Types Of Legitimate Online Businesses (4) - Making Money From Membership Sites

Some online business owners make money from selling memberships to their websites. 

People purchase memberships to gain access to content that the website owner provides them on a regular basis.

For example, you may offer memberships to internet users who are need of articles for their websites. 

The memberships would need to be renewed every few months or so depending on how long your memberships are good for. 

Every time someone renews their membership, you make more money.The profit potential for this kind of business is pretty high. 

It won’t cost much to provide your members with informational items, but you could charge them a nice amount to access them, giving you a profit that keeps on giving.

What skills are helpful?

Marketing skills will be the most helpful. Getting those internet users to your site to purchase your memberships is what will make you the money. 

Having some knowledge of running a website could be useful as well to keep your site running smoothly for your members.

You may want to have some knowledge of the products you’re offering. 

For example, if you’re offering articles to your members, you should know what makes a good article and how they work for the different purposes.

What tools are needed?

You will need a high quality website to handle the demands that membership site will bring. There should provide excellent service should something go wrong with the site. 

There are some membership site management software programs that can help you get one set up and

running for less than $100.

Content for the site is another tool you will need. You need to provide your paying members with fresh content to use regularly. 

It could be in the form of written articles, software programs or even online games, depending on what you plan to give your members.

How do you get started?

You will need to plan your membership site beforehand. What do you plan to offer your members? Will it be content, software etc? 

When you have made your decision, then come up with a new and different angle to provide your consumers.

You could provide content in a specific niche, like nutrition or you could offer a certain kind of written content-whatever it takes to get provide internet users with a fresh angle. 

This helps you stand out from the crowd of competitors out there.

Next, get your membership site created with a shopping cart feature to handle the payments for the memberships. 

The membership management software programs should come with all you need to accomplish your business. All you would then need is the content to give to your members.

The most important step will be to market your membership site to get people to find you. Marketing techniques will be discussed later on in this report. 

Membership sites can offer you a means of earning residual type income. 

If people are satisfied with what you give them, they will have no problems handing you their money to keep renewing their access to your site’s content.

Types Of Legitimate Online Businesses (3) - Selling On E-Bay

This is another popular online business that a lot of people usually start out with. E-Bay is a popular online auction website that millions of people use every day to find good deals on items they are looking for.

You can sell anything you have at home as well as selling items using a drop ship method. If you do a search on the e-bay site, you will see a whole variety of items that people are selling. They could be used items or brand new items that come from wholesalers. 

Either way, people will pay good money if you provide them with what they’re looking for. Some people go so far as to buy items from flea markets and garage sales for the sole purpose of reselling them on e-bay for a profit.

What skills are helpful?

There aren’t a lot of skills you would need to sell items on e-bay. The ability to market your items will be the most important one to have. 

People can do a search on the site for the items you’re selling, but if you want to make money in this type of business, you will want to market those items elsewhere to get people to find them. 

If you’re selling items from your home, you should be able to take a good photo of the item so people can see what shape the item is in.

What tools are needed?

Really, the only tools you should need to start this type of business is an account with e-bay to sell your items. If you plan to use a drop ship method, you would have to find a wholesaler that will ship the items direct to the customers.

An access to a computer with a reliable internet access will be necessary to keep track of your sales. You will also need an online account like PayPal to receive money from your customers.

How do you get started?

Sign up for an account with E-Bay that allows you to sell from them. Plan to purchase items from the site as well to help build your user ratings, so people will have a little more confidence in buying from you.

Place photos, if possible, of the items that you want to sell. Items that have a photo of items sell much faster than those that don’t. People like to see what it is they’re buying, so provide them with the best quality photo possible.

Review all informational materials as well as the rules on the E-Bay website, to get tips on making more sales and how the process of selling on the site works . Selling on E-Bay is an excellent way to start your own online business. 

This gives you your first taste of an online business without having to have a lot of equipment to get you started. Plus, you get the benefit of getting rid of items that are cluttering up your home while you make a

little money on the side.

Types Of Legitimate Online Businesses (2) - Affiliate Marketing

This is an online business where you use your selling and marketing expertise to get consumers to buy other people’s products and earn income from the sale you made. 

Typically, you would earn a pre-determined amount of money based on the sales you make of those products, but in some cases, you could make money from the clicks from your site that get the consumers to the affiliate websites.

Sometimes you can earn money by getting customers to sign up for things on the affiliate sites, such as newsletters etc. 

Each affiliate program will discuss this further on how they work, so when you sign up for their program, be sure to check out how their process works. This will be kept track of through an affiliate link that you’re provided with to place on your site.

What skills are helpful?
You don’t have to be a salesman or a marketer to be an affiliate marketer. Knowledge on how to do these things will be important though. 

Learn everything you can about how online marketing works and learn how to be a successful affiliate marketer from other top marketers.

It will take hard work and much dedication to get your affiliate marketing business to be a successful one. If you don’t have the time nor the gumption to work hard, don’t consider this to be your online business.

What tools are needed?
The tools needed will be minimal. Besides the usual computer with reliable internet access, you will need a website to sell the affiliate products from. You won’t have to stock up on the products, just to sell them.

Your website will need fresh content on a regular basis, so be prepared to either write some articles yourself or hire someone to do them for you. A blog to link to your site will be helpful as well to make the search engines happy with you.

How do you get started?
You will need to determine what niche you have for your affiliate marketing website. This helps you to stand out from your competitors. For example, you could use nutrition as your niche. Then create a website based on the niche you chose for your business.

Then find affiliate products to sell from that site. Make sure that the products you decide to sell for your business are related in some way to the niche you have chosen for your affiliate marketing business.

So, if your niche is in the nutritional field, you will want to offer affiliate products that are related in some way to nutrition. 

If you don’t offer related products in your business, you run the risk of appearing as unprofessional and the search engines won’t be too pleased with you as well.

There are many people who make quite a bit of money running this type of business. It’s important to remember that the most work you will have in this type of business will be marketing your website to get consumers to find you.

When they find you, your site should be able to get them interested in your products to the point where they will buy using your links.

Types Of Legitimate Online Businesses (1) - Service Based Businesses

A service based business is one where you offer some type of service to potential clients. Some of these include:

1. Writing

2. Web Design

3. Accounting/Bookkeeping

4. Virtual Assistant

Other small business owners have a tough time getting all of their business tasks done by themsleves, so they outsource those projects to someone else. They look for people who offer the services they need done for them.

If you have experience in some of these areas, you could offer it as a service by starting your own business selling yourself. For example, if you have some writing experience and can write well, you can offer that as a service to others who need writing done for their sites.

What skills are needed?

Depending on the type of service you choose to provide your potential clients, you should have some amount of skill under your belt. 

It’s not necessary to have educational degrees to perform these services, but clients like to see that you have some kind of experience to complete the tasks they need done.

Working online doesn’t provide the face to face contact that brick and mortar companies have when they hire employees. Trust comes a little harder online, so people do like to know the person they’re hiring has skills and knowledge in a particular field.

While it’s not necessary to have 10+ years experience performing a service, the fact that you have done it before and have some testimonials to back that claim up helps tremendously.

What tools are needed?
The tools you need will depend on the type of services you plan to provide. The more common ones that most service based businesses should have are:

1. Computer

2. Reliable Internet access

3. Phone

4. E-mail program

5. Website

There will probably be some software programs to obtain as well. Each service uses some different ones, but most need a word processing program, excel program, and some use a web designing program.

You should consider an Instant Messaging program for those clients who like to be able to contact you instantly without having to use the phone to call or wait for an e-mail response.

How do you get started?

First thing you want to do is decide on the type of service you plan to offer your clients. Jot down everything you can think of that shows you have some experience or knowledge in that particular field.

Next, get your website created. Showcase your skills or experience on your site and provide clients with testimonials from other people who have used your skills and were pleased with the results. Place your rates and any other information about how you run your business.

Market your site on various places on the internet to get your online business out there for potential clients to find and check out. 

When clients contact you to hire you for whatever service they need, reiterate to them how things will go. For example, let them know how they be invoiced for the work done and how much it will cost etc.

It will take awhile to build a list of regular clients, so don’t expect to be making tons of money right away. Give it time and keep marketing your service based business until you get to the point where you’re practically turning away clients because you’re too busy.

Running a service based business is a perfect option for those who already are performing that service at another job. In most cases, you could make more money offering those services online than you can by working a brick and mortar position.

Serving Different Ads to Different Levels of Visitor

You don’t have to display every ad to every person who visits your forums. You can show different ads to guests who are not logged in and to visitors who come from search engines than you show to members who are logged in.

For example, you may want to serve more advertisements to guests who are not logged in than you do once a person has signed in. This can create a better experience for your registered members and can provide an incentive to register and login.

It is generally accepted that visitors coming from search engines are more likely to click ads than direct visitors. 

Because of this, even if you display ads to everyone, the lion’s share of your revenue may still be coming from visitors who are not logged in. Some will argue that your regular visitors may develop blindness to your ads. 

For some, that may be true. For others, it won’t be. This point also ignores the fact that some ads are CPM based and you will be paid for views – not for clicks.

That said, selective ad display can be a great strategy for some communities and can help you maintain the balance between wanting to grow your revenue and also needing to maintain a good user experience for your loyal members.

Understanding Revenue Models

There are four basic revenue models that you will encounter in dealing with ad networks and advertisers. To firmly grasp their potential, you need to understand the differences between them and how they work.

You should not confine yourself to just one model. Instead, you should consider what will work best with your community and blend the different strategies to achieve optimal results. This may require some experimentation.

Sponsorship

The sponsorship model can also be referred to as “tenancy” and it works best on forums that have a niche audience. For example, let’s say you have a forum about blue widgets. 

It would be natural for an advertiser who sells blue widgets to place an ad directly on your forum since they already know that your audience is who they are trying to reach.

In this model, you are selling an ad for a fixed time period to the advertiser for a flat rate. 

Let’s say you have an ad zone on your forum that is 125 pixels in width by 125 pixels in height (normally written as “125x125”). You might sell that space to an advertiser for $100 per 30 days. 

It doesn’t matter how many impressions the ad receives (how many times it is served to visitors), because you are selling time in that ad space, not impressions.

Sponsorships are typically sold on a guaranteed basis, meaning that you are guaranteeing exposure for the advertiser and they will not be outbid or replaced by a higher paying advertiser.

CPM

CPM stands for cost per thousand impressions (or, more technically, “cost per mille,” with “per mille” being Latin and meaning “by a thousand”). An impression occurs each time a visitor loads an ad on your forum.

To use some simple math, let’s assume an advertiser is paying you a $1 CPM. This means,

for every 1,000 ad impressions you serve to them, they will pay you $1. 

So, if you serve 100,000 ad impressions, you will receive $100 (100,000, divided by 1,000, multiplied by $1).

CPA

This is cost per action or cost per acquisition and refers to the act of a user clicking an ad on your forum and then completing a very specific goal for the advertiser. 

An example of this would be the user buying a product from the advertiser or filling out a lead form – otherwise known as a conversion event. 

CPA can also be referred to as cost per lead, cost per sale, cost per engagement and cost per conversion. All of those terms mean pretty much the same thing.

CPC

Finally, CPC is the abbreviation for cost per click and, quite simply, it means that you are paid each time a visitor clicks on an advertisement.

7 Basic Considerations Before Getting Online Business Started

The fear of the getting started process tends to make people procrastinate in starting a business of their own. That fear usually boils down to the fact that they just don’t know how to do it, or where to even start. 

This report will help you with this process, so you can lay your fears to rest and move through the getting started phase with ease. Let’s start with some commonly asked questions that most newbies have in the getting started process. 

“Do I have to have special skills or degrees to start my own business?

”You will need to have some knowledge in the field you’re going to embark in, but it’s not necessary to have any business or college degrees to accomplish starting your own business. 

Of course, it will depend on the type of business you want to start. Simple research in the field you’re potential business will be in, will be sufficient enough to give you what you need in most cases. 

If you’re planning to offer a service like web designing, etc; you should have some skills in that area before trying to start your business. 

College degrees and experience are always helpful in gaining expertise in a field, but you usually don’t have to have any degrees to have your own online business. 

Knowledge has more power online, so reading everything you can get your hands on that deals with your field will more important. 

Will it Cost a lot of money?”

Starting your own online business doesn’t generally cost much money. The money you put into it is mostly for a computer, internet access and a website. 

Any other costs will be based on the type of business you want to get into. Businesses where you will sell items you’ve created, will take some money to stock the inventory items, but there are great deals on the internet to be found for this purpose. 

If you plan to sell a service, like web designing, software programs will need to be added to your list of tools to purchase. For the most part, you won’t have to run to your local bank and beg them to offer you a loan. 

Find the best deals on the items you need for the business you choose and you won’t have to worry about the interest rates a loan would add to your budget. 

“Will I still be able to start my own business online, even if I’ve never run my own business before?”

Absolutely. Hundreds of Internet Marketers have started their own businesses and made a success of it without having any previous business experience. Again, it all adds up to how much time and effort you put into your research.

The internet, itself, holds a plethora of information at your fingertips to help you learn every aspect of the business you want to start. 

You can find tips, tricks and all sorts of information from people who’ve been there and done it, so utilize this resource to gain the power that knowledge will bring you. 

“How much money can I make from an online business?”
This will vary on a lot of factors. What business you start, how much time and effort you put into it and the return of investment on what you’re offering; all play a part in what you will essentially make. 

Some internet marketers make a six figure income, while others make the same amount a full time fast food worker generally makes. 

No matter how much your business brings in, you will still be ahead of those who commute to their jobs. The money they spend on gas, clothes for work and meals etc; is money that goes into your pocket and not someone else’s. 

“Do I really need a website?”

A website will be needed to conduct your business from. You will need to sell your products or show potential clients what services you have to offer. 

It serves as your ‘office’ or ‘store’ would, only you won’t need to rent out expensive space in a building to use for your online business. 

Websites are pretty easy to create if you use one of the many website design software programs or website building services. 

If you choose to, you can also hire a web designer to create a killer site for your business, so don’t let your lack of web designing skills hold you back. 

“Do I need special business licenses to run an online business?”

You will want to check with your local government agencies to determine what you will need in your area. Each area is different, so it’s best to check and see what you need before starting your business.

“I’m nervous about taking money from customers. What if I mess up the payment processing system?”

If you’re selling items, you will want to use an online payment system like PayPal or Clickbank. These programs will take of the whole payment process for you including refunds. 

Shopping cart software a lot of times will come with a web building program, so take advantage of that option.