How To Make Money Using The Internet ... Research, research, research

A lot of people teach those new to the Internet marketing arena that the best way to launch your career is to promote something that you are interested, be it your job of work, hobby or even a special talent.

This will get you off to a good start, they insist.

Actually, they are quite wrong and this is why so many, would be, Internet marketers fail within just a few months or even weeks.

You see, the thing is, although YOU may be interested in your chosen subject, it's simply no good building a super web site and promoting it for all you're worth if people don't buy what you're selling.

You can't earn a living running a web site that doesn't sell.

If you'd like to build a web site about your hobby, that's fair enough but if you'd like to earn money from sales with it, you'll need to use a different strategy.

The trick is to find out what people are buying and then start selling that. You may not like the product or service but, after it makes you large stacks of cash each day, you'll soon learn to live with it, I'm sure.

In order to find out what is popular at the moment, you'll need to do a little research. Firstly, visit ClickBank (www.clickbank.com) and see what's going on there.

ClickBank is an Internet service where people selling information and software over the Internet allow others to promote their business for a piece of the action. So, for example, if I am selling a home business course on 'How to produce your own eBook' I can let other people sell it from their web sites or wherever and they get to have say 50% of the takings.

If the price is 100 they get 50 and I get the other 50. It's just a way of shifting your product. Eventually, scores of people are selling your stuff all over the Internet.

ClickBank have tens of thousands of these so called 'Affiliate' schemes and anyone can join for free and start selling other people's wares while keeping some of the profit.

ClickBank allow you to view what is selling the best at the current time. It's THIS list that will guide you to know just what you should be making available from your own web site. After all, if the whole world are buying this type of product then why shouldn't they buy from you to?

More research is needed, however. You'll need to know more about what's going on before committing yourself to a web site that is going to work for you 24/7.

Firstly, how do you find out the top 10 selling information products? This is when you visit ClickBank and see. Choose one of the top 10, affiliate to it and build a web site to promote it. Some affiliate schemes make the web site for you whereby you just enter your details and affiliate number then upload it to your web space.

At the time of writing I was able to look at the popular listings: Business to business, Education, Publishing, New products, Promotion, Web design, Industrial, Reports, Home and family, Marketing, Money and employment, Computing and Internet, Fun and entertainment, Sports and recreation, society and culture and so on.

By clicking on any category ClickBank will list separate sub categories where they are listed in order of popularity and sales. Simply pick the one that suits you and start promoting. It is free to join and you can earn plenty.

Once you are up and running you'll need to promote your site to those that search for your subject. This is where 'keywords' come in to play.

You'll need to find which words people are typing into the search engines when they are looking for something. If you are selling publications on 'Ice cream' for example, you'll find that simply setting up Ice and Cream as keywords won't enable people to find your site over anybody else's who are also promoting the same thing as you.

To get people to your site you'll need to use Google's AdWords. By opening an account with Google AdWords you'll be able to insert your listing automatically on the customers search results page. There is a charge for this but it is based on how much you want to Pay Per Click. See www.google.com and click on 'Advertising Programmes' to visit the 'how to' pages.

To find out what people are typing into the search engines to find your product visit: www.overture.com and it will give the top keywords to use in Google AdWords.

Once in your account in Google, you simply bid on the words you want in your promotion. Careful selection will bring up your web site advertising high on the results page so that the customer will visit your site and buy your product.

You also need to join Google's AdSense programme whereby you have other people's advertising on your site. This way, all ads will be on the same subject as yours and you will be paid each time somebody clicks through on your page. So you earn money per click and also money for selling your affiliated product. Watch your account grow.

By researching the keywords used on a regular basis you can stay at the top of the results page list on the Google search engine site.

There are marketers earning thousands of pounds each week using this method. Once all is up and running you can start on your next web site with another top 10 affiliate programme.

Full details are on the ClickBank web site, the Google web site and, of course, Overture.com

This is yet another way to actually earn money by using the Internet.

(c)2006 Martyn Brown: 20+ years involved in the home business industry.

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Real Men Don't Plan Weddings

Most of you know that my podcast co-host, best friend and overall "main squeeze" Emily and I are getting married in December. I couldn't be a happier guy about that. After all, she's a fantastic woman. This means, of course, we've spent much of the last month since our engagement (which happened during "X & Y On The Fly" podcast episode 11) planning our wedding and everything associated with it. Over the course of that relatively brief period of time, I've already come to a profound conclusion.

Real men don't plan weddings.

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that real men don't get married. Quite the contrary. Most good men seek to find genuine love with one great woman sooner than later, and look forward to coming home to her every night. And that's a great thing.

That said, however, I believe I've come up with a previously undetected reason why men seem to have trouble taking that step towards the "lifetime commitment" of marriage. Thousands (if not millions) of women everywhere have long wondered how a man can be so eager to have her around month after month without "popping the question". Months can turn into years, and still no ring and no date.

Is it really that all of these men are "commitment phobes" who are looking for "better options"?

Possibly. But if that were the case, why would those same guys be spending so much time sitting around watching the tube and drinking beer instead of searching out "options"? It all just doesn't add up, does it?

Well, ladies (and gentlemen), the sensible explanation for all of this is disarmingly simple, although most likely subliminal in the mind of every guy it affects.

It's not that we're afraid of marriage or commitment. It's that we are utterly terrified of planning the wedding.

I first presented this groundbreaking hypothesis to Emily, and was met with skepticism. "Oh, c'mon. How can that be? Putting all of this together is exciting. Don't you think it is fun?"

I responded simply. "I'd rather do sudoku puzzles."

She looked at me in shock. After all, I'd famously rather do my taxes and / or watch paint dry than touch any blasted sudoku puzzle with a ten-foot pencil. At least tax returns involve number crunching that is actually necessary and may result in a refund check.

"Seriously...", I elaborated, "...name one guy you've ever known who was excited about planning his wedding."

She named a few. After brief consideration, I countered that those guys had to have been merely demonstrating "sympathy excitement", which doesn't count.

I therefore revised my challenge. "OK...well...short of anyone who is a clinically-problematic 'control freak', name one guy who ended up arranging all the details himself, according to his own thoughts and wishes."

"Yeah, well...you've got me there.", Emily retorted, punctuated with a snicker.

Really now. It's a downright silly thought. What guy feels that passionately towards flowers, table settings, elaborate dresses and throwing social parties? Even if he did, there's no way he could wrestle control of such from the bride while remaining engaged.

Exactly! Wedding ceremonies and receptions are all about the bride. I mean, the guy involved doesn't even have a real title--he's just there to "groom" the bride! Therefore, everything involved with planning such things is utterly feminine.

Us guys really find it all rather tedious. To us wedding planning is like one big, protracted trek to the mall for shoe shopping.

Oh sure. We go along when absolutely necessary to "show support" and to make sure "we approve". But heaven help us if we didn't "approve" of something along the way. It would mean being dragged to more prospective "settings" festooned with Gazebos and year-round Christmas lights. So the women...Emily included...typically get the rubber stamp from the "Groom".

Guys like me would have been happy just to go to the JP and get on with it, maybe draining a few "cold ones" afterwards. Even when wrapped up in a more "formal" wedding, we all don't want or need any elaborate consideration. Just rent me the same tux the other guys are wearing. No biggee.

Despite my ranting, all of this deep thought really has helped me put things into perspective and I accept my short-term lot in life gladly. I won't begrudge the bride her wedding planning bliss one bit.

Here's why.

For a woman, this really is her one chance (hopefully) to live out all of her fantasies associated with being a "Disney Princess" and throwing the big party to back it up.

Obviously, every business owner who ever touches a wedding already knows this. I've dealt with ten years' worth of obnoxious, abrasive people in the last few weeks, all of whom clearly on the immediate defensive vis--vis a steady parade of highly-demanding "bridezillas" who demanded perfection. This, of course, only contributed to how much more loathsome the entire process became for me. And this was before my realization that uttering the very word "wedding" triggers a "surcharge mechanism"'. Painful.

"So..." Emily later said, "...your demeanor has changed about all this wedding stuff. What's up with that?"

My reply was thought out ahead of time and therefore clearly stated, "Lookit. I'm fortunate to be a guy. I theoretically get several chances at making certain lifetime dreams go off perfectly. If, however, I only had one chance on one particular day to get one car that I wanted--and was committed to it for life--I would take a lot of time in getting ready for that."

"And I'd support you through that process 100%.", she said. "But I would be bored to tears every minute of it."

Want to hear more? Scot McKay is the founder of X & Y Communications, a one-stop-shop for dating and relationship resources. He is the author of the books "Deserve What You Want" and "Cook For Your Date", and hosts the popular podcast series "X & Y On The Fly" with his fiancee Emily Grillo. He may be reached at scot@xandycommunications.net or on the Web at http://www.dating-advice.us/ and http://www.romantic-dinner.com/. Stop by for a FREE GIFT and to subscribe to the podcast series.

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