KaChing: How to Run an Online Business that Pays and Pays by Comm, Joel (most important books to read .txt) 📗

run.

Of course, you still have to bring people into the town. You have to offer services and products that people want to buy. You need to create a brand so that visitors know what they’re getting when they pass through, then persuade them to stick around because they like it. That’s work, but it’s work that’s available to anyone willing to do it.

The Internet provides all the opportunity that anyone could wish for and makes it available at a price that’s incredibly low. When you can create an ad-supported web site, in minutes, for free, you won’t be able to find an opportunity with lower entry requirements—or higher potential.

In this book, I’ve described the most important models that I’ve used to build my seven-figure Internet business.

I started by pointing out the size of the Internet’s opportunity. That you no longer need to be a geek, a programmer, or even possess any technical knowledge at all to become an Internet publisher means that the Internet’s opportunities are now available to anyone. That’s an incredible thing.

I then talked about what you will need to be a success online: You’ll need to be you. I explained how everyone has unique knowledge, and why that unique knowledge (whether it comes from the workplace or from the things you love to do in your spare time) has value. The Internet lets you cash in on that value.

Usually that’s done by creating content, and in Chapter 3, I discussed seven types of content that you can create and almost a dozen different ways of monetizing that content through advertising.

Web content is free; information products cost money, often lots of money. The source of the information is the same. You’re still telling people what you know about your job or your hobby, but you’re doing it in more detail than a web site allows... and charging a price much closer to the true value of that knowledge. Nor is it particularly difficult to create, sell, and deliver those products. You can even buy a shopping cart off the shelf these days.

When you sell your information products, you’ll be relying on affiliates, independent resellers who earn a commission for every sale. That’s an opportunity that you can take up as well. Much though depends on the connection that you manage to build with your audience. Whenever you’re selling online, you have to guide your market through a four-step sales process that takes leads from knowing you and liking you to trusting you and paying you. That’s particularly true of affiliate products, which work best when the links are delivered in the text as part of a personal recommendation.

Affiliate sales have to be made again and again. Subscription fees to membership sites are renewed automatically, provided you can deliver services and products of high enough quality to attract subscribers and keep them on board. In Chapter 6, I revealed the ingredients of a successful membership site and explained how you can build one.

Finally, when your brand is strong enough and your community’s trust in you is deep enough, you can even offer personal coaching, a wonderfully rewarding way to sell your knowledge and help people achieve their dreams.

Over the years, as Internet marketing has grown and matured, it’s developed ready-made systems that anyone can use and profit from. It’s not a cash register; it’s a cash machine, one that’s free for anyone to own and master.

It might not make the kind of KaChing sound you could once hear in stores across the country, but it is a business, and you can operate it.

As a thank-you to readers of this book, I am making a one-of-a-kind KaChing Button available to you for free! Just like the button pictured on the cover, this green button with the dollar sign makes the KaChing sound when pushed. I ask only that you include a nominal fee to cover the shipping and handling of your button.

To get your own KaChing Button now, visit www.KaChingButton.com/get/.

May you create an online business that pays and pays, with more than enough KaChing to go around.

Index

A

actions

ads. See also Chitika Premium ads

AdsDaq

AdSense simple creator of

banner

Chitika premium

Commission Junction

different approaches of

fees for

Kontera

LinkAdage

losing money on

Microsoft ContentAds

Morning Falls

revenues from

subject value of

targeting

units

VideoEgg

YPN

AdsDaq

AdSense

basics of

blending into page

Chitika ads alternate of

for content

different forms of

for domains

e-book

for feeds

format choices of

from Google

keywords

for mobile gadgets

program

reliable revenue source from

for search

seasonal ads of

simple ad creator program of

for TV/video/games

units/web site using

vertical units in

Yahoo! Publisher Network not compatible with

The AdSense Code

AdSense-Secrets.com

AdSense-Secrets.com/Kontera

ad-supported web sites

Adtegrity

advertising

affiliate

channels of

e-mail

new FTC guidelines for

subject values and

traffic/prices of

AdWords

affiliate(s)

ad units placement influencing

advertising

Amazon’s system of

commissions of

DigsDigs.com and

earning/selling as

e-mail marketing of

as entrepreneurs

as independent business owners

links

making the most of

merchant choosing of

money making as

networks of

product/merchant choosing of

recommendations of

successful strategies for

-supported post

-supported sites

trust and

affiliate management systems

affiliate programs

Amazon’s two different

web sites and

affiliate selling

affiliate connections in

commissions in

e-mails in

FTC guidelines influence on

product delivery in

product recommendations in

recruiting publishers for

Affiliate Summit

Amazon

affiliate programs of

affiliate system of

text links recommendations and

AppCraver.com

Apple

AppleInsider.com

The Apprentice

Articulate.com

ask.joelcomm.com

AsktheBuilder.com

authors, established

automated online systems

AWeber.com

B

banner ads

Barefoot Executive

Barnes & Noble

behavior compliance

belief

big name companies

Blogger web site

blogs

comments on

micro-niches marketing of

simplicity benefit of

web sites of

Bloom, Levi

BloomBikeShop.com

books

Kindle

print

rejection and

Borders

bounce rates

branding

broadcasting in

elements in

identifying

identity and

smart buying decisions from

Twitter assisting

two steps in

Branson, Richard

Brin, Sergey

Brown, Dan

Bryxen Software

Business Week

buying decisions

C

Callen, Brad

Canada

CAN-SPAM Act of 2003,

Carter, Tim

cash registers

ClickBank and

Google handling

invention of

channels

for money making

performance tracked with

as tracking tools

Chitika Premium ads

AdSense alternate for

blending into page

countries not seeing

high click-through rates of

implementation of

location of

pictures/highlighting used in

search engine results and

users weren’t buying from

classes/lectures, recording

ClickBank.com

click-through rate

CNN

coaching

event organization

high-end

information delivered through

in-person

low-end

marketing

money making from

products for

telephone

trust in

Collins, Shawn

comments

blogs with

encouraging

Commission Junction

commissions

community

building

holding together

sites

web sites building

competition

computer games

computer knowledge

consulting services

content

AdSense for

compliance

exclusive

ghost/guest writers for

how-to articles as

interview posts as

list posts as

management systems

membership sites high quality

money making

money making types of

multimedia

news articles as

online business creation of

opinion articles as

review articles as

structure of

video

web sites layout and

writing

your voice/personality in

“content is king,”

content sites

Origami blog as

ReadWriteWeb.com as

TravelsWithSheila.com as

ContentAds, Microsoft

contextualization engine, of YPN

conversion rate

copyright

copywriters

Cosmopolitan

cost-per-action (CPA)

cost-per-click (CPC)

cost-per-engagement network (CPE)

cost-per-mille (CPM)

cost-per-thousand impressions

court cases

CPA. See cost-per-action

CPC. See cost-per-click

CPE. See cost-per-engagement network

CPM. See cost-per-mille

CreateSpace.com

D

Dallas Fort Worth Software Review

dating sites

DealofDay.com

Digg.com

Digital Photography School

DigsDigs.com

direct mail marketing

Direct Marketing Association (DMA)

DMA. See Direct Marketing Association

domain(s)

AdSense

names

public

Dorsey, Jack

double opt-in

dreams

Dreamstime.com

Drupal

DVD fulfillment companies

dynamic conversion

E

e-books

AdSense

formatting/size of

launch strategy of

length of

maximum length