Your where to start guide
Posted 24th November 2012 at 01:09 PM by rite
So it is that time of year to give back to our fellow man. I have been away for quite some time quietly making my living across the vast expanse of the internet and beyond.
I love the WF and in the spirit of the season I think I am going to post some tips , guides and blueprints that have served me well over the last few months.
The most common question any new marketer asks is "where do I start"
so I would like to call this "Your where to start guide"
But before I get into it, I want you all to know that everything that I am sharing in this post and future ones to follow are methods and techniques that I myself use and have done so with some success.
Ok enough already lets get to the meat of the matter......,.
First off you must understand that in order to succeed you must firmly grasp this concept .... People pay for answers to their problems.
If it is your intention to blast your wares across a website with out an attempt to solve a problem then brace yourself for your imminent failure.
You must envision yourself as a problem solver and not a salesperson.
Ok next comes the most important step
you must formulate a plan. A well thought out plan of attack.
often times it is this stage that I spend the most time.
I will write out a rough strategy and draw maps to help coordinate my efforts.
The planning stage is the absolute most critical part of this process. It is at this point that changes can be easily made. It is far more difficult to completely change a strategy once your up and running.
so I know you must at this point be thinking "Rite, you haven't said anything new" and your correct but what I have said thus far is of the utmost importance. Lets continue...
so we have established that you must map out your business. If this is a point you find your self hung up on then ask yourself the following questions...
What are my hobbies?
What am I good at?
What is something I really enjoy doing or talking about?
How do I plan on providing information on this product?
Moving on. You will require a website. when I was first starting out I was using a borrowed computer and didn't have two nickles to rub together.
SO it goes without saying that some of my earliest websites were created with Blogger. Blogger still works but you must be careful with these sites as they are easily pulled down.
I would go with a self hosted business model. I myself utilize the services of namecheap and hostgator.
with regards to hostgator I always go with a vps plan. Also on a side note and bare in mind that this is only a personal point of preference I use one domain per vps.
now when it comes to design of the site I often chose one of two options
I go with a wordpress theme
or pay a developer
The goal here is to create a site that is easy to navigate and informative.
remember when it comes to websites "Less is more"
a good example of this concept in action is the google search page. It doesn't get anymore simple than that.
also keep in mind that a simple and user friendly site will do well in the SEO arena.
so now you have your product, you have your site now we must fill it with content.
I often outsource my content. sites such as textbroker and iwriter are fine for this I would however steer clear of sites like fiverr for content.
some points to remember when writing or having content written,
your not a salesman your a problem solver, write like one.
pay attention to grammar. people will not take you or your product seriously if your content sounds as though it was written by Yoda after a long night of drinking.
A good word count mix is a good thing when creating content things look suspicious if all of your articles are exactly 500 words in length. mix it up with a few 150 word posts on up to a good 1000 word. it looks more natural.
just remember when your writing that you are speaking to people with a problem and you are providing a solution. BE THE SOLUTION!
I hate to say it but its true, fear and hype are best sellers.
once your site is up and running we must begin to feed it traffic.
bearing in mind that your entire project has been planned around careful and subtle SEO you should begin seeing slow and steady traffic form your modest SEO efforts. keep this in mind at all time, search engines change constantly so dont be to quick to jump on board with the latest and greatest seo trick or gimmick as it will almost always come back to bite you. (just ask all of the dup content autobloggers out there)
real and honest traffic methods will always pay off.
create social media accounts for your site
facebook
twitter
and so on
create accounts at youtube as well as other video file sharing sites
Promote Promote Promote Promote! I cant say this enough
keep your twitter account flowing with fresh and relevant tweets, keep your face book account flowing with fresh updates and make new and exciting videos promoting your site and your sites social media accounts. Of course all of these accounts are tied to your site.
social bookmarking and rss feeds are often overlooked so don't forget them
check out onlywire.
all the while maintaining your role as a problem solver.
at this point I also implement an aggressive ppc campaign
so now the monetizing.
Here is the bit where all of your efforts pay off and there are a couple of routes you can go.
I personally do not like to put other sites ads on my sites so I create ads for my products that link to a sales page and then to ejunkie for orders.
also use your site to create your list offer a free gift of value let me repeat this last bit ,OF VALUE to entice your viewers to opt in to your list.
really at this point the possibilities are endless but moral of the guide simply is this....It takes work and a lot of it to build a solid business.
and yes I know I have left allot of things out, but the entire point was to highlight what I feel to be the most important aspects of building an online business and I encourage folks to feel free to fill in the bits that they feel I may have missed.
With that said, Seasons Greetings and here's to your success
I love the WF and in the spirit of the season I think I am going to post some tips , guides and blueprints that have served me well over the last few months.
The most common question any new marketer asks is "where do I start"
so I would like to call this "Your where to start guide"
But before I get into it, I want you all to know that everything that I am sharing in this post and future ones to follow are methods and techniques that I myself use and have done so with some success.
Ok enough already lets get to the meat of the matter......,.
First off you must understand that in order to succeed you must firmly grasp this concept .... People pay for answers to their problems.
If it is your intention to blast your wares across a website with out an attempt to solve a problem then brace yourself for your imminent failure.
You must envision yourself as a problem solver and not a salesperson.
Ok next comes the most important step
you must formulate a plan. A well thought out plan of attack.
often times it is this stage that I spend the most time.
I will write out a rough strategy and draw maps to help coordinate my efforts.
The planning stage is the absolute most critical part of this process. It is at this point that changes can be easily made. It is far more difficult to completely change a strategy once your up and running.
so I know you must at this point be thinking "Rite, you haven't said anything new" and your correct but what I have said thus far is of the utmost importance. Lets continue...
so we have established that you must map out your business. If this is a point you find your self hung up on then ask yourself the following questions...
What are my hobbies?
What am I good at?
What is something I really enjoy doing or talking about?
How do I plan on providing information on this product?
Moving on. You will require a website. when I was first starting out I was using a borrowed computer and didn't have two nickles to rub together.
SO it goes without saying that some of my earliest websites were created with Blogger. Blogger still works but you must be careful with these sites as they are easily pulled down.
I would go with a self hosted business model. I myself utilize the services of namecheap and hostgator.
with regards to hostgator I always go with a vps plan. Also on a side note and bare in mind that this is only a personal point of preference I use one domain per vps.
now when it comes to design of the site I often chose one of two options
I go with a wordpress theme
or pay a developer
The goal here is to create a site that is easy to navigate and informative.
remember when it comes to websites "Less is more"
a good example of this concept in action is the google search page. It doesn't get anymore simple than that.
also keep in mind that a simple and user friendly site will do well in the SEO arena.
so now you have your product, you have your site now we must fill it with content.
I often outsource my content. sites such as textbroker and iwriter are fine for this I would however steer clear of sites like fiverr for content.
some points to remember when writing or having content written,
your not a salesman your a problem solver, write like one.
pay attention to grammar. people will not take you or your product seriously if your content sounds as though it was written by Yoda after a long night of drinking.
A good word count mix is a good thing when creating content things look suspicious if all of your articles are exactly 500 words in length. mix it up with a few 150 word posts on up to a good 1000 word. it looks more natural.
just remember when your writing that you are speaking to people with a problem and you are providing a solution. BE THE SOLUTION!
I hate to say it but its true, fear and hype are best sellers.
once your site is up and running we must begin to feed it traffic.
bearing in mind that your entire project has been planned around careful and subtle SEO you should begin seeing slow and steady traffic form your modest SEO efforts. keep this in mind at all time, search engines change constantly so dont be to quick to jump on board with the latest and greatest seo trick or gimmick as it will almost always come back to bite you. (just ask all of the dup content autobloggers out there)
real and honest traffic methods will always pay off.
create social media accounts for your site
and so on
create accounts at youtube as well as other video file sharing sites
Promote Promote Promote Promote! I cant say this enough
keep your twitter account flowing with fresh and relevant tweets, keep your face book account flowing with fresh updates and make new and exciting videos promoting your site and your sites social media accounts. Of course all of these accounts are tied to your site.
social bookmarking and rss feeds are often overlooked so don't forget them
check out onlywire.
all the while maintaining your role as a problem solver.
at this point I also implement an aggressive ppc campaign
so now the monetizing.
Here is the bit where all of your efforts pay off and there are a couple of routes you can go.
I personally do not like to put other sites ads on my sites so I create ads for my products that link to a sales page and then to ejunkie for orders.
also use your site to create your list offer a free gift of value let me repeat this last bit ,OF VALUE to entice your viewers to opt in to your list.
really at this point the possibilities are endless but moral of the guide simply is this....It takes work and a lot of it to build a solid business.
and yes I know I have left allot of things out, but the entire point was to highlight what I feel to be the most important aspects of building an online business and I encourage folks to feel free to fill in the bits that they feel I may have missed.
With that said, Seasons Greetings and here's to your success
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