Checklist for a first timer and misc ?'s

[logangregor]

Good evening all. How you all doing?



Im trying to document for myself if I have a good rough outline for how I will go about making money online. Ive read a good many threads and just checking to see if I have the right idea.


So from what Ive read

1st step

Find what you want to sell. Make sure its something you care about/interested in and or passionate about.

*I was thinking of a couple of health products Ive used before...am I on track?*


2nd step

Website
*Im good on a pc and I can figure out just about anything but I have never done any kind of website stuff. What kind of website builder programs do you guys reccomend? Anything free? Anything that costs thats worth the money?


3rd step

Website Optimization / promoting website
*Do I need to know something about this WHILE making the website or am I going to have to go back in and make changes regardless?*



Promoting the website.... mmm yeah ok. Lol...How?
Ive heard alot of talk about viral marketing...and I have no idea what that means. Any writeups youve seen on this that give some outline how you would go about doing it.



Have I missed any vital steps in the process?

How much time should I be spending on each step?

Once Ive done all the steps what do I need to do on a daily basis to keep the site going? or make sure its running right? Know what I mean?







Last thing, can anyone tell me how people make money off of blogs?
I just dont quite get it.



I know Ive asked alot of questions, my sincere thanks for anyone patient enough to make an attempt at answering them.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Micah,

That's a lot of questions. Almost all the answers can be found in the sticky threads in the newbie, general affiliate and niche forums. I have carpal pain so can't write a book to try to answer everything but will attempt a couple.

#1 "I was thinking of a couple of health products Ive used before...am I on track?"

Better to write about the 'niche' or the health problem. Write about symptoms and stories about yourself and others that have the problem. Writing about the pain or the problem - that's the content that drives people to you. Then you weave in content about the product that is a solution to the pain.

So if it was a natural pain relief product for instance there is only so much you can write about a product and then people only have a chance of finding you in the search engines if they are searching for the product already.

You can generate lots of articles though about all different types of pain - arthritis, fibromyalgia, joint pain, foot pain, back pain and just general stories about your pain and how the product helped you. All those different articles about pain could help bring visitors looking for some type of pain solution - which you have. Make sense?

#2 The best free solution according to most people is WordPress, free blogging software. To answer your last Q too about how to make money with a blog. My scenario in #1 could be done with a blog. To make money, you write about the pain or problem and then insert a link to the product in a softsell sentence like:

"When my arthritis pain gets bad I start taking my Zyflamend again
and within a few days the pain and inflammation is under control."

You could also have a banner or some text links in the sidebar of the blog.

#3 You need to know how to do keyword research and pick the right keywords for your article or blog titles. The most important part of optimization. So you need to learn that before you start building.

If you pick a good Wordpress theme that is already SEO optimized then most of the work is already done for you. (Hey looks who's #2.)