We have all heard the internet marketing rallying cry “make money from home” – well I have a twist on that as we look at the first way to use you new, growing skills to make money online.

So, what do I mean by offline business. Well, as I said in my earlier post about you being an internet marketing newbie, your level of internet expertise is probably already advanced compared to those around you.

Everywhere you go in your local neighbourhood, there will be businesses with varying levels of internet presence and if they have any brains at all, they will have heard that internet-based business is still doing OK, even in a financial downturn. So, for some of them, this could make the difference between survival or failure.

What can you do to help (remember this is always about an exchange of value)? At the most basic level, you can show them how fast they can get online. You may want to take them a step further, into setting up a domain and hosting WordPress on it. This can be completely liberating to some people who are still, quite literally, terrified of that first online step!

That sounds like a small thing, but think of the value to that small company, you have turned them into a world player immediately. A morning of tuition is a valuable thing and is completely reproducible over and over again for all your nearby firms. If they have a site already, it is by no means guaranteed that the existing site-builder knows anything about SEO and analytics, so your training goes in that direction instead.

Now step back a bit and think of the consultancy side of things. How about a keyword search for them before you even grab the domain, maybe checking out their competitors as you go? What would that be, maybe a day, maybe 2 days of your time? So, we are already up to 2 or more days (potentially).

As you educate them, the next phase would be to talk through offsite optimisation, link-building etc. Now this could take some time if done properly, maybe you are starting to appear like a valuable asset to your client at this point…there is potential here to turn this deal into a retained service. Choose your monthly rate.

Can you see how this builds up. A lot of this can be outsourced – link building in particular is drudge work for many. If you get this side of your business sorted out, you can become a lot more scalable and take on more (monthly retainer) clients. Before you know it, you have a steady-ish income. Now, get in front of the local board of commerce and run a seminar for 30 people, make it free or cheap and be excellent! Then take orders for more at the end.

It might sound daunting to get in front of small businesses but we all know people in this position in some way. A friend of a friend, the company your wife (or husband) works for, just talk a bit about what you are learning and watch the faces light up. I know this to be true – it’s a story that is only a week old in my own internet marketing career 🙂

There is more to this topic, but for now I must press on with the other three methods I mentioned in my last post.

These are meant to be starter articles, to get your mind racing a bit. If you find it useful, throw me a comment or bookmark it using the buttons below. If you are confused by my rambling, leave a comment as well. I can cope!