Internet Marketing Made Simple

In this article I’m going to give you some great tips on how to run a garage sale. In addition to these garage sale tips, I’m going to give you some general marketing advice. Let’s get started…

1. Be sure to give every single item a price. Don’t make people guess. Add some certainty. Make sure your labels are easy to read; small writing isn’t allowed.

2. Use tables. Lot’s and lot’s of tables. This keeps your stuff off the floor. This makes at-a-glance shopping much easier. People don’t like to lean or bend down, especially older shoppers. Plus, stuff on the floor gets kicked and broken.

3. Lay books and magazines flat. (Another reason for using tables.) People like to see covers not just the spines of books. This same lesson applies to CDs and DVDs. You use up real estate but your sales will be 2-3 times as high.

4. Cluster similar things together. Reel people into a book or CD section for example. Make it easy to browse your stuff.

5. My biggest tip is that you should sell food and drinks. This can be very simple. Buy a case of bottled water and 2-3 dozen donuts. You’ll sell a ton. Get creative about the food you sell; this works like magic.

6. Be sure to say “Hello!” to every single person. Make eye contact and smile. This will drive up your sales. Human contact pulls people in and makes them more likely to purchase.

OK, now I’m going to give you three internet marketing lessons. You can learn a lot about online marketing when you look at how to run a garage sale.

1. You have to know WHY you are having a garage sale. Are you selling to make money or are you really selling to reduce your inventory. This is important with online selling too — what is your real goal? Are you trying to build up a customer list or make a ton of money right now? Low priced items will help you build a list fast than high priced items, for example.

2. You need to know your audience. People at garage sales are looking for great deals. They are also open to haggling for lower prices or volume discounts. Online you can do the same thing. “If you buy this product, I’ll give you this one for nothing.” Think about bonuses that compliment your main product. Be smart about grouping items together for maximum value.

3. Make it easy to buy. I gave a couple of examples above about grouping items together, making it easy to find prices, and laying items flat for easy viewing. The same concepts holds online. Use images smartly. Use headers and subheaders to group content together. Use boldface to highlight key ideas and concepts.

Good luck with your garage sale and internet marketing adventures!

~ John S. Rhodes of “The Rhodes Brothers”

p.s. Be sure to review our marketing services. We can help you make more money online starting today. We make thousands of dollars per month — can can you.

p.p.s. If you want to make a lot more money in the “real world” then do not miss the Offline Cash Formula. Some of our clients are making $5K or more per month, without much work.

We tell a lot of people that we’re internet marketers. But, what does that mean exactly? What is internet marketing? What do you really need to know?

There are many definitions for internet marketing. Normally I’d try to simplify things, like I would do for one of my friends or family members. But, I know you’re interested in internet marketing, and you want some details — that’s why you’re here.

So, I’ll start with a few simple ideas then I’ll build up. In many respects, internet marketing is simply another way of saying online marketing, online business, or work-at-home internet business. The core idea is that you’re using a computer and an internet connection to generate money.

Not Just Work from Home

You don’t have to work at home to be an internet marketer. Many IM’ers, as they are called, work for large organizations, marketing companies, and research firms. The central idea is that internet marketers do marketing online, usually in an effort to advertise, pull in buyers, and ultimately sell products and services.

So, here are the two key ideas summarized:

• Most of the work is done online via the web
• Most of the work is marketing and sales related

As a quick aside, internet marketing isn’t only about search engine optimization (SEO), Google Adwords, or any other particular technology. Yes, technology is always in the mix, but internet marketing is more about the tactics, strategies, and methods to do business online.

The bottom line is that you don’t want to be fooled into thinking that internet marketing is one single thing. It’s a complex clustering of tools and techniques. And, internet marketers pick and choose what works best for them. Some internet marketers use 1-2 tools whereas others use the full spectrum. There’s not one secret or special technique which works for all internet marketers.

But, there’s more…

It’s All About Making Money Online

The heart of internet marketing is the set of actions and activities that make money for businesses, online and offline. In other words, when internet marketers talk about internet marketing, they care about one thing: making money.

Now, this might seem obvious, but internet marketers are both extremely focused and easily distracted. They are constantly looking for the Holy Grail of online cash: very little work, very high profits, and freedom.

Internet marketers therefore employ a number of tools and techniques to make money online. To make everything clear, I’ll provide several examples for you.

7 Internet Marketing Examples

eBay — Many internet marketers have used eBay as their key platform to make money online. Not only can they make money via auctions they can also use eBay to drive traffic to their sites. It’s also possible to build a customer list with eBay.

Article Marketing — With article marketing the idea is to write articles to make money. The “trick” is that you have an author bio box or author resource box. In that author credit box, you include links to your sites (e.g., sales pages, sign up pages, and so on). You can get traffic directly from article directories or from blogs and sites when people syndicate your content.

Affiliate Marketing — The concept of affiliate marketing is that you sell products for other people but you get a commission. Internet marketers often get at least 50% of the profits, but some internet marketers offer 70% commission or more.

Pay Per Click (PPC) — This is a way of driving traffic to a site via advertising. In most cases you bid on “keywords” which are the words and phrases people use to find content on search engines. The mother of all PPC systems is Google Adwords. The amount you pay per keyword or key phrase can range from just $0.01 per click through $50 or more.

Memberships — This is a more advanced internet marketing technique. You can set up a membership or club on a topic and then charge customers a fee for access. Usually memberships operate on a monthly basis, i.e., customers pay for access month by month. Although this is typically seen an an advanced online marketing technique, there are ways to set up simple memberships. Autoresponder memberships are a great example of simple yet effective memberships.

Offline Marketing — Internet marketers often make a lot of money by selling their services to small, local businesses. They still use online tactics to drive traffic, encourage people to make a purchase. Internet marketers can work with businesses offline on a pay-per-lead basis, setting up web 2.0 and social media tools, and more.

Private Label Rights (PLR) — Private label rights are “whitelabel” products, which means that the buyer has near complete control over the product. For example, you can purchase PLR products, do a little re-writing, and call the product your own in many cases. PLR is often affordable and effective. (Highly Recommended: Simple PLR Club)

We Keep It Simple

There are many other tools and strategies that comprise internet marketing. Honestly, I’ve only touched on the surface. I’ve kept this relatively jargon free and I tried to stay away from concepts like keyword analysis, squeeze pages, conversion ratios, web metrics, and the like.

We encourage people to try many different things but then focus once you see any money flow. Highly Recommended: Watch the free 10x Method video.

If you like this blog entry keep in mind that The Rhodes Brothers make everything as simple as possible. Our core objective is to help you make money online through internet marketing.

We have several affordable memberships and products to help you succeed. Yes, you can do it like “they” starting today.