Well today I’m gonna share one of the methods that ANYBODY can use…irrespective of her experience or her financial situation to get started in Internet Marketing and this method could actually teach you 90% of everything that you could ever learn from reading books about SEO fundamentals or setting up a viable business..
A starting point for the Novice…
If this is your first day as an online marketer then make sure that you read each and every word of this post with an open mind and make sure you do track your progress once you’re done reading this and you start with your first site.
As a newbie/noob/novice to internet marketing, it might take you a lot of investment in terms of both time and money, before you actually get a grasp of how things work and 90% of you even give up before finding something that will work for you.
Another trait that I find to be very common among amateurs is that they are constantly looking for that one *secret* that the pro’s are hiding from them.
Well, to be honest…there is no secret to success…even though it is hard to believe but even I recognized this fact once I actually started making money online.
The only thing that differs any successful marketer from YOU (assuming you’re still having a hard time getting started) is that they know what they want and they are truly working hard towards it.
You know what…
The Secret to Success is right in front of you…Starting at your face day-in day-out!
You see it everywhere around you…people selling successful websites for huge tags at Flippa…News about a new millionaire thanks to the weight loss industry and the next million dollar idea featured on TechCrunch.
We just tend to ignore them…
Now this post is all about finding how “they” did it, when you find something that is already doing good.
What is Reverse Engineering ?
As you would have understood by now..
Reverse Engineering (what we care about) is finding a successful online venture, what makes it viable and how it’s creator made it a success (what factors played a role, how was it publicized, what was the Unique Selling Point, what keywords did they target, etc..)
But if for the “Geeks” in here then according to Wikipedia:
Reverse engineering is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object, or system through analysis of its structure, function, and operation.
Now here I’ll be taking you through a step-by-step, which is custom tailored to your experience and financial abilities to get started with a brand new idea..that has already proven to work.
Where to get started?
In case you’re like me, getting started with a project/blog post/book is the hardest part. We always tend to procrastinate stuff which is new to us and for the most part, we are terrified to take the first step.
So I won’t leave the guess work to you because I want you to get started right after you are done reading this post…and thus, here are the first two things that you need to do:
First, Define your Target Income.
Depending upon your experience level and how comfortable you are with online marketing I would suggest you to think big but start small.
When I start out with a new venture…I target to make anywhere from $500-$1000/day (which varies with different projects) but that’s not what I aim at making after 1 month from the day I start. I generally build small goals that lead to the ultimate goal for that project.
But frankly, you can target anything you want..be it 100$/day, 500$/day or 50,000$/month.
Once you’re done with choosing the target amount you want to make per day/week/month. You are ready to move on to the next step…
Which is…
Finding Whose Already Making the amount of money you desire!
Now this might have been a humungous task when considering an offline business but this is where we get an unfair advantage when it comes down being online.
You can literally dismantle anybody’s business plan, if you know how to do it right.
But for now…there are a lot of venues where you can go looking for someone who is already raking in the numbers you want to achieve.
The first place that I’d recommend you to look into is Flippa.
There are thousands of potential ideas resting in the archives of flippa, waiting for you to exploit them and make the best out of the hidden possibilities.
You can filter the search results as per your needs and you’ll have hundreds of potential business opportunities to choose from that have proven to work in the past.
Once you have chosen 5-10 websites that meet your needs and seem to be something that you can work upon with the available resources we can now move on to the next step and determine the viability of the business in the current scenario.
How to evaluate Viability?
In order to determine what business idea suits you the best (even though you have the potential to make everything work) and in the least time possible with a good ROI in long term, the first thing that you need to determine is the type of market you want to enter.
Now there are two types of market that you could engage in.
Market Type 1 (High lifetime value per customer) : Market with low-medium number of buyers but a greater range of products that you’re audience is interested in
Market Type 2 (Comparatively low lifetime value per customer): Market with a very high number of potential buyers but very limited amount of services that they are interested in.
Now even though getting yourself into a Type 2 Marketing might be a bit easier than getting into Type 1 market, but I’d personally choose Type 1 Market over the latter, ANYTIME!
As an online marketer, always build your business keeping long term in mind, while targeting Type 2 Market for short term rewards which will in turn help you build up your long term business.
But with your available resource and know-how, you can target Type 2 market for now and later pursue Type 1 market when you have the required resources to sustain the long run.
Since these business ideas have already displayed their partial potential in the past…the viability or the sustainability of the idea depends on YOU.
So, make sure you have the resources (either time or capital or even both) to support whichever idea you choose to go with.
And…
NEVER be afraid of competition. Competition exists only where there is potential to make it big. Get through the competition and you’ll be rewarded.
How to “Copy” these sites ethically and succesfully
In case you’re going after an ideal business model that focuses on selling products or services, then there are a few factors that you need to take into consideration before starting out with your own product.
Unique Selling Point / Major Benefit
What is the one thing that is selling for them ? What is the major problem that they are solving for their buyers?
And how can you bring something new to the market that provides more value an affordable perceived value.
These are the questions that you need to ask yourself once you decide the idea you want to copy.
How do you choose the Price Point?
Choosing a price point isn’t a complex process.
There are two factors that define your price point.
1. What your competitors are charging : Assuming that your competitor has been in the game for
2. How unique is the product that you’re introducing to the market.
If your product is somewhat similar to that of what your competitor is charging then you may charge the same amount.
But in case you decide to go the extra mile and provide worksheet, cheat sheets and videos with your e-book/software then you can charge as much as two to three times what your competitor is charging (assuming he only provides a pdf or the application).
Perfecting the Sales Process
If you ask me…I would recommend you to focus all your energy into perfecting the sales process. Make sure you have a high converting sales page and your potential buyers can easily make payments for your products.
In fact, sales page is the most crucial step that you need to take care of, a 1% increase in conversion rate can make a difference of thousands of dollars per month. Plus, a better converting sales page will definitely attract a major part of affiliates…and you can expect an increase of 10x in profits if can increase your conversion rate by 1-2%.
How do they market/promote their website and products?
After having the product and the whole sales process in order.
The next big step is driving targeted traffic to your sales page.
Now, there might be a lot of things that your competitor might have been doing to get the word out about their product and here is a list of some common tricks that you can use to track the marketing efforts of your competitor:
1. Spyfu : You can use spyfu to track the keywords that your competitor is targeting incase she is using PPC to drive traffic.
2. Ahrefs and Open site explorer : Finding the source of links that you’re competitor is getting will definitely reveal what all platforms she is using to promote her product online.
3. Google Alerts: Another quick way to keep yourself notified everytime there has been a mention made about your competitor.
Well..that’s almost everything about it…but I’d recommend you to use your expertise and know how to develop upon the techniques your competitors are using and improve them to make whole process more efficient.
How to go about building a content based website
Now…let’s talk about content based websites…Niche sites fall under this category…where we use content to drive traffic to either click on our ads or maybe buy our affiliate programs.
A basic content based website goes something like this:
1. Build quality content
2. Drive Traffic
3. Get them to optin
4. Building a relationship with your list.
So..the evaluation has to be done keeping all these terms in mind and here is a quick checklist for you to make sure you don’t miss out on anything.
Content
1. How many pages of content do they have.
2. What kind of content are they building; is it media driven content or how to’s or maybe they using podcasts or infographics to engage with their audience. Just list down everything you find and see what would be the best fit for you.
Traffic Generation
To see how they are generating traffic, you can follow the exact methods that I mentioned above and you’re good to go.
Getting them on your list
1. What is your competitor offering them, as an incentive to sign up for their list?
2. What all pages have an optin form.
3. What promises are being made to the potential subscribers in order to make them sign up for the list.
Building a Relationship with your list
Sign up for their list and observe what kind of value are they providing to their subscribers..
==> Are they offering some new info?
==> How often do they pitch them with an offer or product?
==> Are they offering a free course as their newsletter?
==> What kind of products are they promoting?
Well..finding answers to all these questions will get you almost 90% of what your competitor is doing to get what you’re target is.
The rest 10% is the action you take.
So the only thing that I leave to you is to TAKE ACTION!
For the Readers
Well…I guess by now you have an idea on how to build up your passive income upon an idea that has already proven to be working big time.
Now what you have to do now is:
1. Define your target goal (10-15 minutes)
2. Head down to Flippa.
3. Open up advanced search and enter the filters according to your target. (3 minutes)
4. Decide which one of the existing business suits your needs and resources. (20 minutes)
5. Collect facts and figures. (5-6 hours – apart from the optin part which can be done later)
6. Get down to work.
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To your success,
Work hard.
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