As 2009 comes to a close, the question that I’ve been asking myself is…

“Where is the money in 2010?”

One of my predictions for 2010 is that internet marketers will finally begin paying attention to the 330 million Spanish speaking people on the planet.

Spanish traffic is insanely cheap and you can profit without ever having to know Spanish.  We’ve been doing it for over 13 months and we do NOT speak Spanish.

Nobody is doing it yet.

It is W I D E open for easy pickings… for now.

Make 2010 your best year.

Go where the money is in 2010.

SpanishGoldRush.com

Have you noticed over the years that most online markets have gotten overcrowded? Have you noticed that competition increases almost on a daily basis? More and more people come online everyday and want to compete in niche markets on the internet. They want to promote, sell, and market their products or services, whether they are a small brick ‘n mortar business or a work from home entrepreneur.

This has caused pay per click bids to increase over the years and has made it harder to get good natural listings on the front pages of the search engines.

The most interesting part about this is that most of this overcrowding comes from English internet marketers. The internet was invented around English. 80% of the content found online is in English.

However, you can get crazy amounts of traffic in the Spanish speaking marketplace. The competition almost is non-existent.  However, very few internet marketers pay attention to Spanish marketing.

With 130 million Spanish speaking people already online, and another 200 million that could potentially be online in the future the Spanish speaking marketplace is one to take a good hard look at for all internet marketers.

Learn more and get a FREE 17 page report called, “Rebirth of The Internet: The Spanish Gold Rush” or checkout the Spanish Gold Rush training program now.

Small Business Owners Can Now Fight Back!

A couple days ago I was asked to sit down and review the selling process for a small business’ company website.

I started by asking some basic questions and then I wanted to see how they were advertising and where the advertising sent prospects for more information.

I should Have Been Shocked!

I should have been shocked at everything that they were doing wrong, but I’ve seen it so many times before that it didn’t faze me.

As a small business owner he wasting so much money with the way they had it all set up!

The Scary Part

The scary part of the experience was that they were buying advertising from a big company that we’ve all heard of and probably have done business with in some fashion or another.

They were being consulted by a professional in this company and it was horrible.

When I completed the consultation the business owner said, “This all makes so much sense. Why didn’t the company tell us this?”

Ahhhhhh!

Why Didn’t the Company Tell You?

You would think that the company  selling the advertising would want their customers to do well enough that they buy more advertising, right?

You would think.

The truth is that, yes, they would like you to do well and buy more advertising, but they don’t know what they are doing either.

Ouch!  Did I just say that?

Yes.  These companies don’t know what  they are doing either.

So, they are consulting you on the best way to advertise, but they don’t know what they are talking about!

Many times the kid selling the ad space is in charge of designing the ad themselves.

What?!!  Are you kidding me?

Offline Business Owners Have it the Worst!

This is a perfect example of what it is like for the owner of an offline business to try to get online and be effective using the internet.

Offline business owners who have been in traditional brick ‘n’ mortar businesses are looking to increase exposure, sales, and leads using the internet.

Unfortunately, it is easy to get burned at almost every single turn because most business owners just do not have enough knowledge about what it takes to have an effective online
strategy.

They don’t necessarily understand registering domain names, hosting, ppc, cpa, seo, article marketing, search volume, long tail keywords, copywriting, blogging, wordpress plugins, banner advertising , qualified search, niche marketing, driving traffic, or how to upload a file.

It isn’t that these things are difficult… they are just different than what a small business owner needed to know until now.

And if that wasn’t enough when they hire people to do these things, they often don’t get what was promised.

So, what is the solution?

My good friend Ann Premazon has addressed this for the first time with her new “Business Web Basics.”

Ann is one of the best at helping a small business learn how to find their best niche online and to gain the best return on investment for online spending… and she does it in a well packaged course so you can learn from home or pass it to an employee to learn and teach you.

If you are a small business owner, then you should check it out at:

http://BusinessWebBasics.com

This is the first training program designed to address the needs of the small business owner.

It is the first of it’s kind to give you the basic information that you need to implement a successful online strategy.

Until now small business owners have been at the mercy of vendors and salespeople because there was no effective method of gaining the knowledge they needed to make informed and educated decisions about their internet marketing strategies.

Business Web Basics is designed to teach you the basics so you know exactly what services you need, exactly how to get them, and exactly how to hold vendors and employees accountable for those services.

If you make money on the internet with your own home based business or if you have been trying to make money online, then it is important to understand your marketing funnel.  It is essential that you understand your methods of finding interested prospects and converting them into paying customers.

What is the process that you take them through?

Do you drive prospects to a sales letter or blog?  Do you give content away for free or sell them?  Do you try to get their email address or build trust?

Everybody does it a little bit differently.  You need to find out what works for you and stick with it long enough to determine it’s effectiveness.

One of the challenges that I see with newbies is that they don’t commit to a specific plan of attack.  They change their mind every two days on the best way to market their product or service.  Their marketing plan or funnel is changed on a whim because they watched another free video from a marketer trying to sell the next latest and greatest system.

News flash…

You might actually be selling stuff if you stop changing your gameplan every time you watch a new video.  Pick something and try it.

Try it long enough to determine it’s effectiveness in your marketplace before changing your entire strategy because you watched some new free video of an internet marketer trying to sell you something.

Internet marketing is simple.  YES… simple!  Stop letting people confuse you… and stop over complicating it!

It is simple, but it may not be easy.  It is simple because making money online boils down to a few things.  If you get good at doing a few things right, then you can become very successful.

It isn’t easy because it takes effort, determination, and a willingness to keep going… even when times are tough.

If you want to make money, then follow these 3 steps:

1.  Determine your goals.

2.  Pick a marketing strategy / business model that makes sense to you.

3.  Implement it.

Do NOT alter your plan just because you learn something new today, unless it specifically fits into your business model.

This doesn’t mean to continue using ineffective strategies.  This means do something long enough to determine if it is effective or not.  Stop changing on a whim!

Making money online is more like an art form than an exact science.  Everyone does it a little bit differently.

Follow what makes the most sense to you and give it try.

How To Start Your Own Home-Based Business: Discover Your “Why” or Die

Before you begin any business venture, it’s important for you to decide the reason “why” you want to do this. I call this your “big fat why.”  If your why doesn’t make you cry, then it’s not big enough.  You need to know your why and concentrate on your why so that when things get tough (and they will), you’ll stay focused and driven so that you keep on going.

The internet is your opportunity… right here, right now… to build a successful home-based business. Never before in history has it been easier for someone to start their own business.

Without a big fat why you are likely to quit when things go wrong or don’t meet your expectations.

So, I ask you… what is your big fat why?

Maybe your reason is to make some extra income.  Maybe you want to fire your boss, or wake up in the mornings when you are done sleeping and not to the annoying ringing of an alarm clock.

Perhaps you are looking to build a nest egg for retirement, become financially independent, buy a dream house, help out your aging parents, give your children a better education, donate to charities, or be your own boss.

Whatever your reason is… it’s YOURS. Write it down in a journal and read it at least twice per day.  Write it down on 3 x 5 cards and tape them to your mirror, computer, and refrigerator.  These will be your daily reminders to give you the winning edge and proper attitude when building your home-based online business.

You are the only person that can knock yourself out of the box of this incredible opportunity and you need to be mentally prepared when you hit obstacles in the road ahead of you.

There are many ways to make money online. I do use several strategies to generate income for myself; however, my single biggest profit center is selling my own products. Selling your own products is where the money is waiting for you.

The best way to do this is to find a niche market and sell an information product.

Here are 6 simple steps to niche marketing:

Step # 1:  Product Creation

Researching and creating multiple products in multiple niche markets and offering those products for sale on unique websites.

There are many ways to make money online. I do use several strategies to generate income for myself; however, my single biggest profit center is selling my own products. Selling your own products is where the money is waiting for you.

When it comes to selling your own product, you can sell a digital product which is downloaded from your website after the customer pays you for it or you can sell a physical product that needs to be shipped to them. I sell both and you should start with what you are comfortable selling. I started with digital products because it is simple to do.

Some of the benefits of selling a digital product are that you have no shipping because it’s immediately delivered to the customer via download; you have no inventory, and you have no product cost after the product has been developed.

Step # 2:  Copywriting

Writing a KILLER sales letter that becomes your 24/7 salesman on your website (money site).

Your product is sold by the words that prospects read on the screen when they arrive at your site. So after developing a product, the second step is to put a sales letter on your website that becomes your 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, and 365 days per year salesperson.

The sales letter has only one job. Sell your product! I have found that many people shy away from writing sales letters or they do it completely wrong.

The truth is that it’s really not that hard once you understand the psychology behind it and learn a few proven formulas. Yes it will take some practice, but once you get more comfortable and get your style polished, then you’ll be able to whip them off over and over again.

Step # 3:  Generating Traffic

Once you have a sales letter on your website, then you need to send traffic it.

There are many ways to get traffic, but I think the easiest and quickest way is to pay for it. For example you can buy pay per click, banners ads, or ads in online newsletters. These are only a few of the many ways that you can buy traffic.

I’ve found that the next quickest and easiest way to get traffic is to start an affiliate program. An affiliate program is similar to having a sales force working for you without the headaches of hiring or managing people. As individuals (or businesses) sign up as an affiliate with your program, then they get special links that they use to send prospects to your website.

Step # 4:  Capturing Sales

The fourth step involves the proper tools that allow you to accept credit cards and process a sale. You’ll need a merchant account or an account with PayPal or Clickbank (Clickbank is only for digital products).

1Shoppingcart is also a very powerful tool that allows you to automate your sales process and your customer follow up.

Step # 5:  Increasing Visitor Value

Increase the value of the customer by up-selling, cross-selling, and offering backend products and revenue generating sources.

There are ONLY three ways to increase revenue in any business. The three ways to increase your revenues are:

1. Increase your number of customers

2. Increase the average transaction size

3. Increase the frequency your customers buy from you

The easiest of these three strategies is increasing the transaction size (number two above) and the second easiest strategy is increasing the number of times a customer buys from you (number three above).

Step # 6:  Duplicating Your Efforts

Once you have your first product selling from a website, then duplicate your efforts and begin your next project. One site is good, but two is better.

As you make profits from one website, then you can direct your efforts to your next project and start over following steps one through six again.

Go Wide Into Niche Markets For Multiple Streams Of Income

I have many websites that make $200 to $600 per month. I have less websites that make thousands of dollars per month or even tens of thousands per month. The secret, however, is to go wide into many niche markets.

I make it no secret that I am a big fan of PPC traffic. I’ve always been able to use it as one of my marketing tools to generate big profits with my online marketing. However, I’ve met many individuals who have never been able to build profitable PPC campaigns for their business.

There are several possible reasons why PPC hasn’t worked for these internet marketers. Let’s assume that these people are smart marketers and understand how to use PPC effectively. This is a big assumption because I’ve seen plenty of individuals ‘think’ they know what they are doing, but really don’t. It’s a shame to see this happen. I don’t like to see anybody wasting money on ineffective marketing strategies. Nothing can be more ineffective than doing it WRONG!

So, let’s assume that they actually know what they are doing. In this case it is possible that the market they are in is too competitive for them to compete. This can be true if most of their competition consists of large corportations or big businesses. For example, if you are competing with corporate giants that sell $20,000 software programs to businesses and you sell a $69 info product, then it may be tough to fight them for good ad placement. They will be willing to pay much higher per click because of the profits they can make.

(FYI- Here is an interesting way that you can actually get your Google ads free.)

Another possibility is that these marketers are targeting keywords that are too general for their audience. This can happen easily and go unrecognized by the marketer. In this case, they may be able to create a profitable campaign by eliminating the keywords that are generating traffic but not converting to sales.

Pay per click can be a rough game for all marketers, especially newbies. Sometimes the only way to get a campaign profitable is by tweaking and fine tuning multiple variables. This costs money. There is no way around it and it can often knock a newbie out of the game before they ever get started.

On a side note:

If you are sick and tired of the PPC game and want a way to get FREE search listing traffic, then checkout the system by Chris Rempel and Dave Kelly. It’s called the Ultimate Search Engine Loophole and they use it to get free traffic in just about any market.

This system shows you how to get a ton of traffic from MSN. I’ve found over the years that traffic from MSN is some of the highest converting traffic that I get. It doesn’t deliver the quanity of traffic that Google does, but the quality seems to be better from my tests.