5 Simple Steps To Make Money Online

Unbeknownst to many, to start a business online and make an income is easier than most people imagine. Amazingly, all you need to start with is a computer, a few free software, and freely available information on the internet; and probably a couple of hundred dollars!

So what are the 5 easy steps to start an internet marketing business?

The first begins with choosing a niche market by finding out what people want to buy on the internet. It would be better if you sell something that you love or excites you. For beginners it's much simpler to start with information products rather than physical products. To discover what people look for, go to sites like ezinearticles.com or answers.yahoo.com to find out. Also sites like ebay.com or clickbank indicates what people are buying. Through these you can determine your niche market.

The second step is to choose the product that fits with what people want. To start your business fast, it's always easier to sell other people's product as an Affiliate or distributor. Go to Clickbank.com where you will find many offers of affiliate programs for information products. Clickbank has simple instructions which shows you how to become an Affiliate.

The third step is to set up a 'webshop' or website on the internet. Creating a website is simpler than most people think. Most affiliate program merchants would even set up a website for you for free if you sign up. A free software which allows you to set up a simple website is Nvu.com. You can find instructions within the software website itself or an Affiliate program which would show you how to put up a simple one. Before you set up your website however you must register a Domain name. It can be as cheap as $1.99 and less than $10 for a year. You can go to smallbusiness.Yahoo.com, godaddy.com and namecheap.com. to get one. Having got a domain name you must find a hosting company to host it. As an analogy, your domain name is like an address and where you host it, is like your real estate. The easiest way to do all these is to find an affiliate program that would show you all the steps simply.

The fourth step, now that you have your website is to create traffic i.e. getting visitors to your site. To get traffic, you either pay for it or borrow it. To pay for traffic, you go to Google AdWords and do what is known as a 'Pay-Per-Click' (PPC) campaign. Google AdWords will show you simply, the manner to go about a Google AdWord campaign. You can then apply this knowledge of PPC in other Search Engines like MSN or Yahoo. To borrow or get free traffic go to articles or forums websites where you can contribute an article like this one in EzineArticles.com and then invite readers to your site.

Now that your 'webshop' is up the final step is to automate your business so that it can go on without you attending to it 24/7. This process is called duplication. It involves having a auto responder software that communicates with your customers by emails. This is both to build a long term relationship and to promote new products to them. You need to subscribe to one as it is an essential overhead. A subscription may cost $20 per month. One good auto-responder is Aweber; they include easy lessons on how to use it. The auto-responder also allows you to collect the names and emails of your customers through an 'opt-in' box located in your website. The subscribers list is vital in ensuring you of constant business throughout the lifetime of your website. It would take a little while to build this list and the speed at which you build it depends how creative you are in your traffic building campaigns.