How To Make Profits Online Without Being Suckered by Shiny Shiz
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The Nil BS Income Report
(How To Make Profits Online
Without Being Suckered by Shiny Shiz)
With many years in business, both on and offline, tucked securely under my belt, I have, as they say, “Weathered the storms”.
Making an income online is really no different to any other business, you will ALWAYS have to invest TIME & MONEY in order to get a return…..now that’s the bottom line, before we even get started…but it IS the TRUTH!
The lure of making money online is of course the fact that you can potentially operate your business from anywhere in the world providing you have a smart device/laptop and a connection.
People envisage laying on a sun drenched beach sipping fruit laden cocktails, tapping a few keys and answering a couple of emails and money just rolling in hour after hour…………..this of course is NOT TRUE, not fully and certainly not in the early days, months or even years.
I reckon I am more than qualified to give you some worthy direction about online profit making as I have a couple of decades of experience, seen it, done it, worn the T-shirt.
So, what about me?
Yes, I make my income online and have done for many years.
Do I work just 20 minutes a day? (An often claimed possibility in sales pages)
NOPE! I guess on average 3 or 4 hours a day……and 6 or 7 days a week…yup, daily…but what you have to remember is, I make my living this way and in total that’s around a 20 to 28hour week. I work from home or anywhere I happen to be in the world.
My involvement in my business is the reason it WORKS…because I do, work, that is, and if you ever believe you can have a business without putting in any regular work and keeping your eye on the ball, then carry on buying those shiny button products and courses.
Think it’s all negative?
Well no it certainly isn’t, but I prefer to be realistic and honest because this is my life blood and if YOU want to be at a stage where you work for yourself and create a healthy online income, this is your WAKE UP call!
OK, OK, so perhaps you’re getting the idea now and the main concept is: to get something out your need to put something IN!
Just starting out? Been trying different methods that just don’t seem to work?
So, where do we go from here?
Let’s look at the basics to start with:
Do you have a skill, trade, service or product you WANT to make money from?
Cool, some of you said yes, some of you just kinda screwed your face up and said nooooope! Not a problem, something here for you ALL!
- To make money online you need a skill, trade, service or product
- OR the ability to outsource the above, using the buy low/sell high method
Right so you already have something to sell, or you have signed up as an affiliate for various products and services or know of people you can outsource the labour involved to and still make you a decent reseller profit. (If you haven’t I cover off some sweet resources for you in the cleverly called “Resources Bit” later on).
Armed with your product or service, all fired up and ready to make some moolah?
What do you need?
You need to get the WORD OUT…..
- Method 1. Word of mouth
- Method 2. Social Media Marketing
- Method 3. Paid Advertising
- Method 4. A Niche Specific Website
So which is the best method?
Well, as honesty will prevail throughout, the best methods are 1 through 4, yes ALL!
Whatever you are trying to sell you are a tiny pin prick on the digital globe, at least when you start out…..daunting eh?
Reaping the benefits will come from you creating your own unique profile or authority, by building threads of your brand across as many niche specific catchment areas as you can.
Where the heck do we start with that?!….I hear you, I hear you…
First and foremost I urge you to get yourself a website, and I know many will say, oh yes I will get one of those freebie ones I see advertised, just bang a template up, put my name in and I am up and running………nope!
Think about the product/products/services you want to sell:
- Are they all in the same niche?
- Are they unique?
- Are they an offline service?
- Are they something that people already look to buy?
You need to create a persona that is known to be THE person who offers the product/service. You want to be the person who people refer to as THE one that will be able to help or point them in the right direction.
Look for a domain name that is your ACTUAL name, so like I am Dominus Markham, I have (along with umpteen other sites) the domain dominusmarkham.com…..I guess you’re asking why?
Well mostly because people like to buy from people they know and once you become active online your name will be the easiest branding for them to find and for you to put out there.
If you start out thinking you are going to be the leader in dental products online and buy bestdentalcare.com to showcase and sell your products, then later on find actually that’s not a niche I enjoy or can make much money from, that’s it, website falls by the wayside.
However, if you start out with your name you have future options, you can change what you’re selling, give your website a whole new look and direction BUT any legacy traffic and authority you have already gained will pay forward to some degree.
Credibility comes with time and positive feedback and that statement works across the board.
I have worked ecommerce almost for as long as it has been on this planet and you will find that your greatest asset is positive feedback following a positive purchase experience from your customers.
That ain’t rocket science, for sure, but you will find that even if you are an affiliate or reseller of something, if you can not stand behind that product and honestly know it will do what it says on the tin, you are going to lose. Of course that also counts for your own products and services.
NIL BS = GOOD KARMA
Once you create your website, and you start promoting, remember whoever buys from your website will always hold YOU accountable, even when they know you are selling on, they paid YOU the money, so you are to blame when things don’t come up to expectations.
Website/Blog – Done (for more guidance with this see my Resources Bit)
Social Media, how are we going to go about this then?
Now I am sure you are familiar with many of the main Social Media Platforms such as FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest…..there’s even a good chance you already have a profile with one or more.
You’re in business, you want to be able to shout from as many rooftops as possible to get the word out…Social Media Accounts work in two ways:
- a) They can offer niche specific resources for you to advertise
- b) They assist with your expanding threads on the web to help build your authority
Let’s look at Facebook and assume you already have a friends and family FB account.
Now many of my peers will say that you should set up a new niche specific profile to advertise your business/services. For me that’s NOPE, you have a profile that you use to communicate to friends and family events and milestones in your life, real in the moment pictures or videos of your life and experiences…things you are more than happy to share with the world.
Go back to what I said about people buying from people the know, like and trust.
If you are not happy showcasing and promoting your business within your own profile, well you can side step that a bit on FB by joining lots of niche specific groups (you need to do that as well whether you stick with your own profile or think about setting up another………BUT the latter is actually against the terms and conditions of FB…so hey, think about what you do).
In my view, if you’re not happy showing off what you do to family and friends then what you’re promoting can’t be too ethical!
Over a period of time in order to build your authority and online profile, you will need to seek out those who operate in the same field, those who are already buyers of your type of product or service. You will need to build your “friends” list, join groups, become active with people and posts…and I do NOT mean just clicking “like”, I mean reading what people post, have an opinion, offer help (without advertising by the way)…..get known for who you really are and what you stand for both as an individual and as a business person.
TAKE YOUR BUSINESS SERIOUSLY OR DON’T EVEN BOTHER!
If you want a business, a successful business you need to be serious about it, hell you can have fun, everyone likes to be happy, but ensure you commit to your business.
See it as a real proposition, write yourself a work schedule if need be, highlight a time within each day (at least to start with and I assume at the outset you will be running this alongside a conventional job) where you dedicate that time to activity.
For example, let’s say you build bird houses:
DAILY: Social Media, check groups, posts, other people’s activity, check emails, sign up for bird house forums, newsletters, find suppliers.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, 3 hours a day will create 3 Birds Houses.
Thursday 3 hours taking pictures of the products and writing a product description and some sales copy. Write a draft blog post and similar social media post (with images of course!).
Friday – Create a newsletter about the lastest bird houses you made (yes you will get a list to send to with time so get into the habit of creating nice informative media rich newsletters about your product launches) – Finish early, beer and pizza lol
SATURDAY & SUNDAY……hmmmmmm now I know in general will see this as weekends are down time, and yes you will still be able to afford yourself that, but you MUST MUST MUST realise a vast amount of purchasing and researching online, takes place at the weekend and during public holidays…..so this is the time you publish that draft blog, send and resend your newsletter, publish your FB posts, interact even more with potential customers, ensure you are responsive to enquiries.
Sounding too hard?
Too much to commit?
Still want to go into business and make money online?
If you are determined and focus on all of the above for 6 months, you will find that it becomes easier, that you will be able to structure your days to work around life and other work, that small gains will begin to drop in and the results will give you the energy to keep on the trail.
I am telling you right now, there NO Magic Shiny Button products that will gain you a sustainable online business.
You need to become familiar with what techniques others are successfully using, do not try to reinvent the wheel and realise that 95% of all NEW marketing methods are built from the same building blocks as those from 20 years ago just using slightly different platforms and whatever buzzwords draw people like moths to a light bulb.
Research your area of expertise, or the niche you are wanting to make on income from.
Investigate and assess your competitors, how are they doing it?
Periodically be a buyer of your competitions product, see how yours measures up against it or what you can learn from their service delivery, quality and value.
You want to be the Star right? Well, start acting like one, go out there and help people, offer advice and network with people in your industry.
DO NOT BE A LONE SOLDIER
OK, so you have your product/service/affiliate opportunity, you have your website, you start building awareness that you are on the planet.
You’re doing a bit of networking, blogging, social media marketing, friends are beginning to see what you are about and perhaps even talking to each other about it.
Thus far, unless you need to invest in product production, things have been pretty cheap or even free, but hey things are slow and we need to give you a leg up……so now we really must think about paid advertising……I think I can hear the padlocks locking on your wallets and purses already…..hear me out!
You may already know you can buy advertising from Google, Facebook and the like, but to be fair I really would NOT aim that way in the early days. Cost effective advertising with the Big Boys & Girls is a technique that has to be learned, a skill set that once you pick it up will mean you can invest a given amount and can calculate a reasonable return on it.
PAID ADVERTISING DO NOT JUMP IN WITHOUT RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE
My suggestion is to track down the bona fide marketing services that will get you off the ground. There are Solo Ad services that an investment in can reap good rewards, at the same time there are plenty that will just become money pits.
In my Resources Bit, I will recommend some services that will ethically, easily and cost effectively give you some additional advertising. But I will point out that to build your business/offer/authority you are going to have to maintain and indeed build a business mind set.
How Do I Build A Business Mind Set?
Well, years back I would have suggested going to the library (you know those musty old buildings that house those shelves heavy with square objects with pages in!) and grabbing some books on business, iconic figure biographies and the like.
Now of course we have Kindle, and for pennies we can pick up books about everything. Plus podcasts, there are some awesome scheduled Podcasts from some of the well known figures in business and marketing.
I strongly urge you to push yourself to educate yourself, in an ongoing manner IF of course you want to succeed. Education and knowledge of others will inspire and motivate you.
DO NOT BE A LONE SOLDIER
Let’s recap where we are right now:
- We have a product
- We have an active website
- We have some social media accounts
- We are creating daily activity
- We are reaching out to people to both help and learn from them
- We are investing a little in advertising
These are your building blocks, your “shop” is open.
Pretty sure several readers have by now given up and set out to research an easy DFY (Done For You) sales page somewhere that is going to make them thousands overnight…..and I wish them well.
For those of you still with me at this stage, looks like you’re my kinda person, someone willing to invest in themselves and their future and put in the work required to succeed.
Now What?
We need traffic, traffic to our offer and, whether you know it or not, you can go and buy some traffic for a very low investment, pop over to Fiverr.com and take a look. My thoughts?…..well chances are your website may see some traffic from such services, BUT is it TARGETED TRAFFIC?
You can have a million visitors a day to a website for about $20/day …sound great?….well this generally will only give you “Vanity metrics”, meaning your stats will show lots of visitors, you can brag that your site brings you huge traffic…..but to be right about this, they are NOT TARGETED potential customers.
I would rather just have 100 people visit my site that may already be pre-qualified, so know what I am selling and are ready to buy, or that have found me based on my authority in the niche. Let’s say these qualified leads convert at 15% and my product is $100 …did you do the math on that? It equates to $45000/month…..good enough for you?
You’re getting the idea now, I am hoping, you need to drive niche specific leads to your offer, no matter what sort of offer. Now some of this type of traffic will come organically from Methods 1, 2 and 4 at no cost…other than your time and willingness to create activity around your business.
Over the years I have focused on traffic creation and methods, paid and otherwise and I can tell you for sure, you kinda have to spread bet on it. You need to invest a little here and there, you need to learn the latest tactics and you need to get clever with your activity.
There are FREE traffic methods, traffic methods that target a buyers market, which of course is what you need rather than just vanity metrics (loads of traffic with no particular aim of either buying or indeed buying YOUR type of product or service…the stats may look good on paper but they dont convert into sales!).
Are you aware that you can get free traffic purely from blogging about your niche? From hunting down social media groups in your niche and creating a targeted potential buyers list? These two methods are covered in the resources bit at the end, but worth you starting to think around these statements as to how you are currently active online and WHERE eg what social platforms.
Once you have niche/product focused traffic you need to ensure that you capture their details so you can build an ongoing relationship with them. Chances are, even when the potential lead is targeted, they will NOT buy on their first visit to your offer, so you need to get them onto a list so you can revisit them with the offer and future congruent offers.
Whatever your offers, products, services, industry, you need a means of capturing visitors email addresses at the very least. Now depending what your offer is will depend on the method you use to capture leads, let’s say you are selling a range of physical products and the traffic is going to a web page/site/blog, it is common to put into action a pop up asking the viewer to input their email and perhaps name for the chance to get more information on a product, get a special discount code or sign up for a free newsletter.
The pop up is common to most online business leads harvesting, but another method, more commonly used by those that are affiliates or digital product vendors, is to create a lead capture page also known as a squeeze page. Basically the traffic heads over to your offer but in order to see further details they have to enter an email and once they do they are forwarded to the actual offer.
Having a list, particularly a buyer/niche focused list is pure gold for ANY business. You are able to market to the list focusing on specific offers ongoing in the knowledge that they already have an interest in what you offer.
List building and remarketing is best done with an autoresponder, this is a system which allows you to set up a predefined sequence of follow up emails to keep your leads warm…..plus a way of easily creating a mailshot to them of something new or a special offer you may have.
Autoresponders can be expensive, but to be fair when you are starting out many offer free trials and free basic services until your list hits a 500 or 1000 subscriber threshold. Once you get to that level of subscribers you should have more than enough financial return on your marketing to cover off any costs of the autoresponder.
Remember, in order to run ANY business you will always have to invest in your tools a web site and an autoresponder service are key tools.
Customer Service
Some of you, those more likely in the MMO (Make Money Online) industry and affiliates will probably squint at this section title and think “nothing to do with me I am just a reseller”. Well you are totally WRONG…..what and how are you marketing? Does your method of selling bend the truth a little, give wild claims of product results? If someone buys, is that the end of the story in your mind?
Ultimately you put your name or brand out there to sell something, you need to be able to hand on heart say it does what it says on the tin, even if you are selling someone else’s offer. Something I covered earlier I know but you need to be there for your customers, because they are now YOUR customers, your warm leads for future marketing.
Customer service is key to building relationships with customers, letting them get to know you and for them to feel comfortable about the offer they have bought and future offers you may send their way.
Good customer service will build your Authority and thus your targeted audience, organically. Word of mouth referrals are worth their weight in green backs. Never underestimate the importance of the service levels you offer within your business.
OVERWHELM WARNING!
Whether you are just starting out or not, you will no doubt, at times, experience “Overwhelm”. Never think you are alone on this, it’s very common across the board in the business world.
You will find times when you seem bombarded by information and offers, each more enticing and offering the almost push button solution to you business needs.
You will buy into some of these offers in the hope that your problems are completely solved within days, perhaps even hours, only to find it is not quite that simple, there are MORE things to learn, MORE tools to buy, MORE steps to the funnel.
You will go round in circles looking for those you trust (at least that is what I recommend from the get go)….you will be let down by some, but, over a period of time you will rally a clutch of “go to” people…all the rest will just become white noise UNLESS you personally WANT to tune in and research what they are saying, teaching or selling.
Network with those you trust in order to get valuable feedback and look to see if there is room in your business for outsourcing facets in order to take the strain. There are loads of cost effective options for outsourcing tasks online and I suggest you keep that in mind especially for those times when it all seems to be closing in.
It isn’t all dark and gloomy either, especially if you have your business head on. Outsourcing can allow a company to scale and expand…..
Parting Thoughts:
Having read this report, I am sure that you now have the necessary pointers to starting out or refocusing an online business. I have also put together a resource page below including some free ones to help you on your way.
This is not the end of the story in my mind, if you feel you have benefited let me know, I would love to hear your thoughts. If you feel you want more drop me a line and be sure to connect with me via both my main website dominusmarkham.com and Facebook group.
If you would like one to one advice about your business ideas whether they are already “live” or still on paper, message me…..it WILL be me that responds not a bot or autoresponder 🙂
To Our Success
>>FREELANCE ONLINE BUSINESS COURSE<<
By the way, I know many of you will not, as yet, either have a list or maybe not much of a list and before you start throwing money at solo ad services, check out this FANTASTIC resource (I use this alongside my own list for some added footfall)
Basically for a VERY LOW cost you can email a list of 100,000 PLUS!
ALSO HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
The Affiliate Success Letter – >>SUCCESS LETTER<<
