What Does It Take To Create An Online Business?
Posted 18th January 2009 at 12:58 AM by Debbie Songster
Every web site you create is going to follow the same strategy. It doesn’t matter if you are building an information site, a web store, or a hybrid – a combination of both. They all require the same basic components. These components are Research, Creation, Monetization, Promotion, and Maintenance.
Research
This is the first section that must be done. It doesn’t matter if you already have a product to sell or if you are looking for one. Research is key. You need to know:
After you have done your research, you need to create the site. This is your infrastructure. This may include some or all of the following.
Every web site needs some way to make money. It can be passive income (like Adsense ads) or active income (like products you have – store). Some businesses have a combination of both passive and active. Regardless of the method, the reason why you are doing this IS to make money. Ways to monetize your site include:
This is the largest stumbling block for all online business owners. No the saying “if you build it, they will come” does not work online. It’s very easy for your web site to become lost in the 5 million pages you are competing with in your particular niche. Everyone wants a piece of the pie. It’s not any one thing – it will be a combination of things. What that combination is, takes a little trial and error and the same forumula doesn't always work for all niches. A lot depends on the niche you are in, the software you use, the products you sell, the demand, the demographics – the list of factors can go on and on and on………
So, it’s important that you know the different ways to promote your site so you can start experimenting. Promotion falls into two categories PASSIVE and ACTIVE.
Samples of Passive promotion are:
Maintain
It’s not enough that you build it, monetize it and promote it. You have to maintain the site. Components involved in the maintenance mode are:
Research
This is the first section that must be done. It doesn’t matter if you already have a product to sell or if you are looking for one. Research is key. You need to know:
- what your market is
- what the actual niche or sub niche is
- who will buy your product(s) - demographics
- what the need is – If people don’t need it they won’t buy it
- who your competitors are
- how many competing web sites there are
- what your keywords are - Your list will continue to grow even after your web site is built
- what products fit your niche
- who is selling, creating and promoting items in your niche
After you have done your research, you need to create the site. This is your infrastructure. This may include some or all of the following.
- Domain name purchase
- Web server purchase (hosting account)
- Installation of Wordpress or Zencart or what ever software you are using for your web site
- Articles for content
- Promo pages for sale items
- Squeeze page – or signup page
- Sales letters
- Auto responders
- Email promo’s or article series
- Newsletters
- Help or support desk (service)
- Payment processors
- Shipping processors
Every web site needs some way to make money. It can be passive income (like Adsense ads) or active income (like products you have – store). Some businesses have a combination of both passive and active. Regardless of the method, the reason why you are doing this IS to make money. Ways to monetize your site include:
- Adsense
- Amazon listings
- eBay listings
- Physical products you ship
- Physical products you drop ship
- Digital products you own – selling direct to the buyer
- Digital products you refer to – as an affiliate
- You can rent banner space on your site
- Offer paid advertising in your newsletter or website.
This is the largest stumbling block for all online business owners. No the saying “if you build it, they will come” does not work online. It’s very easy for your web site to become lost in the 5 million pages you are competing with in your particular niche. Everyone wants a piece of the pie. It’s not any one thing – it will be a combination of things. What that combination is, takes a little trial and error and the same forumula doesn't always work for all niches. A lot depends on the niche you are in, the software you use, the products you sell, the demand, the demographics – the list of factors can go on and on and on………
So, it’s important that you know the different ways to promote your site so you can start experimenting. Promotion falls into two categories PASSIVE and ACTIVE.
Samples of Passive promotion are:
- SEO – there are two ways to show up in the search engines. Either on the right side as an Ad (paid - active) or on the left side in the Organic (free - passive) search results. The ultimate is to show up in the Organic search. Remember all the research you did with keywords? The way you use them on your web site will determine what page the search engines put you on. SEO is a passive promotion technique because you tweak your pages then you wait to see what Google will do with them. You don’t have control over where you are placed; you only have control over what you can do to your pages.
- Linking – you should encourage others related to your niche to link to your site. Linking shows that a site is popular. Popular sites rank higher in the Organic search results then non popular sites. Once again this is a Passive promotion tool because you have no direct control over the results. It is still effective and should not be dismissed.
- Social network web sites such as Myspace, Squidoo and others – allow you to create pages of information which is then indexed by the search engines as well as being available to their members.
- Articles – You write articles about your chosen topic and then upload them to article directories. Your information should include a link back to your web site. Other sites pick up your article (including your link) to use on their sites. There is no guarantee that your articles will be used – therefore it’s a passive marketing technique.
- Include your url on email signatures, blog signatures, business cards, stationary, brochures, etc. It’s amazing how often this simple method is ignored.
- Pay Per Click (PPC) – this must be done correctly so you don’t loose your shirt BUT it is the only form of advertising that is immediately measurable. You will know within hours if its working or not and if you “study” it and fine tune it, you can reap the rewards without breaking the bank. You should never rule out using PPC because it can be used to do a lot more than just get paying visitors to your site. It’s a great tool for testing the effectiveness of ads, squeeze pages, headlines and a host of other items. This form of promotion you MUST learn to do properly.
- Paid or free advertising (online) in someone else’s blog, newsletter, web site etc. You control the content. If you can find someone with a list of people who are interested in your niche, offer to pay for space in their newsletter or blog. I paid $30 per year to have a banner placed on a prominent Glass Artist site and it’s been a great advertiser for my site www.BeautyInGlass.com. Not only did I get regular retail customers but I also landed some pretty big custom work accounts. So you never know what’s going to work well until you try it.
- Press releases – If written properly, these can get you a lot of attention. These are going to be different from articles. You are making the news release to tell about your site or product NOT to make a sale. You must make your release newsworthy and interesting. Controversy makes people sit up and take notice. Put your REPORTER hat on write something for your local paper. Submit it and see if they run it, then take that news piece and put it online. If you are too shy to write it, contact your local paper and see if they will do an article on your business and then ask to use the same article online. Human interest stories sell – most community papers are glad to help.
- Promote using traditional methods such as direct mail, newspaper ads, etc. Direct mail, including coupons and flyers is still a huge attention getter and customer retention method. Just because you are online doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use the offline methods. As you build your customer database, especially if you sell physical products, it’s a great sales tool to send them a coupon or flyer.
- Publish your own online newsletter. People want to be kept informed. Just be careful that you aren’t trying to sell them something with every newsletter. No one wants to be sold to constantly. Quality information is the key. You can take this one step further and publish a physical newsletter. Send it out in the regular mail.
- Coupons – It doesn’t matter if it’s digital or physical products, offer a coupon. EVERYONE loves a good deal. In lieu of a coupon offer a freebie item. Stores do a “lost leader” all the time. What do you think your newspaper sales flyer is all about? Those great prices are designed to get you in the door so you spend money. Who goes to the grocery store to buy one item? While you are there you will buy other items that are not in the sales flyer. That’s the same with your web site. Here’s another thing to think about. If you have bought all you need at one store – you will have NO need to shop anywhere else. You have just scooped a customer from your competitor! What happens when competitors suffer from lack of business? They close their doors!
Maintain
It’s not enough that you build it, monetize it and promote it. You have to maintain the site. Components involved in the maintenance mode are:
- Articles – your site needs to be updated on a regular basis with good content. Generally this comes from articles – written by you or bought. It doesn’t matter.
- Adding and/or deleting products for sale. The last thing you want is for your customers/readers to return next month and see the same old products. If the products are good sellers – great keep them BUT you need to add fresh products so there is a reason for your customers to keep coming back. Just like in a brick and motar store, you need to change the sales racks around so people are encouraged to look around to find things. Stores routinely put their sales item out front and center so customers see those first. Do that with your web site. Put something different on sale each week or at the very least, each month. For those who sell physical products, Zencart has an auto feature that will put your items on sale for a pre determined amount of time. Have the sale start at a certain date and finish on a certain date. The software looks after that for you so you don’t have to think about it.
- Testing – this can be as simple as determining what sells and what doesn’t. In this case you would want to swap out poor performing products with new ones. (Either digital or physical products – doesn’t matter – it’s the same process). Remember the 80/20 rule – you will make 80% of your profit from 20% of your products. Don’t be afraid to drop products that don’t perform well. I can’t tell you the number of times I have gone to trade shows and found a really “cool” item, listed it and found it to be a dud. The opposite is true to – some stuff I think will never sell, end up being great sellers. You won’t know unless you try it. This leads me to Google Analytics. It’s free – use it. You need to know who comes to your site, what they view, if they buy, how long they stay – etc.
- Reader feedback – don’t be shy, ask for it. Encourage your readers/customers to communicate with you. If you have a blog type site, it has a built in comments section. If you sell physical products, use a customer feedback form. Have your customers contribute a review of the product. Customers, no matter what they are buying, want to feel valued and special.
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