So what 'things' do you need to start earning online?

12 years ago

You don't NEED most of those.

All you really need is a product, a way to deliver it and a way to get paid for it.

You can set up a free blog with a password protected area and a free email account and do the lot for zero cost if you really want to.

ps. it takes a long time to establish a site as an authority (could be many months) so don't expect that residual income any time soon. It's easy to rank new stuff well quickly but if it's in a competitive niche it will only stick with long term effort.

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Harvey M

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Andyhenry

You don't NEED most of those.

All you really need is a product, a way to deliver it and a way to get paid for it.

I'm trying to keep it real. Not talking a few dollars here. If you want serious cash from IM, you're going to need...

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Andyhenry

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Harvey M

I'm trying to keep it real. Not talking a few dollars here. If you want serious cash from IM, you're going to need...

Again, that's a matter of perspective and opinion.

I made my first $100k online without most of the things you've listed.

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Kange 12 years ago

Originally Posted by Andyhenry

Again, that's a matter of perspective and opinion.

I made my first $100k online without most of the things you've listed.

did you just have a product in niche and then advertise it? Was your audience world wide to make that much profit?
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- Andyhenry 12 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Kange
  
  did you just have a product in niche and then advertise it? Was your audience world wide to make that much profit?
  
  It was using affiliate marketing So it was ALL profit.
  
  I wrote strategy reports that showed how to effectively achieve certain results and in them promoted tools/systems/products that people could leverage to achieve those results quicker.
  
  I gave the reports away from free sites.
  
  So all I actually needed was a Paypal account and bank account in order to get paid and the rest was just writing reports and publishing them online.
  
  I don't do so much affiliate marketing these days because I have my own products and only promote other people's stuff if there's an obvious benefit to my customers and I trust the product owner.
  
  Andy
  
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  Kange 12 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Andyhenry
  
  It was using affiliate marketing So it was ALL profit.
  Andy
  
  I cant seem to get my head round affiliate marketing. Can you provide a step by step guide at all on how you go from setting up and working on it? Do you need a product.. Im just slightly confused about how it all works and where to go with it really..
  
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BIG Mike

Banned 12 years ago

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Harvey M

12 years ago

Originally Posted by BIG Mike

Same here - nothing fancy or elaborate...I did roughly $80K my first six months with a simple (very short) sales page and thank you page.

@Harvey M - You said, "I'm trying to keep it real. Not talking a few dollars here. If you want serious cash from IM, you're going to need..."

There's no, "One Size Fits All" model - as you develop your business online, you'll grow it in the direction you need to scale up your efforts.

For example, using something like W+ to handle payments, affiliates and product delivery, you just need a sales page.

To get real, you don't need to reinvent the wheel so to speak - use the resources available to you as you scale up.

The things I've listed are really quite essential for the aforementioned business model if you want to get as much traffic and as many conversions as possible (and to still make it worth your while). I believe the set up above is the best value for time/money if you're following such a business model.

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Andyhenry

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Harvey M

I believe the set up above is the best value for time/money if you're following such a business model.

That's the difference.

They're not essential at all - they're just what YOU think are important based on your perception of what you think IM is all about.

Mike said it - there is not a one-size fits all approach.

Different people have different business models and different preferences for how they should best proceed to build their business.

My biggest revenue comes from software sales where NONE of the things on your list are part of my business model for that.

Just accept that you're referring to a sub-set of business models and we'll all be agreeing with you that those things are useful, but they're definintely NOT essential to all business models.

Andy

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Harvey M

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Andyhenry

That's the difference.

They're not essential at all - they're just what YOU think are important based on your perception of what you think IM is all about.

Mike said it - there is not a one-size fits all approach.

Different people have different business models and different preferences for how they should best proceed to build their business.

My biggest revenue comes from software sales where NONE of the things on your list are part of my business model for that.

Just accept that you're referring to a sub-set of business models and we'll all be agreeing with you that those things are useful, but they're definintely NOT essential to all business models.

Andy

I'm not referring to ALL business models. Or your business model. For the business model I've outlined, this is what I believe is the most effective approach. I don't want to be told how it's not flexible to match all kinds of business models, I don't give a ****. I just want feedback on how it can be improved/changed/compressed for the given business model.

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Andyhenry

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Harvey M

I don't want to be told how it's not flexible to match all kinds of business models, I don't give a ****. I just want feedback on how it can be improved/changed/compressed for the given business model.

In that case - I don't give a **** about being told only to restrict my comments to words and phrases that the OP has decided are what they wanted to hear and nothing else.

I did give you a way to allow us to move forward with your position and would have happily added some things to your list - but since you're censoring my replies - I'll make this my last post in your thread and let you hear from people who are happy to sign up to your fascist dictatorship

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Harvey M

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Andyhenry

In that case - I don't give a **** about being told only to restrict my comments to words and phrases that the OP has decided are what they wanted to hear and nothing else.

I did give you a way to allow us to move forward with your position and would have happily added some things to your list - but since you're censoring my replies - I'll make this my last post in your thread and let you hear from people who are happy to sign up to your fascist dictatorship

Is it so hard to not get a vague unrelated reply? Your reply honestly didn't contribute at all to the thread. I've heard it all before. No business model is going to work for everyone. Great. Not interested. I'd be surprised if you read the original post actually.

I'm not attacking you personally, and I don't mean to be disrespectful. I'm just sick of responses answering your question in the most indirect way possible. Let me rephrase my original question, Andy.

Is my list in the OP going to support an effective/efficienty/value-for-money setup in the conventional business model of selling an eBook online?

Yeah, the thread title's a bit dodgy. My bad.

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Fernando Veloso

12 years ago

Is my list in the OP going to support an effective/efficienty/value-for-money setup in the conventional business model of selling an eBook online?

Short answer? Yes.

BUT have you tested the waters with some sort of different approach, say, check if people want your product... or you're just grabbing it all and then you see what happens?

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Harvey M

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Fernando Veloso

Short answer? Yes.

BUT have you tested the waters with some sort of different approach, say, check if people want your product... or you're just grabbing it all and then you see what happens?

People are going to want my product because there's a lot of demand for such a product in the chosen audience. Plus my product is 'better than the competition'. That's really the only testing I've done, but of course, it's still in development.

You could say I'm mostly grabbing it all? Things like checking audiences and whatnot are a little more specific than what I'm going with here. I'm more talking about overheads and processes to go through to get from start to finish. There's a lot of back end stuff that will need to be done of course.

Thanks for your straightforward answer.

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Fernando Veloso

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Harvey M

People are going to want my product because there's a lot of demand for such a product in the chosen audience. Plus my product is 'better than the competition'. That's really the only testing I've done, but of course, it's still in development.

Huuuhh... ok.

You could say I'm mostly grabbing it all? Things like checking audiences and whatnot are a little more specific than what I'm going with here. I'm more talking about overheads and processes to go through to get from start to finish. There's a lot of back end stuff that will need to be done of course.

Thanks for your straightforward answer.

I guess you're just trying to do your best, with the best possible tools available, with the best system. Thats great. And you look confident and thats great!

But Andy and Mike tried to warn/inform you about some important steps, you should thank them and re-read what they've told you - otherwise you might be wasting your time and money.

Good luck tho!

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Harvey M

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Fernando Veloso

Huuuhh... ok.

I guess you're just trying to do your best, with the best possible tools available, with the best system. Thats great. And you look confident and thats great!

But Andy and Mike tried to warn/inform you about some important steps, you should thank them and re-read what they've told you - otherwise you might be wasting your time and money.

Good luck tho!

Thanks for your time. Andy and Mike have posted useful stuff, but it's not at all relevant to what I'm trying to achieve with this thread.

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Fernando Veloso 12 years ago

Originally Posted by Harvey M

Thanks for your time. Andy and Mike have posted useful stuff, but it's not at all relevant to what I'm trying to achieve with this thread.

So what it is again?

Cause you know the answer to your OP. That system works - in fact vast majority of people selling digital items have the same one. And you can use that theme to incorporate everything and make it live.
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rosetrees

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Harvey M

Business model being, sell an eBook online.

..............

I'm probably missing a fair bit. Anyway, was just wondering if I can compress any of these? ..............
Is there anything I'm missing?

Originally Posted by Andyhenry

You don't NEED most of those.

All you really need is a product, a way to deliver it and a way to get paid for it...............

Originally Posted by Harvey M

The things I've listed are really quite essential for the aforementioned business model if you want to get as much traffic..................l.

Ok - it's not helpful to get shirty with those who are giving you good advise.

Re-read your original post. Your title asks if you "NEED" those things. Andy and Mike told you that you don't "need" them.

You haven't told them your "business model". Selling an ebook isn't a business model, it's an aim.

Your model might be, for example "selling an ebook via email marketing". In that case you would need an online email provider, an opt-in box and a sales page.

Your model might be "selling an ebook via Facebook". In which case you'd need a sales page.

My most successful site is a sales page. There is no opt-in box, no email marketing.

Define your "business model" before ****ing off those who are trying to help you!

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Andyhenry

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Harvey M

Is it so hard to not get a vague unrelated reply?

Not usually.

Your reply honestly didn't contribute at all to the thread. I've heard it all before. [/QUOTE]

Sorry - I'm not a mind-reader.

There are a LOT of people that come to this forum that have very limited experience of the different ways to make money online and waste YEARS of their life not getting results because they already think they know what's required and don't realise that a lot of the advice they get given is full of holes and does not actually work as a general template - Thefore I'm not in the habit of thinking that everyone who posts a new thread is aware of this and has heard every piece of business advice before.

Originally Posted by Harvey M

No business model is going to work for everyone. Great.

Well, there you go - we're agreeing now.

Originally Posted by Harvey M

Not interested. I'd be surprised if you read the original post actually.

Yeah - I think we've established your attitude to that now. By suggesting I didn't even read the post you're being a obtuse. Do you actually think I would comment like that having NOT read the post? Come on.

Originally Posted by Harvey M

I'm not attacking you personally, and I don't mean to be disrespectful. I'm just sick of responses answering your question in the most indirect way possible.

Well, if I'd known you'd been getting a lot of responses like that to your posts and you were at the point of being sick about them - obviously I would've posted differently. But since I'm not a mind reader and didn't realise you were so touchy about it - I mistakenly posted in accordance with your sore spot.

Originally Posted by Harvey M

Let me rephrase my original question, Andy.

Go for it!

Originally Posted by Harvey M

Is my list in the OP going to support an effective/efficienty/value-for-money setup in the conventional business model of selling an eBook online?

Sure sounds like it - they're all common things that people use. There are of course a lot of ways to sell ebooks online and depending on the actual way being used, different things because more or less important.

For example - I have a book/ebook that I seel which I sell using Amazon and a website. The only marketing for the book is from the Amazon partner network and via a series of videos which cover the same content.

Until recently I didn't make the ebook version publicly available so all sales were of the physical book and I didn't need a payment processor because Amazon handled all payments and sent me a check once a month.

When I put the ebook on the Kindle marketplace - the same applied.

It was only when I decided to also make the book available as a .pdf and take payments via Paypal that I also needed the Paypal account and a sales page.

I originally didn't use Wordpress and just made a static sales page.

This has happily been making me 4 figures a month for over a year and only required the first 30 minutes to set up the sales page and upload the book/ebook once it was ready.

If I wanted to use all of the elements you have listed - I'm sure I could make more sales, so while as I said before - I agree that those things could be useful, I also think it's easy to over-complicate things and think you have to do all these things when it's often not required.

Originally Posted by Harvey M

Yeah, the thread title's a bit dodgy. My bad.

I know you'll want to argue until you get an agreement that lines-up with your current mindset, but we're not actually in much of a disagreement about what is useful, just what is needed and that's probably my fault for picking up on the word 'need' in your thread title - so apologies if I've laboured it too much.

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Kange

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Andyhenry

I originally didn't use Wordpress and just made a static sales page.

Hi How did you go about setting up a static sales page? Do you have a link to this so i can have a look at one please?
Is it a case of having a story and putting it into an ebook, do you do this on microsoft word or something and then where do you go from there? Or do you do the book and have it as a download file? Sorry if im not making sense with my questions im just looking for the answer on where you write an ebook, how you upload and charge for it

thank you

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Andyhenry

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Kange

Hi How did you go about setting up a static sales page? Do you have a link to this so i can have a look at one please?
Is it a case of having a story and putting it into an ebook, do you do this on microsoft word or something and then where do you go from there? Or do you do the book and have it as a download file? Sorry if im not making sense with my questions im just looking for the answer on where you write an ebook, how you upload and charge for it

thank you

Hehe - Yeah, I know everyone seems to use WP these days for everything.

I often make a static sales page just in html, even entire sites sometimes.

I have a bunch of different tools for doing it as when I first started making websites there were no CMS systems around and you had either, notepad, Frontpage or Dreamweaver.

These days I use, Kompozer, Bluefish, Notepad - whatever I have on the machine I'm working on at the time. I outsource most of my graphics to a fellow WF member who I've been working with for many years, so I just ask him to make the graphics and then put up a sales page, which either links to Amazon, or to a pdf via PDC, Paypal, or other payment/delivery system.

It's similar than how you would need to do it to run a WSO. It's all very quick and easy.

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fin 12 years ago

Originally Posted by Harvey M

I'm trying to keep it real. Not talking a few dollars here. If you want serious cash from IM, you're going to need...

I would go with a different niche than "jump higher" if I was you.
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Chris Chicas

12 years ago

You can always sell it on Amazon and surpass some of those things. It all varies on your approach, but overall it's the product and your name that will need to have the most value.

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DireStraits

12 years ago

Here's a suggestion if you're going to allow affiliates to promote your product (and I just bring this up because of all the talk about Wordpress, OptimizePress, etc...):

Don't merge your main site/blog with your sales page, and don't link the sales page back to the rest of your site. No-one likes a sales page with more holes/leaks than a soup sieve.

And for that matter, affiliates or not, don't use a blog-style Wordpress theme as the basis for your sales page unless it still looks like a 'static', traditional sales page. Otherwise, you typically introduce all kinds of superfluous stylistic elements that make the whole thing look patchy, amateurish and unpolished.

Finally, don't put an opt-in on your sales page.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen products with these kinds of sales pages on Clickbank, especially ones with absolute or near 0 gravity.

All of these things are a huge-ass turn off for myself, certainly, and I happen to know that's also the case for a lot of other serious affiliates who'd put forth the most earnest efforts to promote your product.

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Harvey M

12 years ago

I was indeed referring to email marketing (squeeze page > relationship > product > reidual > rinse wash repeat). Sorry for getting annoyed.

So the current line-up isn't lacking any major flaws for a successful EM campaign?

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Simon Haestoe

12 years ago

I don't know if I like the whole rinse-was-repeat concept... sounds kinda...sterile. To make awesome money, you need to basically make friends. Do you think people pay $5000 to go on a person's yacht if they think that person is just another marketer..? No - they've become friends. Be a friend, providing tips, in your sales letter; be a dude treating, your list, like friends in your email-marketing. Be a helpful guy, who knows what it's like to be in their shoes, all the way through.

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WhiteDove

12 years ago

You need a strong desire, patience, determination, conviction, knowledge, and the aspiration to help others.

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Brendan Carl

12 years ago

If all you want to do is write an ebook and sell it, then technically all you need is a static sales page and a payment processor (like PayPal).

Now, if you want to incorporate email marketing, then you also need a squeeze page (which could be placed right before your product sales page, acting as an upsell, in your sales funnel) and an autoresponder account (Aweber). You also need something free to offer people, obviously. This could be a couple chapters out of your ebook.

If you want to have an authority, brand-style blog to boost your credibility, online reputation, traffic to your sales/squeeze page(s), and to build a relationship with your customers, then in addition to the before mentioned items, you also need another domain name and a Wordpress site, preferably with a good Wordpress theme.

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Kange 12 years ago

Originally Posted by Brendan Carl

If all you want to do is write an ebook and sell it, then technically all you need is a static sales page and a payment processor (like PayPal).

.

thank you
what program do you use to create the static sales page. Just an eCommerce page and then have download feature?
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- Brendan Carl 12 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Kange
  
  thank you
  what program do you use to create the static sales page. Just an eCommerce page and then have download feature?
  
  To start, this static sales page should have your sales letter on it convincing potential customers to buy your product. You could write this sales letter yourself, or you could hire a copywriter (on a site like eLance) to do it for you. You definitely should hire someone if your self-written sales letter is not perfect. The extra cost will be worth it!
  
  Second, all you really need to design the sales page is an HTML editor (or even Notepad) if you know how to code in HTML.
  
  If you don't know how to code, there are WYSIWYG editors out there (What You See Is What You Get). This allows you to design a website without any code. A paid example is Dreamweaver, and a free example is NVU. But, these are still not really easy and have a learning curve.
  
  You could also outsource it on a site like Fiverr or eLance. This would save you a lot of time and your site could end up looking more professional than if you made it yourself.
  
  Finally, there are Wordpress plugins to help you make sales pages (Optimise Press). This is easier than using a WYSIWYG editor.
  
  Besides that, you can use link the "Buy Now" button to Paypal, or use a shopping cart code snippet offered by your web host (many web hosts offer shopping cart/eCommerce codes).
  
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KevinW

12 years ago

You need:

1. Hosting
2. Squeeze Pages
3. Autoresponder
4. Website Traffic

That's about it. Building your list is priority #1.

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cashp0wer 12 years ago

I got started without most of these things too and did very well well online (and still do). Sometimes easier is better, especially when you are first starting out. I remember when I first started I thought I had to use everything there was but then scaled back and started making money.
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- David Sneen 12 years ago
  
  Usually I try to contribute--to add something. But, Andy has said it as eloquently as possible. No point in being redundant!
  
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CDarklock

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Harvey M

Business model being, sell an eBook online.

That would be:

- Write your eBook

You can then publish it on Kindle and accept payments via cheques in the mail.

PS: We're looking at using SEO for residual income

SEO is not income. SEO is traffic.

You need a more detailed business model. Go through your list and use it in the first blank of this sentence, filling out the other two blanks as appropriate:

"I need _________ to get _________ so I can _________."

And stop worrying so much about the guts of it. Business is pinball. If you get a high score, you get to play again. If you don't, all you need is another quarter.

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Usmile

12 years ago

There are several ways how to earn online. All the things you've mention are also good sources of income online. What I have currently observe nowadays is people online are earning through selling products and services.

Well, it really depends on the marketing that you are focusing on.