Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
There are many different ways to make money on the internet. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, the fastest and easiest way to ensure your success is to replicate a model that’s already proven to make money. Here are five such models.
The Informational Website
The informational website is based on giving away free information. It’s primary source of income is AdSense, advertising and affiliate product sales.
For example, if you were to start a small website on fishing, put up 50 articles about various fishing tips and techniques and populated it with AdSense ads, you’d very likely get decent traffic as well as make a decent amount of money.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is when you’re making money by selling other people’s products. Instead of having to create a product, a detailed website, setup billing and handle customer service, all you need to do is bring in traffic.
Once you get the traffic to their website, their job is to make the sale. Once the sale is made, you get a percentage of the sale price. For physical products, the commission is usually between 5% and 20%. For digital products, the commission is usually between 50% and 75%.
eCommerce Stores
Another way to make money online is to actually sell products from an eCommerce store. Here, you would actually own a web store where customers would place orders and then ship them a physical product.
At first you might start out by having a dropshipping relationship with manufacturers so you don’t have to warehouse your own products. Then, as you become more successful you’ll want to start housing some of your own products to reduce your per item costs.
Infoproduct Marketing
Infoproduct marketing is when you’re selling products that teach people how to do things. These products can be anything from “How to Get a Girlfriend” to “How to Get a Babysitting Job” to “How to Increase Your Miles Per Gallon.”
The possibilities are endless. You need three primary skills to succeed in information marketing:
1) The ability to bring traffic to your website.
2) The ability to create good content in a specific area.
3) The ability to convince people online that your infoproduct is a good investment that will help them solve their problem.
Once you have these three skills, you’ll be able to produce many profitable infoproduct websites.
The Made for Acquisition Model
If you’re looking to build something larger than a website that’s making a few thousand dollars a month, then you’re looking at building a real company that’s meant for acquisitions or IPOs.
These are companies like LinkExchange (acquired for $250 million,) Facebook (valued at over a billion.)
The trick to building such a company is to find a market need to serve and to serve that need. In the process, you’ll generally have to learn how to raise capital from Venture Capitalists and angel investors.
Before trying to build such a business, it’s usually a good idea to build at least a couple smaller successful online bsuiensses using the models above.
There you have it – Five different online business models with a proven history of success. Just pick the one that sound smost actionable to you now and get started today!
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
![January Member Spotlgiht-Elysse Fleece of Kozzy Bottoms]()
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
Meet Elysse Fleece. She is a military wife and a mom to her Little Monster as he is called. She started Kozzy Bottoms from a love of cloth diapering and her passion for crafts. Its been a great way to keep the family together and it’s soothing for her. She has always loved to craft and to be able to do this for others is amazing. She never would have thought this would be her!
Please tell us about your business and the service that you provide.
Kozzy Bottoms is a online children’s boutique. We carry many “green” products that are associated with cloth diapering and parenting. Along with the accessories and diapers we hand make hair accessories, tutus, clothing and more. It’s a great way to get all your shopping done at one place. www.kozzybottoms.com
What motivated you to start your business?
We started cloth diapers later in the game and loved it. We listened to everyone in the start how we would hate having cloth diapers and then when I actually saw a cloth diaper I was shocked! There are no pins to stab or boiling or trouble. You simply put them on just like a regular diaper and then wash it vs. trashing it. After doing cloth we found the advantages to be so amazing we wanted to help other families see this. The money you save, better for your baby and the environment and they potty train sooner. Its just a great thing to try, at least try.
What kind of background or expertise do you have in your field?
We cloth diapered our son and I remember vividly how intimidated I was when I bought my first used diaper. I was so scared and confused when I got it home. I wanted to help other from feeling that confusion and its harder to step in and try cloth diapers later. We cloth diapered my son before his first birthday so we have been there with the confusion and the frustration.
What trends do you see in your current industry?
Cloth is becoming a huge baby product! Its so great to see how people adapt to it and want to try it. The stigma that was associated with it; the pins, and tucking, and folding and diaper services and the poop are all a distant memory now. You can find pretty much every style, color or print of diaper that you want so there is no excuse. They are a great investment and as people have to pinch money now they are seeing the value in cloth diapers. It is so great to see how people are wanting to do better for their babies and themselves and cloth is something that people should consider.
What are the most demanding aspects about your business?
Time management. As a military wife I have to manage with a deployed spouse and the demands of his job, a very active toddler who is a boy (enough said right!) and still taking care of the family and house and create our products. Being able to give each thing the attention it deserves is something that I am still trying to figure out a year later.
What are the most rewarding aspects about your business?
I love getting pictures of children in our products. There is nothing more rewarding then seeing a smiling child because they are so happy. Or a parent who was so confused about diapers and then just seeing that moment when it clicks. Being able to help someone is such a great honor.
Being able to be home with my son is another reward all on its own. I love that I have been here for all his firsts. As hard as it can be to manage everything seeing my son happy and getting involved too is so much fun.
What advice would you give to someone interested in starting a business like yours?
Learn time management and do your research. It is so much harder to implement things then it seems. It all looks so easy on paper but to actually time things is so much harder. And ask for help, there is nothing wrong about asking for help.
What are you most proud of as a parent-preneur?
That my son is able to see his mom take something she truly enjoys doing and create a business from it. It is a great thing for my son to see that he is not limited by dreams and that with hard work he can make it a reality. That my son is also following in my footsteps already! He actually makes a couple of our products which is fun to sit down and create together. It’s a great bonding and learning time and to be able to do that with my son and still make it a business is the best.
How have you been able to balance your time between work and your family?
I still have the worst time with it. I find it makes for very very late nights where I am still trying to get things done but I am learning to ask for help or to just put things on the back burner. No everything needs to be completed right then and there; there is a time to do everything. Just make sure it’s on the calendar or I forget! I must have at least 6 calendars in my house just to keep track or orders, appointments, play dates and even when the garbage goes out. Its learning to find the balance that works for your and your family.
What has been the most effective way for you to promote and market yourself?
Facebook and word of mouth. We try all avenues for getting our product out there and we have great friends who have helped us along the way.
Finally: What does your “Milk Money” provide for you and your family?
The ability to one day take a family vacation! We want to be able to take our son to Disney and have a actual family vacation. There is always something preventing us from having a real family vacation and one day we hope to be able to turn off the phones, the computers, pack away the combat boots for a while and just enjoy time together as a family.
![January Member Spotlgiht-Elysse Fleece of Kozzy Bottoms]()
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
Social networking can seem a little daunting if you’ve never dipped your toes in. There are so many different sites – What is each one about? Which ones should you sign up for? How do you use them? In this crash course, you’ll learn enough about each social network to get you started.
Facebook
Facebook is the largest social networking website in the United States and Europe. Its main features are that you can add your friends and stay in touch, as well as see a constant news stream about what’s going on with the people around you.
In many places in the world, “Facebook me” is a common phrase. Being on Facebook will allow you to stay in touch with people you may otherwise slip out of contact with.
Twitter
Twitter specializes in fast, sound-bite sized 140 character messages called “tweets.” These can be anything from quick life updates to business tips. Twitter utilizes a “following” system, where you can “follow” other people to see their tweets and others can “follow” you to see yours.
Blogging
Blogging allows just about anyone to publish a website quickly and easily. Through blogging, people who wouldn’t otherwise start a website can quickly become ranked in the search engines and publish their ideas to a lot of people. A blog is short for “Web Log,” a sort of online journal. Blogs tend to be updated more often than other websites.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is like Facebook for professionals. You can upload your resume, work history, references, and testimonials as well as have professional relationships online.
In many industries, especially tech related industries, your LinkedIn profile can be as important if not more important than your physical resume.
Digg & Reddit
Digg and Reddit are voting based news sites. Other users submit articles which are then voted on by the users. When you browse the front page, you’re presented with the highest rated articles. That means that your news is chosen by democracy and end users rather than by magazine editors.
StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon is a unique social networking site that helps you randomly find websites that you might enjoy. It does it through a combination of the interests you provide as well as your previous habits. Here’s how it works: First, you install a browser toolbar. When you want to “StumbleUpon” a new site, just click the Stumble button and you’ll be taken to a random website that the system thinks you’ll like.
Meetup.com
Meetup is another popular social networking website. With Meetup, however, most of the interaction happens in person rather than online. Meetup helps create physical meetings where people get together around various topics, from philosophy to dating to hiking.
Taking Your First Steps in Social Networking
As you can tell, there are all kinds of different social networking sites out there. The best way to learn is to just pick one or two and get started. It’s a lot easier to learn than it looks!
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
Ranking for area specific terms can be a big boost to your business. Many people don’t think local SEO makes a big difference, but this isn’t the case.
The good thing about it is that it’s usually quicker to rank for local terms. This is because you have so little competition. While there might be tons of sites going for the keyword “weight loss,” there are significantly less going for the term “Orlando weight loss.”
So how do you get ranked for local terms? Here are four tips to make it happen:
#1) Use the keyword in your title and content
This is the most important factor in getting ranked. You should put the keyword at the beginning of your title, as well as in the content a few times. This lets Google know what the page is about. Therefore, it will make it more likely you will get ranked.
#2) Use anchor text to your advantage
When you do get links to your site, make sure the anchor text (the actual link text) includes your main keyword phrase. Google looks closely at the anchor text to let them know what the site being linked to is about.
So if you have one hundred links pointing to your site, and seventy of them say “Houston condos”, they will be able to surmise what your page is about.
However, you don’t want to have every single link to say the same thing. Google likes natural link building. So if 100% of the links say “Houston condos, they will view this as unnatural, and this may affect you in a negative way.
#3) Get links from quality sites
Every link is not created equal. Google puts more weight on the links from quality sites a lot more. Therefore, be sure to target legitimate sites for your link building efforts.
#4) Geo-tags
This is not a new strategy, and it’s been around for a long time. However, many internet marketers aren’t familiar with it.
Basically, geo-tagging is where you put metadata in your HTML code. This lets the search engine spiders know where your site is located. You can do the same for pictures you put on your site. This will help you rank for localized searches.
The metadata includes your latitude and longitude coordinates, and sometimes other variables like altitude. If somebody is doing a search with geotagging enabled, your site might show up.
While geo-tagging does work, you can definitely rank without doing it. However, there’s no reason not to use it, as it definitely couldn’t hurt.
The bottom line is, getting ranked for local SEO terms is a great way to get more business. Implement these four tips and you should see results from your SEO efforts shortly.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
![January Member Spotlgiht-Elysse Fleece of Kozzy Bottoms]()
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
What is local marketing, and why do smaller businesses need to engage in it? This means targeting people in your area.
Obviously many businesses can go after people around the country. However, others can only do business with local customers.
Restaurants and financial planners are prime examples of smaller companies that do business with only local people. There’s only so far people are going to drive to do business with you if you have a physical location.
However, if you have a business that lends itself to national customers, you can also target local customers separately. There are some people that would simply rather do business with local companies. Therefore, you might want to do some local advertising apart from your national efforts.
So how do you get more local customers? There are a number of ways that work. Here are four you can start with:
#1) Newspaper advertising
This is one of the cheapest ways to target people in your area. When done right, it can be effective.
The problem with it is that it’s very untargeted. The majority of people reading the paper will not be interested in your product. However, if even a small percentage respond, it can be effective.
#2) Yellow pages
This is another one of the “traditional methods” of local advertising. It’s been around a long time, and when done right it can again be effective.
#3) Direct mail
This is hands down one of the top local advertising methods. This is where you buy a list of people in your area based on certain characteristics. You can choose based on age, gender, income level, etc. then you would send out an advertising campaign to them.
This way, you can choose exactly who you want to focus on. Therefore, it’s more targeted than the previous two.
#4) Internet
Online advertising is another effective strategy to get local customers.
So how do you convert traffic into sales? Now that you know how to drive traffic to your offer, you have to focus on making sales.
Get their contact information.
This should be your main goal, so you can keep marketing to them. The average customer requires at least four to seven touches before they do business with you. Therefore, if you give up after the first contact you are probably missing out on the majority of your sales.
Track each advertising source separately.
You might want to track each advertising method, so you can tell what’s working and what isn’t. For this reason, you might want to send the traffic from each source to a different place so you can tell what’s working and what isn’t.
The bottom line is, local advertising can be effective when done right. Implement these tips, and you will get your marketing efforts on track.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
![January Member Spotlgiht-Elysse Fleece of Kozzy Bottoms]()
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
It is that time of year gain. We just had Halloween. Now, the holiday season is in full swing!
In these challenging times, we want to offer you a place to advertise your holiday products and services where you can get an inexpensive yet high visibility ad. That place is the Our Milk Money Holiday E-Gift Catalog.
Please note that although we have had a substantial increase in our subscriber base this year, we have decided not to increase the ad prices. As always, we are committed to offering you affordable promotion at the best possible value.
The Our Milk Money Holiday E-Gift Catalog will be advertised heavily online and via our weekly radio show: This Little Parent Stayed Home. It will also go out to all of our Facebook and Twitter followers.
The Our Milk Money Holiday E-Gift Catalog will be emailed out three times! Once on November 21st, once on November 28th and again on December 5th. In addition to that, the ads will also be posted on the Our Milk Money site for 1 1/2 months for all to see!
The staff of Our Milk Money has been challenged to do their holiday shopping with the Parents of Our Milk Money. We are extending the same challenge to you…let us all support each other this year by doing our holiday shopping with each other.
If our staff needs ideas on what to purchase for the holidays. we bet our subscribers do too! This is where we need YOUR help! Be the expert on your products and tell us what we should be purchasing from you. When you send us information for your ad, be product specific.
The ad opportunities:
- Top Banner Ad: Only 1 available! This spot will consist of a 468 x 60 banner along with up to 300 characters of text.
- Bottom Banner Ad: Only 1 available! This spot will consist of a 468 x 60 banner along with up to 300 characters of text.
- Middle Button Ads: Unlimited spots available! These spots will consist of 125 x 125 buttons with up to 100 characters of text.
What we need from you:
In years past, the most successful ads have been those that included a call to action so we recommend your ad promote a specific product or service or offer a significant discount to Our Milk Money supporters.
- Email address where we can send you a paypal invoice
- Best: URL to a button or banner; if you don’t have one we will need a jpeg button or banner
- A product title and description
- Include price and any discount you may be offering
- Link to purchasing information for your product(s)
- Name of your business and link to your homepage
- Your Facebook fan page link
- Your Twitter name
RESERVE YOUR SPOT NOW!
There are many different ways to make money on the internet. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, the fastest and easiest way to ensure your success is to replicate a model that’s already proven to make money. Here are five such models.
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