The following 2 sections describe 13 ways that people
are making money on the Internet. Many of these methods
can be started for very little money. Most will require
some special skills. It is not difficult to start a
business on the web. However, it does take good marketing
skills, a lot of work, and a little luck to earn profits
on the net. By following the proven methods described in
this book, you will increase your chances for success.
Many of these methods are unique and may take special
skills. Some can be done by anyone. These sections are
not meant to be exact roadmaps for a complete business.
Instead they are meant to serve as idea generators. In
order to succeed you need to come up with your own unique
business that draws upon your skills and that fits in
with your personality.
The most successful web sites have come up with their
own Unique Selling Proposition (USP). It is this USP that
sets them apart from other businesses. Your USP could be
based on: price, extra benefits, unusual products,
exclusive products, or special skills that no one else
offers. Your business should strive to develop it's own
special character that your customers can identify with.
One of the best ways to build customer loyalty is by
providing more that they expect. This could include such
things as: a free gift with each order, personalized
service, fast shipping, or giving a discount coupon. Keep
these things in mind as you set up your company.
#1 GRAPHIC ARTIST
Most Internet web sites usually have a few custom made
graphics. Also a lot of special computer graphics are
needed for games, presentations and other computer
software. Companies often hire outside experts to do
these jobs on a contract basis. These facts mean that
there is an excellent demand for computer graphic artist.
The Internet is an ideal way to promote your graphic art
skills. You can show samples of your work in the web
site. You can also quickly email finished graphics to
your customers.
Here are some examples of graphic services.
* Making Banner Ads.
* Scanning photos and drawings.
* Customer Web site graphics.
* Making icons.
* Company logos.
* Computer artwork for software.
In order to succeed with this business, you'll need
excellent graphic skills. You need to be creative, and
able to work with a variety of art styles. You also need
to be able to produce artwork in a variety of file
formats such as: GIF, PCX, JPG, and BMP. This means that
you'll need a good drawing package such as PAINTSHOP PRO.
There are hundreds of thousands of web sites currently
on the Internet. There are many more added each day.
Therefore, there is a big demand for people who can
design, and create websites.
Website designers need the following skills:
* Artistic skills -- be able to create well designed and
visually attractive websites.
* Communication skills -- be able to clearly express
yourself, and accurately describe what the web site has
to offer.
* Marketing skills -- know how to market yourself so
that you can gain clients. Know how to create websites
that effectively market the products, and services of
your clients.
* Internet Knowledge -- a good working knowledge of the
Internet.
* Web page creation tools -- be able to use designing
goods websites requires more than just good artistic and
Internet skills. You must also have your customers
interest in mind. You must want them to be successful.
Books
Graphics and Web Page Designs, by Laura Lemay.
Web Designer's Guide to Frontpage, by David S. Cohn.
Example Web site designers
http://supak.com/prss.htm
http://seanhayes.com
3. DATABASE WEB SITES
Having the right information at the right time can be a
major asset to businesses or individuals. For years their
have been information companies that supply databases of
information to it's users. This has been done through
computer connections that enable the customer to search
for the data that they need. The other way to find the
data that you need is by searching for it on libraries --
and this can take a lot of time.
Now, a few companies are supplying databases on the
Internet. Customers can access the information by paying
a fee. Here is the type of information that is available:
business articles, mail lists, marketing information,
census information, and more.
Most database sites will require some customer
programming. The software must allow the customers to
search the database for information that meets the
criteria they want. For example: one company maintains a
database of thousands of business articles from dozens of
magazines. The customer can search for articles about
companies they are interested in. The customer gets a
list of articles, and the option to buying copies of the
articles.
There are a variety of software programs that can help
you to produce online databases. The real trick is in
producing a quality product that people need and are
willing to pay for.
4. SELLING ADVERTISING
One of the first and so for the largest source of
expense is advertising sales. Several companies are
earning millions of dollars by selling banner Ads on
their web sites. One of the biggest examples of this is
the Yahoo web site (http://www.yahoo.com).
Yahoo is a search engine that allows Internet users to
search millions of web pages for particular topics. The
users do not have to pay for doing searches. Yahoo gets
hundreds of thousands of visitors each day.
There are many other web sites whose primary source of
revenue is from selling banner Ads. Here is the formula
for most popular advertising sites.
* Offer a lot of free valuable information that will
attract thousands of visitors each day.
* Be able to design attractive banner Ads.
* Constantly add new exciting features such as contests,
prizes, and freebies.
Here are some examples of sites that offer valuable
freebies and sell advertising.
There are several web sites that specialize in doing
customer surveys. Companies are willing to pay these
survey experts to design, carry out, and report the
results. The survey results are used to determine what
the customer wants or thinks about a particular product
or topic.
How do you get Internet users to participate in these
surveys? You give them a free gift, or enter them into a
weekly or monthly drawing for a prize. This gives them
an incentive for filling out a survey form.
To successfully operate this business, you need good
communication skills, be able to design and report
surveys, and programming skills to design the survey
pages.
Here are a few places to get more information.
Web Sites http://www.surveysite.com
http://www.inetsurvey.com/index.html
http://www.assessnet.com
THE SURVEY RESEARCH HANDBOOK by Pamela Alreck
HOW TO CONSULT YOUR OWN SURVEY by Priscilla Salant
Many web sites use contests as a way to attract visitors
to their sites. However, it is a lot of work to set-up,
and operate contests. Therefore, a few companies are
specializing in running contest for other web sites.
One of the most successful companies at operating
contest is getrichclick.com. This site has ran several
major contests for it's clients. Typically, each contest
will have many sponsors. Each sponsor pays getrichclick a
fee for operating the contest. The prizes can range up to
$100,000! The sponsors are responsible for the prizes.
This same idea could work on a smaller scale by
providing contests for smaller companies. It takes a fair
amount of work to set up and operate a contest. However,
if done right, this service could produce a nice income.
Most contest are for U.S. residents only, and invalid in
states that have special contest regulations.
7. USED ITEMS
Running a "flea market" type of web site has produced
good results for some people. These sites sell used,
reconditioned, hard to find, and discontinued products
at bargain prices. Most of these kind of sites focus on a
particular kind of product. Here are a few examples that
I have found: computer items, books, clothes, software,
scientific instruments, antiques, and collectibles.
To succeed with this kind of web site, you need to do
the following:
* Have a wide variety of items at reasonable prices.
* Continually be replenishing your supply of used items.
* Offer special incentives to buyers.
* Send out a weekly or monthly email listing of bargains
to your customer list.
To get a site like this started, you need a good supply
of products, a well designed easy to navigate web page,
and advertise to find bargain hunters.
* You can advertise that you are buying used items.
* Contact manufacturers and ask about overruns,
discontinued, or blemished items.
* Visit garage sales, auctions, and close out sales.
* Look for companies that are going out of business, and
buy their inventory.
* Find damaged merchandise, and repair it.
To operate this kind of web site, you'll need to be an
expert in the products you are dealing with. You'll need
to be able to recognize a bargain when you see one.
You'll also need to be good at negotiating.
Example Web Sites
http://www.ibservice.com
8. PRESS RELEASE SERVICE
Press releases are a great way for businesses to promote
their services. New businesses and businesses with new
products often send hundreds of press releases by mail.
There are also many traditional services that prepare,
and mail out press releases for businesses.
Now there are press release services operating on the
Internet via email. For a fee they will email your press
release to news media. There are thousands of online
magazines, and email magazines that t are looking for
press releases that are related to their subject.
Traditional print media also use the Internet as a source
of information.
To succeed in this business, you must seek out the media
people on the Internet. Then offer to send press releases
about new products or services. You can then advertise
for clients. You can charge a flat fee, or a set amount
per press release.
You can earn additional money by writing and creating
complete press kits for your clients. This takes a high
degree of writing, and marketing skills.
Ebooks are books or newsletter on a computer disk or a
computer file (just like this one). Paperless Publishing
has become very popular for several reasons.
* It costs very little to publish a few books on disk.
* You can make up the disks as you need them, you don't
need to maintain an expensive inventory.
* It is very fast, and easy to make charges in an Ebook.
* Ebooks can make a great addition to your product line.
What kind of books can you publish on disk? There has
not been a great deal of success publishing Ebook novels.
The major Ebook successes have come as information, or
how to kinds of publication. People need, and want
specialized information. If you can produce a first
class product at a reasonable price, you should have no
problem getting sales.
How do you create an Ebook? Actually, it is quite easy.
You simply use any word processor that can produce plain
text files. These are also known as ASCII files. Most
word processing programs give you the option of saving
files as text files. Examples are Microsoft Word,
Notepad, Wordpad, Word Perfect, and most other popular
word processors.
Once you have all of the text files that make up your
book, it is time to use the special Ebook software.
Software. Most Ebook Software is very easy to use. You
simply define which text files goes into which chapter.
The software then creates a final Ebook product. This is
usually in the form of a single executable (.exe) file.
This makes it impossible for the average computer users
to modify your book.
Ebooks are nice products because they are easy to handle
and ship. You can even send them by email. They cost very
little to produce, thus you have a high profit margin.
Some people have had great success with Ebooks. Others
have only had a small amount of success with Ebooks. Here
are reasons why.
1. The product was subpar. There are too many
"informational" products being marketed that are of poor
quality.
2. The marketing was poorly done. You need to put forth
the same kind of effort as if you were marketing a
regular book.
3. The company did not have enough supporting products.
I recommend that you have a family of similar products
(4-8 different Ebooks).
Marketing Ebooks can work well if done right. One man
sold over 200,000 copies of his Ebook! This Ebook
provided information for new computer users.
Another method for making Ebooks is to use a multimedia
creation software program. This enables you to combine
text, graphics, and sound into a multimedia type product.
These programs are a little more difficult to use, but
not too much so.
Sources
Ebook Creation Software
Writer's Dream for windows or DOS, $49.
Computer Magic -- multimedia tookit for windows, $89.
Order from Home Business News, 12221 Beaver Pike,
Jackson, Oh., 45640, phone 614-988-2331,
http://www.homebiznews.com
Mention this offer and get $10 off the price of Computer
Magic, or $5 off the price of Writers Dream. Buy Both for
just $125.
10. WEB SITE MANAGER
Most business owners do not have a lot of time to work
on a website. However, in order for a web site to be
successful, it takes work. Because of these facts, there
is a market for web site managers.
Just what does a web site manager do? A web site manager
has overall responsibility for maintaining a smooth
operation of a web site. He or she is to oversee, or make
changes as needed. Other duties might include:
* Promote the site to get more visitors and buyers.
* Evaluate the effectiveness of the site.
* Update and change the free information that the site
gives away.
* Answer email questions.
As you can see a web site manager can be very busy. Some
large sites will require a fulltime manager. Most web
sites will only require a few hours of work per week.
Thus, a person could manage 2-4 sites at a time.
How much money can you make as a web site manager. Web
site managing fees vary widely from $20 to $50 per hour.
Your fees should depend upon how much work the site owner
wants.
To succeed with this business, you'll need the following
skills. Internet Marketing, Web Page design, email
knowledge, and the desire to see the business owner to be
successful.
11. INTERNET AUCTIONS
There are quite a few successful Internet Auction Web
Sites. These sites allow members to put items up for
auction, or to bid on items over the Internet. Each
auction is set up for a certain time period, usually 3
to 7 days. At the end of the bidding process, the highest
bidder wins.
The owner of the auction sites makes money by charging a
small listing fee for each item put up for bid. Usually,
a small selling fee is charged for each successful
auction. These fees are usually a small percentage of
the listing, or selling price.
A popular auction site is located at
http://www.ebay.com. They have sold over 100,0000 items
through their auctions within 12 months. As you can
calculate this amounts to a nice income even if the fees
charged are very small.
What do you need to operate an auction web site? You
need a very reliable web host service, or you need to
maintain your own computer host. If your auction site
becomes quite busy, you'll need a powerful, heavy duty
computer setup.
Next, you will need powerful software to operate the
auction. The software is fairly complex. It needs to do
the following:
1. Keep track of all listings.
2. Make it easy for bidders to search through the
listings, and locate the kind of items they are
interested in.
3. Handle hundreds or thousands of users at one time.
4. Compare bids and award the winner when the auction is
done.
5. Notify the users of their bids, and listings. This
can be done with an automated email system.
You'll need an expert programmer to create software for
your site.
A unique way to operate an auction site would be to
restrict its use to certain kinds of items:
collectibles, and so forth.
Auction sites can be real moneymakers if you have
reliable web servers and hardware. They can be a little
like having a nationwide garage sale where you get a
portion of each sale!
Two more methods are desribed in other chapters --
Paperless Publishing and Reseller programs.
In addition the ebook CASH FROM THE INTERNET is loaded
with more examples and inside mmarketing information.
visit http://www.homebiznews.com for more information.
Join the STS newsletter now and receive INTERNET MARKETING SECRETS UNLEASHED! This is one of our premium ebooks and will not be offered free on this
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How I Created An Automatic Money Machine
That Got Over 100,000 Hits In The First 30 Days!
...And You Can Too
