Buyer Beware! Always Read the Fine Print!

One of the fastest ways to lose money online when you are just starting out is to be unaware of questionable sales tactics that are a part and parcel of the Internet Marketing industry.

An example is when you think you are buying a one time product, only to discover that it is actually a monthly membership. Always read the fine print in those long, long sales letters! This week a new AdSense product: Adsense Secrets hit the market and it is being promoted on a lot of lists. It turns out that you are actually signing up for a $30 monthly membership as well as buying an e-book for $10.

Watch this short video for the details.

Buyer beware!

Making money online: Brainstorming Niche Ideas

If you are going to make money online then you need three things:

• a hungry market
• a product that fills a need
• targeted traffic

That's about it in a nutshell! But the key is how you put those three things together. If you are planning on starting using free or very low cost methods then you will need to do some writing at some stage.

Now don't be put off by that, there are some easy ways to churn out articles which I will talk more about later. But I found it much easier to write articles on topics that I had some knowledge about. You will be amazed at just how much information you have in your head that other people can benefit from!

You can find hungry markets for that information and it will be much easier and faster than trying to write unknown topics. There are shortcuts for that too which I will share later. So make a list of:

• Jobs you have had
• sports, hobbies service clubs volunteering you have participated in
• life events, this is often the best source of topics
• anything that you have taught other people, formally or informally
  
• courses and training that you have done
  
• other topics of interest to you
  

Now go through each item on that list and write down ideas that you could share with others. What are the common questions people ask? What information would help people in that situation?

An example might be that you have been divorced and can share what helped you get through that difficult time. Maybe you know how to get dogs to stop barking and messing up peoples lawns. Or you are a frugal blogger and know 1001 ways to save money or how to do home preserving etc. You can see that the list is endless when you really open your mind to the possibilities!

I chose and area that do a lot of work with in my job. Lets say it was Curing nail biting. I knew all the questions people wanted answers to and I knew the answers. Just simple stuff, honestly. Then I had to see if there was a hungry market for it. I will explain that in more detail soon.

I LOVE this product! Since using it I have found much more profitable niches. I will show you free ways to find niches when you are starting out.

Making money online:

There are many different ways to start earning money online and that can be overwhelming in the beginning. I will be writing about what is working for me on this blog in a lot more detail over the coming months. This is what earns money online for me at the minute:

• Bum marketing, articles I have written direct readers to niche sites or sales pages for affiliate products
• Writing articles and blog posts for money
• Blogging, with AdSense and affiliate links

My favourite method is definitely bum marketing! It costs nothing to start except your time and a domain name, but you can use free pages also. The secret to this is consistency. I will be writing a lot more about how I bum market in the future but if you want to get started ASAP read Travis' articles and just do what he says. That's all I did.

Writing articles or blog posts for other people is a great way to get money in the bank fast. This is helping me pay my bills each month. If you like to write you could easily turn this into a full time income in a couple of months. I will expand on how to make money writing online in upcoming posts.

I started blogging because I had sworn off Internet marketing forever but I still slapped a few AdSense ads on the blog . I played around a lot with placement and ad units and it really can make a very big difference to your click through rate! I like seeing the deposit going into my mortgage account. It should be monthly from now on! If you used paid advertising then making money from blogging is very possible.

Creating a product. This is my focus at the moment, working on my own products. In terms of return for effort this is the best way for me to develop a passive income over time. I would never have had the confidence to this 6 months ago. Blogging and the bum marketing has opened my eyes to what is possible. I create a product once and earn income over and over. Passive income for life!

If you are serious about earning decent money online then skip reading emails, and doing surveys and get into affiliate marketing and product development. The resources listed up the top are the ones that I use.

Building an e-book empire is a brilliant resource that contains all kind of invaluable information that I used in getting traffic to sales pages and creating mini-sites. It is about much, much more than writing an e-book so I can't recommend it enough, even if you never want to write an e-book. The price is a steal and I would happily pay 3 X for the information inside!

Also the classic Super Affiliates Handbook is worth the money and gives all the information needed to get started in affiliate marketing.

Don't forget to sign up for Travis' free bum marketing course, there is no cost at all and it's just a plain English explanation with no fluff.

Making money online: where to begin?

When I first wanted to make money online I had no idea where to start. So I was a sitting duck for every sales person that wanted to make a quick buck! I also felt desperate to make money fast which didn't help, you can read about it here in this post: Learn from my mistakes!

So you want to make money and don't know where to begin. Start with writing down the answers to these questions, be honest with yourself.

• How much time can I commit to building an online business? Be specific, how many hours a day / week and when?


• What is my level of skill with building websites, computing and all the technical computing stuff? (you can see mine is very little!)


• How much do I really know about making money online and in what areas?


• How much money can I afford to/ am willing to spend each month on my business?


• What appeals to my so far and why?


• What Internet marketing products do I already own?

Now if you sit down and write about this it will be a good start. Then take the time to do and inventory of all the products you have already bought. You may be shocked. I was.

I had bought things that were never opened and things that I had no idea how to use! I recently took the time to do an inventory and it was a real eye opener. So open up a document and make a list, it might just save you some money if you can use what you already have

Now the question is will you take the time to actually do this? ... or would it be quicker to buy just one more product...

Later this week I will explain how I brainstormed which areas to get into. I will be focusing on low costs, and free resources

Make money online university.

If I could only give you one tip to anyone starting out it would be this: join the warrior forum and learn from the experts in the industry. This is an amazing forum where you can learn everything you need to know from those who have already done it. You also get the opportunity to be a part of some fantastic offers.

There is a downside to the forum though. The sheer amount of information can be overwhelming and the temptation to buy every WSO (warrior special offer) can see you still wasting a lot of money and not actually getting down to work. It is a real challenge not to spend all your money or get sidetracked by all the great sales pitches.

Don't start buying every offer in sight! You will spend money instead of learning. Just join, sit back and read up on specific topics. I used to go there each day for a set time and use the search function to do research. It's like having a university on IM at your fingertips if you don't get distracted. Use it like a classroom and stay focused on learning first, participating second.

This is not the place to ask dumb questions, make spam comments, try and rip people off or be a jerk. They will eat you alive and then boot you out. For the best introduction to the warrior forum and how to get the most out of it read this.

Now you are probably wondering how much this make money online university is going to cost, especially when you will meet a lot of the big names in the industry there.

Its FREE!

Sick of losing money trying to make money online?

How much have you wasted trying to make money online?

Hi, its Louise here from My Journey to Eliminate Debt. I wasted about $2500 trying to make money online before I quit in disgust and swore off Internet marketing for good. I was so angry with myself that I committed myself to paying of my mortgage in 5 years and I set up a blog to keep me on track. Read The Awful Truth about how much money I wasted and my decision to stop.

Funnily enough I started to make a bit of income from my little blog which came in handy and eventually I started to look around for some FREE ways to make a bit more money online. Then I had an accident last year and had to spend a month sitting around on crutches. I decided to see if I could keep myself occupied by building a couple of niche sites and doing some bum marketing. Now I'm not about to tell you I made a fortune overnight.

But I am going to tell you that it worked, I learned a lot and with little effort one of those sites has made almost $600. Imagine if I had really made a big effort, planned my work a bit better and had a system!

I feel like the penny has dropped!

I can finally see and understand what it is that I need to do to earn money online and MAKE A PROFIT! A lot of people talk about how much they earn, but it is the amount you get to keep after expenses that matters.

At present I am revamping those sites and working on my first information product. I am also earning money online by writing. I decided to start this blog so that I could share with you the things that worked for me, the things that were a waste of time and the simple things that newbies need to know.

This site will be Making Money Online: 101 for newbies.

So I am no expert, but I am making a profit online. I am still a newcomer, but I am getting closer each month to earning my mortgage payment online. Once I launch my own product, the sky's the limit!

Welcome to making money online-finally!