Can You Start An Internet Business With No Money?

Many people are enticed by businesses they can start with little or no money. Is it possible to start an Internet Business with no money?

Yes.

I did it, but I'll be the first but not the last to tell you that I would have saved a bunch of time and heartache if I'd had some cash to hire someone who knows how to achieve and launch successful marketing/sales campaigns.

In other words, If I could have paid someone to do all the tedious/grunt work I'd be further along in my Internet Marketing than I am now. Oh, well.

Don't get me wrong, I've learned a lot about marketing strategy, some of what it takes to be successful at Google Adwords, Email marketing, list building, keyword research and article marketing.

There are some other tid bits I've picked up along my year and two month Internet marketing experience but it's late and I can't remember everything at the moment.

One important fact that I've learned is that optimizing your website is a compilation of factors that work together to build website popularity in your market. Some people think if they generate tons of backlinks they will start receiving enormous amounts of traffic.

Quality Backlinks are great to have but are not the overall determining factor in website optimization. The most important skills for an aspiring Internet entrepreneur to have would be:

1. determination
2. perseverance
3. drive
4. pride
5. organization
6. analytical skills

With these 6 skills the rest will fall into place like devoting a substantial amount of time to your business. Learning from and moving past failure. Taking challenges head on. Ensuring you are offering your market something of value. Keeping everything related to your business organized such as files, folders, etc. Last but not least knowing how to determine where there are opportunities for improvement and capital gain in the long and short run.

Let this marinate and I'll talk to you soon,
Will C.

Balance Your Internet Business And Family

Balancing work, family, school, and personal endeavors’ has always been a struggle for me. It all started when I was in the Military many years ago and decided to start taking college courses. I realized I couldn't hang out everyday after work, party and still get my school work done. As a result, I wrote down what was most important to me, prioritized them and used those things to schedule my days, weeks, etc. Granted I still had to work around the "Call of duty" but for the most part this worked for me.

After having my first child, getting married, divorced, getting out of the Military, getting married again, having more children, furthering my education, and working a full time job my hair fell out! Just kidding, I would have lost my hair anyway (Bald Men are still sexy right?) :-).

I still stuck to writing down what was important to me and scheduling my routine around that. I took courses online which allowed me to be at home with my family. Everything I planned involved my family first and if I wanted to hang out I made sure I already had at least one family outing that week or one planned later that day.

I regularly communicate my dreams and aspirations with my wife and ask about hers. Now that I'm finished with my B.S. in eCommerce I've started researching online businesses and sharing my findings with others. My wife really isn't into this (online businesses, computers, technology) but I still keep her abreast and she is slowly but surely coming to realize the internet isn't going away. Many online entrepreneurs have exclaimed that once their online business started generating a nice profit they worked far less and made/make far more money than they ever dreamed possible.

My wife is a Registered Nurse and works two days a week which allows her to be at home with our 1 year old son and take our 5 year old daughter to and from school (so she is two days a week away from being a housewife).

I am so excited about online businesses like Internet/affiliate Marketing, PPC, PPL, PPS, etc. Right now I'm concentrating on SEO and networking with like minded individuals. I still work a 9-5 M-F. When I first got interested in the online business community I didn't know how to manage my online time, 9-5 and family.

I'm a Computer/Network Systems Technician. In the past, I'd occasionaly be able to do some research at work and what I didn't finish I'd try to finish at home. There were several days I came home, kissed my wife, asked about her day, ate dinner, played with the kids and jumped online till 1am. The next day I was burnt out. I realized not only did I have to write down a priority list for my family I had to do one for my online endeavors too.

Now I write down what I need to get accomplished online. From that information I write down the recourses I want/need to accomplish the tasks. From that I write down what day(s) I will start each task. From that I write down approximately how long each task will take.

Does this always work? NO! Does it work most of the time and give me a reference of what I need to do or have done? YES! Some may refer to it as Project Management for your life.




K.M.

Thinking Of Starting An Internet Business?

If your thinking of starting an online Home Based Business you need to change the way you think about making a profit online. When starting your online Home Based Business it is good to think about what you want to offer and the people you want to offer it to. Once you have gotten the aforementioned on paper take a step back. Get your mind in Web Site Promotion mode and start thinking about how will you let people know you exist.

I get forward emails or “chain letters” all the time and in the past I would delete them. Instead of deleting chain letters I will make a small reply to everyone (with something relevant to the email) and use the signature as an opportunity to advertise my online link. For instance, "Get Free Internet Marketing Info”at YourWebSite.com is perfect and not to obnoxious. When thinking of website advertising or Internet Marketing you want to use as much fre.e advertising as possible. Sometimes fre.e advertising means that you will need to use some of your time versus money. When starting your online Home Based Business be sure to stay informed about what is going on in your industry.

Subscribe to and read as many blogs and forums as you have time to reply to. Also, be sure to make relevant comments to blogs and forums with a link back to your website. This may be obvious but, concentrate on posting to forum topics and blogs that are relevant to your website so that those interested may want to visit your site. In most cases you don't have to reinvent the wheel to make money online; however you do want to stand out from your competition. Think about what value you can offer visitors to your website. For instance, I’ve noticed that people sign up to Newsletters first when they are genuinely interested and second, when they get a bonus. I will talk about the aforesaid in another blog.

Changing the way you think about an online Home Based Business is one of the most important parts of your business plan and it should be at the top of your list of things to do. Remember there are many online business models but the models that involve your own website need promotion and advertising.



Regards,

K.M.

Internet Business Or Continue Your Day Job?

I have always had an itch to start my own business but I’ve always held a 9-5 and did my very best at them. After during a five year miltary career I decided to get serious about school and attend community college. I did the best I could in community college while working a 9-5 and supporting myself. Although I enjoyed my 20's I was begining to realize time was passing me by and I wasn’t as wealthy as I'd like to be. Even more so, I noticed that the business structure at most jobs I held didn’t lend to making me rich (why would they I was making them rich(er).

Last year I purchased a Real-Estate course online, studied it night and day, took out equity in our town home, and purchased a house that fit the criteria outlined in the Real-Estate course, fixed the property and sold it for a profit. Whew, that was a mouth full. While doing the aforementioned I held a 9-5, took online courses to get my Bachelors in eCommerce, and did most of the work on the house myself. I worked my 9-5 Monday - Friday, was at the investment property from 5am - 12pm Saturday and Sunday (so I could spend time with my family the rest of the day). It took me 4 weeks to finish work on the property. After closing on the house and receiving the check everyone seemed to be happy but me. I didn’t feel satisfied. Although I made a nice profit I felt like I had worked too damn hard for it. With house flipping there is a lot of competition so you spend a bunch of time:

1. Finding a property. If you don't have a qualified Real-Estate agent this step will be long.
2. Time ensuring it meets your criteria (Comparative Market Analysis, etc).
3. Time quantifying costs to fix it up.
4. Finding qualified contractors for work you can't or won't do.
5. Finding the best price possible for work and supplies.
6. Doing the work or ensuring Contractors are doing the work right.
7. Cleaning the house to prepare it to be shown for sale.
8. Keeping the property up while its on the market.

After refurbishing the property I didn't want to see it again. Lucky for me I had an awesome agent who let me know although I had just done a ton of work there were little things that could be changed to give the house more appeal. The house sold in two weeks. The neighbors couldn't believe how the place looked after it was finished and really couldn't believe it had sold so fast. My wife was very skeptical at first but couldn't believe how it looked either. Shortly after, I tried to obtain another property but by the time I got to any of the properties someone had an offer on it. It seemed that the competition had gotten more fierce. This, combined with the fact that I was less driven than before made me take a step back to evaluate how I could streamline the process. With my limited resources, Real-Estate wasn’t the right business for me at that time but I will revisit it in the future with a network of qualified partners. Plus, Real-Estate isn't really an "At Home Business". If your considering Real-Estate investment please learn from what I have just mentioned.

After completing my B.S. in eCommerce I conveyed to my wife how nervous I was about putting my new talent to work. The first thing I did was a SWOT analysis. Then I jumped on the Internet and researched how people were making loads of cash via the Internet. I knew a little about PPC, PPL, PPS but didn’t know how to find the companies that paid per lead, click and sale. I ended up falling prey to some excellent Adcopy by some of the industries best Affiliate eBook gurus (prey may be the wrong word but that’s what I felt like). After learning a bunch about Google Adwords, spending $500 on PPC advertising and not making a dime I decided to take a step back and continue my research. Although I had an awesome work ethic my work at home mentality was infected by the “get rich quick” virus. For the record by no means were the Adwords courses I purchased scams. It was almost like I scammed myself, I approached my work at home venture like I was trying to win a race and I was in last place. I constantly dreamed about Ad Campaigns, Keywords, Niches and so on. The other night I dreamt I was conversing with someone who asked “who are you competing with” and I replied “myself”. The next morning, I really didn’t know how to feel about the dream but I decided to take it as if I was beating myself up for my Adwords failure.

I subscribed to a couple of forums and newsletters of like minded Internet entrepreneurs and discovered that there are less expensive ways to make money online. One thing I neglected to understand was that if you offer people something of value you may be able to get them to purchase (PPS), click on a link (PPC), or fill out a survey (PPL) on your website, blog, email, etc. Since I had been writing multiple papers for the last couple of years in school I figured what the heck. This is when I made it my goal to master SEO (search engine optimization).

Finding those interested in your website content/product/service is one step in the puzzle of making money online, keeping them there is the next, and last is getting them to purchase. I ask new customers or leads how do they plan to promote their website and most of them aren’t concerned with it. I tell them they are throwing money away if they don’t learn SEO for their website (or pay a professional).

Starting a home based business can be challenging but if you are armed with the right information and the right network of people you can devote the necessary amount of time to grow your business. If you are going to work at home get online and do your research then once you have decided on what you want to do, find all the information you can on the subject via forms, ezines, ebooks, etc.

Regards, K.M.