Do you find the idea of doing business online confusing?
Most people do, and that’s understandable.
The fact is, nothing in our “offline” life prepares us to do business online.
Offline we are used to seeing customers or talking with them by phone.
Online we don’t do that.
Offline we cannot automate a sales process so that selling messages go out week after week with no effort.
You can do that online (I’ll show you how)
And offline we don’t have confusing terms like “solo ad” or “autoresponder” or “ppc” to deal with.
Online there seems to be a whole new vocabulary to learn, and new skills to learn too.
But there is GOOD NEWS today!
You can make sense of doing business online and end the confusion if you can catch a glimpse of one thing.
If you can see this one thing you will quickly become well prepared to succeed online.
If you lose sight of this one thing you will spin into a cycle of confusion and disappointment.
What is the one thing?
It’s the BIG picture!
My goal today is to OVERVIEW what you need without going into very much depth about any one topic. You just need to get these things into your vocabulary.
I like things simple so I’ve listed the five things you need to succeed online.
Just the basics.
But the basics, done well, will take you higher than you ever dreamed imaginable.
They have for me.
I call these the ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS to success.
PEOPLE TO SELL THINGS TO
This is called a “market.” A market is really just a group of people who have something in common.
- Maybe they like to play golf
- Maybe they like to cook
- Maybe they like to make money or save money
- Maybe they want to start an online business
It doesn’t matter what they want. But what DOES matter is this:
- Is the group large?
- Will the group spend money?
There ARE ways to quickly and easily identify markets that will be profitable for you, and I will share those on this blog. I have some articles about these topics on the blog now in fact.
A PRODUCT THESE PEOPLE WANT TO BUY
Once you find the group you need to find (or create) a product they will buy.
It’s actually easier than you might think. The key is to discover what they are buying now. If they are buying now they will buy what you offer.
A great way to find out what people want to buy is to ask.
Let’s be clear about one thing — very few people want to buy something just for the sake of spending money. People buy for one main reason only, to solve a problem they are having.
A WAY TO REACH THOSE PEOPLE
Ah, advertising. It really is what makes the Internet go round. If you don’t believe me just ask Google. They don’t sell all that ad space for nothing… they do it for the money!
You will HAVE to advertise to succeed online. Happily, you will not have to go broke doing it.
The three best ways to get started advertising online are these:
- Content marketing (hint: you are reading content marketing now)
- Pay per click advertising
- Ezine advertising (or solo ads)
There are many more methods available to you but if you faithfully use those three you will be happily surprised how well they work.
A WAY TO MAKE THE SALE AND COLLECT THE MONEY
Do you need a website of your own? Yes you do.
But the good news is that creating a website is not the headache it used to be.
Using online services, templates and simple software you can create a beautiful and effective website quickly.
HINT: Start gathering what you want to say on your site NOW and not later. Far too many have created a website and then struggled to put words on that site.
A WAY TO SAVE TIME
The wonderful thing about the Internet is that you can leverage your time like nobody’s business.
Online you can literally do work one time – like writing this article – and have that work pay dividends for years to come.
Years?
Yes! I’ve been doing this over 12 years now and some of my articles have been online almost all of that time!
So there you have it… five things you must do and know about in order to succeed online.
If you sell as an affiliate or part of a program you will need to focus primarily on the advertising part, but eventually you will need them all.
I hope this clears up some confusion for you and look forward to sharing with you from my experience the specific ways you can use these essential elements to your advantage.
