THIS SHOULD BE THE BUSIEST THREAD IN HERE - OnLine Business - Internet Marketing -

[3DFOX3D]

Internet Marketing / Business ENTREPRENEURS UNITE !!

This should become the busiest thread in this forum - why? - because whatever business venture you are involved in or want to become involved in, large or small, selling your business on the internet will need to be an important component of your success.

The subject is BROADER than BroadBand ..... soon to become WideBand.

Online Business, Internet Marketing, MMO - it comes under many names and in many forms but I suppose at the end of the day it is about creating some revenue from online activity. (hold that thought for a moment ..... "activity")

I am just starting out - a mature aged late bloomer - but my enthusiasm is unbreakable, the internet offers all of us so many opportunities to put our business in front of gazillions of potential customers (well, at least eleventeen anyway).

So, set up a site either yourself or have someone do it for you and then sit back and watch the dollars flow in, right?

WRONG -sorry about that chief - having been a rainbow chaser for a number of years I am yet to find a pot of gold at the end of one ...... HOWEVER .......

There are many "howevers" ..... many DO's and DON'T's ..... many success stories and many heartbreaks, many different ways to go about utilizing the internet as a selling tool, many different opinions ....... and many, many Experts who have all the answers.

BUT WAIT, THERE IS MORE !! ...... if you subscribe to my free e-book (well, almost free except for the fees I will charge to your credit card number that you had to give me before getting to this part .... smile ..... oh its ok, you get some free steak knives as well) .... my e-book is titled "it is really very easy indeed to make gazillions of mega bucks on the net by not doing very much work at all if you buy my book" ... it is worth every cent because I am the worlds expert in making people rich on the internet.

OK .... enough of the levity (well it will be difficult for me not to include a little humor from time to time but feel rest assured I will not quit my day job).

I for one am HUNGRY FOR KNOWLEDGE -I want to learn from those who have experiences in the various aspects of doing business on the internet, what they do / did, how, why, when, where, who etc. The best place in the world to get the best cross section of knowledge is not in buying my book above (oh yeah terrific mate, huge faux pas, well done, you have just lost a gazillion sales .... quick, hit the delete button) but more so in forums like this.

Now, retrieving that thought I asked you to hold .... "activity" ..... some think that after launching a site it is just a matter of sitting back and letting the money find its way unobstructed into your bank account whilst you are sipping pina coladas in the Bahamas.

Some before me and some that will follow will tell you that it is BLOODY HARD WORK (right Brendan?). I, like some others are putting in 14-16 hour days and have been for a couple of months now and am still a long way from getting to first base in respect to seeing any return .... and ...... having subscribed to a gazillion industry newsletters(electronics, cameras, computers, bla bla bla ) and adding a few more each week so I can keep abreast of what is happenning out there, I find it takes me 3-4 hours a day to read it all before I start work!!!

OK .. cutting to the chase here ..... the old but very true saying "work smarter not harder" is something we should all adhere to .... BUT ..... to make an impact and maintain an in your face presence on the internet means very HARD work, very hard and long hours ..... SO, the working smarter bit ..... the sharing of ideas, experiences, expertise etc etc with like minded people who want to succeed is vital to being successful on the internet. Books etc are ok but they are static, the internet is very fluid as are the products, technologies, methods of transmitting ideas, crawlers and ....... and yes our best friend, the CONSUMER ..... our customers and/or our prospective customers are also very fluid, continually altering their tastes, desires, budgets, priorities, likes, dislikes etc and often influenced by factors beyond their control.

I have had over 25 years experience in selling and marketing and only started to venture into the internet business world about 6 months - I have in that time learned so much but the fact is I know so little about the internet in general other than it is a demanding mistress who needs continual attention ...... so much can change within the space of a few days.

ANYWAY ...... moving along. I am hoping to get people to add their comments in here about doing business on the internet from every conceivable angle - I know there are some specific topic sections in here about websites and design etc as there are on a number of other forums but often case the other aspects are brushed over.

The first challenge you have is to decipher what I have said - then the biggest challenge having achieved that is to figure out why

cheers,
Mike

[Georgie]

It will be, just let the 3D stuff kick in....

I like the idea of sipping pina coladas in Bahamas and watch the dollars flow in.

[3DFOX3D]

guess I was wrong .... sigh .....

[Brendan]

Hey Mike,

Cheers for the lengthy post, and with my short attention span, I almost didn't read it, but now glad I did.

Mike, sounds like you are in the same place as a lot of internet marketers, they get sold a dream, get told its easy.. all you need is a website and money will flow in... right?

Well now you have a website, a niche, enthusiasm.. you have realised it's loads of work - which of course doesnt bother you.. but you aren't making a gazillion dollars..? Why?

An Internet business is just like an offline business, if not harder, sure you have a larger consumer base to market to with, but you also have a larger number of competitors trying to do the exact same thing as you.

You need to treat an Internet business just like a 'Bricks and Mortar' business (an offline business), even though the cost of entry to an online business is much lower, it must be treated the same.

So, before starting your business, you need to define the following;

- Who is your target market?
- What motivates them to buy?
- Can you offer them what they want?
- What is your unique selling point?
- Set some goals, milestones and targets - such as the number of sales you need, how you are going to get it, and what are you going to do if you dont acheive these goals.
- Do a SWOT analysis.. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
- Do some projections.. a cashflow forecast and a business plan.
- What is your end goal ?

It is important that you map out what you want from the business and how you plan on getting there, think of it like a road trip.. you know where you want to go, but the only way you can get there is by planning, the same is with business, offline or online - define where you want to go.. and work out how to get there.

If you don't set your online business up like a real business it is very unlikely to succeed, the old saying rings true, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Anyway, thats my 2c.. would love to hear others thoughts.

[PowerofWords]

Met another fellow a bit like you a while back who had been to a Brett McFall and other seminars and was all gungho, but is still coming to grips with all the work in putting a video training ebook together and selling it. Im slowly putting a toolbox together for small business owners to use, that involves a real printed manual & DVD sold online.

Dont forget that its good to advertise your online store offline - try a wide sign on your car (if you get about).

If you want to save on Advertising and stop making those Google people rich, you need to practice Attraction Marketing (also a book) by becoming the expert in 3D - which the print media can turn to when theyre running a story on 3D TVs etc. Pete Williams of Preneur Marketing might be of help here with his book How to Turn Your Million Dollar Idea into Reality (about free publicity). His site's easy to find online.

Good luck and take care, Jennifer