 |
|
The Simple And Easy Way To Start An Online Business, Step-By-Step (Step-By-Step Guide To Building A Profitable Niche Marketing Business - Part 2 of 27)Ok, now that you know the basics of the what the internet is I can teach you the simple basics of starting your very own online business! So lets get started: Setting your online business goals: The process of setting goals and objectives and then designing strategies for attaining them is essential when starting an Internet Business. So, you end up with what is called a business plan. To set specific goals for your new business, first ask yourself this question: Why do I want to start an Internet Business? We already covered this in the early chapter, which is why you’re reading on! Okay, next question: What product or service can I offer to the people on the Internet? OR Do I have a product or service that people are looking for on the Internet? To save you some research work, I’ve included the list of Top 17 Best-selling items / categories on the Internet below:
When identifying a need, doing market research is part of your homework. One of your first steps should be to find out what it means to do business online and to determine the best ways for you to fit into the exploding field of e-commerce (electronic commerce). The more information you have on the following aspects of the Internet, the more likely you are to succeed in doing business online: Competition: Familiarize yourself with other existing Internet Businesses that are already doing what you want to do. Customers: Research the various kinds of customers who shop online and who might visit your site. Environment: Explore the special language and style of online communication – in other words, know the culture of the Internet. If you are not yet familiar with the culture of the Internet, then the best way to learn is to subscribe to e-zines (electronic magazines) and newsletters for your reading. Write all your ideas down on a piece of paper. Ask yourself, “What do I have that people are looking for on the Internet?” Take your time. This is not supposed to be an overnight activity. So, don’t be surprised if you take days. Taking your time and doing a thorough market research on the Internet beats jumping onto an opportunity at first sight. What if you don’t have any products to sell? I would like to take this chance to get a HUGE MYTH out of the way. If you think you NEED to have a product to sell to make money – then you’re dead wrong, really. You’ll be glad that you’re wrong after I tell you this. You still CAN make money without having to create your own product. And there are several instances you DON’T NEED to HAVE a product to sell at all in order to make money! How? Quite simply, you can either be a referral to earn a commission or sell advertising spaces on your website or newsletter. That, my friend, is just a speck of a dust. There are still many other ways you can make money on the Internet WITHOUT having to have your own product to sell. Furthermore, you can either:
This is good news to those who are already sweating over the thought that of needing to create or have their own product to sell to make money! However, the 10 Step approach to setting up your own Internet Business presented in this chapter gears more towards “selling products or services” Internet Business Models.
Picking an online business model Already decided what you have in store for your customers? Good! The next thing to do on the list is to choose the right Internet Business Model. Now this is crucial to your Internet Business success. The Internet Business Model has to be right for the type of product or service you’re offering to your customers. When choosing the right Internet Business Model, you will want to take the following factors into consideration:
To date, there are 19 low-cost, high-profit Internet Business Models on the Internet to choose from.
The inside secret is to search in search engines (such as Google and Overture) with keywords related to your product or service to find out if many websites, newsletters and community groups focus on this interest.
I have already explained to you what a domain name is. You also know that your website address can ALSO be your Internet Business name. You will want to take out another new piece of paper again to write down ALL the keywords related to your Internet Business. You see, you want your domain name to:
For example, if you want to sell a product teaching people how to break-dance, then you will want to start writing down all the keywords related to break-dance. For starters, write 100 keywords. What next, you ask? Write some more! Write 200 or 300 if you have to. The more keywords, the better. That is because this is a one-off activity. And remember that you will be using this domain name for a very long time, if not forever. Now, don’t even get lazy. Okay, I’ll offer you some food for thought. Are you parent to any child? If you are not, then imagine you are one right now. You and your spouse have a child for the first time. You and your spouse would want to give the best name to your child, right? Of course you both would! You and your spouse would brainstorm on giving your child the best name. “How about John?” “Aw, John is too common a name!” “Then how about …?” “I think the name…” and finally, your child has a name to be addressed by. When brainstorming on your child’s name, you and your spouse consciously or unconsciously know that giving your child the best and meaningful name is VERY important because your child will be living with that name from cradle to the grave. So, on the same token, why would you not think the same when brainstorming on a good domain name? This is your Internet Business. You need to nurture and grow it during its infancy stages before it rewards you. Are you not going to give it your best attention, too? I hope that woke you up. Now, back to the keyword activity… With the help of the list of keywords you have written down, you will find it easy to get a domain name that fulfills the 3 guidelines stated above. In the same example, you would probably come up with a domain name like www.howtobreakdance101.com. Next, check whether the domain name has been registered or not. If the domain name has been registered by someone else, you will have to use another domain name. So, maybe you’ll think of using www.lordofthefloor.com for a domain name. When brainstorming on a good domain name, be sure to come up with at least a few names in case the domain name you wish to use is already taken. Remember me telling you that there can never be two houses bearing the same address? Another thing you have to consider is the various kinds of domain names on the Internet. So you will have to choose carefully. Below are some of the common ones:
The next thing to do is find a web host. Any business needs a place to call home. If you run a conventional business, you have to rent space in an office or shopping complex. In the case of setting up an Internet Business, you need to set up a virtual space. You do so by creating a website and finding a host for your site. A web host company that makes your site available 24/7 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) by maintaining it on a Web server. I have covered this topic with you briefly in the second chapter. When sourcing for a good web host, you want to make sure that your host has a fast connection to the Internet and can handle large numbers of simultaneous visits (also known as hits) that your website is sure to get eventually. You also want to make sure that your web host offers a variety of related services, including some or all of the following:
Make a simple and professional website Since you’re into business, the purpose of your website is to SELL. Nothing else! That’s because YOUR WEBSITE SHOULD HAVE ONE MAIN FOCUS. Nope, it’s not selling dozens or hundred of products. Nope, it’s not links to several different affiliate programs and NOPE, certainly not a link to Yahoo.com. Doing any of the above just confuses your visitor, thus decreasing your chances of converting him or her into your customer. If you’re selling a product or service, it should be clear what ONE action you want them to take. They would either:
So, you need to get your visitors to leave their e-mail address and other essential information for follow-up increases your chance to help you make a sale because the fact is that most people don’t buy on first contact. To do this, you write a compelling sales letter for your product and post it to your website. You can add images of your product, testimonials from happy customers, and other relevant images. The focus of your website is the sales letter. Now, let’s talk about the layout of your web page. Your main text color should be black on a white background. You can have other colors such as blue, red and gray on your website, but the background behind the text should be white. The color of your main text should be black. No other exceptions! That is because this is the easiest format to read. You are in business so dress your site in a business manner. On the technical side, you can choose from three methods to create your own web pages:
Create a unique selling proposition (USP) for you product / website. Find ways to make your business stand out from the crowd. Make yourself and your web site unique in some way and providing things that others don’t offer. They can be as tangible as half-price sales, contests, seasonal sales, freebies or reports. They can also make your business site higher in quality than the rest. That is important because there really is no purpose of your Internet Business to exist if you have a million visitors coming to view your site but too few of them actually become your customers (a conversion rate of less than 1% is rated poor). Here’s what you can do to create your own USP. Take a brand new piece of paper and write, “I know how most…” Then, half-way down the page, write “Well, what I do is…” The purpose of this activity is to know how most businesses in your field are in the first place and then you write what tells you and your Internet Business apart from them. This will take a while to do. Checking on your competition’s USP is part of the activity, too. Next, you will want to write out many phrases or sentences. This can take days but it will be worth it for your Internet Business in the long run. Once you have just the right phrase, that will be your USP which you will use to separate you from all of the competition. Now, that is what I call UNIQUE!
Your website must be treated as a sales letter, not a brochure. That’s because brochures don’t sell. Let me repeat – BROCHURES DON’T SELL. Brochures just inform theirs viewers of a product or service. But they won’t help you make even a sale (unless that is really what you want but hey, I have yet to meet anyone who wants to be in business to lose sales!). Your sales letter consists of primarily:
You have to find a headline that will grab the attention of your visitors or else they will not read the rest of your sales letter. This is very crucial – the headline will make or break your sales letter! Assuming, you’re selling an instructional video on how to play soccer professionally, so you must come up with an attention-grabbing headline for your product like the following: “Learn To Play Soccer Like A Pro In Just 7 Days”
WARNING: Do not give false promises or mention something you cannot or don’t intend to deliver in your sales letter in the attempt to get your customers to buy from you. This is important business practice regardless of any form of business you are doing. For instance, if this product cannot guarantee its students to be a Soccer professional in a week, then the product should be named otherwise or not make into the lights of the day. The sub-headline will encourage your visitors to read further. The sub-headline will give a spark of hope to Soccer player wannabes who couldn’t help but think that their handicap is stopping them from performing like an Ace on the Soccer field and therefore encourages them to read further. Since you’ve already got them interested in reading your letter, the rest of your sales letter must tell your potential buyers about the benefits and features of your product. For instance, you can say that your product is the best out there (assuming that is true). You can back this fact by throwing in testimonials from happy buyers who benefited from your product, and testimonials are indeed powerful. If you have a free offer that can help you increase the chance of making a sale, don’t hesitate to give! In this case, you can give a free one-minute preview clip of your instructional video for your visitors to watch. Should your visitors decide that this is for them, they would buy from you. Now, isn’t that awesome?
If you sell something that you own or have the rights to sell, then you need to have a Credit Card Payment Processor. Credit Card Payment Processors process credit card payments for you and sends you the proceeds on a fortnight basis via wire transfer to your local bank account. Some reputable Credit Card Payment Processors you must check out are:
Now is the time to market to your target market. Each Internet Business Model is different. Therefore, you don’t market each and every one of them the same way. The truth is, not all Internet Business Models depend on a good search engine listing. In fact, some of them are not designed to be listed by search engines at all! That is simply because each Internet Business Models have different objectives and set up. That also means they require different marketing strategies and tactics to make it work. Not knowing the different Internet Marketing approaches that are available for different Internet Business Models can be expensive. It will result in spending more time, money and effort than is necessary for promoting your Internet Business. Here, I share with you seven main ways to generate traffic and get to your target market:
The purpose of the last step is to determine your conversion rate of visitors into customers. This can be easily done if your web host provides a site statistic. A good conversion rate from a Killer Sales Letter is 1 – 3% (depending on the price of the product). In other words, for every 100 targeted prospects who visit your site, at least one of them will buy your product or pay access to your service. If the conversion rate is higher than 2%, then you are doing very, very well with your Internet Business! On the other hand, if your sales letter’s conversion rate is less than 1%, then you will need to take quick action to make your site sell more effectively. You may have to do more compelling copy writing, change the layout of your web pages or simply get a better and more attention-grabbing headline (which is so vital that it can make or break a sale!). Whatever you need to do, you have to increase your conversion rate from poor to excellent! To track visitors, you can subscribe to counter services if your web-hosting doesn’t have a site statistic feature built in. To track sales, check your Credit Card Payment Processor. This is just a high-level information you need to know when setting up an Internet Business. We will go into more details in coming lessons.
|
