If you want to know how to create an online business, there are a few key principles and concepts you need to understand and follow. Some of these are related directly to marketing on the internet, and some will seem somewhat removed from any type of online business venture, but are just as important nonetheless.
The key elements that you need to understand are: internet business models, marketing strategies and pipelines, traffic generation techniques, and your personal motivation, vision, and value system. There are additional technical aspects to online business development and growth, but these can all be outsourced for very reasonable amounts, or even learned yourself if you can get the right information. Additionally, there are many automated tools and software that can do a lot of important tasks and jobs for you at very reasonable costs. More about that later.
There are many different types of internet business models, I will name them and define them quickly. Online businesses will flourish most completely when using as many of these strategies together as you can.
Monetizing Adspace: This simply means getting traffic to a website, and displaying other people's ads on that site. Whenever anyone clicks on a link, whether or not they buy anything, you are paid a commission.
Affiliate Sales: This refers to selling other people's products; generally they are information products or software.
E-commerce: Selling physical goods online, as in an e-bay business.
Developing your own product: Self-explanatory. Information products are a good choice here, because the cost of production is so low, allowing you to sell an almost unlimited number of copies at very low cost.
Selling Domains: This involves buying up domains (or website names), possibly fixing the site up or even not doing anything at all, and then selling at a higher price later on.
Online MLM: This refers to selling products through a multi-level structure, such that you are paid commissions based on sales made within your business, whether you personally referred the person who bought the product or not. This business allows for substantial residual income, and the internet has made this business model even more powerful than it was pre-internet.
Direct Sales: Similar to MLM above, but in this case you generally are not paid commissions for sales made in a downline; or, if you are paid, it is only down one or two levels. There are some information product direct sales companies today that allow you to earn a $1,000 commission check off of just ONE sale. (Now being referred to as a Top Tier or GPT business, Get Paid Today.)
Regarding marketing strategies and pipelines, there are a few key elements that you will want to have in place. (This generally includes all online business models other than selling domains.) First, of course, is having some sort of web presence. This can be an e-commerce store set up at yahoo stores, or your own blog. I strongly recommend having multiple locations on the web, but the heart of all of your efforts should be your own self-hosted blog.
Secondly, you should have a way of capturing people's information, so that you can market to them automatically over time. (Of course, you should offer free tremendous value to them first and foremost, and only after that market products or services to them. Or, have your offer embedded in valuable information. As an example, give away a great recipe for free, and sell them one of the main ingredients.) The preferred way here is by means of an auto-responder, which is software that can capture visitors' names and e-mails, and then send pre-written e-mails automatically to them at pre-determined intervals. Your next best option would be to have them follow you on Twitter, or subscribe to the RSS feed of your blog. Each of those ways allows you to send messages to people who are interested in hearing from you, in one form or another.
Finally, you should have a broader presence than simply your blog. You also need to be involved with some social networking sites, like Facebook, myspace, and twitter. The key is to focus on just a few of the main sites and build a presence and network of friends then. Only then should you expand out to include other sites. Just as important, you also should have as much good content as you can create, or pay to have produced in your name, on third party sites. Places like EzineArticles for articles, YouTube and revver for videos, docstoc.com and scribd.com for documents, and hubs at hubpages.com are great places to start. The information here pre-sells you as an expert, and funnels people to you at your blog. (By the way, if you want other people to write content for you, or to supplement your writing, elance.com and mturk.com are some places that you'll want to check out to find potential writers.)
As far as traffic generation strategies, there really are just five sources of traffic. The trick is that there are MANY different traffic generation tactics for each source. The sources are: search engines ("organic"or free results), paid search engine traffic, social media sites, free links from other websites, and paid listings from other sites. Out of these sources, there are really three "pillars" of traffic to master: SEO (search engine optimization), PPC (refers to "pay per click" search engine ads), and social media marketing (also known as "web 2.0". Web 2.0 generally refers to websites in which users can participate in creating the content, as in posting videos to YouTube or commenting on blogs.)
I would strongly recommend mastering one of these strategies as completely as you can, depending on your goals and budget, while learning the basics of the other two. If you have a decent budget and want the quickest results, mastering PPC is the way to go. Specifically, master Google's AdWords program, since Google accounts for somewhere around 70% of search engine traffic. If you are looking for long-term significant traffic and don't have the budget for PPC, master SEO techniques (or pay someone to do it for you.) In today's internet, SEO also includes knowing some Social Media techniques. Finally, for a mix of fairly immediate traffic as well as long term potential traffic, master Social Media techniques. Just note that the traffic generated from social media sites will not be quite as targeted as search engine traffic.
The fourth and last key element that I mentioned as necessary in creating an internet business was knowing your personal vision, motivation, and values. This may sound a little abstract, but it is just as critical as any other element. If you don't have a crystal clear image of the future results that you must have from your business, you may lose your motivation and quit. The fact is that most people who start an online business do it part-time to start with, around their main full-time job or career. This means they have to some extent limited time to build their business, as well as other stress and responsibilities. When obstacles come up, as they surely will, they need to be smaller than your goals. If your goals are not clearly defined and at the forefront of your mind, a particularly challenging obstacle could be the thing that delivers a knock-out punch to your business plans.
Finally, having a clear idea of your core values in mind as you start your business will ensure that you choose a business you are personally interested in, and doesn't violate any of your ethical standards. If your personal ethics are compromised, or the business just isn't something you are interested in, your effort will not be 100%. And anything less than 100% commitment will put your business in serious jeopardy right from the start. To some work up front to plan the life and results that you demand your business provide, and it will pay off in many ways for years to come.
I'm Mike Rutkowski, and I am a home business growth specialist. My chosen business model includes elements of affiliate product sales, network marketing sales (or MLM), and a high value direct sales product. My product areas focus on network marketing education, nutritional supplements, and personal development and personal growth training. I also have a rebrandable, duplicatable online MLM marketing system available for people involved in network marketing or direct sales businesses. You can learn more about my personal development opportunity called LifePath Unlimited here.
Article Source: EzineArticles.com/expert/Mike_Rutkowski/258176
Article Source: EzineArticles.com/1722335
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