Friday, June 12, 2009

7 Top Tips For Starting A Successful Business Online

There are so many ways to start a business online that it can quickly become confusing. However, you can easily start making money quickly if you have a simple plan.

One of the most important issues you need to deal with when starting out is to decide how much money you want to make. For example, if you are interested in earning a million dollar income, pay per click and affiliate programs is one way to do it. If you are only interested in earning a few hundred or a few thousand a month, you may want to consider something like bum marketing.

Here are seven tips for helping you get started quickly:

1. Do a crash course in online business

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You don't have to know everything there is to know in order to start a business online. In fact, if you spend too much time trying to learn business, you won't spend any time taking action. This is where many people fail. They spend too much time learning and no time doing anything that will actually make them money.

2. Create a plan for your business.

Before you can achieve what you want, then you need to know what you want. You will have to work harder to earn a million dollars each year than you will to earn a few hundred each month.

First decide what you want to accomplish and then determine how you will accomplish this. Write down your plan, including the steps you need to take to succeed.

3. Learn how to build a website.

What you actually need to learn how to do is write basic HTML. This will help you in a lot of different ways in your business.

The websites you create don't have to be anything fancy. You may create one page subscription pages, presell pages, simple review sites, blogs, or content sites. The type of sites you build depends on the purpose of your sites.

4. Learn how to write copy.

Unless you plan to pay someone else to write your copy, learning to write copy is an absolute must. The sales messages you write will determine whether or not someone clicks through to your site and takes action. Poor copy will lower your conversion rate. Write good copy, and you'll make more sales without extra effort.

5. Create an effective marketing plan.

Bad marketing is better than no marketing. If you don't market, you won't make the sale. If you try to market using marketing techniques you aren't good at, you won't get much better results. The key here is to determine which marketing techniques you think will be the most effective for you and then implement them in an effective and cohesive marketing plan.

6. Keep what works, discard what doesn't.

This means that you need to test everything you do in your business. It's not that difficult to analzyze what's working and what isn't either.

Starting a business isn't an exact science. Without a track record, you won't know what's working or not, so much of your business effort will be trial and error. Establish a track record. Find what works, and then do it more. This is your key to making money.

7. Continue to update your business education.

Things change in business. If you want to continue to make money, as well as make more money, you need to update your education. This may be as simple as reading ezines about your topic, or taking an extra course. Just make sure that the information you study is credible.

Increasing Advertising During a Recession: A Timely Move or an Easy Way to Go Bankrupt

Over the last year the US, once flying high, has fallen and face planted into a somewhat ugly recession. For people with steady jobs the fear is of course the dreaded pink slip. But as long as they can keep their jobs their paychecks in most cases will remain the same. For small business owners a recession is often felt in the pocketbook. With less people buying their goods and services their revenues and profit margins can start to sink. And it can be painful for a number of reasons. First many business owners have an emotional attachment to their business. When the business starts to flat line its hard to readjust to the new realities of your surroundings. If you are a restaurateur it might be hard to scrap plans for opening a new location across town even if the economic realties of the market make it clear that continuing ahead with previous plans is illogical. The second difficulty is that it's hard to readjust ones life to deal with a lower take home pay. So while a small business might see a 20% drop in revenue that could translate to a 40-50% drop in profits. And while you might have lived on a smaller revenue 10 years ago it's hard to go back to that. Living without regular out of states vacations is one thing going back to that point is even more difficult. And these somewhat harsh realties are what drive people to look for something, anything that can restore their business to its previous health and prosperity.

First I want to point out that in some cases advertising in a recession can be a wise move to increase market share and take advantage of a bad market. But more often what I see is this.

"Our revenues are way down"
"That's horrible"
"Let's spend a ton of money on advertising and hope we can put this behind us"

The problem is that the difficulty for this business is not that they didn't spend enough on advertising last quarter. The problem is that we are in a world wide economic depression caused by billions of crappy loans real estate loans given out over the last few years. And yes everything is interconnected but putting out more ads for a local restaurant is probably not going to change this.

Simply put sometimes business owners make asset allocation decisions based on emotion instead of their current economic realty their business exists in. A few reasons that increased advertising might be a bad idea for your business.

1) The number of potential customers is decreasing
2) In many industries your competitors are increasing advertising to "spend their way out of a recession"
3) Increased advertising and decreased customers is a bad market to ramp up your advertising budget
4) Spending more on advertising can mean advertising in new venues. Often when testing new venues you can wasn't a lot of money discovering mediums that simply don't work for your business.
5) You can increase your expenditures and your cash burn rate. So basically the economy might eventually turn around but your business might not be there to see it.

Ok so if the answer is not doubling or tripling your advertising what is the answer? Here is my advice

1) Cut Expenses that are not needed. Comb through your budgets for extras you added during better times but are not needed.
2) Keep current advertising that is working. Whatever is currently providing you business I would stick with.
3) Cut advertising that is not working.
4) Adjust

Number 4 is probably the most difficult but important. If ones business is affected by the recession (and most are) it might be a good idea to simply accept the possibility of a reduced monthly income for awhile. I am not saying people should give up on their business or not attempt to increase profits. But during a recession it might be a good idea to keep working to achieve higher goals but at the same time when you are doing your monthly personal budget accept the possibility that a weakened economy often results in less customers and lower revenue. This means if you planned on buying a new car or taking an extra vacation it might be a good idea to change those plans.

In the end by operating in a logical manner a business can survive a recession and hopefully be in a position to flourish once the economy recovers.

Best Strategies for Successful Life!

Many people are confused when it comes to success in life as a family or work team member, or as a husband or wife with the process of parenting. My advice to all readers whoever they are, and what age they have, or what careers they pursue, There is always ways or steps or strategies to be followed to earn success in love, life, work, or marriage. These Strategies are precise, easy to follow, you will be able to achieve most loveable goals you want in your life. So wake up and feel active and ready to understand the success trip.

  1. IDENTIFY what you want to achieve in your life. This is a very crucial step as it will determine every decision and action that you are going to take in the future. If you don’t know what you want in your life, you will be just like a lost sheep, you don’t have a clear direction of where you are heading. So find out what you really want in your life before you move on.
  2. CREATE an action plan on how you can achieve your goals. This is going to be your to-do list and you need to take action according to this plan everyday. The key to get success in life is to do what you should in order to get closer toward your goals each and everyday. If the action is not moving you toward your goals, change your strategies and go all out again.
  3. COLLECT enough Data concerning your project to be knowledgeable about all the aspects around it.
  4. SELECTION: You have to make several options as solutions and then select which is best to lead to your goals in life. You know nothing comes easily, and each goal needs work,
  5. BELIEVING in your self. You need to believe that it is possible for you to achieve it. If you don’t believe in it, you will never achieve it. When your beliefs are strong enough, you will do whatever it takes to achieve it because for you, it is something true and you will do it to make it come true.
  6. GOAL SETTING: Set clear goals to achieve what you want. Do not underestimate what goal setting can do for you. Take out a piece of paper and write down your goals, and then paste it somewhere you can see it often. Remember, your goals must be measurable, specific and have deadlines.
  7. CONSISTENCY: You have to take consistent action so that you will eventually reach your destination. You may correct your course and you will reach the final destination. You have to stick to your action plan and do what you supposed to do.
  8. EVALUATION of your success, to see where you did less than expected. You have to decide to continue or change strategies to achieve success in shorter ways and less efforts.
  9. TRANSFER your success to those who are around you, theose love ones, brothers, sisters, family members, or colleagues. You will enjoy success by seeing others influenced by your methods. And finally,
  10. 10. CELEBRATE your success with others. And never think that you made alone, selfishness is not recommended in this regard, any great job is completed by efforts of the many. Enjoy life through planning more success, and remember that the ups and downs should encourage you to continue life, by opening avenues for planning innovation, critical thinking, and problem solving.