Photo by AP-TURE

Not to take away the importance of business fundamentals, testing and market research, but what if you thought of your online business as art? What if you thought of yourself as an artist?

Would this line of thinking make your business better? I think it would.

The internet is being more and more overcrowded with new sites and online businesses. More people are jumping online to try to make money. This list has over 200 make money online blogs. Many of these blogs are less than a year old. I think the artist metaphor is an excellent way to help you stand out from the big crowd and be unique.

Your website is your canvas. Your content is your art. Your marketing is art too. Even the way you monetize can be art.

Art, by definition, is unique. Art is worth more. Art provides a unique experience. Art touches the heart not just the head. Art happens when you’re being yourself.

An Example

I’m thinking of starting a blog in a relatively small game-related niche. However, this niche is filled with rabid fans that spend a lot of money.

I had a plan of how I was going to create and run the blog. My thought process was pretty simple. My plan was to write quality content, market it to the popular forums in the niche, and then put up AdSense, advertising, and affiliate programs to make money.

Seems like a good plan, right? But as I thought about the artist metaphor, I realized that my plan was too boring. My plan was not interesting. My plan was the same plan as everyone else’s. My plan was not artistic.

So, I took some time to brainstorm and here’s where I’m at with my plan.

• Instead of just text blog posts, I’m gonna produce podcasts, videos, and even sketchcasts.
• Instead of just doing forum marketing, I’m gonna build friendships with the gamers in the forums and then start running tournaments with those gamers. I’ll even pay for the prizes myself. Also, I’ll go to offline tournaments to befriend gamers in person. Then, through the friendships, I’ll introduce them to my blog.
• Instead of just monetizing through AdSense, advertising, and affiliate programs, I’m gonna have a paid membership program where I give away my best content. Also, I’ll write an ebook and sell it. Also, I’ll take that ebook and create physical audio and video products based on it and sell those too.

Not Just a Blogger

I don’t want to think of myself as only a blogger.

• Artists are passionate about their niche. Bloggers oftentimes are only out to make money.
• Artists create unique, timeless content. Bloggers oftentimes just write rehashed content and report the news.
• Artist go the extra mile. They’re bold. They take creative risks. Bloggers are oftentimes just trying to meet a weekly post quota.
• Artists engage and converse with their audience. Bloggers oftentimes don’t do much marketing!

Think of the difference between Ford and Lamborghini. Ford is boring. But Lamborghini… now were talking :) Lamborghini cars are exciting. They make you feel a certain way. They’re a status symbol. They’re interesting not boring. They’re unique. They’re works of art while Ford cars are not.

Make your online business like Lamborghini instead of Ford. There are too many sites that are boring like Ford. The sites that will survive in the overcrowded web will be very unique like Lamborghini.

And the more unique you are, the more you can charge. Perception is reality. A unique perception translates to a higher profit margin. Also, you don’t have to worry about the competition, because you are the leader. As you become successful, people will try to copy you. But since they’re copying you, they will always be behind.

The Post was Inspired By…

How to Create Ebooks That Sell (especially the last section)
Death of the Book: Publishers Will Become Interactive Media Artists (Thanks, Jon.)

Transformers. Good stuff.

Seeing a picture of the cartoon Optimus Prime brings back great memories. Whether it was the cartoon TV show or the Optimus Prime toy I got for my birthday, I loved the Transformers.

If you’re not American or Japanese, you may not understand what I’m talking out. In the US, Transformers was an animated TV series that ran from 1984-1987. It may not have had the biggest TV audience, but the kids who liked it really liked it. They loved the show. Transformers were also these cool automobile toys which could transform into robots. Best toys ever.

Fast forward two decades later, and Transformers is now a summer blockbuster movie. Last Tuesday, Transformers earned $27.4 million dollars (via), which broke the Tuesday movie opening record by over $10 million.

So, how does a kids cartoon from the 1980s become a huge movie hit? How do robot toys translate into a $27 million payday?

The answer: rabid, passionate, cult-like fans.

Transformers was never really big until this week. The cartoon TV show didn’t have too many viewers. The toys didn’t break any sales records. No one waited in line to buy the newest Transformers robot toy. However, it had potential to become big because of its fans.

Now I’m not the biggest Transformers fan. I don’t dress up in Transformers costumes. But Transformers impacted my childhood so much that I asked all my friends to watch Transformers with me. What you have to realize is I don’t like going to the theater. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I went there.

Here’s more evidence of Transformers’ rabid fanbase. The movie viewers were split between 60% male and 40% female. That’s a lot of guys convincing their girlfriends to watch an action flick filled with talking robots :)

So, what does Transformers have to do with online business?

Simple. Are you building a business that will attract a passionate fanbase? Will a group of people be excited with your products or services?

I use the word excited because no one becomes a fan without some kind of excitement or passion.

And here’s what is great about true fans. They will market and promote your product for free. But if you don’t have fans… well, let’s just say your advertising budget will feel it.

Here are some quick examples of this phenomenon I call
small but passionate fanbase = big payday.

* Writely (free web-based word processor) bought by Google

* Blogger (blogging web-based software) bought by Google

* Reddit (Digg-like site) bought by Condé Nast, Wired Magazine’s Publisher

* Flickr (photo-sharing site) bought by Yahoo

Since you’re in online business, you don’t have to wait long for your big payday. Internet social media creates fanbases quickly. The reach of the internet allows you to attract fans from all over the world.

You don’t have to make something big. Many php programmers could’ve programmed the first version of Digg. You just have to come up with a good idea and execute it well. You just have to make something remarkable enough to draw a passionate fanbase.

So, make something people will love – not just like. Market it well and pretty soon a big player will come, see your fanbase, and give you a big payday.

Hello everyone. This is your captain speaking. First I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Eli from BlueHatSEO.com. I do a little SEO here and there when needed. It’s not everyday that someone like Matt offers you an opportunity to do a guest post on one of the best internet business blogs on the net like NetBusinessBlog. So I’d like to start off by expressing how extremely honored I am for the chance to write this post and demonstrate a few things to the NBB’s community. Writing about the business aspect of SEO is not something I get a chance to do very often so I think this is a great opportunity to talk about what I think is one of the toughest business transitions in the industry. The move from affiliate to full blown E-Commerce publisher.

The reason why I say that E-Commerce is the toughest transition to make is because if you’ve ever attempted it, whether you were successful or not, you find out very quickly why it’s called the big boys club. In the affiliate market industry you have several people above you. First the manufacturers. Then the suppliers.. Next the E-commerce sites. Lastly the affiliate network. Everyone above you wants you to succeed. Your success means their success. In the E-Commerce world the model of authority changes. It is just you and the manufacturer. The manufacturers want you to succeed but not so much that it hurts their real cash cows, the local retailers who will spare no time complaining about their online competition. Frankly you are nothing more than a necessary pain in the ass. In that spirit the manufacturers use their biggest asset, the suppliers/distributors, to put up barriers so the average Joe can’t just jump into the business. You go through the suppliers and the suppliers make sure you don’t upset the manufacturers. Understand that to them it’s fine to field complaints about places like Tigerdirect or Walmart being too price competitive. You just laugh and say yeah that’s them! Fielding questions about some guy/girl in a bathrobe out of their house is a different form of headache for the manufacturers. A headache they are not willing to accept. So what about the average Joe? How do we break into the business?

First understand that I’m going to explain in deep detail how, but that the information I’m telling you does not come from lots of research and reading. It doesn’t come from learning from other people and attending conferences, nor lots of personal success or luck. Instead it comes from tons upon tons of failures. I’m too embarrassed to say how many failed E-Commerce sites I have laying around on my servers in ratio to successful ones. Let us just say the numbers aren’t pretty. I learned the true secrets the hard way and in an effort to help you not do the same I present to you this guide.

The Niche

The obvious first step is to pick your niche. You should be an expert on this by now. So this step should be easy right? Sorta not really, this is where the most average Joe’s fail. When searching for niches as an affiliate marketer you look for easy to sell items that have low competition for their keywords. In E-Commerce its exactly backwards. You’re looking for those products that are seemingly impossible to sell online with extremely high competition for their keywords. I’ll explain why. The natural Internet nerd like ourselves wants to sell something we like or use ourselves. For instance computer parts or electronics. You can easily find long tailed phrases with low competition and get your hands on lots of products to ship. However, you are force to compete with everyone else. If you think you can score the same margins and prices as places like Newegg or CDW you are kidding yourself. They will absolutely crush you and leave barely anything left for the rest of the competition to wipe with. I hate to be blunt about it, but that’s the harsh reality of the situation. Instead do some retail research around town. Try going to a local mall and start writing down every product you see that would possibly have a big gross margin(the dollar amount between your buying price and selling price) that you think might be difficult to find online. You will be shocked at where you find these products. They aren’t on the bottom shelves at large retail outlets they are typically hidden in specialty shops.

After you have compiled your list ask yourself some questions about the products. I’m going list an example. Please don’t take it literally because I have done no actual product research on it. I’m strictly using it as a superficial point of reference. Lets assume you walked into a kite shop. So now we have a potential product to sell, kites.

1) Does this product potentially have a high gross margin? Yes, I would imagine kites would have a high gross margin because they seem fairly cheap to make and yet certain ones like two stringed kites sell for very expensive.

2) Does this product potentially have a MAP price(minimum advertised price allowed by the manufacturer)? Kites possibly do but more than likely don’t because kite shops are sparsely located in places where kite flying is popular like coast lines. *Products with MAPs in place are very good for starting in ecommerce because they allow you to get the product cheap, and still be able to compete with your prices against the heavy competition.

3) How hard will it be to get my hands on this product? With kites I would imagine it would be pretty hard. There probably aren’t very many kite distributors, and the few around are probably big enough to service the entire country.

4) Is this product easy to find and buy online? One search on froogle for the word “kite” gives me only 36k results. By comparison yeah I’d say its pretty hard to find the right kite online. *The harder to find a product the better. It means there is probably loads of information about it, but few selling it. Meaning, if you manage to get your hands on some product fulfillment; competition will be easy to deal with.

5) Are there plenty of variations of this product? Yes there are many many different types and shapes of kites. *Variations are a good thing, it means you may possibly be the only etailer to sell a particular model that a customer may be looking for. It also means your website will be large enough to draw enough traffic to convert. People may come to your site looking for one model or specific product but then decide on another while browsing your site.

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