In the first post (Adding a Revenue Stream to your website). I included sell a product as an option. Then i followed this up with an updated post (Adding a Revenue Stream, Updated). I brought the idea to the top of the list and focus on the idea of an electronic product, and expanded to the idea of adding further products and making the site easy to use and easy to buy from. I want to expand on these ideas even more now, and hope that you will find this a useful place to start in adding a product to your own site.

The first place that you want to look to giving some time in adding one or more products to your website is creating a plan to do so. While in theory it is possible to just take a product and put it up for sale, this is hardly the way to build a valuable place to bring customers. So while the plan does not need to be really structured or overally detailed there are a couple of good ideas that you should include;

• Does the product fit – If you have a website or blog that is about starting a business, then selling a weight loss e-book is probably not the best idea.
• What sort of product is it – Are you looking to sell a physical or digital product? Will it be a product of it’s own or have accessories?
• How will you sell the product – Will people buy online via your website? Will it redirect to another site? or, Will people purchase it offline in stores?
• What future potential is there – Is there potential to offer follow up products, or add-on’s later on. Or will this be just a single one off product without much scope to offer more later on.

Even if you do not answer these questions within a plan as such. It is worth being able to actually answer them though. This will give you at least a good idea at where you are starting from and what you may be able to do in the future.

What about if the product does not meet some of the above points. Well all is not lost really, however it could potentially be setting up roadblocks that you may not want to or may not need to deal with. Selling a product that is completely different to the topic of your website is immediately a hurdle. People very rarely will go looking for something they want on  site that is about something completely different. Additionally it will lead people to question the validity of what the product is being sold as, if it can actually provide what is promised.

Depending upon the type of product that you are offering and the way you have your website set up can make a big difference in how sales will flow through. A dedicated landing page which is aiming to sell the product, will sell both physical and electronic products. However Often electronic products will sell better, as there is the ability to offer the benefit of instant gratification. Which can be a big selling point. If you can create the need to have something, within people, and then provide it instantly once they pay, you are likely to generate more sales, then if you are able to create the need but, it takes time to get it to them.

Finally being able to create a product that inevitably leads to another product, you can create later on, can generate plenty of return sales. As such you do not want to put everything into a product the first round. In other words, if you want to write an e-book, you may be better off writing a short report to start with maybe 20-30 pages, and selling this first, to test the market. Then you can either follow it up with a full e-book or maybe a second 20-30 page report. Continually building upon your base.

Adding a product to your website can be the most profitable way to build an income from the internet. While there are some benefits from creating websites with advertising and such. These ways of making money often require much more time and money then they will generate as a return initially. The best thing about products is the ability to tweak the offer, know what you are promoting. Where often with advertising on your site, the advertising it can be far from know what will be shown.

One of the options that i included in the initial post was that of selling your own product. This is possibly one of the better ways to build an ongoing loyal customer base. Selling your product, can create many future possiblities to add your business. This future potential can rely on a few thing you need to do along the way.

1. Adding a product to your website, can be as easy as just picking something and adding it. However it is a much better idea to plan your product offering for your website. For example maybe you want to write a book, and sell this on your website for download. This can limit your future potential, in that you would have to create a fairly good product to follow up a whole book. Where as you could create a short guide that just gets people started, and has a lot of scope to add other products in the same topic with more information.

2. Expect to add more products. Expanding upon the above point, you need to expect that one product is just the beginning. If your product is good, and you can add more good product’s then you can potentially build a following. A following of people who love your product and often people that love a product will pay attention to future offering that they may also like.

3. Create a mailing list. This is probably the most important point. If you make a sale you need to keep in contact with the people you sell to. Maybe not every day, or every week, but on an ongoing consistent basis. Let them know what you are doing give some extra free tips or hints relating to your product, and of course be sure to let them know about any new products that you create. Doing this alone can greatly increase repeat sales, and help you to launch new products.

4. Make it easy for customers to pay. If people have to sign up for some fantastic new payment system or fill in a lot of irrelevant details, while some will take the time there is probably just as many who will keep on looking. Using a provider like paypal, which many people already have an account with is a good start, provide any other options as well, it may take a little more time on your part to setup and administer, but if you can make enough extra sales from one extra option then it is worth it.

While selling a product adds additional work and sometimes extra time required to get things started and keep them going. It can be a possibly more rewarding and larger potential income, that can recur and grow with your website.

A BUSINESS ON THE INTERNET

Firstly we took a look at what sort of sites we could create online for a potential Internet business. The options we covered pretty much came down to a Content site, a Blog site or an Online Store. While there are other options these are probably the three easiest, most common and straightforward options.

Also there was a little information on choosing your domain name, and your hosting including some links to potential options.

THE NEXT STEP

Following the decision on what sort of site, domain and hosting you would go with. This post discussed some of your options about the software options you have to operate your site with. Including a few different options for each of Content, Blog and Online store site’s.

CREATING YOUR CONTENT

Once you have made the decisions about the type of site, the domain, hosting and the software. You then can start looking at options for generating or creating the content for your site. In this part of the series we took a look at what the potential options for generating your content were for each option, while some of the content overlapped for some of the options, it is important to consider all options for your site to make it as good as possible for your users.

PROMOTING YOUR NEW WEB SITE

Once you have a web site up and running with your content and hosted at your own domain. You need to be promoting your web site. There are many different options available to you from paid search engine and content options through to social media marketing. Taking a look at the different options and deciding through trial and error, to find which will be the best options for you.

ADDING A REVENUE STREAM TO YOUR WEB SITE

Of course once you have spent the money in getting started then you want to see an actual return on your investment. If you choose the Online Store option then by default you have an income stream, however both the content and blog type sites don’t lead to an income stream straight away. In this post we looked at potential options for creating an income for your site, from PPC ads to affiliate marketing and even your own product.

So now that you have the information the question basically comes down to what are you going to do with it. While I have not taken all the information into extreme depth, there should be more then enough to get you moving and moving in the right direction. So this is where you ask yourself am I going to do something or am I just going to let this be another missed opportunity.

There are quite a lot of options what you can setup for your new web site to make an income. If you have chosen the path of an E-Store then this part of the series will to some extent be of little use, for two reasons, firstly if you are selling your own product, there there is little point in promoting someone else’s product as well with advertising. The second reason is that by default your actual business is an income stream, selling products from the store is going to generate your income.

However in light of this for the rest of you looking at getting started with a content or blog site, there are a number of options available.

GOOGLE ADSENSE (http://adsense.google.com)

Google Adsense is a program which is offered by Google and will actually keyword match advertising to your content. Depending on how you add these ads to your web site will, as such great affect how you benefit from including the ads. Your income potential here is almost unlimited to the point that the more visitors you can get to your site the more chance of people clicking through the ads.

AFFILIATE ADS (http://www.cj.com)

One way to great increase the potential of your web site is by promoting affiliate programs. These programs generally offer incentives based on a sale being made, so there is some incentive to match the program to your potential audience. Often rewards can be a percentage base of the sales, or other times a fixed dollar value per sale. In many cases just a small number of sales can make you much more then many many clicks on Pay Per Click advertisements.

SELL A PRODUCT

Just because you are offering a content or blog type site does not mean that you cannot sell a product. Be it a physical product or an electronic product. Either way it is often not to difficult to add on the ability to sell one or two products to a web site, and can easily be achieved using a service like paypal or Google Checkout.

SITE ADVERTISING

While it is much easier to add, ads to your site using affiliate program’s or Google Adsense, it is also possible to directly sell advertising on your web site to people who want to advertise. This can often be a good way to ensure a known income each month. For example if you get 5,000 visitors a month and use Google Adsense, you may get a few people clicking the ads and make a few dollars. However if you were to sell advertising directly, you could set the price that you want to charge for advertising. Then once you have found an advertiser you could be sure that you have a known income for that ad space for that month. Often however the reason that this is not so much the path that people take is the added work involved and the uncertainty of finding good quality advertisers that match the theme of your site.

Really this is just a small number of the potential options which you have available for generating an income from your web site. Google Adsense is just one example of many different Pay Per Click, ad networks. At the same time Commission Junction is just one option for affiliate marketing network. So there are definitely many different options it just really comes down to finding the option which will best suit your web site.

For the most part there are both options which will cost money and some that are free. Often the free options do require a little more work however can provide potentially better results. Choosing and deciding which options to use does very much depend upon your product. However at the same time, this will vary for almost every site. So there is a good portion of guess work involved in finding the right promotion method for you.

GOOGLE ADWORDS – Paid for advertising (http://adwords.google.com)

Google Adwords is a service offered by Google which allows you to advertise your site both in Google search results and on the Google Adsense content network. While it is a paid service you have quite a lot of options in how much you pay for a click and how much you want to spend a day. Additionally you get statistics which show you which keywords are the most productive, get the most clicks vs impressions and more. Additionally this can be linked in with Google Analytics.

FACEBOOK PAGES AND ADS – Paid for advertising (http://www.facebook.com/business)

Facebook Ads is a service which is offered by Facebook to enable people to advertise on their site. Being that Facebook is one of the most visited sites on the Internet, then it is easy to see why they would develop their own program to take advantage of the unique potential of their site. In fact is it possible to highly target the ads you place on their site through geographic and demographic targeting of their user base. This can provide unique opportunities to connect specifically with you selected target base.

INTERNET FORUMS – Free Options

There are literally thousands of different forums on the Internet there is probably one if not more options for just about every topic you can think of. A lot just comes down to finding the one that is popular, has on going discussions and a lot of members. While using these forums for the most part is free, promoting your business or web site blatantly is something that is often looked upon as bad manners. So generally the better approach is become part of the community respond where you can offer information and generally interact with the other users. Just make sure to include your web site link in the signature that you can setup. Finally be sure to read the rules on what is and is not allowed in promoting your own site. The extra work can pay off so it is worth at least giving forums a try.

TWITTER – Free Option (http://www.twitter.com)

Twitter is a kind of different concept that has only really picked up a lot of following recently. To best describe it would be to say it is a mix between Instant Messaging (IM) and a forum. The posts are kept short (140 characters) and the conversation for the most part is quite public. However as long as you are connecting to some extent with the other users people will see you as not someone out entirely for self promotion. This means that sharing a link to your own site is not to frowned upon, unless you do it every five minutes and it is the same think and it is of no real value to anyone. However this is also worth checking out just like forums to see what potential there might be for you.

AFFILIATE MARKETING – Paid (Various Options)

This is often a better option for those of you that may have chosen to go with an E-Store, as generally your paying a fee is link to an actual sale being generated for you. This makes this option quite appealing to many online retailers. The actual cost will vary a lot depending upon what sort of incentive you offer for someone to promote your products. However it can be worth the effort in setting up as it can mean you have a larger base of people promoting your site. One good option for setting up an affiliate program is Commission Junction.

It does not really matter which way you choose to promote your new web site. What is the important thing to remember is that you need to keep trying new things, seeing how they work and adjusting your approach accordingly. Additionally you need to ensure that the approach you are taking is cost effective for your business model. There is not a lot of point spending hundreds of dollars marketing your site if you are making no actual income from it.

All of these are important parts of creating your web site. However once they are out of the way there are some other things that you need to do before you really get into operating your web based business. Be it a content site, blog site, or e-store.

The first step in the process is choosing the software that you are going to use to operate your site. While it is possible to manually create the whole site from scratch. Often this leads to more work and trouble, then you really want. There are times where creating a site from scratch is the better approach. But when you are just getting started you are better off using something pre existing.

The software that you choose for your web site will very much depend upon what type of site you have decided to setup. While it is actually possible to inter change much of the software from one type of site to another, this is not possible for all types of sites. Plus most software for web sites is designed for one specific application.

CONTENT SITES

If you are creating a content site, you need to look for software that make it easy for you to purely post content items. The common name for this type of software is “Content Management System” or CMS. Usually this sort of software creates a good structure, which stores the articles you create in fixed categories, and lets users browse through them.  Some good options for CMS software is

• Joomla
• Xoops
• Drupal

BLOG SITES

While creating a blog is just like creating a content site, some of the ways in which things are displayed can differ. It really depends upon how you want your blog to display whether you are better to use CMS or Blog Software. A blog is normally displayed in chronological order, or the newest post is first and the oldest post is last. Also another feature is easy access to archives or category specific posts, which are often linked in the sidebar. There are a couple of options for software.

• WordPress
• B2evolution
• Nucleus

E-STORE

Creating an e-store is an entirely different thing to creating a content or blog site. However at the same time can include elements of both. By nature of offering products for sale it is often generally seen as a good addition to offer extra information, which means an e-store is often also a content site as well. The primary difference though is that the content is linked to selling your own product rather then drawing revenue from ads. The software available is quiet numerous but some of the options include.

• Joomla with Virtuemart add-on
• CubeCart
• Zen Cart
• X-Cart (A Paid for option)

There is one important consideration when choosing software for your web site. This is that you need to try out a few different options and see which one you get the best feel for. Just because the software that I have listed here is what i have listed does not mean it is the best option for you. For example I love using WordPress, i find it easy to use and work with. However someone else may think it is the complete opposite. So it really comes down to knowing what you like using and finding something that fits how you like to do things.

Of course the whole try a few out is much easier when you are familiar with doing different things on the Internet. The best thing about the options i have mentioned here is that for those who have a hosting account with Fantastico included, all except for X-Cart can be installed much easier.

Before going any further you really need to take the decisions you have already made. Things like the topic of the site, the type of site and such and decide what software you will use for the site.

However none of this really will matter if we don’t have content for the site. Without content your site is pretty much dead before it starts out. While much of your content will depend upon what your site is about, and what type of site you are creating, there are some general things that i want to share which will hopefully help you a little.

A CONTENT SITE

There are a number of ways that you can generate or create software for use on a content site. Of course some are better then other but here are a few to get you started.

• Write it yourself – This may be pretty obvious but it is on of the easiest ways to get content for your site. It costs you nothing and you have complete control over what is on your site.
• PLR Articles – PLR stands for “Private Label Rights”, so these are articles that are written by other people who are giving you the right to put your name to them. Generally you will need to pay a fee to have access to these type of articles, and the biggest downfall is that often they are sold to a lot of people, so your content wont be unique. However you can still benefit, see below.
• Modified PLR Articles – You can still benefit from PLR articles and create something unique, by re-writing the articles. Even just changing around the order and changing a few words can make the article sound entirely different.
• Pay for Articles – This is really the most costly option usually, as to get good quality well researched articles takes time and as such does cost money. However if you do not want to do all the writing and want quality articles this is an option.

A BLOG SITE

For a blog site you can use many of the same techniques for writing as you can for a content site. In reality to some extent a blog site and a content site are the same. The biggest different though is the expectation between the sites. A blog site it may be expected that some posts will be short while some more detailed. Where as a content site the expectation is often going to be good quality detailed information.

• Quick Tips – One option with blogs you may want to consider is quick tips posts, these can fill the void between longer posts. You may post two or three quick tips a week to every one more detailed feature post.
• Feature Post – Doing a much more detailed feature post just once a week will give you a bit of a breather between posting something every day of the week, that requires a lot of research.
• Link Round-up – If you have been using the Internet for any length of time then there is a good chance that you have come up with a decent number of links, especially about a favourite hobby or maybe even the topic you have chosen for your site.  You can put this all together in a sort of on going feature, where you include some links each week.
• Guest Posts – One thing that you can use to your advantage is other bloggers wish to promote their own blog. Given that your blog is popular enough, other bloggers, may be willing to give you a post, under the expectation of the return link to their blog. This can be a benefit for both bloggers, as you get content for your blog, and the other blogger gets a good mention and link for your visitors to see.

AN E-STORE

Creating an e-store is a little different as the majority of your content will be the information about your products. This will often be displayed in two ways. The first as your actual products listed with a description. The second as extended information about your range, your products and potentially even general information about the similar topic to your products. The biggest question is often where to get the information.

• Supplier’s – Your suppliers should be your first source of information, especially for product information and descriptions. This should be something that you are easily able to access and will create the bulk of your content.
• The Manufacture – For extended information beyond the normal brief product description, the manufacture, can be a good source of additional information, things like product brochures, specifications and technical data.
• Your Knowledge – If you are operating a store online it can often be a good idea to include additional information that may not be directly relevant to a specific product. This can come from either of the above two sources, or even your own knowledge of the products and the industry you are working with.

Hopefully this has given you a little insight into some of the options and ways which you can create, or source content for your new venture. Having content is possibly one of the most important part’s of your new web based business. As the saying goes “Content is King”.

To get started in a web based business, can require a little or a lot of experience. Dependent entirely upon which path you choose to take. Again the investment will also vary dependent upon your chosen method. In this post however I hope to cover some of the options and considerations.

CHOOSING YOUR WEB BUSINESS

In choosing what type of business that you want to operate on the Internet. You have a few main options, and a number of options with a twist. While I will just discuss the main options today. Some of the other options I will discuss later on in other posts.

A CONTENT SITE – A content site is just as you would expect, a site that you create that contains, information about a topic that you are interested in. This sort of site, can be easy or hard to get going depending upon your knowledge of the topic, the amount of time that you can put towards creating content and what you choose to combine with just the standard content side of the site. For example if you choose to include a forum or other community sections.

A BLOG SITE – This can be many different things. It can be where you share some of your personal experiences. A place where you discuss and post information about a favorite topic. Or even just a place to consider many different topics. Depending upon which option you choose, will greatly depend on how viable this option can be in a business sense.

AN ONLINE STORE – creating an online store is probably one of the most effective ways to create a true business in an online sense. There are a number of options how you can handle the whole creating an online store. Either you can order and ship the products yourself. Or alternatively you can use a drop shipper. One of the easier ways to get started with an online store is to operate it in line with on online and offline presence locally. This is a good way to build a business that can transcend physical location and make it simpler to get started.

These are really just three of the potential businesses that you could start in an online nature. While there are many other’s often times they will come back to one of these main three business types.

WHAT YOU NEED FOR A BUSINESS ON THE INTERNET

To get started in setting up any of the above types of online business there are a few things that you need. All of the things that are needed to setup a proper online business do in fact cost money. While the actual outlay is not overly high. In fact your total up front outlay should be less then $50 in the first 3 months. What this will consist of is two things.

A DOMAIN NAME – A domain name is how people easily find your web site. An example is this site the domain name is www.nofixedoffice.com. The nofixedoffice part, is the part of the domain name which you need to decide upon. If you decide on a .com domain, you are looking at approx $10 for 1 year registration. Other extensions are available at varying prices with some country specific and others generic. Some options for registering your domain are.

• www.GoDaddy.com
• Net Registry
  

A HOSTING ACCOUNT – A hosting account, is where the files that make up your web site are stored. There are a great number of different options available, however in the early days of your site having just a basic account is a good start. Be sure though that the option to upgrade is there for your account. You should be looking at between $5 and $10 for a starter account. Some options for hosting include.

• www.GoDaddy.com
  
• DIY Hosting

WHERE TO FROM HERE

Spend a little time thinking about exactly which type of business you want to get started with, be it a content site, a blog site, or an online store, or maybe a different option entirely. Once you have thought about the type of site, think about the topic, or the product you want on your site. Finally think about which domain will work best with this.

Finally the best way to get started is to actually put the money up and go and register a domain. Sign up for a hosting account and start to play around with what is available.

IN THE NEXT POST

Next time I am going to share some options on what is available to create your web site. What scripts are available to create your site, and what you can do for content, in the beginning.

The ultimate issue comes down to the perception that many things are needed to make the business successful. Things like having a big office, having staff, and all the latest gadgets. These things are seen to be what is needed to make a business successful. The fact is that often these things are not what make the business successful, what makes the business successful is the people, and what those people do each day. Most importantly what the owner of the business does and how they do it.

Now of course as I have said previously there are some businesses that do need these things, to function at a level of consistency that is needed from them. Businesses that require a large amount of space, that are not easily portable, and that do have a need for some employee’s to expand to certain level’s that may not be achievable without an office. In fact there are many businesses that this is essential, for example banks, major retailers, and really any large company, that needs to deal directly with people.

While there are these businesses that do need an office, these are often the exact some businesses that are not the sort of business that people working with No Fixed Office want to be running anyway. There is a lot of incumbent politics to them, and tend to require a lot of time most every day of the week. As well as being extremely formal and often quite rigid.

So what does it take to create a business that works well with No Fixed Office. Well there is one large step that needs to be overcome initially, and that is changing your own mindset about what a business is. For some people this can be a giant challenge, however in the long term, unless you are really planning to create a massive company quickly, you are going to find this change of mindset to be more of a benefit then a problem.

Changing your mindset about a business, is something that is not easy. It means displacing some fairly hard seated believes about what a business is and should be. Some of these believes will differ from person to person, however following are some of the more common beliefs that need to be displaced.

YOU HAVE TO HAVE STAFF – While it is true that if you want to expand your business beyond a certain point you need to have some staff. There is also the fact that some very successful businesses, do manage just fine with few if any staff. Or at least direct staff as such.

YOU NEED ALL THE LATEST GADGETS AND TECHNOLOGY – Again while some of these items are nice, and often can save some time, the actual need you may have for them is not as you really believe it to be, the perceived need often when you truly look at it is not of as much value as you may have initially thought.

YOU NEED AN OFFICE – The real reason this blog is online comes from this perceived need not being true. This is probably the most detrimental need for most businesses as well. Really you don’t need an office to run a successful business. Because having an office often leads back to the first item where you need to change your mindset and that is having an office brings you to believing you need staff to fill it. Both are things that just are not needed for a successful business as such.

These are really just three of many other potential mindset changes that you may need to make. Now the more difficult question when you consider the need to change these believes is what are some of the potential businesses that come from displacing these believes. Really there are more then you think, and it is some of these potential business idea’s that I want to share with you over the coming months.

Just for a small idea of some of the business that you could potentially get started with absolutely no need for an office. Things like consulting, this is often done on site with the client or via phone. Marketing, again needs no office, you can make full use of the technology available in laptops and the Internet to do all you need to do. Finally how about running a network of web sites, a blog, some information sites, etc. Could all be done from a laptop where ever you feel comfortable.

So take a little time out today and rethink your idea’s about what really does create a successful business, and keep reading for a kick start article in getting a simple business going with No Fixed Office.

THE DIGITAL WAY

Of course if you do all your work digitally, then you are already well on the way. You can maintain a directory on your computer for files, and also you have programs such as OneNote in which you can separate all the written information. This can work great for website projects or other online activities, however the problem here in lies, that you are always thinking and don’t always have your computer around.

THE PHYSICAL WAY

While a computer may be easier to track everything in a single stream or area for a project. Keeping some things physical is often an easier option for some people. However then you end up with the problem how to keep everything for one project separate from the items for another project.

The best way is a number of A4 Plastic Organizers, these can be purchased from most stationary stores, and are basically a plastic box a little bigger then A4 (so they will fit an A4 page inside) and have a capacity of about maybe 150 sheets. Or really anything you want to put in related to that project. they clip closed to ensure things don’t fall out. This also makes it really easy to take everything for one project with you when you head out to a coffee shop or some other place to work.

For larger projects you really only have an option of keeping everything in one designated area. In this case having some shelves, or cupboard which you can easily seperate space on can come in handy. Having things in cupboards or on shelves makes it easier for you when you decide to work on something as you can straight away see everything you have for that project in place, rather then something like a box, where you often need to take everything out, and it ends up more effort then is really needed.