How to Start an Online Business
Using a Proven Process
By Lynn VanDyke
Starting an online business appeals to many budding business owners.
At first glance an online business seems easier to start, lower risk and
less costly compared to opening a physical business. These assumptions
may be true for the most part, but building an online business has many
pitfalls that most hopeful business owners are not aware of.
For example, many people who dream of starting an online business think
about making a profit before anything else. They build a website that has
several products and the ability to take customer orders. Then they sit
back and wait for the customers and money to roll in.
The problem is that does not happen. The customers and the profits never
materialize. This leads to frustration. Starting an online business suddenly
becomes difficult. It suddenly becomes a money-sucking venture that leads
to failure.
This does not have to be the outcome for you. With a small shift in
thinking you can start and run a profitable online business on just about
any subject imaginable. They trick is to work with the natural process
of the Internet.
Start with your potential customers. They go to Google or Yahoo or type
in a search query that will hopefully solve their problem or answer their
question. They browse through the search results and click on the result
that shows the most promise of solving their issue.
Your online business must please two groups. It must please the search
engines and it must please your potential customer. The search engine will
rank your online business well if it provides valuable information. Your
online business must contain content that centers around one niche. You
can create massive online businesses as well, but this article assumes
you are working with a budget.
Once you have a site that provides excellent content and ranks well
at the search engines, you will receive visitors to your business. Remember
that these visitors are looking for answers. When they click on your site
in the search results, they become highly targeted, hot prospects. They
want your online business to solve their issue. They want your online business
to help them. That's why they were searching in the first place!
Lets move one step further in this process. Now that you have a hot
prospect browsing your online business for information that solves their
problem or answers their questions, you must deliver. Here is where your
content helps you score again. It first helped you rank well at the search
engines and now it is going to develop a friendly and professional relationship
with your potential visitor.
Your content will pre-sell your product or service. No cold sales needed.
This is the Internet. If all you are doing is selling a product, the visitor
will click the back arrow and return to the search engine.
Keep them on your site by providing informative and helpful content.
You should also try to get their contact information so you can continue
to build a friendly relationship with them even after they leave your site.
This can be done by offering a free ebook or a free ezine subscription.
Give your visitor something of value in return for their email address.
As you continue to supply friendly and informative information to them,
you continue to build trust. You are also simultaneously positioning yourself
as the expert in your field. This is the pivotal point that can make or
break an online business.
Only after you create excellent content, receive free and targeted visitors,
and create trust will you be able to make the money. Now that you have
a fan base of loyal visitors who view you and your online business as an
authority, you can suggest your service to them. You can let them know
about your new product. They will be willing to buy from you because they
like you and know that you will deliver a great service or product.
If they buy from anyone, it will be you. That is what online business
owners must understand. Once you have that trust, you are golden. Continue
providing excellent and helpful information to your visitors. Continue
to build loyalty and your visitors will turn into customers.
This process is quite backwards to most people. Most online business
owners would never dream of thinking about profit last. With all of the
get rich quick schemes out there, a lot of hopeful online business owners
will fall into the churn and burn trap. They will create a site that does
not work because it does not rank well and it does not build trust.
Build content. Attract targeted visitors. Pre-sell each visitor. Develop
trust and expert status. Turn visitors into lifelong loyal customers. Now
you can sit back and watch the money roll in. Use this exact process to
start a successful online business.
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