When you’ve finally had enough with the old slug you refer to as “the boss,” maybe it’s time to get serious about some extra income. Everyone has to start somewhere and internet marketing has opened the floodgates for start-up entrepreneurs. You may have heard that the acronym JOB stands for just broke.
Although starting any new endeavor in a new field can be scary, starting your online business doesn’t have to be.
Just remember this key point… Build yourself a highly targeted email subscription list. These loyal subscribers will become your life blood and ticket to kicking the boss to the curb in the near future.
So, let’s start with some basic necessities you’ll need to get geared up and ready to roll.
1. In all cases, without exception, start by researching the market you intend to serve your product to. You may think you have the next best thing since sliced bread hit the market, but you may be surprised to find that the rest of the world doesn’t share your opinion. You can easily find out if your product has a market by entering keywords into any search engine and seeing how many other people also advertise or post content about it.
For example: if your niche is sexy lace panties…your market may be limited to a certain part of our society that works in our “more mature” nightlife professions or to teenagers looking for some laughs online and they wouldn’t buy. your product anyway. The other side of the coin can be the Ipods or the PS3 game box. Now there are two very popular niches at the time of this printing.
In any case, I suggest you find a market for a product you are passionate about and do your due diligence to research the market.
2. Does your market have money to spend? Here is an important and often overlooked step. If you know your market has money to spend and you’re spending it online, you’ve just taken a worry out of the equation. Here’s a quick and easy method to find out. Go to google.com and search for different keywords for your product. Along the right side of the first page of search results, you’ll see a series of “paid ads.” (if your product is selling well online) Keep an eye on these ads for a couple of days and see if they stick around. If these people continue to advertise there, then that’s a good indication that these ads are earning them decent profits and people are spending. On the other hand, if there are no paid ads or just 1 or 2, the market may not be spending as much as it needs to to support the cost of the ads.
3. Know your product inside out. Even if you don’t have a product, there are plenty of affiliate programs you can be a part of for free and earn generous commissions just by promoting someone else’s product. This is the best and easiest way to get started if you don’t already have your own product.
Visit clickbank.com or commissionjunction.com to try just a few. It is very beneficial to buy the product that you will promote and use it thoroughly. Side note: Clickbank has an eight week refund policy. If the product is great, you won’t need it anyway. Just start promoting it. If you’re promoting your own product, I’ll assume you’re already an expert, but update your knowledge just to be sure.
These first three steps can be done in a very short time and with minimal effort. I recommend spending as much time as you need to research your market and your affiliate product. You’ll reap what you sow and you’ll be pleased to know you didn’t waste your time when the subscribers started pouring in.
