Hi Im Jen and based in England, new to the forum and very pleased to meet you all. Im at home with my daughter and have been trying to establish a genuine business from home. I tried Clickbank about a year ago and failed miserably with no sales I have no site building skills, not keen on a template.. I have considered and researched affiliate marketing, adsense and dropshipping websites, I have been considering so long infact that im now confused as to which is my best option. I feel very shy to ask; but, if anyone has any advice or guidance to get me started? I am not afraid of hard work and I would be so very grateful of a pointer.. Thank you.. Best Regards Jen
Wow, you sound so sweet. But I'm afraid only you can come to that conclusion. You know what is all out there, even putting together an online magazine type site and sell space to advertisers. You just have to write them all down, and decide. When you do, come back to ask for advice on how to get it going.
If your not sure what you want to do, I would say surf around online in areas you have an interest in ( as example - horses ) find whats out there and ask yourself if you could do it better or different? As for no web skills - HTML and web site building software is not that hard to learn - most of us who now run a web site are self taught
Thank you both so much for your replies, Im so grateful to have your advice! Perry321 - I was really very keen to get started with clickbank, I mentioned I gave it a try. I followed set-up guidelines and was advised that blogging was the only necessary advertising, I don't want to set myself up to fail again and wondered then if i needed a PPC campaign? At this stage I started wondering if perhaps doing something else would have been better? I am open to suggestion based on others' success'... I have left it so late to sort myself out and now I am really quite desperate mentally and financially to get on the starting ladder and be working towards something better! Ira_150 - My background is Senior Customer Service, before I had my baby I was working constantly and loved every minute! I had two ideas in the pipeline, both in my field but neither of which got further than research and a highly detailed plan... The ideas were just turning in to something of huge scale which would have required more manpower, technical skills and investment than I have!! I would need to be nesting on a minimum of £10000 to even enter the market on a very low level! - Entering the market at such a low level holds a high risk especially with a substantial investment to lose and little to start with..! I decided perhaps then it would be better to put my own ideas to the back burner, start small and concentrate on building some security and a raising some money first... Anyone who can help me get the ball rolling, i've been wandering around lost for a year now, I can see what I want I just cant reach it....! I understand the theory but i just don't know where to start in practice... Once again I am so very grateful for your time,
The best advice I can give you pick a niche you are passionate about. It makes life a lot easier. Gary
If you can devote time in writing you can start your own blog of a niche that passionate you and review products of others. In addition you can earn through affiliate programs/adsense ads and selling ad space.
Oh wow im so bowled over that you all have time to guide me! Its really very much appreciated.. I am very passionate about customer service, I have experience in this field and planned to have a local website for my county, taking reviews of shops and services from consumers, best/worst polls, trying to encourage companies to get onboard to change the attitude towards their customers (I can offer personal coaching to staff, workplace visits) and in turn to improve their customer retention figures, customer satisfaction and perhaps slightly aid local economy... Everybodys happy. If I could get local councils on board too for a major overhaul and redefining of "Customer Service" the same thing could be applied all over with possibility of huge expansion... I have ideas but this seems such a huge very very hands on project; I know i could not design a website of this structure, not to mention the time consumption in order to make it as successful as my heart desires, I do not know I can do it justice with the commitments I have (24/7 mum - not so professional face to face / telephone marketing with a baby crying on yor hip!) I see alot of potential in this as customer satisfaction is at an all time low and its in everybodys interest to improve, if your customers are happy they will come back every time.. Im worried there is not enough of me to undertake this project alone, I have trained a few members of staff for other companies i've worked for in the past and would love to invite them to work alongside me when im established as I know their work and would love to pass on some good fortune too. I have been told im over ambitious to start.... Im so confused....
Hmm, since you are now bit more familiar with Clickbank products, perhaps you could create your own "customer service training/whatnot kit/course/ebook/something" and start selling it using PPC & Clickbank (use affiliates and give them 50-75% commission) That way you would need no site building stuff (landing page & sales pitch page would be sufficient). You could do the product when you have time (with minimal time). Your affiliates (+PPC) would do the selling. You would get to do stuff related to your passion (customer service stuff) Any idea on this?
Hey, you seem to have the drive to do this. That's the first step in the right direction. Most people are unsuccessful not because they lack knowledge of online marketing, but because they aren't willing to put in the work thats necessary to make it successful. But yes, do like others said and put up something that you are passionate about. -Travis T.
I'm sure your endeavor's main goal is bringing in some cash, and as much as you can. This being said, in my opinion you've got three major options to attract that cash: 1. affiliate programs - sign up with one or more affilate programs and start getting buyers of their stuff. * these affiliate programs are: - mainstream - either cj.com or a web hosting service, like HostGator, or the usual eBay/Amazon affilate programs - adult - there are endless niches to choose from 2. AdSense - sign up with AdSense and start getting "buyers" of the AdSense links (i mean people interested in your content, who will click you adsense links) 3. eCommerce - start selling goods on eBay or Amazon One last crucial tip: In order to get BUYERS, not BROWSERS, you will have to get your landing page (either with affiliate links or adsense links) as high as possible in the search engines for your keyword. So you will have to learn some SEO.
Hey Jen! It's great that you're looking for new opportunities to put your time and effort into for you and your family. There are many ways to earn income online, it really is up to your personal preferences what you would prefer doing. Do you like to write? Are you an expert in a certain niche? You could write copy or articles for websites, blogs, and news organizations. Are you interested in retail? Build an online store or review site based on fashion, electronics, home decor, etc. There are plenty of cheap (or free) resources that offer templates for a website- some are even customizable. Many people in this forum will also offer you advice if you want to build your own site. Maybe you could barter your area of expertise for theirs, or free advertising on your site when it's done. Hope that helps!
Jen, don't give up on clickbank. Not keen on html? - Squidoo is a fantastic resource for building page. I know of many groups run by woman for woman (for the support you'll need) - www.warriorforum.com I would recommend, Write Articles ---> Construct Lens on same topic ---> Submit Articles ---> Make sure page is well optimized (monetized) -----> Traffic generated should get you your first few sales.
Thank you all for your advice, finding this forum really is the best thing thats happened in my 18mths of getting nowhere... there is so much vague (sometimes very misleading) information around but no real support... Hearing from everyone has given me hope that im not barking up the wrong tree completely and I am genuinely inspired and pleased to read about the success of others. I need to take some time to consider my options, and the alternative suggestions made, one final time before I give myself a push, metaphorically i feel my toes are over the edge but im too scared to jump... I will be a regular, very privileged visitor from now on and could learn alot from everyone. Once again im so grateful for everybodies kind contributions, I can't thank you enough! Mosts night I am awake until 4am trying to make some progress, hopefully now I can... Very Fond Regards, Jen x
Whether you choose to do affiliate marketing, adsense, blogging, article marketing or any of those things, you will have to learn SEO and proper keyword research. You don't need to go paying for the thousand dollar programs. You can do that for less than $100 dollars. It's not necessary to have a website to make money online, but it certainly helps a whole lot. Remember, it's through the search engines where people get their information. Without a website, you would be missing out on a humungous amount of money. Nowadays, Google is becoming especially strict on people doing this properly because of all the scams. Ensure you get into a good program that teaches you all the strategies of online marketing in a common sense fashion cheaply, most especially search engine optimization. Before building a website or even choosing a niche, do the proper keyword research. The program I'm in does a great job of explaining all that. Good luck to you.
Jen1987 I know how you feel because I have been in your shoes. It seems like there's too much information and you need a step in the right direction. The first step you should do is take 15 minutes and think about what you WANT to do. Do you want to earn some extra money? Are you going to treat this like a hobby? etc. Once you define your goal, then find one method and stick with it.
If you are not keen on templates, then perhaps develop your web design skills? It's not mandatory these days if you have good content, but even content websites have been getting better visually in the past few years. With the growing rate of the internet, website visitors will more likely tend to expect a combination of visually experience, interactivity, and (of course) great content. Another advantage to developing those skills you mentioned would be to do side jobs for small businesses in the UK. If you mix it up and do a little bit of both, it will take pressure off of you overall and allow you to make at least a meager steady income while you are waiting to make money from your websites.
Hi Jen, You mentioned that you were very keen on clickbank but failed your first time around. I failed my first time around as well, but often times you can come back stronger with your second try armed with more information. For example, I use article marketing quite heavily with my online business. I have written over 500 articles on ezinearticles.com, which has given me a lot of website traffic. You can send this traffic to a website where you will have them sign up for a newsletter. This process is known as list building and is how all of the big marketers make most of their money. Build a relationship with your potential clients by providing them information and selling them the occasional affiliate offer. This blend develops trust and also can make you a lot of money. Also, article marketing is free other than the time involved, and you can make a good amount of money with this method. My suggestions is to research article marketing and list building a see what you think.
Whatever you do.... NEVER spend money on ANYTHING. Anything you could possibly need can be found for free on the Internet. Clickbank would really be your best option. You can easily write a few articles, submit them to article directories and have people directed to a free blog like blogger.com There are tons of articles and youtube videos that can show you exactly how to do it .... FOR FREE Honestly.... If you are unable to sell ClickBank products you will probably be unable to do anything else either. I know that sounds harsh, but, there are hundreds of thousands of people selling on the Internet. It is fierce and you seem very sweet. Remember: NEVER buy ANYTHING Best of Luck
If you want to make professional designs and not spend anything, try gimp. I don't particularly agree with "never buy anything" because using professional tools such as Adobe line-up will make your sites way better and will set you up better for the long-run. Like mentioned previously, it will allow you to diversify as a business and not keep all of your eggs in one basket. If you don't believe me, look at companies that have been in business for more than 10 years...you will find that they diversify their activity. Developing REAL website design skills with professional tools will allow you so much more flexibility and options to make money. If you develop your skills and learn how to make websites that are really nice then you can sell you services and make a really good living working from home while you are developing your internet properties. If you are not able to sell click-bank products don't be discouraged. You just need to invest more time, research, and practice into your work. There are many factors that could attribute to not being able to sell click-bank products such as: - lack of content relevant products - poor site content / writing - awful visual appearance that scares away your visitors - slow loading time on your website - lack of website visitors Any one of these things can ruin your efforts on their own.
Stop considering! Just do the jump. The worst thing that can happen is that you'll fail. You have nothing to lose and it beats inaction 6-0. So... just do it. Take the jump. Good luck with it!