subject: The Steps to Starting a Successful Business Online [print this page] The Steps to Starting a Successful Business Online
Too often people assume that starting a business online is extremely easy since you don't have to actually own a storefront. Well before you jump the gun, let's take a look into what it takes to run a successful online business.
To start, just like any traditional business, you should start with a plan. Without a real plan or model to follow, you are throwing time and money down the drain. Without the proper research, any business, online or offline will fail. So the question is, should you write a business plan? The answer is, YES, you should at least write a rough outline for your business so you know what your goals will be. Without setting goals or having solid plan, it's like walking around in the dark. Who wants to do that?
The first part of your business plan for you new online business is to research a market. Too often online marketers fail to actually research a market. Instead they just choose any market and then wonder why no one wants to buy their products. Choosing a market can be tricky, because not only do you have to find a market that sells, but you also have to find a way to beat the competition. This is exactly why market research is extremely important.
Imagine jumping into an online business, investing thousands of dollars on a website, only to find out there are 10 Million other people selling the same thing. How will you ever get your website seen with so much competition? The goal is to find a hot market filled with buyers, with very little competition. Thankfully for us, it is the 21st century and we have great technology to help us do this type of research.
When starting your market research, you can use free tools that Google provides to discover highly searched keywords in your market. You can use other tools such as Quantcast.com to discover your demographic. There are even spy tools, such as Keywordspy.com that allow you to see the type of keywords that your competitors are using for paid searches. You can use any combination of tools you wish, but the end result must be that you find a market that is hungry for your product or service.
Once you have nailed down a profitable market that has hungry buyers, you need to find a way to get in front of them. Again, the internet solves our solution. From article marketing, to forums, social networks, and paid ads, you can get in front of anyone you want. Now, it all depends on your budget and how much you are willing to spend, but paid traffic can get you instant eyeballs to your product or service. Using Pay-Per-Click can be a great way to test your demographic or market to discover what type of keywords or other data people are typing into the search engines. Optionally, content ads, such as in-article text ads or graphic banners can be a great way to discover where your target buyers are actually hanging out. Google has been delivering content based ads for years with huge success. These days, there are many other options other than Google for paid ads. You can use sites such as Zedo.com or Megaclick.com to drive instant traffic to your website.
Aside from traffic, you must have a high converting website or landing page. Without a landing page that collects names and emails, it will be difficult to maintain repeat business. Without repeat business, you won't have a business, it's that simple. It's recurring income that keeps most online businesses alive. Too often I see online entrepreneurs trying to start an online business with noting more than affiliate links pointing directly to the vendors sales page. While this can make you some quick money and possibly money for a few months, it's not the best long-term strategy. Affiliate marketing can be profitable, but it has to be done right. I can't stress enough how important it is to have a list of subscribers or followers who put their trust in you and continue to buy your products and/or services over time. Many marketers refuse to believe this concept and make money without it, but what they don't realize is that they are leaving thousands of dollars on the table. They struggle to maintain consistent income, simply because they have to acquire new leads every single month.
The internet has evolved toward social media and I truly believe it is here to stay. If you are not using it for you business, you are going to fall light-years behind. Social Media gives marketers the edge they have always needed. It provides a way to stay in constant contact with your followers. Whether you have a physical mailing list, email list or 10K followers on Twitter or Facebook, maintaining those connections are crucial to the success of your business. If anyone tries to sell you a product that offers riches without building a list, they are flat out lying in your face. Why are all the huge chain restaurants, colleges, well-known name brands and so many others using Facebook and Twitter? If building a list or following was not important, social media would not be what it is today.
In closing, if you are serious about having a successful online business
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