Just the other day I was very pleasantly surprised when an old friend of mine from whom I haven’t heard since over a year called me. After the usual “how’s the weather over there?” talk, I quickly found myself engaged in an excited discussion about web design. After half an hour of conversation where we were talking about a lot of technical stuff I remembered how we started this conversation and BANG, it hit me.
Why?
My friend actually started this conversation by asking me about my work as an ecommerce and web marketing consultant! So how did we end up talking about web design and programming? Well, when I answered him he only picked out what he found important and what he could understand. And unfortunately the only thing he finds important is web design and programming!
Like myself my friend is a trained web designer and network administrator and we both worked already for a bunch of people and companies designing websites and like me he recently started his own web design company. The only difference between us is that he still belongs to the 90 percent of people who have no success on the web while I belong to the 10 percent who are earning big money. So how does it come that some people are so incredible successful, while others are not even earning enough to pay their web host?
It’s all about the mindset.
Ask 90 percent of all so called web professionals what you have to do to build a successful web business and they will tell you all the same: It’s all about Web programming, web design and web programming again. Their eyes start sparkling when all this funny words start flushing out of their mouths and they tell you for hours all about the things you can do with java and javascript, php, flash animations, perl, cgi and whatsoever.
To be true. I can understand their enthusiasm about all this fancy technical stuff because I really love it myself, but hey, I did not ask about technical possibilities. No one answered my question yet. They just got excited by all that technical stuff. What I asked was:
How can I build a successful web business?
And the shocking truth is: The answer is so simple that 90 percent of all the people don’t get it. It’s just one simple sentence:
Do not tell your customers what they need. Ask them.
That’s a simple formula. It’s easy and logical and everyone can try it. You will be amazed about the results.
Of course, in order to practically apply this formula it would need much deeper exploration, but that’s not necessary at the moment. Before we go into details we have to understand the basics and the basic point here is that this mindset and ONLY this mindset is the key to a successful net marketing business.
If you don’t develop this mindset of putting your customers first you can be a complete laymen or the most sophisticated search engine optimisation expert, but you will NEVER succeed. If you want a successful marketing business you need happy customers and the only way to make them happy is by first understanding and then fulfilling their needs.
Like my friend, most of nowadays “web experts” focus on technical issues, programming and web design because THEY like it. But they don’t understand what their customers are looking for. Their customers aren’t looking for java, flash animations, changing images etc. They are looking for high quality information! I repeat: For first class high quality information.
Therefore: Like in every other part of economy find out what people need. Do a great market research discover a suitable niche for yourself and focus on delivering high quality information to your interested visitors. And once they see that you understand their needs, they will build confidence in you and will be happy to buy your products, cause they know that your products are as great as the information you provide.
We all have the same possibilities. You have the same possibilities as I have and I have the same possibilities as my friend, but although the internet contains the same success potential for everyone not everyone uses it.
It’s your choice. You can choose, if you want to use it and be part of the 10 percent successful people or if you want to ignore it and stay in the gulch of failure.
You decide.
The big buzz-phrase is ‘Niche Marketing’. If you find your niche and market it like crazy (the gurus claim) you can be a zillionaire by March.
Great.
So where is this niche, and how will you recognize it when you stumble into it?
Many expensive courses are offered teaching Internet Marketing, and most have some important links missing. How does the average person find their niche, without a background in marketing? As a beginner, you may just want to supplement your current income, and hopefully, eventually, quit your day job. The very average advice offered for hundreds of dollars is ‘find your passion, research on the internet and Clickbank, develop your own product, and there you go. So let’s help you expand this into a sensible plan.
Grab a pen and paper, and try some new ideas. What did you want to be when you grew up? If you really are a fireman or train engineer, you have an excellent niche, with a lot of information and stories to tell. If you aren’t what you planned to be when you were twelve, take it up again now, study your dream occupation, and become an armchair expert.
Do you have a hobby you are passionate about? Not everyone does, and passion means different things to different people. What subject do you love to talk about that no-one else you know will join you in? What are you willing to keep talking about even when no-one else is willing to listen? These favourite subjects of yours show the basis of passion. The internet is the new galaxy here on earth, and there’s bound to be people outside your little sphere who want to hear what you have to say, and might be willing to pay for that opportunity.
Take notes the next time you go to a magazine rack. What are the first three magazines that grab your attention? Each could be your general niche to start with. Look through your book collection at home, and find a common theme that is obvious, or have someone else do that for you.
A niche can be defined as ‘a position particularly well suited to the person who occupies it’. Where you see yourself fitting in the best might be your niche.
If the place that suits you best is not the number one hot topic on the internet today, that’s ok. Start with one subject that you feel eager to work with, and build a working knowledge that you can develop into an information project. The practice you gain can be used to make a second niche for yourself, and a second on-line business.
There are many other ways to find your little piece of the net, and I’ve found an extremely valuable resource with three free ebooks and several hours of video that will help you generate more ideas than you will be able to deal with in a lifetime. All you need really is sitting in your head right now, you just need the keys to unlock it.
Do you know that 95% of the people starting out in their internet businesses fail? In the middle of all the noise and hype on the internet today, not many people realize that all the ideas and techniques you can find are useless if you don’t first understand what your business model is or how are you going to make money on the internet. Even the most remarkable internet marketing technique will not work if you don’t understand how to apply it to your business.
The 3 most popular business models are:
Perhaps the most popular one out there, affiliate marketing provides a good start for newbies. Almost anyone can sign-up for an affiliate program for free and start promoting the chosen product or service. Commissions start coming in if someone will buy or participate in the programs promoted. Affiliate marketers don’t carry any risk, since they do not pay for the creation of the product, they do not handle customer service, they need not know the innards of internet transactions, like merchant accounts, autoresponder (what is that?), reciprocal linking, etc. It’s also possible to be an affiliate even without a website.
Some affiliate marketing programs you may participate in require little up-front investment. Some are free. It’s no surprise therefore that almost everyone and their neighbor promotes an affiliate program or another. In fact, if there is a single reason why the Internet today is so proliferated with ads and banners, it’s because of affiliate programs.
With the millions out there involve in affiliate marketing, only 5% ever make any money and only 1% makes really big money. The “Super Affiliates,” so they are called, do it very differently from the rest, therefore they earn the big checks.
This is a great strategy because there are thousands of possibilities for the type of product that you can create. There are so many niche markets that you can write about. It could be a course on Japanese gardens, how to start your own babysitting business, how to sell your artwork, taking care of your dog’s ears … there are endless topics and still many that have not yet been explored by online marketers. You don’t have to write the information yourself, you can get a ghost writer or hire someone to produce the CD.
EBook authors need to invest more than affiliates do. While affiliates can get something for nothing, the same is not true for the eBook type of business. EBook authors need to learn a lot more than affiliates are required to. They need to spend some amount of money getting the business up and running. However, when done right, the payoff in this online business model is much more rewarding.
These marketers make more money because they have very, very low production and maintenance costs. Once the product is produced, it doesn’t cost a cent to reproduce thousands of copies. Start-up costs can be covered by selling just a few copies of very high-margin eBooks. You can even recruit hordes of affiliates to do the selling for you.
This has taken the internet by storm. There are tons of testimonials from people making income from Adsense.
Adsense is Google’s advertising program wherein webmasters display ads from Google’s extensive list of advertisers. Unobtrusive text-based ads are served in member sites, who then earn a commission every time someone clicks on the advertisers’ links.
Google Adsense uses a technology to deliver ads that are highly relevant to the content of a page. Google’s engine will scan through the content of the page to determine its topic, and will then serve ads that are relevant to the page’s content. Running Google Adsense is quite simple. First build a website full of content of your desired niche or topic, and then register in Google’s adsense program. Once approved, you then paste a code in your page, and the ads start appearing immediately after you upload the changes to your server.
Google is silent on how it shares the revenue per click with their partners, but how much you will earn per click depends on the topic and the product being advertised. Products with profit margins of $10 for the advertiser will most likely give you a smaller pay per click than a product with a $100 margin. Similarly, ads with high conversion rates will normally give you higher payouts than less effective ads, since they can afford to pay more dollars per click, with a portion of that money going to you.
If you are considering Adsense, install a code or software on your site to keep out bots, even Google bots. These little crawlers can and will click on your Adsense ads and get you banned. So look into whatever is the best method to lock ’em out is today–it changes all the time. You don’t need Google to get traffic since most Adsense training I have seen teaches you to get your traffic from Facebook and Native Ads. The traffic from Facebook is free since you will be building the websites and corresponding Facebook Page committed to a high-interest niche. And Native Ads are cheap.
These are the top 3 most popular online business models today. No matter which model you choose, make sure you understand the basics. Stop buying courses or information not applicable to your business. Information overload can stop you before you even get started.
A long time ago you decided that working all the hours and being away from your family just has to be wrong. You know what? It is. There is a way to right this wrong and it has to do with the Internet. But you knew that already. So what is the next step?
You have been looking online in the search engines and maybe in the newsgroups and you have seen plenty of opportunities. Most of the hype you read sounds much too good to be true and most of it is. However, there are some real opportunities out there. You just have to know where to look. Don’t follow the other sheep, work it out for yourself.
Where do you look? Who holds the keys to this bountiful virtual treasure chest? Do you have a chance at success?
From here on in we’ll confirm some truths and dispel some lies which you’ll find all over the place online.
Lie: I can earn amazing sums of money online really quick. I can quit the 9-5 within weeks!
Truth: Pure hype reigns supreme on the Internet. The claims of huge downlines, 6 figure incomes overnight and massive mailing lists with no effort are complete drivel. Nothing is easy to make a go of and online it’s no different. It’s possibly even harder to make your fortune online since the rules are always changing. Staying on top of and driving these changes is where your success will come from.
Lie: Working your online business is easier than working the 9-5.
Truth: Making a true success of your online business is, more often than not, a whole lot harder. You are directly responsible for the amount of money you put in the bank at the end of the month. You will need excellent time management skills and organizational skills. Possibly the hardest thing is the motivation. To get up every day and motivate yourself to switch the computer on, knowing you have to get down to some hard work can be very tough some days.
Lie: My time is my own. I can work whenever.
Truth: Your time is your most precious commodity. There are daily demands on your time from your family and the business of everyday living. Real life carries on regardless of whether you have a spreadsheet to prepare or not. Managing your time actually becomes a delicate balancing act. You cannot ignore your family if you’re working at home – and anyway, one of the reasons you wanted to work at home was to spend more time with the family, right?
Lie: My children will enjoy the extra time I can spend with them.
Truth: Still with this time thing. Yes your kids will be happier to see you more around the place but they will also become confused as to why you can’t play with them more and may even come to resent this. The delicate balancing act is indeed a thin tight-rope walk and you’ve got to be a masterful acrobat to pull it off. It can be done however and this shouldn’t put you off.
Lie: Build it and they will come.
Truth: While this may have been true in the very early days of the Internet with the most basic of search engines driving traffic, these days nothing could be further from the truth. Building your website and getting it online puts you on the first rung of the ladder. Getting enough traffic to make your website profitable is your next goal. There are many places online which claim to be able to do this for you, only 2-3% of these places will be worth your time.
Lie: The Internet is just one big playground for scammers.
Truth: The Internet, with it’s anonymity, is indeed a fertile breeding ground for the more unscrupulous among us. While scammers get all the press there are plenty of real people like you making some nice piles of coin from the Internet legally. The information revolution is upon us and you had better get onboard.
Lie: All my friends and family will want to join me.
Truth: Your friends and family will think you’re completely mad. While you may find one or two people who’re open to your dreams and visions, most will simply ridicule you so be ready for that. They may not talk about you openly but they will think you’re wasting your time. Ignore them and prove them wrong. You can do it. Success is sweet.
At the final analysis, if you want to work at home on the Internet, become truly financially and spiritually free then the odds are not stacked in your favor. This being said, with the fire of determination burning inside you, with the strong desire to enjoy a life of no money worries and more quality time with your family then you will succeed. It takes time, effort and hard choices but you can do it.
Just do one thing every day to improve your position and that’s all it takes.