Your Checklist for Making Money in 2009 By Carmin Wharton

Folks, 2009 is OUR year.  With the economy being in such a fragile state and especially in light of the fact that careers that people once counted on can be here today and gone tomorrow, more and more people will be online trying to earn a living or additional income. This is THE time to be an internet business owner!  I want you to be a success and there are some things you need to have in place to guarantee your success.  Now don’t overwhelm yourself and try to achieve all of this at once.  However, you must have a plan in place and follow it to realize high income earnings in 2009 and beyond.

Getting through this list may take you a month or six months but if you will methodically go through this list and implement what is here, you will see your business grow beyond your wildest imagination.

Choose the proper niche or target market. Make sure you love the business you are in and that you can relate sincerely to your target market.

Secure a domain name, website and/or blog. Buying a domain name is one of the cheapest business expenses you will incur; you can buy a domain name from Godaddy.com for less than $10 for a year. 

Give away something so you can grow your subscriber mailing list.  It could be a free report or e-book you create or information products created by someone else.  People are bombarded by so much email that they are not going to part with their name and email address unless you offer them something in return.

Sell a product or service.  Share something – your knowledge, expertise or experience – just share something.  And, while you are sharing, make sure you sell because this is the main way you will make money.  You can sell products and services you create or you can sell affiliate products (other people’s products that you make a commission from selling). 

Use free website strategy tools at your disposal.  Submit your website or blog to search engines, write articles with a strong resource box at the end of the article.  What you want is targeted traffic – not just any traffic – but targeted traffic that is made up of your niche.

Set up an affiliate program.  You can call this a Referral Program or a Partnership Program.  Just make sure that you develop some products and then be willing to pay people a commission to sell your products which will naturally generate traffic back to your website or blog. Depending on their service or product, you may want to offer Major Affiliates a higher commission.

Develop joint venture relationships. Cultivate relationships with people whose business or service compliments your business or service in some way.  Make sure these joint venture partners are not in the exact same business as you are but their product or service should be of interest to your target market.  To cultivate these relationships, offer to give these potential partners a free sample of your product or service and then offer them a special commission to sell your products and services.  Offer to do the same for them.  Keep adding joint venture partners but make sure they are a good fit for you first.

Cross sell for added profits.  You and your joint venture partners and people who are Major Affiliates can sell each others’ products.  This will create lasting relationships and good will. Also, incorporate some things you can sell that will give you long-standing residual income such as business cards, website hosting or a membership website.

Accept credit cards.   You are literally leaving money on the table if you are not accepting credit cards.  And it’s such an easy thing to accomplish nowadays; you don’t need to apply for a merchant account and wait for approval.  You can use the international leader, PayPal and there are many other companies that offer the same services as PayPal.  If you product is strictly digital like an e-book, you can also sell it through Clickbank.

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About the Author:

Carmin Wharton is a home-based business expert and the founder of e-BlackWomenNetwork.com, a membership community designed to take businesses owned by women of color from start-up to prosperity. Carmin's mission is to help women earn what they're worth and make it big in their home-based business on their own terms.