How to Start Your Small Internet Business

Introduction

In this report, you'll discover how to start your internet business with just $20 in your pocket. You'll discover some strategies that you can use in order to start and promote your small web business online.

The point here is for you to realize that you can start your business for as little as $20 dollars, but not limit yourself to that. If you have a start-up budget, do use that to your advantage. But if you're on a shoestring budget and can't afford lots of money on PPC or banner advertising, then this report is for you.

I'll try to make it as short as possible, because I'm sure that you're probably reading tons of material on the internet and do not have time to read hundreds of pages of information. So we'll cover the whole process of starting your web business, from choosing a domain name to promoting products or services.

I hope you'll find this report useful and start implementing some strategies into your own web business if you haven't done that already.

Keyword Research and Niche Market

The very first step you should make is to find a niche market where you want to operate in. This is actually very important step. If your niche isn't cluttered, meaning there's a demand and little supply (enough traffic, but not too many competitors) it will be much easier to dominate it. It will require less work.

If you choose very competitive niche market, then you'll have to work much harder in order to get top search engine rankings for example. But don't let that discourage you. You can make money in almost any niche. All it matters is how hard you're willing to work. Forget fairy tails about folks who jump in internet marketing arenaand within few weeks reach $5,000 a month bar. These people are extremely lucky,or they have tons of money to invest.

If you don't have a big budget to invest into marketing and your web business, thenread this entire report, cause you'll discover how to start your web business for as little as $20 and promote it using absolutely free methods.

Niche Market

There are two ways to go about it. You may choose a topic that you know a lot about and that you're passionate about… or choose a topic that you don't know anything about, but you see that there's a good potential in that market. Of course it's always better to choose a topic you know a lot about, but if your favorite topic doesn't seem to have a big market, then it isn't worth going there.

So if you don't have a profitable topic, then simply do a little research. You may find one easily. There are lots of free keyword research tools around.

Overture, Google Suggestion tool, and some free keyword research software will help you to choose a niche market with demand. Type in your chosen key term and see how many searches there are in Overture. Also type them in Google and see what the global search trends for your keywords there are.

If your chosen keyword has more than 5000 searches a month according to Overture, then you might pick this market and start promotion in your chosen niche. Otherwise, it might be not enough traffic for you to capture from search engines and make a profit.

Of course, you should look at how many competitors there are for a given keyword or key phrase. If you see more than 5 million pages competing in Google for a given search term, then it will be very hard getting into the top of search engines rankings.

However, less than 2 million pages wouldn't be so much for you if you determine to work hard towards top rankings.

The Goal of Your Site

You should determine what's the purpose of your site? Is it to gather Adsense clicks, provide useful information and hope that people will buy something you recommend, or sell a product on front page?

In the beginning, you aren't probably going to create your own product and release it to the market. It requires more time and more money. So the easiest solution is to choose affiliate programs and promote other people's products or services for a commission.

Affiliate Products

However, if the niche market is high-ticket items ($300, $1000 and above…) then I twill be harder to sell such products for a commission. Besides, commissions on expensive items are usually extremely low: 5% or 10%.

So if you sell an item for $1000, you get only $50 bucks.

Doesn't look so attractive anymore right?

On the other hand low ticket items, especially digital products have much higher commissions. You can go to Clickbank.com and see that most of the digital products there, offer 50% or more commissions.

So if you sell a $100 item, you'll get the same $50 bucks.

But what do you think is easier to sell, a thousand dollar product or an e-book that costs less than $100? Of course it's the low ticket-item.

As an affiliate you won't make a lot by selling digital cameras for example, because they offer about 2% or max 10% commissions. So if you're thinking about having a site that sells affiliate products, you might go into other niches that still have demand, but provide higher commissions than 20% or 30%.

So when you choose a niche market, think about the products you're going to promote and the purpose of your site.

Adsense Clicks

If you have heard enough Adsense success stories and think about Adsense clicks, then you might go into any profitable market, like:

•Mortgages

•Credit cards

•Medicine

•Weight loss

•Insurance

•Digital cameras

And so on… You get the idea, right.

If the company can make lots of money from that market, then they'll bid top dollar for Adwords clicks and you might get a portion of that from Adsense. So if your main target is - Adsense, then you might pick one of those markets or try some high CPC keywords that people post on forums or other websites.

Many people will tell you that high paying Adsense keywords are complete garbage and you shouldn't pay attention to them. Others say that only by discovering high paying keywords, you can make some money from Adsense.

You know… They're both right…

First of all, profitable markets or niche markets usually have lots of competitors. The more competitors profiting from that niche, the higher the CPC in Adwords. So high paying keywords like the ones below, will have high CPC, even higher than $10 or$30 a click.

“web hosting”

“web design”

“mesothelioma”

“bad credit mortgage”

But here's the point where another camp is right (the one, which says that all high paying keywords aren't necessarily going to bring you lots of money)…

Adwords advertisers aren't stupid. They simply turn-off “content network” in order to get higher CTR and better rankings.

“Content network” is an option in Google Adwords that allows advertisers to show their ads on other people's websites, aka Adsense.

Let's say an advertiser pays $5.00 a click for a keyword “prescription diet pills”. His Adwords campaign has “content network” turned-on. Now people who have similar content on their sites will display this advertiser's ads. If visitors click on this advertiser's ad from Adsense website, the Adsense site owner will get a portion of that $5.00. Nobody knows how much is that. Some say 50%, 30% or 60%. It depends on the CTR of the Adsense website.

Ok, but it's not so beautiful as it seems at the first glance.

As mentioned before, Adwords advertisers aren't stupid and they usually turn-off“content network” in their campaigns.

Why you ask?

Because they get much lower CTR (click through ratio) from content sites, than Google search ads or Google's Network ads.

Why they care about CTR?

Because the lower the CTR, the more money they'll have to pay for clicks. Higher CTR will result in better campaign's quality score, which means that advertiser, will pay less money per click and will get higher positions in search engines.

So savvy advertisers simply turn-off “content network” and their ads don't show on your or some other Adsense publisher's site. Google even allows Adwords advertisers to set separate prices for web search and content network results.

It's obvious that many will select much lower prices for “content network”, because clicks from content (Adsense) sites is much less targeted than from web search.

Why should someone pay $30 for a less targeted click, when they can pay that money for the most targeted click? Everybody is concerned about the effectiveness of their advertising. They don't want just to waste their money on unproductive advertising.

Again, it isn't so bad as it sounds.

Not all Adwords advertisers are so concerned about Adsense sites. Some receive positive ROI from Adsense site clicks. Some simply don't know what that “content network” means and they'll pay top dollar without knowing how to optimize their campaigns for maximum effectiveness.

There are many cases.

So those who say that you shouldn't search for top paying keywords are right in this case. You never know which advertisers have “content network” on and who have turned it off. The rule of thumb here is to go to Google and see how many advertisers there are for a given keyword.

If there are over 70 advertisers for a particular keyword, then it's a lot. It means that some of those will definitely promote their ads on Adsense sites. It means that you'll be able to display their ads and get some clicks. You should search for a keyword that has lots of advertisers. The more advertisers there are the more chances that some of those will be advertising on Adsense sites.

So in the end, it's just a “cat in a bag” game. You never know which keywords will bring you lots of money… Profitable markets are definitely worth looking at, but they also may not guarantee you top dollar. No one knows what systems Google uses for Adwords or Adsense programs.

If you decide to choose Adsense for your site, then create lots of content and try to gain high CTR. Some people report that the higher the CTR for Adsense ads you have, the more dollars you'll get from those clicks. CTR should be your main aim. Some people get as much as 50% CTR for Adsense. Yep, every second person who comes to the site clicks on Adsense ads. So there's always a room for you to improve.

Affiliate or Adsense or Both?

Actually nobody prohibits you from having Adsense ads next to your affiliate links or banners on your site. But you should note that if you put Adsense blocks wherever possible on your pages, you'll limit your affiliate sales.

And vice versa…

If you put too many banners on your pages, you'll receive much less Adsense clicks.

You should try doing both separately. For the first two weeks, put only affiliate banners or links. Then put only Adsense ads. After one month you'll see what brings you better results. You can try to combine affiliate links and Adsense ads. See if you get fewer sales from one or another method. If your sales aren't hurt too much, then use both on your pages.

Choosing Domain Name

Ok. If you've determined what kind of site you'd like to have (Affiliate or Adsense), then it's time to go to the next step, which is choosing a domain name.

There are two types of domain names. Keyword rich domains and non-keyword rich domains. Some marketers suggest one, some another type of domains.

Keyword-rich domains

Basically the reason for choosing a keyword rich domain name is to rank higher in the SERP's. Let's say your website is about diet pills. Your domain is somethinglike:http://www.weight-loss-diet-pills-online.com

And your competitor's website is something like this:

http://www.pharmatown.com

Then in theory your website will rank higher in the SERP's if a visitor searches for a keyword “weight loss diet pills” or “weight loss pills”.

Many marketers claim that this will boost your rankings in the search engines. However, there is no proof of that being true. There are far more important tactics used to improve your rankings in the search engines than having a keyword rich domain name. If it still has some importance these days, then it isn't very big.

You should also consider the negative side of having a keyword rich domain name. What if someone has visited your site, but forgot to bookmark it. Now that person is trying to type in your domain name directly into the address bar. He can't remember your domain, simply because it's too long. What stays in your visitor's memory is that it's just another keyword rich domain.

Also, it's much more difficult to type in a keyword rich domain name into the address bar, than a short domain. I'm not even talking about domain name with dashes or(God help…) double or triple dashes, like:

http://www.keyword---rich---domain.com

Isn't it awful? And yes, there are such domains out there…

So think carefully if you really want to have a good domain.

If you think that even a tiny portion of weight given to keyword rich domain is far more important than your visitors' experience, then choose keyword rich domain. Otherwise, think about non-keyword rich domain name.

Non-Keyword Rich Domains

If you're considering a non-keyword rich domain, then think about a short and easily memorable domain.

A short and nice domain name can be much better for your web business than the long one. First, if you'll be able to choose a good and catchy domain, people will remember it easily and you'll get more visitors who directly type in your domain into address bar. The easier it is for your visitor to type the domain name, the more chances there are that he'll type your domain directly to visit your site.

Tell me, do you ever type-in a long keyword-rich domain into address bar?

I guess not.

But domains like, Google.com, Yahoo.com or Ebay.com people type in very often, because these domains are easy to remember and type in.

So consider this fact, because some businesses receive a lot of visitors who directly type in the domain name into the address bar.

Another advantage of short and memorable domain name is that it looks more professional. People who use internet a lot already know that (in many cases) keyword rich domains are created with the only purpose - to rank high in the search engines.

Short and easily memorable domains on the other hand are usually owned by big and serious companies that look more professional than those content providers.

If you believe that a short domain would be great, but think that it's very hard to acquire such domain, then don't be disappointed. If you spend some time searching for a short and catchy domain, you'll find some pretty good ones out there that haven't been registered yet.

Ok. If you've weighed pros and cons of keyword rich domains against non-keyword rich ones, it's time to see where you can purchase those domains.

If you're on a shoestring budget, then you can find some domain registrars that can sell you a domain for less than $4 per year. But these domains are usually .info domains.

See, when people type-in a domain, they usually add .com at the end. This should be your aim. You might get pretty good .info domains, but it will be much harder for people to remember and type in the address bar.

Your visitors might remember your name, but not the ending. So what they'll do is add a .com at the end. If they won't end up on your site, then they might still try .net(but it's not very likely). So if they won't find your site after 2 attempts, they'll simply consider that you're out of business. They won't go through all the possible variations just to find your site (if they're typing it directly).

You know, there's a reason why those .us or .info domains are sold so cheaply and .com's are more expensive. It's because people are used to .com endings. So don't try to change that. Adapt to internet users' behavior.

You can search for cheap domain registrars by typing into a search query something like that:

“cheap domain registration”

“cheap domain registrar”

“cheap .com domains”

Or you can go with a registrar that has great reputation and is probably the largest player in the market.

I'm talking about 2gbhosting.com

Their price for .com domain is less than $10 for the first year. You also get discount when ordering in bulk.

You can go to 2gbhosting.com and search for your favorite domain name and order it if no one else has done that before you.

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Choosing Web Hosting Account

After you pick a domain name, it's time to choose a web hosting account that will host your domain name for you.

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Designing Your Website

If you don't know how to create websites and don't have software for doing that, then it's going to be much harder for you to build one. But don't be discouraged.

Your goal is to put up a website as fast as possible. While aesthetics are important, it's still much better to put something up and then improve it, than keep improving it for months and not see any results in the beginning.

If you don't want to spend money on expensive and professional HTML editors, then there some free ones out there for you.

You can find several free HTML tools, like “CoffeeCup” free editor, NVU, EvrSoft.

Keep in mind that you'll need to spend your time trying to learn how to use these tools.

When you'll learn how to make tables and format your content with colors etc. you'll see that you can create great looking websites quite easily.

If you want to make it even easier to build sites, then you can search for and download free HTML templates for your site. There are tons of free templates that you can download and use at no cost. So you can simply take free templates, put them into one of the free HTML editors above and create your own customized website with little work.

Promoting Your Website

If you have done a keyword research and picked the niche market where you can make money, chosen a domain name, web hosting and created your first site, then it's time to promote your site so you could receive traffic and start making money online.

We'll focus on free traffic generation methods here to show you that you still can make money even by using free marketing methods.

So far, you have spent as little as $20 ($8 for a domain name for one year and $12 for cheap and quality hosting for one year). And that's it… You have invested enough money into your basic online business that will bring you sales in the future.

All you have to do now is to promote your website online using free methods (which are very effective by the way…) and start making money from the internet.

The first website promotion method you should focus on is article submissions. It doesn't cost a thing and it's quite effective.

Article Submission

Submitting articles to article directories is a great method of building links and traffic to your site. But you should remember that one or two articles are not enough. Writing articles and submitting them to article directories should be continuous task.

When you'll have 40 or 50 articles submitted to various directories and websites, they'll keep bringing you traffic and keep your search engine rankings high for many years in the future.

You should keep in mind that articles are good for several reasons. They'll show you as an expert in your niche, so people will be more likely to order from you.

They'll bring direct traffic from websites and directories. They'll increase your search engine rankings if you include back links in your article resource box.

You should write quality and informative articles. If you write good article, many people will be glad to post it on their websites and give you a backlink.

You can find many article directories in the search engines.

Simply type in:

“article directory”

“submit article”

“article directory list”

You'll come up with many websites that allow you to submit your articles. You should find various article directory lists in websites or forums too.

Link Exchanges

Link exchanges are still good method for getting links to your website. Many say that link exchanges are outdated and don't work, but it's not true. They still work. It's just little harder to acquire links this way… But if you keep working at it, you may find many link exchange partners that will trade links with you.

Link exchanges are good for traffic and search engines too. If you trade links with some quality websites, then their link might bring you quite decent traffic for many years. And of course, quality links will boost your search engine rankings too.

Just don't try to trick your partners by giving them JavaScript encoded links or links with “no follow” tag, which tells search engines to ignore the link. Don't bury your links pages deep in your site. Make it accessible from the first page as a resource to your visitors.

Make your links page related to your site's content. Don't put links about gambling, diet pills or sports if your site is about mortgages. The more quality your links page looks like, the easier it will be to gain links.

Creating a Blog

You may also create a blog and submit some content to make few posts. Then submit that blog to various blog and RSS directories. For a list of RSS directories go to:

http://rss-feed-directory.blogspot.com/

If your blog is often updated, you might quickly get some good search engine rankings and make some sales.

You may submit your blog to blog directories, exchange links with other related blogs or submit articles to directories with links back to your blog. This will definitely help your blog rank higher in the SERP's.

You may then put affiliate links or Adsense ads on your blog and generate some profit this way. You may also put a link to your website and gain some more traffic.

A link to your site from your blog will also increase your site's search engine rankings.

You may create a free blog at:

http://www.blogger.com

Viral Marketing

You can create a free e-book or report about your chosen topic and offer that report to download from your site. You may allow other people to pass the report to others and this way creates viral traffic.

You may submit your e-book to various e-book directories and get some more traffic this way. If your report is good enough, people will pass it on to each other and this will bring you some traffic in the future.

You may decide to include some affiliate links in your ebook, but this isn't a good idea if you're not planning to make your ebook brandable.

Brandable means that other people can change links in the ebook to their own affiliate ID's and make money this way.

If you put your affiliate links in your ebook and ask other people to use your ebook or report on their sites or newsletters, there's little chance that they'll agree. Why would they promote you for free? What's in it for them? Just content isn't enough anymore.

So, if you have some affiliate links in your ebook, make it brandable and allow others to include their links in your report.

They'll be more likely to promote your content if they'll get something out of it.

You may promote your website or some free e-course in the end of your ebook or at the end of every page, like in this report. So you'll get some advantage too.

Conclusion

As you see, there are some ways to make money online and start business with very little cost. So far we have spent $8 on a domain name, and $12 for a year of web hosting. This totals to $20. That's how much it costs to start a business and make a few sales from the internet within a period of one year.

Of course, if you have more money, there are much more things you can do, including PPC, banner advertising, buying links for rankings and traffic, paying someone to create content for you, paying for auto responder and so on…

But the point here is to show you that it is possible to invest as little as $20 into a web business and start making some money online.

Of course, we're talking only about money here, but not time. Time is just as important as money. Sometimes even more…

In this case (shoestring budget case), you are wasting your time to make money. When you'll start making a decent amount of money, you'll see that sometimes it's best to waste some money in order to save your time.

Ok. I hope you've found this report useful… I hope that even if you have some advertising budget, you won't overlook these free promotional methods for advertising your online business.

As some people say: “The best traffic is free traffic!”

So if you have some time to spend, but little money to invest, take a closer look at these free internet marketing methods, because they are very powerful.

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All the Best for your successful Online Business!

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