1. Klik Link ini : Liberty Reserve
2. Setelah Anda masuk kesitus Liberty Reserve, anda klik Create Account
3. Setelah itu ada kolom-kolom yg harus Anda isi :
- Account Name yaitu Nama Anda (misal nama anda Joko Susanto maka ditulis Joko Susanto)
- Password ditulis perpaduan huruf dan angka buat yg mudah anda ingat, begitu anda klik akan muncul keyboad dilayar jadi anda klik2 saja keyboard yg muncul tsb ini maksudnya demi keamanan dari hacker, minimal 6 karakter ( misal : joko12345, anto2000 dll buatlah yg mudah anda ingat)
- Re-enter Password yaitu mengulangi kembali password Anda.
- Login PIN Angka semua 5 digit
- Re-enter Login PIN Mengulangi Login PIN Anda
- Security Question ada 4 pilihan, Mothers Maiden Name (Nama Ibu), City of Birth (Tempat Lahir), High School Name (Nama Sekolah Tinggi), Favorite Pet(Hewan Kesayangan), Terserah anda mau pilih mana
- or write your own buat sesuka anda dalam bahasa indonesia juga bisa.
misalnya anda memilih City of Birth, buat where was your born ? atau dalam bhs indonesia dimana kamu lahir ?
- answer buat jawaban dari pertanyaan Anda tadi, misalnya Jakarta, atau Bandung dll.
- Personal Welcome Message Pesan Pribadi anda buat apa yg ingin anda buat, tulis saja Hello atau good luck atau suka-suka anda
- First Name yaitu Nama Pertama Anda
- Last Name yaitu Nama Kedua Anda
- Company Name buat aja nama Anda
- Email Email anda
- Address Alamat rumah Anda ( Misal : Jl. Mawar No. 47 )
- City Kota tempat Anda tinggal
- Country pilih Indonesia
- State/Region Propinsi tempat Anda tinggal
- Zip/Postal Code Kode Pos Anda
- Phone nomor telepon Anda
- Date of Birth yaitu tanggal lahir, bulan tanggal dan tahun
kemudian masukkan kode yg tertera dan klik Agree, Gampang bukan ? Nah hari itu juga anda langsung terdaftar. Setelah itu catat semua data-data Anda. Perlu diperhatikan setelah anda mendaftar LR (Liberty Reserve) tidak memberikan konfirmasi ke email anda jadi anda harus mengingat atau sebaiknya dicatat account number Anda yg diawali dengan huruf U, contoh U6300323, Login PIN dan Password, karena ini perlu saat anda Login.
Senin, 01 November 2010
Unlock the Secrets of Successful Websites
In my years online, I've seen the painstaking learning process of starting--and marketing--an online business many times over. When I started my business, social media marketing was foreign to me. It's an extension of search engine optimization
and represents a powerful medium: you. I hope that in sharing my story of discovering SEO, how it works and how to utilize social media websites to market a business, you can shorten your own learning curve.
Over the years, my fledgling enterprise has steadily grown--sometimes in spite of me rather than because of me. I am not a slick, savvy e-marketer, but I've learned by eavesdropping, experimenting, reading books, participating in blogs and forums, and through lots of trial and error. As I've struggled past the first few mile markers on this apparently endless path, I've frequently wished someone could have guided me. My head and heart ached for simple, step-by-step, everyday language guidance. Finally, I decided to leave a few trail markers of my own by helping others through this column.
First, a few quick definitions:
* Search Engine Optimization (SEO)--An ingenious set of strategies and techniques for driving your website to the top of search engine ranking lists. When anyone queries your search terms, the search engines will try to show your optimized website on the first page, preferably at the top.
* Social Media Marketing (SMM)--Social interaction online, and use of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks to embed personal and business messages of different varieties. Create new relationships with friends and customers, building their loyalty to you and vice versa.
* Viral Marketing--Rapidly becoming the global term for capitalizing on the messaging built into the most popular social networks, it's done discreetly and sometimes without knowing whether it's a hit with your audience--creating network messaging that very quickly spreads by the internet's equivalent of a whispering campaign.
Why care about social media like Facebook? According to Social Media Statistics, 39 million unique visitors logged in to Facebook last September, and the upstart social network continued to narrow the gap on MySpace. In early January, more than 10 billion photos appeared on Facebook; and photo traffic peaked at more than 300,000 images served per second. Late last year, using somewhat dated figures, experts estimated 20 percent of Canada's population was on Facebook.
You see why a little "SMM" might be a very good idea. But, first, I'll retrace my steps:
1. Learn how to build a basic website with freeware. Cranking up my bravery and starting my business, I went to GoDaddy.com and got myself a domain name for a couple of bucks. "Yeah," I thought, "I'm somebody now." Using WordPress, one of the most popular open source (free) web frameworks, I built myself a website. WordPress gave me all the tools and widgets I wanted, and it let me customize and optimize for users and search engines pretty easily. My photo, my name and my products appeared just as I wanted.
Although it's probably just a tiny footprint on a very large virtual beach, it's my footprint, and I like it.
In the first week or so, my website drew a few customers and I made a few sales. In fact, I made just enough sales to assure me I was not totally insane for starting an online enterprise during a sluggish economy. And I made just enough sales to let me know I needed to make a lot more.
2. Set up the road signs on the information highway--nixing the spam. I remember looking out the car window during road trips, seeing billboard after billboard, counting down the miles to the next stop. SEO can be thought of as the process of setting up those same signs along the information superhighway.
I asked myself, "If I were a customer in search of my product, how would I find me?"
I started searching Google and Yahoo! (Google now owns 72 percent of the U.S. search marketplace), and there I was. Seeing my business there on Google was a strange and wonderful experience. It made me feel like a real businessperson. But my business and I appeared nowhere near the top of the list, and people rarely click beyond the second page of the Google listings. Even my dog knows that if you're not at the top of the Google list, you're just not there. So, how to work my way up to the top of the charts?
SEO is the first answer. Eavesdropping on a coffee house conversation, I hear, "SEO." Search engine optimization--strategies, tactics and techniques for driving your business to the top of the search engines' lists.
The first SEO tactic is so simple it's almost frightening. Use a keyword-rich domain where possible, place your keywords in the top portion of your page and include them in the title of the page. Then, use variations of the keyword phrase naturally through the copy. When I went from nowhere to the second page of Google's results for main keywords, and first page for longer tail keywords (three to five-plus words) for businesses like mine, I thought I'd made critical steps in the right direction. I wanted to look into link building and pay-per-click advertising, but that learning came later.
3. Drive more traffic to your site. I installed site meter web analytics on my new website. Then, I set the site meter to e-mail me each week, sending me detailed reports about my visitors, their locations and what they'd viewed.
I felt comforted and reassured that people were visiting, but how would I communicate with them? I'd set up a website, but only a couple of people had visited, and only a few had downloaded my "special" report. I knew I'd won their loyalty by their e-mail feedback. But what about all those people who gave me the internet equivalent of "Just looking, thanks"?
I used the same basic principle I'd applied with SEO: I added a link to my e-mail and provided contact information on every page of my website. Then, visitors simply had to click one spot with their questions and I could respond to answer their questions and begin to qualify those answers. It worked. I had a few nice conversations, and I boosted my sales.
4. Blog about your passion, and do it consistently. When I started my business, I also started a paper journal about it so I could remember all the thoughts and worries that ran through my head as I wrote my daily "ideas, frustrations and what worked" notes. Once again, strategically eavesdropping on the coffee house hot shots, I overheard them talking about how they were driving sales with their blogs. Of course, I thought. I'm not self-conscious--I'll put my journal on a blog using my little SEO tricks, some search-friendly WordPress plug-ins, and start posting every day.
I discovered Blogger.com, a site owned by Google. Setting up my blog there, I found how frighteningly easy it was to establish a second web presence--three clicks and I was there. Following the advice of Problogger, I knew I needed to update frequently and stay consistent. I began updating the blog first thing each morning and developed a great little network of loyal readers who became regular visitors. The conversation expanded broadly from there. The counters on my site meter increased, and I saw more visitors per day and a longer stay for each visit.
5. Get connected through social media sites. Everyone in my family has a Facebook, MySpace or Twitter page. From what I've seen, I'd bet even dogs are setting up "walls" on Facebook and are using them to meet French Poodles. As always, I numbered among the last to catch the wave. In fact, Facebook is more than a big wave; it's an internet tsunami--in a good way.
I worried that Facebook and MySpace were teenage hang outs--the internet equivalents of the coffeehouses on weekends. But when I saw that CNN had teamed up with Facebook, I reconsidered. Facebook gives me another tool for updating the world about my business, and it gives me a powerful tool for updating friends and family about developments in my world. I shamelessly built my Facebook profile and pages with seduction in mind. If I were going there to meet people, I would try to seduce them. In the same way, if I put my business there, I would want my products and services to seduce new customers. Facebook makes it easy to post pictures and add little blurbs about cool new stuff, and share with others.
Most important, Facebook gave me a tool for connecting to old friends, and friends of friends, and friends of their friends who used to be friends. You get the idea. A couple of my Facebook pals had downloaded its mobile application to their PDAs, and they got text messages each time I put up a post on my page. So, I added Facebook posts to my daily to-do list. Right after I blog, I post something on Twitter and Facebook. They both alert my multiple networks that there's something exciting happening in my world.
6. Stay in Touch. Be helpful, and give simple but useful answers. I picked up another valuable tip from CNN: Several of the newscasters invite viewers to post their opinions via Twitter. They run the comments in a crawl at the bottom of the screen, and when I read viewers' comments, I see the feedback appears almost instantly--as if the people were right there in the studio contributing to a conversation.
Twitter asks you simply, "What are you doing?" I keep things fresh at the website and Twitter when I can.
Twitter also helps me begin word-of-mouth promotions--the internet equivalent of whispering, "Hey, have you heard . . . ?"
7. Update or redesign your original website to include tantalizing new features. The word-of-mouth concept posed a tiny little conundrum: Whispering campaigns require salacious little secrets. If there's no sensational, useful content that's helpful or interesting, there's really no point in whispering. Nobody wants to know that you just had lunch. Therefore, I found myself scratching my head and wondering how to create something interesting and useful. For me, video was the answer, and a simple one, too. Try animoto.com, and you'll see what I mean about video creation being easy. You can upload it directly to YouTube, adding more content to your channel; JingProject.com and ScreenToaster.com are a little more work, but very powerful. They're tools to create new videos of your desktop tutorials, presentations and personal videos.
I'm not a great videographer, but I'm working on it. I created a cute little three minute video of people using my favorite products. It turned out to be pretty good, and when I posted it, it really did bring my site to life. Now, when people click on my page, they see other people who look a lot like them, and they watch them using my products.
I put out the word on my networks: "Cool new video--check it out." Traffic soared. Clearly, YouTube will become my next marketing destination.
8. Commit to providing excellent customer service. When I started my business, I promised myself I'd maintain my emphasis on service. No matter which new tool I've added and adapted, I always used it to enhance my service. Most of my tools empower me to pay attention to my customers, and when I pay attention to them, I make sure I follow the time-honored principles of good customer service: I listen more than I talk, and I question more than I answer. I respond very quickly to requests, I discipline myself more than ever to follow up after sales, always say "Thank you" and usually offer some incentive for a buyer to return.
Obviously, the internet gives us a lot more tools for inviting and engaging traffic, but all our technological sophistication must not carry us too far away from the basics: People still want good products at fair prices, delivered by trustworthy and charming characters who know their stuff and how it works.
and represents a powerful medium: you. I hope that in sharing my story of discovering SEO, how it works and how to utilize social media websites to market a business, you can shorten your own learning curve.
Over the years, my fledgling enterprise has steadily grown--sometimes in spite of me rather than because of me. I am not a slick, savvy e-marketer, but I've learned by eavesdropping, experimenting, reading books, participating in blogs and forums, and through lots of trial and error. As I've struggled past the first few mile markers on this apparently endless path, I've frequently wished someone could have guided me. My head and heart ached for simple, step-by-step, everyday language guidance. Finally, I decided to leave a few trail markers of my own by helping others through this column.
First, a few quick definitions:
* Search Engine Optimization (SEO)--An ingenious set of strategies and techniques for driving your website to the top of search engine ranking lists. When anyone queries your search terms, the search engines will try to show your optimized website on the first page, preferably at the top.
* Social Media Marketing (SMM)--Social interaction online, and use of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks to embed personal and business messages of different varieties. Create new relationships with friends and customers, building their loyalty to you and vice versa.
* Viral Marketing--Rapidly becoming the global term for capitalizing on the messaging built into the most popular social networks, it's done discreetly and sometimes without knowing whether it's a hit with your audience--creating network messaging that very quickly spreads by the internet's equivalent of a whispering campaign.
Why care about social media like Facebook? According to Social Media Statistics, 39 million unique visitors logged in to Facebook last September, and the upstart social network continued to narrow the gap on MySpace. In early January, more than 10 billion photos appeared on Facebook; and photo traffic peaked at more than 300,000 images served per second. Late last year, using somewhat dated figures, experts estimated 20 percent of Canada's population was on Facebook.
You see why a little "SMM" might be a very good idea. But, first, I'll retrace my steps:
1. Learn how to build a basic website with freeware. Cranking up my bravery and starting my business, I went to GoDaddy.com and got myself a domain name for a couple of bucks. "Yeah," I thought, "I'm somebody now." Using WordPress, one of the most popular open source (free) web frameworks, I built myself a website. WordPress gave me all the tools and widgets I wanted, and it let me customize and optimize for users and search engines pretty easily. My photo, my name and my products appeared just as I wanted.
Although it's probably just a tiny footprint on a very large virtual beach, it's my footprint, and I like it.
In the first week or so, my website drew a few customers and I made a few sales. In fact, I made just enough sales to assure me I was not totally insane for starting an online enterprise during a sluggish economy. And I made just enough sales to let me know I needed to make a lot more.
2. Set up the road signs on the information highway--nixing the spam. I remember looking out the car window during road trips, seeing billboard after billboard, counting down the miles to the next stop. SEO can be thought of as the process of setting up those same signs along the information superhighway.
I asked myself, "If I were a customer in search of my product, how would I find me?"
I started searching Google and Yahoo! (Google now owns 72 percent of the U.S. search marketplace), and there I was. Seeing my business there on Google was a strange and wonderful experience. It made me feel like a real businessperson. But my business and I appeared nowhere near the top of the list, and people rarely click beyond the second page of the Google listings. Even my dog knows that if you're not at the top of the Google list, you're just not there. So, how to work my way up to the top of the charts?
SEO is the first answer. Eavesdropping on a coffee house conversation, I hear, "SEO." Search engine optimization--strategies, tactics and techniques for driving your business to the top of the search engines' lists.
The first SEO tactic is so simple it's almost frightening. Use a keyword-rich domain where possible, place your keywords in the top portion of your page and include them in the title of the page. Then, use variations of the keyword phrase naturally through the copy. When I went from nowhere to the second page of Google's results for main keywords, and first page for longer tail keywords (three to five-plus words) for businesses like mine, I thought I'd made critical steps in the right direction. I wanted to look into link building and pay-per-click advertising, but that learning came later.
3. Drive more traffic to your site. I installed site meter web analytics on my new website. Then, I set the site meter to e-mail me each week, sending me detailed reports about my visitors, their locations and what they'd viewed.
I felt comforted and reassured that people were visiting, but how would I communicate with them? I'd set up a website, but only a couple of people had visited, and only a few had downloaded my "special" report. I knew I'd won their loyalty by their e-mail feedback. But what about all those people who gave me the internet equivalent of "Just looking, thanks"?
I used the same basic principle I'd applied with SEO: I added a link to my e-mail and provided contact information on every page of my website. Then, visitors simply had to click one spot with their questions and I could respond to answer their questions and begin to qualify those answers. It worked. I had a few nice conversations, and I boosted my sales.
4. Blog about your passion, and do it consistently. When I started my business, I also started a paper journal about it so I could remember all the thoughts and worries that ran through my head as I wrote my daily "ideas, frustrations and what worked" notes. Once again, strategically eavesdropping on the coffee house hot shots, I overheard them talking about how they were driving sales with their blogs. Of course, I thought. I'm not self-conscious--I'll put my journal on a blog using my little SEO tricks, some search-friendly WordPress plug-ins, and start posting every day.
I discovered Blogger.com, a site owned by Google. Setting up my blog there, I found how frighteningly easy it was to establish a second web presence--three clicks and I was there. Following the advice of Problogger, I knew I needed to update frequently and stay consistent. I began updating the blog first thing each morning and developed a great little network of loyal readers who became regular visitors. The conversation expanded broadly from there. The counters on my site meter increased, and I saw more visitors per day and a longer stay for each visit.
5. Get connected through social media sites. Everyone in my family has a Facebook, MySpace or Twitter page. From what I've seen, I'd bet even dogs are setting up "walls" on Facebook and are using them to meet French Poodles. As always, I numbered among the last to catch the wave. In fact, Facebook is more than a big wave; it's an internet tsunami--in a good way.
I worried that Facebook and MySpace were teenage hang outs--the internet equivalents of the coffeehouses on weekends. But when I saw that CNN had teamed up with Facebook, I reconsidered. Facebook gives me another tool for updating the world about my business, and it gives me a powerful tool for updating friends and family about developments in my world. I shamelessly built my Facebook profile and pages with seduction in mind. If I were going there to meet people, I would try to seduce them. In the same way, if I put my business there, I would want my products and services to seduce new customers. Facebook makes it easy to post pictures and add little blurbs about cool new stuff, and share with others.
Most important, Facebook gave me a tool for connecting to old friends, and friends of friends, and friends of their friends who used to be friends. You get the idea. A couple of my Facebook pals had downloaded its mobile application to their PDAs, and they got text messages each time I put up a post on my page. So, I added Facebook posts to my daily to-do list. Right after I blog, I post something on Twitter and Facebook. They both alert my multiple networks that there's something exciting happening in my world.
6. Stay in Touch. Be helpful, and give simple but useful answers. I picked up another valuable tip from CNN: Several of the newscasters invite viewers to post their opinions via Twitter. They run the comments in a crawl at the bottom of the screen, and when I read viewers' comments, I see the feedback appears almost instantly--as if the people were right there in the studio contributing to a conversation.
Twitter asks you simply, "What are you doing?" I keep things fresh at the website and Twitter when I can.
Twitter also helps me begin word-of-mouth promotions--the internet equivalent of whispering, "Hey, have you heard . . . ?"
7. Update or redesign your original website to include tantalizing new features. The word-of-mouth concept posed a tiny little conundrum: Whispering campaigns require salacious little secrets. If there's no sensational, useful content that's helpful or interesting, there's really no point in whispering. Nobody wants to know that you just had lunch. Therefore, I found myself scratching my head and wondering how to create something interesting and useful. For me, video was the answer, and a simple one, too. Try animoto.com, and you'll see what I mean about video creation being easy. You can upload it directly to YouTube, adding more content to your channel; JingProject.com and ScreenToaster.com are a little more work, but very powerful. They're tools to create new videos of your desktop tutorials, presentations and personal videos.
I'm not a great videographer, but I'm working on it. I created a cute little three minute video of people using my favorite products. It turned out to be pretty good, and when I posted it, it really did bring my site to life. Now, when people click on my page, they see other people who look a lot like them, and they watch them using my products.
I put out the word on my networks: "Cool new video--check it out." Traffic soared. Clearly, YouTube will become my next marketing destination.
8. Commit to providing excellent customer service. When I started my business, I promised myself I'd maintain my emphasis on service. No matter which new tool I've added and adapted, I always used it to enhance my service. Most of my tools empower me to pay attention to my customers, and when I pay attention to them, I make sure I follow the time-honored principles of good customer service: I listen more than I talk, and I question more than I answer. I respond very quickly to requests, I discipline myself more than ever to follow up after sales, always say "Thank you" and usually offer some incentive for a buyer to return.
Obviously, the internet gives us a lot more tools for inviting and engaging traffic, but all our technological sophistication must not carry us too far away from the basics: People still want good products at fair prices, delivered by trustworthy and charming characters who know their stuff and how it works.
Build a Website for Less Than $500
Who isn't operating on a tight budget these days? With business owners worried about everything from consumer spending to taxes, entrepreneurs in this country need to cut costs everywhere they can to maintain their success and save for rainy days. But nothing can stop a budding entrepreneur--and watch out for one who has an idea! Sometimes the first thing we need is to test a market or get a web presence and determine what kind of customer base we will have once we get off the ground. In other cases, entrepreneurs have had successful brick-and-mortar stores and now need to expand online to increase sales and business.
So what can an entrepreneur do for $500? More than one might think. While you may not get a full blown e-commerce store, there are many things you can do (including selling products) for $500 or less. Here are some ways to get started. I turned to web architect and designer Phillip Hollowell, owner of PS Web Design Studio , for advice.
First, you need a domain name. This needs to reflect your business name, be a catchy name or--well, think outside the box. Google is a household name, but how many people know what it means? Once you come up with a list of potential names, Hollowell recommends checking inexpensive sites like godaddy.com to see if their corresponding domain name is available. Buying a name from someone else could cost you quite a bit of money, so you'll need one that's available for registration. That's easy to check at sites that let you register a domain. For example, godaddy is as inexpensive as $10.69, and other sites offer deals, too. While you're at it, don't forget to web-search for coupons.
After you have your domain, you have to host your site somewhere. Hostgator.com lets you host for as little as $6.95 per month--but if you really wanted to, you could host your site on a small server at your home office or small-business location on a computer
until you see if the business takes off. Don't forget to check the provider's homepage as they often post discount coupons there.
Now you have to move on to content. Content is king, right? Many people think that a Web 2.0 site for les than $500 isn't possible, but it is. Web 2.0 really just means that your users are part of the online community and participate--it's all about the interaction now and providing valuable insight for your customers and a place for them to network with one another.
To start creating content, you can hire a web designer, but you may exceed your budget. Hollowell suggests a Content Management System like Joomla , WordPress or Drupal . You can go to joomla.org and learn how to create sites yourself and save $300 to $500 in monthly updates, too. After you learn how to install a CMS onto your hosted location, you will want to find a low-cost template that you like. Check out templatemonster.com , which charges an average of $55 to $65 per template. Be sure that you search based on the type of CMS you choose--for instance, WordPress templates won't work on Joomla and vice-versa.
Here is where it gets a bit trickier. By now, you may have spent $100 and you still need to edit the template to suit your needs. For instance, the pages will need to be set up so that you can manage them later, and content needs to be added and modules set up for use as you build your site and add to it later on. If you hire a web developer with Search Engine Optimization knowledge, Hollowell recommends entertaining only those quotes that are flat project-based and beware of offshore "developers" (you may not ever see your money again--or your website). The going price for basic content setup would be $300 to $400 for a six-page site.
What now? Take some time to learn to do updates. Learn how to optimize your website for Google and other search engines by looking at YouTube videos and reading blogs and forums about SEO. Is it advantageous to spend thousands of dollars to truly optimize your site? Possibly; but you can start now and do a lot of the work on your own. Today, search engines look at much more than just metadata. They look at everything from tags to video clips to what words are on your web page.
What about integration? Here are some things to consider. All of the CMS systems that are mentioned here have lots of free and very inexpensive ($20 or less) tools and modules online (a quick web search will give you literally hundreds) to let you integrate Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, RSS feeds, contact us pages, community pages and--yes--even storefronts for just a few bucks. If you don't have a merchant account, you can set up PayPal and accept PayPal with just a bit of inexpensive integration that's all controlled through the CMS control panel (which you'll learn all about from the free videos).
What else should you integrate for free? Your blog allows users to register on your site and create accounts to engage with others and quick and easy ways for website visitors to tell others about the great things they found on your site. Examples of sites where you can find great tools for free, or at least trial use before you buy, are http://extensions.joomla.org/ or http://www.bestofjoomla.com/ for joomla. For WordPress, go to http://wordpress.org/extend/ and for Drupal, go to http://drupal.org/project . Integrate YouTube videos where you show others how to do something, and add anything else you can dream up. Be sure to ask your customers what they want, too. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, it might be appointment requests or special notifications about sales. The best ideas often come from the people we are trying to serve.
Some final words of advice: Test your site before you launch it. This includes testing security features and investing in a Secure Socket Layer certificate for secure processing of transactions if you are going to sell products or services online. If you go with a higher grade of hosting such as the Business Account that Hostgator offers, you can actually save on the annual cost of an SSL certificate because it's included in the monthly hosting package price of $14.95. Once you've tested it yourself, ask a few friends and colleagues to test out the site and look for bugs and typographical errors to make sure your site is as clean as possible before launch. When you do launch it, make sure you have a set "launch date" and have everyone you know tweet about it, create a Facebook fan page and a Facebook group page, and use social media as much as possible to tell the world about your new website.
So what can an entrepreneur do for $500? More than one might think. While you may not get a full blown e-commerce store, there are many things you can do (including selling products) for $500 or less. Here are some ways to get started. I turned to web architect and designer Phillip Hollowell, owner of PS Web Design Studio , for advice.
First, you need a domain name. This needs to reflect your business name, be a catchy name or--well, think outside the box. Google is a household name, but how many people know what it means? Once you come up with a list of potential names, Hollowell recommends checking inexpensive sites like godaddy.com to see if their corresponding domain name is available. Buying a name from someone else could cost you quite a bit of money, so you'll need one that's available for registration. That's easy to check at sites that let you register a domain. For example, godaddy is as inexpensive as $10.69, and other sites offer deals, too. While you're at it, don't forget to web-search for coupons.
After you have your domain, you have to host your site somewhere. Hostgator.com lets you host for as little as $6.95 per month--but if you really wanted to, you could host your site on a small server at your home office or small-business location on a computer
until you see if the business takes off. Don't forget to check the provider's homepage as they often post discount coupons there.
Now you have to move on to content. Content is king, right? Many people think that a Web 2.0 site for les than $500 isn't possible, but it is. Web 2.0 really just means that your users are part of the online community and participate--it's all about the interaction now and providing valuable insight for your customers and a place for them to network with one another.
To start creating content, you can hire a web designer, but you may exceed your budget. Hollowell suggests a Content Management System like Joomla , WordPress or Drupal . You can go to joomla.org and learn how to create sites yourself and save $300 to $500 in monthly updates, too. After you learn how to install a CMS onto your hosted location, you will want to find a low-cost template that you like. Check out templatemonster.com , which charges an average of $55 to $65 per template. Be sure that you search based on the type of CMS you choose--for instance, WordPress templates won't work on Joomla and vice-versa.
Here is where it gets a bit trickier. By now, you may have spent $100 and you still need to edit the template to suit your needs. For instance, the pages will need to be set up so that you can manage them later, and content needs to be added and modules set up for use as you build your site and add to it later on. If you hire a web developer with Search Engine Optimization knowledge, Hollowell recommends entertaining only those quotes that are flat project-based and beware of offshore "developers" (you may not ever see your money again--or your website). The going price for basic content setup would be $300 to $400 for a six-page site.
What now? Take some time to learn to do updates. Learn how to optimize your website for Google and other search engines by looking at YouTube videos and reading blogs and forums about SEO. Is it advantageous to spend thousands of dollars to truly optimize your site? Possibly; but you can start now and do a lot of the work on your own. Today, search engines look at much more than just metadata. They look at everything from tags to video clips to what words are on your web page.
What about integration? Here are some things to consider. All of the CMS systems that are mentioned here have lots of free and very inexpensive ($20 or less) tools and modules online (a quick web search will give you literally hundreds) to let you integrate Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, RSS feeds, contact us pages, community pages and--yes--even storefronts for just a few bucks. If you don't have a merchant account, you can set up PayPal and accept PayPal with just a bit of inexpensive integration that's all controlled through the CMS control panel (which you'll learn all about from the free videos).
What else should you integrate for free? Your blog allows users to register on your site and create accounts to engage with others and quick and easy ways for website visitors to tell others about the great things they found on your site. Examples of sites where you can find great tools for free, or at least trial use before you buy, are http://extensions.joomla.org/ or http://www.bestofjoomla.com/ for joomla. For WordPress, go to http://wordpress.org/extend/ and for Drupal, go to http://drupal.org/project . Integrate YouTube videos where you show others how to do something, and add anything else you can dream up. Be sure to ask your customers what they want, too. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, it might be appointment requests or special notifications about sales. The best ideas often come from the people we are trying to serve.
Some final words of advice: Test your site before you launch it. This includes testing security features and investing in a Secure Socket Layer certificate for secure processing of transactions if you are going to sell products or services online. If you go with a higher grade of hosting such as the Business Account that Hostgator offers, you can actually save on the annual cost of an SSL certificate because it's included in the monthly hosting package price of $14.95. Once you've tested it yourself, ask a few friends and colleagues to test out the site and look for bugs and typographical errors to make sure your site is as clean as possible before launch. When you do launch it, make sure you have a set "launch date" and have everyone you know tweet about it, create a Facebook fan page and a Facebook group page, and use social media as much as possible to tell the world about your new website.
How to Make Money Online Without a Website
If you've got some successful keyword research and PPC advertising under your belt for your own website, why not capitalize on that and make money online without one? Affiliate marketing through pay-per-click makes it possible.
MSN adCenter and Yahoo Search Marketing both allow direct linking to sites that are not your own. (But don't try this with Google AdWords.)
Direct linking means that you can join affiliate programs, create ads for their products, and send click-throughs directly to the merchant's site. There's no need to build an intermediary site or use your own site to direct traffic. When your click-throughs convert, you get a commission.
It's a way to create an extra stream of income--or several--with some big advantages:
* It eliminates the time, effort, and costs of building and maintaining web pages. The only time you'll have to pay is when someone clicks on your ad.
* It allows you to do affiliate marketing
without cluttering up your own site with links that might send potential customers away. You can keep your site clean and focused on its job of selling your product, but still make commissions off other people's products.
* It eliminates an extra click for users. One click less for them means more commissions for you.
While direct linking is a good opportunity, though, it's not a walk in the park. The PPC programs that allow it restrict the number of affiliate ads that can point at the same display URL that shows on the ad itself. So ads by experienced affiliate marketers who know exactly what they're doing can bump less skillful ads.
If you want your ads to be seen, here's what you have to do.
Step 1: Start with a big, broad market
Choose a broad market where there's a lot of searching going on. You want to get as many eyeballs as possible.
Step 2: Do some keyword research
Don't build your ads on broad, untargeted keywords, though. The competition for those will be fierce--and expensive. Your objective here is to find neglected, low-cost keywords within a broad, high-traffic market--and that's why it really helps to have keyword research experience.
And as I mentioned in an earlier article, you need to look for specific problems that are shared by a lot of people within a market. Then find relevant keyword terms that clearly show a clear intention to buy or find out more information. Those terms are much more likely to convert. And remember, you pay for every click, but you get paid only when they convert.
The Microsoft Advertising Intelligence tool can show you almost anything you'd like to know about any given keyword, including similar keywords, traffic, cost per click, and much more. The free Google AdWords Keyword Tool is also a quick and handy way of getting ideas for keywords with high search volume and low cost per click; just keep in mind that you can't use this strategy with Google.
Step 3: Find a good affiliate merchant that targets your niche
In order to find a merchant that offers a relevant product and pays you a good commission, check out these affiliate networks and directories:
* www.associateprograms.com
* www.affiliatesdirectory.com
* www.ecommerce-guide.com
* www.cj.com
* www.clickxchange.com
* www.linkshare.com
When you're choosing affiliate merchants, ask these questions:
1. Do they offer a product that directly solves a problem you've identified?
2. Do they allow direct linking to their sites? Some don't. Check the terms and conditions before you commit.
3. Does the landing page generate pop-ups? If so, then forget it. This is not allowed. The back button on the page also has to be functional.
4. Is there a strong landing page for the product? If you send click-throughs to an irrelevant page, a confusing sales process, or a site that's just plain unappealing, then they won't convert and you'll end up wasting your money.
Step 4: Write a PPC ad that drives buyers to the affiliate merchant's site
Take a good look at the landing page your ad is pointing at and make your ad directly relevant to it. Your ad must:
* address the specific problem you've identified.
* include the keyword you've bid on, preferably more than once.
* reflect the keywords of the landing page.
* highlight a benefit of the product.
* include a strong call to action.
You can give your ad an extra boost by adding your keyword, or part of it, to the display URL at the bottom of the ad. The actual target URL will contain a big, ugly affiliate ID number, but the display version can show the domain name plus a subdirectory with a word or phrase that makes it look relevant to the search, like this:
Display: internetmarketing.com/affiliates_ppc
Target: http://www.internetmarketing.com/aff-iduao74elksdjdo-2u023f
Before you create your display link, check out the PPC competition to make sure it's unique so your ad won't be bumped. The better your ads, the higher the click-throughs will be, which means your ads will be rewarded with better positions for the same money. It's worth polishing them, and then testing them to see which ones are performing the best.
Running a pay-per-click affiliate campaign probably won't generate hundreds of thousands of dollars for you right off the bat--but it is the easiest way to leverage the keyword research and PPC skills you've developed in building your own site. And when Microsoft adCenter and Yahoo Search Marketing join forces sometime this year, you'll get the traffic from both, even if you only advertise on one. That makes direct linking even more appealing.
MSN adCenter and Yahoo Search Marketing both allow direct linking to sites that are not your own. (But don't try this with Google AdWords.)
Direct linking means that you can join affiliate programs, create ads for their products, and send click-throughs directly to the merchant's site. There's no need to build an intermediary site or use your own site to direct traffic. When your click-throughs convert, you get a commission.
It's a way to create an extra stream of income--or several--with some big advantages:
* It eliminates the time, effort, and costs of building and maintaining web pages. The only time you'll have to pay is when someone clicks on your ad.
* It allows you to do affiliate marketing
without cluttering up your own site with links that might send potential customers away. You can keep your site clean and focused on its job of selling your product, but still make commissions off other people's products.
* It eliminates an extra click for users. One click less for them means more commissions for you.
While direct linking is a good opportunity, though, it's not a walk in the park. The PPC programs that allow it restrict the number of affiliate ads that can point at the same display URL that shows on the ad itself. So ads by experienced affiliate marketers who know exactly what they're doing can bump less skillful ads.
If you want your ads to be seen, here's what you have to do.
Step 1: Start with a big, broad market
Choose a broad market where there's a lot of searching going on. You want to get as many eyeballs as possible.
Step 2: Do some keyword research
Don't build your ads on broad, untargeted keywords, though. The competition for those will be fierce--and expensive. Your objective here is to find neglected, low-cost keywords within a broad, high-traffic market--and that's why it really helps to have keyword research experience.
And as I mentioned in an earlier article, you need to look for specific problems that are shared by a lot of people within a market. Then find relevant keyword terms that clearly show a clear intention to buy or find out more information. Those terms are much more likely to convert. And remember, you pay for every click, but you get paid only when they convert.
The Microsoft Advertising Intelligence tool can show you almost anything you'd like to know about any given keyword, including similar keywords, traffic, cost per click, and much more. The free Google AdWords Keyword Tool is also a quick and handy way of getting ideas for keywords with high search volume and low cost per click; just keep in mind that you can't use this strategy with Google.
Step 3: Find a good affiliate merchant that targets your niche
In order to find a merchant that offers a relevant product and pays you a good commission, check out these affiliate networks and directories:
* www.associateprograms.com
* www.affiliatesdirectory.com
* www.ecommerce-guide.com
* www.cj.com
* www.clickxchange.com
* www.linkshare.com
When you're choosing affiliate merchants, ask these questions:
1. Do they offer a product that directly solves a problem you've identified?
2. Do they allow direct linking to their sites? Some don't. Check the terms and conditions before you commit.
3. Does the landing page generate pop-ups? If so, then forget it. This is not allowed. The back button on the page also has to be functional.
4. Is there a strong landing page for the product? If you send click-throughs to an irrelevant page, a confusing sales process, or a site that's just plain unappealing, then they won't convert and you'll end up wasting your money.
Step 4: Write a PPC ad that drives buyers to the affiliate merchant's site
Take a good look at the landing page your ad is pointing at and make your ad directly relevant to it. Your ad must:
* address the specific problem you've identified.
* include the keyword you've bid on, preferably more than once.
* reflect the keywords of the landing page.
* highlight a benefit of the product.
* include a strong call to action.
You can give your ad an extra boost by adding your keyword, or part of it, to the display URL at the bottom of the ad. The actual target URL will contain a big, ugly affiliate ID number, but the display version can show the domain name plus a subdirectory with a word or phrase that makes it look relevant to the search, like this:
Display: internetmarketing.com/affiliates_ppc
Target: http://www.internetmarketing.com/aff-iduao74elksdjdo-2u023f
Before you create your display link, check out the PPC competition to make sure it's unique so your ad won't be bumped. The better your ads, the higher the click-throughs will be, which means your ads will be rewarded with better positions for the same money. It's worth polishing them, and then testing them to see which ones are performing the best.
Running a pay-per-click affiliate campaign probably won't generate hundreds of thousands of dollars for you right off the bat--but it is the easiest way to leverage the keyword research and PPC skills you've developed in building your own site. And when Microsoft adCenter and Yahoo Search Marketing join forces sometime this year, you'll get the traffic from both, even if you only advertise on one. That makes direct linking even more appealing.
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