Okay, so maybe it’s a little late for making money by selling products for Halloween.  But now is the perfect time to ramp up for the big push toward Christmas.  If you have one or more established sites, you’re in great shape.  But there are things you can do even if you’re just getting started here at the end of October.

And of all the ways you could possibly make money online, I think the fastest and easiest way to go from zero to profitability as quickly as possible would be to start a niche store.  This is especially true throughout the holiday season.  I’ve operated several of them for well over a year, and they continue to provide a nice monthly income.  Although they’re fairly easy to set up for someone with a little computer knowledge, they can be tricky for newcomers. The niche store site provides some good reference material to help you get started, but feel free to ask me a question if you get stuck.

I’ve learned some interesting ways to create sites that attract visitors and keep them coming back.  And I continually look for ways to add value to my sites beyond just the products that are available to purchase.  This is very important because anyone can set up these niche stores and compete with you.  You have to find a way to stand out from the crowd.  And you have to know how to get the visitors to your store in the first place.

That’s why from now until the end of the year, I’m going to be offering lots of tips and tricks for getting the most from your online niche store. There are several store scripts out there, so you don’t necessarily have to go with the one I recommend.  In fact, I’ll cover a couple of the others as well.  But I happen to have my preference simply because I think it’s the easiest to set up and maintain.

Go ahead and subscribe to my online niche store blog to be sure to get every tip as I post them.  It’s time for the holidays, and you’ll want to be ready for making some good holiday cash.

Here are a couple of earlier posts that may be helpful as you begin to build your new store:

Choosing a good web host 

Getting content for your niche store

Reasons for starting an online business

Finding good niche keywords

Getting traffic to your online store

Starting an online business is definitely not for the faint of heart. It takes an enormous amount of time, money, and patience. You have to have the guts to stick with it even when things don’t look promising. You have to be willing to learn the ropes, and then take what you’ve learned and put it into practice.

Most are Doomed to Failure

Most people that get started will make it through the early stages. They’ll invest a few hundreds bucks in courses, books, and seminars. They might even try the water by throwing up a website. But that’s when the rubber really meets the road, and things start to get interesting. At that point, 99 out of 100 will throw up their hands and say to themselves that it’s impossible. (Note: Thinking something is impossible is a good way to make yourself feel better about giving up on your dreams.)

The Brave Press On

But there are a few that have enough sticktoitiveness to stay the course. Those brave souls will likely face the scrutiny of their peers. They have to listen to the naysayers that will gladly tell them it can’t be done. They have to give up their get-rich-quick fantasies and get their hands dirty in the real world. They’ll have to brave the rushing current of change that occurs on the internet. To stay afloat, they’ll have to learn how to embrace change - and maybe even learn to anticipate it.

Anything is Possible

The benefits of operating an online business are well worth the investment of time and resources.  The ability to work from anywhere there’s an internet connection, a global market for your goods or services, and the ability to automate much of your day to day operations are just a few things that make doing business online so great.

The main thing to remember is that there is great potential to earn money online for anyone willing to acquire the skills necessary.  And in those areas where you may be weak, you can always find a partner or hire others to assist you.

Finding good keywords for your website content is only the beginning.  Without a good strategy in place for getting traffic to your new site, it will simply sit there like an island in the middle of the ocean.  No one will have a clue that you’ve just published a great site full of wonderful articles just waiting to be explored.  So, let’s take a look at a few ways to get visitors to your new site.  I will go into this in more detail in future posts, but here are a few quick ways to get your site visited.

1. Create a blog and use a tool like Feedburner to help you promote it and publish it in a format readable by most RSS readers.  Search engines love fresh content, and blogs are great sources of fresh content.  You can get your site noticed much more quickly with a blog.  If you use the low-competition keyword strategy I outlined in the last post, you’ll already have content full of good keywords.  Getting the search engines to index the content will likely get you a top position for one or more of your selected terms relatively quickly.

2. Post comments on blogs, in forums, and on social media sites.  Include a link back to your site or blog, and the search engines will likely find you.  But be intelligent about this.  Don’t just spam the sites of others for your own benefit.  If you provide value, you’ll reap the benefits.  If you spam, you may get a short-term reward, but you’ll have a hollow victory at best.  And as search engines become ever more sophisticated, you could eventually find your sites removed from their listings.

3. Write a few articles related to the content on your site and include a link back to your site in your author bio.  I’ve used this technique successfully on numerous occasions.  In fact, I like to use this strategy to send traffic to landing pages where I promote various affiliate products. (We’ll talk more about promoting products and services as an affiliate in future posts.)  Submit your articles to sites like EzineArticles.com or GoArticles.com.  When the articles are published, your link must be included.  This not only provides you with publicity, it also provides links back to your website all across the web.

4. Create a video and post it on YouTube.  Include your site URL as a caption at the end of the video.  Some of your viewers will look you up. 

5. Create a Squidoo Lens at Squidoo.com related to your topic.  Provide good, relevant content and include a link back to your site within a list of links to various other related websites.

6. To get traffic flowing to your site quickly and easily, set up a Google AdWords account and pay to have your advertisements displayed in search engine results or on other websites related to the content of your site.  Using AdWords effectively is a topic for another day, but take a look at the program.  If all of your other efforts fail to live up to your expectations, spending a few dollars can get traffic flowing to your new site.

We’ll look at other great ways to get traffic and effective use of AdWords and other PPC systems in a future post.