I have been studying and researching home-based businesses and Internet Marketing for almost twenty five years.
I have found tons of scams, bad products, misleading websites, and false promises.
I am sure you may have found many of the same things.
Perhaps you are like me and have spent more money than you can afford on these lies.
But I have also found real businesses and opportunities that do work.
But before I get into some of these I have to make some disclaimers right here and now.
First of all, as with any business, it takes work and effort on your part to make your business successful.
For this reason nobody can make any kind of guarantee of income.
No matter what they promise, you WILL NOT make that money unless you apply yourself and to what it takes to make it.
This is entirely up to you.
Let's take a look at some of the ones that you still find on the Internet but are still not what they seem to be.
Stuffing envelopes.
Oh yeah.
We have seen this one for a while.
Here's what is told you in print: "Get paid $5 for every envelope you stuff with our offers!" That's the "grab line" that hooks your interest.
Who wouldn't want to make $5 for every envelope you stick something into and seal? But here are some of the things they usually don't tell you up front: · You have to pay for the postage · You have to buy the envelopes and mailings · Getting paid for your efforts is difficult.
Paying for the postage to mail the envelops might not be so bad if you are actually getting paid $5 an envelope.
But combine this with having to buy the envelopes and mailings from the company that is hiring you is expensive up front.
That's right! You have to buy bundles of mailings from the company who provide the mailings you will fold and stuff into envelopes, the envelopes they go into (sometimes) and the mailing labels to be placed on each envelope.
This can be anywhere from $100 on up.
Then there is the payment.
What they don't tell you up front is that you don't get paid unless someone buys the product being sold through the mailer you are sending out.
In other words, you are paying a company to send out their advertisement to people in hope they will buy something so you can make a $5 commission.
If you want to do this kind of business then there is a way to do it and make a ton of money.
Using postcards is the way to go.
You can create your own products or you can choose to sell other people's products.
But there are some things that you will need to have in place.
You need a good printing service that can mass print postcards with a mailing list to be printed directly onto the cards.
Then, they will mail them for you using their bulk mailing service which is much cheaper than buying your own.
Next, the product vendor must have a call center developed and dedicated to creating sales though the phone.
So the postcard promotes a product or service and has a toll-free number to call.
People call this number and the operators are responsible for making high-pressure sales techniques to sell them high-end products.
The caller will give the operator a code that is on the postcard and that code tells them the commission is to be paid to you.
There are a number of other real home-based businesses you can get into but do keep in mind there is always some sort of investment.
For example, for about $5,000 you can start your own carpet cleaning service with the top cleaning service.
They provide training, the equipment, and the supplies you need to operate your business.
The income you make will more than pay for your investment.
You will be able to buy van's and start hiring others to work for you.
Another lucrative business is the inflatable bouncy toys that people rent for their outdoor parties and events.
There is huge money in rentals of this type.
There is an up-front investment but the company is willing to work out payments if you need.
Windshield repair is another great business.
Auto detailing is another.
Crafts are another.
There are a whole ton of them.
In fact, I have compiled an entire catalog of these businesses which is available from my site.
But there are is another option which takes much less physical work and can be much more lucrative.
This is Internet Marketing.
Internet Marketing has been a big source of income for many people all over the world.
Anyone can do it and you can even get started for free.
Do understand, without investing into the business you will have to be patient and determined to succeed.
It will take time before you start making some real good income using these free methods.
Getting started in Affiliate Marketing is easy to do.
Affiliate Marketing is all about selling other people's products and services.
But before you can start selling you need a place to sell from.
This is best done with a blog site.
Get a free blog site at either blogger.
com or, better yet, WordPress.
com.
These are free sites and give you everything you need to build a money-making site.
You might be wondering how you can make money with a blog site.
Easy.
You get your product banners and links and put them on your blog site.
Visitors will click on them and some will buy.
But that's not all there is to it.
There are better ways to drum up sales for these links.
Begin by writing a new blog post EVERY DAY.
Yes, every day.
What this does for you is it signal the search engines that your site is active and has unique content.
Search engines love unique content.
The more words in the content the better.
This will cause your site to rank higher in the search engines which is one of the things you need.
Also, this gives avid blog readers plenty of content to read.
In this content you need to do two things.
You need to build trust and you need to establish yourself as an authority.
When you do this you will develop a following of dedicated readers and people who will believe you when you tell them to buy one of your products.
Of course, providing quality products is a good thing also.
To do that you will need to buy some of the products you promote.
Then you need to write good reviews of these products which will, in turn, get people to buy them.
So where do you get these products? Places like ClickBank, JVZoo, and CommissionJunction are three of the best affiliate product sites around.
Signup is free and you can promote as many products as you want.
They have products in every niche you can imagine.
There is one more tool you will need that is absolutely imperative to making money, lots of money, online.
That is an autoresponder.
An autoresponder is a program designed to collect email addresses, automatically send periodic emails to everyone of those emails, and allows you the ability to broadcast a single email to everyone on your list at one time.
This one tool is the Internet Marketer's NUMBER ONE TOOL and is an absolute must if you want to make money online.
I'm talking serious money.
If you are happy making an occasional sale now and then, fine.
That is your choice.
But if you want to continue making money consistently and more and more frequently, then you must have an autoresponder.
There are a lot of autoresponder services out there.
I am going to mention a few, one of which is free with some limitations.
· Aweber · Getresponse · iContact · InfusionSoft · ListWire (free) The first four are the leaders in the business.
Aweber and Getresponse are the top two used by Internet Marketers today and for some time.
The other two, iContact and InfusionSoft are expensive but well worth it.
The last, ListWire, is free but you can only have 10 campaigns max.
Still, it is a great place to start when you are just getting started in the IM business.
Pick one.
Aweber and Getresponse run just under $20 a month.
Both offer a trial period for $1.
If you can't afford it then use the ListWire service and get started.
You can always upgrade to the better services later.
One of the features of the autoresponder service is to build an "opt-in" form.
This is a form you put on your website or into a "Squeeze page" to capture the user's email address.
It comes in the form of either a JavaScript or HTML that you copy and paste into your own code.
Use your autoresponder in your blog.
Create an opt-in form and add it to your blog site to get people to sign up for your newsletter.
When they do, they get added to your email list and you can then email them with your product offers over and over.
This is how the gurus make their money.
So there are some ideas for you to ponder.
It would be a good idea if you would take some time and ask yourself some questions and give some thought to them.
Then answer them honestly.
Take a look at your current situation and use it to determine the direction you can go with a new business.
Do you want to have a physical business like carpet cleaning or windshield repair? Or do you want a virtual business that is online only? Or perhaps a mail-order business? Then there is your physical health.
Are you physically capable of have a business that take some physical effort? Then, will your health last long enough to keep the business going long enough to retire on? Does the business you are interested in take special training, and if so, can you afford it? There is a lot of thought you should give to planning a business before you decide on one.
So, think about it and make some decisions.
Then, take action and make it happen.
Blessings!
I have found tons of scams, bad products, misleading websites, and false promises.
I am sure you may have found many of the same things.
Perhaps you are like me and have spent more money than you can afford on these lies.
But I have also found real businesses and opportunities that do work.
But before I get into some of these I have to make some disclaimers right here and now.
First of all, as with any business, it takes work and effort on your part to make your business successful.
For this reason nobody can make any kind of guarantee of income.
No matter what they promise, you WILL NOT make that money unless you apply yourself and to what it takes to make it.
This is entirely up to you.
Let's take a look at some of the ones that you still find on the Internet but are still not what they seem to be.
Stuffing envelopes.
Oh yeah.
We have seen this one for a while.
Here's what is told you in print: "Get paid $5 for every envelope you stuff with our offers!" That's the "grab line" that hooks your interest.
Who wouldn't want to make $5 for every envelope you stick something into and seal? But here are some of the things they usually don't tell you up front: · You have to pay for the postage · You have to buy the envelopes and mailings · Getting paid for your efforts is difficult.
Paying for the postage to mail the envelops might not be so bad if you are actually getting paid $5 an envelope.
But combine this with having to buy the envelopes and mailings from the company that is hiring you is expensive up front.
That's right! You have to buy bundles of mailings from the company who provide the mailings you will fold and stuff into envelopes, the envelopes they go into (sometimes) and the mailing labels to be placed on each envelope.
This can be anywhere from $100 on up.
Then there is the payment.
What they don't tell you up front is that you don't get paid unless someone buys the product being sold through the mailer you are sending out.
In other words, you are paying a company to send out their advertisement to people in hope they will buy something so you can make a $5 commission.
If you want to do this kind of business then there is a way to do it and make a ton of money.
Using postcards is the way to go.
You can create your own products or you can choose to sell other people's products.
But there are some things that you will need to have in place.
You need a good printing service that can mass print postcards with a mailing list to be printed directly onto the cards.
Then, they will mail them for you using their bulk mailing service which is much cheaper than buying your own.
Next, the product vendor must have a call center developed and dedicated to creating sales though the phone.
So the postcard promotes a product or service and has a toll-free number to call.
People call this number and the operators are responsible for making high-pressure sales techniques to sell them high-end products.
The caller will give the operator a code that is on the postcard and that code tells them the commission is to be paid to you.
There are a number of other real home-based businesses you can get into but do keep in mind there is always some sort of investment.
For example, for about $5,000 you can start your own carpet cleaning service with the top cleaning service.
They provide training, the equipment, and the supplies you need to operate your business.
The income you make will more than pay for your investment.
You will be able to buy van's and start hiring others to work for you.
Another lucrative business is the inflatable bouncy toys that people rent for their outdoor parties and events.
There is huge money in rentals of this type.
There is an up-front investment but the company is willing to work out payments if you need.
Windshield repair is another great business.
Auto detailing is another.
Crafts are another.
There are a whole ton of them.
In fact, I have compiled an entire catalog of these businesses which is available from my site.
But there are is another option which takes much less physical work and can be much more lucrative.
This is Internet Marketing.
Internet Marketing has been a big source of income for many people all over the world.
Anyone can do it and you can even get started for free.
Do understand, without investing into the business you will have to be patient and determined to succeed.
It will take time before you start making some real good income using these free methods.
Getting started in Affiliate Marketing is easy to do.
Affiliate Marketing is all about selling other people's products and services.
But before you can start selling you need a place to sell from.
This is best done with a blog site.
Get a free blog site at either blogger.
com or, better yet, WordPress.
com.
These are free sites and give you everything you need to build a money-making site.
You might be wondering how you can make money with a blog site.
Easy.
You get your product banners and links and put them on your blog site.
Visitors will click on them and some will buy.
But that's not all there is to it.
There are better ways to drum up sales for these links.
Begin by writing a new blog post EVERY DAY.
Yes, every day.
What this does for you is it signal the search engines that your site is active and has unique content.
Search engines love unique content.
The more words in the content the better.
This will cause your site to rank higher in the search engines which is one of the things you need.
Also, this gives avid blog readers plenty of content to read.
In this content you need to do two things.
You need to build trust and you need to establish yourself as an authority.
When you do this you will develop a following of dedicated readers and people who will believe you when you tell them to buy one of your products.
Of course, providing quality products is a good thing also.
To do that you will need to buy some of the products you promote.
Then you need to write good reviews of these products which will, in turn, get people to buy them.
So where do you get these products? Places like ClickBank, JVZoo, and CommissionJunction are three of the best affiliate product sites around.
Signup is free and you can promote as many products as you want.
They have products in every niche you can imagine.
There is one more tool you will need that is absolutely imperative to making money, lots of money, online.
That is an autoresponder.
An autoresponder is a program designed to collect email addresses, automatically send periodic emails to everyone of those emails, and allows you the ability to broadcast a single email to everyone on your list at one time.
This one tool is the Internet Marketer's NUMBER ONE TOOL and is an absolute must if you want to make money online.
I'm talking serious money.
If you are happy making an occasional sale now and then, fine.
That is your choice.
But if you want to continue making money consistently and more and more frequently, then you must have an autoresponder.
There are a lot of autoresponder services out there.
I am going to mention a few, one of which is free with some limitations.
· Aweber · Getresponse · iContact · InfusionSoft · ListWire (free) The first four are the leaders in the business.
Aweber and Getresponse are the top two used by Internet Marketers today and for some time.
The other two, iContact and InfusionSoft are expensive but well worth it.
The last, ListWire, is free but you can only have 10 campaigns max.
Still, it is a great place to start when you are just getting started in the IM business.
Pick one.
Aweber and Getresponse run just under $20 a month.
Both offer a trial period for $1.
If you can't afford it then use the ListWire service and get started.
You can always upgrade to the better services later.
One of the features of the autoresponder service is to build an "opt-in" form.
This is a form you put on your website or into a "Squeeze page" to capture the user's email address.
It comes in the form of either a JavaScript or HTML that you copy and paste into your own code.
Use your autoresponder in your blog.
Create an opt-in form and add it to your blog site to get people to sign up for your newsletter.
When they do, they get added to your email list and you can then email them with your product offers over and over.
This is how the gurus make their money.
So there are some ideas for you to ponder.
It would be a good idea if you would take some time and ask yourself some questions and give some thought to them.
Then answer them honestly.
Take a look at your current situation and use it to determine the direction you can go with a new business.
Do you want to have a physical business like carpet cleaning or windshield repair? Or do you want a virtual business that is online only? Or perhaps a mail-order business? Then there is your physical health.
Are you physically capable of have a business that take some physical effort? Then, will your health last long enough to keep the business going long enough to retire on? Does the business you are interested in take special training, and if so, can you afford it? There is a lot of thought you should give to planning a business before you decide on one.
So, think about it and make some decisions.
Then, take action and make it happen.
Blessings!
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