If you suffer from insomnia, as I do on occasion, you may
try and lull yourself to sleep by watching infomercials on
television. Invariably, I'll turn on one in which you can
buy this remarkable CD set that will teach you all the
secrets you need to know to become a zillionaire online in
just 6 weeks and work only 2 hours per day. Wow, if it were
only that easy -- then everyone would be doing it..LOL.
That's one of the reasons I hate the term "internet
marketing" -- because the industry is rife with scam artists
and "get rich quick" schemes. And, the "experts" all
portray themselves as very wealthy, living in upscale homes,
driving the newest BMW car, and taking off on exotic
vacations every 6 weeks or so.
When your Internet marketing empire doesn't take off that
quickly or isn't that profitable, you feel like a miserable
failure. So, then you invest more time and money to get
more information, with similar results. Who really gets
rich here? The people selling the information on how to get
rich. It begins to feel like a hamster wheel in which you
run and run and run but never get anywhere.
I've had a virtual online business since 1999, and it's
neither quick nor easy. What I've discovered is that some
people can exploit a particular strategy for a short time
until someone or something shuts them down, and then they're
on to exploiting the next newest strategy until it no longer
works, and then they move to yet another new strategy. It's
tiring just to write about this process!
That's not the way I want to run my business -- I just want
consistent results that build and increase over time to
enable me to made a decent living from the comfort of my
home office. I've been doing that for the last 7 years, and
although my income has yet to break the 6 figure mark, I
really can't complain about my quality of life, although I
will admit lusting over those $60,000 kitchen remodels on
HGTV..;)
As I reflect on my 7 years in business, I really wish I'd
known then what I know now -- and if I'd had actually taken
action on much of the information I discovered long ago, I
might actually have one of those $60,000 remodeled kitchens
in my home..<g>.
Since I get a number of questions and inquiries every week
from "newbies", or business owners new to the Internet
marketing world, about how to get started in an online
business, here's my list of 10 things I wish I'd known about
Internet marketing when I started my online business:
1. Niche your way to riches. Finding the
exact market that needs what you have to offer is one of the
primary keys to success in any business, but especially when
you're trying to do business online. Taking a shotgun
approach and foolishly believing that "everyone" needs your
product or service is the quickest way to failure. You need
to be able to identify and describe your niche market, from
determining what problem the niche market is actively trying
to solve and what they'll pay for (as well as how much they
will pay) to what publications they read, what
groups/associations do they belong to, and where they hang
out both on- and off-line. The more narrowly focused your
niche, the better. So, owners of Golden Retrievers is a
better defined niche than dog lovers, and executive female
golfers is better than women athletes.
2. Acknowledge your expertise. One of the
great difficulties of online business owners is their
inability to acknowledge their expertise in an area. I, too,
suffered from that problem in the early years, thinking,
"I'm not really an expert -- everyone knows this stuff,
don't they?" It took me years to realize that while others
did have a higher level of expertise than me, there was a
very large group of people who knew less than me -- and it
was to those people I could become an expert! And, better
yet, they would pay me to learn it so they didn't have to do
through the same trial-and-error method I did. So, earlier
this year, I decided to officially declare my expertise by
crowning myself as "The Online Business Resource Queen"
because I know more about running an online business than
just about anybody I know..:). So, go ahead and crown
yourself as an expert!
3. Create a content-packed web site. Content
relevant and useful to your target market, embedded with
keywords that your target market might use to find you, are
the magic wands that enable you to be found on search
engines. For years, my web site was simply an online
brochure with details of my service offerings. It was not
until I regularly started writing articles for my target
market and posting those to my web site and blog did I see a
noticeable increase in both the amount of traffic to my web
site as well as in my number of newsletter subscribers. If
you've been in business for awhile, you've got a good idea
of the problems that your customers face. Your articles can
serve as the solution to the common problems and questions
of your target market.
4. Build relationships online. Even though
an online business is virtual and you meet few of your
clients and prospective clients face-to-face, it is still
possible to build trusting relationships online. The most
important thing to remember is that your personality needs
to shine throughout all of your online ventures. So whether
you share personal stories about your life or business
(these will be very popular with your visitors), or write
articles or web site text in the same way you speak, you
need to give visitors an experience of what it means to do
business with you. You can also use audio and video on your
web site as well as photos of you in action in your
business. Remember, most people need to get to know, like
and respect you before they'll decide to buy what you have
to offer.
5. Discover reputable sources of technical and
Internet marketing "how-to" information. Online
technology and Internet marketing strategies change from
moment to moment, and it's tough to keep up with the latest
and greatest innovation. I read lots of ezines and visit
lots of web sites each week just to stay on top of things.
You can get a list of many of the resources I'm using at
GetMoreClientsOnline.com. However, because it's so
time-consuming to do all of this reading, I've been
searching in vain for one web site that I can rely upon
pretty exclusively to stay abreast of what's new.
Therefore, my plan in the coming year is to create a
membership web site that will serve as the premier
destination for anyone seeking the necessary tools and
resources needed to automate and effectively manage your
online business. It will be called
Online Biz University,
so stay tuned to this newsletter for the latest
developments!
6. Create several "stay in touch" devices.
An ezine (email newsletter), blog (web log), and
autoresponders (series of automated follow up emails) are
the quickest and easiest ways to stay in touch with your
current clients and to bring prospective clients into the
fold. I think the most effective ezines are published
weekly -- it gives you one excuse every week to reach out to
your contact database. Blogs tend to be attention hogs, so
they are most effective as a marketing strategy when you
post to them 3-4 times per week. Once you've written the
content for a series of autoresponders, they can serve as a
personal marketing arm for you, as they can be personalized
and give prospective clients the impression that you're
writing a personal email just to them. The more "stay in
touch" strategies you use, the quicker your prospective
client base will get to know you and expect to regularly
hear from you.
7. Provide a clear call to action. As harsh
as it might sound, people generally want some direction in
what action they should take next. Whether they visit your
web site, attend your speaking engagement, read an article
you've written, or listen to one of your podcasts, they want
to know what to do next to stay in touch with you. The call
to action I always recommend is to get people subscribe to
one of your "stay in touch" devices, whether that's your
ezine, an autoresponder series, or your blog. In most
businesses, your contact database is the asset with the
greatest value. It's no different in an online businesses,
where the the name and email address of your visitor is
gold. Make it simple for someone to decide to initiate a
business relationship with you -- have your call to action
in your brochure, on your business card, on every page of
your web site or blog, and in the audio of your podcasts.
8. Immediately create information products.
Creating information products, like ecourses, ebooks, CD or
DVD series, workbooks, or audio downloads will help you
immediately establish your expertise, create multiple
revenue streams for your business, as well as give you a
good understanding of the problems faced by your niche
market. I've been quite slow to jump on the info product
bandwagon, as I've just been unwilling to carve out the
necessary time to create them. The creation process is
time-consuming, but once something has been created, it can
be a revenue stream for many years. In my early business
years, I didn't think I had any useful info to share with
anyone, and now I realize that all the stuff I attributed to
"common sense" should have been packaged and sold as
information products. So, what info do you think is
common-sense in your industry? What format will be most
attractive to your target market?
9. Develop a marketing funnel. Creating a
marketing funnel of products and services priced from fr*ee
to expensive, as well as a way to get visitors through that
funnel via a marketing plan will give many more people
access to your expertise at different price points. Many
business owners make the mistake of offering just one thing
-- their service -- and miss out on other ways to sell to
and educate prospective customers. Brainstorm on other ways
you might deliver your expertise to prospective clients --
an ecourse, ebooks, teaching workshops, holding teleclasses,
sponsoring mentor groups, etc.
10. Don't expect overnight success. Despite
what the television ads might state or what the information
products might claim, success in the online world doesn't
happen overnight. There will be a few who will spot a
profitable trend before anyone else does, but eventually the
income will fizzle and they'll have to find another
profitable trend. Just like any other business, an online
business takes a great deal of time and attention. Some of
the tasks can be automated, but you still have to pay
attention to what's happening so that you can effectively
create your marketing and promotion strategy.
It is possible to make a decent living from online sources.
However, to be successful, you'll need to do your research,
be willing to invest your time, and persevere when the going
gets tough.
