But if you can outsource some of the work to others – or better yet, automate it through the use of software, you can build your business to work without your direct involvement.  You can be the captain of your ship rather than a member of the crew.  This allows you to steer your business toward the goals you’ve set for yourself, and it allows you to create real wealth – and to help others do the same.

Social media sites allow you to interact with others and get the word out about your products and services.  It’s important to engage your visitors and to provide quality information that will help to position you as an expert on your chosen topic.  But you don’t want to spend all of your time at the keyboard interacting with visitors.  After all, you have a business to run.

Where it makes sense, you can automate a lot of the mundane aspects of social media interaction.  A perfect example of where automation makes sense is the Twitter follow process.  If someone follows you, and you want to reciprocate, you would normally send them a message to thank them for following.  And you’d click their follow link to add them to your list.  But that takes a lot of time when you’re usually going to respond with the same information for each follow.

To automate this process, there’s a great tool at TweetLater.com that is perfect for the task.  You can set up an automatic message to be sent to your followers, and you can automatically follow those that follow you.  You can also un-follow those that drop you.  This helps to keep your follow ratios in balance to stay within the Twitter terms of service. 

Your follow message should be something that sounds somewhat personal.  I get responses from a lot of users that include a link to one of their products.  That’s okay if you have lots of followers or already have an established reputation.  But if you’re just getting started and trying to build a following, you’ll probably do better to keep it to a simple “Thanks for the follow” type message.  This sounds more personal, so you’re less likely to have them drop you when receiving your reply. 

People are smarter than you think.  If they think you’re simply after their money, they’ll find someone else to provide the information they’re seeking.  But if you genuinely care to provide quality information while also getting compensated for the effort, you’ll be much more successful.

Examples:

• If you relied on Google AdSense income prior to 2006, you probably saw it all but dry up a couple of years ago due to changes in terms.
• If you rely on PPC advertising for most of your traffic, a change in Google’s terms can drive your costs beyond your break-even point.  This happened to a lot of site owners in the past year.
• If you rely on affiliate income from a single vendor, that vendor can change any of their affiliate terms and send you down the tubes in a split second.
• If you rely on income from the sale of a product or service, a bigger competitor with deeper pockets can enter your space and drive you out of business.

Any number of things can change to leave you scrambling to keep the lights on while you figure out which way to go.  The only surefire way to keep this from happening to you is to have income coming from several channels.  Get your traffic from organic and paid search as well as offline methods.  Set up affiliate programs to let others help you sell your own products, and promote products offered by multiple vendors.  Offer your services to other business owners for a premium and use that as an upsell behind your other product offerings.

You have to prepare before the storm hits so that you’re ready to go if or when it ever happens.  And if it never happens, at least you’ll be enjoying the benefits of multiple streams of income.  This doesn’t mean to jump around between opportunities.  You’ll only lose focus that way and never get anything accomplished.  But once you have one or more income streams running smoothly, you owe it to yourself to work on setting up 2-3 different cash-generating methods.

But to just make some basic site changes that help to make your site stand apart from the rest of the crowd, there are a few quick things you can do:

1. Select one of the base templates.  Any template will do.  I usually select one that has the logo section centered on the screen, but you can choose any theme.

2. Create your own logo.  This is important because the basic template includes a blank gray logo with the name of your site in large text.  You want a good graphical logo.  But even if you’re not an artist, you can use the graphics software of your choice to create an image 968 pixels wide by 180 pixels high.  Even the Paint program that comes with Windows will allow you to create a jpeg image that will suffice.  I prefer PhotoShop, but I also use Paint Shop Pro and GIMP.  GIMP is open source, so it’s a good choice if you don’t want to shell out the cash for PhotoShop.

Now comes the fun part.  You get to create the logo.  And if you’re not an artist, you may want to get help with this part.  You want your design to look professional.

Once you have your logo image finished, save your file as logo.jpg.  You can easily upload the new logo to your website through the admin panel.  Click the “Template” button to go into the editor and click the “Upload Logo” link beside your selected template.  This will allow you to locate and upload the logo you saved.

3. Remove the title from the BANS template by clicking the header.php link beside your selected template. Don’t worry if you don’t know what you’re looking at.  You don’t have to for this. 

Just find the words <a href=”<?php print URL_PATH.”/”;?>”> <?php print SITENAME.”";?></a>.

Then delete that whole line.  Don’t worry, it won’t break anything.  That’s just code to print your site name and make it a clickable link.  Be sure to click the “Save” button at the bottom of the page to save your changes.

4. Now you can customize the template even more by changing the style sheet.  To do this, click the styles.css link beside your selected template.  This will open up the style sheet file for editing.  Then you’ll want to open Notepad, select all of the text in the style sheet editor and paste it into the Notepad window.  This will preserve the original style sheet in case you make a change that you’d like to reverse.

Changing Colors

Now look for lines that include the word “color.”  The number value beside the “color: ” tag is a hexadecimal value that indicates the RGB (red-green-blue) value to be used for a particular part of the website. 

You can use your graphics program to choose a color and get the RGB value.  This is the easiest way to get the number to use for a particular color.

The number is actually the combination of three values – one for red, one for green, and one for blue.  So, if you see a value like #000000, this is black.  The first two 0’s are the red value, the next two are the green value, and the final two are the blue value.  They’re all 0, which means red, green, and blue are all turned off.

But the numbers are hexadecimal (base 16), so they don’t range from 0-9 like you’re used to.  They range from 0-16.  And since we don’t have digits to represent value greater than 9, we use the first several letters of the alphabet instead.  So, A = 10, B = 11, C = 12, … F = 16.

Since all 0’s is black, it makes sense that white would be the exact opposite – all values turned on.  And since F = 16, the value for white is #FFFFFF.

If you want red, you can use #FF0000.  Green is #00FF00.  And blue is #0000FF.

You can vary the values of each to get different shades.  And combinations of red, green, and blue will give you just about any color you can imagine. 

Changing Borders and Fonts

You can also change the borders and fonts of any section of the site.  Just find the corresponding tag in the style sheet and change it to the value of your choice.  After making a change, click the “Save” button at the bottom of the page to save your change.  Then click the “View Store” link at the top of the page to see your latest changes.

Advanced Changes

You can make many more advanced design changes by altering the style sheet.  If you learn the rules of CSS, you can learn how to move parts of the design around to completely alter the site layout.  The sky’s the limit when it comes to the ways to customize a BANS template.  I’ve seen many unique designs that in no way resemble the original BANS templates.  Making these types of changes will help your niche store website stand apart from the crowd.

And of all the ways you could possibly make money online, I think the fastest and easiest way to go from zero to profitability as quickly as possible would be to start a niche store.  This is especially true throughout the holiday season.  I’ve operated several of them for well over a year, and they continue to provide a nice monthly income.  Although they’re fairly easy to set up for someone with a little computer knowledge, they can be tricky for newcomers. The niche store site provides some good reference material to help you get started, but feel free to ask me a question if you get stuck.

I’ve learned some interesting ways to create sites that attract visitors and keep them coming back.  And I continually look for ways to add value to my sites beyond just the products that are available to purchase.  This is very important because anyone can set up these niche stores and compete with you.  You have to find a way to stand out from the crowd.  And you have to know how to get the visitors to your store in the first place.

That’s why from now until the end of the year, I’m going to be offering lots of tips and tricks for getting the most from your online niche store. There are several store scripts out there, so you don’t necessarily have to go with the one I recommend.  In fact, I’ll cover a couple of the others as well.  But I happen to have my preference simply because I think it’s the easiest to set up and maintain.

Go ahead and subscribe to my online niche store blog to be sure to get every tip as I post them.  It’s time for the holidays, and you’ll want to be ready for making some good holiday cash.

Here are a couple of earlier posts that may be helpful as you begin to build your new store:

Choosing a good web host 

Getting content for your niche store

Reasons for starting an online business

Finding good niche keywords

Getting traffic to your online store

Most are Doomed to Failure

Most people that get started will make it through the early stages. They’ll invest a few hundreds bucks in courses, books, and seminars. They might even try the water by throwing up a website. But that’s when the rubber really meets the road, and things start to get interesting. At that point, 99 out of 100 will throw up their hands and say to themselves that it’s impossible. (Note: Thinking something is impossible is a good way to make yourself feel better about giving up on your dreams.)

The Brave Press On

But there are a few that have enough sticktoitiveness to stay the course. Those brave souls will likely face the scrutiny of their peers. They have to listen to the naysayers that will gladly tell them it can’t be done. They have to give up their get-rich-quick fantasies and get their hands dirty in the real world. They’ll have to brave the rushing current of change that occurs on the internet. To stay afloat, they’ll have to learn how to embrace change – and maybe even learn to anticipate it.

Anything is Possible

The benefits of operating an online business are well worth the investment of time and resources.  The ability to work from anywhere there’s an internet connection, a global market for your goods or services, and the ability to automate much of your day to day operations are just a few things that make doing business online so great.

The main thing to remember is that there is great potential to earn money online for anyone willing to acquire the skills necessary.  And in those areas where you may be weak, you can always find a partner or hire others to assist you.

Although I do use tried and true SEO strategies to get organic traffic, I’ve found that PPC traffic converts better for some reason.  I can spend weeks optimizing my sites to get them ranked for some decent-performing keywords, only to find that the majority of visitors coming from the search engines are just browsers.  I can send a fraction of the traffic to my sites using AdWords ads to get the same results.  It takes far less time and effort, and it allows me to focus more on building better content.

Anyway, I recently began optimizing one of my campaigns based on some knowledge I gained from a new StomperNet video on PPC ads.  I was able to improve my click-through rates dramatically using their strategies, and I was excited about the results.  But the excitement was a bit short-lived.

You see, I have my Analytics account tied to my AdWords campaigns.  I like to be able to track the performance of my campaigns down to the specific ads and keywords I’m using.  Using the StomperNet ideas, I was able to add a new ad that got a whopping 60% click-through rate. 

After seeing the results, I moved on to take care of other business.  I came back later to find that Google had doubled the minimum cost per click on my account and set my account to inactive until I raised my bids.  I was alarmed, and I waded through my campaign settings looking for an answer.  But the answer was only to be found in my Analytics account…

After clicking over to Analytics, I went to my AdWords campaign and clicked down to what I thought was my best performing ad.  Sure enough, the bounce rate for that ad was over 50%.  So, although the ad attracted lots of clicks and had relevant keywords for my site content, it wasn’t attracting customers - only curious clickers.  So, Google had done me a big favor by increasing my minimum cost per click.  They were actually saving me a lot of money.

After removing the offending ad, I soon saw my cost drop back to previous levels and all was well again.  I’ll continue to create new ads and research new keywords, but I’ll be sure to keep a close eye on the results in my Analytics account.  Some may call it the Google-slap, but I now prefer to think of it as a way to quickly learn how to improve the results of your PPC campaigns.

Plus, this is also great news for anyone selling on eBay.  With an army of affiliate marketers working day and night to promote your products, you’ll likely sell more with less effort.  If you haven’t heard, the number of web publishers promoting products on eBay is growing like wildfire.  That’s because eBay pays a percentage of their take on each transaction that is referred to their site via a third party publisher’s site.  And, what’s even better is that, as an affiliate publisher, you can promote products all around the globe through eBay’s partner sites in countries all around the world.

I’ve been making money as an eBay affiliate since last summer, and my income has grown steadily as a result.  I’ve enjoyed working with Commission Junction, and I plan to continue working with them to promote their expanding list of products.  I’m equally excited about the new eBay-managed affiliate program.  I’ve checked it out, and it looks very promising.  As I transition my sites to the new system, I’ll report my results.  You can see an example of one of their new affiliate web widgets in the sidebar to the right.  There are several different types of widgets available, and many more are on the way.

In the meantime, be sure to give the new eBay Partner Network a look.  It might just be the ticket to your online success.  And be sure to subscribe to the Profit with Your DotCom feed to stay on top of new and exciting ways to grow your new online business.

The change that is on the way is due to a completely new form of search engine.  SearchMe.com, which is currently in beta testing and open for a small number of testers (so hurry to get your spot now), is set to majorly impace the way searches are performed.  The new search engine is graphical, and the interface is much like the enhanced Windows Vista interface.  You type a search term, and an array of website images are rolled across the screen as you choose the site to visit.  You can scroll forward and back until a particular site catches your eye.  Then you can click the site to load it.

So, keep working away with the keyword research.  Keep on adding new, keyword-rich content.  But be sure to enlist the help of a good graphic designer to make your site stand out from the crowd.  It may not be tomorrow, but it’s inevitable that some new form of visual search tool such as SearchMe.com will gain momentum.

1. Create a blog and use a tool like Feedburner to help you promote it and publish it in a format readable by most RSS readers.  Search engines love fresh content, and blogs are great sources of fresh content.  You can get your site noticed much more quickly with a blog.  If you use the low-competition keyword strategy I outlined in the last post, you’ll already have content full of good keywords.  Getting the search engines to index the content will likely get you a top position for one or more of your selected terms relatively quickly.

2. Post comments on blogs, in forums, and on social media sites.  Include a link back to your site or blog, and the search engines will likely find you.  But be intelligent about this.  Don’t just spam the sites of others for your own benefit.  If you provide value, you’ll reap the benefits.  If you spam, you may get a short-term reward, but you’ll have a hollow victory at best.  And as search engines become ever more sophisticated, you could eventually find your sites removed from their listings.

3. Write a few articles related to the content on your site and include a link back to your site in your author bio.  I’ve used this technique successfully on numerous occasions.  In fact, I like to use this strategy to send traffic to landing pages where I promote various affiliate products. (We’ll talk more about promoting products and services as an affiliate in future posts.)  Submit your articles to sites like EzineArticles.com or GoArticles.com.  When the articles are published, your link must be included.  This not only provides you with publicity, it also provides links back to your website all across the web.

4. Create a video and post it on YouTube.  Include your site URL as a caption at the end of the video.  Some of your viewers will look you up. 

5. Create a Squidoo Lens at Squidoo.com related to your topic.  Provide good, relevant content and include a link back to your site within a list of links to various other related websites.

6. To get traffic flowing to your site quickly and easily, set up a Google AdWords account and pay to have your advertisements displayed in search engine results or on other websites related to the content of your site.  Using AdWords effectively is a topic for another day, but take a look at the program.  If all of your other efforts fail to live up to your expectations, spending a few dollars can get traffic flowing to your new site.

We’ll look at other great ways to get traffic and effective use of AdWords and other PPC systems in a future post.

1. You must know if the niche you want to target actually has a market.  You wouldn’t want to try to sell products in a niche where there was little or no interest.  Remember the online grocery store delivery sites?  It may have been a great idea, but no one was interested. Creating new markets requires time and money.  Unless you have large amounts of both to spare, you should target existing markets.

2. You need to know what customers in your selected niche are searching for.  You may think they’re looking for product A when they’re really looking for products X, Y, and Z.  Or they may really want more information on a specific topic.  If you provide the information, they just might pay your site a visit and make a purchase.

3. You need to know how much competition you will be facing.  You can almost always find something within any given niche with little or no competition.  But if you don’t do the research to find these hidden gold mines, you could very well be competing with some large established online businesses.  I’m not saying you couldn’t compete with the big boys, but if you’re just starting out, it would be much easier to build a following around a specific element of a niche and expand from there.

So, how can you do the necessary keyword research to successfully compete online?  There are dozens of free keyword tools, and there are dozens of sites that provide historical search information.  But, if you’re really serious, you’ll want to buy a subscription to WordTracker.  WordTracker is probably the best keyword research tool available.  The free version of WordTracker is very basic, but it’s a great place to get started.  The paid version offers far more information, so you may eventually want to give it a try.

Okay, so now that you know where to find a few good keyword resources, let’s talk about how to use them.  First of all, you’ll want to begin with some keywords that you have in mind for searching within your niche.  For example, if you’re wanting to create a website about antique tractors, you would begin with the keyword phrase “antique tractors.”  From there, WordTracker will return a list of related terms that your potential visitors might use to find your site.  Along with the words, you’ll get the number of searches made by visitors for each keyword and the projected number of searches for those words over the next 24 hours.  Drilling down, you’ll get information for each of the major search engines, such as the number of competiting web pages for any given keyword.  You’ll also get the KEI (keyword effectiveness index) number, which compares the count of searches for a keyword with the number of competing web pages.  This number helps identify words that you could target with the best chance of getting a top spot in the search engines.

To summarize, don’t fly blind when it comes to creating content for your website.  First, find out what your potential visitors are looking for.  Then find out how much competition you’ll have for your selected keywords.  And finally, create content for publishing on your site that incorporates those keywords that will provide the best chance for getting located by potential visitors.  In an upcoming post, we’ll look at this in more detail.  Plus, we’ll look at some interesting ways to use what you learn from your keyword research to really boost traffic to your sites.