“I am trying to figure out where to start with internet marketing. I just read your post about lifestyle and I know the kind I want for my family, I just don’t know where to start…”

-Lynn Woolums Smith
http://life-inbloom.blogspot.com

Hi Lynn! I actually hear this question a lot, so you’re not alone. In fact there are 161 searches every day for “how to make money online for beginners” and more than 700/day for “how to make money online”…

There are a number of ways to make money online. Options range from creating your own product to sell online, making money as a professional blogger, managing an online community, developing a content site on a hot topic – just to name a few.

All of these are just various ways to deliver content online. Your first step will be choosing a niche, which is the market or topic you are going to focus on.

Speaking of focus, with so many options to make money online – focus is key. You want to choose a niche and a business model, and work on that one project all the way from start to profit. Don’t let all the other options distract or derail you.

Once you decide on a topic or niche, you should sit down and map out a plan for your internet business model. What market are you targeting, and how can you best serve that market? This is the angle you want to work from, vs the more common: how can I make the most money from this market? (Most people get it backwards and then get frustrated when that doesn’t work out for them)

See: How to Become a Market Leader in Your Niche

So you choose a niche, create a blog or website, set up social media profiles to interact with your target market on the topic, and you create and share useful content that will build your reputation and readership in that niche.

I can hear what you’re saying…

“That all sounds great, but how do I make money from it?”

How to Make Money Online (For Beginners)

The absolute easiest way to make money online is with Affiliate Marketing. You don’t have to create a product, set up a shopping cart and merchant account, do customer service, work with clients, etc. It’s very much like a traditional commission-based sales job where you earn commission on any sales you refer.

The difference is that you’re doing it online, and you can do it from home without ever doing in-person or phone sales. You simply recommend products and/or refer people to specific merchants through the content on your website.

The method I prefer is creating SEO Content, or content that is optimized to rank well in the major search engines. People find it when they are searching for that, click through, and buy what they need or want. This works really well because you write the content once, and it continues to rank well and earn you money for years to come. As long as you maintain your search engine rankings.

“How can I make 3-4k a month or more? What steps will it take to get there?”

I know this is stating the obvious, but it should be said: It takes time, work, and being both persistent and consistent. An online business is the same as any other business in that it requires an investment on your part to get it up and running. The positive side of online business is that it takes a lot less time and money than most traditional offline business models.

I recommend that you do these steps, in this order, to start:

• Choose Your Niche
• Register a Domain Name
• Set up a Website or WordPress Blog
• Set up a Facebook Page and Twitter account
• Download and read SEO Fast Start (free)
• Create Optimized Content for your Site/Blog
• Sign up for Affiliate Programs in your niche
• Write Product Reviews for those products
• Get links pointing to your pages or posts
• Continue creating content, getting links & interacting via Social Media

Once you get all this set up and you’re making money as an Affiliate, you can look at other ways to monetize your site. You might create short reports on your topic to sell, test contextual advertising, or look into even more methods to make money.

Yes it’s work. And yes – it’s worth it!

If you do these steps, and continue to learn & tweak as you go, you’ll start earning money. You can increase your traffic (number of visitors) and your income as you continue to grow and market your website. It takes time to get to a consistent $3-5K per month in revenue, but you could easily do that within the first year.

Best,

p.s. Lynn was referring to my Lifestyle & Income of a Super Affiliate post. Give that a read if you haven’t already as it will give you a sneak peek into my life and success doing the exact things I outlined here. If you have any questions, feel free to leave me a comment below.

If you had to answer without putting too much thought into it, would you say that the majority of your time online is spent creating content – or consuming content?

For awhile now I’ve been on a one-way street. I’ve been so busy creating and managing my content that I haven’t had much opportunity to read or study anything new.

I’d be willing to bet you’re having the opposite problem – you’ve been so busy consuming and studying content that you haven’t had much time left over to work on creating your own contribution to the web. Am I right?

Both of those scenarios present their own set of problems.

Obviously you are going to have a difficult time getting your online business up and running if you are too busy downloading, reading and studying. There are only so many hours in a day.

Likewise, it’s very easy to become stagnant if you aren’t consuming niche news and information on current trends. One of the keys to being a market leader in your niche is to be in a position to report on that news, and share opinions and actionable tips with your readership.

The key is to find balance between creating and consuming.

I realized that very recently, and have been making strides toward improvements. This is one of the primary reasons that I have been attending more internet marketing events and studying new info products.

On the flip side, if all you do is attend events and study guides & blogs… you aren’t publishing or creating. Which is not going to get you anywhere fast.

Prior to the rise of Social Media, people either got online to publish information or to consume information. Now most users are both creating and consuming information every time they log on. So in addition to following news and trends, you also want to keep an ear on the conversations related to your niche(s). Not only should you read those discussions, you should get involved in them.

The first thing I recommend is that you keep a Time Log for the next 72 hours. Make note of how much time you spend working, and exactly how you are spending that time. Simply keep a notepad on your desk or beside your laptop, and keep an ongoing log of times & tasks.

You can take it a step further and document your entire day for the next 3 days. Including family obligations, tv time, sleep, social events, etc. It’s incredibly enlightening, and you will see areas where you can make dramatic improvements right away. (This is one of the reasons I use paper & pen vs software that tracks online activities only)

Next, set up systems and schedules for both consuming and creating. There are a lot of options including software, outsourcing, mobile apps, and different strategies. What works best for one person won’t be the ideal solution for the next, so you want to choose a system that works best for you.

I put NewsRob Pro on my Droid so that I can access my Google Feed Reader on the go. This cuts out my consumption time in front of the computer, and allows me to keep up with topics and Google Alerts while I’m mobile. I find it’s much more efficient to keep an eye on them when I have a spare minute here and there, than to get completely drawn in for an hour or more while I’m sitting at my desk.

That won’t work for everyone, but it works great for me.

Also set aside a specific amount of time every day to create. Make it a routine until it becomes a habit. Set a timer for 30, 60 or 90 minutes during this time and turn everything else off so that you can focus on publishing for your niche.

Whether you’re working on a new product, blogging, mailing your list – whatever you’re doing, make time to do that consistently.

Start with the Time Log. It’s a simple exercise that can make a huge difference. Are you consuming too much information and not creating enough (or any) yourself? Are you out of the loop because you aren’t keeping an eye on the content & conversations others are publishing? Make it a point to find some balance with all of the information, and make sure it’s flowing smoothly on both sides…

Best,

p.s. If you choose to take the Time Log challenge, I would love to hear what stands out to you most from analyzing the way you spend your time working online. Did you see an immediate area where you can make serious improvements?

One way link building is an important part of your overall SEO strategy. The major search engines view these as high quality inbound links – when done right.

In this post I’ll give you 7 simple one way link building strategies that give your Link Reputation a nice little boost, and also bring in highly targeted traffic all on their own.

One Way Links are valuable because they are viewed as truer votes towards your web page. The exception is sponsored links, or one way links that are obviously purchased. There are a number of ways that Google can tell this, which is one of the reasons that a permanent inbound link tends to gain more weight over time.

Easy One Way Link Building Strategies

The goal is to get permanent one way links pointing to your web pages, whether that be the main page of your site or internal pages or blog posts on your domain. You need a good number of quality deep links to those internal pages to boost your overall Link Reputation. Following are 7 very easy ways to achieve that…

1. Interviews

Interviews come in all shapes and sizes, and you can really get creative with this one. A traditional audio interview on a webinar, podcast or online radio show will usually get you a link on the host’s site and also a mention to their mailing list (even better if those newsletters are archived online).

I prefer text interviews on relevant blogs, as they give you a high quality contextual link from a relevant content page. This can be done by answering a series of questions via email that are then published on the blog.

Another option is Q&A style, which is fun and easy.

Examples:
Advantage & Disadvantage of Outsourcing Q&A Style
Lynn Terry of ClickNewz an interview Text Interview
Life Change: Interview with Lynn Terry Text Interview
On Becoming a Market Leader Audio Interview
Lynn Terry Affiliate Marketing Success BlogTalkRadio Interview

2. Guest Blogging

Interviews are great, but guest blogging is even better for one way link building. Why? Because as the author of the content on the page that is linking to your page, you have full control over that link.

You can choose the keyword phrase to optimize the blog post, choose the page you want to link to that is relevant to that topic, and use your preferred anchor text in that backlink. And if that wasn’t reason enough to start guest blogging, you’re also putting yourself in front of an established readership in your niche!

Examples:
My Guest Post on Problogger
Guest Post on ClickNewz by Danny Cutts

3. Private Paid Link

One thing you really want to stay away from is programs or schemes designed to create your one way links, or text link brokers that sell you one way links.

These programs and brokers are really frowned upon by the major search engines and could hurt your Link Reputation rather than improving it.

This being the case, I still purchase text links from time to time – I just do it smarter. And I never purchase a temporary link, but rather a permanent contextual inbound link on a relevant content page or blog post.

How do I manage to do that? Simple: I offer bloggers a one-time payment to blog about a specific link on my site. Most of the “pay per post” brokers pay their bloggers $5-$15 for blog posts, so that price range is suitable – particularly for B-list or C-list bloggers. I usually use Job Boards on forums to make the offer.

I do not specify anchor text, give them more than one page or blog post to choose from, and just request that they blog about the topic and link back to the page/post. I do this because I want link variation, and because I’m buying “advertising” or “buzz” – rather than specifically buying text links.

Never use a broker. Do it yourself, or hire a virtual assistant to manage it. Period.

4. Article Marketing

Submitting articles to article directories is similar to guest blogging in that you have complete control over the content and the link. This is a great method that people have been using successfully for years.

In addition to getting indirect rankings when your submitted article ranks well, and then funnels traffic into your site, your article can also get republished all over the web – resulting in numerous quality one way links.

Sidenote: A lot of us – newbies and experienced marketers alike – are taking Jeff Herrings new article marketing e-course. It’s cheap and it’s awesome – super great investment to really nail this strategy.

Examples:
My latest article on EzineArticles.com
Quick Start To Setting Up Your First Blog Article at EzineArticles
Republished here, here and here (to name a few).

5. Testimonials

Most merchants won’t publish a live outbound link to your site from their sales page, but if you get creative you might just be able to get a link from their blog or an internal page on their website pointing to your review or case study of their product.

I’m actually seeing an example of this in the SERPs now with a page I’m trying to beat out for their #3 listing. By analyzing their backlinks, I discovered the merchant was linking to their review.

Look for merchants that link out to reviews, give live links in testimonials, or that have blogs. If they have a blog you can offer a detailed case study or success story as a guest post, which includes the link to your review of their product.

6. DMOZ Directory

Meh. Good luck. But if you can manage to get a one way link by submitting and getting an approved listing in the DMOZ directory – go you!

Here’s the link: http://www.dmoz.org/help/submit.html

7. Social Bookmarking

Ideally you should include social bookmarking buttons on your blog posts or web pages to encourage your readers to bookmark your content. This is the best and most natural way to get one way links from this source.

You can also set up your own social bookmarking accounts, but my advice is that for every link of your own that you bookmark… you should bookmark 5 or 10 other links on domains or properties you do not own. This keeps it natural, and resourceful.

See: Top DoFollow Social Bookmarking Sites by PageRank & Alexa Rank

Also download and read Social Media Daily by Michelle MacPhearson

8. Bonus One Way Link Building Tip!

This bonus tip is actually one of my favorite one way link building strategies. It’s so slick you’ll be shocked at how simple and effective it is. And it’s easy too – you don’t even have to request a single backlink for this one…

Write content so great that you get unsolicited one-way links to your page from all over the web. That’s it. This post serves as a good example.

Best,

Also See: How Many Backlinks Do I Need?

When we talk about web content writing, the first thing most people think of is coming up with good web content to write for their blog or website.

Another common content-writing concern is coming up with email newsletter ideas.

One of the most frequently asked questions about email marketing is “what do I send to my list?” and most people admitted that they find emailing their subscribers daunting or even intimidating…

Email Marketing Mindset

The first order of business is a simple shift in mindset. Remind yourself that you are a market leader or expert in your niche, and that these people have subscribed to your list to get more information from you.

Not only did they request it, they expect to get email from you.

Offering an opt-in box and building an email list – that you never (or rarely) send an email to – is a disservice to your visitors. You owe it to them to hold up your end of the deal by sending them exactly what they requested.

Email Newsletter Format

The traditional long-format email newsletter is out, and short & resourceful is IN. There’s no need to spend hours creating some massive perfectly formatted essay to send out to your email subscribers every week or every month.

Short is good. In fact, short is better. People are busy and usually go through their email in a hurry. They will really appreciate getting quick actionable tips from you. Consider your own email reading habits, and what you prefer to read yourself.

Keep it short, use short easy-to-read paragraphs, and simply send them a resource or an idea they can put into action right then and there.

Email Newsletter Ideas

Before you sit down to write an email to your list, consider the purpose of that message. What is your objective in writing it? What do your readers expect from you? What do you want your subscribers to do when they read it?

Answering those questions will help you craft the best possible email message.

If you’re at a total loss for newsletter ideas, or what to send your list, go back to your opt-in page or your subscribe box and see what you promised them when they signed up. That’s always a good starting point…

Keep in mind that you don’t always have to send your readers to your own site, or try to sell them your own products. In fact, it’s best if you don’t do that in every email message. Being too self-promotional will be a real turn-off for your readers.

Send them a link to a great blog post on someone else’s blog, or a great discussion on a forum in your niche. Send them a cool free resource they can use and a short paragraph describing what it is, what it does, and why you use it.

5 quick email newsletter ideas to consider:

• A link to a news story, and your thoughts on it.
• A great new blog post you recommend they read.
• An idea, or how-to, with quick tips for implementation.
• A free tool or resource to help them achieve their objective.
• News about a sale, special offer or coupon code you found.

Obviously what you send via email is going to be specific to your niche, the purpose of your newsletter, and what your subscribers expect and want or need most. Take a moment to get in their mind, and consider how you can meet them where they are – and help them take action on your topic.

Also decide how often you are going to email your list, and when. Create an email marketing publishing schedule, and stick to it. This will help you stay on track, and also get your subscribers looking forward to receiving emails from you on certain days or at specific intervals.

Best,

p.s. If you need a step-by-step fill-in-the-blank solution for email newsletter ideas, see www.clicknewz.com/instantnicheemails.htm The software is great (I’ve used it myself), but first download the free report there by Lisa Preston.