How to Start Your Own Writing for Pay Business > Online Business

If you enjoy writing or have a way with words, you can turn that skill into a full-time business. There are numerous opportunities for aspiring writers online and off. Businesses need people to write content, to blog, to write sales copy and advertisements. They also need writers to write books, articles and technical manuals. In short, there’s a high demand for writers. Here’s how to start your own writing for pay business.

Step #1 – Decide what you want to write and if there’s a demand for it. For example, do you want to write articles and blog posts? Would you prefer to write books and eBooks? What about sales copy? Additionally, do you have a preference for the topics you’d write on? You can specialize in an industry as well as a content format.

For example, you could position yourself as a brilliant blogger or a fitness expert. You could be an eBook ghostwriter or a writer that specializes in animals and pet care. Choose a specialty that you enjoy. If you don’t like writing about a certain topic, chances are you’re going to procrastinate and not give your client your best effort.

Step #2 – Create your business. This will include choosing a business name and a website address, and creating a website. You’ll also want to consider creating a standard work for hire agreement. This will outline the rights and responsibilities of both parties. Also consider registering your business as an LLC. It offers a few more protections than a sole proprietorship does. Ask your accountant or lawyer for advice.

Finally, you’ll want to create an invoicing system. Many writers require a fifty percent deposit to begin a project with the remainder due when they deliver the content. This helps ensure a writer gets paid for their work. Sometimes, not often, you’ll run into a client that isn’t professional. You’ll need to decide in advance how you want to handle this. Sending someone to collections isn’t fun.

Step #3 – Market your business. You’re a writer, so one of your best marketing tools is the written word. Article marketing, blogging and a well-written sales or landing page are great ways to begin to drive traffic and clients to your website.

Get out and network too. Online and offline, networking offers a valuable way to connect with potential clients and partners. Join your local small business association or chamber of commerce. Comment on blogs in your specialty areas. For example, if you’re a pet writer then visit and comment on blogs about pets. Link to your website to drive traffic and customers to your front door.

Also participate on industry forums and chat rooms. Social networking sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook can also be good traffic-generating and awareness-building tools.

If you enjoy writing and would like to be in business for yourself, consider starting your own writing business. You can start small while you work your day job and then quit once business really picks up.

How to Start Your Own Virtual Assistant Business > Online Business

Virtual assistants are in demand worldwide. As a virtual assistant you could find clients in your own community or half way around the globe. It’s a great way to make a living and work from home. You’ll meet interesting people, learn new tasks and responsibilities and perhaps best of all, enjoy the freedom that comes with being your own boss. Here’s how to start your own virtual assistant business.

#1 SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This is a personal assessment. Take a look at what strengths you have that will contribute to a successful virtual assistant business. Communication skills, organization skills, professionalism are some strengths. However, you likely bring a lot more to the table. List your strengths.

Take a look at your weaknesses as well. You’re not looking for reasons to not go into business for yourself. You’re simply making sure you’re aware of all you’ll need to do to run a successful business. If you have a weakness, and we all do, then you’ll want to create a plan to manage it. For example, if your weakness is writing and you need to have sales and marketing copy for your business website, you can learn to write or you can hire someone to do it for you. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses helps you create the best business for you.

Opportunities and threats are the next part of this assessment. Opportunities can be anything from the fact that you have a friend who designs websites to a growing demand for virtual assistants. Threats are things that may challenge you, like competing virtual assistants and a sluggish economy. When you’re fully aware of your assets and challenges, you can plan for them.

#2 Create a business plan. Plan the services you’re going to offer and how you’re going to offer them. For example, will you charge by the hour or by the project? Will you offer a discount for ongoing clients? Research your competition and decide whether you want to specialize.

You can specialize in a certain task, for example transcription. Or you can specialize in an industry like real estate. Specialization is a way to demonstrate expertise and adds credibility to your business. That being said, there are many clients who want a one-stop solution and would prefer a virtual assistant that can do a number of tasks.

#3 Set up your business. You’ll want to create a website to market your virtual business. Most of your clients will be online and they’ll often find you through online searching. A website is also a way to demonstrate your expertise. You’ll also want a business address, a phone number, email and a way to accept payment. PayPal is an easy way to invoice and track your income and expenses.

Once your business is established, the next step is to spread the word. Consider social networking, advertising, SEO and article marketing to market your business. A blog is also a good way to demonstrate credibility, enhance your brand and drive traffic to your website.

Virtual assistants are in high demand. Whether you’re looking for full-time work or a part-time income, it can be the perfect solution. Create your business and start making money from your skills.

How to Make Money Online – The Basics > Online Marketing

If you ask how to make money online, you’re generally going to hear one of two things. You’re going to hear people telling you that you can’t make money online. That all the good topics and business models are taken up. However, that’s untrue.

You’re also going to hear people who will promise you that you can make millions online. While that is true for many, it’s not common. What is true about making money online is that anything is possible, and it’s quite likely that you can make a very comfortable living doing something that you love. So here’s the lowdown on how to make money online.

What Makes Money Online?

There are a few basic business models that generally achieve a good deal of success online. They include:

* Information marketing – Information is sold online, generally about a specialty topic.
* Membership marketing – Profit is made by selling memberships and selling advertising space.
* Service provider – Profit is made by providing a service. For example, virtual assistants provide administrative services online.
* Retailer or ecommerce – Profit is made by selling a product online.
* Affiliate marketing – Profit is made by promoting the products or services of others and earning a commission.

There are a few things these five business models have in common. They all operate online – that’s a given because we’re talking about online business. They also all need people to visit their website in order to survive. How do they get people to their website?

Content

Content is the unifying theme behind successful websites. People go online to be entertained, to be informed, to connect and communicate. The single unifying thread for all of these interactions is content.

Content can be read, watched, listened to and shared. It can be an article, a blog post, a report, a book, an online course, a video or an audio. Without content a website doesn’t stand a chance. Information is the reason for the internet. If a website doesn’t provide information, it has no value to online users.

The Basics

Okay, so you choose your business model. You choose a business topic or specialty; this is often called a niche. A niche is a specialty topic. For example, you could decide you want to start a membership site. Great – about what? Recipes, because you love to cook and share recipes. Fantastic! Now it’s time to create the content for your website. You need to give people a reason to visit your website and become a member. The next step is to continue to provide value. What are you going to offer your members to motivate them to stay members?

What information are you going to provide as an information marketer that will motivate people to buy your books? What information can you provide clients to motivate them to hire you as a service provider?

Online, regardless of the model you choose, people want to know one thing: “What is in this for me? How will this benefit me?” Choose your topic and model wisely. Create fantastic content and provide value. That’s the core of any successful online business.

How to Get More Testimonials and Use Them > Internet Markeing

Testimonials are an exceptional selling tool. They tell potential buyers that you’re trustworthy. They tell potential buyers that your product or service fulfills its promise. Testimonials tell potential customers that you have credibility. And they tell potential customers what they want to hear – that you really can solve their problems.

Testimonials are an effective buying trigger because they offer information about your product or service that you just can’t offer yourself. It’s like a personal recommendation, and it’s worth the effort to get quality testimonials and to use them.

How Do You Get More Testimonials?

It’s quite simple, actually. You ask for them. Most people are afraid to ask for testimonials. They feel it’s pushy or they fear being rejected. The truth is, most customers are happy to give them; they just don’t think about offering. Think about when you have a good or bad experience with a company. If you have a bad experience, you want to shout it from the rooftops. You write reviews; you tell your friends and associates. Maybe you even write a complaint to the company.

When you have a good experience, you say thank you. Generally, we don’t talk as much about the good news as we do about the bad news. However, if someone asks us, we’ll go on for hours about our positive experiences.

So in order to get more testimonials you have to ask. You’ll of course ask all of your happy customers. However, consider also asking experts in your industry to provide a testimonial. Send them a free product or offer a service, then collect the testimonial. It’ll have more power because it’s coming from someone people like and respect. Can you imagine what a ringing endorsement it would be if Martha Stewart wrote a testimonial for your home organization business?

Be Prepared

Many people just don’t know what to say, so consider being prepared with a pre-written testimonial. If they agree that they stand behind the information, they just need to provide a signature and a link. You can then post the testimonial and consider it valid.

Position Your Testimonials Well

There are some key places to position your testimonials. One such location is on your sales page. The testimonials will serve to support a prospect’s buying decision. You can also use them in your newsletter and in email communications. Consider also creating a separate page on your website with testimonials. Place the strongest and most compelling testimonials prominently where they’re sure to be read. To your success!

How to Build Your First Website > Website Design

In order to do any kind of business online, you will want to have a website. However, building your first website can feel a bit overwhelming. After all, there are so many choices. Here’s how to build your first website.

#1 Determine your website’s purpose. What are you going to do on the website? How are you going to make money? This is important because some website languages, templates and platforms are more effective for certain business models. For example, if you’re building a theme-based website, you may want to use a website building service like SiteBuildIt.

#2 Choose your platform. Once you know what you want to accomplish with your website, it’s time to choose your website platform. There are a number of options here. You can use website design software like DreamWeaver or FrontPage. There are online courses and books to show you how to use both of these programs. It might take you some time to build your website; however, you’ll be able to create it one hundred percent on your own.

Another option is to use your website host’s predesigned templates. These templates are often customizable and are a pretty quick and easy way to get a website up. You can also learn a website design format like Joomla which is a content management system written in PHP, a design language.

You can also use site building services that offer wizards and templates to help you customize a website for your business.
Finally, you can use a blogging platform like WordPress to build your website. And if all of this just seems like too much, you can design your website with a pencil and paper and then hire someone to create it.

#3 Navigation and format. Before you create your website or hire someone to do it for you, you’ll want to draft your website on paper. Decide what pages you want your website to have. How are people going to find what they need? How will they navigate your website? What categories or buttons will you have? How will you share your information and how will you promote your products or services? Figuring all of this out before you begin creating your website will help ensure it is a success.

Creating your first website is a strategic process. However, much of the work will be done on paper as you plan the purpose and layout of your website. Once you know exactly what you’re creating, you can find the best tools to create your site and make it a reality.

How to Become an Online Infopreneur > Online Business

Information marketing has taken the internet by storm. As more and more people begin utilizing digital information, and reading and learning online, more opportunities open up for information marketers. If you have specialty information or have a passion for a topic, information marketing may be the perfect business model for you.

What Is an Online Infopreneur?

An online infopreneur is someone who makes a living selling information. It can be a very profitable business model. An example is someone who is an expert when it comes to bird training. They have a passion for or a strong interest in training birds. They might create training manuals, videos and courses on how to train your pet bird. The information could range from beginner to advanced tricks like how to train your parrot to play dead. Sounds crazy, right? I mean, who needs to train their parrot to do that? Believe it or not, there’s a market for it.

An online infopreneur’s first job is to determine what their passions are and if there’s a market for it. You might begin by making a list of the topics you’re knowledgeable in or passionate about. Then you begin your research. Using keyword research tools and investigating online, you’d look to see if people are searching for that topic.

Continuing with the parrot training topic, perhaps that infopreneur began with a passion for birds. They found during their research that many people were struggling with their exotic birds. They were biting and screaming and being generally unruly. This infopreneur then saw that there weren’t a lot of other businesses providing information on the topic. In short, there was a good demand for the information but not much supply. This is the perfect opportunity to create an information marketing business.

So your first step is to find your interests and passions. Your second step is to research them for profitable niches. A niche is a specialty topic. It can also be a demographic like teen bird trainers or bird training in the desert south-west. Or it can be a skill level – beginner bird training, for example.

Once you’ve chosen a niche, it’s time to create your website and information products. Your website will be dedicated to helping your audience learn what they need to know or want to know about your topic. You might post free article or video content. You may offer free reports and digital downloads.

Once you have people interested and accessing your free information, you can take them to the next step which is to offer them a product to buy. Often this is an ebook, an online course or a video series. The information products that are successful generally solve a problem for their audience. For example, “How to stop your parrot from biting.” You may uncover common problems during your research or you may need to do additional research to find the answers.

If you have a passion, interest or specialty knowledge about a topic, consider using that to create an information marketing business. It’s a great way to make an income. Some information marketers have gone on to make millions from their books, courses and videos. To your success!

Improve Your Business Article Marketing Efforts in 3 Steps > Article Marketing

Are your business article marketing efforts leaving you frustrated? Are you not seeing your goals reached the way you thought they would be? Don’t give up. As with any type of marketing, there’s a fine line between doing it the right way and getting rewarded for your efforts and doing it the wrong way and drawing a blank. But if you’re not seeing results, there’s a pretty easy way to fix that problem.

There are three main steps that can improve your marketing strategy. The first step is to ask yourself what the message is that you’re getting across. Customers have a need. They have problems.

Are you supplying answers to those needs or are you just causing the consumer to have more questions? Before you can tell anyone else the benefits of your products or services, you have to know it yourself. So sit down and write out the reason why the product or service that you have is what they need. Then present it to them.

The second step is to know how to present that message within a few seconds. There are a lot of products and a lot of services vying for a consumer’s attention. Some studies suggest that when visiting a website, the average person will spend anywhere from 30 seconds to 1 minute.

That is, unless you grab their attention. Always start your articles with attention grabbing headlines. This can be tricky when you have to use keywords in the title, but it’s still doable.

Just because it’s business article marketing, that doesn’t mean it has to be dull. Consumers want to know secrets, they want to know how to improve their personal lives, their business lives, they want to know how to get stuff done fast and they want to know how to do it all and still have a life left over. One way to understand how to create headlines that stand out is to study other headlines that get your own attention.

The third step is to be personable. This is one of the steps that so many businesses miss today. Understand that you’re not just selling a product or service. What you’re trying to do is create a bond.

You do this by putting yourself into the consumers’ shoes. For example, say you’re selling a product to help with backaches. You could try writing an article and tell how your product helps with backaches and why it’s the next best thing since the invention of coffee.

Or you can sympathize. You can put yourself into the middle of their problems. Still using the backaches as an example, you could say, “I know what it’s like to work hard every day and go to bed with an aching back hoping that sleep would relieve the pain.”

You get the picture. You have to walk alongside them with their needs. People interact and respond with people and not products – don’t forget that. Business article marketing is nothing more than the gentle art of persuasion. It’s letting the consumer understand why they should trust and buy from you.

eBook Resale Rights > PLR

A very popular and simple way to get your Internet marketing business started is to offer eBook resale rights for your niche.  When we’re talking about resale rights, we’re speaking strictly about a product that you may use as a bonus with your niche product or resell to your customers.

Of all of the reselling options, simple resell rights are the most restrictive – but that isn’t a bad thing.  Maybe you only want to offer some nice digital books or audio as a gift to your customer to help increase the perceived value of your total offer.

Resale rights products can enhance your package, if not overdone.  Some marketers limit their bonuses to three – others pile on dozens.  It really depends on the niche you’re catering to.  As with anything in this business, test to see what works for your customer base.

There’s a stigma attached to resale rights products and that is that they’re cheap and over used – and sometimes they are.  You’ll want to shop around to find something worth adding to your package.  Customers are getting wise to the “pile o bonuses” which are nothing but worn out resale rights products.  Try to find newer or fresher content by shopping around.

The next step up from strict resale rights is master resale rights.  These give you a bit more latitude in that you can change the author name and then sell it on as a resale rights product.

All licenses vary from product to product.  There is really no hard and fast rule as to what master resale rights licenses entail.  Some are very liberal and can almost be considered private label rights while others are very limited.

Any discussion of resale rights products should include how you can create and sell or give away your own resale rights product.  Since you have control of the content, you can add links to your report, turn it into a PDF and offer it as a resale rights product.

If it’s good quality content, this can get viral, meaning that others will take your eBook and resell it (with all your links intact) all over the Internet. In this case, make sure your product is over the top content.  Treat it like a full paid report and let everyone and their brother pass it on.  This can be a nice little income stream as well as a traffic generator for you.

How to Make Money with Online Memberships > Online Membership Ebook

Online Membership site info ebook “How to Make Money with Online Memberships” looks at: What are Online Memberships? 9 Money Making Membership Ideas, Ideas to Include in Your Membership, 10 Programs & Software You Need to Run Your Membership Program, How to Market Your Membership. Click “How to Make Money with Online Memberships” to download (197 KB pdf) this free ebook.

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Where to Advertise Your Membership Site for More Traffic > Membership Sites

Once you’ve developed your membership site, it’s time to advertise it. If you don’t advertise, you’re going to have a hard time getting members because they won’t just happen upon your site. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to do this – many for free, and some for fairly cheap.

Let’s take a look at the advertising methods that are free to implement. These include using a signature file, biographies, contributions to article directories, and ezine promotions. All of these are easy to do.

A signature file is typically a short statement that is attached to the end of emails and in forum posts. A signature file gives information about your website(s) including links, so that interested people can visit your site and learn more about gaining membership.

Anytime you send an email out that’s related to the niche of your membership site (or make a post in a forum that’s relevant), make sure it has a signature file. For unrelated emails, you can also include a link to your new membership site – simply have your signature file say something like this:

John. A Doe, ABC Marketing Enterprises, domainname.com, other contact information.

Interested in XYZ123? Take a look at the new XYZ123 site!

Something similar to a signature file is a bio box that’s attached to the end of an article. Your bio box provides a bit of information about you, your expertise, and links to your website(s). These can be instrumental in bringing traffic your way.

Making contributions to article directories is an excellent way to get people to notice you and incite interest in your membership site. When you contribute well-written articles that offer value to your readers, they’ll learn to look to you as a respected expert.

This gives you a name in the business and puts some power behind the links in the biography that you include with your articles. Your reputation as an expert is going to encourage people to check out your membership site.

Another great way to advertise your membership site is through ezine promotions. You can either start your own ezine or online newsletter, or you can become a contributor to another marketer’s ezine. Either way, this gives you a perfect opportunity to remind readers that you have a membership site that they would like to explore.

Part of free advertising is offering an incentive for trying your membership site to everyone who makes his or her way to you. This could be a free sample, discounts, coupons or a sale price. Don’t forget this step, because it’s going to be instrumental in creating interest.

One way to advertise your site that does cost money, but that can be well worth your investment is PPC (pay-per-click) advertising. PPC gives you a perfect way to place enticing advertisements in places where your target audience will be looking for information.

You can set your own advertising budget with PPC, and you have complete control. While it’s important to learn to use PPC correctly, once you do that, it can be a great tool for bringing more traffic to your membership site.

Your membership site won’t advertise itself. You have to get out there and put some effort into this step. Fortunately, for your investment of time, energy and a possibly a bit of money, you’ll find that your traffic is increased as is your membership enrollment!

How to Make Money Selling Information Products > Product Creation Ebook

Product creation ebook “How to Make Money Selling Information Products” covers: What is an Information Product? Types of Info Products, Additional Informative Products, Ways to Sell Information, How to Make Money Selling Info Products, Attracting Buyers and Marketing Ideas. Click “How to Make Money Selling Information Products” to download (276 KB pdf) this free ebook.

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Profit With Content > Free Online Marketing Ebook

Online Marketing ebook “Profit With Content” looks at: Why Content is so Powerful, What Your Target Market Wants: Learning to Really Listen, Content Brainstorming Strategies: Beyond Simple Observation, Content Isn’t Just About Articles: Formats for Your Content, Creating Your Content or Having it Created for You, Creating Your Content Profit Plan, Distributing Your Content for Maximum Exposure and Be a Content Environmentalist: Reuse Your Content. Click “Profit With Content” to download (577 KB pdf) this free Online Marketing ebook.