The Seeds of Lasting Internet Profits for the Internet Novice

f_11311108826_stackofmoney.jpgHow can any internet novice make internet profits that continue? Well its simple how can any child learn the alphabet? All of it is learnt step by step, the first step being simply to start! Sounds a little odd to say that but it’s not because most of us have toyed with the idea of making money while we sleep or making money 24-7. How many of us actually have a website let alone an internet income stream? Not many!

When you start out you should do everything yourself! Your online business is nothing yet so you can’t pay someone for all the tech work out of your non-existent internet income stream! You will obviously need to have some time, commitment and little money to start. You need to buy and register a domain name get a hosting account then start to build a basic website.

If you don’t know how to you will need a basic education as to what needs to be done and how. Look at other websites for layouts and ideas, visualise what you want your website to look like and what you are actually going to sell or promote. There are various ways to learn how to get it started; 3 weeks ago I had no idea how to build a web page let alone a website now I own and am in the process of building (albeit slowly) four websites.

I haven’t got my own product yet, one day I may have one, that’s because I have decided to start tapping into one income stream by being an affiliate, that’s where you promote someone else’s products or sites for a commission for every customer they get through your site.

Building an internet business and making internet profits that last will require determination especially initially as you plant your seeds for future profit. The likes of Yahoo, MSN, and Google aren’t the top 3 visiting sites because of what they are doing now — remember it’s not long ago that there was no internet. Google floated on the stock exchange in 2004, the share price has more than tripled! Imagine – the work you do now for your website could result in your very own Google in 10 or 20 years time. Bringing you back down to earth again, you can’t make any profit from the internet without any traffic coming to your site!

Many of the things mentioned here can be learnt for free on various courses online. Without learning there can’t be much earning. So the tip for any internet newbie is to invest time and effort in a free practical course that gets you the basic knowledge and the continue seeking information to help build on that so that you can plant the seeds that create internet profits that last.

Internet Marketing Strategies for Local Business

f_0money.jpgNow more then ever profitable opportunities exist to promote your local business on the Internet. Through search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, email marketing and local listings, you can connect with a willing audience. Your customers are turning to the Internet to find local products and services. If your competitors have an online presence and you don’t, guess who gets to take home the prize

Below are several crucial techniques for promoting your business regionally:

Listings in local search engines and directories
Pay Per Click advertising in Google and Yahoo
Email marketing
Search engine optimization

Local Listings

Even if you do not have a web site you can still promote your local business online. For example, you can list you business and contact information with the local search engines of Yahoo and Google. It takes an hour at the most to get a free listing on the two most popular search engines. Your listing will include an interactive map that can direct customers right to your front door.

Another important resource that accepts free listings is Verizon’s Superpages.com, as does the local version of AOL.

And don’t overlook regional and industry specific directories. Many accept free listings, or charge a nominal fee. Once again, for most a web site is not a prerequisite.

Pay Per Click Advertising

If you do have a web site, than you need to promote your local business through Pay Per Click on both Google and Yahoo. With Pay Per Advertising you bid on keyword terms that your potential customers would use in a search. An example is “Tacoma Wedding Photographer.” The cost per click depends on how competitive the term is. You only pay if a prospect clicks on your text ad and goes to your site. This is referred to as performance advertising, where you only pay if the ad performs.

The appeal of PPC is you can get it going within an hour. You set the budget, you determine what keywords are relevant, and you determine your price per click. You can also turn it on or off in an instance. The general consensus is that PPC generates a higher return on your investment over traditional offline advertising.

Search Engine Optimization – Free Traffic

For those that like a challenge there is search engine optimization. SEO is the ability to optimize your web site for high search ranking. If you can optimize your site properly, you can benefit from an endless stream of free, targeted search engine traffic. It takes time and effort, but the results can take your business to a whole new level.

If you are selling nationally SEO can be cutthroat. For a local business it can be relatively easy to rank for terms that relate to your business and location. (ex. Richmond Wedding Photographer)

Local Email Marketing

Another tremendous marketing tool is email. For virtually nothing you can communicate with both prospects and your existing customers. Email is an excellent method to convert prospects to customers. It can also significantly increase the lifetime value of your existing customers by simply alerting them to upcoming sales and promotions.

Knowing the power of email communication, I find it hard to believe how few use it to promote their local business. Now listen up, start collecting your customer’s email addresses today. I can guarantee they will respond favorably to joining your list. We all like to be informed on bargains and special offers.

The future of your local business will depend on the Internet. It is estimated 25% of searches online are local in nature. The Internet is the perfect resource for finding local products and services, which is why your customers are searching online. Now is the time to get your business positioned to reap the rewards.

How To Create Automatic Delivery For Your Ebay Items

f_2money5.jpgSo you want to sell ebooks and/or digital products on eBay and you want your customers to have instant access and for this to be done automatically?
Up until recently automatic delivery has never been so easy!

Now you can sell hundreds of digital products every day and never have to send an email.

Where is my eBay digital delivery?

Some customers may ask you where is my product,
or that they have checked their email and there is no delivery.
If you are selling digital products and a customer asks you where their product is, please feel free to provide a link to this article.

As per eBay’s new policy on digital products the download page is displayed after your purchase by eBay.
To find this page

1. Log in to the eBay account under which the item was purchased.
2. Go to “My eBay”.
3. View the “Items I’ve Won”.
4. You will find the view digital delivery hyperlink next to the item you purchased.
Please note, you may have to click the arrow to see the drop down menu to access the hyperlink.
Also, you can find the digital download hyperlink by going back to the ad of the item you purchased.

Digital delivery seller requirements

Here are some of the requirements to sell digital items.

1. Use fixed price or store inventory (you can’t sell digital items by auction).
2. Offer only immediate PayPal payment.
3. You must use a PayPal Verified Premier or Verified Business account. (From experience I find the most trusted sellers are verified)
4. No pornographic material.
5. Seller must be the intellectual property owner, or an authorised reseller.
6. Sellers item must not include any software/scripts that harm the buyers computer or privacy.

For more information try reading eBays FAQ on digital items

Step one

Please note you can only sell digital items as fixed price, or store item (no auctions allowed).
After selecting your category you will then arrive at the “Title & Description” page.

If you don’t see the “List as a digital file or information” then you may have used the wrong category. For example, you can’t sell digital products in the motor vehicle category. Also, you could try lisiting the item from ebay.com to see if that makes a difference (sometimes does).

Please note, you may have to start a new listing to enable the digital delivery option.

Step two

After clicking the “List as a digital file or information” link, type some information about the product for sale. For example, is it mac compatible? Windows XP SP2 compatible? pdf, .exe, or zip files? Will the file be downloaded or emailed?

Make sure you click the legal agreement box and that you are an authorised seller.

Step three

After you have setup the “Title & Description”, the “Pictures & Details” you now will have to setup the “Payment & Delivery”.

This is the page where you specify how the buyer will receive the item. The buyer will only be shown this after payment has been made.

Here you can give the buyer details, for example:

“You can download your purchase from here….”

“Please message me (my email address) and let me know which email address you would like me to send your purchase to …”

“If you have any questions or problems, please email me here…”

I recommend you supply people with a download page, or a link to download the file. That makes the whole process more automatic, and your customer receives the product immediately after purchase.

Final word

I hope this article answers all of your questions about ebay digital delivery, and thank you for your time.