Thinking of starting your own business? Thinking of becoming a freelancer? Trying to make money on the web? Wanting to grow your customer base or authority?
And go read Seth Godin’s blog at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/
Seth is an dead tree author, blogger, speaker and marketing guru. The posts on his blog are always short, to the point and thought provoking.
Niche Geek is written by Dmitri Davydov who is, as the blog name suggests, nuts for niches. I’ve only subscribed to the feed today but already it looks like a great read and it also throws up some food for thought for making money online.
One recent post I like is: 10 totally stupid online business ideas that made someone rich. 10 unusual ways to make easy money on the internet if you love writing is good too. Going by those two post titles, I think someone has been reading Copyblogger.
Niche Geek is well worth a read. The only thing I don’t like about the site is that it doesn’t publish full feeds – that kinda sucks.
I wrote about Harrison Gervitz, the 16 year-old who is making it big with affiliate marketing, before here.
After reading his Shoemoney post I checked out his blog. He has had quite a lot of negative comments on there from people who are doubting whether he’s real. They even go as far as saying it’s his parents that are making the money and he’s just a front.
And so what if he is? If it was his parents making the money, and I don’t for a minute believe it is, and they are using him as a front then I think that’s great marketing. They’ve put a spin on the making-money-with-affiliate thing and gotten themselves some big-time exposure around the web. He has clever parents.
If it is Harrison making the money then he’d do well to ignore all the negative comments. It’s the same people who claim Shoe’s adsense check is fake and so on – and really, who give a shit? There will always be people who want to bitch and flame those who are more successful than themselves.
Harrison, just carry on making the money and doing what you do. Harrison’s blog and the Shoemoney post.
Search Engine Journal has posted a list of ways to use Google Analytics to get more info about your site and visitors. They include: How to track 404 errors, tracking external clicks and tracking adsense clicks.
Harrison Gervitz is a 16 year-old affiliate marketer who reportedly earns a six-figure a month. Beats a paper-round or pizza delivery, that’s for sure.
He’s posted some affiliate marketing hints and tips on Shoemoney’s blog. Worth a read if you are into PPC.
If you were thinking of opening a shop, you probably wouldn’t open a burger bar next to McDonalds and try to compete – would you? A back-street restaurant away from the big boys that serves a niche could work – your niche could be local students, office workers or vegetarians.
The Internet is the same as the high-street. There a lot of big players and big brands and you aren’t going to be competing with them anytime soon. An online music shop? I think Play, HMV, Amazon and the rest have that covered. But what about a CD shop for the Bangra niche – maybe that’s not being served by the big boys. It’s going to be a smaller market but a small market can be a lucrative one.
Stop worrying about the things you can’t do.
Stop worrying about whether your new site, product or idea will work.
Stop worrying if someone else is doing it better.
Stop worrying if you are good enough.
Stop worrying about whether people will like it.
==================================
Focus on what you can do.
If you have faith in your product you will make it work.
It’s a big internet, find your niche, eastablish yourself and then DO IT BETTER than the rest.
Everyone has doubts but few overcome them.
Find your niche and they will come.
There’s a million and one blogs, ebooks, websites and courses on the web that want to tell you how to make money on the web.
Stop reading them.
It’s time to stop reading and start doing. Don’t waste countless hours trying to find a sure-fire money making scheme or a better blogging host or a better way to blog. Find out the facts to allow you to achieve your goals and just get on with it.
There’s always going to be a better piece of software than the one you are using, or a better ebook to read, or a new marketing tactic.
You can’t be sure you are using the best tools or ideas but if what you have prodcues results then the best way to start making money on the web is to go to work with what you have and start churning out results. You can work on improving your tools and ideas later but get something out there to build on.
Just remembered that I bought the Hearing Aids page on Wordhugger. Just nipped over there and had a look and only 122 people have bought pages – very disappointing.
The site was a good idea and I liked the fact that the guy running it was donating a part of his profit to Kiva. It got a lot of buzz around the blogosphere when it launched but it doesn’t look like many people took the plunge and bought a page. Unlikely that it’s gonna pick up now that the buzz has dropped off.
Ah well, if I remember rightly the guy setting it up was young (still at school) so at the very least he’s got some experience of running a site and marketing it. Bet the web will see more from him in the years to come.
Magneto is a very nice looking open-source eCommerce package. Not only does it look very nice, it is also packed full of interesting and useful features, such as:
Check out Magneto eCommerce.
Squareleaf
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