How to Make Money Online: The Basics

1. Spend time getting feedback on what you’re selling before launching.

Don’t rely on affirmation from friends and family to validate that you have a unique and salable product or service. Chances are, these people are emotionally attached to you, and they’re more likely to think every idea you share is the greatest thing since Nutella. Getting feedback from people who are emotionally attached to you is a “disaster from the start,” says Adam Callinan, founder of BottleKeeper.

Get market validation from potential customers who aren’t in your social circle. Some entrepreneurs use the “will they pull out their wallet” test before investing money in a business. Callinan, who’d come up with a prototype for an individual beer bottle cooler, ran a crowdfunding campaign on Fundable to gauge pre-orders for his product. His campaign raised nearly $14,000, 280 percent of his $5,000 goal.

Besides Fundable, there are a number of crowdfunding platforms to choose from including Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Rockethub.

Other ways to get people’s feedback, says Sujan Patel, vice-president of Marketing at When I Work, is using customer insight survey tools, such asQualaroo and Client Heartbeat. If you’re just starting out, surveys are a chance to find out what the customer is hoping the product/service will solve or do for him or her. If you’re already in business, surveys can ask how the customer found out about the product or service, whether the customer is willing to be a return customer and why.  

Or if you’re in a job in the industry you plan on starting a business in, get feedback from the people at your job -- your manager and clients -- says Steve Tobak, founder of Invisor Consulting. 

Related: 4 Tips to Use Crowdfunding to Make Startup Dreams a Reality

2. Have a website.

You must have a website, says Joel Widmer, founder of Fluxe Digital Marketing. Not only for the obvious -- to have something to refer customers back to -- but having a website builds your brand’s digital footprint. Keep your site simple and copy-driven with opportunities for email captures on every page.

Three easy steps to having your own website to sell products without spending a lot of cash are:

• Select a content management system (CMS), such as WordPress, which is popular for its user friendliness and is free.
• Register a domain name and subscribe to a hosting service, such asGoDaddy or Bluehost.
• Customize your CMS with ecommerce-enabling plugins and themes. WooCommerce offers free ecommerce themes for WordPress, such as Storefront. Also, WP eCommerce andMarketPress are additional free ecommerce plugin options.
• Or for anyone setting up an e-commerce site, both Shopify andSquarespace are easy e-commerce platforms that allow you to build an e-commerce site yourself.  

Related: How to Make Money As An Expert

Related Book: Moonlighting on the Internet

3. Know your competition and customers.

Study up on both competitor and complementary brands (i.e. if you are selling a fire alarm, then look for “house safety” websites). Widmer says your customers will be hanging out on websites for both competitor and complementary brands. He recommends using search tools such asSimilarWeb and Google’s related-search results (located at the bottom of every Google search) to see what sites your prospective customer may be visiting.

Other free research tools to get to know your market, suggests Brandon Schaefer, CEO of MyVirtualSalesForce, are LinkedIn (to see who competitor brands are connecting with and what types of updates they're posting),Google Alerts (for brand mentions and keywords) and Google Trends.

Related: The 5 Basics for Building an Online Business That Actually Makes Money

4. Create an action plan for sales and marketing.

To earn your first million in sales, says Patel, work backwards and put a number on what it takes in monthly revenue to get to a million your first year -- meaning how many units, subscriptions or services must be sold. Create benchmarks to reach. Even if you don’t reach them, you have a blueprint.

One way to reach your goal is to figure out which marketing avenues to leverage. Given the wealth of social-media possibilities, start with one or two social-media outlets where you know your audience is. In general, for new products the best channels are Facebook and Pinterest, says Widmer. For expertise and services, try LinkedIn.

Also, two effective and free marketing strategies are blogging on your own site and guest blogging on complementary sites. This strategy helps build content and a digital footprint for your brand, says Widmer. For guidance on what hot topics to blog about, Buzzsumo, a free web service, allows you to input any domain or topic and get a list of the 10 most popular related posts at the moment. It can also inform you of what popular sites to hit up for guest blogging.

Should you guest blog, use the opportunity to lead users back to your site and capture emails, says Widmer. One way to do so is to use a “call to action” -- where you offer the reader something of value, such as a free how-to eBook or a must-have checklist -- that the user can get or download by going back to your website and providing an email address.  

Some other marketing tools? The free KingSumo app allows you to capture email subscribers through giveaways; Facebook Ads start at $1; and the e-newsletter tool MailChimp has a free option and is drag-and-drop easy.

Related: The 4 Basics of Making Money on the Internet

5. Do as much yourself as you can.

The DIY mentality will usually save you money if your budget is limited. Also, it allows you to control the process and brand, explains Callinan, who built his ecommerce site from scratch by talking to others who’d already done ecommerce sites successfully. Don't farm out jobs you can do yourself, especially in the beginning. 

If you need on-demand expertise from entrepreneurs with a track record, try Clarity, says Widmer. The service allows the user to get specific, consultant-level advice for a fee.

All startups are a gamble -- but as Patel advises, whose company will hit $10 million in revenue this year, “Hone in on where your strengths are and double down.”

This piece originally published on July 7, 2015. 

5 Business Strategies You Need to Know About in 2015

As a business owner, you’ve probably noticed many of the core business ideas and strategies stay the same year after year. However, throughout the last couple of years technology and a surplus of information has changed the landscape for businesses. We can now reach our audience in essentially every corner of the world, anytime we want. And, we not only have the resources to connect with our audience, we also have the means to create personalized content for them.

Because of how quickly technology and information spreads it’s more important than ever to make sure you stay up-to-date on the latest business strategies, like the following five business strategies…

1. Think Mobile First

In 2014, research showed that smartphones and tablets made up 60% of total digital media time spent - which was up 50% from 2013. This upcoming year we can expect mobile usage to continue to increase. Between tablets making a surprise comeback and smartphones decreasing in price, it’s anticipated that there will be around 2.97 billion mobile internet users, approximately of all 91% internet users, by 2017.

If your website isn’t mobile friendly, then you need to fix that immediately – remember, over half of your online visitors are doing so on a mobile device. Going forward, you need to keep mobile users at the forefront whenever you create a new webpage or marketing campaign. As small business expert Susan Solovic suggests on Business 2 Community, you should also “consider an app, beacons, QR codes, and more. Set aside time to study the topic and find the best ways for your business to take advantage of mobile and local marketing initiatives.”

2.  Improve the Customer Experience

As Andrew Reid, founder and CEO of Vision Critical, stated perfectly on Entrepreneur;

“Customers are beginning to understand that their true value to companies goes well beyond their wallets. This is the age of the empowered customer, when a single complaint on social media can cost a business millions of dollars, an online review can shape the fortune of a restaurant and feedback can significantly affect business decisions.”

That’s why in 2015 you should be implementing strategies that will enhance the overall customer experience. Some of these strategies include:

• Get Personal - connect with customers personally and listen to their feedback.
• Customization - by knowing your customers, you can provide customized experiences, products, and services.
• Build Clout - As Reid states, “clout encourages friendly competition, creates a sense of ownership and keeps customers coming back for more.” Make sure you reward loyal customers and earn positive reviews from consumers.
• Entertain - Offering entertainment is a great way to spread brand awareness, attract new customers and retain customers.

3. Go Back to the Basics

While it’s tempting to follow every newly-released marketing trend, Susan Solovic insists that you need to stop chasing trends. Instead, “in 2015 small business owners will look at the big picture and design their own ‘marketing blend’ that includes several” marketing strategies. This means merging traditional tactics - like direct mail – with Facebook ads, content marketing, SEO, and automated CRM.

Pam Didner, Global Integrated Marketing Strategist at Intel Corporation, adds on the TopRank Blog:

“Digital marketing will continue to morph and promotion channels will be further fragmented. The major change for 2015 is NOT about digital marketing. The major change will come from marketers by going back to basics: reevaluate the target audience, determine what works and what doesn’t. Re-prioritize and be smart about resource allocation and investment.”

4. Content Will Be Treated Like a Product

Arnie Kuen, CEO of Vertical Measures, recently shared his thoughts on the future of content marketing on Marketing Land. While each point and piece of advice is spot-on, his prediction that content will be treated more like a product is what I really took away from the article.

Kuen states “content isn’t just words or images on a webpage – it is information your audience is looking for.” In fact, “your content itself is a product.” Because of this, we can expect “more corporations creating content brands instead of branded content.”

As Kuen concludes, “By creating a content brand, companies enable users to have an enhanced experience with the first product they come in contact with: content.” This will enhance the experience of your audience, which will increase revenue.

5.  Invest in Training and Education

Research conducted from last year found that: “US spending on corporate training grew by 15% last year (the highest growth rate in seven years) to over $70 Billion in the US and over $130 Billion worldwide.” As Josh Bersin notes on Forbes, this is “a very good indicator of economic activity,” but it also proves that organizations have a “skills supply chain” challenge.

While the bigger picture behind this research shows companies should train team members if their industry is lacking in certain fields, it also means you need to ensure your employees are productive members of the team overall. For example, since Bring Your Own Device is a thing, you should take the time to educate team members on how to use their devices effectively and securely – you don’t want a Sony-like situation on your hands.