$200 To Start An Empire (Part 2)

Alright.. let me finish up this bit for you. If you haven’t read Part 1 you can do so here: Make Money Online

Just to recap, here’s the question from Low Hang Wei which kickstarted the whole thing:

I have been looking at your blog for some time, since the launch of SSMM to be exact. Some days I envy you for the good luck of having the rights to publish Adam Khoo’s extensive range of articles, SSMM and any other projects that you’ll be carrying out. However, I know that it’s not luck that got you to where you are - it does take courage, hardwork and other qualities to approach a millionaire and set forth a proposal.

Now that you’ve been in touch with some of the more prominent figures in Singapore, I’m sure your knowledge will be on a whole new level. Therefore, I would just like to ask how would you carry out your internet marketing strategy if you were left on your own, with just your computer, internet connection and $200 to spare?

I’m looking forward to your answer, because like you, I do want to become an internet marketing millionaire too.

So let’s dig deep now and ponder the question to how I (or you) can start making money online with just your computer, internet connection and just $200 to spare.

Ok assuming you’ve got the knowledge required to make money online (coz if you don’t, you’re just shooting blind…) then all you would need to do is to start executing what you know.

First Step: Switch on the computer.

Ok kidding… My first step would be to pick a niche market.

I know you’ve heard that a thousand times before. pick a niche market, pick a niche market, pick a niche market blah, blah, blah.. But it’s true! You need to pick a market. Period.

And that market could be anything. Adam Khoo is in the niche of self-help/personal success and that’s because he’s an expert in that area. What is your expertise?

Obviously you may want to stay away from the ultra-competitive niches (for now…) like golf, weight-loss, internet marketing, etc because there are really a lot of big boys out there clamouring for the consumer’s dollar and if you just try to plonk yourself in a market like that, your voice could very well be lost.

Especially if you’re just starting out online and you’re still learning the basics, my opinion is to pick something less competitive. But that doesn’t mean you have to stay away forever, you can always enter those markets when you know you’re ready for it.

So how do you pick a good niche market?

Well, I would start maybe with what I’m good at and then I would do keyword research on how marketable is that market. If the numbers look good, then it could be a good place to start off with. You can use the Overture tool to guage the demand for a market: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Obviously there are other ways to pick a niche market but I can’t list them all here… (take forever!)

2nd Step: Pick a Good Domain Name

This part’s important because this domain is gonna stick with you all the way, so make sure it’s a good one. Your domain name should be based on the keywords you want to optimise for, relevant to your market and your business/product. So take some time to choose a nice domain name.

This is also the first thing you’d spend your money on. It costs $9 (or less) a year to own one, so please don’t be cheapskate about this and then use a free yahoo or geocities site… If you can’t bear to spend $9, don’t do any business anywhere period. Go be an employee. Ha!

You can get them from namecheap.com or namesecure.com (it’s NOT an affiliate link). Please don’t get it from godaddy! I heard that if you’re caught for spam or something, godaddy can freeze your account and lock your domains and when that happens, they basically own your domain and you’re really stuck.

3rd Step: Get Reliable Hosting

So after you’ve got your domain, you need somewhere to host it. I hope I don’t have to explain what is a webhost and what it does (because it’s geeky stuff) but you need this. Basically, a webhost is someplace where you host your domain name and your files so that people from the internet can access your website (arghh.. I did it! I explained it. Somewhat…)

I personally use bluehost. I find it really good and real value for money. You can get it here: bluehost.com (NOT an affiliate link too). You don’t have to use bluehost, you can pick whatever host suits your needs.

Bluehosts costs $6.95 a month for the 2 year plan, and that’s really cheap compared with what you’re getting at that price. I essentially paid 10 times more when I was with Hostgator!

Obviously you don’t have to go for the two year plan, it’s up to you.

4th Step: Get A Top-Notch Autorespnder

Oh! This one is soooo important, you absolutely need this. No two ways about it!

My autoresponder has been the biggest reason why I’m able to make money on the internet. Ok, maybe not exactly my autoresponder, more specifically, my LIST.

When you get a visitor, you want to convert that visitor into a subscriber and then eventually a paying customer. If you don’t have the process and the tools to do that, then basically every visitor you get can just leave without a trace and that puts you back at square one. Getting another visitor again. And again and again.

If you’re a grandmaster at driving mountains of traffic, this may not sound so bad to you. But either, it just makes more sense to entice, attract every visitor that comes to your site, get him/her on your list and continue to add more and more value to him/her.

Because it’s easier to market to someone multiple times with better results than to market just one time to one individual. You won’t get too far that way. And when you have a list, BAM, you can send out an email and you get instant targeted traffic to where ever you want to send it.

This is obviously no excuse to spam your list with stuff and send them 5 emails a day, that’s obviously stupid. I’m just showing you how powerful a list is.

Your list is going to be the most important asset you have. And the best way (or in my opinion, the only) way to handle, groom and market to your list is via a autoresponder. And not just any autoresponder but the best out there.

So you either get aweber or getresponse. Please don’t settle for anything less. You may find out later that your 2nd rate autoresponder doesn’t have a certain feature you need to automate your business (and your 2nd rate provider is by no means ever gonna improve its features…) and if by then you have a good loyal subscriber base, you’re kinda stuck.

Because to cart over you list to another autoresponders is real messy business and you’re bound to lose some along the way when you do that. So please… don’t ever have to go through that ordeal and just stick with the leaders from the get go.

Aweber’s about $170+ per year and GetResponse is about $140+ per year. In my opinion, $11 a month for an ESSENTIAL and powerful tool such as this is an absolute bargain.

I know when anyone’s just starting out, spending all this money when you don’t exactly know IF you’re actually gonna succeed online could be a tough thing to do.

But let me put it this way. You have to believe that you CAN make money online, because if you don’t even think it’s possible for you, then what the hell are you starting your online business for?

You don’t even believe it’s gonna work out!

But if you do then you will know that spending money on the essentials is a MUST. I, for example, cannot function without a domain name, webhost or autoresponder. My profits will go down to zero. Those tools and some other things are a essential to me running my business and so I gladly fork out my money to use them.

Ok so go get an autoresponder: Aweber or GetResponse.

Step 5: Make Money!

haha.. Ok I know it’s not as simplistic as to grab a domain, host it and using an autoresponder to start making money online. That’s a whole lot you have to do before your first dollar comes in. So obviously I can’t list the ALL steps you must take, here on a blog. So I won’t

Because if you’re serious anyway, you’d have already bought yourself a home study course to teach you all that you need to know to make money on the internet. If you haven’t go get one. And if you don’t want to, then I suggest you don’t venture out at all.

The first step to being successful is to admit “I don’t know everything and I am willing to invest in my eduaction to learn how to do it.”

Looking back at what I just wrote, it looks like a shopping list! I guess I was focused more on the best way to spend your $200 when starting out online, so I listed the essentials that are needed. Maybe I’ll cover an overview about what are the next steps to take to kick start your internet business but I’ll stop here for now, because this post is already long enough.

Out.