I'm wanting to start my IM websites ASAP and am studying the late Cory Rudl's "Secrets" course to get started but I'm finding it taking alot of time to get thru and a little mindboggling. My question, what would everyone recommend is the starting point for me to get going and not get caught up in reading info all the time? SHould I just focus on creating the site and finding a host first, then worry about everything else? I just don't want to get wrapped up in learning and not get anything done as I'm needing to start making some money quickly and have information that the public will need. thanks
Have you ever built a website before? If not, a good HTML book is the first step. Find a host, build your website, build traffic then worry about making money. Those are the steps I take.
A good first step is market research. You mentioned that you already have "information to share" so I assume you have picked a topic for your first website. Use WordTracker.com (you can use the free trial) and find out how people are searching for this type of information. WordTracker will tell you how many people a day are searching for any given keyword phrase. Tip: Look at the Predict column for this number, and ignore KEI Work on this, and also on your website template (or try BasicTemplates.com). Reading is really good, so commit yourself to reading 30-60 minutes a day (or whatever fits YOUR schedule) TOO
If you're a noob at web design but eager to market whatever you want to offer, outsource the graft. That will save you half a year messing about. Get a good coder you can communicate with and apply your marketing intelligence via his/her code skills.
Hi Glasshalffull! With your nick, I guess a little optimism is a good start. You say you already have information that you believe people would want to know. But the question is, do you have a product that would carry this information? You could try creating a product that would serve as the vehicle for the knowledge you wish to convey, or you could hire a freelancer to do the job for you. Possible products could be: * an eBook or a special report, in .pdf format * an audio course in downloadable .mp3 format * a video course, either streamed or downloadable * a teleconference course Determine a price for your product. The rule here is that it should be reasonable. Try to factor in the commissions you will have to distribute if ever you want to employ some affiliates. More on that later. You're concerned about a website, whether this should be your first order of business or not. The thing is, you don't need a webSITE. You just need a webPAGE that would host your sales copy. I'm sure the late Corey Rudl's book have taught you about the importance of sales copies in converting your visitors into succesful sales. You could market your product even without a website, of course. Here are the alternatives you could avail of: * forum marketing. There are a lot of forums that would allow you to sell your products in a particular category. Some of them would even allow you to post a payment button. * joint ventures. Seeing that you're just starting out, you could try to form a joint venture with other Internet marketers who have huge mailing lists. Often, the bulk of orders come from a devoted subscribers list. Of course, your joint venture partners should be compensated with a percentage of the sales they'd be able to generate. * affiliate marketing. I'm sure you don't have an affiliates system in place. You could try affiliate programs that allow you to sell your products through their batallion of members. Try www.clickbank.com for this purpose. These suggestions are for long term profits which will be sustainable. But your concern, as you said, is immediate cash? Why don't you create the product and sell the resale rights for it. Better yet, sell the master resale rights for the same. Even better, sell private label rights for your work! If your information is really lucrative, and if your product is good, I am telling you right now, you could earn your first thousand dollars in three days. But this option, of course, would deprive you of the sustainability of your product as a cash cow for the long run. PM me if you need help, and I will show you how you could earn fast. I'm not going to sell you anything, I promise, and I won't even ask for anything in return. I'll just help you get a good start. John