Leading Edge

If you have any experience with selling before you retired than you will be familiar with the concept that it takes at least 7 contacts to convert a prospect into a customer. This concept applies to an online business as well.
When you have an online business you always need to bear in mind that some of your visitors will never return again. You can keep in touch with some of your visitors by capturing their email address and sending them regular emails. In order to do this, you will need an autoresponder.
Autoresponder Services
There are several autoresponder services available that will enable you to create an opt in form for your website (you need this to capture email addresses), build your list of subscribers, send automated emails and send broadcast emails (you can send these whenever you want).
You want to choose an autoresponder service that has high-deliverability rates. The most well-known names are Get Response and Aweber. Both of these services have very high-deliverability rates and you can get started with a monthly plan for around $15.
With autoresponder services you pay for the total number of subscribers that you have. There are thresholds which will move you up to the next level which will cost you more each month. It is very easy to use all of these autoresponder services.
You need a good Incentive
Visitors to your website are not going to provide their email address without a good incentive to do so. Just asking people to sign up for your newsletter is not enough. You need to make them an offer that they cannot refuse.
If you are in the weight loss niche for example you could provide your visitors with a free report that shows them how to lose weight using a secret method. Or you can create a video about something that provides value to the visitor. Just remember that your incentive needs to be enticing enough for the visitor to part with their email address.
Although you are giving something away for free you need to understand that your visitors know that they will end up on your email list and that they will receive emails from you. These days people are on a lot of email lists and receive more emails than they can deal with.
Setup an Automated Sequence
With an autoresponder you can setup a sequence of emails that are automatically sent to anyone who joins your email list. So, you could create 7 emails and load them into your autoresponder and tell it to send these emails in turn every day for a week.
The advantage of this is that you do not need to write and send new emails every time. You can create emails in advance and then load these into your autoresponder and then just let them go out automatically.
Send Broadcast Emails
All autoresponders have a broadcast feature which means that you can send an email out to your entire list whenever you want to. If you have added a new product then you can use broadcast emails to let everyone know about this.
An autoresponder provides you with the opportunity to get your visitors back to your website time and again. You can provide valuable information to your subscribers and promote your products and services to them.

Getting traffic to your website is the lifeblood of your online business. There are several different paid traffic options that you can use to send traffic to your website and we recommend that you use a mixture of paid traffic and free traffic methods.
One of the best things about paid traffic is that it can produce results for you very quickly. You can set up an advertising campaign and then start receiving visitors to your website almost immediately. In this article we will look at the best paid traffic methods that you can use.
Pay Per Click (PPC) Search Engine Marketing
The best traffic available comes from major search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. People use specific search terms known as “keywords” to find what they are looking for. With a PPC campaign you can post an ad that will appear on the first page of the search results for keywords that you specify.
To create a PPC campaign the first thing you need to do is to undertake keyword research to identify the best keywords for your niche. You can do this for free using the Google Keyword Planner. If you want to outsource the work then there are plenty of capable freelancers on gig sites such as Fiverr.com and PeoplePerHour.com.
Once you have your keywords you need to identify those that you will use in your PPC campaign. If you are in the weight loss niche then you want to avoid keywords like “weight loss” and “lose weight” as these are far too general. Look for longer tail keywords such as “how to lose weight fast” or “how to lose belly fat”.
Both Google and Microsoft have good PPC offerings. When it comes to traffic, nothing beats Google. But Microsoft Ads that appear on Bing, Yahoo and other search engines tend to have a significantly lower cost per click. After setting up your PPC campaign you should start receiving traffic in minutes.
Social Media Ads
Facebook is a social media giant. It has billions of users across the world and you can use this amazing social platform to create ads for your online business. With Facebook Ads (and Instagram Ads) you can select the people that you want to see your ad.
You need to know your target audience to get the best results from social media ads. What age range are they? Are they male or female? Where do they live? What interests do they have? By drilling down like this you will ensure that the right people see your ads in their newsfeed. Social media ads can be cheaper than PPC ads and just as effective.
Native Ads
There are websites like Taboola.com that will display your ads on very high traffic news sites like CNN.com. You will see native ads on websites like Yahoo.com as well. The reason that native ads are very effective is that they blend in very well with the rest of the content on the website.
Native ads are good if your online business is in a high demand niche such as weight loss, making money, personal development or relationships. They can also work well in general interest niches such as computing and technology, health and more.

If you have recently retired or are a senior looking to earn an additional income or do something challenging then starting an online business is a good idea. More and more people are using the Internet to purchase products and services and you can position your online business to take a slice of this revenue.
The opportunities to make money with an online business are almost endless. There are a lot of seniors and retirees that own successful online businesses, so if they can do it so can you. It is much easier to start an online business than you probably think it is. You do not have to be a computer whizz to get started.
An Additional Source of Income
Unfortunately, a lot of seniors and retirees find that they do not have sufficient finances to do what they want to do. They have spent many years working a conventional job and they do not want to look for another job and join the rat race all over again. There is no need for you to do this as you can make extra income from an online business.
There is nothing quite like making your first dollar online. Once you experience this you will want to make even more. You can set up passive income streams online that will make money for you while you are doing the things that you want to do. Making money while you are sleeping is certainly possible with an online business.
It will be a new journey for you
Although the thought of sitting around doing nothing after working hard for many years may have an initial appeal, this will quickly wear off and you will get bored with this. Starting a new online business will be an exciting journey for you and it will give you a real purpose in life.
Making your online business work will keep your mind active and you will learn a lot of new things. It will give you a great sense of satisfaction knowing that you started your online business from nothing and now it is making you a lot of money.
You can get started for a few dollars
Unlike a conventional business where you would need to invest in stock, rent a business premises, employ workers and pay for lots of other things to operate the business, you can start an online business for just a few dollars.
We recommend that you invest in a domain name and web hosting so that you can create your own website. A domain name will cost around $10 a year and you can get web hosting for as little as $5 a month. You can then use free tools like the WordPress blogging platform to create your website.
An Online Business is very flexible
With an online business you can work whenever you like. There are no set hours as there are with a job. You can work from home or anywhere that you want as long as you have a computer or smart mobile device (such as a smartphone or tablet) and a connection to the Internet.
Some days you may want to work on your online business for the whole day and other times you can just work for an hour or even have the day off. Be prepared to put the hours in to setup your online business and learn the ropes. After that it is up to you.

As a senior or retiree, it is likely that you are new to the world of online business. There are several different online business models that you can choose from but some of these have a steep learning curve and require a significant investment. Affiliate marketing is the easiest online business model that you can start.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is where you promote someone else’s products and services in exchange for a commission. Each time that a sale is made through your affiliate link you will earn a commission. Commissions vary, and you will make more money promoting digital products and services than you will promoting physical products.
You need to learn the different methods for successfully promoting affiliate offers and you have to drive targeted traffic to your offers. Let’s say that you decide to promote a weight loss product as an affiliate. In order to make sales, you will need to get your offers in front of people that want to lose weight.
You can get started for a small cost
While it is possible to start affiliate marketing completely free, we recommend that you purchase a domain name and some web hosting so that you can create your own website. There are free platforms available such as Weebly.com, Blogger.com and WordPress.com but the main problem with these is that you are not in control.
Many affiliate marketers have lost their websites on free platforms for no apparent reason. If this happens to you then there is nothing that you can do about it. You will have to start all over again. When you have your own website, this cannot be taken away from you and you are in total control.
It will cost around $10 to register a domain name for a year. You can get web hosting from $5 a month upwards. This is a very small price to pay for having your own website. Internet users know that a website on Blogger.com or WordPress.com is free so why should they trust you and purchase a product through your affiliate link if you cannot be bothered to have your own site?
Registering as an Affiliate is free
You should never have to pay any money to become an affiliate for a product or service. If you are asked to pay then forget about this offer and find another one for free. Clickbank.com has thousands of digital products that you can promote as an affiliate and it is free to join their network.
Once you are a member of Clickbank then you will be able to promote the vast majority of products available immediately. It is an automatic process to receive your unique affiliate link. Clickbank has a very good reputation for paying its affiliates on time as well.
You will learn about Traffic Generation
In order to make affiliate commissions you will need to drive visitor traffic to the offers you are promoting. There are many ways that you can do this for free and by paying for ads. Learning how to drive targeted traffic is a skill that you need to acquire for any online business that you want to get involved with in the future.
In conclusion, affiliate marketing is very easy and cheap to get started with and you can focus on developing your traffic generation skills which will always be valuable to you. There is very little risk with affiliate marketing.

Selling “in demand” services online can be very lucrative for seniors and retirees. This is possible even if you do not have any marketable skills. Many business owners and individuals are looking for high-quality services and when you get in front of these people you can make a lot of money.
If you worked for a company or ran your own business for a number of years then it is possible that you have some skills that other people will pay top dollar for. We will take a look at some of the most popular services that people look for online in this article.
What Services are in demand?
Virtually every business these days has a website. They want their website to attract customers for their business but a lot of people do not know how to go about this properly. You can help them to achieve their goals.
Here are some of the most in demand skills that website owners need:
• Content writing
• Copywriting
• Graphic design
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Social media marketing
• Website development
• Website troubleshooting
Every website needs good quality content to keep their visitors happy and the search engines. To rank high in the search results, a website needs fresh and unique content posted regularly. A lot of website owners do not have the time or the inclination to write this content and if you have good writing skills then you can perform this service for them.
Converting website visitors into leads and customers requires persuasive copy and if you have copywriting skills then you can make a ton of money. A lot of websites are sadly lacking in this department and if you can create copy that provides an online business with more leads and sales then you are on to a winner.
Do you have graphic design skills? If so, you can make a lot of money by offering this service online. There are always people looking for logo design, product graphics design and more. Turn your talents into profits.
All websites need traffic so if you have SEO skills or social media marketing skills then promote these and make money. Everyone wants their web pages to be on the first page of the Google search results and they also want a good following on their social media profiles.
If you are a whizz with website design and development then there are plenty of people looking for these skills every day. Fixing broken websites is also in great demand as website owners need their sites to be available all of the time.
Drop Servicing
If you don’t have the skills yourself then you can still profit from the demand for services online. This is known as “drop servicing” or “services arbitrage” and the way that it works is that you find the customers and then outsource the work to competent freelancers.
You charge the customers more than you pay the freelancers and you will make a profit. There are some very talented people on Fiverr.com that charge very little for their services. You can mark up their price significantly to make a healthy profit from being in the middle.
It is essential that you find talented freelancers that are reliable for your drop servicing business. Test them out to see how good they are. You can use PPC ads to drive traffic to your drop servicing website.

As a senior or retiree, you may have heard a lot of myths about online business that are simply not true. We want to set the record straight with this article so you know what is fact and what is fiction. These myths can prevent you from starting an online business altogether or send you down the wrong track.
1. You need to be a Technical Genius
Some people think that you need to be some kind of technical guru with computers to start and run a successful online business. This is total nonsense. There are plenty of examples of successful online business owners that do not have a clue about how websites work or how the Internet works and couldn’t care less.
Do you know how electricity works? How about the telephone, do you know how that works? What about the internal combustion engine – are you an expert in the technical workings of this? The point we are making here is that you have used these things all of your life whether you knew how they worked or not.
When the Internet first started to gather pace in the mid 1990s you needed to know how HTML code worked to create a website. These days everything is very easy and you don’t need to know anything about the workings. It is just a matter of “dragging and dropping” or clicking a few buttons to create a website.
Never think that you need to know how everything works to be successful online. There are plenty of resources available online if you want to learn how the Internet works and websites if you are interested. If you want to do something that requires technical expertise you can always find people that will do the work for you.
2. Push Button Miracles
There is a belief that it is possible to make a huge amount of money following some method and pushing a few buttons. Many vendors peddle this garbage to unsuspecting people and make money from products that promise these miracles.
If it was as easy as pushing a few buttons to make money online then everyone would be doing it. Wild claims of instant traffic and instant commissions are just totally untrue. You are bound to come across some of these shiny objects that promise you the world for a few bucks. Steer well clear of them all.
3. You can work for one hour a day
This is another dream that the push button miracle crowd will try and sell you. They know that most people are lazy and want to live the dream by only working less than an hour a day to make all of the money that they want.
You will need to put in some time, effort and money to establish your online business. Once it is up and running then you can ease back on this if you want to. It may be possible for you to only work an hour a day after that but most successful online business owners will spend more time than this.
4. It is too Competitive
There are certainly a lot of online businesses out there and there is a lot of competition in some niches, but there is always room for you and your online business. You need to be committed and focus on driving traffic to your online business. When you do this, you have as much chance of success as anyone that is currently doing something similar to you.

If you have never started an online business before as a senior or retiree then there are a few basics that you need to understand and get right. These are essential foundations that will help you to build the successful online business that you want.
The online business world can be overwhelming for a senior or retiree because they know that there is so much to learn. Nobody knows everything about online business no matter how much experience they have. Things are always changing, so focusing on the basics is always recommended.
Get a good Domain Name
The first thing that you need to do is to get a good domain name. A domain name that you probably know very well is Google.com. You need a name for your website and it is easy for you to find one using free tools.
Think about what your website is going to be about. What niche are you going to be in? If you are going to sell your services as a consultant for example, then you could use your own name. An example could be PeterLamont.com or JulieSmithers.com.
We recommend that you try and obtain a .com domain as these are the most popular and favored by search engines like Google. The problem is that a lot of .com domains have already been taken. If you have a common name then try adding another word such as BillSmithConsuting.com for example.
You can use a domain registrar like Namecheap.com to look for and register your domain name. A .com domain costs less than $10 here and they will present you with alternatives if the name that you want is taken.
Web Hosting
In order to make your website live on the Internet you will need a web hosting account. You can connect your domain name to your hosting and then create your website. There are literally thousands of web hosting companies around and you can find good hosting deals starting from around $5 a month.
There are a few things that you need to look out for when you are choosing a web hosting company. These days there are reviews available online from real users of these companies. It can be a real eye opener reading what customers really think.
When you are a senior or retiree starting a new online business, you are going to need all of the help that you can get. The support offered by a web hosting company is very important. You will want to work with a web host that will respond to your questions promptly and courteously.
WordPress
Always choose a web host that offers one click WordPress installation. WordPress is a website creation platform that is really easy to use and ideal for seniors and retirees who know nothing about website creation.
You can easily customize your WordPress website by using a theme that you can either find for free online or pay a few dollars for. There are WordPress themes available for just about every niche you can think of.
Adding new content to a WordPress website is very easy. You can create a new page or post with no technical knowledge. There are also plugins available for WordPress that will enhance your website. The majority of these are free and you can find them easily with a Google search.

It is important that you are fully prepared to start and operate your online business. As a senior or retiree, you are likely to have more patience than a younger person who just wants to dive in feet first. This is a good thing as some careful planning will go a long way.
What Time Commitment can you make?
There are no miracle online businesses where you can click a few buttons and money starts pouring in overnight. It doesn’t matter what some product vendors tell you on their fancy sales pages, it really doesn’t work like that.
You will need to dedicate some time to your online business to make it a success. So, the first thing you need to do is to assess the amount of time each day you are willing to commit. The last thing that you want is for your online business to make you a slave so that you do not have any time to do anything else.
Think about the other things that you want to do and then decide on the amount of time you will have available for your new online business. There are different online business models that all have different time commitments so you can choose the one that best suits your time availability.
Set a Goal for your Online Business
There is a great deal of power in setting goals for your online business. Most people do not do this and then wonder why things are not turning out as they wanted them to. It is critical that you take your online business seriously if you want it to be a success. You are not doing this as a hobby.
How much additional income do you want your online business to generate for you in the first year? Create a goal around this. Use the SMART goal setting process to write your goal(s) properly. This is an acronym for:
• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Timed
Your goal needs to be specific, there is no room for vagueness here. Specify the income that you want your online business to generate for you in the first 12 months for example. All goals need to be measurable because you need to know how well you are progressing. With a financial goal this is easy to measure.
Achievable and realistic are similar but not the same. What you can achieve with your online business is probably going to be related to the amount of time that you can spend on it. While it is possible to make 6 figures a month with an online business, this is unlikely to be realistic for you as you are just starting out. Always add a timeline to your goal.
Plan to Succeed
Once you have your goal(s) for your online business you need to create a plan of how you are going to achieve it. As a senior or retiree, you probably have a lot to learn about online business and you can make this part of your plan.
What you want to end up with is a daily list of tasks that you can perform to move you closer to your goal. By working on tasks every day, you will reaffirm your commitment to your online business. It is very important that you take consistent action.

Traffic is essential for the success of your online business and we have some free traffic methods that really work. You will not have to get out your credit card to drive this traffic to your website but you will need to put in some effort. Some of the free traffic methods will produce results in the longer-term.
Think SEO
When you create your website and add posts to it you need to think SEO all of the time. Your aim is to rank every piece of content that you create on your website on the first page of the Google search results for related keywords.
This starts with keyword research. You need to find the search terms that people are using in your niche. Use the free Google Keyword Planner to find the best keywords. Then write your content around these keywords and optimize all of your posts for SEO.
Getting backlinks (links from other websites) is crucial for your high rankings in the search engines. Focus on obtaining high-quality backlinks from related websites. Over time you will see your pages rise in the search engine rankings.
Organic search engine traffic is the very best. It is very targeted as you will be providing relevant answers to the user searches. It will take time to rank your pages in the search engines so you need to bear this in mind.
Social Media Traffic
Identify the social media platforms where your potential customers hang out. Facebook is always a good source of potential leads and if you sell products and services to businesses then you need a LinkedIn profile.
You need to make regular posts on your social media profile that provide value. Focus on engagement by encouraging likes, shares and comments with your posts. Social media posts can go viral very fast so identify what questions people have in your niche and provide the answers.
Video Marketing
A lot of online business owners overlook the power of video marketing. Most people prefer to watch a short video than they do read a lot of text. By creating valuable videos and uploading them to YouTube you are sure to generate a lot of free traffic to your website.
Video creation is a lot easier now than it used to be. You do not have to appear on camera if you don’t want to but it will help to build trust with people if you do this. There are applications available that make it very easy for you to create high quality videos. Optimize your videos with the right keywords so that you will rank high in YouTube search.
When you create your videos be sure to encourage your viewers to subscribe to your channel, like your video and leave a comment. Videos with good engagement levels will rank higher in the search results.
Medium.com Articles
Article marketing has been resurrected with Medium.com. This is a website with very high authority that Google likes. You can write articles and publish them on Medium and some of them are likely to rank on the first page of Google for certain keywords. Medium gets millions of visitors every month.
Answer Questions on Quora
Quora.com is another high traffic website where people post questions that they want answers to. You can provide them with the answers that they need by posting and drive free traffic back to your website.

Plenty of affiliate marketers – and that includes your competition – simply direct their traffic to the vendor’s sales page and hope for the best. If you do the same thing, you might pick up a sale or two through sheer luck.

But you’ll make many MORE sales and enjoy BIGGER commission checks if you follow these five steps…

1. Build a relationship with your prospects.

People buy from those they know, like and trust. And you know what? Your prospects aren’t any different than everyone else. That means you’ll do much better converting your prospects into cash-paying customers if you build a relationship with them first.

How do you do this?

Actually, there are several ways you can do it, with the overall key being that you need to interact with your prospects and show them that you provide good value.

Example: You can accomplish this on a blog, on a forum and through a social media site like Facebook.com.

The single BEST way to build this relationship, however, is to get your prospects on a mailing list and contact them regularly.

2. Offer honest reviews.

This means you not only tell your prospects about the good points of any product you’re promoting, but you also need to tell them about the product flaws.

Sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it? But here’s why it works…

Your prospects already know that NO product is perfect. So if you don’t mention the product flaws, they’re less likely to trust you. They’ll think you’re trying to whitewash your review of the product. And so they’ll leave in hopes of finding someone who’ll be honest with them.

So what happens if you mention the product flaws? Your trustworthiness and credibility go through the roof – and so do your sales!

3. Add value to the offer.

Search Google for the product you’re promoting, and I bet you’ll discover that there are dozens of other marketers all promoting the same thing.

So how do you compete with them and snag more sales?

Simple: by offering your customer something that they can’t get anywhere else. Usually this mean you offer a free bonus.

Example #1: Let’s suppose you’re selling a book about hydroponic gardening. You can create a report that details how to get rid of garden pests and offer this report for free to everyone who purchases through your affiliate link.

Example #2: You’re promoting software. You can add value to product by offering free installation to everyone who purchases the software through your affiliate link.

Bottom line: You’ll get more sales, simply because you’re offering more value for the customer’s dollar!

4. Use good sales copy.

Even if you have a great relationship with your prospects, it’s still a good idea to brush up on your copywriting skills.

Basically, you need to learn how to persuade prospects by arousing curiosity, letting them know about the benefits of the product you’re promoting, and crafting compelling calls to action which get them to buy right now.

5. Build anticipation.

Don’t just send an email about a product to your list once and leave it at that. Instead, build anticipation by sending a whole series of emails about the product over the course of a week or two.

Talk about the benefits, raise curiosity, toss in a bonus – build anticipation, and you’ll build your sales numbers too.

These five tips are a good start to boosting your conversion rate and your commission checks.

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