How to Make Money Online with Little Investment – Part 2

In the first part of this series we talked about the different ways that you can make money online, such as Facebook Ads, media buying and search marketing. The problem with all of these methods is that they all cost a lot of money and are based off having advertising budgets.

Since we are trying to focus our efforts on starting an online business with little investment, we are not going to use these methods. Instead we are going to focus on creating a web site that we can focus our content on, grow over time and eventually rank in the search engines to bring in monthly recurring income without the recurring costs.

In the previous post I also broke down your initial investment costs, which is really nothing in terms of starting a business that has the potential to turn into something quite amazing.

• Domain Name = $10 year
• Web Hosting = $7 month
• WordPress = Free
• Site Content = Free (Time)

Now that we covered the basics, we can start to look at what’s working and the best ways to create and monetize your site content.

The Core of Your Business

During the initial business planning process it’s important to remember that we are going to try and spend as little money as possible to get started. There are plenty of areas to improve and spend money later on once your content and core is established.

The core for your business in this example should be to find a niche product that people are searching for on a daily basis and that you can become a resource of information for. People are searching for different things every day, but targeting in on your audience they are in “buying mode” is key to converting your site visitors into buyers. Since writing is something that nearly anyone can do, and will cost you time instead of money… this is your investment into the business.

The best sites for making money online through affiliate marketing are review sites, comparison shopping, coupons and tutorial guides. All of these sites are great methods for engaging with your audience and getting them to take action. These are the types of sites you will want to create, then back out your traffic into an affiliate marketing offer (ie: Amazon.com or individual program).

Before you get started with your writing, you are going to need to know what to write about!

Free Tools for Finding a Winning Niche

I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m a big fan of using long tail keyword software, but since this software comes with a cost we aren’t going to focus on it for this concept. Instead you can utilize many of the free resources out there that provide a ton of great information.

• Google Keyword Tool – Not only is Google the greatest search engine in the world, but they also provide some amazing tools for free as well. Google Keyword Tool will allow you to search keywords, see how competitive the market is and how many people are searching for these and related keywords every month.

• Amazon Top Sellers List – What are people buying right now? Not just across everything listed on Amazon, but broken down into categories as well. Knowing what people are buying and seeing their feedback and “what else they purchased” is a killer resource when creating your own site.

• Search Status – Choosing the right keywords and niche is only half the battle. You also need to know who your competitors are and how easy or hard it will be for you to rank among the top search results. A free browser plugin called Search Status will show you the PageRank, Whois, Alexa, Compete, MozRank and much more while you are browsing through the search results. All very important factors when trying to rank organically in the search results.

Where Do You Go From Here

Now it’s time for you to take everything that we mentioned in this article and start to build a foundation for your business. You don’t need to rush out and get a domain name and hosting right now. Instead you need to spend time to see what niche market you want to get into and how you can become a valuable resource for those who are searching on your topic.

In the world of internet marketing it’s way too easy to get excited about a project and jump the gun to get started. Map out as many winning niches as you can, compare the top sites in the search results, see which affiliate programs you can join to monetize your content and keep breaking down your list of possible niches til you find a winner. This will be a long and boring process in the beginning, but will make all of the difference once you actually get started.

In the next part of the series we will be talking about going live with your site, what type of content to write and how you can rank in the search results in a short period of time while still keeping your hard earned money in your pocket. As always, shoot me an email with any ideas or questions you might have.

Start Making Money Online with Little Investment - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3