Starting an Online Business - 3 Essential Questions Before You Start
Starting an Online Business - 3 Essential Questions Before You Start
So many folks start an online business with dreams of achieving financial success but with absolutely no idea of how to do it, how much it will cost, how much time it will take, what they'll need... It's no wonder that so people not only fail to achieve financial success, they actually end up in a whole lot more debt than when they started out.
Take it from one who knows; if you're considering starting an online business as a way of gaining financial freedom, it's worth putting in a little background planning first. Don't think it's as simple as all the adverts make it out to be. Honestly, 99% of them are out to make money, not to help you start your own internet company.
What Type of Internet Business
Dig around on the Internet to find out what sort of business you want to get into. Maybe you're after running a network marketing business where you're selling a particular product or service and recruiting other people to do the same. You earn money, not only on the sales you make yourself, but also on the sales made by folks you recruited under you.
Maybe you prefer the affiliate marketing business idea? You simply sell other people's products or services and earn a commission for every sale you make. Commissions can range anywhere from a few dollars into the thousands, depending on the price of the product and the percentage of commission given to affiliates.
Or maybe you want to set up an Internet business based on your own products or services? If you already have a service that you offer in the offline world, bringing it to the masses of the world wide web can make a massive difference to your income. Instead of just dealing with your local population, you now have a worldwide potential customer base.
How about starting a blogging business? Blogging has really taken off over the last few years and as long as you're blogging about something that people want to read, there's a good chance you can earn money simply by placing advertising on your blog site.
To be honest, there are way too many internet business ideas to list. Just do a little research over on Google and find a model that suits you.
Internet Business Tools
No matter which business idea you decide to run with, there are certain tools you must have if you're going to end up with a successful internet business.
A domain name is your first stop. This is basically the 'name' of your business. It's that www.mybusinessname.com that when typed into a web browser brings up your new internet business for the world to see. And if you're thinking that you can get away without a domain name, think again. Besides, you can buy one for less than $10 so why wouldn't you invest in one?
Once you've bought your domain name, you'll need to invest in some internet real estate, i.e. web hosting. This is where your internet business is going to live and just like in the real world, location is everything. Be sure you invest in a good webhosting service. If you don't, you'll struggle with having a reliable site that is always available, and God help you if something goes wrong and you find out too late that their customer service stinks!
Regardless of which type of internet business you opt to start, you'll want a way to follow up with your potential customers. You'll hear time and again when you're building a business on the Internet that "the money's in the list". While that's not strictly true, it is without a doubt the most essential tool in your internet business kit.
Setting Up Your Internet Business
Once you have everything in place, you're ready to put it all together and finally start your career as an internet marketer. Woohoo. This is where the work comes in and if you thought the whole point of an internet business was so you wouldn't have to work, think again.
Now you have to get down and dirty and get a website up and running, get the word out about it, start attracting visitors, get them to sign up to your list and follow up with them using your auto responder. There's a whole load of good training available on every aspect of setting it up and much of it is free.
Don't be tempted to buy something you don't need. Unfortunately, when you're new, one of the biggest pitfalls to working online is the amount of hype and bullshit that you're going to see everywhere you look. A good rule to abide by - "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is".
Don't worry if you're not a millionaire within the first week of setting up your new business. And don't give up when the novelty begins to wear off and you're still up at 3am trying to figure out why an image in your website isn't showing up, or why nobody is visiting and buying your stuff, or wondering what the hell folks are talking about when they come out with words you've never heard of...
Pretty soon, you'll turn into a 'technogeek' and things will get a whole lot easier. The beauty of it all is that you're your own boss. You only have yourself to answer to. If you don't want to work on your business today, you don't have to. (of course, in the beginning if you don't' put in the work every day it'll take you a helluva lot longer to get into a profitable situation).
Working an internet business is meant to relieve you of the pressures of going to a regular job every day. It should be fun as well as earning you a living. If you aren't enjoying it, you won't stick with it until it's profitable.
One last thing. If you start jumping from one thing to another you'll never achieve success of any sort, let alone the financial variety. Like I said before, you're going to see a lot of hype and all of it is designed to take your money. If you've got money to waste, that's fine. But it will also take away your focus and no matter which latest money craze you jump on, there will always be another bigger, brighter, shinier one tomorrow.
You've managed this long without living the millionaire lifestyle. Another few months of planning and preparation won't hurt. But it will certainly help you achieve your financial goals a lot quicker and easier.
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