A Great Place To Start For New Webpreneurs!

Hey,

Many people come on to this forum looking direction, including myself sometimes. I've always been entrepreneurial so a starting point for me always led to diving in and finding out what works and what sort of...doesn't.

Most people who are making a living online - specifically promoters/marketers whom I've come across would argue that a starting point should begin with deciding on a NICHE. Others would argue that the alternative would be to find a product that converts well and start from there.

I'd love to share my thoughts on a starting point and I'm hoping some of the newer people trying to earn online a little value into where a stating point should really occur...

I think the first decision anyone should make before deciding on a niche is to first decide on the type of venture they want to get involved with or how they want to earn money online.

Key Questions:

Question 1. Do you want REAL CUSTOMERS that you have to provide accountability to?
Question 2. Are you looking to create a business you can sell or a business to keep yourself in work?
Question 3. What skills do you have?
Question 4. What businesses have you worked in?

Others:
Question 5. Do you want to promote other peoples products as an affiliate?
Question 6. Do you want to sell your own products and build your own brand?
Question 7. Do you have skills in a certain area that you can package up to sell as a service?

Style of sites/Ventures types

Grant it, there are so many types of ventures and methods for people to make a living online. This is a basic list or starting point of some styles of ventures and sites that someone entering the online business world can choose

1.Product review sites - This particular venture should be built with the idea of making the site an authority. Amazon's commissions are fairly low and it takes a lot of targeted and direct marketing to earn as an associate. One very good example of this type of site is "thesweethome." It's a blog style site with tremendous value put into each product review. It's an authority in the eyes of good and it does very well. That doesn't go to say that you cannot write a review for a product on your own personal blog. This is just 1 way people are doing it.

2. Build a resource - Now, the above could be considered a resources as well. Anyhow, a resource to me is a place where I can go to get the information I need to help me with a specific task. This particular resource should be built to last and can earn authority from a combination of monetization strategies such as digital, physical products, and affiliates recommendations. A good example could be a resource for people looking to learn how to do something like how to pass your commercial driving exam. The site can be built with wordpress but it could also be built with member style sites such as vBulletin.

3. Newsletter - This happens to be one of my favorites as it doesn't totally rely on the big G. Email lists have the potential to earn through ads, affiliates, digital and physical products. What's weird about lists though, is when your reader base finds out that you earned a little bit of money through an affiliate link in the email and they get turned off. If you bring solid value and your readers get a feel for who you are and they look forward to your email, you'll be fine. Be subtle .

4. Ecommerce - There are 2 routes you can go. 1 being retail Ecommerce. These types of sites generally sell multiple brands. You can dropship or store your own product for shipping. The second method is what I call "Niche Ecommerce." This is kind of the direction Ex Affiliates are going these days and the reason is simply that it's not easy being an affiliate marketer these days - I don't care what anyone says. More so, why sell for someone else when you can sell for yourself or have affiliates push the product for you? Amazon is flooded with private label products. Some imported, some manufactured here in the states. I have a friends that do very well with cigar humidors, poker chips, and even anti-aging creams. The trick is to find a product that is small and light to cut shipping costs down. Also, it helps if the product sells for over $30. What I love about this model is finding a product that can remain the same in style but change in color. You can build an actual brand around this and draw traffic to your site from Amazon and other routes. If digital products are for you, there's also the opportunity to utilize amazon publishing or sell from your own site. Some types of digital products are Ebooks, Guides, Software, Courses.

5. Promoting from mini sites such as a landing page or blog style site. This is my least favorite. Some people absolutely love this method. I have never actually purchased anything from a long sales page in my life and I don't know many people who have BUT i'm not knocking it. There are a few products that do well. If you can find a product that works well and converts and you can rank the site, this may work for you. Personally, if I were going this route, i'd do my own product.

6. Niche Service - Pick something in a market that you can do from home for someone else. You can sell your service as a package style site with ecommerce and outsource it to your hired team of experts. Some people despise services because of all the freelance sites on board but don't sleep on the service model.

Anyway,

I hopes this help some people make decision on the type of business they want to start. I'm trying to cut down on using the term 'IM' as I prefer online business instead. I'm going to be logging out of the forum forum until around June. My wife is due (I'm 32) in March and I really need to focus on getting my online business to perform where I need it to be. This is the year for me and I plan to put everything I have into making it happen (sometimes this place is a distraction even though everyone is very helpful).

I'll check up in June with some site stats.

Best of luck everyone and Happy New Year.