Is it just me or is it seriously funny that...?

I'm fairly new to the WF so maybe this is a common trend. I've become seriously amused with the number of people who need a quick buck and/or are desperate and then you see a signature like "make an easy $500/day in these 3 easy steps". LOL. I've seen at least one per day for the last week.

People, I'm not an expert but it's not rocket science.

1. Research Keywords

Start with broad keywords and use something like the free market samurai tool to find good niches. Ideally you want "buy now" keywords. For example, my real estate investing site gets a few thousand visitors off of the broad keyword "real estate investing" but we convert way more sales on the people who are searching for "how to" and land on our sales page. It's not just purely the traffic numbers. It's also the type of traffic you get and how targeted it is. The more buying keywords you can have the better. If you can buy domains with those keywords in it, you'll make it easier on yourself.

2. Research Competition

You really only need to worry about the top 5. I have SEO Quake installed so I can easily see their PR and backlinks. Don't worry about any numbers competing sites numbers or anything like that. When people advise you, it's only a guideline and not an absolute rule. It also doesn't hurt to check your competitors ongoing as you may find some of them aren't even actively building links... even better. You're only competing with the top positions so keep that focus. If there are 300,000 competing sites with a weak top 5, you're laughing. If there are 30,000 competing sites with a strong top 5, move on.

3. Build Product(s) or Find GOOD Affiliate Programs Around Said Keywords

I prefer to build products and a be a true entrepreneur but it's not for everyone. Just make sure what you're promoting that at least other people believe in it and provides good reviews. As per Tim Ferriss advice, I try to shoot for products in the $50-200 range. If you go for more, they expect a high level of service. If you for go for less, you'll expect people wanting the world for pennies. I don't know why but people who only spend a few dollars seem to be higher maintenance than people who spend $100. Perhaps it's because it's their last $5 every time. Honestly, I don't know. Leave the cheap labor to fiverr outsources. You're in it to make money, not recruit headaches for a few bucks.

4. Build Content Around Those Keywords

You obviously want it to be what the user wants to find when searching that word. If the user searches "list of products" and you have a keyword jammed article that isn't readable to a real human written by a $0.50/article writer on odesk or freelancer, you're setting yourself up the wrong way. Provide value for those users. It not only will have better longevity but you'll feel better about your business in general. Always provide simple straightforward informative content and link back to your sales pages. You honestly don't need to sell, just inform. If you do enough informing, people will sell themselves. It's a novel thought but you can honestly sell without selling.

5. Build Sales/Pre-sell Pages For Your Products

If you provide this value, you won't need a stupid "make millions online new secret" type of sales page that tells you 15 times what it's not followed by faked screenshots. More importantly, your customers will be MUCH lower maintenance because you will have delivered what they expected. There is a huge value that no one talks about in having low maintenance customers. My customers already know what they're buying. I might receive an email a week and have had less than 1% returns on all my ecourses. I don't promise them hype and millions, just the honest material of what's inside.

6. Backlink Your Pages

Google's algorithm is built on backlinks. I use the 60-20-20 rule to keep my link building appearing natural in that I use main keyword 60% - secondary keyword 20% and natural links (no anchor, "click here", "read more") 20%.

7. Service Those Customers

Service your customers and handle their questions. As you go, build all their questions into an FAQ and send that with the product. If you provide good instructions, a good FAQ on how to use, where to get more info, and how to contact you, believe it or not, service will be minimal. It will probably start out with a lot of inquiries but you can reduce these over time.

Yes there are people who make a lot of money providing nothing but smoke and mirrors and then avoiding their customers post-sale, but do you want to be one of them? Would you rather have happy customers who rave about your or negative customers who can't wait to post bad reviews about you on any and all forums? There isn't a huge amount of work difference to provide great service, especially if you do a ton to answer their questions BEFORE they happen.

8. Rinse-Lather-Repeat

I know so many people go on here looking for a magic bullet but there isn't one. Just keep doing these actions over and over and over again and you'll get where you need to be financially. You'll also have a low maintenance, highly profitable customer base.

It takes time to get there. It's not a "get rich quick scheme" just because Mark Zuckerberg cashed in. Plan to be in it for the long haul or don't plan to be in it at all. If you don't have a long term focus to these 8 steps, you're going to buy 10 WSOs a week and not get what you're going. You're going to chase more and more and more hype. Don't buy into "guru-ism". You're the guru and you steer your ship. Provide value again and again to others. Maybe not every business will be as profitable as the next but if you do that, you can't not make it. I promise.