Make Money Online: Business Opportunities and Solutions

You have decided you want to make money online. As an online business entrepreneur you will see many proposed online business opportunities and solutions promising sure-fire approaches for making money online, saving money online, and spending even more of your own money to make money online.

However, you see very little about growing an existing business through online opportunities and solutions, applying proven business practices to managing and operating your online business, or evaluating proposed online business solutions from the perspective of conserving your time -- your most valuable resource.

My advice to everyone, and in particular to those who are technically proficient, is this. First find out what you really would like to do. Next, then learn how to use the Internet to help you do what you want to do using the Internet. Finally, when you finished steps one and two* -- take the most direct course to achieving business results -- that is getting paid for doing what you like to do most.

Tip: avoid the online business opportunity or solution of the moment -- I know because I probably have pursued more of these than anyone else (guess it's just my nature). Do your utmost to pick the very best in the beginning and then go after your passion -- and just do not stop.

On this page -- and throughout this site -- I will share with you my experiences and recommendations about online business. I plan to make this a living page, updating it with new material as I gain additional experience and insight into emerging opportunities both to make money online and to make the best use of your own time. Just remember, you want to have as much of your time as you can have to concentrate on your most productive activities -- including enjoying your life, family, and friends.

I'll start by concentrating on what works and what does not work. I'll try to keep each category of recommended online business solutions to make money online in priority order -- most important to least important. Online business opportunities will be discussed along the way and I'll summarize them. I'll conclude with some recommendations on taking care of yourself -- applying the same principles.

NOTE: you will get hundreds of ideas on how to make money online from the three free downloads I reference below. See also our Success Stories tab.

Business solutions to make money online: What works.

Recommendation: Stay away from shortcuts. If it sounds too good to be true -- it probably is.

Start with a comprehensive web business platform for your website development. I think I have seen and tried most of the online business solutions to doing business to make money online. You need a website, traffic to your website, a way to communicate with those who visit your site, a way to display/promote/distribute your products/services online and a way sell and collect payment.

Recommendation: I recommend that you use Site Build It! for your main business web site. For most your main business site should have an integrated set of components designed to support your business success. To my knowledge, Site Build It! is the only such product within the financial reach of most startup and small businesses.**

Why? You need to spend most of your time on the business -- not on the technical support functions. In his book How to Create a Fortune on the Internet: In Just Four Simple Steps (see tab "Your Four Steps") Internet millionaire Corey Rudl, details the reasons why automating e-commerce functions is essential to online business success.

Similarly, attorney turned Internet entrepreneur, Shawn Casey, stresses the need to harness your online support functions in his book Mining Gold on the Internet. When you finish reading it, exit and wait for the FREE seven day trial offer pop up window. Accept it, and then watch his videos (they are excellent) and read his e-book. When finished, cancel your order using the link from your order confirming email.) NOTE: you will always be welcomed back to make a purchase later.

My experience with Site Build It! from SiteSell. This product is a comprehensive web business development tool -- there is nothing else like it in the market. However, before you even consider purchasing it you should take Ken Evoy's FREE 10-day course covering everything you need to know about using the Internet for your business. Add this information to Corey Rudl's and Shawn Casey's books and you have all you really need to have to get yourself started. After doing this you should be able to frankly answer this question: Do I really want to make money online?

Along the way, follow Ken Evoy's approach to finding out what you want to do on the Internet. You may also wish to go through both my goals session (Take the Right First Step -- bottom of page) and Shawn's. Bottom line: just make sure you get on the right track to destination success!

The difference between the Site Build It! and Ken's FREE 10-day course is automation. The Site Build It! Manager automates the process of selecting and prioritizing key words -- a very time consuming manual process -- even if you use a excellent tool such as Wordtracker. Site Build It!'s keyword brainstorming tool is worth the entire investment. Consider this. Wouldn't you want your web site to highlight the most profitable keywords that Internet surfers are using to access the Internet? Site Build It! automates that entire process for you!

Here are some of the other outstanding features of the Site Build It! product:

• Hosting and domain name renewal included
• No html programming knowledge is needed
• You can fully customize the look and feel of your site
• Outstanding site navigation features
• Each page is analyzed for search engine "friendliness" before submission
• Automated page search engine submissions/tracking and follow-up
• Automation of directory and paid SE submission processes
• Java script highlighting of navigation tabs and affiliate link mask-over (eliminating a major need for masking affiliate links)
• Integrated user selection of opening links in a separate browser page and choice of link address masking
• A comprehensive integrated approach to tracking the traffic to and from your web site
• An unparalleled newsletter development/distribution system (including a spam check feature). Also see footnote** below.
• A total commitment to a full online solution for any -commerce entrepreneur. New features include full compatibility with html editors such as FrontPage, DreamWeaver, etc.; e-goods processing (from merchant account to fulfillment; and 2-tier Affiliate Program support.

Things that do not work.

Recommendation: Stay away from the latest and greatest new gizmos. Stick with what you know works. Let others do the testing and reporting.

Masking Affiliate Links. Let me give you an example. An issue in the affiliate programs approach to make money online is what is termed "link hijacking." Affiliates are assigned special link codes to enter on their links to vendors. Should someone go to a vendor from such a web site the code is passed to the vendor and the affiliate will be paid according to the terms of the affiliate agreement. Some unscrupulous individuals substitute their own code for products they wish to buy and "hijack" the fee for themselves.

There are proposed online business solutions being "sold." One is called Affiliate Link Tracker which masks the link, substituting your own domain and file (e.g., www.yourdomain.com/linkname.html) in the users browser window.

The Problems. After experimenting with these seemingly reasonable approaches I discovered that in some instances I could not purchase through such a link. Each time I selected something to buy and tried to check out, my basket was empty. Further investigation revealed that what appeared to be happening was the link masking was also masking the user's cookie (required by some online credit card processing systems).

So the result was that the masking could be robbing me of an earned commission. Worse yet, it also probably was robbing me of future commissions because that potential purchaser was not leaving my affiliate number linked to their cookie in case they made a purchase there within the time limit established in the affiliate agreement. Double Ouch!!

And, here is the killer. Read what Google (perhaps the most important web search service) recommends against: "Don't employ cloaking or sneaky redirects." Click here to read the Google webmasters guidelines.

Managing yourself.

Recommendation: Include a program of mental and physical fitness in your daily routine.

Mental fitness. I present at the "Skills You Need" tab an agenda for self-improvement. For mental fitness you need to set aside time each day for reading. A good way to start building this habit (leading toward lifetime excellence) is to start reading about what is going on in the e-commerce world. One of the very best sources are the leading e-commerce newsletters.

Perhaps one of the best authorities on internet marketing, commerce and e-business in general is Dr. Ralph E. Wilson. Subscribing to his Web Commerce Today newsletter will launch you on your path to continuing mental fitness.. While you are at that page, click on the Dr. Ebiz tab at the top of the page, then sign up for Dr. Wilson's FREE e-mail version of Doctor Ebiz (and get two free eBooks to boot). You should also read the reviews of and selected contents from Dr. Wilson's great book, Planning Your Internet Marketing Strategy.

Physical fitness. To be successful, you also need to become and remain physically fit. And -- you need to adopt a program that conserves your time. The very best is Larry Nachman's 21^st Century Fitness formula described in his book (click here for more information about his book). I'm enrolled in the program and assure you that everything that Larry promises in his book will happen to you if you just follow his formula. The best thing is that you can follow the program anywhere without special equipment -- and for less that 30 minutes a day. Just add it to your lifestyle -- just add it to your other fitness pursuits.

I look forward to seeing you on another of our pages.

Best of success,

Richard Dowell

President, Best Managers on the Net, www.BestManagers.Net, home of My Journal©

We are a business consulting, training and development company dedicated to helping good managers and their companies prosper by reaching for the top.

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*If you have not yet done these two things, take a quick look at our "Opportunities" and "Getting Started" pages.

**I had several commercial sites (e.g., www.BestManagers.net and www.TecSERVE.com) before I started using Site Build It!. I have kept these sites -- and continue to work at building traffic to them. However, I now "push" all my main functions to this site (www.Best-Managers-Business-Online.com ). Why? Because Site Build It! includes all the e-commerce functionality I was trying to do separately at from the other site. For example, I had my web site designer include a member email function in my www.BestManagers.net learning portal. After considerable effort to make it work, I finally started sending monthly newsletters manually and then using Corey Rudl's Mailloop program. However, I now use the newsletter function incorporated in Site Build It! because it has double opt-in, automatic html to plain text conversion and spam check features not included in any other service I am aware of. In addition, the function automatically archives past newsletter copies -- including building a table of contents for future reference. BTW, the newsletter feature alone is worth more than the total investment in a Site Build It! site.

Previously I relied upon critical e-commerce support functions such a newsletters, processing online sales, web site promotion, etc., through separate software packages/services -- or just brute force. The results were mostly unsuccessful -- and incredibly time consuming -- time that diverted me from focusing on business basics -- getting my products/services to my potential customer base. My business activities literally were held hostage by those functions.

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