Another Off-Beat Way to Immediately Start Making Money Online

They'll NEVER Tell You
How Hard Making Money Online
REALLY is!

About a week ago I told you how I first started making money online using eBay.  If you didn’t get a chance to read it just click on the link and take a look.  Reading how people do things sometimes is very inspirational.

It can also be very motivational.

You’ll probably say, “Heck, if Ellis made money doing that, why can’t I?”

It’s true, if I did it, so can you.  Just don’t ever say that I told you it was easy.  (I’ll leave that up to guys like Frank Kern, or Yanik Silver.)  I’ll never tell you Internet marketing is easy, because that hasn't been my experience.

Using eBay and Craigslist to Make Immediate Money Online

Just when you thought you’ve probably heard every angle in Internet Marketing, someone comes up with another angle that you’ve never heard before.  This on involves eBay, but you can replace that site with any other auction site on the Internet if you so desire.

It is not a complex idea, but one worth trying because it is DIRT CHEAP!  Ha-ha!  Here I go again with a wild and weird way to make money online without buying expensive Internet guru courses or even building a blog or a Website. 

I mean we’re talking CHEAP here!

So, if you don’t have access to an eBay account you might want to get one to try this out. 

Very simply you’re going to:

1.  Find HOT items that are trending or selling on eBay.

2.  Locate and buy the same or similar items that are selling on Craigslist

3.  Negotiate and purchase the items as cheap as you can from the folks selling on Craigslist

4.  After buying the items from the Craigslist sellers, take the item and resell it on eBay for a higher price.

5. Rinse and repeat!

Possible Problems from Perky Prospects Prompts Precautions

Without too much wide-eyed optimism, I think it is always prudent to think things through before executing an idea, no matter how good it sounds.  Funny thing how all of this sounds so simple when you’re told to try it for yourself.   If you've ever been involved in any kind of business, you know that it’s NEVER simple.

Precaution 1

For one thing, anything that usually involves Craigslist (CL) usually means that you’re running the risk of being spammed to death.  So if you’re doing any business at all on CL, take precautions!  Use a throw away email account or some way to ward off spammers. 

Also, don’t give out your phone number too quickly, either.  Communicate with a seller for a while to determine if they are somewhat normal.

Precaution 2

When you decide to look up items to see if they are hot on eBay, you need to make sure that the items that you are going to try to target are REALLY viable.  You can easily go on eBay and see certain items that are selling well and get excited. 

However, if you don’t know a lot about a particular subject, then you can easily get fleeced on this deal.

Example:  You look at hot items on eBay and discover fantasy based comic books are selling like hot cakes for a lot of money.  So you go on CL and buy a crap-load of comics.  However, after you buy all those comics and put them on eBay, nobody buys them.  Not one single bid! 

Let us step back for a minute and examine what went wrong.

 The fantasy based comics you originally viewed that were selling like hotcakes were mint condition, Conan the Barbarian comics from circa 1970 by Barry Windsor Smith.  No wonder they were selling like hotcakes on eBay!  These were elite, mint condition comics that are legend in the industry!

So, if you don’t have knowledge about a particular industry, you run the risk of doing something really stupid.  Learn a little about the items you are considering buying and selling before going into this venture.

Precaution 3

When you go to buy the items you are pursuing on CL, you should know how to negotiate the price down.  There are loads of books and now great videos on how to negotiate.  This is a great skill for every negotiator in any type of business to know.

So, before you start haggling prices, try to learn a bit about negotiating before you get started, it will be a HUGE help. 

Here is an excellent video on negotiating:

Precaution 4

Before you just toss your items on eBay, learn how to describe your products.  This is where knowing how to write a little advertising copy would really come in handy.   

First of all, having a real eyeball grabbing headline in your description is very important.  You want to generate interest while creating some curiosity at the same time.  You also want to mention the main benefit of your product or service in the headline as well. 

Make sure that you describe the item as best you can, pointing on features (color, size, functions) and really expand on the benefits. (What the product will do for the prospect thinking about buying the product.)If you take these precautions at the onset, this idea will probably work OK. 

Precaution 5

Consider the costs of shipping on the front and back end.  You’ll need to make sure that whatever you’re buying on CL that you are considering the costs of shipping.  This is crucial in this type of business!  The same thing with eBay.  You will need to make sure that you’re including the shipping prices.

However, having said that, don’t think for a second that this will be smooth sailing and you’ll be raking in loads of cash, enough to live off of. 

I highly doubt that.  In my humble opinion, you can easily and quickly make your first money online doing this and you will get some valuable experience doing this.

Don’t forget, you’ll be spending quite a bit of time doing this, so you have to consider the time you’ll be spending doing the following tasks:

• Looking on CL for items to buy and researching what’s hot on eBay to sell
• Calling people up or emailing them about stuff they’re selling
• Spending time negotiating and haggling prices
• Boxing up, and taking items sold on eBay to the Post Office
• Taking pictures of the items and posting them online
• Writing up the descriptions

There may be other things you’ll have to do, but basically that’s most of it.  So, you can see, that all that glitters is not gold and there is work to be done. 

Hey, at least I didn’t sugar-coat it for ya!

A New Spin I Thought Up Based on This Scheme

Let’s bump this idea up a notch!  Here’s an idea I just thought of that I haven’t tested yet, but one of you may want to try.  Instead of searching all over Craigslist for items that you can resell, why not take out a cheap ad in Craigslist asking for a product that you know id red-hot on eBay?

That way, people will be trying to sell YOU the item that you’ll want to sell on there.  And think about this: If they do call you wanting to sell the item and it is more than you’d want to pay, try negotiating the price down. 

If you can get the price down low enough, chances are you’ll sell the item and still make a profit!

Just an idea.  Like I say, it is untested, but I’m very tempted to try so…

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

How I Found My First Niche and Made My First REAL Money On eBay!

Yesterday I told you how I got started on eBay and how I finally figured out

You can make money from
eBay if you know how!

where in the heck I went wrong.  

If you want to really get the lowdown on how all that happened, you can go back and read the previous post here:

eBay!- How I Made My First REAL Money on the Internet!

The Reason Why eBay Is so Easy to Make Money From…

eBay was instrumental in my getting started in Internet marketing, because it had so much going for it.

For one thing, you could know absolutely nothing about building a website and still be able to set up a site on eBay in a reasonable amount of time.  Since I already had some HTML experience to begin with, eBay was an absolute snap. 

All I had to do was take pictures of the products I wanted to sell, make a brief write up about them, and boom! -- I was in business.

The other wonderful part about selling things on eBay, was the fact that you got TARGETED TRAFFIC to your products.  If you had a website, you had to somehow drive traffic to your site that wanted what you had to offer.

For people just starting out, that meant shelling money out on ads, which sometimes required lots and lots of money.

With eBay, all you had to do was put your item on the auction block in the category that was relevant.  Once you did that it was duck-soup getting people that were in your target market bidding on your stuff.

Finding My Niche and Making Money…Finally

So after a few bad attempts at selling random stuff on eBay, my wife and I decided to go into the embroidery business together.  And as I mentioned in my last post, I threw a rather wide net and started making any kind of embroidered item that I thought people wanted.

Once again the old marketing adage, “Marketing to everyone is marketing to no one.”

So, my feeble attempts at making any kind of good money fell flat. 

Our Master-Blaster Hat

It wasn’t until I came across the idea to mix two of my passions together that I got the idea to mix embroidery with music.  I created Ellistrations music apparel.

I made all of the digitized designs myself.  Hats for every type of musical instrument you could think of.  Trombone hats, shirts, and jackets.  Trumpet apparel, etc. 

And I must have been some sort of pioneer in the niche, because at the start, people were fighting over my stuff. 

I remember designing an oboe hat and putting it up on eBay.  It had a cool design with an oboe crossed in front of it and it said, “Double Reed Disaster” in the design.

Two or three women started bidding on it and it quickly escalated to $65.  Man, I was elated.  After wholesale the hat only ran me about $6.00 total and I didn’t pay shipping because I had already included it in the price.  So, I made about $60 on just one hat.  

We even sold flute purses!

I started to make other hats and shirts as well. Sax hats, trombone shirts, bassoon jackets and every other piece of apparel and musical instrument I could think of.

 

I digitized my own designs and came up with my own catchy slogans and ideas.  Flute shirts that said “Fluteaholic”, Bagpipe hats that said “Piping Hot”, and tuba hats that said, “Blastissiomo Con Forte” on them. (That phrase is kind of a joke with brass players.  It means blow the *$%@ out of the instrument as loud as you can.)

How I Expanded on My eBay Business

I quickly recognized that there was real market for this music apparel stuff, so I created the Ellistrations website.

Since I’m cheap as they come, I decided to get the cheapest hosting plan I could find and build the site myself.  I needed a merchant account, but during the year 2000 merchant accounts ran about $500 just to get started.

I searched the web extensively and found two alternatives: PayPal and another site called 2Checkout.  Since PayPal had not evolved to a full blown merchant service yet, I needed a way for people to pay by credit card if they wanted to. 

That’s where 2Checkout came in.   

This site would process credit card orders for you without the commitment or outlay of cash that you needed to get started.

It merely took a percentage (2.5%) of each of your sales.  All you had to do was go to the 2Checkout site, type up the prices and label the merchandise, copy and paste the code into your website and you could take credit card orders!

It was perfect for a cheapskate lie Moi.  (That’s French, I think.)

A Huge Lesson in Internet Marketing From the Trenches

Everything was going real well, I was making sales from putting my stuff up on eBay and then directing those happy customers to my website and making sales there. 

It worked perfectly.  I was in business and making money doing something I loved.  

That is... for about a year…

For some reason, I started losing sales on eBay; sales just weren’t coming in as fast as they were before, and I was starting to feel the pinch. I did some investigating, reading and searching. 

Turns out I had made a big miscalculation.  You see in business, if your idea is can easily be replicated, you’ll have competition sooner or later. (Watch Shark Tank if you don’t believe me.)

I started searching eBay and found out that other businesses were duplicating me with much slicker marketing and material as well.  They weren’t making high quality embroidered apparel, they were cranking out silkscreen designs of all sorts.

Anyone can duplicate your business...
if you aren't careful!

Pretty soon, I had at least 20 other businesses competing with the same types of ideas as mine.  It didn’t take long before burn out and long hours multitasking took their toll on me. 

So, I made as much money as I could, socked the money in the bank and sold my machine. 

Turns out that I made quite a bit of money from my little venture, better than I had expected, actually.

But the BIG IDEA I learned from this was: If your business is easily replicated by others, you’ll have loads of competition.  

The key to creating a unique, hard to replicate business is to figure out a way to make it so complex, it will be difficult for other businesses to follow.

So I was pretty much out of the online embroidery business.

However, while running my business I discovered an easy way to make money that was so lucrative, and easy to create, it blew my mind.  This is an idea ANYONE can do if they put the time and effort into it.

However, I’ll tell you more about it in my next post.

Until we meet again…

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

How to Make Web Savvy YouTube Videos That Will Generate Traffic

In my last post, I told you about the nuts and bolts of creating YouTube videos.  The types of software and equipment that you’ll need to get the job done.  You can read it here:

What Type of Software and Hardware Should I Use to MakeYouTube Videos With?

Now we are going to tackle the subject of how to create videos.  In my opinion, it is better to make instructional videos related to your niche.  The reason for this is that you are doing several things at once.

1.  You are giving prospects something of value that they can use, thus earning their trust.

2.  You are proving to potential clients and customers that you know your stuff and can deliver it.  This will make you an authority in your niche.

3.  Your videos will become a traffic generator for your landing page.

Designing Your Web Savvy -- Traffic Generating Video

Step 1 -- Plan Your Video

Planning before you shoot your video is all important.  If you are going to create a series of videos, then you’ll need to take some time to write out an outline or something similar to a table of contents.  Carefully think through all of the steps of the video (or videos) and make an outline so that you will have a reference of what to write for your script.

Note: If you are making just one video make an outline of your script.  If you are making a series of videos first make an outline or table of contents for the entire series.  Then make a table of contents for each video.

Why are we doing this?  For one thing, when you are writing your scripts you will notice that you are logically following a concise and well thought out order to your videos.  The other reason is, believe it or not, you will save time in writing your script, and you won’t forget to leave information and important elements of your video. 

Step 2 --- Write a script.  Most of the videos you see on the Internet are not scripted.  In other words, they are not thought out, not focused on a specific task or subject and not made very well.  It’s like going to websites and blogs where people just throw information on them without even a theme, expecting to gather a herd (AKA tribe, ravenous prospects, hive, etc.)  to their site. 

So, in order to stand out from the crowd, you need to have a focused well thought out and well written script.  You will also need to insert notes into the script so that you’ll know when to insert certain pictures and points.  I add and highlight places in my scripts where I want to add emphasis to my voice while reading the script.

Step 3 --- Edit your script and make it clean.  Once you've written your script, you’ll want to go back and read through it aloud.  You’ll be amazed at how lousy some of your phrases sound after you've read them.  Edit and take out any extraneous (not needed) words or phrases that you think you can live without. 

Step 4 --- Read and rehearse your script.  Read through the script several times to make sure you won’t have too many hiccups or pauses during your video recording.  I hate it when I’m watching a video and there’s all of these “Uhhhh…” pauses in the video.  You can obviously tell that there was very little thought put into the video and the speaker either doesn’t mind wasting your time or just doesn't know what he’s talking about.

Step 5 --- Record the video.  Don’t get intimidated by this. In yesterday’s post I went into the type of equipment used and what kind of software you should buy.  You could easily get everything you need to get decent quality equipment, software and camera for under $1000.  Yep, that’s right, I said UNDER A THOUSAND DOLLARS. Is it going to be in the same class as CNN?  Nope. But you can record and edit easily for this much.

Here's a great resource for getting the job done cheap: Inexpensive Video Production

I've seen online videos created with basic cameras and equipment that were very good.  You don’t need high end equipment or even great production, but you can get as close to it as you can by learning a few tricks.  

There are plenty of websites that show you how to make great production level videos on a limited budget  so you’ll have to look around to find a few of them.  (I’ll give you some resources you can access at the end of this post that’ll point you in the right direction.)

When you start recording your video, you need a plain background so it won’t be distracting, a place to record at where it’s quiet, and teleprompting software that scrolls your script on your laptop or screen.  Oh, yeah and a video camera. 

Place your camera right behind the laptop facing you and read the script in a clear voice at a moderate speed.  If you've rehearsed the script the recording should go well.

If you are using screen capturing software, you won’t need teleprompting software, you can read your script right off a piece of paper.  Just place it somewhere that it can be seen. 

Here is a video I made using Camtasia and a script:

Step 6 --- Editing your video. Once you have finished your video, you can now address the part of the production that requires the most work and time.  The editing process.  This is where you’ll use your software to take any and all unneeded parts and mistakes.  You can also add words and graphics to the screen as well as music to really make your video look professional.

Once you are finished with all of that, you can save your video to up load it to YouTube which I’ll cover in my next post.

A Few More Crucial Pointers…

Before I sign out of this post I want to give you a few more thoughts on video production.

• Make sure you make a video that is valuable and relevant to your business and target market.  You must define who you are trying to benefit with your video.

• Keep the video about 5 minutes long.  Long winded videos bore the tar out of most people.

• Always keep the people you are making your video in mind.  Issues such as bandwidth and video format are important to consider.  (More on this tomorrow.)

Video References:

Editing Software 

Sony Vegas

Camtasia

Teleprompter Software

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

How NOT to Create YouTube Videos That Will Get Traffic to Your Site

In my last post, I told you it was very true that getting noticed on the Internet was relatively easy using YouTube.  That you could use YouTube and other video channels to get to the top of the Search Engine Results Pages and I even had an example of how I did it. 

If you want to go back and read that article, you can access it here: Using YouTube to GenerateTraffic to Your Site

Let’s Talk About How Not To Make YouTube Videos

The thing that will separate the men from the boys in video creation is QUALITY!

It’s just like any other information source on the Internet, 85 to 90% of what is out there is done half-way, (if you know what I mean.). Very few people put out quality information that's even coherent, and very, very few do it on a long-term, consistent basis.

So, don’t make videos that are not well thought out.

Pet Peeve Time:   I don’t know how it all started in the Internet Marketing arena, but videos of IM gurus and IM wannabe gurus driving their cars, while talking about how slick they are is rampant on the Internet.  Usually, they are leaning back talking like they have all the time in the world, while driving along the beach. 

To me, it wreaks of snake oil salesmen.

What they are saying in their videos is:  Here I am driving my Jaguar in my Hawaiian shirt, along a beach where beautiful women are walking around in bikinis and I’m making bazillions of dollars while doing it.  

---And if you listen to me and follow a few basic steps, you too can be just like me.  Click on this link and I’ll put you in my slick sales funnel.

Here's what I think ...And don't ever forget I'm never wrong! 

For one thing, THERE ARE VERY FEW NEW INTERNET MARKETING TECHNIQUES OUT THERE, AND JUST BECAUSE THEY DID IT, DOES NOT MEAN FOR A SECOND THAT YOU’LL HAVE THE SAME SUCCESS.  

By the way, you can go to just about any Internet marketing forum, ask for help, and people (victims) that have already followed these gurus will tell you the same thing for free.

Instructional Videos Are Best

Let’s define something here for a second.  I’m not talking about cat videos, viral videos that go viral just to be viral or junk like that. I’m talking about videos that add value to your business and give your prospects something that will help them.  Oh, and being genuine helps too.

The best type of videos to create are those that teach something that people can actually learn.  A well thought out, coherent and high quality video will say volumes about your business.  This fulfills at least two missions of your marketing efforts:

1.  If you post your Web address to your video, you may get some traffic to your site.

2.  It will create familiarity with your audience.  Familiarity is very important because people will buy from sources they know.  And it’s not just in the product and services arena that this works.  Have you ever noticed how much easier it is for people to get hired at a company or business because they knew the people that were hiring?  So, becoming a recognized face in your niche is very important.

3.  If you really know what you’re doing, and your video is well made, then you will gain some “authority status” and thereby be the go-to-guy in your niche.

Not only all that, but you’ll want a video that is relevant to your niche as well.  It won’t make much sense to create a real good video about gerbils when your website and business is built around bicycle parts.

One other thing.  Have you ever watched a video created by some hotshot marketing guru, and you just knew that the video was created for the sole purpose of selling you something?  It really made you doubt in your mind the sincerity of the individual promoting it.  As a matter of fact, whenever I watch free videos anymore, there are some people I know from the past that I immediately smell a major league sale coming on. 

Do you think that kind of a reputation is the one you want?  

I’m not saying that your marketing efforts aren't there to make money, but just be aware of the fact that as time goes on, the masses of people that jump onto the Internet will become more sensitive and aware of the game afoot.

Tomorrow's post, I will show you the actual nuts and bolts of creating videos.  What type of software to use, how to write your script, and other important facets of video marketing that will help you on your way to video marketing heaven.

Until then…

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

 (859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

P.S.  Here's an interesting video on creating videos I think you'll enjoy!

The Web Savvy Smart Forum Way to Market Your Business

As you've seen in past posts on this blog, I've been writing about all of the ways you could use to get free traffic.  The reason I’m doing this is because I’m a person that hates debt with a passion.  If I can figure out a way to do something without spending a wad of money, I’ll do it.

Now, this is not to say that you should never spend money on your business.  Later on down the road, when you are making good money, the traffic is flowing to your website, and sales are converting, you’ll start to value your time more than doing menial tasks.

Eventually, you’ll want to outsource certain aspects of your business because it will be more valuable for you to do other more important things, like product creation or managing people that are doing tasks for you.

If you decide to hire someone…

Don’t try to be too cheap! If you start hiring other people to do certain tasks for you, make sure they can do good work, and that they are competent.  That means you’ll be paying more.  In my opinion, there’s nothing worse than hiring someone to write your blog articles for you and barely have command of the English language.  Unless you want a really lousy reputation, always do your best, or hire someone that can do it for you correctly.

Using the FREE Smart Forum Method of Generating Traffic

A few posts back, I briefly touched on one of the ways you could use forums to get free traffic to your Website.  This time, I’m going to show you a slightly different strategy of using forums that you can use to get people to go to your

site.   

This Web savvy strategy is different than other methods of generating traffic, because it requires you to do something that usually goes against the grain of Internet marketing. You are not going to mention your website using this method.

THAT’S RIGHT, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO USE A WEB ADDRESS OR SAY ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR WEBSITE OR PRODUCT USING THIS METHOD.

(Well, at least not for a while, anyway.)

  The Smart Forum / Web Savvy Method Step by Step

1.        Locate forums that are related to your niche or business.  Pretty simple, eh?  To find these forums using Google, simply type in your niche key word, or keywords plus the word “forum”.   For example, if your passion is gerbils, then type in “gerbil forum”.  If you passion for gerbils is in racing them, then type in “gerbil racing forum”.  It’s just that simple! You will want to register with every gerbil racing forum you can find.

2.       Go undercover.  Once you join these forums, go on them and make well written, helpful posts to people that are asking questions.  Your goal at this point is to become a familiar part of that forum landscape that people will eventually recognize. If you do this enough, people will start looking to you as a “go-to guy”.  Someone that other forum members can look to for advice. Notice:  Make sure that you are working within your niche and that you know or have researched a good answer when responding to thread questions on a forum.  If you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about you’ll stick out as a phony.

3.       Once you have made about 20 posts or more, you can add your tag line and web address to at the end of posts on forum you've been posting at. (Usually forums want you to earn the privilege of posting your website address and tag line to their sites by writing a bunch of posts first.)  

      

      Your tag line (AKA signature line) is a brief catchphrase or slogan that you place right after your name on a post, correspondence or other communication.  If you look at my blog posts you’ll see my catchphrase right after my name.  Try to make yours interesting so that people wil want to

4.       Rinse and repeat.  If you write excellent responses that are detailed and well written, you will gain the attention of people that will eventually see you as an authority.  Once that ground work has been laid people will start to follow you to your site, sign up for your irresistible free offer and eventually buy from you.

Note: Make sure before you begin this strategy that you check to see if the forum you are posting at will allow you to eventually place your web address on your posts.  If the forum does not allow that, you will be wasting your time.

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

 (859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Use These Three Web Savvy Steps to Get Targeted Traffic to Your Site

I know this blog has been dedicated to the pursuit of showing you a whole variety of different methods to generate traffic to your websites and businesses.  Let’s face it, without any traffic you won’t have much of a business and there really isn't a reason to have a website at all.

Where I Initially Went Wrong In My Business

Without the key element of intimately knowing what your niche is you may be getting people to come to your site, BUT THEY WILL BE THE WRONG PEOPLE!  So, you need to establish this key idea well before you jump on the Internet and start banging out information that you think people will want to read.

Getting the Traffic That You Want

So, step #1 in your traffic generating matrix should be:

1.  Get a niche that you can focus on.  I have written a rather extensive article on this in an earlier blog post, that also has wonderful links to good resources and you can read that here: Finding Your Niche However, this is a most important step that you must consider because this is the direction that your business is going to take. Without a focused subject or core idea, your business is going to go elsewhere. 

Personal story: Years ago, I started an online embroidery business.  I bought my self a $20,000 single head machine, digitizing software, hoops, and a bunch of other stuff I needed, and decided that I would run most of my services on the Internet.  So, I set up a basic E-commerce site, and put myself out there to get business and to make my fortune on the World Wide Web. 

Oh, I got business, alright.  I got people that wanted gardening hats, shirts with children’s pictures on them, jackets for Veterans and a whole slew of other unassociated stuff.  I set up loads of pages of material and pretty soon, my site looked like a one man band trying to spell out the name Mississippi on a parade field.

To make my point short, it was chaos.

It wasn’t until I decided on a niche that every aspect of my business got easier.  I decided to create apparel exclusively for musicians.  Hats, shirts and jackets for trumpet players, trombonists, guitarists, etc.  Because I had picked a focused niche I didn't have to digitize or sew out loads of unrelated garments either.

Which leads me to Step #2…

2.  Promoting your site or business.  Once you have a niche in place, you must have a way to attract the people that you want there.  In my case I started a light-hearted blog about the craziness of musicians and I wrote a lot of parodies about different instruments.  I also used Photoshop to create a bunch of really funny images based on them.

Some of the pictures and content that was shared went viral on the Internet which helped bring in new customers.  As a matter of fact, I have since sold the business and I went online and my pictures are still being circulated, years after I shut down the site.  

Not only do you need to get fresh content related to your site on the Internet, but you will need to know where people in your niche hang out.  In my case, it was easy to figure out where musicians were hanging out at, and how to get my marketing message in front of them. 

What I eventually learned was that musicians that were into my musician’s apparel were mostly kids in school band programs and music hobbyists that were in specific groups and clubs.  For years there was a group of music enthusiasts in Holland that wore my stuff to their weekly musician’s meetings, no lie.  I got a lot of orders from those guys!

3. Selling your wares.  This was where I failed for years.  I did fairly well getting people to come to my music embroidery site, but once they were there I didn’t sell them.  Yeah, it’s great getting new prospects in your door, but what are you going to do once they walk in?  You need to have a method of selling them, which is the reason why I decided to learn how to write advertising copy.

For years, I was intimidated by many of the awesome copywriters that were on the Web.  I thought I’d never be able to even approach the level of copy that I saw on websites and squeeze pages or stuff I got in the mail box.  And it’s true, those guys are real, world class, millionaire advertising copy writers. 

However, in order to play a decent round of golf, you don’t have to play as good as Tiger Woods.  You don’t need to be the next Bill Gates to use a computer or create a program.  You can aspire to be like them, and put your back into your passion.  It will take you a long way.  But to do well, you don’t necessarily have to be THAT good.

So, if you are going to sell any product or service on the Internet, you are going to have to learn to sell using words.   That, or at least hire a copywriter that knows what he or she is doing.

I have briefly touched on three very important facets of grabbing traffic on the Web.  To get a more in –depth idea on how to implement these ideas, please refer to the resources below.  Most of the information you can get from these sites are free but are high quality:

Finding a Niche:

The Warrior Forum.  Just type in “niche” into the forums search function to get a TON of information from seasoned online entrepreneurs.

Here’s an excellent video to get you started on finding a niche:

Promoting Your Site or Business:

10 Ways to Promote Your Website by Forbes Magazine

Copywriting Services: Mark Ellis Copy