Which is the best for beginners?

[apu]

Which is the best online business for the beginners to start ? Will it be okay to start with setting up a blog or website.Please make some recommendations.

[David Hurley]

Hi Apu,

I think one good way for Internet beginners to start is to experiment with selling stuff on eBay.

In my own case I began by making a website about Japanese mahjong and then tried selling some mahjong goods on it. It worked! Actually, I remember that before I tried selling mahjong goods I experimented with selling other kinds of thing such as Japanese comics on eBay and things like that.

I only got into affiliate marketing later on, and used the money I was making selling goods to fund my experiments with affiliate and network marketing.

[Mal Tindle]

Hi Apu,

It sounds like you already have an interest in setting up your own site and this is a good way to get into affiliate marketing. You can promote products or services with links or banners from your own site or just promote other people's websites, if it is the latter then you don't need a site of your own at all.

The two main expenses you can’t really get away from are the cost of choosing your domain name and website hosting fees, neither of which are greatly expensive but that is a must with your own site.

Then of course you have to generate traffic to your site and this takes time and consistent effort which is where a lot of people give up because it doesn’t happen overnight. I’m not sure how familiar you are with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) of your site or how comfortable you are with article writing but these are the two ‘biggies’ when you are starting off.

With articles, you can promote a service or product you are familiar with and post your original article to directories and on your own site and over time you will start to get traffic but it is very easy to get overwhelmed with all the info at the beginning so I would advise you to keep things simple, become proficient with one thing at a time then move on but keep busy and keep supplying fresh content for your site.

regards,

Mal.

[MichelleJ]

Hi Apu

Mal has given you some very good advice here. Personally I started out with an internet marketing website as I felt that this would be the best place to learn from, the drawback with this though is that it is one of the most competitive niches online and so actually getting to make any money in it is a lot more difficult. One other point, unless you are good with the technical side of websites it might be an idea to start off with a Wordpress blog as it is inexpensive and you don't need to know too much html. if you do choose this route then make sure to have you own hosting and don't rely on the Wordpress hosting as you have more control over your site this way.

MichelleJ

[Hulbert Lee]

Which is the best online business for the beginners to start ? Will it be okay to start with setting up a blog or website.Please make some recommendations.

Start with affiliate marketing if you don't want to create a product and just want to worry about getting traffic. You can do this through creating a blog, which is usually something easier for beginners to do compared to learning about search engine optimization.

[GT Bulmer]

Hey, Hulbert:

I agree that Affiliate Marketing is a great place to start for newcomers to online marketing. And blogging is a quick and easy way to begin promoting and get experience. One thing I recommend is to set up a self-hosted blog rather than using a free blogging service because then the marketer will have more say over what they blog about and less worry that their blog will be shut down.

A self-hosted blog is a blog that is hosted on one's own website - www .yoursite .com. Of course, many marketers are using traditional blogs AS their websites these days. The WordPress platform is a popular blog/website resource to use.

GT

[zorbis]

In the present scenario internet marketing is the new revolution in the online business. You can make a website and promote it on internet. you can also earn through ad sense and even you can do affiliate marketing. If you want to start new business at your own, you can start easily from a website.

[bevanwillson]

Network marketing can give you the financial and time freedom that you seek. So re-evaluate what you have been doing, and if it’s not working you need to make some changes.

[localnumberone]

Building a website is better as we have several ways to earn from. We can either sell products or we can first attract visitors and then provide advertising space or something beyond both of them like affiliate marketing.

[Shy]

For me, it would be a blog for starters. Its easier to manage and less complicated compared to a website. Which needs more technical stuffs.

[Jason Fonceca]

Apu, there is so much good advice here, I'm almost hesitant to add.

But I will

I've had many businesses (8, or 11 if you include childhood businesses), and most of them failed. I learned a lot on the way, and the main thing I learned is:

1) No one is a beginner, we're all people experimenting. It makes a huge difference. Believe me or don't, try it or don't, but if you admit "Yes, I'm Apu, but a business is not anything special. It is something I'm experimenting with, and I'm excited for it." you may have different results.

2) If you really, truly, want success right out of the gate, without much failure -- it's doable, but it takes some very intense setup and preparation -- you need to discover Who You Are, and What You Stand For and What You Really Want.

This is waaaaay easier said than done.

Most people just skip it.

They really do.

But if you're interested in a free, and very helpful start on getting clear on who you are and what you're passionate about, you can go here: http://ryzeonline.com/how-to-have-fun-f ... y-pictures

Anyway, my advice is 'unconventional', and it works best when used with all the other advice in this thread about minimizing expenses and so on.

Hope it helps!

[Takuya]

Personally, when I first began, I was fascinated with how
consistently my websites generated profits by simply
placing Google Adsense ads. Most of them I no longer
control, but I still have sites that does over $100 and
I haven't touched them over a year. I now just let
my partner touch them and I own domains.

But here is what I would do if I must start from scratch...

1. I will pick two popular niches - such as diet and marketing.
I will then mix the two, for example, diet for mommy bloggers,
dating advice for male athletes, finance advice for organic food
lovers, product creation tips for article marketers etc.

This way, I cross-over two popular niches without becoming
too saturated. I can give up majority of the market, yet
gain dominance where I focus.

2. I will interview an expert - I will borrow expert's credibility
since I have zero credibility as a newbie. I will market this as a free
giveaway using auto responder.

3. Create an upsell - If you have the budget to interview more
experts, you can then compile some more interviews and sell as an
immediate upsell. Either you can sell the interview you made in Step 2 then
upsell the rest "If you like that, you might like this..." then pitch.
Or give away the interview you made in Step 2 but sell the rest as a
package.

4. Sell more stuff to that list - if you have your own products,
start promoting them first then gradually move to other promotions.
If you don't have your products, then you'd have to start selling
other offers, such as affiliates offers early.

5. Analyze how you did after reaching 100 subscribers - after
gaining 100 subscribers, how much profit did you generate?
Now you have a scalable business model. If your effort is worth
it, consider paying for traffic at this point.

6. Mix paid traffic and free traffic - Paid traffic could mean
outsourcing for articles, now you have a scalable, positive net
profit center, at this point, it's low risk for you. Send more
traffic to that page that converts leads into subscribers.

Rinse and repeat.

7. Commit to schedule -- for the first month or two, do this.

A. Write 1-3 articles a day and submit
B. Convert at least 1 of those articles into audio every week
C. Convert at least 1 of those articles into PDF for PDF directories weekly
D. Add slides to the audio you made and convert into video and submit weekly
E. You can convert some of these to special reports, webinars, podcast,
email newsletter, blog posts.

These get tedious, but you really have to do this the first few months
before search engines catch on.

8. Finally write more emails -- now you have subscribers actively
seeking you, you can write more emails.

Daily task
A. Write one email every day then add to autoresponder
B. Look at conversion rates, determine if a sales page needs tweaking
C. Look at email campaign, see if an email needs to be altered

There you have it -- very good blueprint to make your website work!

I hope this helps!

[Evan]

Thanks for sharing Tak!

[GT Bulmer]

Awesome info, Tak. Detailed and insightful. Very helpful! Thanks for posting.

GT

[jessica_david]

You can go with Freelance or Contract Service, provide services as programming, photography or web designing. Blogging is also a good option to start with moreover you can make your own website and promote products/services of other companies which is known as Affiliate Marketting.