AboutJim Novo Expertise Questions about using customer data to inmprove online profitability, particularly in retailing. Topics include profiling customers using weblogs, figuring out which ads generate the highest value customers, how to reduce the numnber of 1x buyers, how to generate higher sales from current customers, customer analysis, ROI calculation, reducing discounts while increasing resaponse rates. Do you collect customer data (purchases, page views, surveys) and not really use it for anything? Want to find out how? Just ask.
Experience
Past/Present clients Cellular One, MBNA, SteelTorch Software, Retek Direct, CBS Sportsline, Kobie Marketing, Aerial, Tupperware, Barnes and Noble, Comcast Corporation, Home Shopping Network
Question Hello Jim,
I'm looking for a legitimate online or home based business. Even $400.00 extra income per month would be great. I'm not particular as to which type of business to get into, and not looking to get rich quick. I love working online. There are so many opportunities after searching online, I believe it would take a huge amount of time to research all of them..and how does one even know what they say on the internet is true?
That is why I think asking AllExperts or people actually in an online business for help, may be the best route to go...and most people I know are working regular jobs outside the home.
Are you aware of any online business(s)where one could earn a few hundred per month in a reasonable period without being surprised later by the organization being a scam, a fly by niter, or suddenly popping hidden quotas upon you?
Thank you for any advice!
Sincerely,
Mike Eidson
Answer Yes, most of this stuff is a scam, and much of it has been running offline for decades through direct mail. It takes work to make money, on the web or otherwise.
The following is a formula for creating a successful
home-based web-based businesses. It's not the only way,
but it is simple and not costly to execute. It works
because this approach takes advantage of the natural
flow of the way people use the web medium.
Search drives the web. For this reason, a business that
is dominant in a small niche can be successful by being
*the* place people end up at when searching for info on
the niche. Because of services like Overture and Google
Adwords, you can buy the search phrases people are using
to look for your niche and get instant, targeted traffic
to your web site.
This is a perfect way to test ideas first and see if you
can make them work. If you are getting targeted traffic
and nobody is buying anything, then there is something
wrong with your site or your product and you need to try
again.
The two easiest ways to take advantage of this basic
idea are to write a special report or book, or to sell
hard to find products.
Almost everybody has had some kind of special experience
that allows them to write a special report on "how to"
something. How to build fix a '65 Mustang, how to
repair a blender, how to teach a child a foreign
language, how to... anything. As far as products go,
there are many, many sources of products, from flea
markets to distributors.
How to go about finding your niche? You need to pick a
niche market that is small enough so you can own it, but
large enough so that it actually will get traffic.
Hands down, the best way to do this is with WordTracker:
It will cost you $20 for a week or $40 for a month to
use WordTracker, but this will be the most important
money you ever spent if you are serious about making
money on the web. WordTracker will tell you how many
searches are being performed for words related to your
niche, so you can estimate how much visitor traffic you
will get **in advance**.
Just start typing in your ideas and see how much traffic
there is for your chosen niche and check out all the
related searches, which can give you more ideas.
WordTracker will also tell you how many web sites there
are that *already address* your chosen niche. What you
are looking for is a niche that has good search traffic
but very few web sites or web sites of poor quality that
address the niche.
When you have found your niche, go to Overture and Google and see how much per click it will cost to get that targeted
niche traffic coming your way from everybody searching
for your niche across 80% of the web:
Let's say you know something special about teaching children a foreign language and you can write a book about it. In the case of the search phrase "teach child foreign language", nobody has purchased this search phrase, so it will cost you the minimum - 5 cents per click. Figure out how much the traffic will cost - 10 - 15% will click your ad - and project 10 - 15% of that will buy your product (very conservative since the traffic is targeted) - then determine if there is enough profit in it. If there is, then put up a simple store using Yahoo
store:
buy your keyword phrases on Overture, and you're in
business - in test mode. If it works, then graduate to
your own web site, shopping cart, and so on later, if
you want them. If it doesn't work out, go on to the
next idea, knowing you have spent no more than $50 or so
to really test out a good business idea. Add Google's Adwords after you discover which phrases work the best:
https://adwords.google.com/select/
You can have 20 or 30 of these kind of things going on
at once, and perhaps none make a great deal of money,
but taken together, they can provide a very decent
income.
When you are thinking about your niche ideas, don't
forget friends, relatives, or even the business down the
street that has something unique to sell. 50% of a
great business is better than 100% of no business. If
someone else has the idea or product, offer to create
the web marketing of it in exchange for 50% of the
profits from web sales.
