I thought -"Doing business on the internet is simple - right?"
Have a product of your own to sell, or sell someone else's - build a website, or have someone build it for you - and you too, can become an instant millionaire working from home in your PJ's. We've all heard these stories and, unfortunately for many, right at this minute the world is full of people in meeting rooms, or on the internet, being convinced that this is indeed fact. It's not! The odds of you becoming wealthy are not too bad if you apply yourself, learn and apply what you learn to your business, but the odds of you becoming wealthy quickly are about the same as winning the lottery! The sad fact is that most people who try to do business on the internet will not be successful, will ultimately give up, and lose - not make - money on their internet home business.
Doing business on the internet is simple? Yes - and No.
The CONCEPT is simple (in fact it's the same as for an old fashioned retail store, local service or profession). Have a good product - locate customers or clients who need (and/or want) your product - make these customers or clients aware of your product and convince them of the benefits of your product - make them an offer that convinces them to buy your product or service - make the sale and deliver the product with great service -and finally, turn these customers or clients into missionaries who will tell everyone they know about you and your product. In internet marketing terms; have a good product to sell - have a place to sell it (a website or blog) - attract potential customers or clients to your website or blog - capture the address of these prospects for follow-up - convert these prospects into buyers who will provide references - resell your buyers (much easier and cheaper than getting new customers).
Let's expand that a little bit:
- Have a plan - know what you want to do.
- Do market research to determine what products people want to buy.
- If you don't have your own product, select products of others to sell.
- Build effective platforms (websites or blogs) to sell products from.
- Drive traffic to your site (there are many ways).
- Capture addresses of visitors to your site for legitimate no spam follow-up.
- Convert prospects to buyers - and repeat buyers.
- Deliver your products or services.
- Collect your money.
Each of these steps has multiple techniques or strategies to get them accomplished, so yes, the concept is simple, but knowing how to implement the strategies and techniques to get it done is something else again.
I urge you to learn the basic strategies and techniques of internet marketing and doing business on the internet before you commit a great deal of time, and money, without knowing what you are doing. The learning curve is steep - and expensive. I thought internet marketing my service and products on the internet would be easy. I was wrong. Oh sure, you can find any number of "Internet Gurus" who will give (or sell) you a "can't fail" system but you can be pretty sure of two things:
- You will be offered "upgrades" or "supporting programs" which will be costly.
- The "Internet Guru" will have given (or sold) the "can't fail" system to hundreds, maybe thousands, of other people, many of whom have a lot of experience and knowledge of internet marketing. They will be your competition.
Think about that for a minute. Do you need, or can you afford, upgrades or supporting programs? How can you be sure that your site will be at the top of the rankings, and your conversion rate such that you don't lose any valuable visitors (prospects) that do find your site? I'd like to see if I can help. I'm going to set up a series of Ezine Articles that will cover the basics, and provide some references to additional resources.
Here is what the series will cover:
- Have a plan - know what you want to do, and plan how to do it.
- How to select products to sell on the internet (if you don't have your own).
- How to do market research to determine what products people are searching for.
- How to build effective platforms (websites &/or blogs) to sell these products from.
- Where you can get pre-built sites if you can't - or don't want to - do it yourself.
- Driving traffic to your site (critical). There are many ways - we'll cover 8 or 10.
- Building a list, and communicating effectively with autoresponders.
- Converting prospects to buyers - and repeat buyers.
- And finally - My thoughts on MLM (Multi-Level-Marketing).
Stay tuned for the series (Business - Small Business).
Until the next article, Here's to You, and to your Success!
