Here's A Straight Forward Way To Making Money Online

Instead of packaging and selling this, I want to post it here for you guys.. it is really aimed at those who are new to Internet marketing as many Warriors will already know the drill.

This is not meant to be a definitive guide by any means, just a method that works for me personally from my experiences and if only one person gains something of value from it then it's served a good purpose.

Finding a niche
There's many ways to do this, but for me it's always been a case of sticking with what you know. In my case it's SEO & web marketing so I tend to stick around these areas because I'm confident that I can always provide the very latest cutting edge secrets that only a select few are privy to.

For you it may be a hobby or passion like horticulture or the cultivation of a particular plant, really anything that you have experience with and enjoy.

I like to put emphasis on the word enjoy because I'm a firm believer that if you enjoy what you're doing (or enjoy sharing your knowledge of it) you'll be good at it, and people always recognize a true passion when they see it - and respond well to it with purchasing your product knowing they are in safe hands.

When I buy a product I like to feel like I've purchased from somebody who really knows their stuff and not from somebody who learnt a few things just to sell an ebook. But I completely understand why people do this, and fair play to them. As a consumer I much prefer to buy from someone who is able to adequately answer my after-sale questions (more on this later).

Maybe that's my long winded way of saying "create products that you know a lot about and find joy in".

Site Creation
This is very easy. Most web hosts now have all in one domain & hosting packages, and most offer Cpanel with Fantastico. I always lean towards Wordpress because it's quick to set up this way and does everything I need.

With a couple of clicks you should have your website set up and be able to install new themes (the default theme is quiet bland).

Page Copy
I'm no copywriter but even I know that you need a killer headline, there's no dispute.

A three part headline that tells a story can work wonders on a web page.

If we are using horticulture as our niche, something along the lines of:
"I always had problems with my begonias but since I discovered a secret method all of my plants are winning top awards!"

(Again I'm no copywriter, this headline can be improved a great deal!)
But if you look at the structure we have three parts.. firstly we have 'before the discovery', this is where you can create empathy with your audience by demonstrating that you know their problem and have been in their shoes.

Then we have 'the discovery', using the word secret creates instant curiosity, and finally we have 'the present' which is the benefit of your product.

Remember people don't buy your ebook, they buy results.

So that's what you must give them. If you can't deliver on your claims don't sell something that states it does. Internet marketing gets bad press because of these kind of tricksters, the vast majority of people here on Warrior Forum are good, honest, hard working people and I know I'm preaching to the choir so I know I won't have to remind anyone reading this to make good on the promises made in their sales copy.

Getting Website Traffic
Besides having a great product this is the most important thing you need to consider. Without website visitors you're not going to generate any sales.

You've got plenty of options here. Pay Per Click (PPC) like using Adwords, banner advertising and SEO. I've never felt the need to pay for PPC or banners. SEO has always been my method so that's what I'll cover here. There's plenty of resources on this very forum about PCC and banner advertising so explore all your options and decide which is right for you.

Whenever SEO is mentioned I'm sure many picture spending $5000 upwards a month for a pro to work some magic. You do not need to hire anyone else to do the work for you (please ignore my post in the Warriors Services board, you don't need to hire me or anyone else I promise you.. this is about self-empowerment).

SEO is not complicated, even I can do it - which means you can do it. So lets get started with the basics.

Your keywords, I'm sure everyone here knows the importance of keywords so I'll skip ahead to how to use your keywords. The should be at the start of your web page title and appear at least once, but no more than three times in your description.

You must make sure that every word in your title, description and meta keywords also appears in the content of your web page. This is important.

When backlinking make sure your anchor text matches, or at least contains a variant of your main keywords. Stay away from link farms and link exchanges.. these will damage your site, maybe not for the next few weeks or months but eventually Google will catch up and penalize you.

SEO is such a wide area it goes far, far beyond the scope of this thread but it's very easy to get to the top of Google if you spend little bits of time doing fine-tuning, without the need to hire a pro.

Customer Care
I strongly believe in providing good customer support in every aspect of the sales process. Value your customers and value their opinions. If they ask for help provide it. View them as people who share the same passion and interest as you but have invested their time and energy in listening to your opinion.

A happy customer is worth a handful of additional customers, and that's how small businesses become bigger businesses. Customer care is just as important as the product you're selling.

I see a lot of people becoming fustrated with the lack of results but don't give up and most of all make it fun.

I hope someone finds this short introductory thread to Internet marketing useful.