Starting a Home-Based Internet Marketing Business

So you've decided to start a home-based Internet marketing business and now you're asking the eternal question, "Where do I start?"

My advice is to plenty of research, planning and soul searching before you begin. Most people who start a work-from-home Internet marketing business fail within the first six months. The most common reason for this is a lack of planning. So if you really want your home-based business to succeed, you need to give it plenty of forethought. I'm hoping this article will get you started on the right foot.

Internet Marketing Lessons Learned

I've learned many lessons about running an Internet marketing business, and I'd like to share some of them with you today. I've finally reached a place in my business where I'm happy, but it took a long time and plenty of trial and error to reach this point. So who knows ... maybe you'll find a shortcut to success by reading some of my own lessons learned.

1. Start by finding a niche for yourself.

There are thousands of Internet marketing companies in the U.S. alone, so if you want to enter the market successfully you need a niche. This might be an industry niche, a geographic niche, or a combination of the two.

For example, when I started my SEO firm, I realized it was a crowded industry. So I focused on providing SEO services to (A) small businesses in the Austin, Texas area and (B) real estate companies. It was a lot easier to enter the market this way. If I had tried to be a general SEO consultant for any type of company anywhere in the U.S., it probably would not have worked. Too much competition. Anyone starting a home-based Internet marketing business can benefit from this piece of advice -- find a niche!

2. Create an informative website.

You need a website that explains the Internet marketing services you offer. Not everyone will read through it. Some people will just shoot you an email and ask for help without reading a single word of your website. But you still need to provide sufficient information about your services, for the people who do read carefully.

At a minimum, this information should include:

• A clear explanation of the Internet marketing services you provide, along with the benefits of those services.
• A list of credentials. This can include past projects you've done, training and education, specific accomplishments, any articles you've published, etc.
• Testimonials from past clients, if you have some.
• An overview of how the process works, including the payment side of things.
• You might also want to create an FAQ page.

As you add this information to your website, be sure to optimize it for search engine visibility. This will help people find you online, which makes your marketing efforts a lot easier. You might also want to create an article library on your website, which can help you pull in even more search engine traffic.

3. Beware of time-wasting logistics.

If you spend too much time on logistical tasks like writing proposals, talking on the phone, and invoicing, then you won't as much time for billable works. This will limit the amount of money you can make with your home-based marketing business.

I learned this the hard way. I used to spend way too much time talking to potential clients on the phone. It ate up a lot of my workday, and it didn't always generate business. So I started handling all inquiries by email, until people were ready to move forward. You have to find a system that works for you, and you have to be on constant guard against logistical time-wasters.

Blogging for a Living - 3 Strategies to Consider

Thousands of Americans publish blogs these days, and they run the gamut from family to business blogs. Even retirees are getting involved. So blogging, by itself, is certainly nothing knew. But a rising trend is the idea of blogging for a living from home. And in this post, that's exactly what I'm going to talk to you about.

Specifically, I'll explain three different strategies you might use to start a work-from-home blogging business of your own. Then I'll offer what I feel is the absolute best approach.

3 Ways to Blog for a Living

These are by no means the only way to go about it. These are just a few of the ways I've used blogging within my own home-based business. See if any of these ideas tickle your fancy.

1. Becoming a Freelance Blog Writer

Many companies publish blogs these days, but some of them don't have the in-house writing talent needed for consistent blogging. So you with a little bit of hard work, and a healthy dose of self-promotion, you could position yourself as a freelance blog writer for such companies.

I've done this in the past, and I can tell for a fact there are plenty of potential customers for this type of business model. Over time, you could find yourself blogging for a living this way -- and making a good living to boot!

2. Earning Ad Revenue

If you have one or more blogs with a good amount of traffic, you could earn a decent living from advertising revenue. There are two main strategies to choose from -- you can sell your ads on an individual basis, or you can use a contextual advertising program such as Google AdSense.

If you don't have a ton of blog traffic, I recommend the contextual ad programs. When your traffic increases to more significant levels, you may be able to sell ad space to individual advertiser as well. I personally know a handful of people who are blogging for a living with Google AdSense alone, so it can certainly be done.

3. Using Commission Programs

Similar to the advertising programs mentioned above, you can generate revenue from a wide variety of commission programs. The difference here is that you are making money by generating a specific action. The two most common actions are sales and leads. For example, if you send a visitor to a software site and they purchase a product, you could earn a commission based on that sale. Likewise, if you send a visitor to a mortgage website and they fill out a form requesting information, you could earn a commission from that lead.

Is this a viable strategy for blogging for a living? Absolutely. If you choose the right commission programs and do a good job placing the creative components (banners and links), you could make a good living from this blog strategy. Best of all, you are actually helping your website visitors find the kind of products and services they're after. And if you choose commission programs for products you believe in -- which you should -- you'll feel good about the whole thing!

The Best Approach

If you are serious about blogging from home for a living, I recommend using a combined strategy. You could offer freelance services for blog setup, training or content development. You could publish a network of your own blogs, with a combination of advertising and commission-based revenue. And you can do it all at the same time.

In my experience, it's extremely important to diversify your blogging business by incorporating several different strategies. This will offer a lot more financial security than using one strategy alone.

Here's a real-life example of what I mean. When the economic recession hit full force around October of 2008, the client side of my business dried up to nothing. Nobody could afford to pay for freelance services anymore. If I had been relying entirely on the blog writing services, I would have been in bad shape -- and probably would've been forced to get a "day job" again. Yikes! But we managed to get by because I had other aspects of my Internet business that were generating revenue. I learned a lot about the need for diversification at that time, and I've been diversifying even further since then.

Blogging for a living is not a fantasy, but it does require a lot of hard work and a solid plan. If you love to blog, and you feel you're up for the challenge, you could some day have a home-based blog business that pays the bills. Good luck!

How to Publish Website Content for a Living

Are you a website content geek like me? Do you love to research new topics, write about them, and publish your content online for readers? Would you like to do it for a living? If so, this blog post is for you.

Let me start by saying this is not the only "recipe" for running a work-at-home Internet business. Nor is this the only model for publishing website content for a living. This is just my story. This is how I've done things, and it has worked well for me. I've been running a home-based Internet publishing business for about three years now, and I've done pretty well so far. I've even managed to survive and thrive during the current economic recession.

Here are some things I've learned along the way.

• You need to publish content that interests you. I currently manage a dozen blogs, but they are all built around topics that interest me -- topics ranging from real estate to reptiles. This makes it a lot easier to publish new content day in and day out.
  
• In the early days, I tried to blog about potentially profitable topics that did not interest me, but that didn't last long. If you publish website content about topics that interest you, you'll be more inclined to stick with it over time.
• When one website starts to do well for you, take those lessons and apply them to website #2 ... and then website #3 and #4, etc. It's possible to make a living from a single website, but it's also quite a challenge. I recommend publishing several websites, and working hard to grow them all in tandem. I like to refer to this as "raising crops." Farmers diversify their crops for long-term security. You should do the same with your websites and blogs.
  
• Experiment with different revenue generators. I've experimented with at least a dozen techniques for generating website revenue. Currently, most of my earnings come from advertising, commission programs, e-book sales, and consultation services. But it took me a couple of years to figure out what worked best, based on the nature of my websites and the people who use them. This kind of experimentation never ends, by the way.
  
• Learn how to be efficient. The more efficiently you can publish website content, the more content you'll have over time. This means more traffic and, ultimately, more revenue. Just don't sacrifice the quality of your content for quantity. And speaking of quality...
• Work hard to publish website content that truly helps people. Don't ever put anything online until it meets your highest standards for quality. If you publish excellent information, people will link to it and recommend it to others. This is a key ingredient for success as a full-time Internet publisher.
• Learn how to use free and helpful tools like Google Reader. If you set up an RSS reader and gather RSS feeds from relevant news sources, you'll have a constant source of content ideas at your fingertips. This is how I'm able to publish so many blogs -- I don't have to waste time looking for stories to cover, ideas to write about, etc. They come to me.
  
• Learn everything you can about search engine optimization. The higher your blogs and websites rank in the search engines, the more traffic you'll get. More traffic equals more revenue. I've created a collection of SEO tutorials to help you with this.
• Most importantly, stick with it! I started with a single hobby website, and I was thrilled when it made ten dollars a day. Now I have a network of websites, with new ones coming online every year. It's a full-time job that pays all of my bills. I don't say this to boast, but only to motivate you. If you can envision success as a full-time Internet publisher, then you can achieve success.
  

I hope this list of tips gives you the motivation and the initial guidance you need to get started. If you have any questions about publishing web content -- and doing it for a living -- feel free to email me. There's a "contact" link at the top of the blog for this reason. Good luck.

Related article:
How to Start an Internet Business