CindyUniquely Cindy - Sunday Book Reviews
All of the book and product reviews here are totally unsolicited… spontaneous… and without affiliate links. These are books and products I share with close friends and highly recommend.
Stone Evans wrote an ebook called Dotcomology, The Science of Making Money Online.
A good portion of the book is self advertisement, but there are a solid set of lessons for anyone interested in making money on the internet.
A Zen Story To Learn From
Evans begins, after an advertisement, with a Zen story which I will summarize.
A young man read all the books he could find about Zen. He heard about a great Zen master and requested an appointment. After some time, the master suggested that they have tea. The master began to pour tea into the student’s cup. He poured until it was full, and kept pouring. The tea ran over the edge of the cup and onto the table. The master kept pouring as the tea ran off the table and onto the floor. Finally, the student couldn’t contain himself any longer.
He shouted, “Stop! Stop pouring! The cup is full — no more will go in!”
The master stopped pouring and said, “Just like this cup, your mind is full of your own opinions and preconceptions. How can you learn anything unless you first empty your cup?”
Evans’ point is that to benefit from any book on the internet it is good to empty your cup and begin ready to take what you are served. Don’t listen to the ‘experts’, or at least forget what they said for a while, and take everything in as new. Often the experts are experts because they read all the books.
Making The Big Internet Bucks
Want to make a million dollars selling “horse shoes”? Find someone that has already done it and speak to that person. Don’t speak to someone who made a million selling only “shoes” – it’s not the same thing.
Evans goes through the basics, most people assume everyone knows:
- Make your site attractive, interesting and engaging
- Have good content
- Make your information easily accessible
- Design your pages cleanly
- Remove all download and usability issues
- Test. Test again. Have someone else test for you.
Some people want to make their millions overnight. This is possible in theory. It has after all happened before.
- Are you taking advantage of everything the internet has to offer?
- What businesses are successful now, that you can duplicate?
- Should you be selling a service or a product?
- Do you up-sell and cross sell?
If you are not taking advantage of everything the internet has to offer then you are limiting yourself.
Do you have an affiliate group that you can work with?
Just because someone does not buy from you does not mean a sale can’t be made. If a person is leaving your site, make sure the last thing they have is a pop-up window offering your best deal ever – or a link to a partner site.
SEO
Evans has a detailed section on how search engines work, and what you can do to make them work for you. Using search engines, pay per click, link popularity and link analysis.
He also covers optimizing your site and monitoring your progress.
At the end of this section he has a very complicated section on spam. Don’t do it. That is what he says, word for word “Don’t do it.”
Affiliate Programs, Email Marketing, Newsletters
Stone Evans has made a lot of money through affiliate programs, so he has a good 100 page section on this subject.
This is where the “Want to make a million dollars selling horse shoes?” is relevant. Find someone that has already done it. Evans has made money through Affiliate Programs, Email Marketing and his Newsletters, so read these sections to learn from the master.
Evans goes further on the subject of affiliate programs to explain how to create software, even if you are not a programmer. This is a powerful section. I have used this to develop widgets and toolbars for my websites. These simple software programs are very popular and I get traffic to my websites just to download these tools.
A Final Warning
Evans does say something that I appreciate.
Beginners on the internet make a common mistake they should never make. “The fact is, just because you can automate many redundant tasks to make money online, it doesn’t mean that the streets of the Internet are paved with gold. Like any opportunity, there are scams and hazards. As you set up your online business it’s important to stay alert, use common sense, and keep your feet firmly on the ground.”
Advertisements aside, this is a great read for any person starting out with an internet business, and did I mention the price?
Here are a few more Uniquely Cindy Sunday Book Reviews:
- Website Optimization by Andrew B. King
- How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders By Catherine Seda
- Mastering Online Marketing By Mitch Meyerson
- How The Internet Works By Preston Gralla
- Bit Literacy On Managing Your To Do’s
- Website Optimization by Andrew B. King
- Bit Literacy Tips On Managing Email
- Bit Literacy Tips on Managing Your Media Diet
- Bit Literacy Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload By Mark Hurst
- The Ultimate Web Marketing Strategy By Ed Rivis
- The Culturally Customized Web Site By Nitish Singh And Arun Pereira
- Letting Go Of The Words - Writing Web Content That Works By Janice Redish
- Landing Page Optimization By Tim Ash
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