Hi to all the wonderful people out there today! I couldn’t wait to visit with all of you again.

How can you make money online today?

What do you need to do in order to start your business on the Internet? Who can you turn to for help, who will assist you as an individual and not just as a bottomless credit card? The emphasis seems to be on getting out there with a product to promote, have a squeeze page, build a list with an autoresponder, and then mail those customers to death with affiliate offers, programs to buy, offer upon offer and this endless cycle goes on and on and on, round and round……

So many programs, blogs, feeds, tweets, Facebook ads, YouTube videos, e-mail marketing messages and broadcasts and now cell phone ads! There are also referral programs, downlines and uplines, shopping genies, and everywhere you click it’s just Fast Cash, Instant Cash, Easy Cash and Residual Income. Eeekkkk, too much, not enough time. Where to start, who to follow, who to listen to, who to trust, what to buy?

It seems to me that there is a great need today for easier access to relevant information, for clarity and consolidation, for filtered information which removes the hype, the hysteria, the marketing noise, the do-this-today-otherwise-you-are-dead type of bogeyman advertising and pitching.

Wouldn’t it just be the greatest if we were all on the same side, belonged to the same ‘club’ as it were, and helped each other to learn and earn?  Wouldn’t we ALL be winners then and not just some lucky ones amongst us? I would have thought that there is more than enough money and prosperity and abundance in the universe to make us all happy. But alas, enough daydreaming

(Note: the ideas are drawn from my own experiences. There is such a vast variety of different editors, hosting companies, domain name servers, etc. on the web, and such a vast array of different experiences recounted by people on their own web trials and errors and successes, it is important to note that these ideas are just a tiny speck of a rich tapestry of possibilities.)

So, to wit:

* Product, idea – what will your website be about

* Domain name, webhosting – free or paid

* Become familiar with you cpanel (backend of your site)

* If normal website, you will need Kompozer (to design webpages) and Filezilla (an FTP Client to upload images and content to website)

* Learn how to design site before uploading. This includes learning where to get images from, how to use free images obtained from the web (copyright issues), resizing them and why, understanding HTML,  sourcing content to write about (Public Domain Articles, Forums, Private Label Rights), getting a free PDF converter, creating an e-book (if you want to), creating a squeeze page.

* If a blog ,you’ll need to upload WordPress onto your domain, and identify a suitable theme from WordPress or others on offer on the web. Become familiar with your dashboard. Start publishing posts. Learn more about designing your blog.

* Getting an autoresponder, such as Aweber. It is not absolutely necessary, as there are other ways to get visitors to opt-in to your offer or site (some WordPress plug-ins which you can upload will do this for you as well) but an autoresponder helps you to save so much time, it is like having a personal assistant, who will be there 24 hours, 7 days a week, and what’s more: this assistant never gets sick or wants a raise!

* Learn how to create and configure an opt-in form, a confirmation page, thank you page, download page, as well as learn how to create a confirmation e-mail, and linking that back to your thank you and download pages.  Then further sales messages can be created in your autoresponder to tell your customers of cool products you’ve found. You might also want to learn how to create a newsletter series.

* Affiliate marketing is huge. Learn how Clickbank, Commission Junction, Amazon and EBay (just 4 of many others) work, learn which affiliate products to promote and how to do this for optimum returns. Some are much better than others, and of course, recurring billing products (which pay every month, such as membership sites) are the best.

* And traffic- more later

This sounds a ridiculous amount to learn, and of course, in the beginning, one doesn’t even know WHERE to find all of the above, even if one knew WHAT one had to get.

So, a closer look at some of the nitty-gritty of really getting started:

• You will have to get the right mindset: it is NOT easy, it is NOT fast and you will need to educate yourself continuously as you go along. Some people become overnight sensations, but the changes are somewhat good that not everybody will fall into that category. (Congratulations if you are one of the internet protégés!)
• You will have to realize that it is hard work, at least in the beginning, so be prepared.  And just as in any offline business or job, real life is about set-backs, disappointments and some hard knocks (as in when you realize that not all people mean well and will automatically want to help you ;-0) But please don’t give up – keep sitting in front of the computer, even if you just keep googling whatever you are interested in, keep learning how to set up a website, how to  find information, how to become a member on a forum of something you are interested in. By doing this, you will most probably find a way to keep going, you will find something which suddenly makes sense and allows you to move forward. Action is very important, as you cannot put a price on depression and sell that instead to customers! They will definitively not want it!
• I have said it before, but it is worth repeating: take a deep breath, relax and forgive yourself for not getting it right the first time. It is ok, YOU are ok, it will happen, soon.

So, now to the next stage:

1. What do you want your website to be about? What do you want to sell? You most certainly cannot have a ‘shop’ and not have anything to sell, can you? Will it be a physical product like a book, a radio, a software program, clothing, toys, a cell phone, weight-loss products, or what? Please don’t open your ‘shop’ if you haven’t done your soul searching for your product yet.  When you get up in the morning and rush to your ‘shop’, what would you like to be working with? Does it excite and inspire you? Do you believe in it?
2. It is always better to have your own website or ‘shop’, as you will see as you go along. It takes so long and involves so much sacrifice and effort, that you will want the benefits to go to you and your own family and not to someone else. Isn’t that why many people give up proper jobs, because the bosses are the rule makers and the owners, and the employees just have to keep slugging away to make their bottom line ever more prosperous? Work for your own greener pastures.
3. With WordPress and many other free website builders out there, it is possible to start out with very little. But it is better to pay a small fee, if you can, and start out with a reputable website domain name and hosting company, as it enhances your reputation right from the beginning, and it is also more professional. It is sometimes a bit difficult transferring all your data to another site later on. But don’t let that stop you: look at what you can do and what you can afford, and then start there, rather than not starting at all. (see below for some links to get you going)
4. With a domain name, it is important that it reflects the nature of your website and your product or products. You will find that you often hear that the search engines will index and find you easier if your main keywords for your product or service are encapsulated in your domain name. Think of it this way: it is the address for your ‘shop’ and you will want customers to find your business or ‘shop’ so that they can visit you.
5. The mind thinks in pictures, and it is much easier thinking of your business as a proper ‘shop’, with a name and a storefront, and you can see the main window display, attractive to all the passersby. Think of the colours you would like your ‘shop’ to be, how should it be decorated? What is the theme? Only you have your own unique style and décor, make it your very own. Dress it up so that it makes you happy to be there, and proud that this is all yours.
6. Much is written and advised on what a website should be about, what a blog should be about, and everything from colours, to font size, headlines, copywriting, psychological factors to factor in when writing your copy for your squeeze pages, how long or how short it should be, whether to put in video because it sell so much better.  But I have found it is too much of a muchness for me, after a while it all blends together, and if one sees the same type of design and writing too often, it disappears into the background. One looses the enthusiasm to read it to the end. I would so much rather be different, and keep my ‘me’-ness. (yes,yes,  I know, the word is not a proper English word, but it describes what I wanted to say, and so I kept it in, forgive me. I see language as continuously evolving, just as we do  ;-)
7. Be yourself. Find a style and persona which suits you, which makes you happy, which makes you bright eyed and bushy tailed; find the rhythm and song to your own drum, and do your marching accordingly.
8. If you find it easier to write about things rather than go onto social websites and telling all about yourself, then do it that way. If you find it easier talking into a video, recording it and posting that to your website instead of laboriously writing everything down, do it. If you would rather be a salesman (affiliate marketing) for other people than creating your own products and e-books, then do it. It will always be right for you, if that is what your heart is telling you to do. Don’t over-think things, listen to your instincts, follow your dream. Life is short, dang it, so live it, beautifully! Live in vivid technicolor!
9. When it now finally comes down to the actual website issues, you will unfortunately have to learn how to do some things, like Aweber, Kompozer, Filezilla, PDF converter. But don’t worry, it is not so difficult. The best way to do this is to find one place to learn all of these things at the same time. Think of it as going to one big warehouse, which has everything you need, right there. You don’t have to drive hither and fro all over the big city, in bumper to bumper traffic, in order to find all you need.  (The link to the easiest one I have found so far is at the bottom of the article, should you want to look it over.)
10. But there are many good learning areas out there, and it very much depends on your product or service – that alone determines what training and advise you should concentrate on. Sterling people like Stephen Pierce, Jay Abraham, Rich Schefren, Clayton Makepeace, Michael Cheney, Jack Canfield, Tony Robbins, John Reese, Eben Pagan, Tellman Knudson, Mike Filsaime, Mark Victor Hansen, Robert Allen, Paul Myers, Paul Lemberg, Shawn Casey, Glenn Dietzel, Dan Kennedy, (shhheeeesh,my list of them is endless) they are all excellent to follow and learn from. Then there are Chris Farrell, Alex Sysoef, John Lagoudakis, Mike Paetzold, Nataliya Piterova, and a host of others. If you want more names, please feel free to ask. They are all fantastic and worthwhile to learn from.
11. Traffic, oooohhh, the word traffic: please don’t get traffic to your website. Traffic is what constitutes a pain in the neck on our highways and motorways. Traffic is the hooting and tooting irritation keeping you back when you are in a hurry and impatient getting there. What you want and need and desire for your ‘store’ are valued visitors, customers, clients and subscribers. They are your biggest asset, your raison d’être, the very reason for your ‘store’s’ existence. Why would you want to open a ‘store’ if you only want to look at it yourself? You need visitors, who will like what they see so much that they want to come back to see what else you’ve got, not so? Remember always: this is a real, genuine-to-goodness business.
12. It will also be good if you could find images, icons, photos to reflect your personality in your ‘store’. This can be quite a challenging task if you can’t do any designing yourself. If you are artistic, it is easier and also of course, much less expensive than hiring someone to design them for you. There is tons of good stuff for free, but work towards getting your own ‘décor’ for your ‘shop’ even if it only happens over a longer period. It has to be of such quality as to make passing foot traffic do a double take, and come back to look again at what they saw. It should hook them into being curious, to see more, to become interested in your ‘shop’. You need to be different, to NOT be the same, to NOT emulate others, to NOT follow the trend.
13. It is very much like baking a cake: if you put in only flour, butter and maybe throw in an egg or two, it won’t taste all that good, don’t you agree?  But with all the right ingredients: voila! The loveliest, most delicious cake on order for those hungry customers! And also important to remember is that not all recipes have to be slavishly followed to the letter, no no, you can make your own! Yes, try it: add a dollop of this, a drop of that, a cup of the next thing, and pretty soon you will have a brand new recipe, all your own.
14. I, for one, don’t much like those looooong sales letters, with all the benefits and have’s and have-not’s lain out. I like ’em short, to the point and sweet. Others like to really study the pros and cons. Yet others like to hear the message, rather than read it, others are intrigued by more visually appealing messages. Not all people like the same things set out in the same way. You MUST therefore have your ideal customer in mind before you start: are they children, adults, tech savvy or ultra literate? Are they practical people or rather academically inclined? Are they crazy hungry for a solution to an immediate problem, or rather browsing for information?
15. Whatever the reason for your online ambitions: of imminent importance therefore: start now, look at the very first item on your to-do list, and concentrate on ONLY that item. Research it on the web, absorb the information, and put the words into action. One action every day will get you to that wonderful day when you can stand back, gaze at your creation and go: “Ahhhhhhhhh…now I’ve arrived.”

Here’s looking at you, and wishing you the ‘Business of the Year’ Award!

Be happy, keep at it, be good at it and always keep trying, Ursula

“Because You Matter!”

# 10 Step Tutorial For Starting An Online Business:

http://www.oncallgeeks.com/

# Chris Farrell:

http://www.chrisfarrellmembership.com/

http://www.chrisfarrellhosting.com/help/cpanel.php (Chris Farrell – How Cpanel works)

# Autoresponder:

http://www.aweber.com/

# Kompozer:

http://www.kompozer.net/download.php

# Filezilla:

http://filezilla-project.org/download.php

# PDF Converter:

http://download.cnet.com/PrimoPDF/3000-18497_4-10264577.html

These are not affiliate links.