How to Make Money Online: The Basics

 By Carolyn Sun

Let’s say you’re a newbie to the world of online sales and are looking to make money online, but you’re starting with a small startup budget. With the blinding wealth of information available for new business owners, knowing how to spend your limited funds can be a bit intimidating.
Here is a five-step checklist to help get you started and guide you toward success.

1. Spend time getting feedback on what you’re selling before launching.

Don’t rely on affirmation from friends and family to validate that you have a unique and salable product or service. Chances are, these people are emotionally attached to you, and they’re more likely to think every idea you share is the greatest thing since Nutella. Getting feedback from people who are emotionally attached to you is a “disaster from the start,” says Adam Callinan, founder of BottleKeeper.
Get market validation from potential customers who aren’t in your social circle. Some entrepreneurs use the “will they pull out their wallet” test before investing money in a business. Callinan, who’d come up with a prototype for an individual beer bottle cooler, ran a crowdfunding campaign on Fundable to gauge pre-orders for his product. His campaign raised nearly $14,000, 280 percent of his $5,000 goal.
Besides Fundable, there are a number of crowdfunding platforms to choose from including Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Rockethub.
Other ways to get people’s feedback, says Sujan Patel, vice-president of Marketing at When I Work, is using customer insight survey tools, such as Qualaroo and Client Heartbeat. If you’re just starting out, surveys are a chance to find out what the customer is hoping the product/service will solve or do for him or her. If you’re already in business, surveys can ask how the customer found out about the product or service, whether the customer is willing to be a return customer and why.
Or if you’re in a job in the industry you plan on starting a business in, get feedback from your manager and clients, says Steve Tobak, founder of Invisor Consulting.

2. Have a website.

You must have a website, says Joel Widmer, founder of Fluxe Digital Marketing. Not only for the obvious -- to have something to refer customers back to -- but having a website builds your brand’s digital footprint. Keep your site simple and copy-driven with opportunities for email captures on every page.
Three easy steps to having your own website to sell products without spending a lot of cash are:

• Select a content management system (CMS), such as WordPress, which is popular for its user friendliness and is free.
• Register a domain name and subscribe to a hosting service, such as GoDaddy or Bluehost.
• Customize your CMS with ecommerce-enabling plugins and themes WooCommerce offers free ecommerce themes for WordPress, such as Storefront. Also, WP eCommerce and MarketPress are additional free ecommerce plugin options.

3. Know your competition and customers.

Study up on both competitor and complementary brands (i.e. if you are selling a fire alarm, then look for “house safety” websites). Widmer says your customers will be hanging out on websites for both competitor and complementary brands. He recommends using search tools such as SimilarWeb and Google’s related-search results (located at the bottom of every Google search) to see what sites your prospective customer may be visiting.
Other free research tools to get to know your market, suggests Brandon Schaefer, CEO of MyVirtualSalesForce, are LinkedIn (to see who competitor brands are connecting with and what types of updates they're posting), Google Alerts (for brand mentions and keywords) and Google Trends.

4. Create an action plan for sales and marketing.

To earn your first million in sales, says Patel, work backwards and put a number on what it takes in monthly revenue to get to a million your first year -- meaning how many units, subscriptions or services must be sold. Create benchmarks to reach. Even if you don’t reach them, you have a blueprint.
One way to reach your goal is to figure out which marketing avenues to leverage. Given the wealth of social-media possibilities, start with one or two social-media outlets where you know your audience is. In general, for new products the best channels are Facebook and Pinterest, says Widmer. For expertise and services, try LinkedIn.
Also, two effective and free marketing strategies are blogging on your own site and guest blogging on complementary sites. This strategy helps build content and a digital footprint for your brand, says Widmer. For guidance on what hot topics to blog about, Buzzsumo, a free web service, allows you to input any domain or topic and get a list of the 10 most popular related posts at the moment. It can also inform you of what popular sites to hit up for guest blogging.
Should you guest blog, use the opportunity to lead users back to your site and capture emails, says Widmer. One way to do so is to use a “call to action” -- where you offer the reader something of value, such as a free how-to eBook or a must-have checklist -- that the user can get or download by going back to your website and providing an email address. 
Some other marketing tools? The free KingSumo app allows you to capture email subscribers through giveaways; Facebook Ads start at $1; and the e-newsletter tool MailChimp has a free option and is drag-and-drop easy.

5. Do as much yourself as you can.

The DIY mentality will usually save you money if your budget is limited. Also, it allows you to control the process and brand, explains Callinan, who built his ecommerce site from scratch by talking to others who’d already done ecommerce sites successfully.
If you need on-demand expertise from entrepreneurs with a track record, try Clarity, says Widmer. The service allows the user to get specific, consultant-level advice for a fee.
All startups are a gamble -- but as Patel advises, whose company will hit $10 million in revenue this year, “Hone in on where your strengths are and double down.”


Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/247919

Best Natural Ways For Cleaning Your Lungs Of Nicotine And Tar

By Saso Denkovik

 No matter how aware people are of the harmful ingredients in cigarettes and how they are the number 1 cause of lung cancer, they still can’t quit smoking. Well if you recognize yourself in the sentence above, the least you can do is clean your lungs of nicotine and tar build up and decrease your risk of infections.

There’s no magical formula that will cleanse the lungs instantly, but here is a list of foods that works best at throwing out the nicotine and tar.

Corn is a food that contains beta-cryptoxanthin, which is believed that can protect you from lung cancer, because it is a powerful antioxidant. However, consume only organic, fresh corn.

Selenium is a very powerful antioxidant. Brazil nuts contain the highest source of selenium compared to other foods, so eat it as much as possible.

Onion is also a good lung cleaner. Onions can be of great help to prevent many diseases, including lung infections. In the case of people who already have cancer, it prevents the growth of new cells.

Ginger as a natural medicine and food, helps to defend against malignant diseases. This is another strong tool to relive you from the toxins in your lungs. You can consume ginger root tea, because it facilitates breathing. Also, you can eat a piece of ginger with a meal.

Oranges contain cryptoxanthin, which has a preventive effect against lung cancer.

Nettle is a plant full of iron, but it is very useful as a mean of disinfection for the lungs and plays an important role in fighting infections.

Pine needles tea is traditionally used for rinsing the mouth and throat, but can also be a good ally in the fight against lung cancer.


Source:http://thespiritscience.net/2015/07/10/best-natural-ways-for-cleaning-your-lungs-of-nicotine-and-tar/

Steps to Becoming a Lifestyle Entrepreneur

By Kimanzi Constable

The Internet has been used by academia since the 1980’s, but in the last fifteen years it has become what we know today. Today, 2.5 billion people log onto the Internet every day, and it's estimated that the number will double in the next five years

For entrepreneurs looking to start or grow a business, the Internet offers a fairly unlimited and mostly untapped customer base. There are many successful lifestyle entrepreneurs, but they are just scratching the surface of the opportunity that’s available. 

A “lifestyle entrepreneur” is an entrepreneur who makes their living online. They don’t have a physical location or need one to operate. All they need is a laptop and connection to the Internet to manage their business. There are several tools and software they use, but they're portable.

They are not tied down, which allows them to operate their business all over the world. There can also be a passive income element to their business, but it’s not necessary. If they offer services, such as coaching or consulting, they can work over Skype.

If this type of entrepreneurship model appeals to you, here are six steps you can use to become a location-independent lifestyle entrepreneur.

1. Pick a profitable target audience.

I’m not going to give you the standard “choose your niche” advice. While being specific can help, it’s not always necessary. Where niching helps is when you get to be industry-specific. Idea specific is a lot harder to niche. 

The more important point is to make sure your “niche,” or target audience, can afford to pay you. Too many entrepreneurs pick a group that interests them but can’t afford their products and services. You are creating a business; there has to be a potential to generate income with whatever audience you pick. 

2. Build a simple foundation.

The foundation of a lifestyle entrepreneur’s business is their website. A website, however, will be a constant work in progress and holds too many entrepreneurs back. You don’t need all the fancy widgets and plugins. You don’t need the best looking website in the world. The only way your website hurts you is if it’s too cluttered and confusing. Zen Habits has over a million readers, which proves simple works as long as the content is good. 

A foundation has other essential elements:

· A robust and active social media presence.

· A large emergency fund -- just in case and for the slow months.

· Tools and software that help grow your business. 

· Connecting with your audience on a deeper level. 

3. Focus on what works for you.

The Internet has given us access to success. You see successful lifestyle entrepreneurs talking about what’s working for them and you’re tempted to copy. Successful entrepreneurs model success. They don’t copy. 

You have to figure out what works for you and your business. Just because it worked for someone else, doesn’t mean it will help your business. The best things you can do are to test and learn what works. It takes incredible and strategic focus to build a lifestyle business.

4. Get exposure and grow your audience.

Creating a strong social media is one great way to build your audience but there are strategies that could get you better and “20%” results. 

· Be a guest on podcasts. There are podcasts that get more downloads than radio stations have listeners.

· Guest post on other blogs. In 2012, guest posting on 50 different blogs brought 500,000 unique visitors to my website.

· Write for large authority sites. Writing for large websites such as the Huffington Post and Entrepreneur have grown my email list from 3,000 people to over 20,000 in less than a year. 

These are a few ways to get exposure and build your audience quickly. As the Internet grows, so will the effectiveness of these and other strategies. 

5. Offer value and charge what you’re worth.

When you provide value through your free content, people will want to dig deeper. Your paid content is what they turn to. Too many entrepreneurs don’t charge based off of the value they provide. 

Offer your value by consistently creating free content that’s better than other’s paid content. Charge a fair but profitable price for your premium offerings. Lifestyle entrepreneurs value their time above everything else, so their time is the most expensive service they offer. 

6. Study what’s working and scale.

Once you have made progress, review what’s working for your business. See where you can make the process smoother and more efficient. Spend your time growing that profitable part of your business and scale the progress. 

Focus on what’s working and commit only to learn what will help your lifestyle business grow. Don’t become a victim of information overload. That has crippled many entrepreneurs. 

Being a lifestyle entrepreneur has been amazing for me. I enjoy real freedom. I don’t want you to think it’s all roses because there are real challenges. It takes years to build this kind of business, and it can be a roller coaster ride income-wise. 

If this type of business appeals to you, know that it’s possible and profitable. Do your homework and use these six steps to build the kind of business that best supports the type of life you want to live. 

At the end of the day, this isn’t about money, it’s about freedom in every area of your life. When you experience this freedom, you can live life on YOUR terms.

 Source:http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244407