Posted on | Sunday, August 1, 2010 |
Have you ever come across a product that really caught your eye that you have never seen online before?
If you have and you still know where to find it, why not consider trying to market it online? There are really countless ways of doing this, depending on the nature of the product and where you get hold of it from, but in general if you come across something that hasn’t really taken off online yet you have a great chance of beating everyone else to the punch.
Becoming a sales agent usually means you get a percentage from every sale you make, so the way to approach this opportunity depends on how many products you can get access to. Some businesses allow you to join as a sales agent and sell a range of products, in which case you could set up a website (with their agreement of course) promoting all of them in turn. You would then receive orders via your site and process them via your supplier directly.
It does depend a lot on how you get hold of the product or products in the first place though. Some businesses may agree to let you promote their product on a sale or return basis, or alternatively you may have to buy a quantity of the product first and take a chance on whether it would sell well online or not.
Whichever way you approach this opportunity, it’s clear that you should get stuck into some research before you agree to anything. Find out as much about the product as you can – who it would appeal to, what price it retails for, and how much your profit margin would be on each unit.
It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of finding a product that you love and you think you could make money with, but you need to be certain that a lot of other people will like it just as much as well! By finding out as much as you can in the first place you stand a better chance of making a good profit.
If you haven’t seen any particular product which grabs your interest the best place to start looking – ironically – is online. Search for companies that have offline sales agents already and think about approaching the best ones (the ones that appeal to you the most) with your proposition. As hard as it may be to believe there are still some businesses that don’t have any kind of online presence at all – and you could be just what they are looking for.
One final point – you should try looking in your local area to see what businesses are there, before you look any further afield. Quite often they will be the ones who haven’t got online yet.
It might take some work to find a product you like that has great potential for taking online, but the end result can be well worth it. Let us know your thoughts by leaving a message below before you start hunting.
There is big money to be made from websites as we have seen, but there is one type of website in particular that is a bit different from the rest. What makes it so interesting is that it actually limits the number of people who can get into it and make use of what it has to offer.
This might sound like a strange way to earn money but in actual fact it is well worth doing if you have a good subject to start from.
Informational membership sites are websites which charge people to gain access to them. Everyone will be able to see the main home page (and sometimes certain other pages as well) but the bulk of the website cannot be seen until each person pays their money to gain access.
The key to designing a membership site that works is to pick your subject carefully. It should be something that you know a lot about, and which other people will also find interesting. More than that however, it should include information that people will be willing to pay for. If the information you include could be found by any other means then your site will not work. What’s more, it could damage your reputation too.
So this obviously calls for some research. You need a subject that will always be popular and has brought in a lot of money for other people already. One of the best examples will be working from home – there are always people wanting to know how they can do this and earn plenty of money without the drudge of going out to work every day.
Let’s that that as an example. The key here is to approach that broad subject from an angle which may not have been done before, and which will form the basis of a membership site which provides people with information they cannot get elsewhere. If you don’t have a specific focus and you don’t have some exclusive information to provide your members with every month, then you don’t have a site. It’s that simple.
As far as the website itself is concerned, you will need to make sure your web host can handle a site in which people can log in and log out of their own accounts as and when they wish. You can set up monthly payment schedules online with certain providers; once you have integrated the relevant payment buttons into your website it should automatically take the payment from the customer every month. To get an idea of how much to charge, the best thing to do is to research similar sites to see what they are offering and how much they are charging for it.
When it comes to designing your website, make sure your home page is welcoming for your members, but also make it enticing enough to encourage more people to join. By doing this – and by driving plenty of traffic to your site – you should soon build up a respectable membership base that will hopefully grow into a nice monthly income for you.
Got some ideas on how to make your own informational membership site work? Leave us a comment below and then start brainstorming! Good luck.
If you are serious about learning how to make money online, be it for a little extra cash, or to replace your income, the best place to start is with Steve Peirce’s Income Elite program.
Steve and his team of experts will take you by the hand and show you every step you need to take to get a website up and running and making money. Plus you can check out the whole program for as little as $4.95 on a 5 day Risk Free Trial to make sure it lives up to what it promises. Click here to read more about the Income Elite Program.
ClickBank is just about the biggest website on the internet today as far as affiliates are concerned. If you want to make money online but you don’t have a product of your own to promote, what better solution could there be than to promote someone else’s in exchange for a slice of the profits?
ClickBank is a no brainer if you want to get started on no cash at all, and you have your choice of products to promote as well. It’s also a great chance to experiment a little and get to know what niches are profitable and which ones have the best products that you make the most sales on.
As far as an introduction to affiliate marketing goes, the best place to head to is definitely ClickBank…
Affiliate accounts are free at ClickBank, and once you have got yours you will need to take a look at the huge number of opportunities you have to promote products – mostly e-books – to your chosen audience.
Now you might be wondering how you can do this without having a website of your own or a blog you are hosting yourself, but all you need to do is get a free web page (or in fact as many as you like) from Squidoo. Check out the separate blog entry on that very subject to see how you can combine the two for maximum benefits.
If you do have a site of your own you can easily promote ClickBank products to your existing audience by searching for items that are likely to appeal to them. Use the search facility on ClickBank to help narrow down the number of products to sort through, and pick an appropriate category as well, to make sure you find the most suitable items.
You will get a dedicated link (called a hoplink) that will ensure you get a portion of the proceeds if someone clicks through to buy a product you have recommended. You can cloak this if you wish for extra security on your part by visiting one of the many free shortened URL sites online today.
The best way to profit from ClickBank is to focus on providing more than just an affiliate link for your customer to click on. The idea is to almost pre-sell the product before they even reach the sales page. You really need to be able to recommend it to them by stirring up some enthusiasm first.
A lot of affiliates get to the stage where they build a free web page (on Squidoo) or even a whole website on a specific subject, and write (or have someone else write) material that the visitors will find useful and interesting. In this way you are building a relationship with your visitors and projecting an image of someone that can be trusted and who knows a bit about what they are saying. It’s ironic really, but if you come across as an affiliate people will assume you are just out to make money and won’t even take a second look at the sales page you are trying to send them to – even if that product is really worth looking at.
Less is more when you are an affiliate trying to make money from ClickBank, and the more you remember that the more sales you are likely to make over time.
The good thing is that no matter how many different products you can promote, all your earnings will go straight into the same account, ready to be paid to you once you hit your payment threshold.
The best way to start with ClickBank is to find your way around the site and get to know how it works. Once you have done that start researching a few choice niches and develop things from there. Slowly but surely you will start to see results.
But before you head on over to ClickBank to sign up for your free account, make sure you leave a comment for us below! We always love to hear from you.
Make no mistake – e-books are big business online. No matter what you search for there will be someone out there selling an e-book on it.
But the best thing about them is that they provide one of the most potentially lucrative businesses you could ever hope to start online. So long as you do your homework and don’t try and cut corners you can start making inroads into this business within days of deciding to get started. There is plenty to learn but none of it is beyond you – and even if you don’t think you’re up to the job there are plenty of people you can call on to help you.
If you’re thinking of selling e-books to make money online, your best bet is to write your own.
But why do that when there are plenty of affiliate e-books around that you can promote and earn a cut from?
The answer is simple. If you write and create your own e-book no one else will be selling anything quite like it. You’ve got a unique product that will draw attention since no one will have seen it before. As long as you do your research first, you could make a lot of money from one e-book alone.
So first thing’s first – how do you decide what to write an e-book about?
Think about what subjects are currently popular online. Making money will always be a great subject (look at this blog for example!) so anything that taps into this field which doesn’t cover the same ground as loads of other e-books could do well. Try and focus on a specific niche to get the best results; you could start by thinking about what you personally find interesting and see whether any of your hobbies might provide fertile ground to explore.
Once you’ve got some ideas see whether there are already any e-books doing well online on that subject. If there don’t seem to be any around you’ll need to dig a bit further to see if your subject is going to be popular enough to attract a lot of sales. A spot of keyword research and simply looking up related search terms on Google can help reveal the answer to this.
Okay – so let’s assume you now have an idea for an e-book you think will be popular. Next up you have to plan the contents and think of a great title. Titles are very important since they will give the potential buyer an idea of what to expect from the e-book itself. It needs to be specific and intriguing – and full of promise. Don’t worry if one doesn’t occur to you straightaway; quite often you will only think of it once the book is almost written.
The biggest problem when it comes to writing the book itself is staying on topic. It’s very easy to veer off course if you’re not careful, which is why having a pre-written outline to follow will keep you on track. If you plan this out before you begin writing you’ll find the whole process much easier to manage. If you don’t feel confident enough to write it yourself you can hire a ghostwriter to do it for you; there are plenty of sites online where you can hire a freelancer for a fixed fee that you decide on. This gives you complete control over the project.
Incidentally the word ‘e-book’ can be somewhat misleading for newbies to the business. An e-book can indeed be a hundred pages or more long, but it can also be no more than a dozen pages or so. The price for a shorter e-book will of course be lower, but it is still more than you might think given the length of the book itself.
Of course you need to think about more than just the e-book if you want to sell plenty of copies of it. You need to get the word out, and you need to have a great mini website to show it off. These mini websites are really single page sites which promote your e-book in a long sales letter. You would do well to spend as much time writing the sales letter as you did the e-book itself, since it has a very important job to do.
First off you need a stunning headline that will grab the attention. You need to really sell this to everyone who lands on your website so don’t be afraid to shout about the benefits of your e-book! You’ll notice I said benefits there and not features; that’s because the benefits will tell your readers what your book will do for them. That’s a very important point to understand since it could make the difference between getting a reasonable amount of sales and being buried under an avalanche of them!
Think about your price carefully too. Don’t be greedy – but at the same time don’t go too low either. You want to give an impression of quality. Do some research and see what similar titles in your subject area are selling for.
You can also sell more copies by offering bonuses along with the e-book itself. Could you write a number of special reports as well, each one a few pages long, which relate to the subject of your main book? Anything like this will encourage still more people to buy from you rather than going elsewhere for a similar title.
The ultimate goal for you should be to write a series of e-books which each have their own website to sell from. When you write each sales letter be sure to include plenty of keywords and phrases to attract a greater volume of search engine traffic to your site. Pick a good and relevant domain name too – it will help to draw in more people.
The hardest step is in writing that first e-book. Once you’ve got going and you’ve had some experience you’ll start writing them faster, picking better titles and subjects, and selling more copies as a result. Before you know it you’ll have a great business on your hands.
If you’d like to comment on this piece, please leave your message using the form below. Then get writing – your first e-book is there, you just have to get it out.
What is the one thing that everyone is looking for when they go online? You’ve got it – information. And if you can supply it in all kinds of shapes and forms then you will be paid for doing so, which could lead to a whole new career as a web writer.
Of course it isn’t just online markets that need content; there are hundreds of other markets you could break into as well, including magazines, but overall it is the internet which offers the best opportunities, especially for the beginning writer.
So why should you start online when you want to earn money writing? The reason is simple – it isn’t just editors that need your work. Website owners, people with newsletters that need writing and countless others all have writing jobs that they can’t or won’t do or don’t have the time to do themselves.
That generally sends them scurrying to websites like Elance and Get A Freelancer to find people who will write the articles and content they need for them. There are plus points and negative points to writing for the internet; you won’t often see your work published under your own name as you will usually be ghostwriting it for someone else, but you will get a lot of work since jobs quite often come in batches. You won’t often get just a single article to write for instance – you might get a half dozen, ten, twenty or even more, so the money can soon mount up.
The best places for finding work are the aforementioned sites, but you should also look on classified ad sites such as Craigslist for jobs in your own country and in other places around the world. There are also plenty of writing related websites that can easily be found via the search engines if you look for ‘online writing jobs’ or something similar. Don’t forget blogging jobs as well; if you have your own blog then you already have experience in blogging, so apply for as many as you can. Ongoing blogging jobs are great for bringing in a regular stream of income.
Getting started and building contacts is the hardest part. Go for jobs you feel confident in doing to begin with; after a while you will pick up speed and complete them faster and much more easily. You will soon learn to juggle your work as well in order to meet all your deadlines before they fall due – this is an essential skill you will need to develop in order to position yourself as one of the best in the business.
You could also work for a ghostwriting team if you prefer; these can also be found via the search engines and a simple email should reveal whether they are accepting new writers at any time. This can make life easier since you don’t have to go looking for work all the time – it is generally supplied by the team leader, depending on how that particular team works.
But can you really make a full time income by doing this? The answer is yes you can, but speed and quality are of the essence. If you produce good work then people will naturally come back to you for more of the same. They will also pay more for work of a better standard, so make sure you don’t put yourself down with the $2 an article crowd.
It will take time to build up enough work to be able to leave your current job and start a brand new career as a web writer, but there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to do this if you persevere and keep checking the classified ad sites and job boards every single day. Don’t wait to apply for jobs either – do it as soon as you see them appear. Getting in early can make all the difference in some cases.
So do you think you have it in you to be a writer? If you do there is a huge market out there just waiting for you to dive in. Just remember where you came from, and leave us a comment by using the form below before you go and begin your new career!
Whether you’re new to trading or you are what’s considered a “seasoned” trader, there is a lot of money to be made trading Forex markets. Although instantly trading with real money is not for beginners or people that have never traded before, you can quickly learn the ropes with a little help and commitment.
If you are serious about wanting to learn how to profitably trade the Forex markets, check out the Options University Forex Trader Website for a free 14 day trial of their Forex Trading Program : Click Here to get started
What is Forex Trading?
Forex trading is the buying and selling of currencies. In much the same way that you’d buy and sell stocks on the stock market, traders exchange currencies they’ve purchased. If you’ve ever traded on the stock market, you should have no problem getting the hang of trading Forex.
The purpose of Forex trading is to exchange a currency that you’ve purchased for another with the hopes that the price of the newly purchased one will go up in value. Whether you’re new to this or consider yourself an old pro, you’ll find it very exciting and a lot of fun. The value of currencies is always quoted in pairs such as USD/JPY or GBD/USD. The reason for this is because you’re always buying one and selling another.
It is recommended, however, that until you get the hang of what you’re doing you should set up a “demo” account where you may be buying and selling currencies but they’re fake. By doing this, you’re learning how it’s done and giving yourself a chance to learn more about it without losing real money.
Signing up for an Account
Signing up for an account is very easy. You can register for one of the training courses on the Forex web site where you can “pretend” trade in a demo atmosphere or you can participate in their workshops where you’ll have real experts teaching you everything you need to know about Forex trading. You’ll also have webinars at your disposal where you can watch demonstrations of Forex trading, take part in discussions with beginners as well as experts in the field. Signing up for an account is not only fun and exciting by the best way to learn the ropes so you’ll soon be ready to begin making money trading Forex.
Getting started is Easy
You’ll find that it’s easier than you thought to get started. Banks and financial institutions have been doing it for years and now with the internet available to everyone, it’s easy for you to make money at home by trading Forex. Because there are so many different theories behind trading Forex, it’s to your advantage to talk with someone that knows what they’re doing and has participated in Forex trading in the past.
If you don’t know anyone with enough experience to help you, consider signing up for some of the online webinars and Forex workshops. They’re very helpful and will take you through any scenario you can imagine and are available to answer any questions you may have. You can continue to be part of a “demo” trading market until you’re ready to strike out on your own with real money. That’s when you’ll see how much money you can truly make trading Forex.your
If you are serious about wanting to learn how to profitably trade the Forex markets, check out the Options University Forex Trader Website for a free 14 day trial of their Forex Trading Program : Click Here to get started
There is a lot of money to be made as a seller on eBay. Thousands and thousands of sales are made each day, resulting in a lot of income for a lot of sellers. And there is still room for you if you want to get involved – whether you want to earn some part time cash or set up a whole new full time business on the side.
But where do you get your stock from? How do you get started? And how can you build a business that gives you PowerSeller status? Relax – you’re about to find out.
It’s easy work to get started earning money on eBay. Once you’ve signed up for your free account the best way to get a feel for what selling is like is to auction off some of your personal items that you no longer want. If you are going to start buying stock to resell, you’ll do better by getting some basic selling experience first.
While we are on the subject of stock, you’ll need to decide what kind of business you are going to set up. Of course you can sell anything you like, but if you want to make a name for yourself it helps to become known for selling a specific type of product.
Now that doesn’t necessarily mean your product area needs to be a small one; on the contrary it could be quite large. You could sell toys for example – there’s plenty there to keep any seller going for months on end without selling the same thing twice. You do need to pick a popular product though, and it’s worth doing some research using eBay’s advanced search feature to find out what is selling and how much it’s selling for.
So let’s say you want to sell computer games, for example. There are hundreds of games you could buy to sell here, but if you don’t know which ones will sell you could lose a lot of money buying the wrong stock. By searching the ended listings you can see which titles consistently sell well, and which ones will produce the best profit for you.
Okay – so you know how to figure out what to buy. Now you need to know where to get it from. It stands to reason that no seller is going to tell you where they get their stock; that would be like giving away the keys to their business. In order to find the best sources for stock you need to do a bit of legwork.
We should mention here that there are two main sources for stock – wholesalers and dropshippers. Both have their pros and cons; it just depends on which method you personally prefer.
Dropshippers hold all the stock for you, so you only actually pay for an item once you’ve received payment from the customer. You may have to pay a fee to join the scheme in the first place though. If you choose to go with one or more wholesalers you will need to have the room to buy the stock, and the money to buy it in advance. This comes with more risk since you could buy stock that doesn’t sell, but with the tactic we’ve already covered for checking completed listings before you order anything, the risk here should be kept to a minimum.
So – back to where to find these sources. If you have a particular product in mind that you want to sell, the simple act of looking at the packaging can often reveal the name of the supplier. You can then check out their website to see what else they do.
Another method is to search for what you want on Google. This sounds deceptively simple and in fact many people don’t think of doing this. It can be a bit hit or miss, but it’s possible to find some excellent wholesalers through this method. Over time you will go from having one wholesaler to a handful of sources to get your stock from, and you can build up your product range as you start to grow.
Building your feedback is an important part of being a good seller and the higher you can get your score the better. It sets you apart as being a dedicated seller. And the faster your score climbs, the closer you get to attaining PowerSeller status.
The PowerSeller symbol is highly prized among serious eBay sellers, and there are five levels to strive for. The first is Bronze, and it’s a lot easier to reach than you might think. While you might set a goal for yourself to reach PowerSeller, you will find that if you build up your product range and gradually increase your sales, you will reach it in no time. And if you get off to a great start you might just do it in three months – the minimum time you can actually do it in.
Many sellers have their own shop on eBay, but it’s not necessary when you first get started. In fact you are often better off waiting until you have a good range of stock before opening a shop, since it can look rather empty if you only have a handful of items.
The final thing to think about is the price of the items you are selling. It stands to reason that if you sell a hundred different products in the $5 to $10 price range, you won’t make as much cash as you would selling a hundred in the $50 to $100 price range.
But you need to work out what you enjoy selling and what you can sell lots of to experience real success on eBay. Don’t go for expensive products just because they might bring a bigger profit. Go for your calling – that’s where you will experience the biggest success.
Above all, remember that it can take time to build a successful business – but if you’re determined to achieve real success on eBay you should be enjoying the journey.
If you have any questions or comments about making money on eBay, please leave your comments below.
Are you looking for a legitimate way to make money online? Maybe you want some extra spending money. Or perhaps you need the money to pay bills. Either way, getting paid for filling out simple surveys can be a fun and lucrative way to earn that extra cash.
In fact, there’s quite a lot of money to be had — and the cool thing is that you can earn it in your spare time. Any time you can spare a few minutes — or a few hours, you can make money.
It’s easy too. Once you have signed up with the right survey companies, all you have to do is check your email and pick the best surveys, and you’re off to earning money every time you fill in the blanks.
Want to get started right away? Visit SurveyClub and enter your details (It’s a Free Service) and you will start receiving surveys to fill out and start earning. Click Here to start now!
And if you’re wondering why anyone would care about your opinion, let alone pay you good money for it, read on. There’s a reason why you can make real money with surveys:
Countless companies, including the largest international corporations, are desperately trying to find out what consumers want. And they’re willing to pay a whole lot of money for market research.
But they still have a problem. How can they connect with you, the consumer? It’s not all that easy, so they hire survey companies to help them find out what people think about their products and what they would be most likely to buy in the future. They also want to know what it will take to get people to buy…
And if you sign up, you’ll become part of that cutting edge market research.
It’s really cool. You may have the chance to find out about new products long before they actually become available in stores. You might get to play video games that haven’t even been released yet. And you might get to watch trailers for movies that haven’t even finished filming yet. And the best part…. you get paid for your “efforts.”
That’s because paying for you to take surveys is the quickest and easiest way for a company to get the information and feedback they need. And believe it or not, even when they pay thousands of people several dollars each for fill it in even one quick survey, it’s cheaper (and more effective) for them than many other forms of market research. And it’s way cheaper than making a costly mistake.
Remember the NEW Coke? What a disaster that was! And it would have been so easy to prevent. All they had to do was ask people what they thought of the idea and they would have known better than to mess with a tried and true formula.
But noooo. The company executives thought they knew what was best — and they fell flat on their face.
So surveys can be essential for a company’s survival. And they know it and are willing to pay for it. So why not let them pay you?
Now you’re probably wondering what it will take to connect with those big companies and get paid for sharing your opinion?
All you have to do is find the right surveys… And the easiest way to do that is to join a club that specializes in helping consumers like you and me to hook up with the surveys that pay the most money.
And the best one of those clubs we have found is SurveyClub. Unlike a lot of other survey clubs out there, it’s a Free Service. Not only that, but they also specialize in connecting you with surveys that actually pay. And as soon as you join and sign up with the companies they recommend, you will start receiving surveys to fill out… and start earning.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Is making money with surveys difficult?
Not at all. You just need to be able to answer a few simple questions and fill in some details, and you’re ready to earn a nice income from taking online surveys and helping companies with their market research.
How do I pick the right survey sites?
Start by joining a survey club that will connect you with the best sites. After all, how much you can earn will depend on which survey sites you sign up for. Some of those sites will pay you money every time you fill out a survey, while others use more of a sweepstakes approach, and offer cash and prize draws to those who fill out their surveys.
SurveyClub will help you find survey sites that pay cash for surveys. Many other sites mostly send you surveys that offer prizes and points, so you need to be careful.
No matter which site you sign up for, though, they ultimately all work the same way. You tell them your basic information and then they start sending you surveys whenever they become available.
However, the quality of the surveys you get can vary widely. That’s why SurveyClub is so helpful. They pre-screen the actual survey sites for you and steer you to the ones that pay the most, and away from those that just waste your time.
How will it work?
First you join SurveyClub. Then, you’ll get access to a list of pre-screened survey companies which in turn will send you the surveys.
You sign up for several of those companies and fill out your profile with as much information as you can. This will help the site in deciding which surveys to send to whom.
Do all survey companies pay cash?
No they don’t. SurveyClub will be sure to steer you towards survey companies that have lots of cash-paying surveys and away from those that don’t.
How much can I earn?
The amount you will receive for each survey or market research exercise varies between sites and countries, and it depends on the amount of time each one will take you. One site pays between $4 and $50 which is about average, although most surveys will be at the lower end of the scale. Of course, you can fill in several surveys per hour, so the earnings can add up.
Can I answer the surveys any time I want?
Yes you can. However, you should know that you’re usually competing with other survey takers. Each survey may only need to be answered by a set number of people and they often send it to more than is needed to make sure they get enough replies. The sooner you can complete each one and send it back, the better – and the faster your money will add up too.
Is there anything else I need to know?
Make sure you set up a new email account purely for use with your survey sites. After all, you will be getting lots of emails to plough through, and you don’t want them all going into your normal accounts. That way, you won’t have to sort through them to find your personal email. You also don’t risk missing a potentially lucrative survey in an inbox full of personal email.
How can I get started?
