It’s not quite as easy as the title makes it sound, but bear with me, this article will explain the three steps that are the foundation of every Internet business, why so many people go wrong and give you some realizations that might just be the key to take your Internet business to the next level…
I’ve been studying resources lately designed to teach Internet business, but not just introductory materials, content that goes beyond beginners and is intended to take you to making making millions online.
In my case I’m interested in advanced topics that I can apply to what I do and fill my current knowledge gaps to take the next step forwards. While hunting for those elusive gold nugget ideas I invariably scan the introductory materials and learn with interest how this particular person or organization cover the basics – how they suggest you get traffic and make sales.
My studies have led me to the conclusion that Internet business is actually quite easy. Explained in simple terms (which I will do in a moment), the structure of a successful online enterprise is comprised of a few components, that when linked together can deliver hundreds, thousands and even millions of dollars in online profits.
Easy As 1-2-3
While we all have different ways of presenting what we do and the tiny details of getting a result vary, most Internet marketing experts teach the same few principles, which are in fact no different from what direct marketers have been doing and teaching for decades.
It goes something like this…
Step 1: Traffic
All online business models rely on traffic of some shape or form, and it’s here where I’m always curious to find what others do to drive attention to their business, as I’m sure you are too. In almost all cases a combination of one, two or all three of the following techniques are the main traffic drivers that fuel the business.
Pay Per Click: Buying traffic from Google’s AdWords is recommended as the quickest, but least forgiving traffic tool. Get this right and you get thousands of visitors instantly at a cost lower than the income they return. Get this wrong and you lose money. It’s a harsh learning curve, but for the winners the pay-off is significant.
Search Engine Optimization: Again Google is a significant component of this traffic source, delivering thousands of visitors to websites that rank well. I was tempted to call this traffic method “content marketing” but let’s keep this as simple as possible. For those who are diligent and learn how to leverage content, search engines offer a steady stream of free traffic – it can just take a while to get it flowing.
Affiliates: Affiliate marketing is the most underutilized traffic source for many Internet businesses and that’s likely because it takes more than mechanical mechanisms to make it work. Relationships are required, but when you get the elements right presenting a winning offer to affiliates results is a huge traffic windfall for you. Affiliate traffic is usually quality traffic, thus has the highest conversion rate and best of all – it only costs you money when you make money, so it’s a low-risk investment.
Beyond these three core traffic techniques there are many other methods that can be used, but if you look under the hood of most Internet businesses you will find that one or two or all three techniques above account for the big chunk of converting traffic.
What Is Yaro’s Best Source of Traffic?
In case you are wondering, my best source of traffic is affiliates followed by search engines. For most blogs search engines will account for the largest chunk and most dependable source of traffic, since good blogs are content driven and search engines love content.
Step 2: Make A Sale
Once traffic is flowing, the next condition required for a profitable business is to make that first sale. A targeted front end offer is the usual suggestion, in most cases a sub-$50 priced information product, although a physical product can work too (many late night TV infomercials use a loss-making front end offer of a physical product that is used to identify and open communication with customers).
The purpose of the front end product is to generate a customer. Profit does not come from sales of the front end product in most cases (it’s hard to get rich off a $27 ebook), rather it is raising the per customer value that results in the big gains (more on this at step 3).
The front end product is important because it opens the door to a potentially long term relationship, which when done right, will result in benefits for the company and the customer. The first sale also creates the window of opportunity for step 3 – upsells and back-end offers.
Step 3: Sell More With A Bigger Margin
The core concept of step 3 is that it is always easier to convince someone who is the process of buying or who has bought previously, to purchase more.
The front end offer at step 2 creates the buying condition and then at step 3, upsells, downsells and cross-sells of digital items, continuity products, coaching, consulting, physical products, seminars, conferences and anything you can come up with that is relevant and valuable to your customers, is where the profit comes from.
While not every customer will take advantage of back-end offers you make, the strategy relies only on small segments of your customers buying your upsells and back-end offers. The margins at this point however are significant, so one back-end sale can result in as much profit as 10, 100 or even 1,000 front end orders.
As I talk about in the Conversion Blogging Video and break down in some depth in the Sales Funnel 4-Part Article Series, the idea here is to filter down to a very small group of people, a subset of all the traffic you generate, who buy everything you offer (or at least something with a high profit margin). It’s these people who benefit the most from your business, but it takes the above three step process to attract and filter down to them.
When you get this process set-up, you can determine how much each customer to your site is worth. You know how much traffic you get, you know how many of them buy your front end offer depending on what source of traffic they come from and you know how many of them buy back-end products and upsells. From there you can calculate how much each customer is worth, on average, to your business.
Do You Know Your Customer Value?
Rich Schefren hammers home the concept of Customer Value in his Business Growth System. He really needed to get this principle right because long before he was an Internet business guru, he had physical real world businesses (an hypnosis company and a boutique fashion store in Manhattan, New York).
When you run real world stores your costs are so high that you have to get your numbers right. If you don’t, you lose money – lots of it. In the Internet world things are more forgiving because sunk costs are so much lower, however that doesn’t mean customer value is any less important.
Internet business owners don’t suffer the consequences of not focusing on the key customer metric, instead we can flounder around, test and fail and walk away perhaps bitter and frustrated, but it doesn’t cost us much more than our time. If you were investing ten or twenty or even hundreds of thousands into your business, you would know your numbers from the start.
Raising Customer Value
If you knew, despite selling a $27 front end ebook, that thanks to a strategically timed and optimized followup process, that each customer you convert is eventually worth $300 to your business, could you use that to your advantage?
Of course you could!
You could spend more on pay per click advertising. You could hire search engine and content development professionals. You can pay more money to affiliates. All these things drive more people into your business, result in a huge strategic advantage over your competitors and fuel massive profit growth.
If you have been keeping up with recent launches in the Internet marketing space, nearly all the leading players have been implementing this process recently, and that’s no coincidence. These guys (and a handful of girls) are testing, sharing results and then replicating the process and of course – promoting each other’s launches each time they have something new.
As I outlined above in the three steps, it’s not a difficult concept to grasp once you spend some time studying Internet marketing (and perhaps experiencing the process as a customer of another marketer). However so many things can hinder the outcome that very few get far enough along to realize the million dollar result.
If It Is So Easy – Why Isn’t Everyone Doing It?
The problems lie in the details. While the explanation I provided in this article may present a process that is conceptually easy enough to understand once you get used to the basics of Internet marketing, pulling it off is difficult.
Most fail at step one – traffic. Despite best intentions and some initial hard work, people are sporadic workers at best, and without some kind of immediate gratification, give up long before results come.
Worse still, many begin an Internet business with existing hindrances that plague their ability to perform – things like mortgages, full time jobs, families to support, ingrained self defeating belief systems, unrealistic expectations, poor work habits, an inability to let go of control or hire help when required, inferiority complexes, low self esteem or all manner of roadblocks can get in the way.
For those who persist long enough minor results come there way, yet after such a long journey and so much effort, they are disappointed and discouraged – they expected to be making better money by now.
Take It To The Next Level
Hard workers and people with talent often get the traffic part right and might even make some money with a front end offer or selling affiliate products, but they are working at full steam just to maintain that level. The idea of creating more product to sell for upsells and back-ends, creating sales pages, recruiting affiliates and doing even more seems impossible – the current workload is suffocating enough.
I can vouch for this because, while I’m successful to a degree (certainly above average), I am still not realizing a lot of potential – in fact I’d say I’m only realizing 10% of what I could achieve if I took the next step with my own business.
The advantage I have is I don’t see it as impossible to take the next step, nor do I feel that I am suffocating because I’ve built my business based on freedom before money. However, I do face a choice as to where my business is going to go next.
What Tiny Details Hold You Back?
It’s inevitable if I want my business to grow that I will need to make changes. The greatest potential for growth in any business is removing those things that hold it back, that constrain it. This is such a big issue that Rich Schefren decided to focus his entire new report just on constraints (I’ll get you the download link for the report at the end of this article).
As I stated earlier, it’s the details that stop people from succeeding at all points of the 3 step system for a successful Internet business. In my case, I’m held back somewhere around the step 2 and 3 area, although there is certainly potential to do a lot more at step 1 as well.
Here’s a list of the constraints holding me back -
- Lack of product to sell: I’ve got a bunch of products that are near complete or merely ideas in my head to be created that I just never get around to implementing. As a result, I don’t have anything close to a fully developed sales funnel with upsells and a back-end.
- No sales process for new products: Even with products ready to go, I can’t sell them until I have a sales page up and running with my shopping cart to take payment and deliver the goods. Plus you need autoresponders to keep the marketing system going for each new product and let’s not forget the whole “launch process” for each new product.
- Maintenance of current systems: I spend most of my time keeping the status quo going and there’s very little work on new projects. I blog, support my paying students, promote affiliate products and fix things when they break.
- I’m traveling: This one is understandable and will change soon enough, but it’s a constraint now because the little details (again with the details!) while traveling suck time too.
- I’m holding myself back: Ultimately, as a big picture answer – I need to get a whole lot of stuff done that I cannot realistic do myself – I need the help of other people.
I could break each point above into more minute details, all the tiny things that need to get done that constrain my results, but I think you get my point.
Now, how about you?
Every business owner should be able to sit down and relate a series of constraints that hold them back, based on where they currently are with their business and where they want to go next.
I suggest right now you take a look at what you focus on with your business, what the next step is to achieve your next immediate goal and what’s holding you back from getting it done.
Care to share your constraint?
If you are brave – take a few minutes to leave a comment reply to this article and list your present constraints, where you currently sit in the 3-step Internet business system and what needs to get done next.
You Need Awareness Followed By Action
Thankfully, just be reading this article to this point and reflecting on your own business situation you are getting closer to figuring out what is stopping you from successfully implement the oh-so-easy 3-step Internet business plan.
Here’s a process you can go through next to keep the momentum going –
- Become aware of the need for change
- Determine what problem has to be solved next
- Isolate the first step required to move towards solving the problem
- Collect the required resources to take that first step
- Execute
Rinse and repeat this to remove every constraint you have and you will be a millionaire. It’s that easy 
.
Need More Help Dealing With Your Constraints?
Rich Schefren has just published his latest report – The Uncertainty Syndrome – which focuses specifically on the idea that constraints are what hold us back from succeeding at business to the level we desire.
If you like the ideas discussed in this article you will love his report. You can grab it here for free –
Download the Uncertainty Syndrome Report
What’s Next?
As always, I’ll continue to reveal my entrepreneur’s journey here on this blog as I attempt to deal with my constraints and take the next step with my business.
Whenever possible I’ll report back to you what I’m up to and my results, so make sure if you haven’t already that you -
- Subscribe to my RSS feed
- Join my email newsletter
- And if you are Twitter use, follow my Twitter Feed
Yaro Starak
Taking The Next Step
Great Post Yaro,
The concept of making money is so easy just like you said. But when applying the concept is far more difficult then we thought.
I have been running a blog for over half year already, but till now i still haven’t make any money. The main reason is at the traffic. I think most of the internet marketer face this problem too. Just like you said, many people stop at this point.
I don’t want to give up, but i just can’t find a right way to do it. Something i just losing my motivation to moving on. But no matter what it takes, I will not give up so easily.
Thanks again.
Great points reveals…
Most of all blogger are lack of commitment, especially about traffic, anyway do you know why same niche and same technique can be different result of traffic ?
This is definitely a great read, and something I have noticed as well. No matter who I am learning about, these three steps are critical. I think a lot of people get hung up on step 2 and never move to step 3 so they feel like they aren’t making much progress. Like you said, you won’t get rich off of a $27 dollar ebook. Sure, you’ll make some money, but you want to build long term customers and to do that you need to have a proper funnel in place.
My constraints are probably each one of the steps. I get scatterbrained so I’m always trying to purge distractions and focus. Also, focusing on one project until completion, or one site, one product, things like this hold me back. I’ve been changing a lot of that lately, but I continue to realize that a bunch of “projects in the works” is not as good or beneficial as one that’s completed.
Great stuff as usual Yaro
Yaro, another informative and inspiring post. There are many things that hold each of us back, and you’ve listed some personal constraints that many of us have in common. One important one that holds me back is “relationships”. For me, it is taking time to build the confidence to reach out and establish relationships to grow the network. As I cover the other bases, though, I can see that this next step will become less painful to make.
How relevant! People don’t make progress not because of lack of opportunities. It is a lack of consistent effort and willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed.
Yaro,
Things that constraint me in my online business journey:
- My ailing real world business (darn recession!)
- My limited time to work on my online business
- My lack of effort to do social networking to the max
- My trial and errors
Hopefully, I can resolve them more sooner than later
Cheers!
Wow! Its all right there! Do you need a little brother to follow you around and watch what you do?
Thanks Yaro, I start believing in it!
the greatest challenge for me is to manage family, kid, full time job and blogging hobby at the same time…
Thanks for the insight…I’m new to blogging and I would agree with everyone else, that getting traffic is the most challenging. I just learned that my site needed to be indexed by Google, in order to be recognized on tne web. So, that took me a day to figure out how to do all of that…lol. Again, great tips!
-Blush
I think what’s holding me back is:
1. Finding the appropriate affiliate product to sell
2. Finishing my first ebook and putting it on clickbank
3. working on building a continuity program
4. Having made the mistake to have spent 1 year (first year) building my business on revenues from ads (aka traffic) instead of finding affiliate products and working on putting out my own content.
This was a really great feature Yaro!
Miss Gisele B.
As everyone said, great article (as always).
Here are the things that are currently holding me back:
1) A full time job that exhausts me by the end of the day.
- I work at least 8-12 hours on a computer at working with excel sheets so you understand how sick i get looking at computers when i get home.
2) Information overload/Wrong kind of information
- I have been going through hundreds of blogs for the past year researching and it gets confusing when everything goes in different directions.
3) Too much planning/too little execution
- I’m still in the planning stage but i have decided it’s time to execute or will be needing a mentor to give me some direction. At least a mentor could point me in the right direction through his knowledge and experience as I am currently wandering all over the place.
Right now, i started to put things in order and hopefully by a month or two things will start going somewhere (hopefully not down).
Anyway, look forward to your next articles!
Try reading the four hour work week by Tim Ferris and find ways to get time back. I am in the computer consulting business and I feel your pain. I often work 50-60 hours or more per week. I am making changes that will reduce that by at least half. Without time you have no ability to invest in your dreams.
I want to pay the $97/month and I watched your videos which said you take PayPal. Is there a way to pay for this through PayPal?
Hi Ken – send an email to supportATblogmastermind.com and I can help you with a PayPal option.
At the moment we have to do them manually because my shopping cart doesn’t work with recurring PayPal orders.
My biggest constraint is lack of strategy. Because I am just starting out I’m not exactly sure of what direction to head. I’ve taken the first steps but what if I change direction? Is that a good thing or should I just forge ahead regardless…..
I’m sorry I’m not with the program, but it appears that what is being advised is selling air, i.e. there really is nothing being sold but a lure for the customer who hopes to eventually get something useful. The “business” is getting the customer to keep paying for yet another lure, rather than for an actual useful thing.
I would love to be proven wrong, but I haven’t yet experienced anything else with these internet businesses. I guess what this really means is that there is no end to suckers who will pay for hope. (And I’m one of the suckers).
thanks yaro..reading ur blog posts never fail to reinspire me again, and made me ponder on my own way of managing my online biz.
i guess the main constraint is putting off things i’m to familiar with instead of trying to get familiar and start implementing it. for example, i have signed up for getresponse acc in june, but up til now still hv yet to setup my 1st campaign..coz i always get stuck halfway..and just dont follow n try again.
another is feeling tired after coming home from full time work, there’s just not much energy and concentration left to do my online biz at nite.
but anyhow..these excuses shld not be used to hinder me from excelling
sometimes its just procrastination in us all tt hinders all of us from being successful.
-ts-
http://thriftsolutions.blogspot.com
Hey man, great post and wise words as usual. My main constraint is that I’ve got a LOT of ideas and I’m too LAZY to implement them 1 by 1, so mangle them all at the same time and therefore get NOTHING done efficiently. Let’s hope I get over that soon
.
Thank you for the great article. I think that this topic is in-line with my goals as I am seeking the freedom of web marketing, ad revenue and product revenue. I have started officeliveteam.com and plan to add articles and how-to guides as a potential product.
I read the four hour work week by Tim Ferris. He identifies free time as a key element and suggests that you break free from your time sucking activities. Random surfing, email, endless and useless meetings.
I am nearing the end of “The Answer” by John Assaraf and Murray Smith which is a great book for anyone looking to start any business. This book really helped me create focus, identify my goals and create a vision. Additionally, it helps you to eliminate the fear and doubt that many of us face.
So, I have set the vision but I am still looking for creative was to stretch my time. My first order of business is to move from full time to part time in my current position and create the free time required to begin building my online business.
Regards – Robert.
I’m not sure that I buy everything Tim Ferris says, but that section really spoke to me. I’m able to throw away hour after hour with stuff that keeps me busy … but not productive.
Mario,
You and I are on the same page there. I think Tim Ferris is one of those SUPER high energy people with some unique personal attributes. However, he is absolutely correct about the issues we all face in the absence of time. One thing doesn’t mention is the ridiculous amount of time, we all spent on the freeways and highways.
Regards,
Robert.
Lots of great information here, thanks! I know there are a lot of sources of information on the Internet for starting an online business, but few cover them in as in depth a manner as this one. I haven’t even gotten through all the tips yet. I’m definitely bookmarking this one!
Most people fail because they are too lazy. There are plenty of ways to get traffic, especially targeted traffic, and most people are too lazy to put in the work to get it.
Another reason people fail is that they don’t like to spend money. You HAVE to spend money in order to make money. Most people are unwilling to do this.
In response to your How to Start an Internet Busienss in Three Easy Steps; my constraints are 1) The shopping cart. I haven’t added it and I fear that if I do? Then what…my product is “plants” and dpeending on when an order is placed I would actually have to ship the product and deal with customers…which is what I thought I wanted at some point? 2). I do hold a day job and it sucks up 10 hours a day if you count the commute. 2 hours on the commute I listen to pod casts but not able to do real work so I guess that is the whole problem with travel. I realize I could hire someone but I lack an idea of what someone would charge, fearing it would be the equivalent of hiring an attorney?
3). I could go on but yea my limits have been self limiting. I really feel that we are all doing exactly what we should be doing and can realisticly only handle so much at a time. So try to keep doing what you are doing, keep motivated, find inspiration where you can, get your exercise, drink your water, enjoy some tea and smile.
I found your article EXTREMELY timely and inspirational. Thank you.
This is all great information. It is going to take me a while to process it. It seems that most people are having issues when trying to create a start-up internet business while still trying to work full time. That seems like the biggest hurdle.
Paula – that is my situation: working full-time and starting a business. Its only going to get worse during the holiday season!
Its taken me longer to read the comments than the article.
I also have a lot of half baked ideas floating in my head. Am wondering how to get them to work.:)
I find that as well – it’s so time consuming
But the articles are usually very long anyway so I get 2 good reads
Yaro,
You’re spot on! Traffic and upsells/backend are key to sales and profit.
I am just starting out again.
I would say my most pressing constraint is money. Having been retired from the U.S. Army in 1991 at 30% disability, and now at 60%, I have had problems having the money to keep things running, pay for PPC advertising, products, or any kind of promotion for the 8 years that I have been trying to make it online.
I had a music blog, which I had monetized, and it was showing up in search results, and I had incorporated a couple of my affiliate programs. The one thing I know I did wrong for sure, was importing all this content from other blogs into mine because I was desperate for content; now I realize that all I did was supply duplicate content, which is a cardinal sin in blogging.
To one of the posts above; it does take time to incorporate adsense into your blog and see results because the revenue per click is usually minimal, so try incorporating your affiliate programs or other products you want to sell into your blog post, articles, free reports, re-written PLR articles with your links in it, just make sure it matches the topic of your blog. I am by no means an expert, but there definitely a step by step process to earning money online, and a blog IS the easiest way to drive traffic and create an online income
Great article Yaro, I will definitely be keeping up with your posts!
Thanks much,
Drew
Great article, Yaro.
I think one of the biggest places people get hung up in the information-product model is they don’t know what kind of products to create. They don’t have any obvious expertise they can exploit, or they’re not sure they want to turn their expertise (often their passion) into a for-profit enterprise.
I like the magazine model myself, since I don’t have to sell anything.
Personally I think it’s easier to make money from ad revenue than from affiliate programs or selling your own product, but that’s probably just because I make a living doing the former and haven’t figured out a product I’d like to create yet. 
With the magazine model, it’s also pretty easy to scale up and remove yourself from the daily grind by hiring writers (when you get to the point where you’re making enough to justify it).
I suppose it’s just a matter of which route appeals to each person.
Good luck, all!
Hi Yaro & Friends,
Phenomenal article. I am brave, so here are my current constraints:
1. More creative than focused. I read many other bloggers’ comments that, like me, they have multiple projects, multiple ideas and low or no execution and follow through. A recipe for going nowhere fast is high creativity and no execution/follow through.
2. Not always wiling to delegate. My control issues come up. I’m working on it because the time I spend figuring out how to do something technical cost me time and energy that would be much better spent writing great content for my blogs. I know I’ll become exponentially more wealthy online as I delegate and surrender control.
3. Tried so many things before, now I’m a little gun shy. I’ve been to tons of conferences, workshops, trainings, (etc.) and each time I leave, I swear I’m going to do so many things, but…well, they just don’t get done. So now, I’m a little gun shy about buying another product, or attending another event because there’s so much I’ve already learned that I still haven’t implemented yet.
4. Information overload. There are so many options on what to choose, and I’m a Libra, (yeah, this is an excuse, but I’m going with it anyway) and Libra’s have a hard time making a choice. If I have more than 4 options, my brain freezes.
So those are the most pressing constraints for me. The good news is I’m committed, focused, disciplined and persistent, so I know I will work through all these challenges in short order.
Much success to you all and THANK YOU Yaro for the AWESOME Blog Mastermind Coaching Program!!!!
Live richly,
Valerie Love
Found your site by way of Profit Lance. I’ve written several blog entries but they seem to still be missing something.
My biggest constraints are:
1. Full time job
2. Husband that needs to feel loved
3. Grandchildren that visit and demand attention
4. Finances – for advertising (PPC scares the heck out of me)
5. Writing-just can’t seem to write to my satisfaction
Your blog re enforced what I already know, I need to continue learning the skills I need to promote my affiliate businesses. Boy, this studying is hard work after an 8 hour job. I refuse to give up.
Thank you for a well written blog.
I guess my biggest constraint is too much distraction, thus lack of concentration.
There are several things holding me back from offering my blog the time it needs to grow massively, but I think if I can continue to squeeze everything in, in the time I have I will one day achieve something from my blog.
The main restraints are:
Full Time Job
Relationship
Social Life
Other Projects
Saying that I have created my first ebook which I will be giving away on my blog soon enough, so that should be another step towards my goals.
Hiii Yaro…
You are always providing good information.
N your tips always works.
But my question is how much does the blog helps in increasing the business..??? Its the only blog that brings the traffic to the site..
Hi Yarok,
I am new to blog, everyone hope to earn an income by blogging, me either. But I hope my articles inside my blog will bring some enlightenment and joyment to my readers.
Cross finger that I will be as successful as you.
Hi Yaro.
I cannot begin to tell you how incredibly helpful your website is and the information you provide. One of the best web sites I’ve EVER visited.
As far as my constraints, many have been covered here, and in your article above, and they are:
– writing credibly (being believable and showing you know what you’re talking about
– determining how long the pre-launch should last
– previous failed ventures (many!), affecting my psyche
– extremely strapped financially
Even without joining the Mastermind program, I’ve started my blog and slowly but surely am adding more and more content. I hope to refine the process, and I hope to join the Mastermind program soon to fine-tune my processes.
I’m sure there more constraints, but I’d rather concentrate on the possibilities, and be very excited about the prospect of eventually profiting from something I already love to talk about (and how sweet is that!).
Success to you all!
Great article, Yaro. I’m new to your blog, and I’m glad I found it. As someone who is in the process of monetizing his blogs and creating a successful Internet business, I can say that this article hit it right on. Your observations and suggestions are helping me learn how to A) create a site that is useful to my readers, and B) drive more traffic which will result in more subscribers and sales.
Thanks again. I look forward to catching up on your blog archives.
Yaro,
That was a fantastic post. I love your transparency about your own level of success and have no doubt that you will eventually reach the top.
For me, to this point, traffic has been the main issue so I continue to plug away using a variety of traffic generating strategies.
My mindset about this business is that it’s too good to quit so I just focus everyday on taking positive action in my business with the belief that the pieces will eventually all fall into place.
Thanks for a wonderful blog,
Chris
http://www.christineimamshah.com
honestly, i really like your article Yaro..I’m new to your blog, and I’m glad I found it. As someone who is in the process of monetizing his blogs and creating a successful Internet business, I can say that this article hit it right on. Your observations and suggestions are helping me learn how to A) create a site that is useful to my readers, and B) drive more traffic which will result in more subscribers and sales.
Thanks again. I look forward to catching up on your blog archives.
“people are sporadic workers at best”
Guilty as charged!!!
I’ve always known this to be my problem, but overcoming it has been another challenge altogether!!
Time is probably my biggest constraint.
Full time job, shift work, single income family, married with a baby. I work on the blog when everyone else is asleep.
The upshot is that it forces me to be organized and focussed when I do get the chance to blog. It forces you to work fast and smart.
Man! This article nailed me right on the head Yaro! I also am my worse enemy. I have many idea’s, good ones too. In fact, I’m too busy coming up with idea’s to make any money.
For example, the domain name… iTwitterToo.com is (IMHO) a great domain that I snatched up, started a blog on it, had some tech probs and then put it on the back burner.
I’m so guilty!!!!!
Thanks Yaro!
Gary.
I have never had my own internet business, and have really wanted to get started for the past year or so. There are so many online businesses advertised on the internet and tv but I never know if any of them are actually legit. I have a full time job in the medical industry but have flexible hours so I can devout time to starting an online business, but desperately need some hands on guidance. I have a great work ethic and am not looking for any get rich quick scheme. I am willing to put in the time.
Any suggestions/advice greatly appreciated.
Search engine optimization sometimes happens quicker than we expect. I’d go with SEO unless your absolutely confident that people will sign up for your blog or newsletter via PPC.
I know a site which has a list of different guitar sites on the sales page. Obviously, the cheaper one makes more sales. Nonetheless, the higher priced ones might be attractive to a loyal repeat customer. This site uses a blog to provide fresh free new content and the third party company provides a short newsletter with free guitar lessons.
Great advice Yaro, everyone I have shared this information with has been totally over the moon. Thanks.
Yeah, I agree. Adwords is very tough. It’s especially tough with today’s economy. Some niches have totally dried up. Advertisers are not placing any ads in some niches.
Yaro
That was a great post. I love the three steps at the begining. I see that myself in so many businesses and I know that with my own business this proccess happening.
But I also like how ytou put down the challenges that you have with your business and what things you can do to fix that. Leaves me a good outlook to what we all can do.
Steve
Thanks for sharing Yaro.
It’s awesome, no wonder you got a hell lot of blog reader.
In my opinion, the hardest part of starting an online business is the first time building a website. Everything is easy after that.
Traffic is the life blood of internet business, without traffic your business don’t exist even if you have the best product or service in the world. Yaro is right that most people failed in step 1 which is to generate traffic.
People give up too quickly before they even get started. People give up too quickly because they are not getting instant gratification. The idea is to stick with your marketing plan and keep at it until you generate constant traffic which lead to sale and so on. Start slow and focus on getting just one customer at a time.
That’s exactly right Yanik, I totally agree with that process. I probably couldn’t have said it any better myself!
Nice refreshing post Yaro. I love the step-by-step format you have presented it in. It’s great you have identified the drawbacks also, and how to overcome them. Thanks for sharing.
My greatest constraint is not falling into distractions. Being a home based entrepreneur is difficult especially if you don’t have your own room for work. You’ll be surrounded by distractions just like T.V. and if you don’t have proper mindset, then definitely you’ll fall into these distractions and might delay and even procrastinate your task. Sometimes, i fall into this but I’m trying my best to avoid it.