I was reading a book last night. I do sometimes, you know...usually just before I fall asleep in the huge recliner my wife made me buy. The book was "MBA in a Box" by Joel Kurtzman. There was an interesting remark in the Introduction. "You do not have to be the proverbial rocket scientist to be successful, unless your business is building rockets." Now, this leads me to the subjects of internet marketing and internet business by a bit of a loop, but I promise to get there in a couple of minutes. I come in contact with many people who wish they could "start an internet business", but they are unable to come up with an idea of what to sell, or how to sell it. Not having your own product is not a problem, as there are many affiliate programs around which will pay you if you send customers to them - usually customers who buy things. There are many articles around on how to get into affiliate programs, and how to produce traffic to them, and that is not the thrust of this article. Many people thinking about building or starting an internet business are simply awe-struck at the task they believe they are facing. To lighten their burden, I would like to use an example from my own home to illustrate that you don't have to be a rocket scientist to build an internet business, or apply basic internet marketing strategy. In fact, you can just be somebody who likes to play...poker, let's say. Okay, it's a trick! I am going to talk about someone who really loves playing poker...my wife! Since she and I have been able to retire from "real" work now that I make a living on the Internet, she has been trying to find something that she really enjoys doing. You can understand I am sure; she doesn't just want to sit around and play games. She has a good mind and wants to put it to use. She enjoys a bit of a challenge, she doesn't want to go get a "job", but she does want to build a business she can enjoy and be proud of...and she loves to play poker. This is how an internet business can get started. Not every internet business starts this way, but I wanted to show how simple the process could be, and how an ordinary human being can take something they love and use the Internet to build a business around it. Recently, my wife began helping me build websites. She had so much fun doing this that she decided to take an inexpensive correspondence course in web site design. Now this is something that SHE is having fun with. You might have to hire someone to build your websites while you do the things that make YOU happy. Did I mention my wife is nuts about poker? Oh! I did? Well, she is. Not only that, she has a huge collection of books on the subject that she reads and re-reads because she enjoys them so much. I frankly am amazed at how much she can get out of a book that puts me to sleep before I can read five words in it. However, that's the way we humans are! Most of us have things we can really get into, and we don't all have the same likes and dislikes. Not only does she love reading these books, but she loves talking about the contents...usually to her poker-dumb husband. As she was helping me with my internet marketing chores, she became aware that writing and publishing articles was a great way to promote a website, and she had learned that you could use affiliate programs related to the website subject to make money. Bingo! As we used to say at St. Thomas Moore Catholic church in Pensacola. The light went on. She was having fun learning website design and was looking forward to building websites. She loved her poker books and the training software she uses to practice and the statistical software she uses while playing. She realized that she could not only begin writing reviews of these items, but she could use these reviews to draw people to the site she was going to build once she got her training in website design finished. So, now she reads and re-reads the poker books. Did I mention she really likes doing that? She puts her thoughts down on paper to share with others who might be interested. (Not me.) She copies those thoughts onto sites that have begun accepting her book reviews. And, while these reviews are linked to one of my sites right now, when she gets HER site running, there will already be a collection of reviews in place and all she will need to do is change the links on them and they will begin pointing search engines and people to her site. Her site will be linked to the appropriate affiliate programs, and she will have an internet business up and running without breaking a sweat. You see, the idea is to take something you enjoy doing...mountain biking, writing poetry, brain surgery...and make that the center of your internet business. Find affiliate programs which offer products and services of interest to your visitors, and begin sharing your enjoyment with others. It's not rocket science, is it? Hey! Do you realize how much trouble I'm in for saying, "You don't have to be a rocket scientist", and then writing about my wife? Typical husband. Oh! Did I mention my wife has a huge collection of cook books...which she loves to read? She doesn't have to stop at one internet business does she? |
