10 Things You Should Know Before You Start

Tips about successful work at home business
By: Jeanie Boyle

 

 
 

Are you looking for an online business or work at home opportunity to make money using the Internet but not sure where to start? There are TONS of websites promising you instant riches, touting their "secret" to success. Just buy their surefire solution and you'll make $5,000 in 5 minutes blah blah blah.  So what's their "secret"? Well, it must be that you need to purchase their program package that shows you everything and does everything (yeah right) and then the checks will just fall into your lap.  OK, now - back to reality!

 

There are a few secrets and we will share them with you. To build a successful online business (just like any other business) requires more than just good luck and finding the right program to buy into.  Don't be distracted by the get rich quick schemes online.  While we won't promise you easy money overnight, we do know that you can make money online with some knowledge, work, and motivation. There are pitfalls to avoid and risks that are not worth taking when you want to succeed online.

 

Ten ways that you can screw up your best efforts and guaranty failure include:

1.  Treat your online business like a 'side job' or expect that "If I build it, they will come."

2.  Buy into a work at home opportunity that promises you thousands in just days, or even weeks

3.  Expect that with just a website and a little work, you can replace your income overnight 

4.  Start a website without planning, analysis of competition, optimization, etc.

6.  Go for the most competitive market and use gimmicks to beat your competition

6.  Use a 'free' website service and let them host it

7.  Use a 'website design template' that mostly works for your product or service

8.  List your website with search engines using a blasting service

9.  Sit back and wait for customers to jump in and buy from your site

10. Assume that a visit equals a sale

 

You can do better than that and you CAN SUCCEED

If you want to make extra money online or even one day replace your day job, then you'll need to treat this like a real business. Building a truly successful business online is a PROCESS, just like building an offline business. As a first step, you should think about your passions, hobbies, and expertise.

 

Next, identify what you want to accomplish. Do you want to sell something? Do you want to work for another company online and get paid for your services? Do you want to teach others how to do something? Do you want to provide a service to others online or offline?  Do you want to promote your hobby and sell products related to that? Do you want to create a place for people with your similar interests to get together? Do you want to promote other people's products or services?

 

Once you have identified how you want to proceed, you will need to either sign-up with a reputable company that will pay you for work at home services, or start a website to promote your online business. There are 'free' websites available, however we strongly recommend that you invest a small amount and get your own domain name and hosting. The 'free' websites are restrictive, often requiring that you display their advertising, plus give you limited choices in design, administration, etc., and since this is your business, you want complete control over how you are presenting your site.  

 

In a nutshell, to make your own successful website you will need to:

1. Find your own targeted market/niche based on your passions and desires
2. Research to determine your market's demand, supply, competition and profitability
3. Buy a domain name and web hosting services
4. Build your website - write it, design it, and go 'live' (publish it)
5. Promote your website so others can see it
6. Monetize your site to earn money from more than one source
 

Feeling overwhelmed? Don't have any technical skills? Don't panic or stress, there are tools to help you:

If you need help with these steps...then simplify the process by using tools that will do the 'heavy work' for you.  We bring many of these tools to you, and we only suggest tools that work and won't cost you thousands of dollars either.

 

First, a proven, all-in-one solution to getting a domain, web hosting, planning, building, and promoting your website simplifies matters dramatically. Even intermediate and advanced webmasters like to use an all-in-one package because it's a time saver that offers results.  

 

To promote your online business, we highly recommend reading this free e-book that will give you excellent knowledge about using Google™:   Get the FREE e-book here. Advertising your business is critical because you need traffic (visitors) to come to your site before you can sell anything. Warning: it is very easy to lose a considerable amount of money if you don't know the 'rules' and just jump in without taking a little time to get some guidance in this area.  That's why we offer you this FREE guide.

 

In addition to offering a product or service, there are other ways you can make money online:

 

One of the most powerful and easiest ways is through affiliate marketing. Using this method, you are literally promoting other people's products or services. You can publish a theme-based content website, monetize with the best affiliate programs, and blend in some additional AdSense and other ads to get more revenue streams. One of the best places to get products to sell as an affiliate is to go to ClickBank.  ClickBank offers thousands of programs to choose from and they completely automate the sales capture credit and payment processing.

 

You definitely want to optimize your website which will not only get you more traffic and customers, but will also save you money on advertising (explained in more detail in the free e-book). The best resource we have found for online business website optimization is SEO Elite.  Years of experience and proven results in website optimization makes SEO Elite an incredible automated program that will save you time and money - guaranteed!  This tool is also invaluable when it comes to analyzing your competition to see what they are doing to be successful. It will save you hundreds of hours of tedious manual review.

 

Once you have visitors coming to your online business, you will need to stay in front of them to remind them about what you have to offer, plus you may want to give them specials offers or updates from time to time. You cannot rely on people coming back or bookmarking your website; the Internet is simply too big, and you are just one site in it. There is a solution, and you have seen it in action many times:  Email Marketing. We are not talking about spamming here. Offering an informative newsletter or update, or announcing a new product or service will keep you in touch with people who have come to your site and these contacts will convert to sales.

 

You need to capture your visitors' information and have an automated method for sending your messages to them. Don't settle for just any program, however. Writing messages is great, but if your contacts don't get them because they go straight into spam filters, then you have failed in your efforts. We recommend aweber communications as a great tool that you can use to get your messages through.  Aweber has a track record of >99.34% delivery of emails and their list building features, plus broadcast message capability makes them a leader in automated marketing. 

 

Another great way to make money is to monetize your webpages using Adsense, which is Google's™ advertising program. Adsense will pay you every time a visitor clicks on an ad on your site that is offered by Adsense. It is very easy to setup and you have control over where those ads are placed, what colors appear in the ads, whether they are text or picture ads, etc. This method of income for your online business is both easy and can help improve your profits! 

 

No matter what your passion, expertise, or experience level, the tools that can make you achieve your goals can all be found right on this page. We have used each one of them and continue to use many of them today to get the results we deserve. You can too.  It's that easy.

 

 

About the Author:  Jeanie Boyle is a business professional with 20+ years experience in management, sales and online marketing. For more information and to find solutions and tools that are referenced in this article at http://www.BestNetResults.com.