Marty Foley of http://www.profitinfo.com taught me there are 5 key areas to online success and that is what I'm going to show you now.
Those 5 key areas are1) Product or Service
2) Lead Generation
3) Conversion
4) Administration
5) Education
Let's start with step 1, Product or Service. You must have some sort of product or service online that a fair amount of people would be interested in to make any money.
You might have a hobby you would like to make money from like, polishing brass, I don't know, but I can't you now a hobby like that will probably not have a very big market online to sell too.
This product could even be an affiliate program you are promoting.I can't believe how many people I talk to in my consulting work who have this business idea and huge website idea that’s going to take thousands of dollars to make happen, not to mention a lot of time, and they have no real clear plan on how they are going to make any money because they don't know what they are selling.
Some of the most profitable sites on the Internet are those with one single page of writing. Exactly like the page you brought this book from. Step 2 is lead generation.
Being able to contact prospects and customers anytime you want without spending a fortune in the process is one of the great things about marketing on the Internet.
Once you have those leads, you can contact them again and again for practically nothing. It doesn't even need to take up your own time, you can use autoresponders to do the work for you.
Having an email list full of people who are dying to know about your product or service is like having money in the bank.
Step 3 is conversion.This is one of those things you tweak along the way. If your website or email's are only converting at 1% then thats ok, it's something you can improve on.
For instance, if you get $100 customers to your website and you have a 1% conversion rate, you will only make 1 sale. If you have a conversion rate of 2% you double the amount of sales you get and the amount of money you make without having to get any more traffic or even spending any more money.
Basically, try and get the most out of what you have. It really is the simple things that count and if you do them right, everything else falls into place.
Step 4 is administration and this is something I struggled with. People fail to realize that an Internet business is just like any other business and needs to be run the same way.
There is book work, emails, finances, expenses, you name it, it's there. While this might be mundane, it needs to be done. If you don't want to do it, hire someone to do it for you.
Step 5 is education. I spend thousands every year on books, tapes, seminars, you name it.
You need to be able to keep up with what is going on. Just like a doctor has to read medical journals, you need to keep up to date with the latest marketing techniques and news that will affect you in some way.
No one knows all there is to know about running a business online, that's why testing and tracking are so important. As much as reading is important, just doing something will make all the difference to your business.