My father is a marketing expert and about ten years ago he developed a system to make a profitable online business. The basic idea was to provide free, valuable advice through a website and newsletter, and offer products at the same time. His site was focused on providing marketing tips.
In 1999 he tried to convince me and my two brothers (along with his wife Maria) to start our own online businesses. I was skeptical. I thought it might work for his site, but I ran a theater company. What would I provide? What would I sell?
We all thought we lacked marketable expertise and experience in building websites. However, as we watched my father's business grow while he seemed to be working less and less, we succumbed to the temptation and started our own newsletters.
All of them have been profitable for years and garner top Google rankings.
Check them out if you're interested:
Joseph Gracia: GiveToGetMarketing (1st in Google out of 89,000,000 sites for "free marketing tips," 4th for "marketing tips")
Maria Gracia: GetOrganizedNow (1st in Google out of 69,000,000 sites for "free organizing tips," 2nd for "organizing tips")
Chad Gracia: ActorTips (1st in Google out of 14,000,000 sites for "acting tips")
Scott Gracia: Throwzini (1st in Google out of 865,000 sites for "knife throwing tips")
Jason Gracia: Motivation123 (1st in Google out of 4,670,000 sites for "motivation tips")
We all make a decent living from these sites, none of us have office jobs, have to set an alarm clock, or report to anyone but our many customers. (Well, I've now outsourced customer service so I don't even have to do that!)
As you see, almost any idea can make a successful "Tipzine" if you follow our Cookbook. Yes, you do have to have a passion, yes you do have to put in time (especially in the beginning) to write your articles and promote your site. But I believe it is well worth it.
