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Chapter 1: Introduction

Internet marketing can mean a lot of things. For some, internet marketing is practically synonymous with affiliate marketing. This is the process of selling products made by other people in order to earn commission.

But internet marketing can be more than that too. Of course, internet marketing can mean building a website or a blog, building a massive audience for that platform, and then making money from adverts (Google AdSense for instance) or selling your own products.

Internet marketing might mean selling a digital product such as an ebook or an online course.

Internet marketing might mean selling something physical.

Internet marketing may mean promoting a website as the end in itself – simply building a channel so that you can spread the word about something that’s important to you, or so that you can try to promote yourself to grow your own career. I recently spoke to a group of creative writers and explained to them how learning the basics of marketing on the web could allow them to promote themselves and find publishers!

And of course, internet marketing might mean marketing an existing business in order to gain more customers and make more sales. Any small business should be interested in marketing themselves online.

The fact of the matter is: internet marketing means getting word out on the web and it means creating brilliant content. And if you can do either or both of those things, then you can make the web work for you.

Once you do that then pretty much anything is possible.

Literally. We’ll see later in this book how the ability to work online can allow pretty much any of your wildest dreams and plans to come true – whether that means earning a passive income and travelling the world, or whether it means growing a massive business or working on projects that you are truly passionate about and getting paid for it!

The only problem is that very few people have any idea what makes the web tick. People tell me they want to start their own business selling crafts, or they tell me that they want to start blogging for fun but they have zero clue what that entails. What is SEO? What is marketing?

If you’re sitting there smugly thinking that you already know the basics of internet marketing, then time for a reality check. Because even if you know the basics of internet marketing, there’s a good chance that you don’t have all of the advanced skills you need to really make any project into a success.

In this book then, I am going to start by outlining those basics. I’m going to teach you internet marketing 101 for those of you with no prior experience. This is what makes the web tick. This is your bread and butter.

But from there, I’m then going to dive into the much more advanced stuff that many ‘internet marketing gurus’ in reality have no idea about whatsoever. You will learn skills here that will put you head and shoulders above the competition. You will learn tools that will make you immensely employable, to the point that you are never without work. And you’ll be able to turn any idea or concept into a reality.

Chapter 2: What Makes the Web Go Around

When I tell people that I work online, the reaction I very often get is bafflement. Countless people have admitted to me at one point or another that they have no idea what I do for a living. In fact, my grandma once made me promise to her that ‘whatever I did’ was not illegal!

When I left university and started working for myself, everyone expected me to fail. They all asked ‘when are you going to get a ‘proper job’?

A little offensive? Sure. But it’s understandable.

After all, it’s not at all obvious from an outsider’s perspective how money gets made on the web. How can you earn money online while sitting at home?

How do websites earn money even if no products actually change hands?

This is the part some of you will already know, but it bears repeating for those that don’t.

Essentially then, money is made online thanks to views.

The more people view a website or an article, the more opportunity there is to make money. And this is possible partly thanks to advertising and partly thanks to sales.

If you have a website that is getting several hundred thousand views per day, then you will have the option of placing Google Ads on it. These are adverts that are automatically generated by Google’s partners and which you will then place on your website. Each time the ad is clicked, Google earns some money and a portion of that revenue is split with you.

While this might sound strange, the reality is that those people are likely going to head to that other website and then spend more money. For instance, if an insurance company is paying for clicks on your website, chances are that the visitors it gains from this will buy at least some insurance and thus they’ll earn more money than they spend in the long term.

And don’t get it twisted: you’ll only earn a few cents per click in most cases so you really do need hundreds of thousands of views for a website to be profitable through this process alone.

If you’re still struggling to get your head around this, then the best comparison to make is with free papers and magazines that you might have seen being handed outside your local train station. Those free magazines cost money to print and they’re being given away!

But the customer in this case is not the person reading the magazine. The customer is the advertiser and the magazine has value to the advertiser because it has such a wide exposure. The more eyeballs see that paper or magazine, the more the advertiser can potentially stand to earn by placing their adverts there!

This is how a website works too.

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Internet Marketing Business Models

In this chapter, we’re going to cover some internet marketing business models. If you are interested in internet marketing, then you definitely need to know what business models are out there and how to choose the best one for you.

There are many different business models that we will cover in this chapter, and you can make money from every single one of them if you want.

But first you have to choose the right one and that not only will take some thought, it also takes a great deal of information. That’s exactly what this chapter is going to give you.

Introduction to Internet Marketing

Before we get into the business models, let’s talk about internet marketing in general. Loosely defined, internet marketing is any type of business that you do on the internet to make money.

We’re going to go over some the specific methods to do so shortly. Internet marketing got started in earnest when people realized that they could influence where their website landed in the search results.

Since then, the market has exploded to the point where it seems like everyone is doing internet marketing.

Internet marketing is a wonderful business to get in for several reasons.

• First, you have unlimited income potential. Internet marketing has made quite a few millionaires and there are tons and tons of people making six figures with an internet marketing enterprise.

• In addition, internet marketing can be a residual, passive form of income.

That means that you can be doing something else – even having a full-time job – and still be making money with your internet marketing efforts.

Defining the Business Model

Internet marketing is composed of various business models. A business model is simply a method of making money on the internet. There are some standards that have proven very effective for internet marketers, such as Amazon, and others that are less used but still lucrative.

People are also creating more opportunities daily to make money on the internet.

Types of Business Models

Let’s go over ten of the most popular ways that you can make money on the internet, so that you can see each one in detail and understand how they work. Then we’ll give you some advice on how to choose the right one for you. But you must understand the model before you can determine if you want to get into that business.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the first internet marketing business model we’ll be discussing. Have you heard of the website Clickbank? Clickbank is a well-known place where affiliates can find products to promote. Clickbank is by no means the only website that offers this service, but they are probably the biggest and most well known.
When you do affiliate marketing:

• you get the customer to visit your site
• you use your sales page to convince them to buy
• then you send them to the seller’s website with your affiliate ID attached.

This means that when they buy the product, you get a commission.

The exact amount of the commission varies with each product, but it can be a substantial amount of money.

Amazon Affiliate

The next model that we’re going to discuss is the Amazon affiliate program. The reason that the Amazon program isn’t lumped in with the other affiliate marketing programs listed above is simple: it’s so good that it deserves its own section. Amazon has everything that you could possibly want listed on their website.

It doesn’t matter what product you are looking for, Amazon almost certainly has it. The great thing is: if you send someone to Amazon to buy a product that they were looking for anyway, Amazon pays you a commission.

All you have to do is figure out how to get people to your page, determine what products they are interested in, and then send them onto Amazon to buy that product.

Content Marketing

Next, we’re going to discuss content marketing. Content marketing is a type of marketing where you create content for the purpose of creating keywords that you will be indexed for in the search engines.

This is different than a blog, because this content is designed differently. It needs to inform and be of great value to the reader. It is more formal than a blog post; it is an article.

Content marketing works as long as you remember that content is king – meaning that having good content (and a lot of it) is the number one thing that is going to get your website ranked high in the search engines.

You still need to do your keyword research of course, and you still want to be using linking strategies, but content marketing is all about the quality of the content.

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Introductory

When you think about Online Marketing, what do you think of first?

Which aspects of Online Marketing are important, which are essential, and which ones can you take or leave? You be the judge.

1. Sell more back end products to your existing customer base. You already created rapport, trust and proved your credibility to them.
2. Make it a practice to up sell to new and existing customers. After they decide to buy one product, offer them another product.
3. Cross promote your products and services with other businesses that aren't competition. You will reach a wider audience at less cost.
4. Create joint venture deals with other businesses. You can expand your product line and target other profitable markets at a lower cost.
5. Start an affiliate program for your business. You will be able to spend less profits on risk advertising and spend more money on guaranteed sales. I trust that what you've read so far has been informative. The following section should go a long way toward clearing up any uncertainty that may remain.
6. Trade advertising with other businesses to save revenue. You could trade e-zine ads, banners ads, links, print ads, etc.
7. Outsource part of your workload. This can save on employee costs, equipment costs, taxation costs, expansion costs, etc.
8. Add low cost bonuses to your offer that have a high perceived value. It could be eBooks, members only sites, consulting, e-reports, etc.
9. Use viral marketing to promote your business on the internet. Give away free stuff with your ad copy include on it so others can give it away.
10. Follow up with all your prospects. You can use a free e-zine, a follow-up autoresponder, an update or reminder list, etc.

Chapter 1: A Glance At Internet Marketing

Internet Marketing is a concept of business marketing, both to customers and to other businesses, via the internet.

But, to explore and understand this black box is not simple. The main reason is that the internet is forever evolving and is subjected to waves of changes.

With new advances in internet technology, businesses are able to leverage on it and add to their marketing approach and content. Similarly, more people are logging onto the internet every day as the internet access are made more affordable and readily available.

The demographic is changing, and no longer is the wealthy individual the only target of internet marketing. Today, we should consider all income levels in our internet marketing approaches of business.

In the 1990s, internet marketing went berserk. It was a brand-new concept, and caution had been thrown to the wind in all the hype. Companies did not take into consideration that the same variables of marketing in other forms of media should logically be applied to internet marketing as well.

Their failure to study markets and create sound strategies led to the fall of many so-called dot-coms in the end of 2000. The survivors, and successors, began to look toward time-tested logic in marketing for direction, and the result was massive growth.

Through the now-careful approach of businesses and marketers alike, targeted advertising on the internet has brought forth great success. Virtually any market you may wish to break into can be tapped on the internet. Many marketing firms offer the solutions a business needs to get their products out to consumers, while a small firm may wish to handle their marketing on their own and can find lower-cost solutions for their goals as well.

A major resource for internet marketing is the search engines. To get the spontaneous suggestions offered by television or radio, pop-up ads and ads placed directly on a web-site are used. Another excellent form of marketing is the email feature that is available on the internet. But bear in mind that the business will only achieve success when you have built a good relationship with the customer.

Many people are spending hours on the internet daily. This is because the internet offers convenience, and it is capable of helping you get your tasks completed, with handy and easy to use point and click features.

Many tasks no longer require a trip in the car to be completed. Thus, relationships are growing on the web, and as they do, the pace of internet commerce has rocketed into the trillions of dollars. Advances in technology, and increased traffic, are leading to a future for internet marketing that can only point skyward.