Remember the old movie where there was a kind of “catch-phrase?” “If you build it, they will come.” This voice was ringing in the mind of Kevin Costner in the movie “Field of Dreams.” He built the baseball diamond in his cornfield, and sure enough, people came. It doesn’t necessarily happen that way on the web. People don’t go to websites that they don’t know about.

So, how do you make sure that people know about your new site?

Well, it can be a little tricky. Let’s assume that this is your first website, OK? In my opinion, the most effective thing you can do is to start visiting blogs that are on the same (or similar) topic as your site. Make comments. Join the discussion. Now, I am not talking about making a comment like this:

Hey everybody, visit my new blog! It is at: insert your url here

This kind of comment will never be of much help to you! Don’t do it. First of all, the people who read that know nothing about you, so why should they go visit your site? Secondly, the owner of the site where you post that will probably not be too happy. You see, the purpose of the comment section on blogs is not for people to go post their URL! The purpose is to participate in an educated discussion! When you leave your comment, your name will be linked over to your site. If you leave a comment that is intelligent, and adds to the discussion, I guarantee you that some of the readers will click on your name and go visit your site! When they see that you know what you are talking about, they will naturally be interested to go and read more of what you have to say!

Other things you can do to get traffic for a first website: participate in forums where you can leave your link (follow the same policy as with commenting on blogs – post important and relevant info along with your link); Participate in online mailing lists that are on-topic with your site; purchase some advertising! You can join Google AdWords, and place your own ad on many websites for very little money! All of these methods will get traffic for you! If you are a good writer, how about approaching owners of popular blogs in your field, and offer to do a guest post, or a series of guest posts? Usually, if you write a guest post, the blog owner is happy to link to your blog!

There are also offline ways that you can attract traffic. Print up some new business cards and make sure that your URL is prominently featured on the card. Same thing for new office stationary. If you are an expert in your field, make sure the local newspapers know about you, and that you will be a person to interview if a news story comes up in your area of expertise! Maybe you can even do a guest spot on a radio or TV show. Seek out opportunities to speak at events, and make sure that your website is mentioned. Just think of it like this – use every opportunity possible to get your blog URL known to the public!

Now, keep this in mind. If you work really hard and build up your profile so that you become well known in your area of expertise, you can launch new websites with ease! After you become well known, you launch a new site, announce it on your original site (which has become well known through your hard work), and instantly people who like you will start reading the new site too! It is that easy! I know this for a fact, because it is the model that I have followed, and I have a lot of blogs, and they each have a good readership! You can do that too.

And, you may ask, what is the advantage of getting a lot of readers? What is the advantage of becoming an expert in your field? Well, honestly, the more of an expert you become, the more of a “go-to” person you become, the more money you will make. Building your profile online is the best way to make money start rolling in. When you get big enough, people start coming to you with deals to make money. People want you to endorse something of theirs, and they will pay you to do so.

Believe me. I know.

One of the discussions that we have been having on this site lately is whether to go for printed books or electronic books (e-books).  I have decided to do both.  One question, though, that several people have asked me via e-mail is this:

How will you deliver those e-books?  Do you need to get an account with Clickbank or some other provider who can ensure delivery as soon as the customer pays?

I sell ebooks

Well, to be honest… no.  The more different companies that you use in the delivery, payment and such, the more people who are going to take a percentage of your earnings!  I don’t mind paying for services when people can offer value.  I mean, if there is a company that can do a premium job at delivering an electronic product, I honestly don’t mind giving them a percentage of the money.  However, when it comes to delivering the e-book, I already have a solution.

For my e-commerce sites, I use OSCommerce (OSC) for the shopping cart software.  OSC has a built in e-book (or other electronic item) delivery system as a standard part of the shopping cart software!  That’s right, when a customer pays, the software instantly gives him a link where he can download the book!  So, the customer shops the site, checks out through the checkout, makes payment, and instantly has a link where he can download the book!  It doesn’t get any easier than that, and I don’t have to pay anybody to handle the downloads.

So, if you are looking for a perfect solution for delivering digital downloadable items, give OSCommerce a look!  The learning curve is rather steep for the software, but I think that you’ll find that it is well worth it!

Basically, the theme of these articles is about earning money online, and the fact that doing so is a business, not just a time to play around.  Many people start blogging, or some other way of earning money online, and they will put AdSense ads, or something similar on their sites, and earning a little money.  But, even if they get up to a decent amount of earnings, it would seem that they never quite make the leap to considering what they are doing as a business.  They never get serious about it.

Business People, or Bloggers?

Think about this.  When you have a business, do you just “do it when you feel like it?”  No, usually when you have a business, you have a schedule of the times when you are supposed to “work” or be at the office, or whatever it is that you are doing as your job or business.  Same thing when you are earning online, you should have a schedule, and you should follow it.  Not just do it when you have the urge.

The first article that I read along this theme was from Jim Kukral.  I always enjoy reading Jim’s blog, and he offers some good ideas.  In many ways, I feel that Jim and I have been on similar paths in our online earning over the years, so following what he is doing is something that helps me in my own quest to develop my business further.  One thing that Jim said in his article that really echoed with me was:

We’re no longer bloggers anymore, we’re “publishers”.

This was nice to read, because I have been saying the exact same words myself for about a year or more now.  I don’t consider myself a blogger, I consider myself a publisher.  One of the things that made me make that change in nomenclature is because my most popular site is one where I have about a dozen different writers who contribute to the site, so I don’t write everything there.  I publish it all, though.  So, I truly am more a “publisher” than a “blogger,” and being a publisher also tends to give off a more serious tone than being a “blogger,” in my opinion.

The next article that I read about this was written by Darren Rouse on ProBlogger.  Darren points out in his article that when he finally decided to get serious about his blogging, that is when his success grew in multiples.  His wife gave him an opportunity that he could try out full time blogging for 6 months to see if he could make a business out of it.  If he wasn’t developing into a full time business (with full pay) within that 6 months, he had to go find a “real job.”  Well, that stimulated Darren enough to do the real concrete things that a businessman does to grow his business.  Instead of just doing what he felt like doing, he started taking serious steps to turn what he was doing into a business.

For me, until we start considering online earning as a business instead of a hobby, or “just something we do,” we cannot reach the level of success that we should.

Check back, I will be writing a serious of articles on this theme over the next couple of weeks.  Let me know what you think too, I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts.

This has been a major issue in the past.  Remember a couple of months ago, I was writing a series of articles about selling on eBay?  Well, the issue of how to get your money was the number one item that most people asked questions about or made comments about.  With Paypal now doing business here in the Philippines, this issue is now solved, or nearly solved.

Are you an e-seller?

e-commerce

I just went and checked out the Paypal site, and it is still not perfect for sellers in the Philippines.  They are still looking for a USA Bank Account to verify the account and to receive your money.  However, they are moving in the right direction, and it is pretty obvious that things continue to improve.  I believe that Paypal will only continue to improve for users here in the Philippines.  I believe that anybody who is really determined to get going with Paypal can now make it happen.

Good luck to all sellers who are ready to get started!

Well, of course you do!

Right?

Well, sort of.

Working to make money

I am not a rich person, I don’t have a bunch of family wealth filling my drawers with money. I have to earn the money that I need to keep my kids in school, keep dinner on my family’s table, etc. But, when I think about it, I don’t really feel like I work. I am sitting here in my office on the second floor of my house right now. Next door, they are building a new house. I see a bunch of construction workers carrying around stuff, pushing wheelbarrows, doing all kinds of manual labor. Yet, I am sitting here typing, and am probably earning more than most of the crew combined. Sometimes I feel a little guilty when I think about that. However, what I do is not exclusive. It’s not limited to just me. Anybody can do it!

So, you ask, how do I earn my money? I earn my money on the internet through a variety of methods. OK, now you are thinking that this is some kind of “get rich quick” scheme, and I am going to be asking for your credit card number soon, right? Nope. Ain’t gonna happen! I don’t want or need your credit card, because I am not selling you anything. I just want to teach some people how they too can earn a good living without having to go out and work!

The actual ways that I earn my money are two-fold. The method that I’ve been doing the longest and is the most profitable for me is through a number of e-Commerce websites that I own and operate. A lot of you know what e-Commerce is, but maybe some don’t. e-Commerce means selling things through the Internet. Don’t worry… I already told you, I am not going to ask you to buy anything! I have several different specialty stores on the Internet that sell products, which I ship to customers all over the world! By doing this kind of business, I have been able to earn more money now than I ever did when I went to my “regular” job. And, now I am working on another way of earning money too – by publishing content on the Internet! What does that mean? Well, I publish information – like this information that you are reading – on the Internet for free, but I have advertising on my websites, and the ads help me earn money. I just started with trying to earn money through content websites last year, and so far it is doing well. I know it can do better, so I am working on creating more content, improving the ways that I present my sites, etc.

Hang around this blog, and I will start showing you how to do it yourself! You don’t have to buy anything… you don’t have to send me any money…. just devote a few minutes a day to read. Then, when you are ready start devoting more time so that you can duplicate what I teach you here on the “Virtual Earner” blog!

The show is a reality show loosely based on shows like “The Apprentice” “Survivor” and such. A group of 12 people have been chosen to participate in the game, in which they will face challenges to determine who will participate in a Joint Venture with host Joel Comm. Comm is a long time Internet Marketer who has built up quite a name in Internet Commerce over the years, and he hosts the show. In the first episode of the show, the 12 contestants are divided into two teams of 6, and they are given the responsibility of coming up with two competing internet campaigns for one of the show’s sponsors.

It’s quite an interesting show. Most of the stuff shown in Episode 1 was not a revelation for me, but there were a few things that caught my attention and think about the possibilities. But, for somebody like most readers of this blog, who are not seasoned e-commerce people, they would probably learn a great deal from watching the show. I do expect, and hope, that future episodes will be more advanced and offer new ideas that I had not considered before.

Who is your favorite competitor so far? After just watching one episode, my favorite so far is Thor Schrock, but that could change as more episodes pass.

Take a few minutes, or an hour, and watch Episode 1. Tell me what you think of it!

Checkout

Now, there are literally hundreds of different shopping carts to choose from.  How will you know which is best for you?  Well, trial and error will play a big role.  Try a few carts out and see which you like.

I have a few tips, based on my 7 years in the e-commerce business, so let’s have a look:

• If you are selling just a few items in your store, your payment processor will probably offer a simple solution that you could take advantage of.  If you use Paypal to process payments, they have their own shopping cart, and it works OK for a small store.  I use a company called 2Checkout to process credit card payments, and they also offer a cart that works well for stores with only a few items.  For larger stores with hundreds of items to choose from, I do not recommend these simple shopping carts.
• For stores from small to medium sized, there is a service online called “Mal’s e-Commerce” which is a shopping cart software.  This service (often called “Mal’s E”) is a good alternative.  I used it for a while in the past.  If you get too big, though, I recommend going with your own, self-hosted shopping cart.
• You can purchase shopping cart software from a multitude of suppliers.  I have seen shopping cart software ranging from $100 to $5,000, and they do all kinds of cool things.
• You can choose a free shopping cart that is competitive to the “for sale” ones mentioned in the last point.

Shopping Cart

For me, after many years in the business, I have settled on a shopping cart software called “OS-Commerce.”  OS-Commerce is a very robust solution, and I value it greatly.  I will warn you, though – the learning curve for OS-Commerce is very steep.  You can learn it, though, if you are willing to invest the time required.  One of the great things about OS-Commerce is that it is free, no cost, nothing, nada!  You can download it directly from the Internet and install it to your web server and start using it immediately.  OS-Commerce is a widely used shopping cart system, so if you need help it won’t be hard to find somebody who you can hire to help get it going.

One of the things that I love about OS-Commerce is that it is open source software.  You can go in and tinker with it, and customize it to do things that you want it to do.  It is community supported, and when one person tinkers around with it and adds a new feature, they will often offer that enhancement free to the community as a contribution so that everybody can take advantage of the new feature, if they choose.  I have been using OS-Commerce for 3 years now, and I have been very impressed with it.

When you are ready to add a shopping cart to your website and start selling things to make some money online, you should shop around.  Find out what shopping cart will best fit your needs.  And, even after your store is open for business, always remember that as you grow, your needs will change.  I upgraded to different shopping carts a number of times while my businesses grew.  Now, with OS-Commerce, I don’t think I will ever need to change again, as OSC can be customized to do anything that I may need.

Even though, I know that certain seasons mean that business will be down, when the downward trend starts showing up, I worry.  After I’ve been on the low end for a while and it’s time for things to start picking up again, I worry more.  Will my business just stay down this time, or will it come back as it always has?  It’s something you can’t take lightly.

Fresh assorted seasonal vegetables

I’ve been in business on my oldest e-commerce site for about 6 years now.  Basically, the same trend has always been followed.  I have extremely busy times for Christmas and Valentine’s Day.  By the end of May, things start moving slowly, and generally come back pretty strong in late August or early September.  That is the trend.  It’s been like that, with slight modifications for 6 years now.  So, why would I worry?  Well, when this is the way that you feed your family, worrying is human nature, I’d say.  When things are slow, you certainly wouldn’t want them to stay that way!  When it’s a busy season, you certainly hope and pray that things will keep moving just as busily after your peak season.  But, things always ebb and flow.  The river is never straight, it always has bends.

Everything is seasonal!

I’ll tell you one thing, though…. regardless of the seasonal ups and downs, the general trend is up.  My valleys are never as low as last year’s valleys.  My peaks are always higher than the peaks from last year.  How do I do this?  Well, the key is to always do your very best to make your customer happy.  I find this to be the case especially during peak times.  For example, my main e-store sells gift items that are given by boyfriends to their girlfriends.  In this type of business, Valentine’s Day is probably our best selling season of the year.  Well, we break our butts to make sure that we do our very best job at this time, because we want to impress our customers.  If the customer makes a mistake and forgets to order on time, we do everything humanly possible to make sure his late order is delivered on time.  If it is order too late and can’t be delivered on time, we will even tell the recipient that the lateness of the delivery was our fault.  The customer really appreciates something like this, and he knows that we will take care of him.  Because of this, he tells friends, and we pick up new customers.  So, next year, we will do even better than this year.

These days, our very slow times of year are probably matching our peak periods from a few years ago.  Our peak days now match maybe a week’s worth of business five years ago.  Growth is a good thing, and it’s an excellent measure of your success.

I keep spreadsheets that compare today’s date with last year’s same date so I can see how our sales are trending.  If you want to push yourself to be more successful, I think that would be a good tactic for you too!

Jerry has never had much of an internet presence.  Oh, he is on the net and he participates in some forums and online e-mail groups.  That, in fact, is how we met.  We went on to meet in person many times, and have formed a long lasting friendship.  However, when it comes to selling something online, Jerry really has no presence to give him the credibility that he needs.  As I said, he is a good and an honest guy, but frankly, other people don’t know that, and really wouldn’t know him from the next “get rich” schemer out there.  Jerry doesn’t want to get rich, he just wants to sell a few e-books, and spread the good word of what has been good for him so that it will benefit others as well.  Since Jerry is not well known on the net, though, others don’t know that he is trustworthy, and has something important to say.

Selling

As I said, Jerry has asked me what path he should take to make his goals become reality.  Well, I think that I can help him accomplish this, but it’s going to be a longer path than what he expects, I think.  You see, before starting to sell anything online, I think that Jerry needs to build up an online presence.  He needs to establish at least one website where he can talk about the business that he is in, offer advice for others, and generally build up some credibility.  You see, over time, if people visit his website and get advice and helpful hints from Jerry, they will soon come to know and trust him and his opinions.  If he does this over a couple of years, he will garner quite a following of people who will genuinely  want and appreciate the e-book that he wants to offer.  Not only that, after they have come to know and trust Jerry, they will certainly pay more for the e-book than they would have without knowing anything about him.  I know that when I run across a website trying to sell me advice, I generally browse off to a different site rather quickly.  If I don’t know the author, how can I value his advice?  However, if I go to a website that I visit regularly, and I have developed a trust, even a relationship with the author of that site, and I see that he is offering a new e-book, I am more likely to buy that.

At this point, Jerry is asking me about the mechanics of how to set up the sales of the e-book.  The mechanics of accepting payments, offering the e-book for download, etc.  I think it’s too early for Jerry to even think about this!  Right now is the time to get online and build up a following.

What do you think?  Do you have any advice for Jerry?