Thursday, September 6, 2007
When starting a web business, the first step is generating a business plan. Once completed, it is time to move on to the particulars of your site.
Research
Are people actually buying your widgets from other sites? To find out, you could check stock of stores and Web sites, ask for friends' opinions and find more data online, in media and at the library. If it turns out people are not buying very many widgets these days, now may be a good time to change you business plan. Also research what your competitors are doing and if there is any way to improve upon their business models.
Web Site?
After you have a business plan and done some research, it is time to begin building your business. Though it is not essential for a web entrepreneur to have a web site, for our purposes we will assume one will be required. Other methods of making money on the web are quite possible, such as by creating an opt-in mailing list or selling products though services such as eBay.
Host and Domain
In order to have a web site one must have a host and a domain name. Think of the host as the home of your web site and the domain, such as www.widgets.com, as its address. Domain names can often be registered for less than $10 per year. Free hosting is even available, but a user of such services is required to have the host's banners on their site, which is not particularly desirable.
A host should have reliable customer service, have very high uptime, meaning your site is accessible on the web as close to 100% of the time as possible, and give your business room to grow. You don't want your host to crash if you get ten thousand visitors in one day. If you need programming or ecommerce, you will want to make sure your host will support your needs. Server stats are also very handy.
Build It
After you have a home and address for your web site, you will need to build it. There are two roads you can walk down. Many web entrepreneurs choose to build their own sites and learn as they go. This is often desirable if you are interested in HTML and programming, have time to spare and don't require a professional polish. Many sites that make money promoting affiliate programs attract an audience that expect a rough, non- professional site to lead them to a polished sponsor site where they will spend their money.
The other road is to have a professional design your site for you. This is the best solution for many. Like a construction worker who knows the best way to build houses and can do it better and faster than the average layman, so it is with web design. If you are planning on selling a product or service directly, it is essential to have a sharp image by which your potential clients will judge you. With so much information and so many web pages available, surfers often move on after only a few seconds. A professional design will ensure you will be making the most of each visitor that views your site.
Now you have a plan, a product or service and a web site to sell it with. This is all very nice and all, but without people viewing your web site, you can't make any sales. You need a solid marketing plan to get the visitors to you site, by which you can make sales.
And that's the subject of our next article.
Halstatt Pires is with the Internet marketing firm MarketingTitan.com - a San Diego Internet marketing and advertising company providing search engine optimization services and offering automated web site systems through BusinessCreatorPro.com.
CREATE A MARKETING SWIPE FILE
Copyright © 2005
Direct marketing's a tough way to make a living but if you can master certain skills it can be extremely lucrative. It takes on many different forms, some of which are easily translatable to the web.
Although the term may bring to mind door to door salesmen pushing their wares to housewives in robes and curlers, it also has roots in print ads such as classifieds and space ads and direct mail.
The internet has created a massive opportunity for the skilled direct marketer to thrive without doing the customary legwork and engaging in personal contact with their prospects, basically expanding on the concept of direct mail.
So what skills do you need to hone in order to succeed at direct marketing?
The top priority of anyone interested in making money on the internet should be their copywriting skills. This is simply putting your sales message into words.
Since the face to face encounter has been eliminated you need to be able to convey your pitch through the words on the pages that your prospects are reading.
A great way to polish your copywriting skills, even if you've never written a single word of ad copy before, is to create a swipe file. This is just a file of already successful ad campaigns.
Swipe files are incredibly useful tools. Every major player in direct marketing keeps a swipe file and for good reason. Everybody gets stuck for words and ideas at some point. When this happens it's good to have an example of past successes to go to and freshen your creative juices and get the words flowing again.
What should your file consist of?
You should gather any material that has spurred you to action, whether its purpose was to get you to buy something or just leave your name and email address. Copy the good stuff and study it. Realize what was in the ad that made you act on the offer.
Look for layout designs (bulleted lists are a big direct marketing tactic), action words, headlines and sub heads. You'll notice certain words popping up along with questions and statements that are all fairly alike but are tailored to specific products and services.
That's the key to a good swipe file. Gather a wide array of different styles and mold the message to your particular target audience. Study the material and write out many different versions of the same ad. Practice your art and perfect it.
A word of caution though. Never copy an ad word for word. That's plagiarism and it's illegal. Use your swipe file as an aid only, to sharpen your copywriting skills and make you better at direct marketing.
NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this
article within your website or newsletter as long
as you leave the article fully intact and include
the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
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Heidi Chartier creates ebooks and has her own website, which has listed great home based job opportunities, that are guaranteed. For the edge on owning a online business and to claim some valuable bonuses, you can subscribe to her popular newsletter at: http://www.makingmaximumwealth.com/pips.html
A Work at home career lasts a lifetime
Not only does a work at home career last a life time, it can also be passed down to your children like any other property. They can inherit a flourishing online business! This is by far the simplest logic to start a work at home business for anybody looking out for options beyond the regular 9-5 grind. Work at home business is a permanent career, where you are your own boss. You make your own rules and the most important of all -You make yourself rich. Unlike in a job, where you work hard to make somebody else rich.
That's not done. At least after you have been in a job and have realized you are worth more than you are paid for, you should check out work at home possibilities. You can do it quietly in the corner of your room. You can be skilled or unskilled, it doesn't make a difference when it comes to work at home career. Once you have found an online career you are comfortable with you should work on it to succeed. The sooner you find success online in your work at home career, the
sooner you can quit your regular 9-5 grind. Its generally been observed that by the time your 5th or 6th check has come (however small the amount) people realize that if more time is given to work at home career, online income can increase manifold. Its not like a regular job where you get your increments once in a year. In work at home career one's income grows with each passing month, provided efforts are being put in continuously in the right direction.
People who are just beginning should keep only a few things in mind and give it a start. That a work at home career is a legitimate way of making money online which can be done without spending any money. Yes, if you plan to have a
website, you spend on registering a domain name and hosting space. That's the only spending. If you are going to start a work at home career which doesn't require a website, you spend nothing in most cases. Another thing to keep in
mind is that a computer and access to internet is all that is required to start a work at home career. One corner in your house where you can work undisturbed.
The types of work at home careers are many! You can get paid for taking surveys online, you can get into drop shipping, start selling on eBay, have a website, do proof reading, medical transcription or simply take up typing jobs.
There are many more such opportunities. You will find something for everyone on the net. So just surf, read about these options and decide your future. A work at home career is too lucrative an option to just let it pass you by. Think
about it - Its going to last a lifetime. The checks will be there forever. You won't have to beg permission to leave early or come late. No RULES to follow. You can work early in the morning, take holidays when you want, don't commute, be amidst friends and family all the time. Even if you don't yet understand the feeling and conveniences of of flexi hours, what you will understand and completely agree with is that work at home career lasts a lifetime. You will never have to retire or jump jobs in your life!
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