Earn Money Online - The 9 Essential Steps to Make Money Online

There is a very precise and simple formula that enables you to earn money online. The most successful Internet Marketing gurus are essentially using this formula, or variations of it, to earn money online. This article lays out the 9 essential steps to going from zero to regular cash flow, online.
The 9 steps to help you earn money online are: 1. Identify your niche 2. Select your product(s) 3. Establish a presence online 4. Build your audience 5. Create insane (free) value 6. Enable a landing page to capture leads 7. Nurture your leads via email drip campaigns 8. Offer your product(s) to this now trusting, pre-sold audience 9. Create your own product, and sell it to your niche
1. Pick your niche (brainstorm it is a good tool)
"A Mediocre Message To A Great Audience Will Always Do Better Than A Great Message To A Mediocre Audience!" - Ann_sieg Of the utmost importance when designing a plan to earn money online, is picking your audience. While this step is easy to gloss over, it is the most important step. Why? Because if you go too broad, and you will find it impossibly competitive. And extremely difficult to establish compelling value for such a large group . The ability to hone in on a narrow but profitable niche is really where your ability to earn money online is measured.
You want a group that you are familiar with, that is on fire with a particular problem. And needs relief. Please - resist the temptation of thinking you can use your judgment or instinct to pick a niche. We're all too biased to make such a selection. Remember - the world doesn't share your (or my) opinions. Instead, use a scientific tool to show you what keywords are being searched on frequently in Google... but with sparse results for those searches. While there are many tools available, I recommend SiteSell's Brainstorm It Imagine going into the restaurant business.
It's always been your passion to own a restaurant. But you want to make massive profits - so you target the broadest audience possible. You'll end up offering mediocre food, with the widest variety. But people will continue to flock to various specialists. Rather than come to your "one-size-fits-all" buffet.
Not the best place to be. Spend some time. Find the intersection of your interests, your strengths, and identified profitable niches. Do this, and you'll be ahead of 80% of people attempting to earn money online.
2. Pick your product (affiliate products best) Most entrepreneurially-minded people want to do it all. They love building the product, in particular. Resist this urge! To earn money online, you should first start by selling other people's stuff! This will let you earn money online much more quickly. Once you have a marketing system, a web site, and all the other pieces of your money-earning up-and-running... and you've learned what pitfalls to avoid, you can go back and design your product. But in the meantime, take advantage of affiliate marketing via ClickBank, Commission Junction, and thousands of other resources for affiliate programs. You'll basically earn commissions for recommending and selling other people's stuff. Your niche selection will drive what product(s) you select.
3. Establish a presence online (blog or web site) Earning money online requires that you have an "office front" of sorts. Simply having landing pages to sell your products won't cut it. This is almost like hanging a hand-written "Want to earn money online? Call now!" sign on a telephone pole. Having a presence online allows people to see that you're a real person. Offering real value - and not just trying to make a fast buck off of people. Many people looking to earn money online will ask: "Blog vs web site"? You can set up a blog within minutes, at no cost. This is a great way to get up-and-going.
For a long-term efforts to make money online, however, I advise you to establish a web site. And blogs are best for news-oriented sites, with time-sensitive information. They are organized by date. But a content-themed web site is organized by subject, and is more timeless. Blogs are not particularly profitable for most small businesses.
"Blogs usually have high Bounce Rates no matter what since normal visitor behavior is to read the newest post and then leave." - Google team, April 2008.
4. Build your target audience Now that you know your targeted niche, you'll want to create your own tribe, your own mailing list. This can be done by opting people in to your mailing list, establishing an online forum, etc. You're essentially enabling a two-way conversation. The individuals that join your mailing list, or on-line community, are much more qualified than those just browsing your web site. You have the ability develop the relationship with this audience. And this is how you will earn money online.
5. Create value for that audience Particularly because you're selling affiliate products - products being offered by other entrepreneurs too - you'll want to pre-sell your products. Build value, and establish trust, by giving away lots of original, free, valuable content. This free content will also get you noticed by search engines like Google. And attract individuals searching for the particular keywords that you're writing about. If each of your web pages is optimized for a single keyword, you'll end up getting the lion's share of your leads from this content!
6. Create a landing page to capture leads You'll want a landing page to capture your leads. Aweber and Oprius are great tools to help you manage lead capture forms, and opting-in to your mailing list.
7. Build the relationship with those leads via automated emails The ability create drip campaigns, or automated email nurturing campaigns, is the key secret to help you earn money online. Imagine being able to have a series of conversations with every single lead you get... in the same order, at the same intervals from their subscription date? This is powerful.
8. Sell products through those automated emails These same drip campaigns, in addition to providing more free content, will feature your affiliate products. Because you would have already established a trusted reputation with your tribe / community / audience... they'll be quite receptive to your recommendations of tools that could help them achieve their goals.
9. Create your own product, and sell to your niche Over time, and after you've perfected the previous steps, you'll have ample time and opportunity to design your own product. With all the other essential foundational pieces in place, you'll be perfectly positioned to earn money online. Much more money than you did from selling affiliate products.
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