Real Estate Business and Investing

When you decide that you want to run your own online business, the question will soon come up in your mind about whether you should purchase an established website, or build one from scratch. The answers may surprise you, and in this article I want to go over both strategies in detail.

Building your own website from scratch is a lot of work. You will have to work very hard, and unless you have thousands of dollars up front to get started, you shouldn’t expect to start earning any serious money until after a year has passed. It takes time for a brand new site to build link popularity, traffic, and content. It is necessary for a website to have these things before it can begin to earn money.

When you build a new website, you may find it hard for seasoned webmasters to take your site seriously. I’ve found that some webmasters will even refuse to exchange links with your site if it is brand new and has a zero page rank. You can avoid this to some extent by adding lots of content to your new site.

Purchasing a website is easier in the sense that if you buy a site that is already established, there is no need to wait long periods of time in order to get it to the point where it is earning money. If you purchase a good website, you should begin earning money within a month of making the purchase.

However, there are a few things you need to know before going out to purchase a website. You need to do careful research on the site you’re interested in to make sure it earns what the owner says it earns. Request from the webmaster a copy of earning statements for the last twelve months.

Join webmaster forums and ask other veteran webmasters their thoughts on the site you’re interested in. Listen carefully to their answers. If more than one person says that they wouldn’t buy it, and gives good reasons for doing so, you may want to take their advice. It is also important to get the website appraised. Make sure that is is worth exactly what the seller says its worth.

You also want to make sure you buy a site rich in content. Check to make sure the content is original and not copied from another source. If you are a busy person who doesn’t have time to build a website from scratch, purchasing a website would be an excellent choice.

However, purchasing an established website which is earning money will not be cheap. You can expect to pay at least $10,000.00 for a three year old website with a pagerank of 5 or 6 which is earning $500 per month. It is important to do your research and look at all the factors involved in both building and purchasing a site.

Affiliate marketing refers to an on-line revenue share system that involves advertising and selling. It started back in late 1994 when many e-commerce sites started implementing the system—and found it produced substantial and profitable results for both the affiliate and the merchant. Currently affiliate marketing is a proven marketing system that has become a serious player on the e-commerce stage.

With this system, a person who joins an affiliate marketing program partners with an e-commerce merchant (who offers a subscription, various products or services, a shopping site, etc.) and is offered payment through referrals from the affiliate’s website.

The affiliate doesn’t necessarily have to have their own website to market the merchant offers. The affiliate can link to the merchant through e-mails, blogs, RSS fees, etc. and referrals or sales can be generated through the following:

1.) Pay-per-click systems. This is basically when the affiliate displays advertisements on their site and is paid by the merchant when a customer or internet user clicks on the ad.

2.) RSS feeds or blogs (or even personal sites can come under this category). Nowadays, blogging in itself is a stead and true form of marketing and promotion. Blogs and affiliate marketing partner well within this form of on-line communication.

3.) Comparison sites and shopping directories. These are also known as review sites or legitimate advertising sites. Affiliate links are placed on these sites so consumers can take advantage of the merchant’s offers.

4.) Loyalty sites. This type of website offers a reward system through a cash-back or points-back system, or could also include charitable donations.

5.) Coupon sites. These sites draw consumers by offering discount coupons. They focus primarily on marketing and promotions and so go well with affiliate marketing systems.

6.) E-mail lists. These encompass legitimate e-mail lists to subscribers of the affiliate’s website and are not considered spam. (Spam is where unsolicited and unwanted advertising e-mails are sent to people.) The merchant’s offers are promoted directly to the e-mail lists subscribers by the affiliate.

7.) A registration path. This is when a person registers with a specific site to receive a newsletter or subscription. Offers from other companies (like the one from the merchant) are represented and advertised on the site as well as those from the affiliate themselves.

8.) Networks. There are many affiliate marketing networks. Some even function on a multi-tier or multi-level marketing sort of set up.

When you’re writing your advertising campaigns there are some words you should add Therefore, I have collected 10 “mind altering keywords” to make people buy your product. Here it is:

1. Use the word “fast” in your ad. People want fast results, fast delivery, fast ordering, etc. Nowadays, we usually value our time more than our money.

2. Use the word “guaranteed” in your ad. People want to be assured they are not risking their hard earned money buying your product.

3. Use the word “limited” in your ad. People want to own or receive things that are exclusive or rare because they are considered to be more valuable.

4. Use the word “easy/simple” in your ad. People want easy ordering, easy instructions, easy to use, easy payments, etc.

5. Use the word “testimonial” in your ad. People want to see believable proof before they buy your product. It should be reputable and specific proof.

6. Use the word “discount/sale” in your ad. People want to find bargains. They could be rebates, one time sales, percentage offers, get one free offers, etc.

7. Use the word “free” in your ad. People want free incentives before they do business with you. They could be free books, accessories, services, etc.

8. Use the word “you/your” in your ad. People want to know that you are talking them. This’ll make them feel important and attract them to read the whole ad.

9. Use the word “important” in your ad. People do not want to miss important information that could effect their life. People will stop and take notice.

10. Use the word “new” in your ad. People want new products or services that will improve their life like new information, tastes, technology, results, etc.