Everybody wants that coveted Top 20 position, because if you don't have it, you may as well not be listed. So, the biggest disadvantage to this service is your competition from other search engine submitters. The second disadvantage is that the search engines themselves don't like people who try to get these top positions so you will always have to stay on your toes and keep learning to stay ahead of whatever advancements they put in place. Do your work though, and you could be the person who can guarantee traffic to any site.
1. CyberCopywriting
Did you know a different subject line on your emails or web site could mean 18 - 50 times as many more readers of your ad? Many web site owners concentrate completely on traffic, but never stop to spend some time with their copywriting on their site...they don't even know if it is convincing. Don't let that be you!
Start learning everything you can about writing ad copy. Study from the masters such as Brian Keith Voilles and Ted Nicholas. Purchase products that teach you how to write your own ads. Collect every piece of junk mail you get. Start paying attention to good copy. Start practicing writing headlines. Find a "Mentor" (this is one of the areas you can find some good ones out there). Once you learn how to write good copy, you could charge by the page, by the job, or by commission (5% - 15% of sales volume).
2. Web Promotion
This is what every web site wants...web promotion. Become an expert on it. In this area, I specifically want to mention how important it is to learn how to design sites which people want to link to and to do an effective linking campaign. You can set up scripts which automatically track links from other sites (check our traffic generator section in this book) and then go to work for your client.
Find other high traffic web sites in the targeted market and offer to trade links with them. Look for them in the Top 20 of the search engines, in magazines, or from other sites which have their own link pages. A good strategy when you find a site which has high traffic is to go to one of the search engines and do a search for all of the sites which are linking to them. Then, send an email and suggest to trade links with your site as well. Use competitive research to your advantage to leverage your efforts. Although creating links with other sites doesn't create as much traffic quickly as some other methods, it is one of the most consistent traffic generators as your site grows.
3. Banner Designer
Design banner ads. Banner advertising is probably the most popular form of advertising on the web and the average banner being used in a search engine keyword is only useful for 2 - 8 weeks before it's click thru ratio starts to decline. Everyone always seems to need new banner ads...so you create long term incomes from the same clients coming back to you time and time again.
The key to doing banners is to find the right tools (I recommend you start out with Fireworks which you can find at http://www.download.com ) and that you learn as much as you can about which banners have the highest click thru ratios (check http://www.allthesecrets.com for free information on this). Then, go to work practicing and testing different designs on the free link exchanges.
4. Internet Press Releases
An overlooked aspect of advertising online by the majority of web sites is using press releases. One article in a magazine or major newspaper will do more for your traffic than advertising online for a year. The key to this though is to become a web site that is newsworthy. It cannot just be a sales letter. It has to provide some unique benefit to the readers of that publication.
As an Internet press release agent, you could become the person who writes these releases and sends them out via email to the publishers of targeted industry publications. To start this business, you should learn everything you can about doing press releases and then start collecting the names and email addresses of the media (you should personalize emails to the publication's editors and writers for best results).
5. Classified Submissions
Classified ads can work, but they require a ton of effort to place enough of them online. You could purchase some of the programs which submit to search engines, free-for-all links pages, and classified ads. Then, start selling your submission services.
This is a quick business to get into, but it doesn't hold nearly the value of learning how to get high positions on the search engines. In spite of this, I have seen prices between $10 and $97 for this type of service and monthly plans for submissions done every 30 days. So, it could be a quick service business you could start which will earn a little extra income for your site along with whatever else you are doing..
6. Multimedia
Technology is advancing! The Internet is advancing with it. In the future, I can see a day when the web will be interconnected with TV and video will be delivered effortless across the online world. That day isn't quite here yet, but every day we are taking another step into that future. You could become a Multimedia consultant who helps people deliver audio or video over the web.
RealNetworks at http://www.real.com is the company which is leading in this area at the moment and you should start yourself off by learning everything about their products. Then, your business could be as simple as taking video and changing it into RealVideo for the web and placing it on people's servers. Or you could decide to train small businesses how to create and use video for their online presence. Audio and Video are going to continue to advance online so this may be a growing market for the future of internet commerce.
7. Website Overhauls
This would combine the skills of many of the services mentioned above, but it is also a badly desired WANT of many of the online marketers. They have a web site online, but they want to know how to refine it for more sales. They want to get more traffic to it. They would like to add audio or video to their presentation.
Once you start learning many of the other skills above, you could begin offering overhauls to other people's sites or to their marketing plans. Many of them might just be missing the theme that we spoke of in the first chapter. They might need to combine their marketing efforts into one whole purposeful and targeted business. Help them target their online marketing!
8. Domain Name Gold Mining
I know some major courses and seminars which are teaching this a major business online...and it is a very simple one actually. Domain Name Gold Mining is simply referred to as going to http://www.orderyourdomains.com and reserving the domain names which other businesses would want. For example, if you were able to have reserved http://www.internet.com, I am sure you would have been able to sell it for a very hefty price.
Domain name gold mining is built on coming up with domain names that you know people will want, buying them from for $12, and then selling them for a higher price (determined by how badly people will want to use it). I know some people personally who have done well doing this, but I don't see this business as such an exciting business that many of the seminar sellers are making it out to be.