If you can create a profitable online business, you’re almost guaranteed of being able to leave your 9-5 job and work for yourself. Living a lifestyle where you don’t need to get up early in the morning and you have no one to answer to.

Here are 7 steps on how you can create a profitable online business for yourself.

1. Find a niche and do your research.
You need to find a niche which you are interested in selling to and do some research on the type of products that are selling.

Note down improvements you can make to the existing products and imagine how well the market will accept it.

2. Write an eBook
Write an eBook based on a popular topic you have found on your research. Make sure that the best information is given. You want your customers to be more than pleased after reading your eBook.

3. Design a professional web page
To sell an eBook, you need to have a good looking web design so that the prospects will trust you.

Having an unprofessional , awful design will hurt your sales. So outsource your web design if you’re not capable of doing it yourself.

4. A Sales Letter
You need to write a good sales letter which explains the benefit of the product to the customers. A good sales letter is hard to write. If you are not good at writing sales letters, you may consider outsourcing it to a copywriter.

This is the most important factor in marketing your product. It is what persuades the prospects to buy your product.

5. Create a squeeze page
Create a web page with the sole purpose of capturing your prospect’s email address. All your traffic generation methods should be promoting this link.

6. Develop an autoresponder series
Follow up with your subscribers after they sign up to your squeeze page with an autoresponder series.

You should give educate the subscribers with good information and promote the eBook you wrote.

7. Create more products
Create another related product and sell it to the existing customers and subscribers which you have built.

Create another eBook or an audio version of the eBook. The objective is to continue building your list of subscribers and customers so that you can sell more to them.

This is the blueprint to a profitable online business. Many people have managed to earn a consistent 6 figure income doing this by outsourcing it to professionals and taking the profits themselves.

Next, get here a FREE copy of the BLUEPRINT FOR A 6 FIGURE ONLINE BUSINESS! Best of all, I can offer it to you for being a loyal reader of this blog!

If you’ve reached the point of exhaustion trying to keep up with answering the mountain of e-mails that threatens to bury you alive every single day, you’re ready to learn about autoresponders.

The bad news is that people expect prompt replies to their e-mail inquiries. However, unless you can figure out how to work continual 24-hour shifts, or hire enough people to constantly monitor incoming e-mails (while they’re eating up your revenue), you have a problem. The good news is an autoresponder is an inexpensive—or even free—method of quickly responding to e-mails. What these programs do is automatically respond to incoming e-mails as soon as they are received.

E-mails are essential to your business for many different reasons. Most importantly, these invisible e-mail voices give you their feedback about your website—for free! However, if you spend all your working hours answering these e-mails, how are you supposed to run your business?

The answer is simple: use autoresponders.

Autoresponders are programs that automatically respond to your e-mails without you so much as having to click on your mouse.

There are a number of good reasons why you need an autoresponder besides just answering your e-mail. For example, autoresponders can be used if you need a way to send information about your services or products, price lists, or if there are repeated questions asked across large numbers of e-mails. Maybe you want to offer your site visitors a special bonus of some kind, such as advice or relevant articles. All of this can be handled by an autoresponder. Additionally, you can advertise your business and then build stable relationships with your customers by using autoresponders.

Autoresponder programs vary from software that runs with your e-mail program to a specialized script that runs on your web hosting company’s server. This kind of script may use a web page form or simply operate with your e-mail account. This kind of script is programmed to send out a standardized message whenever an e-mail is received. The message is sent to a particular script or e-mail address.

Some autoresponders can do more than simply send out standardized messages. They can send out an unlimited number of follow-up messages sent at predetermined interval of time. For example, you can set your autoresponder to send out a new message every day for as long a period as you desire.

There are numerous companies who offer autoresponders free of charge. Your website hosting company often provides autoresponders as a free service. If this is not the case with your web hosting company, there are numerous companies who offer this service for a small fee, or free of charge, providing you attach an advertisement for their company to your e-mails.

To personalize your autoresponder messages, you can attach a signature. Signatures in this case are much like business cards. You can include your name, company, all your contact numbers and addresses, and a brief message.

It’s a good idea to attach a signature to every e-mail that is sent out. This works as a repeated reminder of your business identity every time a customer sees it. The more they look at your signature, the more likely your company will spring to mind when your particular service or product is needed.

You can create a standardized signature that every employee in your business uses, or you can go wild, and let every staff member create their own personal signature. Of course, like everything in life, there are some rules and guidelines to creating a personal signature.

Keep the length of your signature between four to six lines of text, with no more than 70 characters in a single line. Make sure that your e-mail program does not cut off your text! The content should include your name, your company name, your e-mail address, fax number, and any other contact details, such as 800 numbers. Lastly, always include a short personal message about your company. It should be a subtle sell of your services or your products, and possibly your company’s reliability and longevity.

Another specialized use of autoresponders is to create courses that you can then offer your site visitors for free. You must choose a topic in which you are an expert and that precisely targets your potential customers.

Once you have carefully chosen your subject, divide it into a number of different sub-topics. Then offer your site visitor a free 10 or 15 day course, each day offering a different sub-topic. The first topic should always be a welcome message to your site visitor and an explanation about what is to follow. Your explanation should be enticing, getting the point across that you are offering free, quality information that your target audience will find of great value.

With every lesson, include the number of the lesson, the topic title, information about your company and its services or products. At the end, include a few blurbs about the next lesson to entice the subscriber to continue on.

Make sure each topic is packed with essential and valuable information, and leaves the visitor lusting to know more. Otherwise, you may lose them in the very beginning.

Of course, you have to write up your course before you can offer it. Once you have done this, and gone over the material carefully, employing a professional writer or editor if necessary, you must transfer your text to your autoresponder.

There are a number of quality autoresponders you can try out for a free or low-priced trial. Just go to Google and search ‘autoresponders’, then sign-up for your chosen autoresponder. Once you do, you will receive instructions as to how to set it up and transfer your text. You can also try-out the one I use myself, TrafficWave.

E-mail is an excellent marketing tool; it is inexpensive and it is fast. Use it to advertise your business by choosing your e-mail address carefully. Your website should contain different e-mail addresses for different contact requests. For example, use info@yourdomain.com for information requests, or sales@yourdomain.com for questions about sales. It’s a good idea to set up one for the owner, such as president@yourdomain.com. This presents your company in a personal, approachable light and insures that direct contact is provided.

Autoresponders are an effective and powerful marketing tool, allowing you to make contact with thousands of potential customers. This is an invaluable asset considering how many potential customers you usually have contact with before you make an actual sale. Essentially, an autoresponder allows you to automate part of your marketing campaign.

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways for a business to promote themselves and increase sales but it must be done right in order to be effective.
In this article I will touch on the art of email marketing- (What works and what does not) and how you can get more bang for your marketing buck when selecting an email marketing service.

A word about spam.

Unsolicited email or “Junk email” also called “Spam” is living proof that email is a powerful way to reach an online audience.

Spammers know that for all the emails trashed in every bulk mail out, they will still get a few unsuspecting readers who will click on their links and make a purchase. While their shotgun approach is annoying to the majority of us they still persist because of that reason.

On the other hand, email marketing should not involve spamming a harvested collection of email addresses, but rather contacting a list of individuals who have actually said yes to receiving your material.

How to get people to subscribe to your mailing list.

There are some of the ways to get people on your mailing list.

The first and most obvious option is that they fill out a form on your website specifically designed for the job.
You can add a special offer such as a free report, a tutorial, discounts or even a prize draw in exchange for their contact.

The second way (if you are a local business) is to have some printed material such as a flyer with a special offer, competition or similar that people can fill out and return to you.

Hint: In all these cases, it is worth adding a note to your forms telling people that you will not share their email with other companies and that you will not swamp them with emails either.

The third way to get more subscribers is to actually purchase a list of verified email addresses from a reputable provider. They must be interested in your subject material and have opted in to receiving emails from you.
There are a number of companies that specialize in providing leads, but it is worth doing some homework to find out what value this method will give to you.

What makes a marketing email work.

These items are very effective in encouraging readers to continue to look at the emails they receive from businesses.

How to’s and tutorials.

People love do-it-yourself articles that show them how to solve a problem. The added advantage of posting material like this is that you are not only helping existing customers and encouraging loyalty (and repeat sales) but you can use opportunities such as this to address potential issues before they happen and so reduce calls for customer support.

Video and Audio content.

This is the best format for the above, as well as tours, testimonials…the list goes on. Video gets noticed and is highly memorable in comparison to text.
Audio sessions are great for podcasts too which means your listener can take your article with them.

A pleasant layout with some color.

This will help make your email stand out from your competitors and add to the reader’s enjoyment. You can incorporate a template and produce something really effective.

Nice pictures that are both relevant and of good quality.

A picture paints a thousand words – so make sure you include at least one to illustrate your point.
Include photos (they need not be professional) but in focus and a reasonable size. Hint: not too large though so they do not take several minutes to download.

Humor (in good taste).

A laughing reader is likely to be a repeat one.

You might want to enlist the help of a cartoonist to create something original. Add a funny video, quote or even a brief story.

Relevant news.

keep your readers informed on new products and developments and how improvements to your offerings will help them.

Competitions (with a nice prize).

You can gain a lot of interest from readers simply by creating a competition.

An opportunity to share an opinion.

People will often happily share their thoughts if you ask them to because it gives a sense of belonging and community. It is also a very cost effective way of finding out what your customers want. Make it fairly short and offer a prize draw or other incentive as a token of appreciation.

What makes a marketing email suck.

Hard sell.

“Buy now!!!” will soon become “Bye now.” from your readers.

An email every day.

This is the death knell for emails via annoyance and plain overkill – try and control your enthusiasm to market by limiting your email frequency. This will give you time to produce quality content too.
Quality beats quantity.

Bad layout (such as none).

Lots and lots and lots of text with poor spacing all crammed up with no places for the eyes to rest. (and besides who has time to read a newsletter that is 149 pages long during their morning break)?

Lots and lots and lots of banners.

“Ohhhh my eyes my eyes!”
Save the flashing logos and bright colors for Las Vegas.

Poor writing skills and grammar.

Forgetting to check for spelling mistakes is more than just another annoyance (believe it or not, but people are influenced by this).
Poor spelling and grammar presents an unprofessional / lazy picture for your readers.

What to look for when choosing an email marketing service.

A good email marketing service should have a number of features that will allow you to tweak things so you can get the most bang for your marketing buck. Here are a few features to look for…

Firstly there needs to be flexibility and creativity to get your message across.

This includes the ability to combine text with pictures and video as well as some html so you can make your message stand out.
A good email is more than just a page of text – it needs to be memorable and the way to do that is by being visually creative.

Secondly there should be a way to find out if your email marketing is being received and read.

This feature is called tracking and basically means you should have a display somewhere that will show you exactly where your emails are going, what addresses are incorrect (your emails are undeliverable and bounce back) and what emails are actually being delivered, clicked on and read.

Thirdly you must be able to automate and adjust everything so once you create an email you can set it to deliver to your recipients at a set time.

This can also include auto responders (An email that goes to a visitor as soon as they fill out a contact form or make a purchase from your website) which help you communicate with your potential customer when you are not online. You should be able to do split testing too (in other words create two different emails and send them to selected groups so you can find out which one works best).

Fourthly you should be able to see how your email list is growing over time.

Data like this is not just for statisticians and geeks who like to crunch numbers – it will help give you an insight into what is working overall so you can refine your marketing.

Marketing is an art, but with the right tools and know-how it can work for you.
Here’s to your success.

There have been more rainy days in the northeast than one can possibly imagine. The weather is obviously playing a role in the way internet marketers approach their daily tasks. But, this article has nothing to do with the effects of global warming.

Instead, I realized today that rain is the best friend of the internet marketer for several reasons. Many of these reasons relate to my six year old son but let me explain…

As an internet marketer myself I walk around with a little blue pad with a list of daily, weekly and monthly tasks written down in order for me to be sure to complete certain tasks on time. Now I know I should be using some kind of PDA instead, but the blue pad is just annoying enough, sticking out in my pocket, to make sure that I don’t forget it’s there. PDAs etc are just too easy to ignore.

So, what are the reasons rain is the best friend of an internet marketer?

Reason #1: The Sun Isn’t Shining – Usually, I would be at my computer trying to finish all of the items on my little blue pad trying to ignore my six year old son’s pleas to play in the yard. Kicking a soccer ball or taking a swim in the pool on a hot, steamy day is difficult to deny. Rain sort of puts a stop to all of this frivolity.

Reason #2: Watching The Media – Rainy days are days for the movies…or so I was told when I was a kid. Now that I’m all grown up, rather than heading to a movie theater, I relaxed with a mug of coffee and reviewed a video directly on my computer screen. OK, it’s not as much fun, but sometimes watching great videos can be a great way to spend time on a really rainy and story day.

Reason #3 - No Distractions – As most of you, there are always distractions when you work out of your home. Postman, FedEx, gardeners, pool guy etc. all have a real need, for some reason, to ring my doorbell to tell me something I really have no reason to hear. On rainy day, no such thing. They all stay home!

Reason #4 - Creativity – Somehow, when all of these distractions; six year old son, no postman, no gardener, no delivery guy etc to bother me just when I need to really dig down deep and be creative.

Now, I fully realize that there may be many other businesses that may also do better in the rain while others may not do as well. However, anyone that works at home and needs to be fully focused can easily relate to this rainy day phenomenon.

On my little blue pad are numerous tasks that seem to just get done a bit better when the sun is hiding behind those dark black clouds.

A perfect case in point occurred today (which may vary depending upon when you reading this article) when I was finished with my blue list tasks (a topic for another article) and I still had some time to spend since in no way was I going out to play in the rain. So….I decided to develop a quick web page, create a free ebook for my loyal subscribers, add a post to my autoresponder and send out an email offering this free ebook to my entire list of subscribers.

Conclusion – This may not sound like much but if the sun was shining no such free gift would have been created and my loyal subscribers would have lost the positive information contained within that report. Plus, rainy days are just perfect for reading free reports…..