caught more times than we care to remember, wasted lots of time and money, became despondent, even angry, but carried on. Like a fool, I was so determined, that I resigned my job as an engineer and set about earning my "fortunes" on the internet. Big mistake! Rather start out small and check out all the options first. I was broke, but determined to succeed and that is when we started the Bags Of Money website. The rest is history and you are here now, seeking our help.
4) HISTORY OF BAGS OF MONEY
We started the first Bags Of Money website, at the end of 2003, purely as an affiliate marketing venture. We tried all types of internet business and were caught a few times by scams, over rated and false claims and lost a lot of money, to unscrupulous businesses. This obviously made us despondent and in an attempt, to get back at these nasty businesses, we changed our site format, to one of reviews and warnings of scams. This became a very busy website and lots of people were grateful to us, for warning them, of these dirty business practices. We were eventually threatened with legal action, for slander over one of our scathing reviews and had to withdraw from our critical review business.
We changed the look of the site, to one promoting businesses that seemed to be clean. Again, we received communications complaining of biased and prejudiced reviews, giving the businesses we recommended an unfair advantage, over those we had not mentioned. This frustrated us no end, but we had to change again.
We had quite a large following at this stage, of people grateful to us, for warning them of the pitfalls, on the internet. We changed the format again, giving overviews, to some of the programs that we had actually joined and also slipped in a couple of affiliate links as well.
We were only writing about programs of which we had first hand experience. We guided our visitors to join programs, for which we could personally vouch. Our numbers of visitors increased again and we then allowed them to propose programs, which we would then join and research, for them. This got totally out of control, with us receiving as many as 157 e-mails in one day. It was also taking up a lot of our time and costing us a fortune, so we had to stop this practice too.
We changed the site a bit more, to one of fun. We told our readers to have fun and not to take the whole internet experience, too seriously. We wrote of our own experiences and added conversation topics and download links and a guestbook. Our hits increased and we received plenty of messages thanking us for the advice and honesty in our reviews.
We started advocating only free resources and then decided to set up an experimental business, using these free resources to see what people really wanted and to see how successful we could be, without spending any money at all. This took us off in a different direction and kept us very busy. While doing this and a couple of other business interests, we unfortunately neglected the Bags Of Money website. Our updates and news articles became less frequent and we started losing visitors, but we were determined to complete our experiment and we persevered with it.
I then injured my neck very badly, almost severing the spinal cord. This led to damaged nerves and the pinched spinal cord was causing dizzy spells. This required surgery and a lengthy period of convalescence ensued. During this time, we continued with the experiment, but Bags of Money suffered. We then decided to sell our house in the city and move out to a farm in the country. This period was also detrimental to the website, as for a while, we did not even have an internet connection. Bags Of Money was all but forgotten.
One day recently, I accidentally hit the wrong link, in my favourites menu and I ended up on the old Bags Of Money site. I was astounded to see we had recorded 2563 hits, since we had moved house. I felt guilty that friends, trusty readers of old and new enquiries, from old adverts, were still going to our badly neglected site. We decided immediately to revamp Bags Of Money and to make it better than ever. We had been using a free website and were now exceeding our bandwidth and unable to expand further. Thus Dersalsites was born.
Dersalsites.com was set up by sharing a friend’s hosting account. We created a website and 3 Wordpress blogs, on our individual interests, as outlined above. We wrote articles, reports and short e-books as well as running a few affiliate programs. We did extremely well and were making a reasonable income. Our friend developed other priorities and started neglecting us. We never had the password or administrator privileges, so every time we hit a snag, we were at his mercy. Our friendship suffered and so did our business.
I became involved in a massive project, creating historical and geographical content for a huge local tourism website. This required a lot of research and meetings with various bodies and organisations. You can take a look at this site later, so you don’t lose concentration. This kept me busy for a full year, during which time our friend moved on and closed his hosting account. Our business was gone. We never had the chance of reviving it. That is why we still have so many dead links.
During this time, my mother took seriously ill and spent 5 long months in hospital. She became an invalid and we decided to move in with her so Sally could care for her. We left the farm in July 2009 and moved to Pietermaritzburg. This situation worsened and Mom became totally bed ridden. As she needed to be lifted and moved around, for visits to the doctors and for dialysis, I severed ties with the tourism project and was forced to stay home to help Sally with Mom.
We have recently decided to resurrect Dersalsites, but wanted to incorporate a lot of the features from Bags Of Money. We have chosen to go with another free hosting plan, to prove again that it can work.
5) SOME OF OUR EXPERIENCES.
As stated earlier, neither of us has any formal training or qualifications in computers or the internet. We are self taught and can only dispense advice, learnt from our own personal experiences.
When we first started, in 2003, we signed up for all sorts of things. It was all new to us and there seemed to be so many great opportunities available. We were taken in by the bright colours, flashing lights, testimonials, great promises of wealth, great sales pitch, "cheap prices" and the rest. You know what we mean.
We were also confused, at which type of business was the best, easiest, quickest, more rewarding etc. We joined programs with "guaranteed" weekly payouts, forced matrixes, some kind sponsor who would personally help us get rich, and the rest of the junk you must have seen.
We tried doing ten minute surveys, reading e-mails, typing labels, becoming a millionaire with no work, and automated businesses, that would “work while we were sleeping, or on holiday” etc. We tried them all. Every time, we lost our money. Even those, who offered iron clad guarantees, of money back with no questions asked, robbed us.
We joined about ten of these “wonderful” schemes, where we were paid, just to surf. Just by reading other ads, we thought we could retire in a few weeks. Well, so the promise went. We took shifts, worked around the clock for months, read ads till we were squint eyed, upgraded our portfolios, raked up about $567 000 in so called payment credits and then woke up. We decided to cash in, or out, as it happens, because the minute we clicked the button, to claim our fortune, was the last time we saw, or heard from these companies. We could not even log in to the member's area. Dozens of fruitless e-mails ensued, but were never acknowledged. We even went to an attorney, to see if he could claim our money, but he just laughed at us. A very hard lesson was learnt.
We then decided there wasn't a job much easier than to just get paid to fill out mindless surveys. I mean, how easy is that? “No experience necessary, truly international, pick and choose the ones that interest you, get paid the same month for simply ticking little boxes, multiple choice style”, everything was guaranteed.
We proceeded to surf every evening, looking for all the survey companies in the world. We diligently made lists of all their names, type of survey, payment details, how many branches worldwide, where they were based, how many surveys we could do and what it cost to join. We then set about joining all of them.
Surely, it was worth sitting in front of the computer for 14 hours a day, ticking boxes, for generous payment! On average, we could earn something like R12000 a day! That's R360 000.00 a month! If that was all we did for 6 months, then we could retire for ever, with R2 160 000.00! Wonderful hey! No. For starters, we were not eligible for many of these payouts, either we were wrong country, wrong colour, wrong age, had no small children, never heard of the product etc. and most were for gift vouchers in a certain area, or for entry into a sweepstakes draw, or something equally non rewarding.
Again, we tried claiming back our investments. All of a sudden these places had no record of us, had closed up shop, had been taken over by someone else and blah, blah, blah. Bottom line - another mess. Always, always read the small print. Check the disclaimers and legalities. They are only too happy to sell to you, but then it becomes your problem.
Then we found an ad for typing. This time, all we had to do was type lists. Guaranteed! Quick payment per project. Up to $60 per page! The company represented a host of other companies, all wanting to update their address lists. No experience necessary, huge money to be made, just re-type the lists.
Well, we fell for it. We joined and asked for our first project. They wanted to check and re-do lists of Malaysian addresses. Where do you get a Malaysian telephone directory? How to check the validity of the addresses? For each verified address in Malaysia, that was not already on their list (which we would never see) we would get paid $0.50. I suppose, if you fitted 120 new verified addresses on one page and they were new addresses, which they never had listed before and if you knew for a fact, they never had them before and possibly if the addressees, all 120 per page, responded to their mail and signed up for something they were selling, then maybe you could earn $60 per page. All we earned, was more resistance to these scams and a determination to succeed.
Next, we received an e-mail, for a chain letter, pyramid sort of thing. Normally I disregard this rubbish, but this one was very convincing. It was not illegal, had only recently been started, was sent to a select few in each country around the world, offered prizes and incentives, was endorsed by Oprah, was a genuine opportunity to become a millionaire and on and on.
This bloke claimed he had personally made $2 676 880.00 in only 60 days, other testimonies told of equally successful earnings, though not quite as huge, but then they had only just started. I did the maths. It sounded good.
In our country there are far more people without access to computers and internet and e-mail, so I thought of printing flyers, placing them in mailboxes and hitting them hard, before anyone else got the same idea. We had thousands of flyers printed, opened a new bank account and a new, unknown postal number and got to work. Each day we went to another town, handing them out in the streets, shoving them in post boxes, paid to have them put in the banks private boxes, went to complexes and flats, high density areas, businesses, locations, settlements, pubs. You name it, we tried it.
We used up a fortune in petrol and as I drove slowly down the streets and Sally walked alongside, diligently shoving paper into apertures, then swopping over, when she needed a rest, we handed out the full 10000 pamphlets. We then sat down and waited. We even put friends and family on the list and entered a few permutations to make sure we would earn the maximum possible.
Once when we saw it was running away and monies were flowing into our account, we would then do it all over again, travelling to towns further afield, the other provinces, maybe even neighbouring states, foreign countries. and then our coffee got cold.
Yes, even on our calculations of 50% actually reading it, 10% meaning to follow up and do it, only 2% sending their money off, we would make R30 000.00 to start with. That was just the first batch of 40. The possibilities were enormous. What if 5% or 10% responded? Wow! That could make us R6 million! Well, after 3 months we had made a lousy R300.00 and spent about R3000.00, meaning another big fat loss. Our dreams were shattered once again, but you can’t say we didn’t try!
I decided that affiliate marketing was the safest bet and proceeded to join every program I could find. I started an affiliate centre on our website and listed about 50 affiliate products. I advertised and promoted like crazy, but every time I checked my PayPal account, it was empty. When I started checking stats and hits and received notifications that I had made sales and my account was still empty, I started worrying.
I wrote To PayPal and asked why I had not received payments. To my utter dismay, I was informed that they had no dealings with South Africa and although I could use them as a third party to make purchases, my account was limited and they were not allowed to collect monies for me and I was not allowed to have a positive balance, or withdraw from the account. I was devastated! After all that time and after all my hard work, I had been down a dead end street. I still do not know what happened to the money I earned.
Actually, the latest statement is that they can collect monies for us, but cannot pay these funds out, unless we hold an American bank account. Fat lot of good that is! We tried to buck the system and open an U.S bank account, but no way! We tried the U.K, Malaysia, India, Australia and eventually gave up. Be warned!
More recently, I became very interested in e-books and Private Label Rights and purchased a bookstore website. This came with a pre-installed shopping cart and linked to 2 payment processors, namely PayPal and NoChex. Even though I tried again, I was not able to get either of these to work for me.
I then tried to find others that I could use. Most of them did not allow South Africans to have a merchant account, or were not compatible with the shopping cart. This took me over 2 months to get going. I eventually settled with AlertPay and EGold. We looked at MoneyWire and MobilCash and a few others, but bottom line, while there is nothing wrong with either of these, people do not buy with them. They use PayPal, or a credit card. That’s it! Fullstop!
Does any of this sound vaguely familiar? Have you seen these schemes? Been party to them? Been ostracised? Discriminated against? Crying not so long ago? Good. We know what you felt like. We could tell you more stories, but let's move on to more important things, like how we CAN make money.
6) YOUR EXPECTATIONS.
It would be wonderful if you could find the perfect business, become a millionaire overnight, do minimal work, travel the world, lie on a beach while earning, have time to do your own thing, buy the things you always wanted and tell your boss to shove it.
Many of the ads you see on the internet, promise this to you. They make a convincing appeal to your sub-conscious mind and you start believing that this is foolproof. Beware! Many of the bigger companies employ the services of specialist scriptwriters, who carefully word their sales pitch to attack your emotions. Don't lose control. Be realistic. Be conservative. Be careful.
Take the time to ask for more information, both from the company and from others who might have tried it. Type the name into your browser and ask for reviews and then read what others are saying about it. There are many forums and reviews available if you look hard enough. You would not buy the first car, you saw, from the first dealer, without taking it for a test drive. You are spending far less on these businesses, but still want to be sure that they work.
As for the first sentence of this section about how wonderful it would be to become an overnight success - forget it. If you have false illusions of grandeur and really think you can get rich by doing nothing, you will end up very disappointed. While you might find a way to do one or even two of the following things - minimal work, travel the world, have time for yourself, buy nice things and even fire your boss, you will never achieve all of them, together, from any advertised internet business.
You will never become a millionaire overnight. There is no such way and you had better accept this. The chances are so very slim, you would be better off by playing the Lotto. That is a fact. If you hit the proverbial jackpot, it will be as a result of sheer luck and not some second rate, business opportunity, you saw advertised on the internet. Sorry to be so harsh, but better to be pleased with the money you do make, than be bitterly disappointed, with what you don't make.
You must realise that millions of people, all over the world, are all looking for the best way to make easy money and one of the easiest ways of doing this, is to sell a dummy to unsuspecting newbies and pocket your cash.
There are millions of people around the world, involved in internet businesses and home businesses and computer businesses and marketing and so on, but how many have actually cracked the big time and become filthy rich? How many do you know? Do you really think that those few who have, are willing to tell you their secrets? For just a few dollars? Not likely.
Another thing to remember, is the old pyramid schemes. Remember them? The first few people make money and then get out. The motion perpetuates and many later entries lose their money. Most systems work on a similar basis. Well, are you among the first few? Not likely.
Anyway, if you are careful and really try hard and are able find the right niche market, you can still do very well. We certainly don't want to put you off totally. Your new business could easily allow you to live rather comfortably and to give up your regular job.
There is absolutely no reason why you cannot achieve moderate success and if you are lucky, you could actually become quite wealthy. BUT, it takes time and lots of work. There are no shortcuts to getting rich. It is a mindset. You have to believe in yourself and think positively. Don't allow anything, or anybody, to get in your way. You want this change, so go get it. Nobody is going to give it to you.
The other thing is that you will probably have to try a few different things first and start over a few times, before finding the right one. Do not give up on your dream. We have tried plenty in the last few years and have made some money from some programs, but we certainly haven't become millionaires yet!
Remember the old saying - you can fool some of the people, some of the time, you may even be able to fool some of the people, all of the time, but you will never be able to fool all of the people, all of the time!
Some of these unscrupulous merchants try to do just that. They start a scheme and fool a lot of people, but just when it starts going sour, they bail out and start another scheme. Have you ever wondered how much old, superflous junk there is, blocking up the internet? Things that are no longer in use, but that have never been deleted. Just hanging out there, in cyberspace. How do you know you haven't stumbled across a scheme that is long out of date? They never have expiry dates on them.
Not so long ago, I came across a program that sounded great. They were offering a one off, short time, specially reduced price. I signed up for their mailings and seriously considered joining. I conducted a search for reviews and comments, on this scheme and was glad I had taken the time to check. There were many people moaning, about how they had been caught and lost money. I deleted all reference to the scheme and unsubscribed from their mailings. Nearly caught again!
So, now that we have cleared that up and you are no longer under any false illusions, let's see if we can make your dreams a reality. More and more people are realising the advantages of working from home and running their own time schedules, around their families. Nobody ever got filthy rich by working for a boss and the papers and certificates that you have achieved, are less valuable to employers these days. Job security is a thing of the past and having your own business is the new trend.
Not many ordinary people have the finance to buy an existing brick and mortar business, or even a franchise. The only other option is to start up a small home business, with a limited budget. The advantages are obvious - flexibility, low start up costs, no staff, no rental and so on. Some take their hobbies and interests and start a "hands on" business, from home, which is still fairly traditional, in that they may still need staff, stocks, delivery etc.
The huge advantages of an internet business are - only a small office area, with your computer, is necessary and no staff, no stocks, no delivery, easy file storage, easy advertising, partly automated sales and response and truly worldwide access.
In any business, there are certain requirements and the internet is no exception. Things like purchase price, set up costs, monthly budgets for advertising and professional services, tax implications, marketing and administration are all integral parts of the business and must be carefully considered. Just because you do your business on the internet, does not mean you do not need to plan well. You are expecting a reliable salary each month, from a very small investment. The difference is….time.
A few years back, in the twentieth century, people were subjected to a couple of great world wars and the after effects were poverty, rations, job shortages and other horrible circumstances. As the world recovered and started to prosper again, it became the accepted norm to ensure you had plenty of papers, qualifications, diplomas and certificates, to ensure better prospects in the employment market and to have job security.
It was also important to weigh up the pros and cons of any job and always to go where the better perks, such as housing, transport, medical and pension were offered. Job security was the most important factor and people used to join the company with the best long term job security prospects.
It was not at all uncommon, for a young lad to leave school, start with a company, in some menial capacity, climb up through the ranks, retire from the same company with the accompanying pomp of a presentation ceremony, long service award and maybe even a gold watch.
Often, these people returned back to work, after retiring, in a temporary, or advisory position. Their whole lives were dedicated to the job. They knew nothing else and it was common for recent retirees to end up ill, or even dead, once they no longer felt important.
Life has changed. Nowadays, in the twenty first century, the exact opposite is happening. There is no job security anymore, far less perks, less loyalty and a restlessness amongst employees. People have started to realise that their jobs are not enough.
Why waste a lifetime, working to make somebody else wealthy? They could dismiss you at the drop of a hat, for any reason. It is becoming increasingly more common for a youngster to leave school, maybe even drop out early, to pursue his or her dream, by opening their own business. More and more men and women, around the world, are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with their lot in life and are starting to reject the system and the accepted norms of society.
With the advancement of technology, all our lives have changed drastically. Think back to when you were a kid and compare that to the kids of today. Priorities and needs have changed.
Many wives, who entered the job market, are now realising they want to be home with their children, to watch their advancement and to shape their futures. There is nothing wrong with that, only that they cannot afford to give up their jobs. A catch 22 situation prevails.
Not only the ladies, but the men too, are feeling the urge to tell the boss to shove it, to eliminate the dressing up each day, to eliminate the constant rush hour traffic conditions, to be able to upgrade their houses, to do their own repairs, to take the kids fishing, to play sport, to be in charge of their own lives and so on. This can only be achieved by having the flexibility of one's own business, preferably at home and possibly just in a small office, or corner of the home. How can they achieve this dream? The Internet. That's how.
The internet is an incredibly powerful medium, allowing business to be conducted immediately, all around the world, in almost any field, at low cost. Furthermore, the business can be partially automated, to virtually run itself 24 hours a day 365 days a year, whether you are asleep, away, entertaining guests, busy with the kids, or sitting in front of your computer. You may be otherwise engaged, but the internet is still working.
As with any conventional business you still need systems, filing, storage, budgets, products and accounting, but these are so compact to store and so easy to handle on your computer.
In most cases, an internet business allows total ownership, total control, total flexibility and total adaptability and versatility. You can even run a few different businesses, or combine them all in to one. As long as you are disciplined enough, to ensure you do the basics right and on time, you shouldn't go wrong.
The best part is that you do not need to employ staff, hold physical stocks, pay rental, run transport and delivery services. This represents a huge potential saving and within the grasp of most people. In a nutshell, profit equals sales minus costs and if you have very few costs, you have a far better chance of profit.
You must consider the implications of your new business. If you were to buy a conventional business, let's say a shop, you would have to analyse the financial implications, prepare a cashflow projection and probably have to convince the bank manager that it was viable. This would be similar to a job interview, as you would have to convince him that you had the necessary skills and attributes, to be successful.
Well, just because the ease and costs of setting up an internet business are sufficiently less, that you won't need to convince the bank manager to give you a loan, this does not mean you should not apply the same principles. You need to convince yourself! Go through the motions, draw up a cashflow, list your skills and prove on paper, not that this business can sustain you, but that you can sustain the business. You have to know what you are doing. You need to plan.
There are a few basics that you simply have to have. These include a name, a business with which you are comfortable, an e-mail address, a website, a list of subscribers, an auto responder, a product, or selection of products, or services, a bank account, some way of taking payments, a sales page, or sales pitch, an advertising campaign, search engine listings, some gimmick, or giveaway to entice visitors, traffic which is to say you need customers, a little ingenuity, a little integrity, a little uniqueness, a bit of effort, a little good fortune, a lot of patience, a little money, a little flexibility and a good plan of action.
Then you have the ingredients and all that remains is to get the right mix. Most of these are already under your control and the others are not difficult to acquire.
7) CALCULATE YOUR VIABILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY
There are obviously many, many ways to skin the proverbial cat. If you know exactly what you want to do, if you have a business idea, if you have a profitable hobby and want to expand your market, then skip this section. If you have no idea what you want to do, then read on.
First off, let's analyse your skills. Not your qualifications, or employment assets, this is not a job application. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What do you think you are worth? What are you able to do? Can you sell? Can you write? Can you type? Are you familiar with computers ? and internet? and so on. Make a list.
Come on! Write them down. Write the headings and under them, your lists. On the left side, list your strengths, on the other side list your weaknesses.
Okay, now make another list on your paper. On the left side, list your interests and hobbies, on the other side, list what least interests you, what you regard as boring.
Now write down, on the left, what you want to earn each month and on the right, your current salary.
Now make a list of people, on the left, you know well enough to try to "sell" your business idea to, those that will support you. Next to them, on the right, list all those people, you know will be against you.
Alright, now on the left, write down how many hours a week you are prepared to work, at your new business and how much free time you feel you need each week. Be realistic. You can be flexible here. Say you want Tuesday off to play golf, but will work longer on Wednesday to make up the time. Label the headings.
On the right, write down the hours you are currently working at your job and how much free time you are enjoying each week. Compare the leisure hours. A big difference, hey? Allow lunchtime and travelling time as work hours. You can now multiply these figures by 4.3, to get a monthly average.
Now make a calculation, first divide your salary by the number of hours you work for your boss and write it down on the right. Shocked at how little you are worth? Once you have found out how much you get paid per hour, do the same calculation with your expected earnings from your new business, divided by the time you will work at it. The end result should be much higher, in fact probably double. Your job was only paying you half of what you feel you are worth!
The lists, you made on the left side of your page are all the things to make you successful in your new business. If these far outweigh the items in the list on the right, you have every chance of success.
If its the other way around, you had better be careful. Do the exercise again and try to make a few concessions. These are the things your bank manager would assess, if you were applying for a loan to buy a conventional business and also what they would look at, if you were applying for a new position in a new business.
The financial implications are most important to your success, so let's look at them.
Make a new list as follows, write down how much you are prepared to spend on the initial purchase and set up, of your new business and how many months you expect to wait, till you are earning your expectations, as listed earlier. Divide the cost by the months and make a note of this.
Now, divide this by the number of hours per month you are willing to work. This will give you an hourly cost.
Now, write down how much per month you are willing to spend on sustaining your business, things like paying for professional assistance, sorting out your banking requirements, advertising, internet time, printer paper and ink and so on. Be realistic, you must spend money to make money.
Add these up and again divide by the number of hours you are willing to work. You will now have another hourly cost. Add the 2 hourly costs together and write the total down. Put a ring around this figure and call it "A".
Next to it, write down your earlier figure, for expected hourly earnings. Put a ring around it and call it "B".
Let's now interpret these results. If "A" is smaller than "B", then you have a good chance of success in your new business. If considerably smaller, you should do very well. This means your income is greater than your costs and you will make profit. If, however, "B" is greater than "A", you know you are heading for trouble.
This need not spell disaster, it is just that you have not allowed enough working time to make profit. Your costs exceed your income and will show a loss. You will have to work a little harder to see any profit.
Do the whole exercise again and adjust your figures. It is important to know what you have to do, in order to succeed. You must have a plan. Maybe the trouble is with the amount you said you could spend and too short a time allowed to offset these expenses. See if you can adjust these to show profit. You should allow about 3 months to offset these costs.
Once you have adjusted your figures, you will know what to expect, what you need to earn and how much work you have to do, in order to achieve this. You have created your basic plan and financial budgets. Okay, they are a bit rough, but far better than nothing. I bet you got a fright!
Once you have a more favourable plan, sit back and look carefully at all your calculations. These lists are the basis for your business aspirations. You now know what to expect, how much you need to earn, what your monthly costs will be, where your strengths lie and what the drawbacks are.
You will have to find a business to suit this plan. You need a business that is going to give you the returns you need, within your stipulated timeframe and where you can utilise your strengths, to your advantage.
You have now done a basic viability analysis. You can extend these figures over a few months and estimate your growth. Look carefully at whether the business can provide these requirements and what potential there is for growth. Try to operate within these constraints, for the best chances of success.
All points on the left, are assets to your business, while all points on the right, are hindering your business potential. You have to work it out on paper, to list your goals and to find out if your aspirations are reasonable. Now at least, you will have reasonably accurate expectations. Take another look at the lists on the left. These are your strengths. Compare them to the lists of the weaknesses on the right.
Try to find a happy medium. Who else has ever explained this to you? You thought you could just jump in, didn't you?
Okay, now that you have analysed your skills, I am going to make a statement that will shock you. “No matter what you want to do and no matter what you are capable of doing, you are going to become a marketer”.
That’s right, you read correctly. All business people on the internet are marketers. You are not a technical genius, you are not a wholesaler, a writer, a shopkeeper, a typist, a specialist in some field - you are an internet marketer.
All you do is market yourself. If you market well, you will be successful. If you don't market yourself properly, you will be sunk.
8) SELECTING THE RIGHT TYPE OF BUSINESS.
Now that you know what you need to earn, how much you can spend, whether you can make a profit, who to pitch to, your strengths and so on, it will make it easier to select the right type of business for you.
Remember one thing. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. No employer in the world is prepared to pay someone they have never met, more than an ordinary employee, no matter what they are offering. That is common sense.
Do not try to make easy money by typing, reading e-mails, joining some forced payment scheme, matrix builders, doing surveys, writing labels and other similarly simple schemes. It might sound easy to simply recruit others under you, but you will be shocked at the resistance. You will not be happy.
Another thing to be wary of, is whether the offered business opportunity is truly international, or confined to a specific area. For example, you cannot respond to surveys for American companies if you live in Africa, no matter what they tell you.
At this stage, if you are looking for a specific type of business, say for example catering and you are sure your figures look good, then go and look at all the options in this field. You can either find a book on how to go about this, or search for a "business in a box", where you can buy all the info you will need. If you are still uncertain, read on.
No matter what you decide to do, you will need certain tools. You will need an e-mail address, a website to tell others what you are offering, a name for your business, a domain name or at least a sub-domain for your website, a website host, some means of collecting your money, a way to pay other online services. If you know what you need, write them down, because you are going to have to set them up, before you get started.
Now, try to decide what you want to do. Do you want to write books, sell products, advertise your practical services, or something else? You are going to have to search for information and options in this field. Research is very important. If you were spending $300 000 .00 on a franchised business, would you simply grab the first one offered you? Of course not.
Try to assess each offer, to see how it weighs up, compared to your expectations and strengths as you wrote down on your lists. If you are still not sure, then stick to a fairly safe method, as in doing affiliate marketing. This will give you the chance to select products and sell them for someone else, without the risk and without a lot of the set up.
You usually get a custom website and banking facilities with these suppliers, so it cuts out all the preparation. You can start immediately on your advertising and marketing campaign. You do no selling, yourself. You just attract prospects to your site and if they make a purchase, you get paid a commission. This is the safest way of getting familiar with the whole process and a good place to start. There are plenty to choose from.
Never pay for a program, without knowing all the facts. If you find a scheme that wants your money before you are totally satisfied, forget them. Try e-mailing them with questions. If they have nothing to hide, they will give you reassurances.
Be wary of giving your name, e-mail, address and personal details to unknown sources. We have stopped that practice totally. Most often they are collecting personal details for newsletters or something and whether you take their offer or not, you will be bombarded with tons of unwanted spam.
Obviously, this is not a problem with trusted sites and you very often have to subscribe to them for the required services. Many of the unscrupulous merchants sell this info and you can expect spam mail from people you have never heard of. If you trust the source, or if you need to join the program, or if you want to sign up for their newsletter, then you will have to give them your details. Make sure you are okay with that.
If you want a very valuable tip, pay special attention to this. Open a new e-mail address in one of the free, public services such as Hotmail, Gmail, AOL, or Webmail, or similar. Give it a simple yet meaningless name, such as your pet's name. Register and give the suspicious e-mail service your details.
When surfing and investigating opportunities, and if you are suspicious, always use this e-mail address. Once you find that the company is trustworthy and you want to stay in contact, then notify them of a change of e-mail address and give them your proper, primary address.
If you find yourself in trouble with loads of junk mail and you want out, you only need to cancel your free e-mail address and hey presto! no more junk mail. We adopt this habit regularly. Bear in mind that you cannot pull this stunt every time and if you want to do further business with them, it would not be a good idea to start off on the wrong foot. While exploring your options and looking for the right opportunity, give everyone your false address and once you have sifted through all the responses and narrowed down your search, change your details with those that you wish to stay in contact with and then close your false address. This saves a lot of trouble, later on.
Please don’t do this with us. We are honest and reliable.
Remember, online you are not a shopkeeper, you are not a manufacturer, you are not a competent businessperson, you are not selling anything. For all intents and purposes you are only doing one thing. What is it?
You are marketing! Marketing yourself!
Why will people deal want with you? You are not the best store in the world, not the best offer, not the cheapest, you will not convince your visitors to buy from you because of your great looking website, not because of your qualifications, not your degrees, not your selection of products, not your speedy delivery. There is only one reason people will buy from you - they trust you. Yes, it is that simple.
You can go overboard on setting up and creating a wonderful mega-store, you can advertise and optimise to ensure tons of traffic, you can drop your prices, you can have the latest flashy products, but they will only make the purchase if they trust you and like you and that message is not conveyed to them in their first brief visit. In fact very few sales are made on the website!
Does this sound stupid? Believe me, it is true. Okay, there may be plenty of people who search for something specific and then do their shopping on the internet, but it is very unlikely that they will find you their best option, first time.
To elaborate on the above statement, it is my opinion and certainly by the results of our experimental site, that the best possible way, is to market yourself into their hearts. This takes a little effort and a bit of time, but is well worth it.
What you have to do is build a community of followers, a family. Get a good name, tell them about you, mention highpoints in your life, low points, show that you care, show that you can be trusted, show you are human, write articles, newsletters, give them gifts, build a relationship.
This is what we did with the early Bags Of Money site and that is why we were asked to continue, by our internet viewers. That is what we did with our experimental site and why we made money. That is what we are doing right now, right here. Building trust. These are the 3 single biggest secrets you will ever hear, when it comes to internet business. Market, trust and a plan. And you heard it here, possibly for the first time ever. Think about it.
Think about those big "guru millionaires". How did they get there? They built themselves up, earned big reputations, offered good service and money back guarantees, wrote reports and books, learnt the art of using words to their advantage and then capitalised on what they had built.
If one of the top guys wrote a personally endorsed letter to you, at home, offering you the next big thing, at a special introductory price, for the first 50 respondents and offered to personally mentor you to success, you would jump in boots and all, wouldn't you? Why? Because you know of him and his reputation and you trust his offer.
This is where you want to be, although no doubt, on a smaller scale. The only problem is that it is easy to feed you a little information this time and leave some over for next time. In other words they never tell you everything you need to know, in one go. You are still left short and they are assured of another sale. Do you see how it works. The less they tell you each time, the more you are going to have to buy from them.
Right! Now let's take a look at some options. The biggest money spinners on the internet are pornography, social sites, software, media, information, gambling, auctions, product sales, music and movies and games, advertising and scams.
Hundreds of billions of Dollars are spent each year on these items. Don't try to involve yourself in anything lucrative but immoral, like pornography or scams. You are at great risk. Steer clear. Concentrate on the other legitimate businesses.
The most used word on the internet search engines is "free", but this is also risky as there are many unscrupulous individuals out there and you may be the subject of phishing, spyware, viruses, adware, hacking and other unwanted complications, unknowingly placed on your computer, by users of these sites.
Software and media are similar products and cover music, movies, games, audio, pictures, video, software programs and tools such as anti-spyware, anti-virus, website builders, and all sorts of similar products.
Information ranges from normal searches for a topic of interest, to how to do this or that, to how to make money, how to start a business, how to build a website, e-books on thousands of topics etc. Like e-books and reports.
Gambling is as it infers, you can make or lose - it is a gamble.
Auctions such as E-Bay and BidOrBuy are very big. There are people who buy cheap and sell high and make a lot of money, but it is dicey and you need to know what you are doing. There are more and more of these starting up. It is rumoured that this is where fortunes are made.
Product sales are sales of your products, other people's products, affiliate marketing and so on. You can actually get a whole virtual shop (website with hundreds of items for sale) all you have to do is send people to the site.
Advertising is always associated with big money, even in books and newspapers. It is possible to sell advertising. In any business, you are only as successful as your advertising.
Social sites are new, but very popular. Look at Facebook, Twitter, community forums and member sites.
I personally like the option of CDs and DVDs of music, movies and games. This is very big, especially when combined with the power of E-Bay, but most people seem to concentrate on e-books.
The more people who come to your site, the more sales you are likely to make. This is called "traffic". Be conservative and only expect about 2% of your traffic to actually buy from you. This is called your conversion rate. You can make your deal a lot sweeter by offering freebies as well. Try to make the deal sound as sweet as possible, in order to close the sale.
Right, by now you should have a pretty good idea of what is required, what to expect and what it is that you want to do. Check your interests and hobbies against possible niches and products. You must enjoy your work and must seem to know what you are talking about.
Now, we need to get you up and running. Don't quit your job just yet, there is still a lot to do. Remember an important fact. There are hundreds of millions of Dollars or Pounds or Rands, or whatever, spent on the internet each year. You want a small slice of that enormous pie.
To start a conventional business with a premises, staff, accountant, transport, rental and stocks will cost you a great deal of money, whereas with an internet business, you can achieve the same result with a small fraction of that money, but to be competitive, you still need to spend money on proper setup, advertising etc.
We have told you that this can be done for free, as we have done, but it is far more difficult without proper resources and requires a lot more work. We did it to try to prove something, not to get rich. You can't make money from a business where you spend nothing and do no work.
Remember too, that there are millions of people, like you, all trying to make money - you have to be just that much better than they are and armed with all this information, you already have an advantage.
Another thing we suggest, is to have fun. If you want to slog and be depressed and work harder than what your rewards are worth, then keep your job. The whole reason you want to make a change, is because you are not happy. Treat this internet experience as a learning curve, have fun, enjoy what you do and give your customers a fair deal.
Okay, let's go on to the next section and deal with some specifics and get you some tools to start creating your business.
9) LET'S GET GOING.
By now, you should have a pretty good idea of what you are looking for and what to expect. From what you have learnt on our site and from this report, together with our recommendations later on, you are going to be better equipped than you could ever have hoped for and that, my friend, is half way to your dreams.
Go through your lists again and check that you are happy with the outcome. Have you more assets and strengths than weaknesses? Are you satisfied with your expected earnings? Have you enough cash to outlay? Can you achieve the working hours you have calculated? Can your choice of business sustain your requirements? Is it a good niche? Is it always going to be fun and interesting? Are you going to get bored? Can you exercise enough self discipline, to make this work?
If not, reassess your lists and your needs. When you are satisfied, start a new page. Yes, there is still more work to do. Stay with me here. Surely this effort is worth the reward?
Copy your expectations, definitions, goals and strengths to a new page. Take one last look at the weaknesses on the right and throw away that old page. You have considered these weaknesses in making your selection this far - now forget them for ever.
You must be positive and use your strengths, your weaknesses will only get you down. You needed to list them, in order to select the right type of business for you, but you will not need them again. We do not need any negative thoughts.
Now, next to your list of goals, write down a deadline for each. Write down when you expect your first sale, when you want to be able to give up your job, when you will assess if this business is achieving your expectations, when you want to expand, when you will be earning your worth, when you will need to make a decision to try another business and so on.
You must have deadlines, by which to rate your progress, or you will not know your limitations, or profitability. If for some reason, you do not achieve one of these goals, do not give in, keep trying and re-assessing. You are almost there! What's the alternative? Going back to your old life and old job?
We suggested in the last section, that you select from a list of the top money spinners. To re-cap these were software, media, information, auctions, product sales and advertising.
Media can get a little complicated because of copyright laws, royalties, advanced software programs, larger servers for downloads and so on, so let's exclude that for now. Of course, if games, movies and music is your interest and you know something about it, then you go for it. You could include instructional audio or video with this option.
I believe that buying CDs and DVDs at wholesale prices and reselling them on E-Bay has a huge potential and I intend trying this. In fact you could even sell the lists of wholesalers to others interested in this field. If you have chosen this field, that’s great. Good luck.
For the rest of you, let's look at these topics again. All are very wide areas, with thousands of products. The final selection is for you to make, we can only guide you so far.
Auctions are a specialised field, where you buy and sell for profit. If you master the art, it can be very lucrative. If you slip up you can lose money, so start off small and get acquainted with the process. There are lots of auctions and plenty of books and reports explaining the whole workings of the industry. If that is your decision and you have access to some unique product, like African artefacts or tourist curios or something you think others will be prepared to bid on, then go look up info on E-Bay or Bid and Buy or one nearer your home. Good luck.
Advertising is also a very wide field and a very lucrative industry. If this is what you want to get involved in, try to find more information on the various types of advertising mediums and how you are going to sell your service. There are many free and paid sites that host all sorts of advertising for all sorts of product. There are classifieds, text ads, picture ads, pop ups, banners, audio messages and video messages. If you have a talent for creating designs, look into this possibility. You could become a local agent for an advertising house, an affiliate marketer, produce your own ads and logos for companies, or even host your own advertising website. Read up on the topic that interests you. Good luck.
Software encompasses all sorts of computer programs and tools. People look every day for ways to make their lives easier. There are programs to help you manage your files, download data, burn discs, record audio, speed up your computer, detect spyware and viruses and other harmful items, office programs, publishers, photo editors, voice mediums, phone and fax programs and many, many more. This is one of the biggest money spinners around.
You will have to decide which type of software you want to sell. This is an easy product to sell and is an instant transaction as the customer downloads the program, so there is no stock or delivery needed. Maybe it is better for you to team up with some established company as an affiliate or reseller, to make use of their brand name, their advertising and save a lot of hassles. Try a few and then pick out the best sellers. Offer a variety and try to throw in a couple of freebies. Do your research well and try to test the products yourself. In most cases these items come with a free trial period before you have to pay. Good luck.
Product sales covers just about everything we have not already categorised and even includes most of them too. You can sell anything on the internet, from watches, gifts, cameras, cars, holidays, investments, property, insurance, health products, equipment and more.
If you decide this is where your interests lie, then try to narrow down your options. Are you wanting to import and export physical products? Are you going to use the drop shipping method, which works rather like consignment stock, where you only pay for the stock after it is sold.
There are plenty of companies around the world, that you can team up with. They will give you their catalogue and price list and usually a website. You advertise and sell. You then place your order and they deliver. The customer pays you and you then pay the wholesaler.
Are you going to become a wholesaler, where you buy goods at factory price and then sell at a big profit?
Are you going to sell your own products? Are you going to become an affiliate marketer or reseller for an already established company, or a couple of companies? You will need to do some research. Decide which products you want to deal in and what method you will use. Search for "drop shipping", "reseller", "affiliate", or "import & export", or look up individual products like "cameras". A lot of companies will sell you a turnkey business, which is a ready made website full of product descriptions, some sort of payment processor and 24/7 assistance. Go and check your options. Good luck.
The last topic on our list is information. This is where we have spent most of our time. There are so many options. People around the world are thirsty for knowledge. They always think someone else has the answer to their problems. They pay good money for motivational courses, informative reports (like this one), books, tapes, encyclopaedias, advisory magazines, trade journals, advice on where to invest, books on health and sickness, how to do this or that, books on marriage, raising children, how to be successful, how to start a business etc. Get the picture?
Now the internet affords an easy way to get these books, software, dvds and reports to the customer, immediately, by download. It is cheaper, quicker, easier and anonymous. Oh yes, and the profits are greater! There is no publishing, paper, delivery, printing, stock, shop and staff necessary.
There are millions of e-books available in all languages, around the world. Some are free, some are for sale, some are copyright protected, many are available for distribution and resale at frightening mark ups. As one of the biggest money spinners and so easy and compact to handle, this is a very lucrative business. Add to that, the fact that most people aspire to writing their own book, but don't know how to sell it and you have a winner.
You can write for others, you can write for yourself, you can market articles, you can blog, its up to you. Imagine a bookshop of your own and you add to the list your very own book? Why not teach others? Check up on options. Whether you want to write your own book, sell other people's books, buy a "book store", or become an affiliate of a company, find out more information before you decide. Good luck.
It is often possible to combine some of the topics and run them together. For example you could sell your drop ship products on auction, or you could buy a product in an auction lot and then sell them individually. You could run an advertising website and advertise your own products there for free. You could combine books and software, or perhaps be more specific, as in selling healthcare products, together with healthcare books. Mix and match your products.
Just an observation I have made. All the gurus that boast how wealthy they are seem promote information products and advise you to do the same. This includes e-books and reports, articles, affiliate schemes, blogging, money making products, how to start and succeed etc. Mostly instructional and informational products. Everybody and his dog is busy trying to make money in the same field. This huge niche is fiercely competitive and trends keep changing.
Don’t you think it is strange that none of these hugely successful and wealthy gurus made their fortunes in easier fields? How come nobody claims to have made a fortune simply by selling something mundane, like say, DVD? How come nobody is offering to teach us all how easy it is to sell DVDs? It always seems so complicated. But, isn’t this exactly how they make their money? By fooling us?
If you still have not made a final decision, then we feel that you really should start off with affiliate marketing, until you are ready to go it alone. Okay, so now list your interests. What type of business, what type of product, which is your chosen niche? Have you already got some products in mind? Once you have decided what and how and to whom you will be marketing, you are halfway there.
The next section deals with setting up your chosen business. For suggested businesses and aids and tools, see our list under the heading resources. I have put all the links at the end of the report, because I have you here and I have your attention. If I provide links now, you will go racing off to other sites and might get lost, disconnected or distracted. You might not come back.
Remember this tip, when you lay out your own website. Keep the visitor's attention until the end.
10) HOW TO SET UP.
If you have found the right business, for you and assuming it is not an affiliate business, or a turnkey business that comes complete with a website and all the necessary processing tools to start trading immediately, then this section is for you.
First and foremost, you will definitely need a website. This could be a Wordpress blog or similar, but you need a home, a storefront.
If you know someone who can help you, or if you are prepared to pay for a professional service, that's great, but, it is not that difficult to do yourself. For a more professional look, it is advisable to pay monthly hosting fees to a company to actually host your unique website. There are thousands of these companies and you can find reviews easily, on the best and what facilities they offer.
If you are an affiliate or have been given a website, it is better to go this route. They don't like the adverts and pop ups, normally found on the free host's pages. If you have to build your own site, then start off for free and upgrade later. There are many free hosts around the world, but make sure you know what they put on your pages.
Most offer templates and offer useful add-ons like hit counters, guestbooks, blogs, forums, cartoons and other services to enhance your site. Two hosts we have used and found to be quite good are Freewebs and Bravenet. Currently we are using Yola.
Most free hosts offer, as a service, an easy web builder with templates. You choose your style and substitute your custom text for their example text. If going the free route, you can have what they call a sub-domain. This is not a unique, professional domain name, but it is free.
Every website has a url, which is your own address. Your name, called a domain. In professional company sites, they will have their own domain, which is a bought and original address. You can buy domains all over. We have used Yola, Yahoo and HostGator. If you don't need this yet, the free hosts will carry you as a subsidiary of their domain, on a sub-domain. You still use your name, but it forms part of their name.
Go to their help links and read up on how it works. They all have tutorials and help facilities. If you want to build your own custom website, you will need an editor like Nvu. This particular editor allows you the choice of writing ordinary text in the "what you see is what you get" format and checking the automatically translated html coding, to see how it works. You don't have to know anything about html coding, to build a website. It may be easier to start with a single page, but the tutorials will explain all the tricks to making a full website.
You naturally assume that you need a payment processor on your site, to collect your money and transfer it to the bank. If they are your own products, or if you have a normal business, you may have to go this route. Then, you will have to choose one of the following merchants. Paypal, or E-Gold, which are both well known, or there are others you may prefer. Make sure you read the small print and understand how they work. If you want money transferred immediately to your bank account, then you will have to get the customers to purchase from you using their credit cards. One of the best is Charge. Com Card Service. There is a small fee charged for this facility.
If you are an affiliate, or if you want affiliates to sell for you, then you will have to register with one of the affiliate processors. There are plenty, like Commission Junction and PayDotCom. The best known is Clickbank. It is by far the biggest and the best. They have over a million affiliates and just as many products to choose from. They collect all payments, through credit cards or PayPal and then send you a cheque. All of these are free to join.
An important note for South Africans. Actually this applies to residents of many countries such as all African countries, large parts of Asia and some others. Most programs, particularly affiliate programs, are linked to PayPal. PayPal has become "a way of life" and the first choice of most marketers. Unfortunately these marketers haven't done their homework properly. Many will even show screenshots of their earnings as confirmed by PayPal. They will claim that you can reach that level too. What they fail to mention is that not everybody can join PayPal and a couple of other payment portals. They claim to be truly international opportunities. This is probably fine if you are a resident of USA, UK, Australia, some countries in western Europe, Canada and anywhere considered to be "first world countries". But and this is a very big but, if you are not amongst that elite group, you are left out of the equation. Totally.
So, when looking at various programs and opportunities and affiliate plans, check carefully to see how you are supposed to get paid. If you find that is PayPal and you are not one of the elite group, chances are you will never earn a cent. Oh, sure you can join up and open an account, but mark my words, you won't make any money. I learnt the hard way.
Their site and smallprint is a little ambiguous and does not clearly state that you may not open a trading account. If you read carefully, you will see that they say you can't draw funds out of your account. My question is, what happens to the money that you do earn? Anyway, I'm not really blaming them, I'm blaming the marketers, who promise the earth, without ever checking to see who is eligible, or not.
Bottom line- unless you live in those elite areas, as mentioned earlier, as soon as you see the payment portal is PayPal, reverse out of there quickly. This is very unfortunate and as something like 90% of all advertised programs deal with PayPal, it narrows our field down considerably.
I spent a lot of time trying to solve this dilemma and joined AlertPay. They are a Canadian outfit and they are happy to do business with us. They have a safe, secure page and process all the major cards. They have an interface that hooks into the shopping cart and so far, so good. They are affiliated with EGold, which is well known. Unfortunately, not many have accounts with them and are reluctant to try them, so you lose the sale.
The solution is very simple – use Clickbank and let them worry about collecting money.
Now that you have a domain, a website, a means of collecting payments and of course your products or services, you will need to attract visitors. This is done in a variety of ways. One is to register your site with the search engines. This is referred to as SEO or search engine optimisation. This can also be done for free and there are hundreds of submission facilities in every country. Just search for "search engines". Read up their help on making your pages more accessible to the engines. They will require meta tags and keywords, but these terms are explained to you. There are even an assortment of tools available, to place your submissions and ads automatically.
You need a capture form on your main page, to get the name and address of every visitor. This is absolutely imperative, to the future of your business. Offer a free book if necessary, but get the address.
Once you are familiar with some of these processes, you need to get an "auto responder" that answers your e-mails and welcomes prospects automatically. This is why they claim your business runs 24/7 on auto pilot, even while you are relaxing. This will be the basis of all your marketing mails and it does the job automatically.
We recommend using Aweber.
Another medium of attracting traffic, is the placing of ads, both paid and free. Again, there are thousands of places. A fun way of getting traffic to your site, is to join a traffic generator. These are free to join and in your spare time, you log in and view other sites, in return for them to be sent to your site. You exchange links. The more you visit, the more will reciprocate and the more will visit your site. Some of these generators are Traffic.Com, Turbo GDI, and Traffic Swarm. It often helps to offer freebies and there are also plenty of these available. Take a look at FileEdge, Eric's Tips, and Web Business Wizard to name but a few.
Another very good way, that is easy and free, is to post short entries on blogs, e-zines and article sites, where ever you can. At the end of your article, remember to add your links to your sites. This is very good advertising.
FreeDownloadManager is what we consider to be the best free download manager on the internet. Once you have set the download, you can either go out of the page and continue surfing, while it downloads, or set it for some other time. You can even lose the connection and it will resume the download. It "photographs" the data and remembers this till completion. All these products, as well as the Free Download Manager can be found on our resources section.
NB: All our suggested resources, have been mentioned in the resource section, so please check. Here we have several programs, businesses, tools, memberships, resources and affiliate programs. Some are free, some are sold. Some have free gifts, some have discounts, some have surprises, some have free affiliate sections, you will have to look through them yourself.
Don't take this lightly and just skim over them. You have learnt so much and come so far, don't spoil things now. Take your time, click on each link, read what they say, look for useful resources, look for hidden gifts, make an informed decision. You must be able to find all that you are looking for in the next section. It is all we have needed.
11) SUMMARY.
Right, what have you accomplished so far? Well, hopefully you have decided on what type of business you want, you have done the skills and the financial calculations to know what to expect, you have set goals and deadlines, you have seen the potential of the various business topics and the top money spinners, you have got yourself a website, a domain, you have registered with the search engines, you have optimised your pages, you have arranged your money processor, you have placed ads, you have joined traffic generators, you are capturing addresses, you are running an auto responder, you have researched all available information on your proposed products and hopefully secured a few freebies in your travels. In other words you are now in your own internet business. Well done!
You have also had access to a very valuable and informative course and soon will find the resources. Remember to check your list of goals and accomplishments and check your counter statistics and check your payments regularly. If you are achieving your goals as set out on your lists, tick these items off. If not, you need more ads, traffic, customers and maybe more products.
Play around with your options and try to get the right balance. Remember to place fresh adverts on a regular basis. If it is a busy site, your ad may have been moved right down the list and not seen by many people. Always try to keep on the first page.
12) RESULTS FROM OUR EXPERIMENTAL SITE.
There is a little repeated here, that you already know, but please bear with us as we are running this section exactly as it appeared in print after the experiment was completed.
We first started Bags Of Money in 2003 as a website offering free reviews and advice on the various programs we had personally tried. As we have said we listed sites that we felt were good and slammed sites we didn't like. We reviewed 95 programs in the first year and had links to 35 good ones at any time.
Hundreds of people thanked us for our efforts and many wrote back to say they had got their businesses up and running. We also used the platform to re-direct the visitors to some of our other sites all catering for different needs. We made light of the experience, by starting a music discussion panel and had a few differing viewpoints left in the form of messages.
One day somebody challenged us to prove that what we were saying did in fact work. This was at about the same time that we were threatened with legal action by one of the companies we had criticised. Also at this time, some people said we were crazy to offer such good advice for free and cited one or two other reports available for purchase.
We considered these angles, withdrew our criticisms, stopped showing that we had been threatened with legal action by one of the companies we had criticised. We later closed down the reviews altogether.
We set up a website, advertising, traffic and everything we have taught you to do, all absolutely free. We never spent a single cent on setting up the business. We teamed up with various free affiliate sites (all completely different) and then waited to see.
It started off slowly (remember we had a new url - people hadn't heard of us), but then it picked up momentum. After 8 months we had had 3280 visitors to our new site. This is an average of 410 per month or about 14 a day. All for free.
No great shakes, we admit, but wait. This should sound a warning bell to those impatient to make fast money. We diligently updated ads each day and kept the site info current. We changed a few products and started offering freebies, news, music, downloads and brought back our advice column. The very next month we had 645 visitors and sales climbed. This is when we learnt not to give out your personal details too often, not to pursue anything that is not clearly explained, never to pay before you are sure what you are getting, exactly what people want, some even expect freebies and we also learnt rather to perservere with your own business and not get caught up in all these supposed "gold rushes".
We were closing about 25 sales each month and earning on average about $400. You see, this is no fortune, but we never spent a cent and only worked about 3 hours a day and had only the one website. So it is possible.
We discovered that the easiest sales were from the categories as mentioned earlier and that it helped to offer a few of each. The gurus tell you to concentrate your efforts on one specific product, but we think it is a case of having all your eggs in one basket and preferred to diversify a bit.
We proved that with no outlay, totally unprofessional tools and very little effort, we could earn around $400 each month. Now, if you were to have a couple of businesses, more websites, spend some money, offer the top products and work, say 8 hours a day? Well you work that out. A couple of thousand a month? I fail to understand how so many marketers do not make any money.
We set out on this experiment for a couple of reasons. We wanted to prove that a sustainable business could actually be set up and maintained for a period of at least 6 months, at absolutely no cost at all and that we could even make money out of this business. Furthermore, we wanted to see exactly what people wanted and who we attracted to the site.
In short, this was a very successful and educating business experiment. We learnt a lot. Who else has done something similar? Who else is prepared to share this information? You see, we care, its not just talk, we get down and dirty too.
One thing that we discovered and that you will probably find hard to believe, is that people are not always impressed by flashing lights, lots of colour, buttons, alarms, words that jump out at you, and flashy pages.
Most people will not wait for a picture, video or sound recording to load. They feel intimidated by all this carnival stuff and are scared of pushing a wrong button which may then demand payment. They are also, generally, scared to divulge their personal details until they know what the deal is. So many websites make the mistake of frightening off their visitors, before they even get their message across.
Some things, on reflection, are painfully obvious. For example, you are taught at a young age to read. All your life, you perfect the technique of reading. A book is written in small letters, small font size and usually black. One's instinct is to dicky up their website to make it look catchy, but the reader's eye is not used to reading capitals, colours, different styles etc. It is actually more difficult to read.
We also found that the leaving of a space after each paragraph, made for easier reading. The brain rushes ahead and previews the paragraph, before you actually read it. It seems a more daunting task, when there is a long continuous passage of text. Breaking it down, into smaller paragraphs, helps the reading process. Very scientific, hey? But, it is something worth remembering. See, how we practice what we preach! We used to use lots of pictures, to break the text and to emphasise certain points, but will try to curtail our enthusiasm.
The other point connected to websites, is also very simple. People surf the internet looking for information, not sideshows. Kind of like the old days when you went down to the library. Keep the content of the site as informative and as interesting as possible. They came to find out more info. They are in a hurry. They never came to watch movies, to hear how wealthy you are, to read scores of testimonials on how many other liars have also become extremely wealthy since they found your site.
The visitors are still in defensive mode and not ready to divulge all their personal details. Let's say you went to the local bookstore to find out more about gardening. How long would you stick around if a circus act accompanied by loud music was there to entertain? What would you think if, as you walked up to the assistant and asked for info on gardening, she thrust a clipboard in front of you and insisted you fill out your name, address, phone number, age, earnings and more personal details? You would run like hell! and never go back. Simple logic really.
We also found that the average person is confused by numerous navigation options. They start reading and get comfortable, then you throw diversions at them. Go here, go there, take a look at this and so on. They lose their concentration and probably even their place. Worse still, they might lose the page and not try to get back into your site again. They are lost, you will never sell to them. They are gone, past statistics, a lost sale. Keep it simple and keep it friendly. Remember what we taught you about building trust?
Be transparent. How refreshing it would be to see exactly what is being offered and the price at the top of the page, instead of hidden right down the bottom. Why do they always put the price last? Most people scroll down to the bottom, see the price and then pull out. Why do they always show pages and pages of bank accounts, showing how much they earned? All important details are crossed out, so how can we verify the authenticity. Are trying to con you? How come they never have any bad months? All months are fantastic sales months. Every business has lean times. All testimonials are glowing success stories, never ever an average one, or a bad reference.
We selected free products and a couple of cheapies. We built our own website, used a free sub-domain name, free hosting and free advertising. We optimised our pages and submitted them to the search engines for free. We inserted a free counter and a free guestbook. We used Freewebs, then Bravehost and now Yola. Everything was free. We ended up running the site for 8 months, because we were having such fun.
And, the best kept secret is surprisingly simple. You do not use your website to make sales. You use it to attract people, entertain them, get them to join in the forums and columns and at all costs get their e-mails. Then, through your site, forums, articles and maybe weekly e-mails, you get to know them, well certainly they must get to know you. Tell them all about yourself, your family and business. Make friends and get their trust. Once they are at ease with you and trust you, send e-mails out with cleverly worded sales pitch and with your assurance that it is really a good product. They will be far more willing to buy from you at this stage.
You have to show that you care and are trustworthy. If you correspond with someone for a while, remember things like birthdays, give them good advice, offer to help, thank them for being friends and build up a one on one rapport, then when you subtlely drop a hint of a great new product, it is very likely that the person will believe you and you have a deal.
Then of course, you follow up and work towards the next deal. Invite them to participate in your group forums, send a gift as a thank you, ask what they thought of the purchase and so on.
Now you are getting the picture. This is how, with a very amateurish website and very informal advertising, with no outlay, we were able to make money - through trust, genuine interest, communication and cooperation. We had them eating out of our hands and you know the best advertising? - word of mouth! Satisfied customers tell their friends. There you have it in a nutshell.
13) CONCLUSION.
We hope this advice has helped you. Be sure to return for further reference. We were naive when we first started out and got caught up quite a few times, in unsavoury situations, where we couldn't get our money out. We wanted to prevent this from happening to other newbies, like you. Please tell all your friends about us and please join in. Give us your e-mail details, contact us, and together we can all succeed.
We felt we should share our experiences and regret that we can not name those companies that scammed us. Be careful out there! We feel sure you won't get better advice than this - for free! You can see that we are not just talking vague stuff here. We have actually done this and we have disclosed many secrets to you. We could have kept this to ourselves, but hey, what are friends for?
All the information given on these pages, is from our personal experience and none of it is intended to be misleading. If you follow these instructions properly, you definitely will succeed. We have not included lengthy testimonials and references, simply because we don't feel we need them and we have taught you so well, that you wouldn't take any notice anyway, would you?
We consider the 3 most profitable and easy to run businesses to be e-books, DVDs, and well chosen affiliate programs, provided they are done properly. Research and trials take time and we don't have much spare time, but we will bring you good news shortly and show you an expose on these 3 business models.
We will keep you posted on the latest developments, as long as you keep in touch with us.
Please take a good look at the things we have recommended in the resources section and also look through our recommended products on the Product Reviews page. We will keep adding to the list.
Now that you have a clear plan, you can start building your online business and then start earning! Until then, have fun and BE CAREFUL. Drop us a note on how you feel about our business plan.
14) IN A NUTSHELL
Well, that is the advice I wanted to give you. Basically, if you live in the US, UK, Australia etc, count yourself lucky. If you don't, stop crying over the PayPal issue.
Once you have worked out all your calculations on viability and sustainability and are ready to begin this exciting journey, go to our resources and do the following:
1) Go to Yola, choose an appropriate sub domain and select a basic template.
2) Build a basic website, with a signup form on your homepage. Incorporate a blog. In the old days people worried about SEO, metatags, keywords, submissions etc, but nowadays it is more difficult to fool the search engines. All they look for is fresh content. They love content, hence the blog. The blog gives you the opportunity of posting fresh content every day.
3)
Find/edit or write informative articles. Post these on your blog and in as many article directories you can find. Remember to add a footer about you and add the link to your website. This will bring traffic and it is your job to get them to sign up to your mail list.
4) Sign up as an affiliate promoter with Clickbank.
5) Spend a little cash on signing up to Aweber. Once people join your mail list, you write to them telling them about your products. Hopefully they buy. This is where your revenue comes from. I'll tell you a little secret about the "gurus".
How do you think they got so rich? Why is it that they (a small clique) seem to control all internet marketing systems? Well, they stick together. They employ professionals to to all the hard work, like designing programs and writing sales copy. These freelancers are always at the beckon call of the gurus. The guru dreams up a new product idea, or rehashes an old one, or buys the complete licence from as smaller marketer and upgrades it.
There is a special website online, where they plan launches ahead of time. They invite the other gurus to help them promote the new product. This is called a Joint Venture. These guys have huge lists, well over 100 000 subscribers. Ok, now these guys buy up domain names that look like the real thing and start pre-launch promotions. Eventually on the given day, each of them mail their entire lists. They inventor promises each of them something like 50% commissions.
Let's assume 20 people send out well written and highly advertised mails to 100 000 subscribers each. That's 2 000 000 subscribers in total. Yes, 2 million!! and each is pumped to get in on the next biggest thing. We are happy with conversion rates of about 2%. These guys get upward of 50%! So, let's assume that each of the pals only sell 1000 copies at $75 each. Each pal makes $75 000 and the big shot makes $75 000 X 20 plus his own lkis. He makes a staggering $1 575 000 !!
Then he waits for the next guy to do the same. They all have a turn. By the time mere mortals like us can get hold of the product, it's already old news. Now, consider too, that these products are gauranteed to sell, because they have personal endorsements from the big names. They manipulate the market accordingly and force you to believe that you simply cannot survive without it!
We will never be invited to this elite group, but we can be happy with a 2% sales rate from a list of say 10 000. In other words, if you could sell a product worth $27, to 200 people and you could do this twice a week, you would be making $43 200 a month. Now, there's nothing wrong with that, is there!
6) Look through our Clickbank product category register and select products within your niche. Sometimes an affiliate marketer can get these free to try, but otherwise buy one to try first. You will easily make that money back.
There! That's it, you're in business and making money! Simple hey?
Why am I telling you all this? Well, I'm sick and tired of being misled and I'm sure you are too. Why shouldn't you be able to earn some money online? There is a simpler way to do anything!
What do I want out of you? Well, I want you to keep in touch and tewll me how it's going. I want you to sign up to my list. I want you to recommend me to your pals and I want you to use my product review page and complete Clickbank directory, when you start selecting products you need or want to sell. And, I hope, that once you are making money and making a name for yourself, that you will post a link on your site, back here. Oh, and maybe when you are ready to upgrade and be more professional, you will again come here for advice. Good luck!
15) THE END.
Thanks for showing interest in our report. We hope you feel more comfortable and are now able to make better informed decisions. All of the best in your venture and remember to have fun. That is the most important part!
Note: If you are South African, or if you live outside the U.S and you feel the same way as us, please find the link below and read our articles on the problems facing South African online businesses. Click here.
To remain informed of our progress, by newsletter and mail, to get recommended tools and lessons and to start your journey to wealth, please sign up on our home page. Thanks for your time.
16) RESOURCES
My Product review page - Click
My complete Clickbank product directory - Click
These are all you will need!
1) Payment Processors/Affiliate Programs
a) Those that work in Southern Africa :
Clickbank – Click
PayFast - Click
AlertPay - Click
EGold - Click
SafePay - Click
PiggyEBank - Click
MobilCash - Click
b) Those That Don't :
PayPal - Click
(For more horror stories and a free book), visit here.
Affiliate Revenue Gateway - Click
Domain Registrars
Yahoo Domains - Click
Hosting/Website Building
Yola – Click
FreeWebs – Click
Bravehost – Click
Useful Tools
FreeDownloadManager – Click
HTML/WYSIWYG Editor - NVU - Click
Auto Responder
When you are ready, you will have to pay for this one:
Aweber Auto Responder - Click
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