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9178 Posts in 1790 Topics by 9890 Members Latest Member: - Elizabeth Harrison Most online today: 22 - most online ever: 272 (January 07, 2011, 05:44:54 AM)
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by GinaGaudioGraves on June 26, 2008, 03:49:00 PM

Welcome To Lesson 5 In Your
30-Day IM Challenge Training Program

"The Magical Formula For Creating
Life Changing Income!"

Copyright© 2008 by The Abundance Group, LLC for www.TheIMUniversity.com . All Rights Reserved.


RESOURCES To Get Your Website Built, Online And
Profiting In 4 Easy Steps...

Introduction

Before we get started, please indulge me for just a moment and allow me to offer you my perceptions about your thoughts, your attitudes and the many opportunities that are available to you online. Granted, I don't know you personally. But as you've already read in "Step 1 - Mindset, Goal Setting, and Strategic Planning", there are a number of points that apply to just about anyone starting out in business... online or offline.

If you search the business world looking for successful entrepreneurs, I guarantee you one thing. No successful person will allow any small hurdles or roadblocks to get in their way of fulfilling their dreams of success. If you're REALLY SERIOUS about finally making money online, then you can't let the "little things" get in your way. You can't let any hurdles in your path prevent you from moving forward!

Sometimes the most prudent thing to do is to take action even when you do not have all the facts...!

Just getting started is your best course of action. Pick a target and shoot! If you miss the target, you move on to the next one.

I guarantee you one thing: doing nothing will get you one thing: NOTHING.

Taking action toward what you want will always win... even if you start wrong, it's better than sitting still.

As you move toward something, you create 'course corrections', refine your strategy, and learn from your mistakes but YOU KEEP ON MOVING.

Each and every day online, you're going to come up against another obstacle. It may be small - it may be big. Everyone in business has obstacles to overcome. I personally face obstacles online EVERYDAY! That's just the way business is... the road isn't always smooth or easy. There will always be some distractions as well.

Those that succeed in business don't allow anything to stop them from moving forward toward their goals. Each day you’ll gain more and more momentum and those daily obstacles ultimately become easier and easier to overcome.

Why? Not because it actually gets any easier.... It just becomes a part of your everyday business plan. Successful people are on a mission and they let nothing stop them from completing their mission.

If they’re unsure about how to do something that needs to get done, they LEARN HOW to do it...

If they’re unsure about how to use a program essential to running their business, they study and learn it until they do know how...

At times, they may even hire someone to do certain tasks that they feel they need specific help with, but they continually educate themselves and use all the available resources in their arsenal to overcome anything that tries to sway them from their focused path - a path that ultimately leads to success!

My point is this.

If you aren't really, really committed to succeeding - if you're going to allow a few small hurdles or any necessary "learning curves" in business stop you from taking a new direction in life, a brighter, wealthier future, then to be perfectly honest with you, I don't know if this information will help you.

Succeeding in your own business will be the hardest yet most rewarding task you’ll ever endure in your lifetime. It needs to be taken very seriously! It will make you think and think again! And when you’re done thinking, it’s time to brainstorm. Then, guess what... time to think again!

If you're the type of person who isn't willing to take a bit of responsibility for yourself and learn some new skills that may be outside of your "comfort zone", or you're not willing to accept some failures and learn from them and move forward toward your ultimate goal, then I probably can't help you. (And I say that with “mucho” respect for you and truly do wish you all the luck and success in any ventures you choose to pursue in life).

But if you are really committed to succeeding and you are willing to take charge and learn some new skills to develop and strengthen your business then I congratulate you!

What business are you really in?

When starting a new business or even expanding an existing business by using the power of the internet, there is one very important concept that you truly need to understand.

This one concept is so crucial to your success that I’ve actually seen entire businesses go from ZERO to THOUSANDS a month in profits once they REALLY understand this one concept and implemented it into their everyday business strategy.

What concept am I talking about? Glad you asked :-)

Let me explain.

When selling products and services online, you are not in the sales business.

For example, if you sell "digital cameras" - you are not in retail camera sales.

If you sell "novelty telephones" - you are not in novelty telephone sales.

If you sell "stereo equipment" - you are not in stereo equipment sales.

Now, you might be scratching your head thinking “What the heck is he talking about?”

Let me make this very clear...

When you’re selling merchandise online, you’re in the MARKETING business – plain and simple! That’s
worth repeating…

When you’re selling merchandise online, you’re in the MARKETING business!

You don’t own an online gift shop that sells collectibles, but instead you

You don’t own an online clothing store, you clothing online!

That includes whatever products you have may have drop shipped from suppliers, products your customers download from your website, products you sell as an affiliate, ANYTHING you sell at all. You’re in the business of MARKETING those products - PERIOD!

I just want you to imprint this ideology into your brain. When selling products online, you’re not in the sales business – you’re in the
marketing business!



Overcoming Fear And Failures

Rest assured, in business you will come up against obstacles in your path. You will come across times when you don’t know exactly how to do something. You will have hurdles to jump. Don’t let that discourage you from pursuing your dreams and marketing your business. We all face obstacles every day. You mission is to overcome those obstacles and keep your momentum moving forward.

Once you do overcome an obstacle, it removes any barriers you self imposed in your mind like “I can’t do it” or “You need to have a special skill to be successful” and this will soon make you realize that YOU CAN do it!

You’re no different than anybody else. You have everything you need right here at your disposal to be totally successful online. You just might need some guidance to get you started on the right track.

That’s what this first lesson will do for you. Guide you and help you to understand why certain strategies and techniques are essential to your success when marketing products online, including drop shipping.

Are you ready to get started and take on a few challenges?...

GOOD! Let’s get started…


The 5 essential tools you’ll ABSOLUTELY need to make money online:

If you truly have made the commitment to yourself to making money online, there are a few simple but very important tasks you want to be able to do YOURSELF in order to accomplish your ultimate goal online which is – MAKE MONEY.

Because you're still reading this lesson, I know you're serious about making that commitment to yourself and your business.

Be forewarned however... there are a lot of "cookie cutter" solutions heavily marketed online. A lot of people try taking advantage of these "tools or websites in a box". They think these “all in one packages” are going to allow them to skip any learning curves and jump right into a successful "pre-built" online business - in the fast lane.

...WRONG!

Don't be misled into believing that! Below is a list of the most important - yet basic -things you'll absolutely need to have and learn - no questions asked - and I will be providing you all the tools you’ll need to accomplish and learn the skills necessary to succeed.

Understand this one final point before we dive into your lesson...

"If you're going to be successful online you need to start taking responsibility for yourself! You need to make your online business a success! You can't and won't fail! REMEMBER! Don't let any "technical hurdles" keep you from achieving your goals. Jump those hurdles as fast as you can.


Now, let's move along and get you started in building a "profit producing" website...

1. You need to have YOUR OWN Domain name.

It doesn't really matter what the domain name is but you need to have one (at least one!) to start making good money online.

The good news...I've seen recent promotions on new domain name registrations for less than $10 a year through http://www.domaindiscover.com Another place you might want to look into is

http://www.spry.com

Don't do anything yet... We're going to talk more about this a bit later on...But know that you will need – WANT - to get your own domain name.


2. You need to be able to design a simple website and understand how to upload your products and any web pages (or any changes to existing pages, etc.) to the Internet on your own!

This is really important. If you don't know how to do this already... you will LEARN in this lesson! You can't rely on someone else to do it for you... and you really need to know how for your own sake.

To be perfectly honest it's a very simple task once you know how, especially with all the new "designer challenged" user friendly software available on the market today – many free.

I know that some of you will panic when you imagine the thought of having to design a web page on your own. Don't start biting your fingernails and worrying! It really is simple. I really can’t stress enough the importance of learning these skills yourself. And that’s what this lesson is mainly going to cover.

If you don’t want to learn right now, at least promise yourself you WILL LEARN in the near future...

Again, we’re going to cover this subject in more detail in this lesson. Plus I'll show you how to get all the tools and software you'll need FREE. Your job will only be to familiarize yourself with using them. You’re going to be able to design a “kick butt” site in no time!


3. You need to have a shopping cart.

Yes, you can use the PayPal cart if need be, but we’re going to go over another option that’s much more advanced allowing you to customize your cart as needed and that also allows you to have affiliates sell your products for you!


4.
You need to have an autoresponder service setup.

Whether you already have an existing mailing list or not, you will need to setup an autoresponder service and start collecting customer's email addresses.

This is the most important tool of all!

By the end of this lesson you'll know just what you need, how to use it, and where to get it. You can download, learn from and use whatever tools you want from my recommendations to accomplish everything listed above. It'll be fun and easy! You'll see....

Well there you have it. That wasn't so bad... was it? Just to recap:

• You'll need a domain name

• You’ll need to know how to design a simple website

• You’ll need to setup a shopping cart complete with affiliate program

• You’ll need to have a list service (autoresponder) setup to collect email addresses and follow up with your customers

• You’ll need quality products and/or services to sell to your customers

And again... don't panic if you’re not sure how to do any of these things yet... the GOOD NEWS IS - YOU CAN LEARN EASILY AND AFFORDABLY from this lesson!

And once you do learn, you’ll be leaps and bounds ahead of your competition and well on your way to making sales online.


The reason I strongly recommend learning to design your own website is really twofold:

1.
Versatility

As your business grows and you begin to build a larger, more responsive customer base, you’re going to want to evolve and grow as well to accommodate your needs and the needs of your customers. By learning how to add your own products, change page designs, add “capture and lead generation” forms, etc., you’ll be in total control. Once you have control, your possibilities are endless.

When you use a hosting service that provides a pre-built website, the amount of customization you can do to your site will usually be very limited. You need to be your own webmaster and take control of your online business to truly be successful.

2. Multiple Streams Of Internet Income

Understand that in order to really see a large return on your investment (your time) you don’t want to limit yourself to ONLY the sale of one type of products, especially if you happen to be selling physical goods. This is especially true if you are in network marketing, selling physical products.

Yes, you will make a very nice profit by selling such products (and this will be one of the keys to your success) but you really want to focus on dominating an entire “niche” by using every part of your website as a selling tool (and we'll cover some of these issues in future lessons). This also means that using information products is a great way to lead into physical producuts of any typel. (We'll also cover this topic in another lesson.)

Let me just close this section with this thought...

The most important tool for your success online is going to be your website. No if’s and’s or but’s. Yes, you can sell exclusively on the online auctions, or perhaps you’re primarily interested in mail order campaigns in traditional publications. They are both great income sources. But bottom line is this...

You need a website to be successful online!

Your website will be your primary money generating tool. You will use your site to capture email addresses and follow up with your customers... And once you begin to build a large database of customers, this is when you’ll really see the big bucks rolling in.



Building Your Website From Scratch

Okay. Let’s jump right in and get your site setup correctly. The first thing you’ll want to do is download some software that will make this task a simple one.

I highly recommend you download Web Builder Pro. This is a free web builder program that will allow you to accomplish many web building tasks just as easily as if you purchased some of the more sophisticated software programs available online today such as Microsoft Front Page or Macromedia Dreamweaver.

(NOTE: You can get both Front Page and Dreamweaver really cheap at www.BestOEMSoft.com . You won't get any manuals or discs for these products. All you'll get is the download of the product. But, instead of spending more than $600 on Dreamweaver, you'll pay well under $100, and instead of spending $400 or so on Front Page, your cost will be only around $30. You can then find free tutorials online for using these products.)

You can download your free copy of Web Builder Pro Here. This software is free to use during the trial period , but once you’ve built your website using this software, you’ll need to purchase a license for commercial use at $24.95 (at the time of this writing). This is a real bargain… believe me – and probably one of the best investments you’ll make if you’re on a tight budget.

Once you have the software (and FREE add-on templates) downloaded, take some time to read over the help files and familiarize yourself with the program. The best feature of the software is the fact that it is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor which means you do not need any programming skills or knowledge of HTML. It’s a simple and effective program to use at a very reasonable cost and there’s no need to purchase it until you’ve already decided whether or not you like it and want to use it to administer your website.



Free Graphics Editing Software And PC Videos

Here’s a special gift that I usually wouldn’t just “give” away. In the past I’ve charged $17 for this information alone, but it’s yours free just for taking the 30-Day Challenge.

You Can Grab Your Free Videos Here

Let me tell you a little bit about this download. First of all, this is a Video Ebook which was created by Louis Allport.

In this video series, Louis will explain to you where to download your Free Graphics Editing Program. In addition, this ebook comes in the form of eleven “newbie” coaching videos totaling over ninety-eight minutes.

If you’ve been struggling on how to make your site look professional by adding and editing graphics, creating just the right logo for your business, or just simply editing images to the right size and shape, this video series will help you get started on the right track.

I know you’ll find the videos not only informative but also a great resource.

You Can Grab Your Free Videos Here

So let’s recap a bit about what you should be thinking about right now. Basically, you’ve downloaded your free copy of .

Web Builder Pro

Plus, you’ve downloaded your video series which will provide you with your free graphics editing software so you can start designing a website that is not only professional looking but also easily maintained.

So, what’s next...

Shopping Cart With Built-In Affiliate Program

You need a reliable and affordable shopping cart that can accept orders from your customers.

My recommendation (especially if you're just starting out), is to get a shopping cart package that is bundled with many of the other tools that you need to build your business online. My favorites are:

Third Sphere http://www.askggg.com/recommends/hosting

EbizAC - http://www.askggg.com/ebizac

Each of these packages has slightly different features. Let me show you what I mean ...

Features

ThirdSphere

Kiosk Hosting

eBiz AC

Hosting

500 meg.

70 Gig.

None

Shopping Cart

Yes

No

Yes

Affiliate Program

Yes

No

Yes

Sequential Autoresponders

Yes

No

Yes

Ad Trackers

Yes

No

Yes

Support Desk

No

No

Yes

Membership Manager

Limited

No

Yes

PRICE

$24.95 / mo.

$44.95 / mo.

$29.95 / mo.

There's also a free shopping cart available, that might be able to fulfill your ecommerce needs. I haven't personally used this one, so I can't vouch for it, but I'm told that it's at least decent. So if you just can't afford any of the professional level tools I've suggested, then you can download your free shopping cart from Mal’s E-commerce.

NOTE: This does not offer you the other items in the packages above such as an autoresponder, ad trackers, etc. However, as a shopping cart, it does include calculating tax, shipping and handling, discounts and vouchers. Included with the cart is a Free Affiliate Program to help you promote you website. Iff you’re just getting started, the free version is all you'll need. You'll need to setup the mTracker affiliate program for your cart as well. This is also free.

Autoresponder Service

The most important aspect of your business is going to be your ability to grab the email addresses of as many website visitors as you possibly can.

There have been hundreds of books and courses written just on this one crucial element of your business alone and its well beyond the scope of this lesson (but we'll discuss this more in future lessons).

For now, it’s simply imperative for you to know and understand that you need to setup an autoresponder service and collect as many email addresses as you can so you can follow up with your website visitors.

There’s a free autoresponder service that you can use immediately called AutoBot. I haven’t used it personally, but I will say that I’ve read some great reviews about the service.

If you’re looking for a paid service I highly recommend Aweber . Of course, if you choose either the ThirdSphere or eBizAC packages as your shopping cart, you'll already have your autoresponders built in.

If you can afford it, I highly recommend using one of the Paid Services above. I personally use all 3 (Aweber, ThirdSphere or eBizAC ) and I can't say enough good things about them. My all time favorite is eBizAC. I've been using their service for years without issue!

Building your email list is imperative to your success and I don't recommend using a FREE service unless you're just starting out online and would like to get your feet wet before diving in head first.

The important thing is that you have some type of an autoresponder service setup and collecting email addresses as soon as possible.

Now, all you need is to add some products to your website and you’re ready to make some sales.

That’s all there is to it.

Here’s a brief recap of everything you’ll need to get your site up and profiting in no time:

1. Register a domain name at http://www.domaindiscover.com or http://www.spry.com

2. Download your free Web Builder Pro Software

3. Download your Free Video Ebook which includes a free graphics editing program and resale rights

4. Setup your Shopping Cart and Affiliate Program using either ThirdSphere or eBizAC

5. Setup your Autoresponder Account using either Aweber, ThirdSphere or eBizAC

In my humble opinion, it's very easy to make a full time living online. The techniques that need to be followed are so simple to adopt that a 12 year old could do it.

But remember when setting up your website that you want to follow specific keys that will attract visitors, build your email list, and allow you unlimited profits.

Let's take a look at one "retired" website so you'll have a good example of how things should be done to insure you make the sale!

A $60,000 A Year Online "Pet Shop"

Before the Internet was even beginning to become so popular, one of my friends owned several websites related to Dogs and Cats. One site in particular was a site related to dog training.

Now the site wasn't about every aspect of training your dog. It was a "Laser-Targeted" website that dealt with the issue of housebreaking a new puppy.

This one site raked in just over $60,000 in one year from a simple 6 or 7 page site...

... More importantly though was how he made that money from the site...

He found a reputable drop ship supplier for pet related products and gifts, but he knew that if he was to put up a site that was an "e-store" just selling pet gifts he wouldn't make much money. He wouldn't make any money selling these items on eBay either. He needed to be clever...

So what he did was he created a simple site that was ONLY geared towards housebreaking a new puppy. A "highly targeted niche" that would have little competition in the search engines.

Then he setup his website with ONE PRIMARY FOCUS. Get everyone who visited the site to give him their email address. How did he get their email? Simple... He offered a free downloadable report titled:

"6 Simple And Effective Ways To Housebreak Your New Puppy In 7 Days Or Less"

This report was prominently displayed on the main page (capture page) of his site with nothing else! There were no links to anything. You landed on his site and either downloaded the report or you didn't. If you did decide to enter your email and download the report, you were then redirected into the website.

This report was downloaded thousands upon thousands of times by visitors to his website. More importantly, he built a database of targeted email addresses that allowed him to follow up with and "back-end" products to his list on a consistent basis.

He knew everyone who downloaded the report just got a new puppy. That made it simple to create highly effective email copy. So he provided GREAT content in his follow up emails, plus he continuously offered affiliate product endorsements for other products that generated incredible affiliate commissions for him.

He only had one small text link on the site to the product catalog that simply read "Visit My Gift Shop", and this link wasn't even available to anyone unless they'd already given me their email address.

This "gift shop" link took a visitor directly to a small online gift shop where he sold some unique pet products and also his coveted "Pet Memorials" for a nice additional income.

He also had a "ghost writer" write an entire 84 page book for him on "Your Puppy's Health and Well Being". He paid the ghost writer $150 to write the entire book and sold over 1200 copies of it for $10 each.

Here's the rounded off numbers from that site:

• Affiliate Sales = $29,000

• Book Sales = $12,000

• Product Sales = $19,000

He made over $1000.00 per week from this little 7 page website and he didn't have to ship one product or warehouse and goods.

Do you see the point I'm trying to make here? If he would have had a full blown web store that offered everything from dog bowls to cat nip and everything in between, and he didn't only focus on capturing email addresses, his business would have died a quick death.... GUARANTEED!

Folks aren't looking to get online and go shopping. They are looking for INFORMATION!

Let me say that again...

Folks browsing the web are looking for INFORMATION!

And it's your job to provide them with this information. You can sell them "STUFF" later!

You first need to build a relationship with them. Then, when you send an email to them they will be what is known as a "Highly Responsive" customer and they'll whip out their credit card and eagerly give you their money!

That's how you make sales and LOTS of money online!

You need to learn to build relationships with your website visitors and combine that with the "INCREDIBLE" power of email marketing to sell products and services to your customers on the "back-end".

That's also when your drop shipping sales will flourish!

Best of all... the information you provide could be on any subject - ANYTHING - as long as it relates to your target audience... Sales will follow!

What's Coming Up In Lesson 5.2...

3 Surefire Methods to gain immediate and highly responsive traffic to any website on a ZERO budget...

You're going to find the information in Lesson two a "priceless" asset in getting FREE traffic to your website without breaking the bank!

Plus, we're going to start building our "fictitious" website using many of the tools we've discovered in this lesson...

So start familiarizing yourself with everything we talked about because in our next lesson we going to start putting all of the pieces of the puzzle together - ONE-BY-ONE!.

By the time you're finished with this 12 lesson course, you're going to have your own incredible website online.... BUT NOT JUST ANY WEBSITE - A SITE THAT SELLS!

See you at the top,

Gina Gaudio-Graves
"The JV Queen"
Author and Mentor
Founder & Dean, The IM University

P.S. I'd Love to hear your comments or any feedback about this course. Just drop by The IM University forum at www.TheIMUniversity.com/forum anytime to get in touch with me!

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