Infopreneur... The "Next Generation" Netrepreneur

From Theresa Coffey, TNT Editor...

No product or service to sell? No problem. You can generate online income by taking what you know and love about a specific subject (based on your hobby, job, pastime, previous experience, etc.) and building an SBI! theme-based content site around it. Become an information publisher... an infopreneur!

The Net, after all, is known as the Information Highway. More and more people are going online to find information and solutions for their needs or wishes, and are bypassing offline tools like the Yellow Pages. For the most part, these searchers do not have the name of a particular company in mind. They are just looking for credible, relevant and quality information that will lead them confidently to the right solution.

You can build a business around being THE expert information-provider for your particular niche. And if you follow the SBI! site-building process, step by step, as outlined in the Action Guide, more and more targeted visitors will continually find and love your keyword-focused, high-value information. You will become someone they can trust, someone to keep them current, someone to follow, someone with answers. And by publishing an e-zine, you will further cement credibility and a loyal following.

But this is only the first part of becoming a successful infopreneur. Remember, your site is more than just a hobby... you're in "business." Your business must turn a profit. So once you have a substantial number of visitors to your Web site (which is easy to accomplish with SBI!), you can begin to monetize this traffic by introducing two or three income streams.

That's right, start with at least two or three streams. If you limit yourself to just one, you are cutting your chances of making every visitor to your site count -- in other words, generate income! Someone who is not interested in a particular offer might be totally captivated by another.

Your ideal diversification strategy is to combine AdSense with a few top-notch affiliate programs, blending in one or two finder's fee relationships.

As your site, traffic and business grow, you can add even more revenue streams (ex., sell e-goods, open an e-store, sell services, etc.). Multiple income streams add up to a strong, stable way to monetize an information-publishing site since you are not putting all your "revenue" eggs into one basket.

Are you thinking that you don't have enough Net experience to build a successful infopublishing business? Think again... SiteSell President Ken Evoy's daughter, Nori is a great example of how anyone can succeed with SBI!, even someone with limited time to spare and/or no technical background.

She started her site about the Caribbean at the age of 14 years old. She now has the most popular site about Anguilla in the world. Do a quick comparison of the Alexa traffic ranks for three Anguilla sites...

Site anguilla-beaches.com arawakbeach.com anguilla-vacation.com Owner Nori (15 year old) Arawak Beach Inn Anguilla Tourist Board Traffic Rank Designer Self Web design agency Expensive New York agency Marketing Self SEO & Web agency Expensive New York agency

The arawakbeach.com and anguilla-vacation.com are "big-business-designed," high-budget sites but the SBI!-created anguilla-beaches.com outperforms them by a large margin (as you can see from the relative Traffic Ranks). Yes, a teenager with no tech skills, using only the SBI! process and system of tools substantially outperforms major agencies.

What's her secret?

She merely publishes interesting, original information about the Caribbean island of Anguilla. Nori puts a charming "family" spin on the site, while delivering original information, adventures, etc. She continues to publish new content, one page per week (school is her full-time job!). Nori has a successful e-zine with thousands of subscribers -- she even has her own RSS feed!

As her traffic grows, her business grows, building upon its own momentum.

Nori monetizes her PREsold traffic effectively and is already planning future income streams...

• Google AdSense ads deliver a base of more than $1,000 per month. And she has joined carefully selected affiliate programs that fit her niche (ex., tripadvisor.com).
  
  
• Her biggest earner? Nori has earned thousands and thousands of dollars in finder fees through villa sales and rentals by a real estate agent that she recommends. She adds additional pay-per-click, pay-per-lead, pay-per-sale, or pay-per-month income through referrals to local tour operators, inns, rental cars, boat tours, etc.
  
  
• As her business builds, she has the flexibility and control to sell e-books, hard goods, even open an "Anguilla Art Store"!

Follow Nori's infopreneurial example. Convert your knowledge of a certain subject into business...

1) Figure out what you know and love. There is no limit to the number of niches in the small business world (from F1 automobiles to radio-controlled ones, from family-travelling.com to exotic-adventure-travel.com, from organic gardening or Aussie football, from music to fashion to games to electronics... even children's birthday parties!). Visit...

http://results.sitesell.com

... to see a full range of niches.

2) Brainstorm the most profitable topics using SBI!'s Brainstorm It!.

3) Publish, in your own voice and style, quality, in-demand information about your niche. Produce an e-zine to deepen trust and build a longterm relationship with your visitors. You'll be surprised at how quickly a targeted following develops.

4) Monetize your site, starting with Google's AdSense program, and reap the rewards of all that PREsold traffic generation.

To sum it up...

Don't discount yourself because you don't have a product or service to sell. Become an infopreneur. Take what you know from work experience, hobbies, passions, or pastimes (often "something" can be right under your nose without you even seeing it) and convert that into income.

Build a genuine, thriving enterprise that you will be proud to call yours.

Still not sure about the viability of the infopublishing monetization model? Check out Elad from Coolest-Kid-Birthday-Parties.com's (coolest-kid-birhtday-parties.com) case study.

Elad is an excellent example of an infopreneur. He and his sister create high quality content to drive traffic from the Search Engines. They monetize that traffic, surpassing $10,000 per month... and that is just one site. They now have several.

If you are time-pressured, you don't even need to develop and sell your own products. Google's Adsense ads, affiliate programs, and other monetization models can build to thousands of dollars per month.

It works!