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Starting a business
So you really want to go online with your business? Need not worry,
I'll lead you every step of the way.
First of all we'll going to do some planing:
Ask yourself these simple questions:
Where are you now? Say you want to go to LA. You know where
LA is, but that doesn't help you much if you don't know where are
you at the beginning, you could spend months of driving around!
So- Step 1 Start by listing your assets! What skills do you have?
If you need to spend money on your business, how much can you afford?
If your are going to need a partner at some time, who might that
partner be?
Where do you want to be? Once again put yourself in that car. Make
a list of your goals and include a schedule!
How do you want to get there? This is where you need to
really plan, but the most important thing is: DO WHAT YOU LIKE TO
DO! Remember this is supposed to be fun! So what are the things
that you like? Do you like puzzles? Start a website that deals with
puzzles and start selling them! The best seller is the one that
knows the product, loves his job, and knows how to sell the product!
If you have your own product than you're half way there! If you
are going to take part in affiliate programs, this is the basic
advice: Promote the Product NOT the Company! This is the common
mistake that affiliates make! The best way is to have a targeted
website that draws target audience to targeted products! If you
like both puzzles and cars, start TWO websites: one about puzzles
and the other about i.e. sports cars!
So the basics are:
Define your goals and objectives, motivate yourself , keep it
simple, set realistic goals and challenge yourself! Create a schedule
and TAKE ACTION! For an advanced business plan click
here.
Now, I'll leave you in the hands of Corey Rudl from MarketingTips.com
the best-know Internet marketing expert (these are the advices I've
taken):
"There are three most dangerous mistakes that can be made
in Internet business:
MISTAKE #1: Tried to be everything to everyone.
Consider Pets.com, for a moment. Their target market of pet owners
was HUGE! But so were the obstacles they needed to overcome to turn
a profit -- "pets" is a very general market.
Marketing to and meeting the needs of all these groups of
people, with all these different products and services, is no
small undertaking. I'm not saying it can't be done, I'm just
pointing out that it costs money... A lot of money.
And this leads us to the next mistake...
MISTAKE #2: Threw millions of dollars of venture capital at
an unproven business plan that takes years to reach profitability.
Creating a nationally recognized brand requires deep pockets and
a whole lot of patience, and that means you need investors with
really strong stomachs. Many of them became frustrated as the dot-
coms continued to vacuum up millions of dollars of investment capital
without any sign of turning profitable.
Could these companies have succeeded with a continued infusion of
capital? For many, definitely. But when investors withdrew their
support, they never got their chance.
So finally, we arrive at...
MISTAKE #3: Invested buckets of cash in unprofitable advertising.
The simple truth is, banner advertising just isn't as profitable
as it once was. Ads that once pulled 5 to 10 percent click-throughs
are now lucky to pull 0.6% to 0.8%.
Unfortunately, many dot-coms just continued to blindly throw millions
at unproven, often untargeted, advertising, which pulled extremely
low returns. Sadly, they might as well have been lighting piles
of cash on fire.
As there are most common mistakes there are basic rules that are
commonly forgotten:
RULE #1: Focus on a well-defined niche market.
Rather than trying to dominate a huge, general market like pet owners
or car owners, narrow your focus to a targeted "niche,"
like parrot owners and women interested in car repair. The truth
is, running two or three web sites that each target a specific niche
market is the EASIEST WAY TO MAKE MONEY on the Internet. Everyone
is looking for the "big money" makers so, all too often,
niche markets are ignored.
Yet this is how I have made most of my money online! (See
http://www.marketingtips.com/ for a sneak peak at how I do it, successfully,
all the time.)
Find a niche market. Figure out what they want. Develop the product.
Offer it to them. Automate the business. Then start another and
diversify. That's it. Sounds too easy to be worth millions, right?
Wrong! I know from firsthand experience...
There is a LOT of money to be made this way.
RULE #2: Develop a strong Unique Selling Proposition
If you have a lot of competitors in your specific industry, then
you need to develop a unique selling proposition (USP). You need
to emphasize what makes you better than competitors. Explain to
your customers exactly how and why they'll benefit from doing business
with you as opposed to someone else. What do YOU bring to the table
that no one else does? For example:
- Your product/service might cost less than others.
- You may have a higher quality product or service.
- You offer a better guarantee than anyone else.
- You target a specific age group, industry, or person.
- You provide special knowledge not available anywhere!
- You offer special incentives that no one else does.
- Your customer service is better than your competition's.
Whatever your angle, the key when promoting your product or service
is to EMPHASIZE WHAT MAKES YOU SPECIAL OR UNIQUE. Find an obvious
void in the marketplace and fill it! Adjust your company or product
to meet a specific need. Then specialize!
RULE #3: Spend your advertising dollars wisely.
Once you have defined your market and developed your unique selling
proposition, figuring out who you're advertising to and where they
hang out online suddenly becomes way easier. And this means that
you can strategically place your ads where they'll PULL THE MOST
TARGETED POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS.
As e-business owners get tired of spending their limited advertising
dollars on high priced CPM (cost per thousand ad impressions) that
pull pitiful results, the demand for more
performance-based advertising continues to increase. PAY FOR CUSTOMERS
-- NOT OVERPRICED, UNPROVEN ADVERTISING.
RULE #4: Model success.
Obviously, there are a lot of steps involved in building a profitable
e-business. You need a strategically designed web site, you need
a quality product or service, you need killer sales copy, and you
need a flawless sales process. You also need a cutting-edge marketing
campaign designed to blow your competitors right out of the water!
That's why you'll be far better off -- and way ahead of your
competition -- if you TAKE THE TIME TO EDUCATE YOURSELF.
Why reinvent the wheel when you can learn from someone who has been
there, spent the cash, researched the techniques, and made the mistakes
for you?
RULE #5: Have a well-developed business plan that includes a
clear definition of how you plan to profit.
Plan to profit. That probably seems obvious. Unfortunately,
too many people get caught up in some plan or scheme and don't take
the time to research, test, and plan exactly how they're going to
make their money.
An *idea* is NOT a business plan. It's just that... an idea.
It becomes a plan when you've researched it, defined your
market, figured out exactly how you're going to market
yourself, and planned to PROFIT WITHIN A SET PERIOD OF TIME."
Take some time to think about what is said here, make a plan and
THEN:
Proceed to Web Hosting
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