I probably get at least one call each day from someone who just wants to “put up a Web site” and start making money. They’ve seen those commercials with folks standing in front of mansions and expensive cars.
Many even asking me if I have any ideas for an online business. To which I respond, “so many I don’t have enough time to implement them all!”
We then naturally start getting into a conversation about their ideas and what their plan is. Nine out of ten callers don’t even have a plan. They just know they want to have a Web site and make money. As though having a “Web site” is all that is required to start raking in the coin.
It simply doesn’t work that way. Online business is business; basically the same as off-line with the same considerations and issues that need to be addressed — before you even think of getting a Web site.
So many disregard the concepts necessary to running a serious, healthy business as though they don’t matter. Accounting, tax and legal issues still have to be addressed as well as inventory, sales and marketing activities to be planned for.
You have to determine shipping and handling fees, how you will track inventory and what your policies for ordering, customer service, returns and data collection. How will you accept payments? PayPal and/or a Merchant account? How will you market your business? PayPer Clicks, eZines, forums and what off-line advertising can you benefit from?
Online is not a build it and they will come. In today’s environment you will not get found by virtue of simply putting a Web site online. You have to have a plan.
From investigating your market to ensure you have a product that is needed/desired and not already being offered by millions of other Web sites in the first place, to making sure you have an viable business plan that covers all these issues in detail.
Make sure you get your new business idea off to the best start possible in this rabidly competitive environment. Do your due diligence and cover all the bases, then and only then start working on a Web site.
At your service,
Judith
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That would depend on:
- What your product or service is. Certainly if you had a legitimate recipe for the cure for cancer, you would have it easier than trying to get exposure in say real estate, online marketing, gift shops, etc. which are saturated online markets that require a very serious and rabidly aggressive approach to enter.
- How much it is desired. People have to want what you have to offer. Something you may think is a good idea, may not be at all. That is why it is so important to do your due diligence when investigating your future online offerings.
- If your price is right. People shop around. If you are not competitive, unless you are the only game in town, they will go elsewhere.
- Effort put into running a tip-top shop and offering professional service and presentation. Your online presentation will speak volumes about the quality of your program and the seriousness in which you take your business. Cut corners on design, content, security, etc. and folks will wonder what else you felt was not important enough to do properly. Product quality? Customer service? Security?
- Realize the time and money needs to be spent on marketing. Period. You want to get found you have to market just as in the off-line world. And now-a-days it behooves you to have an offline marketing strategy for your online enterprise too. No marketing plan or budget, no “getting rich.”
So there. You can get rich online! All you have to do is take the time to have a realistic plan and run your business with ethics and integrity while not sacrificing quality for the easy/cheap/fast route.
Do it right and you’ll enjoy more ROI than you’ll know what to do with. But there’s the rub; “Return on Investment” requires you invest in the first place!
At your service,
Judith
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Most Web site owners are obsessed and extremely frustrated with their natural (free) search engine rankings. They want to pull for every word combination someone may use to find them.
Better rankings, “Top 10″ or at least top page of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) are important. It is possible, but not probable for most sites because although the site owners want those rankings they are unwilling to do what is necessary to attain them.
Great search engine rankings don’t happen by osmosis, simply because you want it to, or because you are good at your profession or because you think you have a better site than those above you. Even having a great looking site if not planned, structured and written, marketed and grown with rankings in mind — in the first place — will not attain the listings everyone salivates over.
It is what it is folks! You need the code and structure the search engine crawlers can read. You need to be relevant to what you want to be found for — extremely relevant to get on that top page. You need concentrated targeted content that caters to customers and crawlers alike.
Most of all you need to be realistic about the competition and saturation of the market you are trying to penetrate. You have to be prepared to be as aggressive as necessary to reach your goals or it simply doesn’t happen. Without this methodology; you’re lost.
Yes, you can spend time and money looking for “solutions” that negate the facts of how to get great rankings. But you’ll just be wasting time and throwing good money after bad. The sooner you embrace the reality of what it takes to attain great rankings over the long haul, the sooner you will enjoy ROI.
At your service,
Judith
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