The 3 things you need to do to have a successful online business
The P O P Method of Success by Natalie Williamshttp://www.SmallHostingPlans.comThere are 3 main things you need to do in order to be successfulwith an online business.Prepare, Obtain & PromotePrepare You need to prepare and establish a website. Thisincludes a domain name, hosting account, website pages , ashopping cart and a merchant account. When you sign up withSmall Hosting Plans, you receive a domain name for 2 years,website template, and a shopping cart that is already e...
...nabled toaccept PayPal as your merchant account and Checks. You are alsoable to upgrade the cart if you would like to use any one ofover 100 other merchant accounts that are available.Obtain You need to obtain products to sell on your site. Thereare 5 main ways that people and businesses acquire products thatare sold on their websites. On my own websites, I do a mixtureof all of the below. Buy items in bulk at wholesale prices andthen resell for a profit. Cons: Usually the setbacks for this method are that a) peoplewith small home-based businesses do not have the capitalrequired to make large enough purchases to make a high profitand b) there is not space enough to store these large purchasesin a person's home or small office.Solution: The solution to this can be found in the "Light BulkWholesale Directory" found athttp://www.successfulwahm.com/lbd/light-bulk.asp This directoryis filled with companies who will sell you smaller bulk, stillat a wholesale price. This allows for you to make a profit andhave room for the items in your home or office before they sell.Also, this same company offers the Market Research Wizard whichis simply an amazing tool to use when deciding if a particularproduct will sell or not online. They offer a free trailversion, so I urge you to test it out. Market Research Wizardcan be found here:http://www.successfulwahm.com/lbd/marketwizard.aspUse Dropshippers to fill their website with products. Dropshippers are companies who will allow you to sell theirproducts on your site and when a product sells, the customerpays you and you in turn place the order with the dropshipperand they ship the items directly to your customer. You can readmore about dropshippers on the Dropshipping 101 website here:http://www.dropshipping101.comCons: People claiming to be dropshippers saturate the Internetoffering to make you rich. These people are actually middlemenwho will take your order and place it with the real dropshipper,keeping a portion of the money for themselves. These middlemencut into your profits. One of the easiest ways to determine ifthey are a middleman is if they do not ask you for your SalesTax Certificate. True wholesalers are required to obtain aresell permit from you before they can sell to you.Solution: The solution to this can be found in the "DropshipSource Directory" found here:http://www.successfulwahm.com/lbd/dropshipping.asp Thisdirectory is filled with companies that will dropship, theyrequire a tax certificate and will not charge you a fee forjoining. The company that created this directory is veryreputable, backed by the BBB Reliability Program and run by anhonest group located in Orlando, Florida. Also, be sure to getyour Sales Tax Certificate. You can have the research for yourbusiness licenses completed for you here(http://www.newonlinebusiness.com/newonlinebusiness/business_licenses.asp) or do it all yourself with a little help in the rightdirection here(http://www.newonlinebusiness.com/newonlinebusiness/BusinessLicenses/General_Info.htm)Join Affiliate Programs and place their products on your siteYou can join the Affiliate Program of just about any company youcan find online and promote the sales of their products. Whenyou join the affiliate program, you are given a special link totheir website that you place on your own site. When your websitevisitors click on these links, they are transported to the othercompanies website where they are free to purchase products. Youmake a commission on all sales. The difference between affiliateprograms and using dropshippers is that with affiliate programs,you do not make the sale, collect the money, pack or shipanything. The main company handles everything. All you do is putthe affiliate link on your site. With dropshippers, you sell theitem, collect the money from the customer, put the order in withthe dropshipper and then track to make sure the customerreceives the item. Cons: The only downside I've found to affiliate programs is thatyou need to occasionally check the links to make sure they stillwork. Sometimes a company will discontinue their program withoutinforming the affiliates and you are left with dead links onyour website. However, this is so few and far between that itshouldn't even be listed as a con.Solution: Here is a nifty tool that will check for dead links inany web page you enter.http://www.stickysauce.com/cgi-local/linkcheck/linkcheck.plCreate and Sell your own physical productsThe Internet has made it easy for anyone to create and selltheir own products. Are you a woodsman who loves to makebirdhouses? Can you make Barbie clothes? I believe everyone hassomething creative inside of them.Cons: You are one person. You will be limited to your physicalcapabilities and time-constraints of each day.Solution: Well, I think they are close to successful humancloning =)Create and Sell your own digital productsEveryone and their brother is selling eBooks with resell rightson the Internet these days. There is one eBook that they are NOT selling and NEVER willsell? Which one?? The one that YOU create. People selling 10,000 eBooks for $9.95 on eBay are not strikingit rich. The ones with their own website, creating the productsthemselves are. Marlon Sanders, Yanik Silver, Rosalind Gardnerto name a few. These people discovered early on the right way toown a business. The next time you see a digital product and youthink about buying it, think instead how you could create ityourself. (Or one darn close to it). If you are like mostpeople, you think you have nothing to write about or don't havethe skills for creating. Wrong! I know a woman who was a DJ forher young adult life, but then relied on her wealthy husband totake care of her for many years. She has NO business experience.The time came when suddenly she had to make it on her own. Shethought 'What am I going to do with no other skills butDJ'ing?". She wrote an eBook about DJ'ing, setting up forparties, the best lists of music to play at certain gigs, etc.She's not a millionaire, but she's done very well for herself.Cons: You probably still don't believe you can do it so you willbrush this topic off.Solution: I am going to GIVE YOU a bonus right here and now thatwill help you achieve the above. It's called the Extreme eBookCreations package. It contains some eBooks you need to read,plus there is an eBook Creator Program yours for free. You cancollect your bonus here.http://www.cidicon.com/mydigitalproducts/ebookcreator/retrieve-products.htmPromote Now that you have your site all ready, millions ofpeople will visit and you'll be rich overnight. Wrong again. Ifyou build it, they will NOT come. In fact, not only will theynot come, it sometimes seems like they go out of there way tostay away. Getting people to your website can be the moststressful, time-consuming, money-eating part of owning awebsite. But it doesn't have to break you. There are two ways toget people to your site. 1) Pay a load of money out to blastannouncements all over the place 2) Spend the time to promote ityourself in free and almost-free ways. It always amazes me thatsomeone will pay $10,000 to have a website built for them whenthey can have one made for so much less (or make it themselves)and then spend that money on the advertising. That is where yourbudget should be. Now I am not saying skimp and have a terriblesite made. There IS a happy medium where you can have aprofessional, functional website without breaking the bank. Sowhat are these free and almost-free ways to promote?Post on message boards. There is this one particular messageboard I am on all the time. I just answer questions and use mywebsite link in my signature line and you wouldn't believe howmuch business I get from doing that. I posted a message almost ayear ago with my opinion on a particular online program that ispopular and I STILL get emails to this day asking me more andthey usually end up buying something from me. Search on Google(http://www.google.com) for Message Boards along the topic ofyour website. For instance, if my website is about helpingpeople work from home, I will look for message boards that haveto do with "work from home moms".Become an eBay seller. It doesn't matter what you sell on eBay,you can use your listings as a traffic driving tool. What you dois create a custom 'About Me' page on the eBay account. Theygive this page for free with every account. Then in everylisting, place big links getting people to visit your 'About Me'page which will contain links to your website(s). My server logsshow that the largest amount of traffic I receive to my websiteis through my 'About Me' page. If there is a month when I postjust a few auctions, then I can guarantee you my websites salesare way down.Open an eBay account http://www.ebay.comHelp with About Me Page http://www.AboutMyAuctions.comListing Code Generatorhttp://www.successfulwahm.com/sw/html-generator/about-me.aspLook for websites and newsletters that compliment your websiteand offer to trade links or articles. Browse Newsletters here:http://pertinent.com/newsletters/Write articles yourself and submit them to the appropriatewebsites. These websites offer articles written by members thatvisitors can read and more importantly, they can place thesearticles on their own website and newsletters which iscirculated throughout the web. So your article (with your nameand web address) is seen by thousands. Browse Articles andSubmit your own here: http://www.goarticles.comWrite eBooks and do the same as above. Here is a search onGoogle for "Submit Your eBook".http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&safe=active&q=%22submit+your+eBook Go through thewebsites and submit your free eBook everywhere that will takeit. Freebie mentioned above: Extreme eBook Creationshttp://www.cidicon.com/mydigitalproducts/ebookcreator/retrieve-products.htmOffer freebies on your site in exchange for the persons name andemail address. It's very important to get a subscriber listgoing. You don't want to keep trying to get new customerseveryday forever. If you come out with a new product, you willhave your current customers to offer the product to first. Whatfreebies should you offer? An eBook, a report, really anythingthat may be of interest to the types of visitors you receive. Free Subscriber List http://www.GetResponse.com/index/66513Products you can use for freebieshttp://www.MyDigitalProducts.comGoogle AdWords. You apply for an account and then create littleads that appear to the right of the Google Search results and onother people's websites that use the keywords you choose. Youdetermine how much you will pay per click and what your monthlybudget will be so you are always in control of how much moneyyou are spending on this advertising. Google AdWordshttp://www.google.com/adwordsThere are a few more things you can do to generate income fromyour websites. Google Ad Sense. You apply for an account and ifthey accept you (they DO turn people down), you can place somecode on your website so that Google Ads will appear on yoursite. When your website visitors click these ads, you get moneyfor every click. Due to the terms of agreement for theirprogram, I cannot discuss how much I make from their ads, but Iwill tell you it's more than I thought I would and I ampleasantly surprised and happy every day. Google AdSensehttps://www.google.com/adsensePlace ads in your local newspaper about your product with yourwebsite addressGet free business cards from Vista Print and leave them aroundtown. I place one of these in every single package I ship outfor things I sell on eBay. I also ordered mailing labels butwith just my business name and website address on them and I usethem to close envelopes that I mail out.http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=26298982&siteid=40122106&bfpage=text_link_5If you're really in shape and have the stamina, createadvertising doorknob hangers on your computer and walk around,hanging them on doorknobs.http://www.aimforlove.com/shp/doorknob_hanger_example.htmWhat is your site about? What is your product? You couldprobably convince stores to let you leave brochures or flyersabout. For example, I began a secretarial service many yearsago. I was allowed to leave my brochures on the counter of acomputer repair shop. I received many customers this way and tothis very day, I still have 2 great clients for who I performsecretarial duties from my home. The income from those 2 clientsalone is enough to make me happy to stay home.The EndNatalie Williams is a full time work from home mom that centersher business around helping other people, especially moms, workfrom home successfully and without being scammed. Her mainwebsites can be found at http://www.SmallHostingPlans.com andhttp://www.GettingStartedOnline.com nwilliams@cidicon.com
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