Starting A Online Business In A Down Economy

all know we're in less-than-stellar economic times. While there's no official "recession," every person you know is probably watching his daily spending and cutting back wherever possible.

Since money is tight, is it really a good time to start an online business? You bet.

To begin with, internet startups have low overhead and startup costs--as low as $3,000, thanks in part to inexpensive, yet robust e-commerce software and services on the market. What's more, the business can be set up in a home office and attended to at nights and on weekends, allowing new entrepreneurs to keep their day jobs. In addition, many budding entrepreneurs can set up their online businesses in less than one week.

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Another reason an internet startup could be lucrative even in a down economy is that online shopping is growing. In the first quarter of 2008, revenues generated by online-based businesses (and the online aspects of traditional retail businesses) were $32.4 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That tally is up 13.4 percent from results for the third quarter of 2007.

In general, e-commerce is the bright spot in the retail world today.

"Online retail continues to grow at a pretty nice clip," says Jeffrey Grau, retail e-commerce senior analyst with eMarketer. "If you look at total retail sales, annual growth is in the low single digits. However, the online channel has been growing in recent years in the low to mid-20 percentile."

While Grau warns that the economic downturn is slowing e-commerce sales, online sales are still growing at triple the rate of store sales.

"It's still a very desirable marketplace," he says.

And more and more online shoppers are turning to the web instead of paying for gas to go to the mall.

A new poll conducted by RetailMeNot.com, an online coupon website, found that nearly nine out of 10 American consumers have changed their shopping habits as a result of high gas prices.

The poll found that out of more than 1,000 respondents who voted multiple times:

• 45 percent said they plan shopping trips together to use less gas
• 42 percent said they shop less
• 22 percent said they do as much shopping as possible online
• 11 percent said there was no impact

Whether or not the economy is bad, there are some best practices to keep in mind when opening an online business. Here are a few of Grau's tips:

1. Have a niche or focus on a specialty category. Since you're essentially competing with box retailers like Wal-Mart or Target when you enter the online retail space, "be sure [you're selling] something niche-oriented, such as fashionable maternity wear or urban street wear," Grau says. "Or focus on a specific category, like shoes, but that's all you do. But offer great custom service, such as making it easy to return shoes."
   
2. Offer an innovative marketing technology. A good example of this is Diapers.com, a small web retailer.
   
   "[The company is] very successful in part because it has an innovative referral program where if a Diapers.com customer refers somebody else to the company, that customer gets a discount. That is one way it has built up its customer base."
   
   Grau also says Diapers.com uses innovative packaging that enables it to cut down on shipping costs. Finally, the company is innovative in its focus on convenience; it makes it easy for young parents to have diapers delivered to their door without having to make a midnight run to the store because they are out of diapers.
   
3. Keep pricing in mind. Even if you are selling a niche product, always keep pricing a priority.

"You are never going to compete with big box retailers on pricing, but perhaps there is a promotion or value-added program you can offer that helps people deflect that or takes their minds off of pricing."

A unique product, an innovative marketing technology and a promotion to help customers deflect prices are important business strategies during a recession because people have less discretionary money to spend.

"[Entrepreneurs should] focus on strategies that keep their customers coming back,"

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/websmarts/article197198.html#ixzz0Lorc5nQp

The Old Way And The New Way to Market

n the "old days" of the internet, most people paid for traditional banner ads or headline ads, or they paid for advertising under what was called a cost-per-click or CPC advertising. CPC advertising used to be the most popular method of advertising out there. But getting statistics on what worked and what didn't wasn't easy.

Many people today also market with Google's AdWords. While this is great for Google, it isn't always great if you buy words and you don't see your hit rate go up.

Build Your Online Brand Hot, Affordable New Advertising Opportunity Be Selective With Your Social Networks Free Marketing Via Social Networks Give Your Online Network a Real-World Foundation

What's becoming interesting in today's market are the alternative ways of advertising. E-mail marketing is alive and kicking--mostly through giving away a newsletter with insightful information and hoping readers will click through to your web site. Collecting e-mail addresses and sending valid offers, special events and discounts to those who sign up (and only those who sign up) can be a good way to drive visitors to your site. The monthly newsletters you send out need to showcase you as the go-to expert, but don't forget to feature some of your loyal customers and fans, too. People like to see their name in lights, and they often forward the newsletter to many others in the process. Make it easy to subscribe--and unsubscribe. This will help you comply with laws and also keep your visitors happy.

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Using a blog and an RSS feed may seem overtly obvious or too simple in this market, but they matter. Your community needs to feel engaged. If you don’t yet have a fully integrated social media website with a community and people to upload avatars, bios, link to Facebook and so on, a blog is a good way for you to keep information and write columns that others can comment on. Ideally, you want to be moving toward a true Web 2.0 model and keep the blog going, too. WordPress and Blogger are two very easy ways to create blogs and integrate them into your website. Be sure you follow up on comments, too. The more engaged your audience is the more they will develop into a loyal group of customers.

You'll also want to write articles--and a lot of them. You can become a columnist for online organizations and magazines that need writers. Don't expect to be paid (though some do offer a small stipend) but it is acceptable to ask to have a link to your website in the biography section of the article.

I also always recommend posting in appropriate forums in your area of expertise. One word of caution here: Don't directly sell things to people reading these forums. That's a sure-fire way to be banned and to upset the people there. Instead, put your website in your signature and offer sound, solid advice.

Use new social media tools like Twitter (and of course the "old" staples like LinkedIn and Facebook). These networks are still valuable; keep information updated and don't forget to get personal once in a while. People like to know that the person behind the website is a real human being. Be informative but don't be afraid to let people see who you are.

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/ebusiness/expandingyouronlinepresence/article202502.html#ixzz0LoqExqOa

Ways to Make Money Online Selling Information Discover ways to make money online selling information -- even if you don't have your own product!

If you're looking for ways to make money online selling information -- but don't have the time or money to develop your own product -- consider buying the reprint or resale rights to someone else's.

Basically, you purchase the right to sell an already established product. And depending on the type of rights you purchase, you keep either a percentage of the sales or all of the proceeds.

In the best-case scenario, you can even purchase a master license -- which gives you the right to sell the purchasing rights to other people!

Selling information to make money online is extremely easy when you buy the rights for an already established product. Not only do you capitalize on the good name of the author, but you don't have to spend any time developing your own product!

Let's take a look at the three types of rights you can buy to make money online with information:

• Resell rights. When you purchase resell rights, what you're actually purchasing is the right to sell a product for someone else -- a product that they continue to own.
  
  Because you don't actually have control over the product, you keep only a percentage of each sale as your commission.
  
  
• Reprint rights. Reprint rights cost more than resell rights, because you keep 100% of the proceeds from any sales! You can also make as many copies of the product as you wish, and sell as many as you can.
  
  
• Master rights. Master rights are the most valuable of the three, and therefore are the most expensive.
  
  As with reprint rights, you have permission to reproduce and sell the product for 100% of the profit. But you're ALSO allowed to sell the actual reprint rights to the product to other people!
  
  So even though they cost more, you automatically start out with two separate streams of income � sales of the product and sales of the rights.

The majority of products that carry rights on the Internet right now are information-based products. So it's the perfect time to make money online with information by buying reprint rights.

Here are just some of the ways to make money online selling information products:

• eBooks. eBooks are the most popular, so you can usually find eBooks that are suitable to resell to your market -- no matter who your audience is.
  
  
• Email courses. An email course is often delivered in smaller pieces over a course of days or weeks -- and as the name suggests, you email it to the customer, rather than sending them to a website where they download it.
  
  
• E-zine articles. You can frequently buy individual articles to use as content for your own e-zine. This is a good choice if you want to deliver an e-zine to your audience, but don't have the time (or desire) to write it yourself.

As you can see, selling information to make money online is quick and easy when you purchase the rights to sell an established product.

Free Tips On Making Money Online The critical first step to making money with an online business

There are many reliable ways to make money online.

You can earn money by displaying ads on your website. You can earn affiliate commissions by promoting other people's products. You can use drop-shippers to sell name-brand products on your website. Or you can develop and sell a product of your own.

Making money with an online business is possible using any of these methods. But for any of them to be lucrative, there's something you NEED to do first: find a viable niche market -- BEFORE you invest time and money promoting a product nobody wants!

To make sure you're on the right track, here are some general guidelines that are absolutely crucial to making money with an online business:

• Make sure you're targeting a well-defined, narrow niche. The most accessible markets on the Web are highly focused. Let's say, for example, you want to sell all-natural vitamins online.
  
  If you try to target "everyone who takes vitamins," you'll have to compete with giant vitamin companies. But if you establish your niche market as "people who are allergic to artificial colors and flavors in vitamins," you won't have to!
  
  
• Make sure your market has a problem and is seeking a solution for it. Don't try to give your market something YOU think they need; give them something THEY think they need -- a solution to a problem they're actively searching for. (You can use keyword research to help you discover those problems.)
  
  
• Make sure your market is willing to pay for a solution to their problem. If your market won't pay money for a product or service that solves their problem, your business isn't going to generate much of a profit!
  
  Find out how much they're willing to spend for a solution, and make sure that you can sell your product or service at that price and still generate a profit.
  
  
• Make sure there aren't a number of products that already offer a solution to their problem. If your market already has a variety of products or services to pick and choose from, what makes you think they'll want to buy yours? You have to be able to offer your market something they can't get anywhere else.
  
  
• Make sure your product DOES offer a viable solution to their problem. Try giving a small number of new products away -- for free -- to a small group of people and ask them for feedback to make sure they like your product, and feel it does a good job of solving their problem.

Once you've found a viable market, you'll be better able to come up with a product or service that will satisfy their needs. You'll also be able to hit the ground running using any of the reliable ways to make money online -- and guarantee your success from the start!

Start Making Money Online

If you're curious about how to make money online, you've come to the right place! Here at the Internet Marketing Center, we've been teaching people how to make money online for over a decade. Our students have built and grown profitable Internet business with little or no up-front investment and thousands of them now make money online with very little effort.

There are lots of ways to make money online -- here are some ideas to get you started.

• Affiliate products. As an affiliate, you sell someone else's product for a percentage of the sale, and they take care of the rest. It's a risk-free way to make money online, because all you have to do is sell the product -- you don't have to worry about stocking, shipping or anything else.

• Sell a service. The Internet is the ideal place to make money online by selling a service. Whether you deliver your service locally or via the Internet, you can easily make money online selling your service. Think of what you're good at, and then build a simple website to sell your service.

• Electronic products. If you are serious about making money online, consider selling a downloadable electronic product. The beauty of electronic products is once they're created, you can make money online selling them over and over, without any additional cost to you! Consider writing an eBook on a subject you have unique knowledge on (and EVERYONE has something they're good at!) and make money online marketing your eBook to a niche market.

What Else Can I Sell to Make Money Online?

• Paid subscriptions and memberships. If you've got your finger on the pulse of an industry that changes often, or access to exclusive information not available anywhere else, you can make money online selling a paid subscription to a newsletter. Or, if you have the ability to bring together people who have mutual interests, consider a membership site to make money online.

• Physical products. Selling a physical product online will cost you a bit more up-front, but if you want to make money online, you might want to try it. Make sure there is DEMAND for your product before you start sourcing it by doing keyword research. If the research tells you there's a market, go for it!

Is It Really That Easy to Make Money Online?

The Fastest and Easiest Way To Start Making Money on the Internet

As people continue to face challenges during this lousy economy, we've been getting more and more questions from subscribers who want to know how they can start making money online FAST!

So we thought this would be a good time to revisit a topic we covered a few months ago: selling affiliate products.

Truth is, if you're looking to create an online income stream as fast as possible, then promoting affiliate products is definitely the way to go!

As an affiliate, you don't have to worry about finding, purchasing, warehousing, or shipping stock to customers. Instead, you simply recommend other peoples' products in exchange for commissions!

All you have to do is attract traffic to your website, then send that traffic to your merchant's site.

When your traffic buys their product, money flows into your bank account!

So what kind of income can you expect from your commission checks?

Well, that depends on a few things. First, what affiliate program do you sign up with? Good merchants offer commissions of 20% to 50% of the profits on each unit sold. If they're only offering you a measly 5% to 10%, it's probably not worth your time...

...Because if you really want to make good affiliate money, it's going to take some work.

We call affiliates who put in that extra little bit of work and make a LOT of extra cash "super affiliates." Super affiliates don't just put one link or banner ad on their site and then wait for something to happen -- super affiliates MAKE it happen!

How YOU can become a super affiliate, and start earning MAXIMUM profits with your website:

• Define a niche market, and target your affiliate products to that market. DON'T pick a product just because you think it looks cool... and DON'T cram your site with a virtual flea market of unrelated products!
  
  Find a hungry market, and sell them products they're likely to buy.



• Build relationships and credibility with your site's visitors. You'll be waaaay more effective if your visitors trust and respect your opinions. That means you'll have to spend time engaging with your visitors.
  
  Regular emails, blog comments, and even social media sites are all simple, no-brainer ways to establish your expertise, build that credibility, and form those relationships.



• Actively market your products. You can't just post a product plug and then expect profits. Actively marketing means that you're constantly looking for new ways to tweak your site's design or salescopy, or to engage with your visitors...
  
  ... or even to scope out the competition and see what's working for them.



• Create a content-rich, "sticky" website. Much as we'd like them to, people are just not going to sit still to listen to your pitch. You have to give them good reasons to stop by, so create content that's useful to them. Try newsletters, product reviews and comparisons, helpful tips, contests, quizzes, polls, and so on.
  
  The more good stuff you've got out there, the more likely people are to visit your website on a regular basis!



• Constantly test your marketing strategies. Don't settle for a modest income - once you start getting those first sales, look for better ways to bring products to your site visitors' attention. Seek new ways to attract visitors to your site. And find more successful ways of converting those visitors into paying customers.

The good news it that it's EASY to become an affiliate...

... but as you've just seen, it's NOT as easy as some of the "experts" out there would have you believe. Like we said, you can't just put a simple link or banner for the product you're selling on your homepage and hope for the best.

You'll never make a PENNY that way!

Instead, you'll need to find a lucrative niche market filled with hungry buyers... get HOT-SELLING affiliate products that are perfect for your chosen market... write sizzling salescopy that converts your visitors into buyers... create a professional website designed to SELL... and drive endless streams of high-quality traffic to your site.

Sounds like a pretty tall order, right?

Fortunately, if you don't think you can do all of these things yourself (and you don't want to spend thousands of dollars hiring someone else to do it), there's a brand-new affiliate income system that does all of this for you!

The entire system is "wizard based," which means you just point and click to instantly find a lucrative market, locate your product, and build your website.

But even better, this system will write your salescopy for you, and help you get plenty of traffic.

So even if you don't have a website yet, or you consider yourself to be a complete computer "dummy," you could still be earning your first affiliate commission within just seven days!