Whatever kind of business you have, even a service business – plumber, roofer, carpenter, restaurant, car wash – it doesn’t matter, they are all in the same business: the money making business.
Having a website for your business is an absolute necessity, I’m sure no one needs to be convinced of that. If you don’t have a website, you don’t have a business to 82%* of people looking for you (82% of people search online for local businesses/services). And if you don’t show up to these people on the first page of their favorite search engine, you basically have a billboard for your company in the middle of the desert because no one will see it.
It’s obvious having a website for your business is mandatory and driving traffic to it is a must, now let’s get back to being in the “money making business”. Sure, you like fixing pipes and letting your butt crack hang out if you’re a plumber, but really you love the cash in your pocket afterward. Why not add monetary value to your website and make some extra dough without having to do anything but bring in web traffic (which is already a goal)? The question you have now is “of course I want to make money without doing anything, but how does that happen?” There are many different ways to make money through your website
- ebook
- Affiliate Marketing
- Membership site with frequent content about how to be successful in your industry
- Sales through drop shipping (sell products related to your work)
For more info on choosing products to sell online, check out Building My Online Business’ post on Choosing A Product
But how would you know that? You’re a small business owner focused on delivering a quality service to your customers. That’s where an online solutions expert can come in to help. There are a lot of things to sell and there are a lot of ways to sell them and you don’t have time to mess with either of those, otherwise it becomes not worth your time.
The most efficient and valuable way to start earning money is to either put in some extra time to create a product such as an ebook yourself, team up with a consultant that can help you put together a high quality product for a fee but save a lot of time and deliver higher quality, or completely outsource the creation of a product and then sell it on your site.
Have you started making money from a small business website? Let’s hear your experiences, success or failure?
*This number is as of 2009, my assumption, and I’m sure you’d agree, is that it’s even higher now with more people having cell phones with the internet and more trust going into web searches
