Hi.
This is something that I have hesitated writing for a long time. Why? Because I thought that anyone who would happen across my blog would “already” be selling things online. I’ve come to realize that isn’t always the case, so I’m going back to the basics.
If you are already good at selling things online, then maybe this post will help someone you know. Please read on just in case 
When I first started “trying” to sell things online, it was really difficult for me. I hadn’t even heard the term “safelist” or “forum” or “seo” — let alone social networking. In fact, I didn’t even understand how to cut and paste in an email until a very nice person helped me out. The concept of putting up my own website was WAY over my head, so I started with the very basics. I started with affiliate marketing — just selling one or two products (or trying to, anyway). In fact, the first thing I tried to sell was a phone company membership that paid $20 a sale for each person I brought in. I didn’t get many sales, but I sure had fun trying.
I’m going to detail exactly what I did at first. Now, keep in mind that when I started trying to make money online, it was the year 1999. Things have changed a LOT since then, so I’m going to adjust this just a little bit to try to stay up with the times. Yes, I’m one of the old timers online. I even remember when Paypal came into existence (maybe you do, too). In fact, I even had a charge card through the small internet bank that “turned into” Paypal. At that time, I thought … “what a silly idea … sending money to people through email.” Who would have thought it would go huge like it did? lol In fact, in the year I started, I only remember one or two safelists that actually had an online form you could send to members from. Before that, the safelists were all through email, kind of like the Yahoo Groups or Google Groups. Things were really different back then.
Please do not get the idea that you can just start making money instantly. Sure, you can try to sell things, but it’s going to take time to really figure out what you are doing enough to really start seeing nice results. When I started, my goal was just to make a couple of sales a week. You have to start there before moving on to more sales. It always starts with “one” … that very first sale.
And remember … the most important thing about making money online is your ADVERTISING SOURCES. You won’t be able to get many sales at all without having that in place. Everyone has to advertise. It comes with the territory.
If you are one of those people who do not want to work and are just wanting money to magically fall into your lap, then I have bad news for you. Working online is NOT for you. Working online and building to an income takes time. It takes dedication. But … it’s tremendously FUN! I love what I do. I would much rather spend a day doing this than doing something else for money. I see it as an adventure. There are plenty of people making money online. The way I look at it (and always have) if THEY can figure it out, then certainly “I” can figure it out, too! As long as you realize that success won’t happen overnight, you’ll be fine. Just enjoy what you do and you’ll start seeing results. Relax and learn as you go. That’s how I did it. I’m “still” learning, and I don’t think I’ll ever “stop” learning. I like it that way.
Most people starting out don’t have much money to spend on advertising. So, keeping that in mind, I’m going to stick to free advertising sources. Later on, you can always search on Google or Yahoo for safelists, submitters, solo ad sellers, etc. You can even adopt safelists later on and send ads through the admin panel to all of the members — at their CONTACT email address. That can be very effective.
** First Things First — Free Social Sites.
1. Facebook — You probably already have a regular Facebook account. You’ll want to get another Facebook account for business so that you can use it to sell things. I see a nice response using Facebook. Here is my business Facebook account. Please get a business account and add me as a friend: http://www.facebook.com/pjayefrye . Once you do that, you can go through some of the people on my friends list and add them as friends. Please make sure to also add my son, Jordan Frye http://www.facebook.com/jordanfrye Make sure to fill out your profile so that people can see who you are. I keep my personal and business Facebook accounts totally separate. That way I can just advertise away on my business account. In Facebook, you can even find some groups where you can post ads. I use those at times.
2. Twitter — If you have a personal Twitter account, I recommend also getting a business one. My Twitter is at http://www.twitter.com/paulafrye . My son, Jordan Frye, also has an account: http://www.twitter.com/jordanfryecom. Twitter can be a very good way to get extra sales. You’ll need to follow a few people, then wait for them to follow you back. Twitter is more tricky than Facebook, so be careful. Twitter doesn’t like it when you follow too many people too fast. Take it very slow.
3. Sokule — Sokule is a social website for advertising. I really like it, and I get a nice result there. Here is my Sokule link. You can sign up free from there: http://www.sokule.com/postit/paulafrye . As a Sokule member, you will also get a free account at Yakamore, another business social site. I use both of them regularly. You will want to follow people on both social sites. Some of them will follow you back. Be patient. It takes awhile to build your followers.
4. IBO Social — IBO Social is one of the busiest social sites I’ve seen that is targeted to making money online. You can post blogs, ads, to their live stream, and on your own profile. Your advertising there will definitely end up in the search engines (especially the blogs). That will turn into even more visitors to your websites. Here is my profile link at IBO: http://ibosocial.com/paulafrye. Just click at the top right to become a free member. Don’t get overwhelmed with it. Just take your time. Go slow
There are many more free social sites you can use. I’ll just list these four. It’s enough to get started with. Once you get these going and feel comfortable with them, I’ll be happy to send you more that I recommend.
** Get a Free Blog — Free hits from search engines.
There are many different places to get free blogs, but if you want to be indexed fast in Google, you are going to want to start with Blogger. Go to http://www.blogger.com and sign up for free. I use my blog there to simply place information on it about things that are making me money online. You can also write articles explaining your products. Add something often. Google indexes new blog posts instantly, so you’ll be listed here way faster than at other free blog sites. Blogger is run by Google, so they are definitely connected. Here is my blog at Blogger if you want to see the types of things I submit there: http://paulafrye.blogspot.com
I’ve met people online who make 100% of their income from blogging. That is definitely a subject you are going to want to research someday. Blogging is huge in affiliate marketing. I do not know all that much about blogging except that I know my blog posts end up in the search engines. That is free advertising, so I try to add blog posts regularly.
** Safelists and Submitters — Email advertising.
You will need to get two Gmail email accounts for this. You’ll need one to use as a “contact” email (will receive less mail) and one to use as the (safelist) email. You will get plenty of mail in this one, so make sure you delete the emails once in awhile. It will definitely fill up if you join a lot of email advertising sources. Safelists are spam-free forms of advertising because the members are signing up to send and receive ads. They “expect” to get ads from other members, just like “you” will get ads from other members.
I am not going to list a bunch of safelists here. I will let you do a search on Google or Yahoo for free safelists or free solo ad senders. You can also search for free advertising sources and see what all comes up. Solo ads is another term.
Here are two safelists you can start with. These are upgraded memberships, so you can send ads once daily in both of them: Rainbow Wind — http://www.ezy-safelists.com/bow/signup_platinum.php and Big Pig — http://www.ezy-safelists.com/pig/signup_platinum.php . I can’t guarantee how many clicks you will get, but I do know there are many members using both of those. I have a list of hundreds of places I can send ads daily. I have collected them for years. I don’t have the time to keep up with every single one of them on a daily basis, but I sure do all I can to get my ads out there and seen by many.
** Now … Finding Things to Sell.
One of the very first places I sold for as an affiliate is Clickbank. If you haven’t heard of it, Clickbank is an affiliate marketplace. They pay you every two weeks for sales made through their system. I have been selling for them for many years. I am not a “super affiliate” by any means, but I do try my best to sell something everyday.
Sign up at http://www.clickbank.com . You’ll need to make sure to put your mailing address in your account so that they can send you a check when payment is due. Once signed in, click on “marketplace”. You can search various categories there to see what all to sell. I stick mainly with advertising. I search for terms like email, submitter, solo ads, banners, seo, website visitors, traffic, etc. One of the products that sells very well for me is called “Done for You Traffic”. You can search for that and get your link. Once you have your link to sell it, you’ll want to get a tiny url to hide the link. I get tiny urls at http://www.tinyurl.com . Some other sellers to search for are “blast for traffic”, “emarketing mania” and “10 million hits”.
Writing ads can be a bit tricky at first. Jot down notes from their website. You can go from there. Some sites have a link so that their affiliates can get ad copy. You can always use one of their ads or start with it and change it a little bit to make it your own. Either way, the ad is going to be what gets people to actually visit the website. Once there, most websites pretty much sell themselves.
I know that starting out with affiliate marketing can be very confusing, so I am going to stop here before I confuse you too much. Again, I am targeting this post to those who are brand new at this. If you are already a pro, please forward this on to someone who might need some help learning how to get started.
Now that I have a large advertising base (places I can advertise to daily and my own list) I do work a few MLMs and other things that cost money to get into. Since you are new to all of this, however, you should start with the very basics. Learn to make that first sale. Once you do that (and keep on making sales) you can start to add things. What happens to many people is that they don’t start with just the basics and try to branch out into too many things. That can cause trouble. It can cost way too much, and starting out FREE is just always the best (in my opinion). I don’t want to see you give up. I want to see you succeed!
You should also think about getting your name known online if you are wanting to work as an affiliate marketer. Here is another blog post I wrote on that: http://blog.paulafrye.com/?p=409.
One person who does a very good job of helping people learn the basics of Internet Marketing is Ewen Chia. He has a free website where you can get information on the very basics. Here is the link in case you want to watch some of the videos. They can be very helpful. http://tinyurl.com/yj89fxw . Just by going through some of his totally free teachings, you will understand a lot more than I did at first. I have learned a lot from Ewen throughout the years.
I hope this helps you in some way. Whatever you do, do not get discouraged in your journey. There were many days I felt like giving up. I was so overwhelmed, and I didn’t have anyone to help me. I’m now glad I stuck with it, and I have no doubt that you can also start working online if you just stick with it. It will take time, and as long as you understand that, you can keep on “keeping on”. You’ll be surprised how much you can learn once you get going.
Take care,
Paula
P.S. I am marketing a lot of different things now since I’ve been doing this for 13 years. Do not let me confuse you. Just ignore what all I’m selling and focus only on what you can handle selling. We all start selling one or two things. No one can start with a lot of things. It just doesn’t work that way.
