How To Make Money Online

How To Create Information Products And Make Money Online

 

 

I’ve decided to outline the exact method that is used by the gurus to quit their day job and become a full time internet marketer. This works in any niche, although I’ve had the best success in competitive, popular niches like SEO, weight loss and make money online.

 

Attention! This is not a get rich quick scheme but rather a very sustainable and long-term business idea!

Before I go any further, please note that I’m definitely NOT saying that this is the best or only way to make money online. There are hundreds of different methods and systems out there that people use with success. What I WILL say, however, is that I’ve personally tested many of those methods, and found them to be either extremely competitive, unsustainable, or simply not worth it given the amount of time and/or financial investment required.

This is the only business model I’ve had solid, consistent, sustainable success with from day one. It’s also the exact same business model most 6, 7 and even 8 figure internet marketers use. Again, it’s not the best or only way to make money online, but it works, and if you’re struggling, and you implement this strategy, I can practically guarantee that you’ll succeed.

The basic concept. I’ll get into more detail soon, but first it’s important to understand the general concept of what works, and that is:

Sell high quality information products and coaching services to people who want to buy and can afford them, that help people to improve their quality of life, relationships and/or financial situation, do it honestly and ethically, and target repeat buyers.

That simple business model, system or method, whatever you want to call it, is EXACTLY what most successful internet marketers do. As you can see, it’s not rocket science, but it definitely works.

Now here’s exactly how to do it, step by step:

First thing’s first, the product and market are everything. I’m a firm believer that if you want to be successful online, you need your own product. But you can also be an affiliate by promoting complimentary products and services on the back end, as long as they help people.

Why do you need your own product? Quite simply, if you’re serious about scaling your business, you want to build a huge list of repeat buyers, and the quickest and easiest way to do that is with paid traffic. And you’ll need a front end offer to pay for that traffic.

The good news is, if you don’t have the time or money to create one yourself, you can always license someone else’s. There are hundreds of products on ClickBank that are good, but simply aren’t making the owners any money because they don’t know how to get traffic. You could license any one of those products for pennies on the dollar, simply by asking.

Now, in my experience, your product and market will either make or break your business. If you screw this up, you’ll be fighting a permanent uphill battle that you’ll never win. If people don’t want what you have to offer, or there’s no buyers in your niche, how can you ever expect to make any money?

The good news is, getting this part right is easy. First, let’s start with picking a niche, since I know a lot of people find this hard.

Niche selection. Before I say anything else, I am a HUGE advocate of targeting a niche you’re passionate about. If you don’t care about what you’re selling, or you don’t care about your customers, it will come through in everything you do. And you’ll find it very, very difficult to remain motivated during the tough and/or boring times (which are sure to follow).

Having said that, you also need to make sure to target a profitable niche, filled with repeat buyers who want what you have and can afford to buy it. It’s no good being passionate about mowing the lawns, because NO ONE will buy your information. So the key is to find a balance: make sure you care about your niche, but also make sure there’s money to be made.

To find a profitable niche, head on over to the Clickbank marketplace. Look through all the different categories until you find one you’re passionate about. The key is to make sure that there’s lots of products in your niche (at least a few hundred) and that lots of these products have a decent gravity, preferably more than 30.

Now, I know that gravity is not a sure fire indicator that a product is selling well to the general public. But if it’s maintained a decent gravity for several years (you can always use The Wayback Machine to make sure), then it’s a very good sign.

Now, if you see that there’s lots of products in your niche that have been doing well for years, then you’re on to a winner.

Market research. Once you’ve picked your niche, you need to create a product. Or, if you don’t have the time or money, you need to license someone else’s. But before you do ANYTHING, you need to be 100% sure that your product is a guaranteed winner. How do you do that? Very simple.

First off, visit a popular forum in your niche and make sure it’s BUSY (people are posting regularly). Google “niche” + “forum” to find one. For example “make money online” forum or “weight loss” forum.

Now, go through the “introduce yourself” and/or “general discussion” type threads. In my experience, people have no problem sharing intimate details about their most frustrating and desperate problems on forums, especially when they’re brand new. And this information is GOLD.

What you’re looking for are the most popular threads, with the most views and replies. This is a good indication that the topics or problems being talked about are common and/or interesting and appeal to your target market. Now, copy and paste the titles and general questions being asked from each of these threads over to a Word document.

I suggest to go back through a years worth of threads. Yes, this is time consuming, but this information will benefit you for years to come. This is how you get inside your target prospect’s minds and figure out EXACTLY what they’re looking for (so you can sell it to them).

To make your life easier, I suggest is to separate the different threads into specific categories. So for example, if someone’s asking about how to get more traffic to their blog, put that in your “traffic” category.

Unfortunately, this process is a bit like gold prospecting, and you’ll have to sift through a lot of dirt to find the golden nuggets. But if you stick with it, what you’ll soon discover is that the exact same problems and frustrations come up over and over again. Different people, same struggles.

What you’re looking for are the most common, desperate problems that people struggle with in your niche. The more desperate people are to solve their problems, and the more common those problems are, the easier you’ll find it to sell your product.

Product creation. In terms of creating the product itself, there are two ways you can go. You can sell a “how to” ebook and/or video course for a one time fee (not recommended), or you can sell a membership subscription, where people pay a monthly fee to access regular, ongoing content.

I highly recommend the latter, because you’re building solid, consistent, passive income from day one. And if you’re in a popular niche, there’s no shortage of content that you can either create or license (interviews with experts, case studies, articles, videos, etc).

One other word of advice. If you’re just starting out, I highly recommend focusing on solving one problem per product. If you’re not sure what to write, then I recommend creating a case study on how you solved the problem(s). Or, if you’re building a membership site, then I recommend creating regular, ongoing case studies to keep your members engaged.

Creating your sales funnel. To create a winning product, you need a sales funnel in place that converts casual browsers into repeat customers. Once you’ve tested and optimized it for maximum conversions, it’s almost like having a license to print money.

In simple terms, you need:

1) A squeeze page to generate leads (email addresses)

2) A sales letter or video sales letter to convert leads into customers

3) And OTO’s (one time offers), affiliate offers, personal coaching and/or a done for you service to increase your sales and profits on the back end

Creating your squeeze page. Most people will tell you to offer something for free in exchange for your prospects email address. This is how the typical squeeze page works. In my opinion, and based on my actual experience, there’s a better way.

What I’ve found works best is to use a sneak peak of your product, or just explain what your product does, to entice people onto your list. That way, you’re not baiting and switching anyone, and you’re much less likely to attract freebie seekers.

For an example of a squeeze page that converts like crazy, even though I’m not giving ANYTHING away for free, check out my signature. As you can see, it’s just a quick video asking people to opt in to learn more. I’m not even using a headline, but it works.

Creating your sales letter. You don’t have to be John Carlton to write a sales letter that converts. I’m definitely not the world’s greatest copywriter (I wouldn’t even be so bold as to call myself a copywriter). If you get your niche and product right, the battle’s almost won … all that remains is to tip people over the edge.

This is just my opinion, but in my experience, most standard/typical sales letters don’t convert that well. What I’ve found works best is to immediately get to the point, tell people exactly what you have to offer, what it does, what problem(s) it solves and how (focusing on the key benefits and selling points). Also, it’s important to tell people that your product isn’t for everybody (no product or service is), so explain exactly who your product can and can’t help and why.

Use my video sales letter as an example. As you can see, it’s not complicated or fancy but I can tell you for a fact that it works. Just be honest and upfront with people about what you’re doing, what you’re after and how you can help them. But whatever you do, DON’T lie to people, don’t manipulate them and don’t try to be someone you’re not … because if you do, people will pick up on it, and your conversion rate will suffer as a result.

Finally, when you’ve made your pitch, offer your leads an ultimatum. Force them to make a decision on the spot. What I do is give people 24 hours to make up their mind. After that, if they’re still on the fence, I simply take them off my list. No point dealing with tyre kickers.

Crafting your back end. Unfortunately, you don’t make much money from your front end offer, especially if you’re paying for traffic. In fact, many top marketers lose money on the front end. So you need a profitable back end to make up the difference or to increase your sales and profits.

Luckily, this part is easy. What I do is upsell personal coaching and tools, products and services that people need to solve their problems. Also, since most of your customers are strapped for time, you can also upsell a done for you service (highly recommended) where you do everything for them for a fee.

Finally, get as much targeted traffic as possible. Once you have a profitable sales funnel in place that converts, the final step is to get as much targeted traffic as possible. Here’s what works best for me:

Free methods:

- Forum marketing (basically what I’m doing right now, helping people out on forums and then promoting your site in your signature)

- SEO (launch jacking works best, and it’s a great way to get the attention of product owners in your niche that you can joint venture with)

- Guest blogging (not only for lazer targeted, qualified traffic, but also for launch jacking. Just a few links from quality, relevant blogs is often enough to rank for competitive product names)

Paid methods:

- PPC

- Solo ads

- Media buys and banner advertising (highly recommended; the Google content network is still one of the best and largest sources of highly targeted, cheap, quality buyer traffic)

And that’s it. Again, it’s not rocket science. Sell information products to people who want to buy and can afford them, do it honestly and ethically, target repeat buyers, and use upsells to increase your sales and profits. It may not be a fancy schmancy method, but it works.

How To Make Money Online