Improve Your Internet Marketing

I received an email from someone on my list saying:

“Help! I am just overwhelmed. I really want to make money online, even if it never makes me rich, just gives me a decent income stream. The problem is that I’m completely overwhelmed with too much information. Also, I just can’t afford to spend much money, and I’m afraid to do ANYTHING for fear of doing the wrong thing or throwing out money I don’t have. Right now, I have a full-time job and don’t have endless hours to put in.”“Can you me what to do that will really work? I just need some direction from someone who isn’t trying to sell me anything.”

As I wrote my response, it grew into a 5 point step-by-step plan, “what I would do if I had no money to spend, only an hour or two a day, and wanted solid base-hits rather than a Grand Slam”. And so: Melanie’s 5 Steps to Success, with No Money Down!

Step 1 - Decide on a niche and get some offers
Go to Clickbank.com and open a free account. Go to the Clickbank Marketplace and start browsing through the main categories and sub categories. Find one that is interesting to you, preferably a topic you know a bit about.

Select 2-3 products in that sub category by browsing the offers. They should pay at least $10 commission, preferably $20. Click on ‘View Pitch Page’ to view their sales page, and only pick ones that look good and that you might buy from if you were interested in those categories. Generate your affiliate links by clicking “Create Hoplink” and save them to a text file.

Step 2 - Create Your Site
Go to blogger.com and go through their simple 3-step process: create an account, name your blog, and chose a template. You will want to name your blog according to the category you chose i.e. “Dog Training”. You’ll also get to choose the beginning of your blog address “yournamehere.blogspot.com” - chose something with the same words like “dogtrainingideas.blogspot.com”.

Next you will write a post. This will be your “sales page” and will include the links you generated from Clickbank. Write to be informative, but you don’t need to write a gigantic long post. Simply write exactly what you are doing: “When I got Fido, I realized I didn’t know how to train a dog. I found that many new pet owners have the same dilemma, so I got online, did my research, and found 3 excellent training guides. I’ve listed them below, with the main features of each, and a link to purchase them. They all carry a full, 8-week money back guarantee, so you can purchase with confidence.

Step 3 - Create Articles
Open accounts at ezinearticles.com and goarticles.com. Then sit down and write at least 4 articles, 200-300 words each. You will be structuring your articles so that you can include a link to your blogger page.

You will be writing 2 articles each for each article directory, so you actually just write two different articles, make a copy of each, then go through and modify, or ‘re-write’ each paragraph somewhat so that you have a second article that isn’t an exact duplicate of the first. This will give you two sets of two articles. You will then submit one set to each article directory.

Make sure that when you submit your articles, you create your ‘Author Resource Box’, writing 1 or 2 sentences suggesting readers visit your blog “Mary Jane Cooper has created a blog just for ideas about pet obedience. Check it out at: http://dogtraingguide.blogspot.com”. Also, check all the links by clicking on them to make sure they take you to your new site.

If you have difficulty writing, go to the sales page from your offers, get to whatever part addresses the features & benefits and simply re-write as narrative:

“A common problem for new pet owners is the ‘disobedient’ pet. Difficult pets can lose their appeal quickly. A good training guide such as -clickbankdogtrainingguide- can help address the most common issues like aggression, paper training, etc.”

You can also go to squidoo.com, search for lenses on your topic, and re-write some of the better content, trying to improve, or ‘customizing’ to talk specifically about the training guides you will be promoting. You can do the same with wikipedia.com, or simply google your topic. My blog (listed below) also has a number of links for good sources for idea research.

Step 4 - Forums and Groups
Whatever your niche, there are bound to be many groups and forums related to it. Go to http://groups.yahoo.com and search your niche. “Dog Training” for instance brought up over 3000 groups. It will also tell you how many members subscribe to each group. Join at least 3-4 that have at least a few hundred members.

Next, go to http://search.dmoz.org and search “forums” and http://www.big-boards.com/. Join at least 3-4 relevant forums.

For both the groups and forums, you will create a ’signature’ that includes a link to your site. Now join the conversations. Don’t try to sell your products, just make worthwhile posts. Position yourself as an expert in your niche. If you can’t think of what to post, You can always find threads asking for opinions that you can add to.

Step 5 - Lather, Rinse, Repeat…
In the hour you are going to devote each day, write and submit 2 articles, one for each directory, and make at least one post to each group and forum. As time allows, join additional groups and forums. Drop the ones that aren’t busy, and look for new ones.

This process works. It is not a ‘get rich quick’ scheme, but it IS a proven strategy. Remember that time takes time. Set your expectations appropriately. It will take a few days for your articles to get accepted and listed. Over time, as you submit more and more articles, and participate more in the groups and forums, you will begin to get traffic to your site. It might take a few weeks to get your first sale, and sales will likely be few and far between. But the longer you follow this plan, the more your traffic - and sales - will build. If you follow this plan, it is not unreasonable to expect to be making $100/week after a month or so. After that, sales should increase steadily as long as you continue submitting articles and posts.

I welcome your comments! I will be writing up additional strategies in my newsletter (below), as well as some success stories.