Chapter 14
Expanding Your Business
One of the great things about an online business is that there is unlimited potential for growth; without making a huge investment. This means there is virtually no cap on how much money you can earn through your business.
Here are some key ingredients to continued growth:
Once you have a sizeable list and have proven that you have something of value to offer your community by creating a product that sells, you are ready to expand your business.
There are several ways to do this:
1. Keep increasing the size of your list by continuing to do guest posts. This will create a steady stream of new potential customers.
2. Increase the products that you are now offering. If you started with a ‘basic’ version of a product can you create an expanded version or a ‘premium’ version? One of the best ways to create new products is to ask yourself this question: “When my customer is done using my product, what will they need next?” But before you create that product, make sure you survey your customers to find out if they feel that is something they would want and be willing to pay for.
3. Find affiliate partners. Once you have a proven product you can then offer it to sites that share similar customers. They would advertise your product or service on their site or to their list and if people sign up and buy, they get a commission. (You can create affiliate links that split the percentage of sales automatically by signing up for an account at www.clickbank.com). Another benefit of this strategy is that, in addition to making a sale, the person that purchased your product now ends up on your email list. It’s a great way to grow the size of your list. That way when you develop more products you now have a bigger list to offer it to.
4. Do a combination of all three ideas above.
5. Use paid advertising to drive traffic and business to your site. As I mentioned earlier, using paid advertising can be risky. Using the methods listed above is a way to grow your business with very little extra expense or risk.
Using paid advertising is beyond the scope of this book. However, there are a ton of resources available if you want to explore this further. Here are some of the keywords you can type into your search engine to learn more:
a. Pay per click advertising
b. Banner ads
c. Google AdWords
d. e-zine advertising
e. Facebook advertising
f. Paid advertising
I am sure there will be enough information that pops up on these subjects to keep you busy for a long, long time.
How much you expand your business will be up to you. Some people are happy to just make some extra money on the side. Some people want to escape their jobs and work for themselves fulltime. Some may want to become wealthy and grow their business by adding employees and multiple services.
And still others just want to create a “life style” business. Meaning, as long as they can support themselves and their families, work from home (or anywhere for that matter), do something they love, and have the freedom and time to enjoy life, they are happy.
Whatever it is that you want, starting a successful online business that you love, can help you get there.