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11-Step Plan to Make Money Online

You are new to the Internet and the make money online world, correct? Confused by the myriad of get started plans and gurus’ selling their latest ‘get rich quick’ scheme? Then you need a simple, free and highly-effective plan to get started with just what you have…

Here is HOW YOU CAN DO IT, right now, with about $15! (you’ll need a domain & hosting). Everything else is free. Just turn off the TV and you’ll have plenty of time to get this done. My directions are rather simple. However, as this post ‘ages’ I’ll keep adding content to update and improve “The Exact Plan” you need to follow!

(This post will be edited and updated monthly as I update content to help you make money online. Keep it bookmarked!)

Let’s get our $100 per day, make money online, plan started!

Once you get started and learn to build success, you can duplicate this plan to as many web sites as you can to increase your income! The idea is to run a WordPress CMS (content management software) with several advertisers to produce blogs that earn anywhere from a $1.00 to $100+ dollars per day, based on traffic generated by search engines. Keep in mind that you can even create sub-domains that contain installations of blogs, forums, etc. –duplicating your exposure with just one domain! Just explore what you can do, and you’ll be surprised.

You’ll run into a million online make money plans: This one is free and takes an hour to implement… (get started phase).

Just get to work — otherwise, you’ll never know WHAT IS possible! While reading this, keep in mind that QUALITY will always win over QUANTITY.

1. What you’ll need first is a place to do business. You need hosting. Get an account at http://www.webhostgiant.com/, run by Webintellects, Inc. They provide great customer care and value. If you look at the DELUXE PLAN, you can host *unlimited domains* for that low monthly price! I picked this hosting company because the customer service is top notch. I have no idea how long the special will last. My advice getting started is to get only what you need. Note that their Deluxe Plan allows for unlimited domains! This is all you need. If you are going to run a large mailing list, you can always upgrade to their VPS (virtual private server) hosting which can manage much larger operations.

2. Your next step is to figure out what *worldly problems* you will help resolve. By looking to solve problems that people have, you’ll be able to produce articles, content, etc. that people are actively looking for. To do that just look to current events. Look to web site comments. Look at forums. People express their problems. You’ll just need to come up with ways to solve them. These are the problems people need help resolving. Just to give you an example, I like to work with small business and stocks. I have a lot of experience in both. I enjoy solving problems in both. I can talk all day about both… IF you can work with your passion, it will be a bonus.

If you need to find a niche blog or forum, just search like this: [ "problem" + forum ] on Google and you’ll find plenty of web sites to explore todays issues.

In your case, looking for a niche you can also:

• Look at trends. As I write this, look at the mortgage mess, which I hope is a short lived one.
• People need more money!
• People always want to look young, and gorgeous as I am.
• Everyone wants to improve their health.
• Pay special attention to *growing* trends –baby boomers, their kids, etc.
• OR just look at any hobby –what can you add to a discussion? What contribution from your passion or experience can you make?
• While at it, don’t overlook the essentials –food, drink, sex and a roof to live under. Just about anything out there can be a good niche to work with… WELL, ALMOST! As I said, a growing niche is best. Preferably, a niche where a good amount of money is spent on advertising.

When you think about the domain, ask this question:
Will I provide INFORMATION (SOLVE a PROBLEM) or AM I GOING to HELP SOMEONE MAKE a PURCHASE DECISION? Often people looking for information will search with two key words, while those looking to purchase something will use three or more words -or a phrase. If you can, try to have a key word or two from your key search phrases in your domain name.

Did you pick a domain name that has all the above elements in it?

It’s very important to help people who are looking for a solution to a problem, QUICKLY. They are ACTIVE BUYERS. These people are much more likely to click on ads and make purchase or pre-purchase decisions. These types of buyers often look for a discount before buying. They are looking for a bargain, etc. Help them.

Use these ideas (above) and search for a DOMAIN NAME. Please note my research location in step #4!

4. Then go to http://www.godaddy.com or http://www.namecheap.com and register a domain name. I have had the unfortunate problem of researching a domain name and then “sleeping on the idea” for a night and finding out the next day that the domain was registered. What I do now is to search the domain at Network Solutions (http://www.netsol.com). Then pick a lower cost registrar to “claim my asset”.

A few tips about domain names:

• It’s a good idea to have the name of the niche that you are working in as part of the domain name, as I said before.
• However, that is not a must. Shorter the better. If people can remember it, that’s a bonus.
• If you are focusing on helping local businesses, keep that in mind, as you register the domain.

GoDaddy has a DOMAIN AUCTION or RE-SALE AREA. Try that too. There are often great domains that are years old being sold or on auction for just a few dollars.

Now your domain is “active” –usually it takes about 72 hours for it to propagate the Internet’s name servers. Then you are LIVE and now it’s time to start rocking! By now http://www.my_dream_online.com is pointing to a location that you control and it’s time to take the next few steps.

5. Download FILEZILLA (http://filezilla-project.org/), which is a FREE FTP Program. Set it up to connect to your hosting account, which should take you about 2 min. If you have problems running this, just search YouTube (http://www.youtube.com) for “How to use FileZilla” and you’ll find a step-by-step video.

When you learn to use FileZilla, please keep these tips in mind as well:

• Use it often to make a back up of your blog and files. Learn how to back up WordPress as you build your business.
• FileZilla works great with a editing program such as NotePad++. If you are editing a file, make sure to edit a copy! You can do this by downloading a file, while changing the original file name of the copy on the server. When you upload the edited file, it will *not* replace the original.
• Lastly, FileZilla keeps an XML file with all the connecting information to all of your sites –back up that file.

6. Once you have FILEZILLA running, download to your local hard drive, WORDPRESS (WP: http://www.wordpress.org), which is a simple, yet highly effective CMS (Content Management System) that you can use to manage your online content. WordPress will do everything for you, apart from writing the content. You’ll have to do that. If you have problems installing WordPress, just search “How to install WordPress” on YouTube and you’ll find a video that will take you step by step. The hardest part of a WordPress install is the creation of a MySQL Database.

Need an example of a good WordPress implementation? Check me out! Yes, the Rich Sage runs on WordPress!

WP is wonderful because you can change the “look ‘n feel” in seconds to what you want. Just Google “WordPress Themes” and find what you want, all for free. Just don’t spend too much time playing around with what your web site will look like. You can do that AFTER you start making money.

7. Once done, you should be able to type http://www.my_dream_online.com and reach the WordPress installation that you have created. Login to the ADMIN area and discover a world where you don’t need to be a programmer, while controlling everything that readers see. You’ll get the location of the ADMIN via email to the e-mail address you used during installation.

Now life is good, and you’re ALMOST ready to ROCK! Now is the time to install a few PLUGINS, which are add-ons to WP that do specific tasks. Everything from Search Engine Optimization to managing comments, a plugin will do, making life easy for you.

Here is a short list of WordPress Plugins You should be using:

• Search Engine Optimization
• Image display and gallery
• Ad display
• SiteMaps for Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.
• Show YouTube Videos
• Spam Blocking in Comments
• Mailing lists & RSS Feeds

I’ll stop at that. Otherwise, I could be here another day or two! You should be able to find a pluggin to do everything that you need to do. If you cannot, you can ask a programmer to build it for you.

8. Now your hosting is setup, domain is up and running. WordPress is ALIVE! Time to wait ’til tomorrow for the next steps.

NO WAY!

You should be having fun by now. Perhaps, you have not installed and setup ALL the WP PLUGGINS that you need, but you’ve started the process. Now it’s time to start adding some content about your niche. It’s time to research articles. It’s time to tell your friends! So, the site has to look great. Find a good theme that meets your needs and install. Then it’s time to start “making money online”.

Here are a few WordPress Theme Collections:

• 74 WordPress Themes
• Alex King’s WordPress Theme Collection
• 100 Excellent WordPress Themes that are FREE
• The Home of WordPress and It’s Theme Directory

9. There are two schools of thought to making $100.00 or more dollars per day online.

• The first is to be the best running one blog in your niche OR
• Run tens or even hundreds of blogs and earn a “buck or two” from each blog daily. Just a “rinse and repeat process”.

This is not something that you’ll be able to resolve at this time. I do focus on one blog, which is my brand. However, I also work on my niches, which are small business and stocks. I also work full-time online, as the stocks tend to be an “off and on” affair, where once decisions are made, nothing happens for weeks or months. So, you”ll have to find the right fit for your income, family and emotional needs.

I do think that in the long-term, quality will win out over quantity. Unless, you find a tool or two to manage your WordPress empire! That still means you’ll have to come up with content. All this is easy once you have your first success in hand –then the next success is so much easier.

Rich Sage Wisdom

PART ONE: Also, keep in mind that this is not an INSTANT SUCCESS PLAN –Really, nothing is. However, this is a quick way to reward minimal RISK. It works. You’ll just have to stick with it. Almost $80 Billion will be spent online by 2010 on advertising alone. This given you ample opportunity to find companies to work with and build your revenue.
PART TWO: Never use a credit card to build your business. Often we use money that we don’t have, to buy things that *will pay the bill* (generate revenue) tomorrow. That leads to buying things that we really don’t need AND over-spending. My advice is to do this: From DAY ONE, find creative ways to stay CASH POSITIVE. This will be *very tough* when you start, but you’ll find ways to do it! Borrow money to build your business *ONLY WHEN YOU DON”T HAVE TO* (when borrowing will INCREASE ROI!!!).

One suggestion that I can make to staying “cash positive”, even at the start-up phase, is to find a LOCAL CLIENT you can help with all of your knowledge about Internet Marketing (IM). Even a client that pays $100 is a client that will set you “in the black!”.

Since you have only one domain setup, let’s follow the FIRST SCHOOL of THOUGHT and just get started. Once you follow this process, it is just a matter of repeating it every time you find a niche that you want to work with.

10. When you get busy writing content, who will know what you wrote about? Well, the Search Engine Optimization that you did with WP will help. On my first day releasing my blog, I had 3 visitors –Me, Myself and I. You’ve just got to start! That’s better than 98% of the others who will wait for tomorrow and watch years go by.

Once you start writing, make it a habit to visit publishing sites such as Digg (http://www.digg.com), Sphinn (http://www.sphinn.com) and REDDIT (http://www.reddit.com) and let the world know that you have written something. This makes a 20% difference in traffic to my main site. Using a SWAP FILE, posting your update to all three sites takes about 5 minutes. That’s it. If you feel a bit energetic, you can add another 2 to 4 sites –Web 2.0 to publish content.

Actually, there is an easy way to do this: Several sites will “pick up” your content when WordPress “pings” that there is an update. The first that come to mind are Google and Yahoo. Make sure that your SiteMap software is updated everyday to help ‘bots’ that visit you. All this generates FREE TRAFFIC. Make sure to have a friendly setup to take advantage.

11. NEXT YOU NEED to MONETIZE! At this point you are LIVE. And you’ve started to add content. You’ve setup things for the search engines to love you, and you’ll “feed” the search engine spiders crawling your site with great “food” (your content) to keep them coming back daily.

Make sure to write that content for humans, who enjoy reading what you have to say.

Now you need to MONETIZE to the max. There are hundreds of ways to go about doing this, but I’ll discuss the most effective and the easiest to get started. I may not follow all of these, but I certainly will do them all as I experiment to find the “best mix” to work with.

I suggest that you do the following, starting with the easiest:

A. Display Ads –This is the easiest. Get your own AdSense account from Google, or use an alternative. Just search “AdSense Alternative” on Google and you’ll find a few. All of these services display ads based on the content you’ll write about. Keep in mind that content about volunteer work will pay minimal per click, while content about stock or financial services will pay a lot better. Often 10 to 20 times as much!

UPDATE: Note that Google has a service that helps sell ads on your site in BETA. At the time of this writing, this is *invitation only* but I am sure sometime this summer (2008) you will see the process open to all. This service basically is an AD SALESMEN that all of need. By setting up an account at Google, you can sell all of your advertising through it.

This gives you the opportunity to sell ads:

• Text links on the sidebar
• Display ads
• In post ads
• Banner ads
• Private Reviews
• And in my case, running a complete market place.

UPDATE:

Ad sales don’t pay a heck of lot until traffic is in the 5-figure areas daily. That will take a while. I have resorted to working with several memberships to monetize my efforts

B. Display Reviews of Products that you’ve tested or purchased. Another approach you can take is to look at the MARKETPLACE at CLICKBANK (http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace/). Click on a CATEGORY that your readers are interested in and look at the TOP 10 items. These are all “best sellers” with a “High Gravity” that converts well. Pick a few and display an image and your own words to your readers.

You can also propose to review products for companies and publishers for a paid fee. This is all contingent on your traffic and general exposure. At the start-up phase this is not easy at all.

C. Generate a double opt-in mailing list using a squeeze page. This is a more advanced setup, which you may want to wait to do AFTER you’ve gotten started.

The objective is rather straight forward: Create one page on the WP setup (or an entirely external page) to display nothing but a subscription to your mailing list. This is called an OPT-IN PAGE. The best way to do this is with a pop-up (JAVA) type that displays when reader navigates away from your main page. I’ve purchased such code for $15.00 or you may find it free somewhere. Or by now someone has created a plugin to do just that. Install it and start building your reader list. Keep in mind that the RSS plugin that I suggest earlier will build RSS readers. There are also a few services that will ‘announce your update’ via email to readers.

Use both processes to tell your audience that you’ve created new content.

D. Setup a Membership Content area –This takes much more time, but allows you to have PREMIUM CONTENT. Perhaps, all the writing that you do is free via the WP install. However, more advanced, or vital content, that takes up your time and much more effort to produce, can be “hidden” using a simple username and password. Readers will have to pay a membership fee –ONE TIME or MONTHLY -to access that information. This can be done with graphic, private label rights content, and just about any type of information deemed worthy by your niche.

Just like that you’ll have a digital product. Using such a setup and a PayPal Account (http://www.paypal.com), which is also free, you’re exponentially increasing your monthly revenue.

JUST a FEW TIPS to INCREASE YOUR DAILY INCOME:

Once you get into a good rhythm working on your WP site, it’s time to explore what else you can do. Running on a theme that solving a problem works well to attract buyers, just look around any niche forum for problems that people have, and come up with your own $7.00 or $17.00 or even $97.00 digital product. Always think: Problem? Solution! Soon you’ll have a lot of product ideas to work with.

In this Start Up Plan I have said that you can get started with Adsense. That will work well for a site that has a niche where people are actively seeking information. I have a business credit building site that I have monetized using Adsense, which works well. The ads complement the writing and provide a lot more information to the visitor.

However, you’ll often find that this is not the best way to make money online –that is often by using CPA Ads. These are “cost per action” ads that pay when someone buys or completes a detailed form or joins a membership area. Networks such as Hydra Network specialize in these types of ads. You’ll earn a lot more revenue with such ads, based on your niche, than ads that are CPC (cost per click) type such as Adsense.

Regardless of your success, making $10.00 or $100.00 or even $1,000.00 per day, keep in mind the age-old wisdom: Those who reach for excellence, each day, never stopping, will reach their goals. Be the best that you can be providing the information and solutions for your readers and you’ll see a lot of good things happen.

Posted by Ben Cook:

One of the easiest ways to find out how well your blog is reaching people is to look at the level of comments. Are people interacting on your site? Are they actively participating with you and your content or are they just consuming (reading) and moving on? The comment level on this blog seems to mimic a wave but overall, I’m pretty happy with it. However, if you’re not satisfied with the current number of comments on your blog, here are 5 ways to Attract More Comments.

5. Make them:
Regular readers of this blog will probably eventually get sick of hearing this (if you’re not already) but commenting on other blogs really is one of the most effective and worthwhile activities in blogging. When it comes to attracting more comments on your blog, it once again makes the list. By commenting on other blogs you demonstrate that you’re an active participant in the blogging community. It implies that you see the value in the types of discussions that occur on blogs because, after all, if you didn’t you wouldn’t be commenting. Also, it’s basically an ice breaker. Even in this rather anonymous online world, people are often nervous about interacting with a new person. By commenting on other blogs, you initiate the conversation. Something as simple as “Hi, I just found your site via ____ and I’m really enjoying it.” can often lead to multiple comments on your blog as well as a new reader or subscriber.

4. Reward them:
Someone once said that to get anyone to do anything, you have to show them the benefits. I’m probably butchering some great marketing genius’ advice but the point is, if there’s a benefit to the action, people are a lot more likely to do it. So, applying that idea to blog commenting, it stands to reason that if you openly reward those who comment on your site, you’ll generate more comments! This can take all sorts of forms, but the easiest and most obvious is the Top Commentators plugin. The plugin has been covered at length on several different blogs so I’m not going to get too far into it but basically you reward your most frequent commentators with a link on your site.

Another method of rewarding comments, and something I try to do on this blog as often as possible, is to highlight a comment in your post. Whether you’re answering a question directly, or a comment inspired you to discuss a certain topic, it’s a chance for you to openly thank and reward someone that leaves a comment. The more ways you can display this type of behavior, the more likely people will be to comment on your posts. Why? Because they can clearly see the benefit in doing so.

3. Bait them:
Take a quick look at the list of “Most Commented Posts” for this blog and you’ll see two examples of posts that inherently elicit responses from readers. Any type of controversial post or topic is a fantastic opportunity to generate comments on your blog. Not only does controversy generate more traffic and more links, but it almost always generates more comments. Whether people agree with you, or disagree with you, most will feel the need to weigh in on the issue. Once that happens, just sit back and watch your comment numbers grow. Not only will people begin to support or argue your point, they’ll also begin to engage each other and spawn whole new conversations and topics for debate. Despite what you may think of his blog, John Chow has been a master of this. He’ll throw a post out there and then some idiot like myself will decide to weigh in. Before you know it, you’ve got a handful of people attacking your point, and (hopefully) a handful of people defending you! Bottom line? If you can touch a nerve, you’re guaranteed to get a comment (or 20).

2. Respond to them:
This point seems fairly obvious but you’d be surprised how many bloggers seem to forget about it. If you want to attract more comments on your blog, you absolutely MUST let people know that you’re hearing them. If someone leaves a comment on your blog, respond to it! Thank them for it, answer their question, or just simply continue the discussion. However you go about it, let them know you read and appreciated their comment. Personally I try to respond to as many comments as I can, but I make it a point to interact with someone the first time they comment. The Comment Relish plugin helps with this by automatically generating a response to a new commentator, but I try to take it even further and respond on the blog as well. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve commented on a blog and come back to find absolutely now acknowledgment of it. Did the blogger see it? Did they not like my comment? Are they not actively blogging anymore? All those questions usually lead to me not commenting again and I’m not alone in that. If you want more comments on your blog, be sure to respond to the ones you do get.

1. Ask for them:
Once again a fairly obvious point, and yet, still the most effective way I’ve found to attract more comments is to simply ask for them. At the end of a post, ask for your readers’ feedback. Let them know their input is appreciated. If you can also highlight the benefits of commenting that we discussed in point 4, even better. This doesn’t have to be some big long plea for comments, it can be something as simple as “What do you think?” or “If I missed anything, let me know!” Darren Rowse of ProBlogger and Chris Garrett of Chrisg.com are experts at this. At then end of most posts they have some sort of call to action prompting their readers to comment and it’s easy to see the results of their efforts. I think of it kind of like a speech or a presentation. You write your post which presents the idea or the concept or your opinion, and once you’re done you open it up for questions or comments. If you never turn over the floor so to speak, you’re not likely to get nearly as many comments.

So there you have it, 5 Ways to Attract More Comments. As you saw there’s not some secret sauce or special formula to it. In fact, many of these things are common sense, but I’ve found a lot of times it’s the simple things we struggle the most with. For example, I’m sure other bloggers have written on this subject and I’ve probably read one or all of these points before. However, while writing this up I realized I’d done a poor job in a couple of these areas recently and the number of comments reflects that. So even if you’ve heard it all before, I hope you benefit from this little refresher as much as I did in writing it.

If you have any tips or suggestions for other ways to attract more comments, let us know in the comments below. After all, not only do I make use of the Top Commentators plugin, but you never know when I’ll turn your comment into the focus of a whole new post!