Not long ago, Mirabilis was purchased by AOL for over $287 million dollars. Although this company was just a small business with one major software program, it was worth absolute millions to the major corporation of AOL.
Its software, ICQ, can be downloaded for free.This software enables anyone on the Internet to engage in chats or to personally contact anyone else who is online at the moment and a user of this software.
The most interesting part of the story is that Mirabilis doesn't sell this software. They give it away for free. It is available to anyone who wants it online.
And because of this, ICQ is one of the most trafficked sites on the Internet. Millions of people are using ICQ to chat online every single day.
If you find a service people need such as autoresponders, forms on their site, search engine listings, traffic tools, etc., you may find that this is the model for you. Sites which provide something extremely valuable for free can often take their traffic counters into the thousands literally overnight...then they can start charging people for placing banners and other types of advertising on their site.
Advantages: You never have to pay to advertise this site. If your free service is extremely valuable and unique, word of mouth and press releases will be all of the marketing you need for it.
Disadvantages: The hard part is coming up with the winning idea. And you have to build up traffic before you see any income. It will cost you at least a couple of months.These sites don't sell anything, at least on the surface, right at the sites. No shopping cart, no "Order Now" button. All you will find there is free information or services. Normally, lots of information and valuable services.
This type of business could be created in any niche market or area of interest. You could create a theme site or Internet hub in gardening, motorcycles, dolls, puppies, etc. Anything that you have as an interest or hobby could usually be turned into a theme for your web site.
The key to this type of business is to become the place that everyone wants to go in your area of interest. In other words, you would want to be a portal or starting point for people searching for information or products on your subject.
Then, start searching for products they are interested in. Pick up magazines and search through the ads for potential products you could sell online. Offer to joint venture with the owners of these products and endorse them to your visitors.
Search for products online they may be interested in. Sign up for the sites' affiliate programs and market the products to your visitors.You can charge other businesses for advertising at your site as well.
In other words, design a site that is the only one they need to visit online in your subject. Once your traffic soars, so will your profits. The chances to sell your site to big companies, like what ICQ did, are still slim, to be honest. But if you can attract millions of visitors to your site, you will absolutely make a comfortable living on the Internet!
* Direct Sale SitesNow comes to the easier way: direct sale sites.
A direct sale site is where you sell products right at the site. You have to develop a product by yourself or own the resell right to it.
The most obvious example is online stores. Another exciting trend in this category is mini sites with several simple pages selling a single product. More and more online info products sellers are using this method to market niche products.
For more information on mini direct sale sites, click here.Unlike traffic sites where you have to achieve huge traffic in order to make profit, with direct sale sites you can target at really niche market and make money even with a couple of visitors per day.
This ebook will mainly deal with direct sale sites.The key to the success of direct sale sites is to figure out a niche market and sell the right products to it.
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Find The Right Niche Market
You have a killer product which you know everyone wants to buy. You have a proven sales copy. You have built an incredible site and accept every major credit card at your site.
You have only one problem. You just can't get enough traffic to your site. A serious problem!You may even be thinking the same thing right now. You have an awesome product, but it seems hard to get traffic to your site and to get really qualified prospects.
Over 97% of online marketers have made the exact same mistake and it is killing their businesses: they focused on the product before figuring out the target market.
It is common practice to first find or develop a product and then find people to sell it to, but common practices don't always work.
The quickest and easiest method of achieving success in online business is to target a niche market and then find out what they want.
Take the focus in your mind away from the product and place it onto the prospect. Instead of saying, "How can I find someone to buy my product?" Start asking yourself, "What would these people like to buy?"
Don't try to be everything to everyone, or else you will end up a master of none. The key to success online is to focus on a niche market. Don't sell web hosting and flowers on the same site. It simply won't work.
By studying a niche market, not only are you guaranteeing the success of your product or service - people are already actively looking for what you are about to develop - you will also be able to efficiently focus both your time and money on marketing to those people most likely to buy from you!
Many of the niches might even be rather large. For example: business opportunity seekers, movie fans, stamp collectors, dog lovers, cat lovers, work at home mothers... All of these are considered niche groups yet have millions of participants.
The first thing you have to consider is, is this a topic you are interested in? Do you enjoy studying it? Writing about it? Discussing it with others? I know many people, including myself, hate their daytime jobs but have to do it to make living. Then don't launch a business you don't like!
Do what you love. Otherwise you will fail. If you love what you do, your enthusiasm will radiate in everything you do. It will reflect in every email you send and every web site you design. Your visitors will feel your passion as well!
Also, you have to make sure you can reach your market easily and cheaply online. Can you describe specifically who they are and where they hang out online? Any specific newsgroups for the subject? Any web site attracting your target audience so that you can advertise there? Newsletters on this topic? If you can't see a clear way to reach this market effectively online, that isn't the market for you.
Don't even think of starting a business until you know exactly where you are going to get your leads from.Once you pick a targeted market, you need to take time to find out what is it that they are looking for.
The way to do this type of market research for free is to read in forums and newsgroups. You won't even have to be involved in the discussion. Just pay attention to the posts people make on what types of things they want.
Then, when you see that something keeps coming up time and time again, you've got it. That's the product a reachable niche market want. (You should have a solution if you love this subject. Or, at least you enjoy surfing around for the answer.)
Then give them what they want by developing or finding it.-----------------------
Develop A Product Your Target Market Will Cry To Buy
The most important advice here is: get your own product or service! The very best way to make money, either online or off, is to market your own product or service.
It is one of the better-kept secrets among successful entrepreneurs. Why encourage others to create competition? What's more, with all the affiliate programs online, businesses want you selling their stuff and making money for THEM.
Don't get me wrong. Affiliate programs can be a good source of income on the Internet. I have my own affiliate program you can join and make some extra cash:-)Like most people, you may need to start out online by testing the water. The training which should be provided to you by the affiliate program owners will help you when you decide to go one step further. You will have learned what type of marketing works and how to motivate people to buy online.
So being a member of an affiliate program is a good business to be involved with. It can earn you a lot of money online. But, there is no substitute for your own product or service.
Once you have your own product, you will never have to rely on anyone else. Marketing your own product or service gives you complete control. You'll never have to worry about supply or pricing. You control every aspect.
Also, you maximize your profits by keeping nearly all of the money from every sale. If you are selling other people's products, you earn whatever commission they have assigned to you. If you own your own product, no one can tell you how much you deserve to make from it.
If you own your own product, you can be the person who sets up the affiliate program instead. As a product owner on the Internet, you can leverage the work of thousands of marketers who will gladly and actively promote your products for you.
Stop a moment and take a look at the most profitable businesses on the web. At least 95% of them are offering their own product or service.The main reason that most people don't develop their own products is that they are scared it will be too difficult.
The number one seller on the Internet has always been, and always will be, information. Creating your own information products is not hard at all!
Everyone knows something about a particular subject. Whether it is golfing or gardening, you can easily create your own information products. Simply take your area of expertise and start writing down everything you know about it.
Ask yourself: what are you interested in? What are you passionate about? What subject or topic do you have a lot of knowledge about? What are people always coming to you for advice about?
This is the type of information others want and need. They will pay good money to save their valuable time and get the knowledge that you already know.Once you have all your facts organized, you simply mold them into a marketable format such as a manual or eBook.
Information products can also be reports, audio tapes, videos, CD-ROM...
Besides writing about your expertise, you could also find a product that is currently being sold offline, make a deal with the owner and try to become the exclusive dealer of it in the online market.
You could buy the resell right of a quality product and offer it at your site just like what I'm doing at my site.You could create a service. There are many different service businesses which are opening up online. If you have learned how to develop web sites, offer this. If you enjoy competing on search engines, start a submission service. If you enjoy writing, become a ghostwriter for other people's articles and books.
Once you have your own product, or resell rights of a product, join some affiliate programs relating to your main product as backend. We'll talk more about backend later.------------------------
In next lesson you will learn:
• Why do you need your own domain name
• How to choose a good domain name
• What to look for in a web host
• How to write sales copy that is proven to sell
Zac Hewlett
Webmaster
Working At Home Business
http://www.working-at-home-business.com