6 Secrets to Online Business Building Success

The Internet
marketing industry and online business industry is fraught with fraud.  There
are more "get rich quick" schemes here than in almost any other industry.  After
all, who doesn’t want to sit on home on his rear end and make tons of money by
working only a couple of hours per week?  The allure of such a promise is quite
appealing.  However, remember the adage about promises that sound too good to be
true–typically such promises will lead you to great disappointment.

Building a business online is neither easy or quick.  It’s just like any other
business.  It takes time and dedication to generate the kind of results you
desire. Here are 6  ?school of hard knocks? lessons that I believe are the
"real" secrets to successfully building an online business:
 
Lesson 1:  Acknowledge your expertise.  One of the great difficulties of
online business owners is their inability to acknowledge their expertise in an
area. I, too, suffered from that problem in the early years, thinking, "I’m not
really an expert — everyone knows this stuff, don’t they?" It took me years to
realize that while others did have a higher level of expertise than me, there
was a very large group of people who knew less than me — and it was to those
people I could become an expert!  And, better yet, they would pay me to learn it
so they didn’t have to do through the same trial-and-error method I did.  In
2006, I decided to officially declare my expertise by crowning myself as "The
Online Business Resource Queen" because I know more about running an online
business than just about anybody I know.  So, go ahead and crown yourself as an
expert!
 
Lesson 2:  Niche your way to riches.  Finding the exact market that needs
what you have to offer is one of the primary keys to success in any business,
but especially when you’re trying to do business online. Taking a shotgun
approach and foolishly believing that "everyone" needs your product or service
is the quickest way to failure.
 
You need to be able to identify and describe your niche market, from determining
what problem the niche market is actively trying to solve and what they’ll pay
for (as well as how much they will pay) to what publications they read, to what
groups/associations do they belong, and where they hang out both on- and
off-line.  The more narrowly focused your niche, the better.  So, owners of
Golden Retrievers are a better defined niche than dog lovers, and executive
female golfers are better than women athletes.

Lesson 3:  Build relationships online. Even though an online business is
virtual and you meet few of your clients and prospective clients face-to-face,
it is still possible to build trusting relationships online.  The most important
thing to remember is that your personality needs to shine throughout all of your
online ventures.  So whether you share personal stories about your life or
business (these will be very popular with your visitors), or write articles or
website text in the same way you speak, you need to give visitors an experience
of what it means to do business with you.  You can also use audio and video on
your website as well as photos of you in action in your business. Remember, most
people need to get to know, like and respect you before they’ll decide to buy
what you have to offer.
 
Lesson 4:  Create several "stay in touch" devices.  An ezine (email
newsletter), blog (web log), and autoresponders (series of automated follow up
emails) are the quickest and easiest ways to stay in touch with your current
clients and to bring prospective clients into the fold.  I think the most
effective ezines are published weekly — it gives you one excuse every week to
reach out to your contact database.  Blogs tend to be attention hogs, so they
are most effective as a marketing strategy when you post to them 3-4 times per
week.  Once you’ve written the content for a series of autoresponders, they can
serve as a personal marketing arm for you, as they can be personalized and give
prospective clients the impression that you’re writing a personal email just to
them.  The more "stay in touch" strategies you use, the quicker your prospective
client base will get to know you and expect to regularly hear from you.
 
Lesson 5:  Be willing to give your info away for free.  Some experts will
tell you never to give away your information or expertise ("why buy the cow if
the milk is free" theory).  I advocate that you should demonstrate what you
know, as that is key in helping you build online relationships, and those who
are really ready to implement your strategies will seek you out, as most won’t
or can’t do it on their own.
 
Lesson 6:  Don’t expect overnight success. Despite what the television
ads might state or what the information products might claim, success in the
online world doesn’t happen overnight.  There will be a few who will spot a
profitable trend before anyone else does, but eventually the income will fizzle
and they’ll have to find another profitable trend.  Just like any other
business, an online business takes a great deal of time and attention.  Some of
the tasks can be automated, but you still have to pay attention to what’s
happening so that you can effectively create your marketing and promotion
strategy.
 
By adopting these Internet marketing mindsets into your daily marketing mantra,
you’ll be well on your way to positioning your online business for many years of
success!