This week the Internet Income Detective team have been putting the final touches to the latest issue of the newsletter.

Those of you who are signed up to receive it will have it landing on your doormat at the weekend.

If you’re not signed up to get a copy, please check it out. It’s risk-free to try it out and you get a fantastic freebie too.

Click here to find out more

To give you all a little taster of what you can expect in the latest issue, this month we have lots of fresh, practical approaches to making money online, including:

•    ??How to create your own authority website.
•    Exactly where to source products that will earn you a profit on eBay and Amazon (clue: it’s not in your attic or at the back of your wardrobe!).
•    The simple new product creation techniques that have afforded Rob Cornish an amazing US road trip this month.
•    The free Facebook launch strategy of a top Kindle author.
•    Ever thought about local business marketing? Why you should build a FREE website for a business in your local area.

??PLUS! Our very own editor-in-chief, Nick Laight, has some amazing advice about email marketing and exactly how to make it work in the new online landscape.

Click here to try out the newsletter risk-free.

This month I sat down with our editor-in-chief, Nick Laight, who knows more about engaging individuals over email than anyone I’ve come across.

Nick’s been using email to connect with readers of his newsletters, to teach and, of course, to sell, for well over a decade.

When I first worked with Nick I came from freelance and employed work for various other publishers who also used email.

I was totally astounded to find that, whereas I was used to seeing opening rates as low as 3% and going up to 10% on particularly successful and targeted campaign, Nick was working with big lists that were responded at 5, 10 and 15 TIMES that amount.

To Nick, not getting most of his readers to open his emails is a sign that something’s wrong.

Over the years, the way people use email to connect with customers has changed dramatically, but Nick’s lists have stayed just as responsive, engaged and happy.

So what’s his secret? I wanted to find out.

‘The only out-dated thing about email marketing is the term itself’ – Nick Laight on content marketing, finding and engaging readers and how simple anecdotes could be key to your online success…

Below you will find just one of the questions Nick answered for me: if you would like to read the Q&A in full, you can trial a subscription of the Internet Income Detetive newsletter by following this link:

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Sara: Building an email list is obviously a huge topic in itself, but how would you recommend someone starting out in email marketing focused their efforts in getting people on to their list?

??Nick: First of all, it would be helpful to define what we mean by ‘email marketing’. For me, email is the medium we use to deliver great content as well as marketing messages.

In fact, I would go as far as saying that ‘email marketing’ as a term is outdated. These days you will find marketers talking about ‘inbound marketing’, ‘content marketing’ and ‘native marketing’ – all of these can involve the use of email along with other channels like social media.??

Whatever form your online business takes, email should be one of your core tools for communicating with existing customers and prospects.

If you have a website, then you should at the very least have an opt-in box and/or dedicated squeeze page to capture people’s email addresses.

Make sure it is prominent and clearly states a good reason for people to enter their details. And keep in touch regularly with relevant and useful content.??

Of course, the ultimate challenge is to get people onto your list – I wish I could say there was one solution or channel people should use, but there isn’t.

Apart from making sure you have a good squeeze page and free gift, the goal is to get people onto that page.

If you are starting from nothing, then I would use social media to first engage with your audience, share content and then direct them to your squeeze page.

You shouldn’t rely on social media exclusively. Instead I recommend a multi-channel approach that could include pay per click, article marketing, ebook marketing, swaps, direct mail, ads on social media sites. ?

Why an ‘authority site’ is the only type of website you should start today and the startlingly simple methods to get on online

Last year in Internet Income Detective, we took a closer look at some changes that had happened over on Google that meant loads of people with long-established and often very profitable websites had been pushed down the rankings (or off the search results all together).

If you missed that, I’ve saved a copy of the article along with your downloads over on your members’ area of the website this month.

The criteria for doing ‘well’ on Google these days is tricky to define. But two things I think we need to keep in mind, pushing aside all of the technical jargon and complex ideas, are:

1. At the core of all of our Internet ventures is to have something to offer (whether it’s in return for money or not) and to find an audience for it.

A charity’s online presence may offer information and needs to spread awareness and raise funds by finding an audience.

An eBay seller has 45 iPad cases sourced from China and needs 45 iPad owners who are worried about damaging their precious device.

A keen fisherman wants to tell people about his success with a certain type of rod or bait does so via a blog. He wants to find like-minded fish folk to connect with.

An individual with valuable life experience in dealing with male pattern baldness has written an ebook on the topic and wants to earn his income from selling his ebook to others.

??2. What Google are looking for is pretty simple if you strip it down: it’s websites that are genuinely reflective of searchers’ needs.

You need to create something that people actually want.

So what are these ‘authority sites’ that I keep hearing about?

Since Google’s much talked about ‘Panda’ and ‘Penguin’ updates, much has been made about a ‘type’ of site known from then on as an ‘authority site’.

Why? Because these were apparently a small sub-group of successful websites that didn’t see any impact from Google’s huge changes.

Many rushed to try and emulate what those sites were doing.

But what were they doing exactly?

The sites were so varied in topic, design and approach it was hard to pinpoint. They definitely weren’t ‘spammy’ sites with loads of keywords and adsense ads. But nor were they the reserve of huge companies with millions of pounds to spend on becoming an authority.

Many were humble bloggers who just loved what they were doing.

My view is this: those who did well out of the changes Google made were doing one thing, and doing it very well.

As I said, many of these sites were ‘simple’ blogs. Nothing super-fancy in format – the focus was on quality content, shareable content.

In simple terms, I would define an authority site as a website that covers all important aspects of a particular niche, is regularly updated, and has some (ok – a decent amount of) returning users.

In this month’s Internet Income Detective newsletter you can follow our guide to creating an authority site.

Believe me when I say it’s much simpler than you imagine.

Sign up to receive a copy of the Internet Income Detective newsletter here.

That’s just a tiny sample of the masses of the blueprints, advice and information landing with the latest issue this weekend.

I urge you to give it a go if you haven’t already.