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Want to Make Money Online? Market a Service to Businesses
By Kevin Nunley
http://www.DrNunley.com
Don walked across the street from his house to mine to announce
he had finally retired. "But I'm not ready for the golf course,"
he said. "I want to make a living on the Internet. What can I
sell?"
This is a question many of us struggle with as we see money,
freedom, and a bright future for those who manage to find their
niche online. You may have tried to sell something from the
Internet only to find it is difficult to get visitors to your web
site and even harder to get them to buy.
The biggest hurdle is simple: most folks are trying to sell
products to consumers. That's not where the money is. It is a
more daunting task than most realize.
Only one percent of retail sales happens on the Internet. Even
though selling to consumers should be gargantuan one day, we have
a long way to go before the majority of people are placing orders
the Internet way.
Instead, sell something to businesses. While consumer sales
amounted to $20 billion last year, business-to-business purchases
vaulted to a whopping $100 billion.
Clearly, if you want the easiest path to tapping into the
landslide of Internet cash, sell a product or service needed by
business.
So, you say, I should sell a product to businesses? Not exactly.
Most products need to be sold in large volumes by many
distributors before they turn a profit. Chances are the product
you sell is also being pushed by hundreds or thousands of other
affiliates. In the end, many business buyers will simply click to
the main corporate site to make their purchase.
Your best bet for starting a small Internet business and earning
a living online is to sell a service to businesses.
Unlike products, it is hard to mass produce a service. Most
service providers find their competition is relatively thin. This
is especially true if you provide a very specialized service or
do your job in a particular way that is hard to duplicate.
Because services require time spent by an experienced expert,
rates can be high, especially for business customers.
But I'm not an expert in anything people on the Internet would
want to buy, you exclaim. Not true.
Sit down with a pen and jot down all the things bosses have paid
you for during your work career. Add to your list things you have
done on your own time that friends, neighbors, or co-workers have
felt were valuable.
Which of these things could be sold on the Internet? If you kept
books for a business with twenty employees, you can sell your
bookkeeping service to the vast number of small Internet
businesses who don't have the time or expertise to manage their
growing firm.
If you produced your church newsletter for several years, your
desktop publishing and editing skills could fill the hot demand
for people who can write and publish e-messaging campaigns, web
sites, and print newsletters. Best of all, a writer/editor deals
in pure information which is easiest and cheapest to deliver over
the Internet.
My neighbor Don decided his skills from a career in law
enforcement would be hard to sell on the Internet. But he knew
lots of things businesses needed and he had a list of town
residents who could fill those needs.
If you don't readily have a service you can sell to business,
find someone who does. Many in-demand people don't know how to
market themselves on the Internet or haven't the time to try.
Represent their service online and take a commission for each
sale.
Put up your own web site with some articles business customers
will find helpful. They can do double duty, showing you know
plenty about your line of work.
Post testimonials from satisfied customers or other experts in
your industry. To get full impact, be sure to list the person's
full name and the name of their business or city they live in.
Offer to send customers and prospects a monthly update via email.
Include brief updates on important developments in the industry.
Mix in three line ads promoting your service.
Selling a service to business is your least expensive way to get
started making money online. It is also the quickest way to tap
into the huge amounts of money traveling from business to
business.
Kevin Nunley provides marketing advice and copy writing for
businesses and organizations. Read all his money-saving marketing
tips at http://DrNunley.com/. Reach him at kev-@drnunley.com or
603-249-9519.
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Sincerely Yours,

Guido W. Stiehle
TheJungleMarketer
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