The Three Step Strategy … first glimpse

So far, on this site and my others, we have journeyed through Stages 1. and 2. of what I believe is a unique  three-step strategy to easily setting up an online business.

Stage 1

Find a subject that you are interested in and …. start writing!

If this comes easy to you, then jump straight to Stage 2; if not, read on:

The best way to find your ‘writing mojo’ – from personal experience – is to start writing a blog; it can be on any blogging platform that you like (I use wordpress.com … it’s free, but no ads – who cares?)

Also, it doesn’t matter if you consider yourself a ’subject-matter expert’ or not, just make sure not to pass yourself off as one if you aren’t!

The point is to pick your subject and write about any aspect of it that you have experience in.

For example, on 7million7years.com I write about get rich(er) quick(er) strategies because I have been personally financially successful, so I feel qualified to ’speak’ on this.

On the other hand, on this site, I write about my experiences setting up an online business more as a ‘diary’ than a ‘how to’ because this is my first ‘information product’ sales site and you can monitor my successes and failures before deciding whether to emulate my unique approach.

No matter which tack you take for your blog, you will be learning more about your chosen subject as you research you posts (by reading books and other blogs, participating in relevant forums, and even drawing your readers into discussion with you).

After just a few months of (hopefully) enjoyable research and blogging (you did choose a hobby or topic that you are passionate about, right?!) you will come to realize that you have plenty of material for Stage 2.

Stage 2

This is where we get to make some (a little bit of) money!

First you need to create at least two information products:

1. A downloadable eBook, eCourse, and/or Video taken from some of your best posts (and, repackaged with additional content that you can create to link the various posts and fill in any gaps); this should sell for at least $29 – $49, preferably more (you’ll see why, shortly).

AND

2. A shorter Special Report or eBook or 3, 5, 7, or 9-Part eCourse (that you can use an autoresponder to automatically send out for you on an ‘every 1, 3, or 7 day’ cycle) that you will give away for FREE.

The first is how you make your money from direct sales (e.g. driven by advertising on Google Adwords … hence the need for a high-margin product) …

… the second is how you build up a mailing list from all of those people who visit your site but don’t buy immediately.

Hint

In addition, you should also let anybody who signs up for either the fee Information Product or the free ‘Special Report’ know that they will be receiving regular newsletters / eBulletins (i.e. “an exclusive weekly newsletter sent straight to your e-mail inbox!”).

Why?

So that you have an ‘excuse’ to remain in contact …

Then you build a sales site to market these products (you can scroll back to my first post on this site, if you want to see how I built repeatuntilrich.com using BeBiz from the Internet Marketing Center).

Stage 3

The other way to drive traffic is to rank high in the search engines … but, we have a problem:

Our ’sales-oriented’ site is just that – basically, a single page ’sales letter’ that touches on our prime keyword (if we followed the steps properly), but that’s about it.

So, we solve that problem by adding a new site … and, this is where the blog comes in real-handy:

We create a content-driven site using a product such as Site Build It! by Ken Evoy.

Why?

This allows us to create a content-rich / keyword-rich version of our blog (at least, that’s where we will get most of the content from) designed to direct traffic to our sales letter in some very innovative ways that I will share with you as this experiment in online business building unfolds