Chapter 7: Supplemental Info For Beginners

A. Creating Your Own Website (Related to Chapters 1-4)
If you know absolutely nothing about how to build a website, it doesn’t really matter.You can be a total novice and still make websites and earn yourself tons of money. An easy way to build your website is by using an online WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) editor tool.This way it’s totally simple and cheap to build websites that come out looking great.These websites are effective in convincing your visitors that you actually know what you’re doing. And the best part is that you don’t have to know what you’re doing.You don’t need to know HTML! Just go to:
1 Rich Jerk Websites - Rich Jerk customers are given the opportunity to have their own FREE”Affihiate Review”website created by my staff, that is already set up to make money. No HTML knowledge required! It will be an idiot proof way for you to make easy money.

2 XsitePro -The best website creation tool I’ve ever come across. For $197, it does everything for you, whether you want to create & sell your own product, sell affiliate products, or if you simply want to use my”Traffic Middleman” strategy.You don’t need to have ANY knowledge of HTML or codes whatsoever.

3 Plug in Profits - $49.95 gets you a dynamic affiliate website, created specifically for you with tutorials, user forums and 24 hour customer support. Click here to see the Plug-In Profit Site that earns me auto-pilot residual income 24/7/365.To get your own site setup just like mine, click here to order the Plug-In Profit Site service. Once your account is setup, click here to login and follow the Rich Jerk custom upgrade instructions so you can get a site like mine and start earning easy auto-pilot profits while you sleep just like me.

4 In order to put a website online, you will need to register a domain name. You’ll need to choose a name, make sure it is available, and have it hosted by a hosting company.To get a a FREE domain and a hosting account, go here.
Once you have a website set up, you’re ready for the next big step: making money. It’s common knowledge that linking to affiliate websites is a great way to watch revenue pour in.When visitors come to your website,click on your affiliate links and buy things from these affiliates,you then get a cut.That’s because part of the code includes a tracking mechanism which lets your affiliates know that you sent them there.

Another way to earn cash is by putting up advertisements on your website. Google Adsense is the biggest program out there, and it generates money for you every time a visitor to your website clicks on one of your ads - your visitors don’t even have to buy anything for you to make money. But before making any money,you’ll need to put the actual affiliate and advertising links onto your site. You can include affiliate links and advertisements on your website, and with the help of the online editor, you won’t have to know anything about programming.
To get an affiliate link and put it on your site,follow these simple steps:

1 Go to your favorite affiliate network like Clickbank or Commission Junction, or go directly to the site of your affiliate partner.

2 lfyou’re choosing an affiliate banner from the site,then copy the banner image and save it to your computer.To do this, right click the image, choose”Save Picture As”and remember what you name the image and where you save it.

3 Also save the HTML code that comes with the banner.This will be used to direct visitors to your affiliate when they click on the link.

4 To add the banner image to your page, browse for the banner image that you just saved, and once you find it,open it and bring it into yourworkspace.

5 Nowyou can bring in the affiliate link code. First highlight it, but be sure to include the part that looks like a URL (starting with http). Copy (Ctrl + C) and paste (Ctrl +V) this into the Link field.

B. Placing Affiliate Tracking Codes and Ads on your Website: If you don’t know HTML
(Related to Chapter 1)

C. Affiliate Networks & Affiliate Programs: What are they, how do they work, etc.
(Related to Chapter 2)
Now I’m going to show you how you can make a lot of money through joining an affiliate program. If you do it right,you can start to get rich through these partnerships. Really, it’s easy to make money this way. Here’s how it works:
Say you have a website that’s all about the hottest electronic items on the market, and because you really do have a brain,you also have affiliate links going out to businesses that sell these electronics. Now say one of your web pages is devoted to reviewing a certain device, and a visitor who comes to this web page reads the review. After reading the review, your visitor decides he wants to buy the product. What does he have to do in order to buy it?
Follow the affiliate link.That’s because by placing an affiliate link on your site,you are able to refer your visitor to a business that sells the product. In exchange for the referral, or”lead,”you get a cut—but only if the sale is made.

So how does your affiliate know that you provided the lead? Simple.Affiliate links use tracking so that when a lead converts into a sale,the customer can be traced back to your website where the affiliate link was clicked.
Now, since there’s a huge number of businesses available to partner with, several online networks have sprung up.These are really clearing houses for affiliates, so that web publishers like you can pick,choose and compare the different affiliates and their payout rates all in one place.You’re going to get less ofa cut than if you go through the company directly, but that’s just the price you pay for having it easy. And if you’re lazy like me, it’s totally worth it.
The best affiliate networks are Clickbank, Commission Junction, BeFree and Linkshare.These have been instrumental in helping me become filthy rich.

6 Republish the site and test out the link in your browser to make sure you did it right.
You can’t start making money until you get traffic to your website,and one of the best ways I’ve found to get traffic is by advertising your website through Google Adwords.This is the biggest PPC (pay per click) program on the web,and you have to be a total moron not to take advantage of this opportunity to drive up traffic.
You can create a Google Ad Words account at adwords.google.com. I also highly suggest you get a free copy of this guide: 5 Days to Success with Google AdWords.
There are a few things you have to know about Adwords, because using this program is nothing like putting up a banner. First, there are no images. Only text.You get a small amount of space to write your advertisement.Typically it’s the one headline followed by two more lines and then below that is your website’s URL.That’s it.You might be thinking that this is lame and ineffective.You’re wrong.
Why? Well, the second important feature of AdWords is that your ads only show up when they’re relevant to the content on the rest of the webpage that a visitor lands on.They also show up on search engine results pages, when people type in keywords that relate to your ad. (These are the”sponsored listings”that you can find listed on the right hand side of search engine results pages).This is why Ad Words advertisers are so successful: you only get seen by people who are already looking for information on your product or service.

The third thing you need to know is this: as an Ad Words advertiser, you get to choose which keywords you want your ad to show up for.You’re going to have to pay more for the terms that get a lot of traffic, because they’re much more competitive.

So, if someone goes to Google and searches for”video games,”and you’ve chosen “video games” as one of your trigger keyword phrases, then your ad will show up as a “sponsored link”on the right side of the Google’s search results page. If you’re running a totally killer campaign, you can even be listed in the blue shaded boxes above the page results.
Of course/’video games” is a pretty competitive term, which not only makes it cost more per click, but also makes it hard to get seen.A lot of sponsored links get shuffled off to a second page.As soon as people start clicking on it,though,you’ll move up closer to the top position,and traffic will start pouring in.

D. Google Ad Words
(Related to Chapter 2)
Until then,you’ll want to try bidding on terms that are less competitive,so you show up as one of the first sponsored links when the occasional visitor searches for that term.These terms also cost less per click, and if you bid for a ton of them, you can get visitors from all over.
Along with this, you can choose to have your site show up on Google partners’ sites, like America Online, Earthlink, Ask Jeeves and a ton of other ones.There’s also an option for your ads to show up on any websites that are relevant to what you’re advertising.You can even have your ads show up on Google’s webmail service Gmail, when users send emails that include content relevant to what you’re bidding for.

Google claims that its Ad Words program reaches out to 80% of Internet users—I don’t doubt it.These guys are all over the place. But that doesn’t mean you have to be. If you don’t want your ads to show up everywhere in the Google network,you can opt out of any partner sites, Gmail or whatever. If people keep coming to a certain site and clicking on your ads, but they’re not buying anything,then you don’t want to show your ads there. Why would you want to keep paying money if you’re not getting anything back for it? So keep an eye on your Ad Words conversion rates.

E. Google AdSense
(Related to Chapter 2)
Once you get people coming to your website,you’re going to want to have a quick way to turn this traffic into revenue. By far the most mindless way to make lots of money online is through Google AdSense. All you have to do is throw some Google AdSense code onto your website and let your visitors come and check out the ads. Every time they click on an ad, you make money.
Any company that places an ad with Google AdWords, has the option of letting their ads appear on your website or others as Google AdSense Ads. Basically, Google AdSense is the result of Google Ad Words advertisers.

Getting the code is easy,you don’t even have to know HTML.Just go to www.google.com/adsense and apply for an AdSense account. Once you’re approved (usually in minute or so) you can get right to it. Start by choosing the color and layout you want (like I mention in Chapter 2) the ads to show up as on your website. Once you’re satisfied,they’ll give you a block of HTML code that you then just copy (Ctrl + C) and paste (Ctrl + V) onto your website. It’s even easier when you use a WYSIWYG editor online.

But what’s to say that people will click on your ads? While a lot of your success depends on good placement of the ads, most of the work is done for you already.You see, Google Adsense makes sure every ad that your visitors see is relevant to what they’re looking for. If your site is about flowers, then the ads that show up are going to be for florists, nurseries and whoever else is bidding to show up on your website.The amount of money you make per click depends on how much advertisers are bidding.
But the best part about AdSense is that you don’t have to deal with the advertisers at all. It all goes through Google. And it doesn’t even matter if the visitor ends up buying something on the advertiser’s site.The visitor comes and clicks. End of story. If you’re lazy like me, and you like to earn lots of money, Google AdSense is the perfect web tool for you.

F. Pay Per Click (PPC) Search Engines
(Related to Chapter 2)
If you want traffic right away,you’re going to need advertisements that bring visitors to your website.The best way to get quick results is with a Pay Per Click (PPC) search engine like Google,Yahoo, or a dozen or so smaller search engines that are worth signing up with.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, PPC means you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. It’s an advertising system that makes sure the only money you spend goes toward getting visitors on your site. PPC search engines are a great way to advertise because they let you commit a fixed amount of money to a campaign. It can be $100 or $1 00,000—it doesn’t matter. Then, you choose how much you want to spend every time someone clicks on your ad when they are searching for a particular keyword.

If you’re selling headphones, then the cost per click (CPC) might be about 2 bucks. If that turns into a 20 dollar sale, then it’s obviously worth it. Many of the PPC search engines have interfaces that let you plug in your keyword terms and see an estimate of how much it will probably cost to run your advertisement for certain keywords. Say that other PPC ads bidding for “headphones” get 1000 clicks a day. At 2 bucks a click, that can add up fast.
And this is where PPC campaigns can get kind of pricey. You could end up spending thousands a day just on advertising. But, you can always set a daily limit on the amount you’re willing to spend, that way you won’t get burnt.

Go for terms that are less obvious. Some keywords are less expensive, or less searched—some of these can even have higher conversion rates than the bigger keywords. The great part about PPC search engines is that you can totally turn around your campaign on a day to day basis. If certain terms aren’t converting, or are costing too much, then the words can be thrown out and replaced with an entirely new set of words that work better.

G. Search Engine Optimization
(Related to Chapter 3)
I don’t care if your site has a bunch ofAdSense ads, affiliate links or even a storefront for e-Commerce. If you don’t have any traffic,you’re not making any money. Now,there are two main ways to get traffic coming to your website: Pay-Per-Click (PPC) search engines and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEC can be a lot more cost effective than PPC, although it may take a little bit longer to show up in organic (non-sponsored) search results.

Just like its name suggests, SEC is a process of optimizing a website so that it ranks high in search engines.A well optimized site should show up in the first 10 results for popular keyword searches that are relevant to the content of your website. Good engines to rank in are Google,Yahoo, MSN or even smaller ones like Ask Jeeves Search engines want to provide their users with a valuable service—results that are relevant to the search. With billions of websites on the Internet, they automate the process by using highly sophisticated algorithms to determine which sites get placed above others after a user searches for a certain keyword term.These algorithms are kept secret and search engines like Google change them all the time so that website optimizers have a harder time manipulating the results, or”gaming”the search engine.

No matter what changes are made, however, the algorithms continue to rely on the following two components of a website: links and content. It’s common knowledge that the most important part of SEC is getting links.The search engine algorithms give major points to websites with a lot of inbound links as well as links from large, respected websites.The rationale behind this is that quality websites gain popularity naturally, and if other users believe the site is worth linking to, then the search engines should rank it high too. As see in Chapter 3, however, that it’s easy to manipulate links so that they give your website a better ranking in search engines. I do this all the time, and I’m really rich because of it.

When it comes to content, keywords are crucial because they are what user searches are essentially looking for. If you know thousands of people are searching for”Motorola cell phones,”then you’d better make sure your cell phone website has an article that mentions”Motorola cell phones.” Look in Chapter 3 to find out the best way to put keywords and other content on your website.There are some really easy ways to make your site worth a lot more money.

H. Clickbank: How to create and sell a product on Clickbank, and how to become an affiliate of other Clickbank merchants
(Related to Chapters 1-2-4-6)

I keep saying here that one of the best things to sell online is information. People always want to find out the top 10 secrets to improving their life, and are always willing to drop money on some ebook that will explain it all to them.That’s why Clickbank is such a killer affiliate network.They’re focused entirely on non-material products—that means anything you can deliver in an email or download as an ebook.

How do you”create”one of these information products? Easy—just write one for yourself. If you’re lazy like me, you can just pay someone else to write it for you. What kind of ebook are you going to sell? Honestly, I suggest doing something that’s already been way overdone. I’m not kidding. Weight loss, acne removal, quitting smoking—all these have sold for years, and there’s no reason they’re not going to keep selling.

When it comes to online information products,Clickbank is hands down the top affiliate network.They have a huge network of affiliates who will send customers straight over to buy your product.

You can also sign up as an affiliate of other products on Clickbank.Just have a website that reviews some of the informational products sold on Clickbank, and each time you send over a customer who pays, you can make a commission of up to 75%. It’s really easy to choose who you want to link to. Next to each product in the Clickbank Marketplace (Click on “promote products”on Clickbank’s homepage) they tell you the exact percentage commission that gets paid out for the product.This way it’s easy to browse through the huge number of options,and find a plan that really makes you money.

If you’re not lazy like me and you like to take that hands-on approach to getting rich online, then go for it. Buy real stuff, package it, ship it out and wipe the sweat off your brow after a long day of hard work.Totally not my style, but it’s still a great way to make tons of money.

What’s the best way to sell things online? Simple: Buy hot consumer products wholesale and sell them to other wholesalers or to retail customers through eBay®. Wait! You don’t know which wholesalers to buy from? Don’t know the best way to sell on eBay®? Calm down.

SaleHoo - SaleHoo has expanded upon the chapter in my book about buying and selling wholesale products on Ebay. Membership to SaleHoo gets you access to hundreds of secret wholesalers from China who sell the hottest electronics, clothing, sports equipment and more in bulk, at huge discounts. You can then resell these products on Ebay for profits and become a PowerSeller.This is how the other guys do it.
Now,to sell on eBay®,you’re going to want to open up an eBay® store.Again,calm down. It’s easy.You’ll get a user-friendly showcase for all the products you sell, and comes with lots of features that make selling things easy. The Best part is that you get to auction items or just set up an eBay® store by following these simple steps:

1 Go to the eBay® Storefront, and click on “Open Store Now”.
2 You’ll be prompted to enter your credit card and checking account info and tell them how you want to pay the sales fees and everything else.
3 Doit.
After you set up youre account you can set up a store that fits your needs. No matter which feature level you choose, you’ll get a powerful domain name like www.stores.ebay.com/yourstorename, a gallery to showcase your goods and a ton of other cool features that will help you sell more and make lots of money.
Then simply go to your”My Ebay®” account and click on “Sell and eBay® will walk you through the simple process of selling your items.

I. eBay®: How to set up your own store and sell goods
(Related to Chapter 6)

If you’ve heard about cloaking before, chances are you think it’s more complicated than it actually is. Really, all you have to know about it is this: it’s a way of showing the search engines one thing while your visitors see something else.

Okay, I’m going to spell it out for you. Search engines like keywords and links and all the things that tell them that your website is relevant. People, on the other hand, like to see websites with nice graphics and quality information about what they’re searching for. Unfortunately, people and search engines don’t always agree.What might get you ranked high would end up being useless to the visitor, and vice versa. So, if you decide to do some cloaking and you’re not a total moron, you’re going to make sure that the search engine sees what a search engine would want to see, and the human website visitors see what they want to see. Actually, you can still be a moron—it doesn’t matter.You don’t have to know anything about cloaking to do it.You just have to get a software program serviced by someone who knows what they’re doing, and you’re set. My favorite software is Fantomaster,which is definitely pricey at $2,480, but well worth every penny.You can also try Search Engine Cloaker, which is only around $160. Not as fancy, but it’ll do. I prefer Fantomaster because Dirk, the owner, sets everything up for me.
I don’t really care what’s going on behind the scenes, as long as cloaking is helping me get my site ranked higher. Still, you should know that IP cloaking is the most common form of this around.When search engines come onto the web and crawl your website, they come from somewhere.Their point of origin is marked by an”IP address.” So a cloaking program will serve up the pages made for search engines to every visitor that comes from a search engine IP address. Everyone else (humans) see the pretty webpage

Remember that cloaking is really controversial. If a major search engine like Google finds out that your website is doing this, your site will be banned, or”blacklisted” forever. Sometimes jealous webmasters will rat you out,or sometimes search engines will find you on their own. I talk about how to cloak safely and effectively in Chapter 3.

J.Website Cloaking for Beginners: What it is, how to do it, etc.
(Related to Chapter 3)