1. Are looking for a new ebusiness opportunity and cannot find one looking in traditional places.

2. Looking to go global – and sell products internationally online.

If you’re looking to start an ebusiness today, go back to 1998 when me and my brother were throwing together packages of FatBurners for eBay and making a vat of money. You have to sell something. Sell something tangible.

Over the years I’ve tried a lot of different ideas to make money online. The easiest ideas involved selling tangible products that people were already familiar with – or, that were slight variations of what people were already familiar with.

The best market you can get in?

International. Go global and stop thinking small. Sure you’re a one-person operation, but, you can buy and sell internationally too!

The best thing you could do for yourself is to plan a trip to Asia to source your new products to sell on your website. Chatuchak market in Bangkok, Thailand is a weekend gathering place of sellers of thousands of products you can sell online. The flight to and from Bangkok will cost you about $1,500. You can probably make $1,500 back in the first year. Once you get going – you should be making that and more each month if you’re serious about your online business and invest the time and energy to make it work.

The time in the air to Bangkok is 24 hours each way from the USA.

Is it worth it? Literally, there is probably nothing better you can do for yourself than make that trip, and buy some samples to sell on your new website.

You will get many ideas from looking at the products that are at the market. Every time I go – I’m torn between buying all sorts of things that I know will sell if I only built a website for selling them.

Plan on spending a couple thousand dollars on inventory you can sell. Some you can bring home in suitcases, others you can send by post – FEDEX, DHL, and Thailand Post will all send your items to the USA – sure, you will have customs charges upon arrival in your home country. This is another reason to choose items that you can mark up dramatically.

On my last visit to Chatuchak, I saw about 100 products I could sell online – easily, quickly, and make decent money. For each product it will take creating a website and marketing it – to reach people and let them know I have the products to sell. So, choose your items carefully. Stay in Bangkok a couple days – and definitely go this market on Saturday and Sunday. At night from your WIFI enabled hotel room, use your notebook computer to research the products you saw at the market that day. Figure out what might work for you. Figure out how you can beat those you find online that are selling your products today.

Looking internationally for your business solutions makes a LOT of sense right now. Sure you can talk to people online and try to work a deal for new products to sell on your site, but you don’t really ever know what you’re getting until it arrives.

I think it’s a much better idea to go to Bangkok and see for yourself what is available. Choose something that is high quality and high markup. Choose something that is niche, but not ultra-niche. You want to be able to grow the business over time. Choose something legal – there are many illegal products at the market that you should ignore. Elephant tusks, bones, skins, tiger skin, tiger teeth, etc. Don’t bother doing anything remotely illegal. There are plenty of above-board products you can buy and sell online at Chatuchak market.

Choose products that you can re-order from back at home. Create a relationship with the seller and tell the person you will be ordering more as you sell it – and would like to get the best prices today so you can keep working with them for years from now. Ensure they know that you could become a very steady source of income for the next couple years. Ask them if they have more samples that aren’t present that day. Ask what is coming out in the future. Ask if they know the best way to ship the items. Get their phone number, email address, mailing address, fax address….

Find a good Thai translator (I have one if you need her name, she’s a friend in Nakhon si Thammarat and does great work) to help you get your order across to the vendor in Bangkok. Most Thais at the market speak very little English – and, even if they appear to speak OK English – you’ll want to be absolutely sure. I’d use a good translator. The cost is negligible in the big picture.

Let me know if you decide to follow this advice and build your online business using items found at Chatuchak market in Bangkok, Thailand.

Best of luck and life…

[Photo credit - top - Adam Kahtava at Flickr.com, bottom - antwerpenR at Flickr.]

Best EBusiness to Start Today? Go International! is a post from: Inc. Answers

I know a guy that wrote a zombie book. Zombies in Bangkok, Thailand. Not sure there was ever a book about zombies in Bangkok – so it started selling rather well. He writes well, but he’s not Thomas Dolby with words. The book was fun and even though I could care less about zombie books – I read the whole thing on my iphone as I lay in bed at night.

Isn’t there even one topic you could write a short book about? There’s gotta be. Sit down today and write a list of all the things you “know”. The ideas on the list might all turn out to be ebooks you could write for your online business, or maybe just 1 will work. Try one and see what happens. Do your books sell? You won’t know until you give it a shot.

There will be hundreds of people reading this post – and many of you could write a book and see what happens. Will you? That’s the question.

Out of all the people reading this post – some of you can no doubt make it as ebook authors and make a living from writing ebooks – but you might not even KNOW it. Nobody knows if they can write, until they try and get feedback from buyers about what was good – what was not.

I know 14 people making a living from writing. Some are writing ebooks, and others are writing articles for websites that need them. All of them are making over $20,000 per year from writing. A few are making quite a bit more than $20,000 per year.

Isn’t writing ebooks something you should at least consider?

If you are absolutely NOT a writer – why not refer this article to someone that maybe IS a writer? Help your friend go from working in a toilet paper factory, or a fast-food restaurant, to writing ebooks and making $20K per year online.

Amanda Howking didn’t know she was going to be a successful writer at all. She had many refusals to publish her work in traditional paperback format and yet she went on writing her stories. Guess what? She is making over a million dollars a year writing ebooks now. Amazon buyers LOVED her stories.

Maybe masses of people will love your written ebook stories… maybe you’ll only make enough to buy pizza once a week from selling your ebooks online – whatever. Try. You’ve gotta try if you think you have a book in you.

Give writing ebooks a try!

Writing Ebooks = Online Business Success? is a post from: Inc. Answers

I bought one of these little 11.5″ TP Edge notebooks a couple weeks back. I wasn’t sure it was what I wanted, previous to this I was absolutely sure I could not type comfortably on anything less than a 13″ notebook. For me, and probably for you, if you have an online business – the keyboard means a LOT. If you’re typing a couple thousand words per day – and I think I average around 4,000 – you need a GREAT keyboard.

The Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E125 has an awesome keyboard. I typed 72 wpm on a typing test the other day. Fastest ever. Usually I clock in around 63 wpm. That alone speaks volumes. My hands fit the keyboard perfectly. Why? It’s the same size as any full-size keyboard! Lenovo worked magic with this keyboard – it is hands down the best I’ve ever type on. I’ve owned about 22 notebooks since 1993.

Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E125 – Great Features:

• price was perfect ($500 with additional 4GB RAM to bring to 8GB total)
• lightweight – 3.4 lbs.
• NEVER gets hot – in your lap, anywhere – unless really hammering the CPU with big video or rendering and then, it’s just warm
• keyboard is unbeatable - spill proof too
• IBM pointer nubby and trackpad
• screen is very sharp and gets quite bright
• battery life is 8+ hours
• SIM card slot!
• SD card reader
• excellent battery life management
• Windows 7 Ultimate
• USB with always on power – even if notebook is off
• nice webcam with built in microphone, best in class for low-light
• grippy external case

Negatives for this Notebook:

• no backlit keyboard – however, the keys have very bright white lettering that catches light from the monitor, so it’s easy to see them in the dark
• no SSD – but it is an option, can remove old HDD and put in new SSD – may do later
• would love it to be 2 lbs.
• would love battery life to be 15 hours so I wouldn’t need to take my charger with me
• no USB 3.0

I haven’t stopped raving about it to my wife. I think she should get one too. She has an older 12″ HP DV computer, that was amazing when it first came out – but this one is half the price, and the typing experience alone is worth making the switch.

If you need a computer for your business – online, or not – or, just want a great travel computer that gets 8 hours of use before dying… GET THIS COMPUTER!

Problem is – not sure they’re selling it in the USA. There must be a comparable model from Lenovo that was released in the USA and other countries but you’ll have to find out which one. Was it the E120? We also have that one here. Your lettering scheme might be off too – so, check by specifications.

Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E125 – Ultimate Portable Notebook? is a post from: Inc. Answers

The commenter was complaining that Ebay had changed. Yep, it sure has changed. Used to be you could sell the hell out of something. Just put it up at a good price and sell many copies of something. Today? Nope. Good luck. Ebay is a tough nut to crack, and really, there’s no point in trying to crack it either.

Instead, sell your products at your own site. Use Ebay to drive traffic occasionally – maybe an ad a week or more will drive people to your site that are interested in your niche. They’ll remember it if it’s memorable, and come back – buying something someday.

Selling some THING online puts you in a different game than those that sell digital products. People across the globe STILL want tangible things… food, clothes, makeup, paper maps, giant posters of beautiful scenes, jewelry, books, etc.

You should spend immense amounts of time to find a product that you can sell online. of course you’ll need to hook up with a wholesaler, or directly with a manufacturer, but that is a crucial part of the game. Winners win the game by doing this. Losers quit when, “it’s too hard to find someone to supply me with x.”

Be a winner. Wreck your brain to find someone that has a product in abundance to sell to you at scandalously low prices, that you can then resell. Keep in mind things like shipping, returns, packaging, and building a very big business over time.

Stop looking for the quick game winner – you likely won’t be the 1 out of 280,000 trying, that nails it. Forget that… a strong effort over the course of 1-2 years is the best plan of attack. I’ve seen it hundreds of times in people I know. In myself. Sell digital products if you have the know-how, but do NOT neglect tangible items people hold in their hands. How many people do you know that own socks? Every fucking body. How many people eat? Yeah, all of them. How many want what’s best for their kids and buy children’s books? All of them. How many use vitamins? Nearly everyone.

Hit a big market. Sell something amazing – that makes people feel good. Use excellent photography. Don’t mark it up too crazy – just make a profit and build for some years… build a network of people that love your stuff.

Stop selling stuff on your site… list it and tell about it. Stop all exclamation points. Stop all hype – NOW. Just stop, so few people fall for that style… just show what you have. Tell benefits. Shoot videos about it. Tell people why they need it – assuming they need it.

If they don’t need it – change what you’re selling, you’re playing the wrong game.

Best of luck and life.

Selling Tangible Products Online is a post from: Inc. Answers

I want to talk about building an authority website today, and how you might create one for yourself in order to generate income.

There are many different kinds of websites you might create. For example, you might make a niche website that is relatively small and only targets a single keyword. Or you might create an e-commerce store that focuses on selling products.

But an authority website is a bit different. Instead of exploiting the web for inefficiencies in order to produce income, the authority website model seeks to create income by offering real value to people.

Other types of websites may offer value to the site visitor as well, but an authority website thrives on delivering value. If it does not, then it is essentially just a bunch of spam that will eventually be penalized by the search engines.

Quality content

The main key in building a successful authority website is in delivering quality content.

If you read the A-list blogging crowd then you are probably sick of hearing about “quality content” by now.

But the fact is, your business is not sustainable if it just a bunch of “me-too” content.

For example, if you go to Google and do a search for your keyword, you can probably find hundreds or even thousands of articles about your topic.

Then go to eZine Articles and do another search for your topic. Notice that there are thousands of articles about it. Glance through and read some of them.

Recognize that the content that you create for your website has to be far, far better than everything you just read.

The web is a sea of spam, and several hundred thousand new blogs are created every month. Every month!

So ask yourself: “How am I going to stand out from all of that spam? How am I going to build a brand online, and get people to share my stuff with each other?”

You have to create something amazing. You can do this by creating articles that are:

* Extremely in-depth.
* Very detailed.
* Helpful, unique, insightful.
* Original ideas not found elsewhere on the web.
* Unique presentation that is lacking on the web. For example, video or eBooks in a niche where none currently exist, etc.

Building an authority website means that you have to deliver unique, remarkable, and high quality content.

High volume

Ever hear of “volume blogging?”

The idea is that the title of each article you publish has a lot of power to be able to rank for long tail keyword phrases.

Therefore, one approach to building an authority website is to publish lots of articles that each target a unique long tail phrase.

This is a very powerful and somewhat dangerous approach.

What is the danger?

The danger is that most people allow their quality to drop as they try to push out higher volumes of content. This is only natural, and is very difficult to overcome.

One of the best ways to deal with this is to have a daily quota for yourself.

My recommendation is 3 articles.

This may take a while to build up to. Publish 3 articles on your website in a single day, and evaluate your quality level. Is it still up to your high standards?

If not, you may have to settle for one or two articles per day for a while, until your speed increases.

As you continue to write, your speed and quality will go up over time. This is especially true given that you will be publishing about the same topic over a long period of time.

Keep pushing yourself until you can publish 3 quality articles each and every day.

If you can maintain that quota, that is over 1,000 articles per year.

This will get you to a very healthy online income in a very reasonable amount of time.

The bonus is that if your quality is really high and you have good insight and expertise on your topic, then your income will be very sustainable and durable as well.

Making money with your authority website

There are many different ways to make money from an authority website, but I would urge you to focus on traffic generation for at least the first year.

After that, you can easily test different methods of monetization to see which ones pay off the best.

AdSense is a powerful option because there are so many advertisers bidding for the ad space, and it is extremely easy to implement. It is also fairly easy to optimize.

Once you have run AdSense for a month or so, you can get an idea of what your current traffic is worth. Then you can test other forms of monetization against this, and see which performs the best.

When I created my authority website, it took me about 300 hours to write approximately one million words of content on 1,500 articles.

The website went on to earn up to $2,250 dollars per month in AdSense, and I eventually sold the website for $200,000 dollars.

Thus, my dollar-per-hour earnings when creating that website was somewhere around $900 dollars per hour. Not bad work if you can get it.

And I believe that anyone can achieve those kind of numbers, but very few people actually will, because the probationary period is so long these days (Google will not send you free search engine traffic for several months, because so many new spam websites appear every day).

Building an authority website is a labor of love, but I still believe it is one of the best choices for online income, because the resulting income is relatively stable. Smaller niche sites have less trust and can easily be crushed in algorithm updates.

If you want to learn more about building authority websites, check out Patrick’s website about making passive money online.

Vern’s Note: As you know, if you’re a reader at this site, or my AimforAwesome.com site, I don’t accept guest bloggers that I don’t personally know, respect, and idolize. Patrick is that, and more – he is a friend that has freely given me heaps of help and inspiration over the years. He’s one of the “Good Guys” and there aren’t all that many in his niche! Thanks to Patrick for this guest post – you’re welcome to post again anytime!

Making Money with an Authority Website is a post from: Inc. Answers