Follow these super simple 5 steps for making money online and get ahead of 95 per cent of other marketers.

Step 1 Target a large group of people

First you need to research your intended market. You need find a reasonably large number of targeted individuals who have money to spend and a problem that needs solving. To make money online you need to offer a great product, or service, that solves a problem for them.

You need to research:

(a) What are people searching for online?

(b) How many people are searching online for a solution to their particular problem?

First though, what should you be marketing in your proposed new online business?

Ideally, you should market something that you have a keen interest in, this will keep you motivated. You can find out what people are searching for at adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and here inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Step 2 Locate a great product

Once you have researched your target market, it is time to quickly locate your products or services. If you have your own product great, if not then there are plenty of options to sell, or resell other peoples products.

There are thousands of products you can find quickly. However, marketing and selling a really good product needs a little more attention (you could create your own but you want to get started fast, right?)

Next...locate your products

You can choose to promote physical products or digital online products. Digital products cover many different areas of interest and are incredibly profitable. There are no delivery costs with digital download products they are a good choice to promote as most offer good margins.

Here are some prime resources for sourcing digital products:

1. paydotcom.com

2. clickbank.com

3. cj.com

Here are some prime sources for physical products:

1. doba.com

2. alibaba.com

3. worldwidebrands.com

There are other resources but the above sites are a great place to start for all types of fast selling digital download products.

Step 3 Market to your target audience

Now you have researched your chosen market, and located great products you can sell, it’s time to reach out and grab those targeted individuals.

So how are you going to attract your hungry buyers at little or no cost?

You MUST reach your target market in a way that allows you still to make a good profit. There are many ways to achieve this (that is another book in itself) but I’m going to show you the most cost effective way to market almost any product or service online. In fact it is so cost effective it won’t cost you anything (just a little time set aside to complete it).

So what is this free method?

Articles. Yes… article marketing is THE most powerful way to attract ready made buyers to your site for little or NO cost. You basically write something that is informative and of interest to readers of your target market, then submit your articles to directories to get them published.

The links contained within your published articles will point back to your website and they will lead targeted visitors to your product. Articles can also be a major factor in giving any well optimized site higher rankings in search result pages.

Step 4 Offer a very tempting low cost (or free) product

When someone visits your site you must offer a FREE or relatively low-cost product to 'hook' your potential buyer from the outset. The aim is to get the prospect to ‘buy-in’ to you, so that you can start to establish a business relationship. A getting to know you stage if you like.

Make your initial offer very difficult to turn down and at the same capture their email address so that you can follow up if they don’t buy the first time (1 per cent or less buy on their first visit to a website).

Once your customer has bought into your first product, this could be a free email course, a "How to" ebook, a mini report or a cheap $27 intro product, you must then begin to build up trust and offer more expensive products.

The only way you can make a long term profit, and make money online, is by building on that first low margin sale. After the first sale you then follow up by offering ever more expensive products each time.

As long as the products or services you offer are good and deliver what they promise, you will be giving value for money. That’s what we all want when we buy something. That is how all successful companies and individuals make a success out of their businesses.

Step 5 Follow up and offer more expensive products

Repeat the process over and over again with successful products and services and drop the unsuccessful ones. These simple steps may seem really obvious but guess what, most marketers don’t do it.

When you follow up with your customers you should be offering them related products to their first purchase. Use an autoresponder to automate your communications.

Follow this simple 5 step formula, research your idea thoroughly and you will make money online.