When we start on the internet, we do not know all the tricks of the trade, and before the plethora of choices, methods, advice … we are often lost, and it is often the system of trial / error that predominates.
But by doing that, you lose time and money.
That’s why I gathered some essential tips that can be used both for beginners who want to embark on eMarketing Web Pros to remember the fundamentals …
How to earn (correctly) one’s life through the Internet?
1 – Earning a little money thanks to the Internet is very easy … Living it is something else!
It’s within the reach of everyone to make money on the Internet .
Just launch a blog, put some Adsense ads … publish a few articles (at first 1 a day then 1 a week) … and without too much trouble you will win 20 to 50 € / month.
On the other hand to live thanks to Internet when one is not service provider (developer, referencer, Web Designer …) and that its site serves as showcase to its services, it is another pair of sleeves !
This is especially true in Europe where the advertising market is less important than in the US : sponsored articles, file rentals, advertising banners … are paid less in Europe (usually a sponsored article is paid between 45 to 100 € according to the blog , 350 to 1000 € or more for Web Stars .
Because it includes:
- Word writing (minimum 2h, often 3h) with the creation / search of illustrations
- Validation and modifications by the advertiser (30 minutes to 1h)
- Uploading (30 minutes)
- The automatic relay on the Twitter / Facebook / Linkedin account …
- A link on the site ConseilsMarketing.fr
There is therefore the time spent writing the article (in Europe it is necessary to charge a minimum of 450 € / day in view of the charges), so at the rate of 4 hours to write an article, the cost of your time is already 225 € HT .
There are certainly some bloggers and Youtubers who live on their blogs and YouTube channels 100% without doing any benefits next, but this is the exception.
Indeed for a Youtube channel, it takes 1 € per 1000 views.
So if you make 10,000 views on your Youtube account every month, you will only earn $ 10 in advertising revenue …
For Blogs, it’s pretty much similar, it’s 1 € per 1000 impressions (loading pages of your website).
So do not think to make a living with only advertising, the volume of views (youtube or blog) are simply huge to achieve a normal salary.
For example, if you want to receive 2000 € / month, you will have to make 4000 € of advertising turnover (estimate about 50% of various taxes in France), which means to make 4 000 000 of views!
This proves that you must have additional sources of income to live properly on your blog.
For example around 2008, Stagueve of NowhereElse claimed to earn almost the SMIC by devoting his days and nights …
So how to make money?
You have to sell products and services … it can be your own services, or your products (eg eBooks, video training …) or build a blog that will serve your business (eg an eCommerce site).
Can we live only with a Facebook Page?
Yes, because it is a crossroads of audience with more than 26 million Internet users, and so we can offer products, affiliations, services … via its Fan page.
However do not forget that you do not own your Facebook Page, it can be closed overnight, but you also can not afford to contact users (except by paying!).
So even if you have a Facebook Fan page, you still need to get the coordinates (emails, SMS …) to be master of the communication.
And the Gurus who explain to you how to make money easily on the Internet, do you have to believe them?
Yes, their methods are good: it is by selling its products and services that a business is created.
But keep in mind the gold rush in the US : it is not the thousands of gold seekers who made their fortune, they were the ones who sold shovels and picks that became billionaires …
So beware of those who tell you how to make money on the Internet by selling only “how to make money on the internet” trainings.
So the first thing to remember from this article is that it is possible to live from the Internet, but that requires a business to start.
And it’s not easy, you have to start a real business … but it is not easy (it takes time and perseverance), there will be many called but very few elected.
2 – To start making money on the Internet, a single website is not enough.
It is therefore necessary to create a first site, make it profitable and set up procedures, and try to let it operate autonomously.
For example you create a blog site on Marketing, you must first find the recipe that will differentiate you from competitors, set up tools to make it profitable and set up a procedure / routines for creating content (create a great article per week, sub processing editorial …).
You can also set up business: ie create micro site to answer to 1 specific need, and make it go up.
For example you can create sites on micro-niches with sometimes only 2 pages , but targeting a hyper-targeted audience to sell 1 product.
In other cases its sites are several hundred pages with the objective of generating traffic and monetize via conventional advertising (Adsense …), via affiliate, via the sale of products.
But again you will have to create a list of prospects and set up an auto-responder system to set up an automatic communication.
3 – It is better to create different Pseudos and partition its activities.
Putting all your sites in the same host and under the same domain name is a major strategic mistake.
On the one hand your host can block you overnight (ex: your credit card expires and you do not pay attention, server HS for unknown reasons …), or you can have a hacking of your server ( it’s very common in competitive niches or when you start having a lot of traffic).
If all your sites are on the same server, your business is at a standstill, and you lose tens of euros in sales …
So diversify your accommodation (even at the same host), because as much on a personal blog it is not important to have one or two days of cut, as much on professional sites it is not possible to see all its sites out of order !
Note: as an alternative to hosting 1and1, we recommend HostGator which is a low cost accommodation with a very good quality of service.
You also need to diversify your nicks because other eMarketers can analyze what you do , and reproduce all or part of your strategy by analyzing all the domain names or sites you manage.
If in the case of sites with a few hundred pages, it will be difficult to dislodge you from Google, this is not the case for micro-sites or niches or groups of social networks (Viadeo, Facebook …) where your competitors can do you a lot of harm with very little effort!
4 – There is no magic way to succeed on the internet.
Dozens of websites tout “miracle” methods to succeed on the internet in 24 hours, doing nothing, investing 100 € or gain 10 000 € with 30 visitors / day.
These are pure and simple scams … There is no miracle method, and it always takes a lot of work (or have a maximum of luck).
Then it is essential to know that each situation, each market is different .
What works in one area or for one person is often not suitable for other situations .
If you are a good copywriter you can succeed with a blog, but it will not be the case of a person who is null in spelling or who has no experience.
If you are a good developer you can optimize websites for SEO, while a novice can not do better than you …
You must play on your strengths and exploit them to the maximum , and not try to fill your flaws forced and for example become a programmer when you know nothing about it …
Similarly, there are always fashionable tools (Pinterest, Tubmlr, Snapchat …), but it is important to learn how to use them and exploit them to the full, but especially not to waste too much time for nothing.
One of the mistakes I see most is people who buy a training on a topic, who start to implement it, but who do not go to the end of the method and who embark on a new miracle recipe!
But to succeed on the Web requires perseverance and optimize its work.
Remember one essential thing: It is by always doing the same thing that one obtains the same results …
So if your system does not work, you have to optimize it or change it!
5 – We can certainly succeed on the Internet without having a lot of money … but it takes a lot more time!
This is an idea that continues since the early days of the Internet: there is no need for money to publicize a website , just the right idea and a little trick.
But experience shows that you have to spend a minimum of money to hope for a little visibility , because to obtain the same result you will have to spend a lot of time and effort to generate the same traffic … and without the levers of growth that are Adwords, the purchase of bases of emailing, the affiliation …
Moreover, to make more growth, you have to automate some of the work with software to save time.
In addition, to become known on the internet, there is more and more competition between brands, sites … so we must invest to gain visibility.
The problem of the Web is to have visibility: it’s like in supermarket, the places on the shelves of the stores are not unlimited, and so to “exist” it is necessary to have something unavoidable / original, either pay to be visible (ex: SEO, Adwords …).
It’s not impossible to succeed on the Internet with the strength of the wrist with 0 budget , but it requires a lot of time and creativity, and the result is not guaranteed …
You have to imagine the Internet as a huge jungle, where you are a shrub that wants to reach the sunlight …
But all the plants in the area also want to reach the sun, and so it’s a struggle every day not to wither away …
On the web, you are always competing, if you take a break, other people can take your place.
6 – Do not be afraid to know nothing for the moment of the Internet or a specific niche …
Even SEO on Google, habits … do not change overnight, there is still room for everyone.
What is good on the Web is that everything is still moving and currently everyone learns every day …
What is true today may not be tomorrow: look at the opening rates of emailings to realize you, look at the big websites that have made a place in the sun …
For example eBay, which has been dethroned by LeBonCoin.fr, Leetchi who has become the reference for payments between friends, AdopteUnMec who Meetic challenge …
So do not be afraid to get started, even if you are aiming for niches that you do not fully control, you can gain experience very quickly if you are ready to listen to advice and test.
In particular you must know how to question the existing:
- Review business models (eg Uber and Taxi)
- Break the market habits (ex: Keljob who sucked the job ads)
- Think mobile first (eg: Twitter’s Periscope)
- Address a sub niche (ex: Hard rock bassists instead of making a site on music)
- …
However, pay attention: what you say on the Internet is engraved in the marble and can turn against you …
Indeed if you do anything an expert can easily “rot” your reputation, which can cost you in terms of images …
So remember that “In Doubt, there is no doubt …”.
7- It is easier to establish yourself as a reference in a niche.
The smaller the niche, the easier it is to know the influencers of this sector and to set up partnerships (exchange of articles, links …), but also to become unavoidable on Google or for the speakers.
One can quickly become a reference niche by producing content, doing guest posting … on a specific topic as in the eMarketing “Google Analytics”, “Adwords …”
But if we want to tackle a more generic theme (eg Web Marketing), things are different: we fight against thousands of people in all themes (and often established leaders), and we do not do not fully understand his subject.
It is very difficult to stand out and present something truly original on a general theme.
It’s better to be the leader in a niche segment, than to try to be the leader on a generic theme.
For example instead of selling methods to lose weight, it is better to target a micro market like how to gain weight when you are anorexic.
8 – The larger the niche, the more time and money it will take to win.
Aiming for an already crowded sector, with leaders who impose their marks will require a lot of time if only to “exist” (= appear on the first 2 pages of Google’s research).
According to Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.com it would take 6 months to know if we can become a major player on a given niche.
However given the latency of Google’s referencing, it takes at least 1 year before making a first assessment of its presence on a given niche.
This of course involves content (blog articles, videos …), but also strategies to attract visitors (collaborative white paper, guest posting …).
This “lack of breath” in projects is seen every day with excellent sites that launch, but most do not stand the distance and are abandoned after a few months.
For example, after a blazing start most sites and blogs lose their vitality and demotivation.
The problem is that as the results do not appear before 9 months, people are demotivated …
To avoid this, you must:
- Make a plan at 9 months and follow its progress
- Make money fast (by selling your products, services …) to motivate yourself
- Meet other people to get back on track with success stories
9 – Unless you have a developer friend (or money) you will have to learn the basics of website creation.
Initially we are tempted by turnkey solutions that promise to realize its website “without knowing anything about HTML”.
But very quickly we see the limits in the evolution of these sites and without a minimum of knowledge we can not change his website or launch new projects.
Some people use the site creation tools of their hosts, but on the one hand they are not optimized for SEO, but in addition they do not convert Internet users to prospects / customers. !
You have to learn how to create websites by yourself and manage on your own with solutions like WordPress for content sites (or Prestashop for eCommerce)
WordPress is simple and powerful, and it saves money because the community is huge.
You have :
- A community of people who can help you
- Plugins and themes to customize your site without development
- Links with other tools (emailing …)
- …
In addition to that, you need to know a few HTML codes to handle everyday situations … and you will see that as you go, you will go further and further.
On the other hand for heavy work (creation of site …) it is more interesting to call on specialists who are used and who do you the work in a few hours whereas you would have lost days and days to realize them …
10 – Do not talk about what you do not know before you can prove it.
If you say things, always be careful to prove it through your experience or references from other sites , if not attention to the return of flames.
The best is to experiment for yourself and then report it.
The technique of “I try and I show you the results”, and very appreciated because it shows the practical aspect.
So you put yourself in expert, thanks to several feedbacks.
Alternatively it is possible to synthesize what other people are doing and say and to confront them to reality.
11 – Do not break prices on what you do best!
Do not make the mistake of offering at a discounted price what you can do hoping to catch up on the amount of turnover …
If you want to live on the internet you have to identify what you are doing well and what people would be willing to pay (skills or talent they do not have), and sell it at the right price.
You are very good at writing arguments? Are you good at Web Design? You are a great graphic designer …
Sell your talent and promote it via your websites, you have to be proactive and showcase its services.
Similarly, do not think that small businesses, freelancers, SMEs … have money to buy training, consulting …
SMEs / VSEs / Freelancers … want concrete and practical tools.
12 – Stop thinking like a blogger, think like a Marketer and start a business!
Writing tons and tons of high value content is ultimately a waste of time …
It is better to optimize your time to promote its content with a great principle: 1h of work = 1h of development.
Creating good content, without making it known is useless!
You need to find a way to show your work quality to as many people as you can not do it for you!
You must learn how to sell yourself, how to network, how to promote yourself …
Remember that there are dozens (see hundreds) of Professionals like you on the Internet.
What makes the difference is not always the quality, but simply to be first on Google , to have a good network of affiliates, to appear on a famous blog …
13 – You can not do everything, give up this idea forever!
To succeed on the net you have to work as a marketer and work in a team : you have to delegate the tasks that will waste you time and that will not create added value.
Similarly, do not hesitate to ask other bloggers for help to produce content (via Guest blogging), propose Win-Win partnership agreements …
14 – Estimate how much you can sell your benefits and set the price you will set.
Do not waste time doing things that do not earn money , otherwise you will lose hours for nothing …
You must always have a profitability perspective (how will it bring you money).
For your services, it’s the same: estimate the price at which your products or services can be purchased (make quotations from competitors, make competitive intelligence …), then calculate how much you have to sell per month to make this activity profitable, and finally divide this number by the number of hours you will work on this project.
You will see immediately if your project is feasible or not … So you will have a good basis for thinking about what to do and not waste your time.
15 – Define clear and measurable objectives … and above all achievable!
Short and medium term goals must be set to stay on course .
The short-term goals will let you know where you are and know what to do from day to day, and in the weeks to come.
You will have a clear mind and you will find great satisfaction in achieving your goals.
The long-term goals allow you to define your vision in the coming months to guide you throughout the year.
These objectives can be to release a new site per month, to find a new niche, to reach X thousands of visitors, to extend your influence on a sector of activity …
16 – The number of your subscribers to RSS feeds, your Facebook Fans, your Twitter followers is not a good traffic indicator.
Having a large number of subscribers to your RSS feeds, Facebook Fans … does not mean that you are going to make more money.
Indeed you do not have the “hand” on the relationship with these people:
– you have no record of these readers (no email, no contact information …)
– you are at their pleasure to they visit your site or worse they unsubscribe
– you risk that they do not even visit your site because they are overwhelmed with information!
These data are only indicators of popularity, but your goal on the internet is not to become “popular” but to live from your activity.
Your goal is to create a list of prospects by email to master the communication.
You can then send them communications, sell them products, encourage them to click on your ads … must be your main goal (and not wait for their “goodwill”).
17 – Having important traffic is one of the ingredients to succeed … but not enough!
If you do not have enough traffic you will not expect critical mass to achieve a minimum of profitability.
It should be remembered that a “normal” site has a conversion of 2%, that is to say that out of 100 visitors 98 leaving without doing anything.
Your goal should be to improve conversion and to have more prospects.
Having unskilled traffic is useless : you can have thousands of visitors, but a ridiculous turnover if they just pass or if they are not interested in your offers …
You need targeted traffic with people who are sensitive to your offers that click on your ads …
Sometimes a mailing list of 2000 people is enough to generate several hundred euros of turnover, provided you have people willing to pay and that your offers are relevant.
To identify the adequacy of your site and your visitors, just analyze your bounce rate, the number of pages viewed, the time spent on the site … but especially the number of prospects who subscribe to your newsletter / list to visitors.
If you have less than 2%, everything remains to be done!
And you will immediately see which sites and tools bring you real targeted visitors.
18 – To earn money with Adsense it takes thousands of visitors …
If your business model is to make money with Adsense, you will need to make thousands of visitors to start making a living.
Indeed Adsense only pays a few cents per click, which is too little to generate revenue .
It is therefore necessary to multiply the number of blogs on different themes to hope to earn a minimum of money and sectors where the click is very profitable (eg meeting, stock market …).
To avoid wasting time on ads that pay almost nothing to click, you need to identify which keywords are most relevant to Google’s keyword suggestion tool.
Go to Google Keyword Planner then analyze the keywords of your topic and sort by CPC, and you immediately get the keywords on which to make blog posts.
19 – The newsletter is one of the keys to succeed in making money.
By making targeted offers to a mailing list interested in this offer you can expect to reach order rates of 1 to 5% (sometimes even at rates of 15 to 25%).
Offering good products to a good target is therefore essential.
For example, if you are doing affiliation and you earn € 10 / form filled, and you have a targeted mailing list of 5000 people you can expect an order rate of 1% or 500 € of turnover.
On the other hand with an untargeted mailing list (order rate estimated at 0.1%) you will have to have 50 000 people to make the same 500 € of CA …
Or to create a mailing list of 50 000 addresses requires a huge work, while 5000 targeted addresses is already more profitable.
In the same way you have to analyze the results of your sendings (clickers, openers …) and segment your base contacts by doing for example surveys.
If you are looking for a tool to set up channels by sending automatic emails or newsletters following an inscription on your blog, we advise you to use Aweber . Indeed for only $ 19 / month you can schedule sending emails to your prospect lists.
Aweber can serve
– to make sales in 2 stages (inform then sell)
– to carry out correspondence courses or trainings
– to send newsletters
– …
It is one of the most effective tools on the market to set up Automatic chains of sending emails!
20 – We do not succeed on the Internet (only) on a stroke of luck …
We all remember the same story: the 21 year old guy who created the ” 1 million Dollar HomePage ” and made a fortune
Or these viral videos that have been around the world with a really simple idea (eg Where is Matt ) … but these are “exceptional” exceptions.
Today on the internet we do not succeed by chance : do not count on a good idea, and a little luck to make money on the internet …
We must build a real action plan (pre-launch, launch, reactivation …), use eMarketing tools (social networks, adwords, ebook …), spend money (do instead of doing, spend in advertising) … and count on the luck factor only as a “bonus”.
The statistics will show you very easily that for X prospects contacted via forms you will make Xy quote, and Xyz orders. You must follow your evolution of visits, of CA … and act before being in a dead end.
