Running online store is not easy (yet not difficult). With good planning, I believe it is possible to make lots of money. But what are the basic key points to consider for starting your online store? Here’s an advice form one of self-claimed internet gurus.

Any online store should consider these key points:

1. Sufficient profitability built into what you sell
2. Competitive pricing - you do not have to be the least expensive - just in the ball park
3. Ample product selection - the more products you have the better the odds that a visitor will buy something
4. Multiple items with a choice of price range to fit more buyers’ pocketbooks
5. Products that are related to each other or appeal to the same basic buyer demographic

If you are buying traffic it is critical that your average profit per sale exceed your advertising cost per sale. Bearing this in mind when you’re deciding what to sell can reduce the length of time it will take to grow your business.

Focusing on products with average prices around USD60-USD150 generates a higher likelihood of profit and a faster return on your advertising dollars. Advertising less expensive products may exceed the profits they generate. The more expensive the products you sell the longer the latency period between first visit and purchase and the more credibility you’ll need to establish.

If your site already has a large number of products, you can skew the odds in your favor by wisely selecting which products to advertise first. Try to avoid advertising products that are unlikely to generate profitable sales.

The very best products to sell online are those that:

1. Have an average profit per sale of at least USD40-USD60
2. Are inexpensive to ship - shipping cost is the number one complaint of most online shoppers
3. Are heavy and difficult to get home - this motivates buyers to pay for shipping
4. Are widely searched for and difficult to find offline
5. Are available locally (which increases interest) but the in-stock selection is severely limited
6. Must be special ordered locally - especially if you can ship more quickly than the local stores can

Consider all of the above points when selecting products and keep your eyes open for items that fit the above criterion. If what you find has low online competition you may be on your way to greater profits.

Good luck!

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People often ask “Will I make money blogging?” The short answer: it depends.

If your income is affected by the public’s perception of your reputation, brand and expertise, then yes, blogging will increase your income, indirectly. Once you’ve built a reputation as a blogger then PPC, sponsors and links to affiliate programs on your blog can directly add to the bottom line. But don’t expect this to happen overnight.

The decision to start a blog should not be taken lightly. Writing a blog may be easy but creating a successful one is not. You have be comfortable expressing yourself in writing. To attract readers, you need to develop a distinctive point of view. You need to commit to posting regularly to keep your readers engaged. Anything less than one post a week damages your credibility. The good news is that speakers have volumes of material to blog about.

Use your blog as a platform to share your insights and experiences on your core expertise.

You can review books and movies, radio stations and restaurants. You can piggyback on topics that are in the news.

You can make announcements about future speaking events. You can share links and references with your readers.

You can report on meetings you attend, speeches you give, comments from the audience and chance encounters from the road.

You can use your blog to compile top 10 lists, conduct surveys (asking for comments on a topic), respond to other blogs or invite guest bloggers to post on your blog.

Remember to keep a clear focus. If you have multiple areas of expertise consider creating multiple blogs.

Don’t give-up.

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Here’s a checklist for me and you to read through; written by a self claimed internet guru. I wonder if he really made money online.

1. Yes, you can be successful online, but it is going to take time and it is going to take money and there is no way around this.
2. Do not quit when the going gets tough. There will be dark days, but you have to see the light at the end of the tunnel and keep moving forward.
3. Do not believe for a second that you can make money with no money and no work. It has never been done and it can never be done.
4. If you find a product or service you want to sell or someone is trying to get you to join their down line, make them prove they are making the kind of money their website says they are making. I can guarantee that 97% of the affiliates out there selling programs that say you can make $5,000 per week or month are not even profitable.
5. Stop waiting for your ship to come in and go out and find it yourself.
6. Get started now and stop waiting for the perfect time or place. Remember, you cannot wait for all the lights to be green before you start your trip. Go on Red!
7. Cancel your cable television and cellular phone and use that money to grow your business. Did you know that most people spend more on those two items then they do on their online business! Can you imagine spending money on 2 things that are not necessary and will never make you a dime vs. spending a few extra dollars on advertising your business that can get you out of the commuting game?
8. Make every day count. Do something every single day toward building your company or business.
9. The best way to ensure your success online is to build your prospect list.
10. Focus on one or two programs, products or services and give them your all for a minimum of 12 months.
11. Track your advertising and know where you spend money and what the return is on all your marketing and advertising. This will help you long term and as you build a down line you will be able to get them moving in the right direction faster and less expensive than anyone else.
12. Get the right tools for your business. If you are going to be online, spend the money and get a new computer and if at all possible, get high speed Internet. Cable, DSL or Satellite, but stay away from dialup.
13. Believe in yourself and trust yourself to do what is right. Big shots are just little shots that kept shooting.
14. Multiple Streams of Income are great, but if you give people too many choices, they will choose not to decide.
15. You can do it and there are plenty of success stories online of people who made it, but not one of them made it with no work and no money. If people could make money for no money, then you would not be reading this and I would not write it because we would all be lounging on the beach with our little umbrella drinks in hand.

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Savvy marketing professionals understand that sales and marketing must work together to move prospects into the sales pipeline. This is especially important in a complex B2B sale that has long decision making cycles and multiple buyers that need to be influenced.

The good news is that press release content drives people into and shortens the sales cycle for any product or service, especially ones that have many steps and take months or years to complete. Here’s how you can make this happen:

Understand your sales process in detail

All sales processes are definable, repeatable and understandable and effective marketers use the Web to move people into and through the process. You need to get together with salespeople, sales management and product managers to understand exactly what happens in the sales cycle. You should answer questions such as: How do people initially find your company or product? What words and phrases do they use? Understanding the process in detail allows you to understand how in the process press releases can be used.

Segment your prospects

Consider press releases based on the buyer persona, perhaps by job title or by industry. A prospect is much more likely to enter the sales cycle by clicking a press release that talks about solving her problems.

Create thought leadership content to sit at the top of the sales funnel

People in the early stages of the sales cycle need basic information on the product category, especially “thought leadership” pieces. Don’t just write press releases about your company and your products; be thought leaders and write about the industry and higher-level strategic issues surrounding your product or service. When doing initial research, people don’t want to hear about you and your company; they want information about them and their problems.

Provide content that is compelling enough to get people to “raise their hand”

In your press releases, deliver something of value that you can trade for a registration form. A link from your press release to an informative white paper, online event (such as a Webinar), or online demo will help move your prospect further down the sales process - and, in exchange for the right content, she will happily “raise her hand” to express interest by filling out a form. Remember, you’re still not ready to sell a product or service (yet); you are still relationship building. (By the way, these links will also help raise the search engine ranking of the pages you point to.)

Measure and Improve

Measure what content is being used and how. Understand through Web metrics what’s working and constantly tweak the content to make it better. Meet regularly with salespeople to gain insights into the sales cycle and how your press release content helps, and can better assist, the process. The Web is iterative - you can and should make adjustments on the fly.

Adopted from the New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott

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It is interesting - an article by Robert Kiyosaki. Enjoy reading.

In 1971, the rules of money changed. In 1971, President Richard Nixon took the U.S. dollar off the gold standard. Today, 37 years later, the U.S. dollar has become toxic as it falls rapidly in value. Recently, The Economist called the dollar’s fall “the biggest default in history,” exceeding those of any emerging market catastrophe. Today the rich get richer as the financial resources of America’s poor and middle class are wiped out. Unfortunately, the poor and middle class have no idea the rules of money have changed.

One definition of the word intelligent is: if you agree with me, you are intelligent. If you disagree with me, you are a moron. In my opinion, Steve Forbes is a very intelligent man. It was an honor to be interviewed with him on the economy during the Forbes.com iconference.

As a bonus, in conjunction with that iconference, I offer my views on the New Rules of Money. Before discussing the new rules, I think it’s important that I cover the old rules.

The Old Rules:

1. Go to school so you can get a safe, secure job. During my dad’s time, people did this. They went to school, got a job, and stayed with the company until they retired. Today, we all know that job security is a myth, especially as jobs are exported. Billions of people in the third world enter the global market competing for your job at a lower wage, and technology wipes out companies that do not stay competitive. Today, rather than having a job for life, those born after 1970 will probably have four to seven jobs in their lifetime.

2. Work hard, climb the ladder, and earn more money. The problem with working hard as an employee is the tax laws are written against employees. The more money an employee makes, the higher the percentage in taxes the government takes.

Most of us have heard Warren Buffett say that he thought it unfair that he pays a lower percentage in taxes than his secretary.

3. Save money. Savers are losers, especially if you are saving U.S. dollars. Since 1971, the U.S. has been able to print money faster than the country earns it. This causes the value of savings to erode as prices increase. Adolf Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany after the middle class had their savings wiped out due to hyperinflation. Stalin and Mao also rose to power when the previous leaders devalued their money.

4. Get out of debt. Because the value of the U.S. dollar is falling rapidly, it is important to know the difference between good debt and bad debt. Unfortunately, even the U.S. banks are loaded with bad debt, a.k.a. subprime debt. If you want to become wealthy in a subprime world, it is important to know how to use good debt to offset the falling value of the U.S. dollar. If they are smart, debtors can be winners.

5. Invest in a well-diversified portfolio of mutual funds through your company’s 401(k). First of all, Warren Buffett does not diversify. He says, “Diversification is for people who do not know what they are doing.” Second of all, John Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group and one of the more brilliant minds in investing today, says that mutual fund companies have been ripping investors off. He states that investors in mutual funds put up 100% of the capital, absorb 100% of the risk, and receive only 20% of the rewards. The 80% in investor gains goes to the mutual fund company. On top of that, the Wall Street Journal called the last ten years “the lost decade” because there have been no real profits in stocks for the past ten years.

The New Rules:

1. Keep your daytime job but start a part-time business. In other words, become an entrepreneur at home. Not only will you learn a lot, but the tax rules of the rich swing to your favor. If your business grows and can replace the income from your job, you may be ready to spread your wings and fly. As you may know, the richest people on earth are entrepreneurs who invest in real estate.

2. Become an entrepreneur. The world’s most successful entrepreneurs did not go to school nor did they climb the corporate ladder. Many of the most famous entrepreneurs did not do well in school. Some of them are: Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company. Ford could use the old man today. Thomas Edison, the founder of General Electric, was called “addled” by his teachers. Others include Bill Gates of Microsoft, Michael Dell of Dell Computers, Steve Jobs of Apple, Richard Branson of Virgin.

Today, for a country to remain competitive, we need more entrepreneurs and fewer employees. With more entrepreneurs and fewer employees, wages could go back up. Unfortunately, most parents still say to their kids, “Go to school so you can get a job.” In other words, many people and our schools program kids to be employees – rather than entrepreneurs.

3. Hedge your money. Instead of saving money, keep your money liquid in assets that increase in value as the dollar drops in value. Personally, I keep my liquidity in gold and silver ETFs. I buy every time the price of gold or silver goes down. Today, as I write, I believe gold is a good price under $1000 and silver a bargain at under $25. If I need cash in a hurry, I sell my gold or silver ETFs.

4. Use debt as leverage. I am deeply in debt… good debt. I use debt to make me richer. I could pay off my home, but my effective interest is only 6%. As long as I can earn a 15% or higher return on my money, I’ll invest my money rather than pay off debt.

If you are a professional investor, a 50% to an infinite return on your money is possible. If you would like to find out how I achieve an infinite return, read my latest book, Rich Dad’s Increase Your Financial IQ.

One reason I do not diversify is because diversification is like going to the racetrack and betting on every horse. The only way you win by diversifying at the racetrack is if the dark horse wins. I would prefer to focus and pick winners. One myth in investing is that higher returns require higher risks. That is a huge myth. As Buffett says, “Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing.”

5. Know the difference between salespeople and rich people. One of the reasons so many people are in trouble financially today is because they get their financial advice from sales people. Today, I cringe whenever I hear so-called investment gurus, who are really sales people, recommending the old rules of money. As Warren Buffett says, “Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.”

Steve Forbes is a rich person who knows what he is talking about. His column in Forbes magazine, Fact and Comment, is a column I look forward to every month. If you want to grow rich – and stay rich – investing a few moments with Mr. Forbes is a priceless investment of your time.

A Final Chilling Thought

Here are some closing thoughts from Craig Karmin’s Biography of the Dollar: How the Mighty Buck Conquered the World and Why It’s Under Siege:

“In 2005, U.S. interest payments on foreign debt topped the $100 billion mark for the first time – coming in at $114 billion dollars. That breaks down to $310 million per day, according to Joseph Quinlan, Bank of America’s chief market strategist. This equates to more than $1 million per day for every man, woman, and child in America. Not only is America addicted to foreign oil, America is addicted to foreign capital. This is not healthy, wealthy, or wise.”

It will not make much difference who is elected as president or if we raise or lower taxes if America, as a subprime nation, does not stop living on borrowed money. At the risk of being redundant: This is not healthy, wealthy, or wise.

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