how-to information for beginner webmasters -- do-it-yourself
website design, development, promotion & maintenance at little or no cost.
last revised 03/23/06
| the wannabe webster or, the adventures of a new kid in cyberspace website design & webmaster resources for the e-business beginner | trapped in a frame?
...best check-up links |
| All it takes to start an ebusiness is some time, some effort, a few dollars, a computer and internet access and a little how-to information about website design, search engine ranking, products to sell, affiliate programs and/or accepting credit card payments online. It is unlikely, though, that you can accomplish much -- in spite of what a lot of people seem to say in ads -- without investing some serious time and effort. One of the biggest advantages to working at home on the internet is that you can do this on any schedule you wish. It seems an ideal thing to at least try for anyone housebound, disabled, dealing with chronic illness or otherwise dealing with a very changeable schedule. |
You can sell -- emarket -- information, services, arousal, items and referrals -- and probably a few other things I can't think of just now. Starting up a web-based business can be quite an adventure in learning and unfolding possibilities. As you engage in figuring out the selling one set of things, it can introduce you to opportunities to sell other things. E-business possibilities can motivate and guide both small business and large business website development efforts.
While emarketing some things, you can promote traffic by offering other things free. To get people to come to and bookmark your site and refer it to others, you can give away information, services, arousal, items and referrals (-- and, again, probably a few other things I can't think of just now).
- Information
Information sites can emarket information and/or use information to bring in surfers that may buy something else. If you have an area of expertise, you can ecommerce it online in any number of creative ways -- i.e., as a consultancy, as a book, or as access to an ongoing database. You can offer information free (like this site) and have referal information or ads for products, services, other information, etc. that might generate referal commissions (see the explanation of affiliate programs below).
Services
A site can emarket services and/or use services to bring in surfers that might buy something else. As with information, if you have an area of expertise you can offer to sell it or give it away as an enticement in any number of creative ways -- i.e., as a consultancy, as an on-line program, etc. You can give some free and offer other services as a fee. Many of the sites mentioned on the pages of this site offer free services and services for pay. As with the concept of shareware, you can get a nice taste for free and if you want more you can pay the fee. Some of these services will pay a commission to the referring site if you sign up and pay for the enhanced service.
By "arousal", I mean games (for adults or kids) and/or "adult" stimulation. The sort of stuff that brings people to a site for some form of excitement and/or arousal. Arousal -- like services and information -- can be for sale or to entice. When we're speaking here of adult arousal, you should know that a lot of search engines refuse listings for adult sites, a lot of services don't want to serve adult sites and a lot of advertisers and affiliate programs screen out adult sites. Of course, on the other hand, it is reportedly a mega-dollar area of business, so apparently at least some people are finding ways to ecommerce and emarket adult material on adult sites.
Items
Items like bicycles, buckets, baseballs, mushrooms and mud packs, of course, are the traditional things-for-sale that most of us think of when we think of selling something. These are also a large part of ecommerce. If you're an artist or crafts-person, you might ecommerce your art or craft (see Animal Art). If you have some crafty gift ideas and products, you might emarket them online (see BBoop's World). Or, if you don't make anything yourself, you can emarket products that others develop (see The Healthy New Age Success Center).
Referrals
Many sites that emarket products, information, services or arousal, also offer financial incentives to other sites if they make referrals.
Some ecommerce websites offer to pay a few cents to referring sites for any surfers that click to them. Other sites offer referring sites a commission on products or services that are purchased by referred surfers. These "affiliations" are usually referred to as "affiliate programs" (explained further below).
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affiliate programs
Affiliate programs are arrangements made between two ecommercing websites in which one website has links to the other website's products. The arrangement is that when people from the first site buy something from the second, the second pays the first a commission. Some of these arrangements are for "clicks" -- if the surfer surfing the first website clicks on a link to the second, the second pays the first a few pennies. The agreement usually includes some provision that the second site won't cut a check to the first site unless it is at least some minimum amount (for example, they might say they'll pay monthly unless the amount due is less than $25, in which case the amount is carried over to the next month).
selling for others
The links below are to services that you sign up with for free and then apply to their various companies to sell their services and products off your website. There is no limitations on the number of these you can be signed up with. Each offers hundreds if not thousands of companies for you to make money with.
| LinkShare Referral Program functions as an intermediary between web site's interested in emarketing and businesses both large and small that offer services and products. Some companies you can sign up for and get immediate approval, some companies want to check you out first. The system is very easy to join and use. The site is well organized and user-friendly. It's easy to link with programs and you pick from sometimes dozens of graphic or text links for any program you set up a linkshare with. Free. (I take advantage of LinkShare's services and didn't see a problem with their agreement, but you might want to read some negative comments before you sign up.) AffiliateShop is a very polished service. As with the other ecommerce sell-for-others affilite sites, there is no charge to set yourself up to sell hundreds of products. Free. BeFree Reporting.net A quick and easy ecommerce affiliate service to get set up with -- user friendly. Very large with lots of businesses to sell for. clickXchange offers impressive numbers of ecommerce affiliate program opportunities. Free. Commission Junction Free sign-up and lots of affiliate program opportunities. EarnFind.com A categorized and searchable directory of affiliate programs with reviews and webmaster resources. ( I haven't checked it out yet. ) eBook - "Affiliate Mistakes: Maximizing Your Profits From Affiliate Programs!" An e-book about maximizing affiliate efforts and minimizing counterproductive effort. Share-a-Sale offers free sign-up to sell for any of a large set of businesses. ShopThings.com Shareware and other programs to add content to your site. |
These are services that you set up with so that other websters can sign up to emarket your products off their websites. This is sometimes a service that can be set up for no charge or a fee and with some programs there is an expectation that several hundreds of dollars be left in a sort of escrow account.
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AffiliateShop is a very polished service. They charge $199 set-up fee and $45 per month fee for the first 1K affiliates you sign on. This is a little too pricey if, like me, you have only a handful of not-universally-sought-after items for sale (e.g., hypnosis tapes). Ideal if you have a product line that hundreds of other sites will want a chance to sell for you. clickXchange gives another alternative. From their site: "There are no setup fees. An advertiser's only service charge is 30% of their affiliate pay out for "valid" traffic. Advertisers are required to spend a minimum of $19.95 in clickXchange service fees, prorated to the number of active days within any given month. The $19.95 service fee is accumulated from all programs under the same advertising account. Remaining portions will be billed on the 1st of each month for the prior month. New accounts are waived the monthly minimum for 30 days, however an overall account usage fee of $10 will be billed for early account closures. [EXAMPLE: An advertiser is offering $0.10 per click. An affiliate sends the advertiser a valid click. The affiliate earns $0.10 and clickXchange earns a $0.03 service commission, so the total will be $0.13. The $ 0.03 is the deducted from the $19.95 minimum service fee so the amount due at this point is now $19.92 and it is accumulated for all programs under the same advertising account.] In order to protect affiliates from nonpayment, we require that Advertisers open an escrow account. Minimum starting balances are as follows, per click $100, per sale and lead $250." FreeFiliate is an ecommerce program that allows you to offer affiliate programs to other sites. You can set it up for free if you don't mind freefiliate adding advertisement banners to some of your exchanges with customers. Otherwise there is a one time $89 start-up fee. LinkShare Referral Program functions as an intermediary between websites interested in selling and businesses both large and small. You have to provide a deposit against which they will draw payments to sites you sign on. Share-a-Sale offers to track and handle ecommercing, emarketing affiliates for you for a $150 set-up fee and a $50 deposit to begin your account that pays affiliates. |
Some AFFILIATE PROGRAMS assorted resources
8n.nu.com Affiliate & Associate Programs
Listings of well-known and not-so-well-known ecommerce affiliate programs.
AssociatePrograms.com
Some OTHER assorted possibilities
Different money-making ideas/opportunities land in one's email or jump out at one as one surfs. Below are some possibilities. They are included because they seemed to be interesting ideas to look into and possibly try, but if there are no comments related to trying them, consider them untried and listed here as part of my notes about maybe to-do's-if-I-get-time. (Some are offered by outfits I have one or more affiliate deals with, so they bear the tell-tale star -- indicating that I get a commission if you make a purchase after using the link from this site.)
(If you do try anything below, please send me some feedback about your experience. If you successfully try something and it seems prudent not to share information about money-making, so be it. But if you try something and find it to be problematic and not beneficial, please send me an email describing your experience so others might be spared the pain.)
the Golden Mailbox
here's the pitch: "AFTER DISCOVERING THE WORLD'S MOST IDEAL BUSINESS, WITHIN JUST SIX MONTHS I EARNED $1,000,000!" What is the world's most ideal business? Ted Nicholas' answer may surprise you. (Simply because it is implied that this involves email advertising, a prospect that I personally find less attractive than other e-paths to venture down, I haven't looked into this yet.)
(more to come soon)
Note: Recommendations on this or any other page on my web sites are candidly made on the basis of what I really believe, but keep in mind I'm not suggesting I'm all-Knowing and I'm offering no guarantees or warrantees.
The little blinking star indicates services or products from sites that will pay me a commission if you purchase something -- if you arrive on their site from this site. g. johnson