How to start on IM from scratch

[niko]

I am a newbie on IM. I have bought several ebooks, read some of them but I have not started yet any business yet . I don’t have a website yet. I got recently an adsense account approved by goggle through a blog I created just with the purpose of getting the adsense account.
For some reason I love this area, IM, even though I have nothing yet going on that produce some money. But I want to be serious with it. I am able to put 2 ½ or 3 hrs daily. I need help on how to start. What would be a good path to follow? I was thinking on affiliate and adsense, but in fact it could be anything related with IM. I have a high affinity for the Internet and computers. I do really like the area. My current job is not directly related with it (I work in a non profit corporation with the goal of creating a drug free world), but could benefit from any expertise I may got in this subject. I love my job and I am not planning to quit it and just do IM, but definitely want to do IM and get from it the income I am not making from my job.
Anyway, I would appreciate a lot any help on how to start and continue for real in this world. Any suggestion very very appreciated.
Thanks to you all.
Niko

[ryan]

First off thank you for your contribution to the world through your work in the non-profit organization!

To me, the best way to start is to find a topic you have an interest in, at least for your first endeavor anyways. The reason I say this is because you will be spending a great deal of time researching your market (it's an ongoing process honestly) and it makes the process feel less daunting if you are interested in what you are doing.

Personally, I am perusing the affiliate marketing model but I have done adsense as well in the past.

Affiliate marketing is great because you do not have to deal with products physically. Commissions on information products (ebooks) are typically around 50-75%. And most membership sites offer reoccurring income commissions.

AdSense can be good and bad in my opinion. Google's guidelines are very strict and some people's accounts have been banned for strange reasons. The basic formula for an adsense site is strategically placed ads within quality content and lots of traffic.

Both models would work well in the internet and computers niche but I don't want to throw out all kinds of information at you because it can be really easy to develop "information overload" and cause further confusion. I also don't want to steer you one way or the other on choosing your marketing model (affiliate, adsense, etc.) because ultimately it has to be something that works for you based on your own decision.

Keep in mind that there is no 1 button to success rule. Anyone that tells you there is, is trying to sell you something. Which ever model you end up going with, it's important to F.O.C.U.S. (F.ollow O.ne C.ourse U.ntil S.uccessful)

If you would like them explained in more detail just let us know. I hope that helps a little

Take Care,
-Ryan

[niko]

Ryan, thank you so much for your answer. Yes, it helps. And... YES! I would love to have it explained in more detail. I do understand what you said about information overload. It is true and I have experienced it in the past. But at this time I really need information that I can digest and put in practice.

So... any extra info you can give me will be most welcome!

Best,
Niko

[ryan]

Good! I feel this might be a long post First off I want talk about the basics that some of the ebooks seem to miss at times and tell you some mistakes I've made along the way so you maybe wont make them as well. The following pertains to both Adsense sites as well as affiliate sites.


Market Research Should NOT Begin With Keywords!!!

When starting any kind of business you need to do a lot of market research. I've read a bunch of ebooks and they seem to put all of the emphasis upon keyword research and either leave out or just briefly touch on the absolute 1st place you should begin: Correctly selecting/targeting your market!

Now keyword research will ultimately decide your level of success but it should not be where you start. After all, if you are not correctly targeted with your market, the best keyword strategies on earth will not get you off the ground IMO.


Correctly Selecting Your Market

Before your keyword research, select your market! If you would like to start a business in the Internet or Computers niche then you have found your general market. Now find a sub-niche! If you specialize on a certain topic it can benefit you in many ways:

1) Less competition
2) Easier to rank in the SEs (search engines)
3) Your traffic is more targeted

Take for example Computer Gaming. This is a sub-niche of computers but you can dive down even deeper! Lets say for instance FPS (First Person Shooter) Computer Gaming. Now you have knocked out all competition of the auto, rpg, sports, and etc genre. The deeper you go the more those three rules I listed apply.

Now I want to bring up mistake #1 that I made: Being To Broad! It's almost impossible for one person to be everything to everyone and this is why my first attempt failed. I started with some keywords that "appeared" good and indirectly targeted my market by beginning with keyword research.

Lets say you want to target the FPS Computer Gaming niche. NOW you can begin your keyword research!!


Affiliate Crash Course

Bill done a show a while back devoted to affiliate marketing that you can watch the recording of and I will post it here once I find it.

Now the #1 goal of a business is to sell things of course but there is a science to the sell! If you think about it, every product out there is a solution to somebody's problem. If you can become a master at solving people's problems with products then you will be a VERY successful affiliate. Which brings me to mistake #2 I made: Not Finding the Problems!

Visit forums, go to answers.yahoo.com, and so on to see what problems people are having within your niche. Then either find the product that solves their problems or create it yourself and sell it! Many times you will read.. "How do I do ...?" "I wish someone would...." or "Does anyone know where I can find...?" These are the problems you will look for when finding products to promote.

Set up a blog with a squeeze/opt-in page and follow up with the prospects. Once you have captured their name and email you can continually market to them with not only that product but with other products in the future! It's called marketing on the "Back-end" and the money is in the back-end!


My mistake #3: Not Building a List

Few people buy things the first time they see it so it's important that you follow up with them in your auto responder!


Affiliate Recap:

1) Target your market correctly
2) Find the needs within that market
3) Find the products that solves those needs
4) Market the products and do follow-ups via an auto responder
5) Market additional products on the back-end


AdSense Crash Course

First and foremost:
-Read and understand Google's Terms of service agreement. They are super picky about it and have been known to terminate accounts for minor infractions.
-Never go over to the dark side and get involved in click fraud or paid to click services, google can detect this as well.

Now for the actual adsense tips. I'll give you all the info that I know and the html codes that I use within my sites if you don't know them already.


Always remember that Google starts their ads from left to right.
This means that your highest paying clicks will be on the left. Where a lot of people make mistakes is that they put an adsense unit below their menu on the left side where almost no one clicks. Their highest paying ads are in a place that no one really sees! Here is a google heat chart on the way the typical reader views your webpage


Ad Placement
Lets think like a reader for a minute. When someone visits your site, they are interested in what you have to say and most of the time that's all. Most readers have become ad-blind and can ignore most ads within a website, even the flashy annoying ones. The best way to solve this is to put the ads right in front of them, within your content. I use a text wrap around a block just below the introduction/opening paragraph (size depends on your usable area). The reason why this works is that when they are reading, their eyes run right into the ads. example (add your introduction above the ad though)

Try and keep your first ad block above the fold (visible when the page first loads before you scroll down). I always start my adsense within the text wrap below the introduction and none in the left sidebar. This means that your highest paying ads will end up in the content in the highest click-through area. Another important point is to make your ads blend with your content. If your background is white on your page then use a while background for your adsense block.

Another good placement is to add a text link banner in between the body and closing paragraph separating the two. I don't have a picture for this but if you would like to see what I'm talking about I can link you to one of my pages.

You can use these two together or one or the other. I would really recommend changing it up so your viewers don't become blind to these ads as well.


A recap for AdSense:

1) Do your research
2) Ad block above the fold
3) Text wrap after introduction: <p><span style="float:left"><!-- ad code here --></span>a poopload of text here</p>
4) Match your backgrounds



Building the Site and Launching It: (AdSense)

It's always more professional looking to have your own domain name and they are about $10/year. I've used NameCheap for my registries and haven't had any problem. Use your own hosting if possible. This is who I use and love them! (If you enter coupon code: "wordpress" you will get your first month for $0.01) Using your own hosting allows you more control over your site.

-First set up a wordpress blog...hmm, I'm starting to sound like Bill lol then focus on publishing unique, keyword rich content. A normal blog submission for me is around 300 words. Bill recommended to do this daily for at least the first few weeks then you can slack off a bit.

-Post about 8-10 entries then submit your site to blog directories (blogcatalog, rssmountain, and etc)

-For article marketing (if that's a traffic method you want to pursue) you could submit 10 of them on site launch to article directories such as EzineArticles. You could post 10 more the following month or however many you feel like writing. It can be a lot of work but they are pretty powerful back links to your site.

-Get involved in social media like twitter, facebook, and youtube. Here is Bill's show on Social Media.

-Get your site indexed before placing adsense on it.

-Continue to provide quality unique content! You can hire freelance writers to do this for you eventually if budget permits from sites such as odesk and elance

to be continued.....

[ryan]

Building The Site and Launching It: (Affiliate) This is the exact process I'm using

All of the Adsense site launching from above applies with a few differences.

-Your #1 priority should be building a list!! You could build a list for AdSense as well but imo it's vital in affiliate marketing.

-Focus on providing valuable content to your mailing list. Things like how-tos and freebies work well.

-I'm using my blog as a networking experiment for my subscribers versus filling it with tons of stuff right off the bat.

-Be on a casual level with your list and market to them as a friend so to speak and don't try to force feed them things.

-Be sure to throw in CPA offers to your list!!! You can also use these as incentives to join your mailing list too. Be sure to only do this if its semi related to your subscribers.


One of the last points I want to make is realizing the importance of finding a mentor. Someone that has been there before and can help you along the way. Bill is a great example of that. I have been a long time subscriber to him and he has never let me down! Also understand the reality that there are still mistakes to be made and don't feel bad if you hit a brick wall. It's all a part of the learning process. The key is to just do something! You can't learn how to ride a bike by reading a book. Go out and have fun

Link Resources:

Webhosting (enter coupon code: "wordpress" you will get your first month for $0.01)
Auto Responder
Name Cheap
Google Keyword Tool
Wordtracker Keyword Tool


lol longest forum post in history 10355 characters!!! Sorry in advance for information overload.

Everybody feel free add to, or disagree with what I have posted!!!

Go forth and market well!!!
~Ryan

[niko]

Woooooow!!! What a great post! THANKS!!
I have looked for the archives of Bill’s show, but there are just 7 of them in the forum and none are the two you mentioned. If you know the links to them or where to find them I would love to watch them.
Regarding the Adsense tips and html codes and the link of one of your sites, yes please, send them.
By the way, what is your blog? Do you mind I look at it?
Again thank you. It is great information to start. I will have to read it several time and start applying!!!