Choosing your Web Host

This is another important step in developing a successful online business. Consider

your web host as a Business Partner. There are many factors to consider and I will

discuss them briefly shortly. Research their reputations and reliability. The old adage

is true, “you get what you pay for”. Check what their backup systems are like, their

technical service and the performance of the server. Make sure it’s fast and efficient

because “time is money”. If the system is down, you could potentially be losing a lot of

money. Your web site is automated and is working for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a

week, so should your host. Your reputation is on the line, so make sure you get a good

web host.

As already mentioned you need a fast server, FTP files transfer, SSH (Secure shell) to

encrypt data between your web site and customers when they are purchasing items,

full email services, CGI (common gateway interface) with full CGI-bin access. You

want a web based administration interface to manage your web site via the web and

access to server logs to analyze your web site traffic. You want reasonably web space

(most are between 10 -50 mb), excellent scripts, software etc.

Avoid FREE services because you’ll get shotty service, a domain name with another

business name on it, no control over advertising on your site, pop-up windows which

annoy your visitors. You will get a slow connection, poor customer service and

unreliability. All your time and energy is promoting someone else’s website. You could

be shut down at any time if you’ve accused of spamming without an opportunity to

defend yourself. There are so many negatives it’s just not worth it.

Choose your web host carefully. I would recommend ipower. Here what you get for

US$7.95 month:

• 300 GB / 2,500 Emails

• 3000 GB of Bandwidth

• 1 FREE Domain Name

• SSL / CGI / PHP / MySQL

• E-Commerce Enabled

• Marketing / Content Package

• $30 google Credit

• $50 yahoo Credit

• Website Builder & Templates

• Host 6 Domains in 1

• Tech Support (available 24/7)

300 GB of space is huge considering most hosts only offer 10mb. The above plan has

been the number 1 seller since 2003 worldwide. Their package and service is outstanding and

only $7.95 a month

Writing good sales copy

In a traditional Business you have face-to-face, personal contact or speak over a

phone. However, on the internet the customer only has contact with what is written on

your website. Therefore, the importance of sales copy cannot be underestimated. In

most cases you may only have about 30 seconds to attract someone’s attention.

Explain the benefits not the features

When writing sales copy explain the benefits of your product or service not the

features. Customers want a reason to why they should buy your product or service. The

first thing you need to do is grab their attention, arouse interest, stimulate a desire to

buy and finally ask for the sale. In other words, direct the customer into action.

The Headline

As I already mentioned, you may only have seconds to grab the customer’s attention

and stimulate them into action. The first element of your sales copy is your Headline.

The headline is the attention grabber. It should be a short statement no more than a

few short sentences which is specific and promises a clear benefit to the customer. This

is the most important element in your sales copy because it usually determines

whether your customer will read on.

Headlines that compel you to read on

Below are some examples of attention grabbing headlines;

John Carlton:

Mysterious Arizona “Human Computer” Humiliates Wall Street “Experts” for 21st

Consecutive Year!

14 Ingenious (but perfectly legal) ways to reduce your tax!

How To Build Your Own Corporation Without A Lawyer For Under $50

The above headlines stand out. They arouse interest and compel you to read on. Your

sales copy must be noticed and an effective headline will draw in the customer. The

headline accounts for 80% of the success for any sales copy. It is an ad for your ad and

summarizes the benefit of your product or service. Most people scan the headline and

make a decision to read on based on the headline.

Headlines determine success or failure

The only purpose of the headline is to attract customers’ attention and get them to

read the body of the sales copy. Now that you have attracted the attention of your

customer, it is critical to hold their attention. The headline and opening few sentences

of your sales copy will make the difference between success and failure. Now you need

to hold their attention and the best way to do this is to appeal to their emotions. Make

it personal and get them involved. For example, you could tell them how you started

out and eventually succeeded. People relate to personal experiences similar to their

own. In this way you can hold the customer’s interest and compel them to continue

reading.

Establish credibility

Make sure that everything you say is the truth. Do not make things up! You need to

establish credibility and this is vital on the internet. Without it, there will be no sales.

Customers cannot see you face-to-face. They do not know you and most are highly

skeptical. How do you do this? Be specific in your statements. Use facts and figures

that are verifiable and quote your sources. Give specific amounts and timeframes when

quoting incomes. Do not use generalities when quoting figures. People want actual

figures not guess work.

Testimonials

Testimonials can offer the best credibility. Your testimonials can counter any

objections the customer may have. You can get testimonials by giving away your

product or offering a free trial. You should invite feedback from your customers by

offering a contact email address. Make sure you ask permission to use their testimony.

Be patient, this takes time but is worth it. If you can get experts in the field to endorse

your product or service that adds even more credibility.

Guarantees

Other factors to consider are guarantees. Money back guarantees can take the risk out

of buying your product and increase sales and credibility dramatically. Using bullet

points to accentuate benefits is a good idea. It makes it easier to read your sales copy

and directs the reader’s attention to why they should buy your product. It is easily scan

able and jumps out of the page. Remind the customer that your product saves them

time, money and effort. The price should help the customer feel they are getting a

bargain. Free bonuses and discounts also compel the customer to build immediately,

especially if it is time limited. You must create a sense of urgency so customers will buy

immediately. Having a newsletter and free tips is also a good idea and can help with

backend sales. P.S and P.P.S at the end of a sales letter has a powerful effect. It

summarizes the sales copy, main benefits, guarantee, bonuses, price, and time limited

offer. You can also give them a final opportunity to subscribe to your newsletter.

Write a book

Finally, writing a book can do wonders for credibility. You could offer this as one of

your bonuses. Make sure you are clear with your subject manner, research it properly,

proof read it and convert it into an eBook.

A final tip:

Study sites that sell internet marketing products. They all use the same basic formula.

If you model your sales copy on successful web sellers you should do well. Remember,

you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Just model yourself after other successful

internet marketers.

What’s in a good Domain Name?

There are many important steps in building a successful online Business. Choosing a

rich keyword content domain name is one of them. Fortunately, registering a domain

name is a simple process. The hard part is getting a good domain name. Personally, I

prefer the www.something.com domain names because .com is a global extension and

everyone remembers them. It is important to find a domain name that tells your

customer what to expect on your web site. That’s why many companies obtain domain

names with their brand name. For example, www.microsoft.com,

www.panasonic.com. I don’t have to explain what Microsoft or Panasonic sell. The

obvious benefit of short specific domain names is that, it makes your site easier to find.

However, many good short domain names have been taken so you may have to obtain

a domain phrase.

Get your own unique domain name

When choosing a domain name you must get your own unique domain name. I do not

recommend getting free domain names with someone else’s name included. There are

many reasons for this. The main one is that your domain name is not unique and you

cannot easily move to another web site. You have no flexibility to move to a better

hosting company. With your own unique domain name, you can move your web site

from one host to another and your customers will find you wherever you are. With a

domain name that relates to your Business, customers are more likely to click onto

your web site.

Get a rich keyword domain name

It is also important to obtain a domain name that is easy to spell, remember, and is

catchy. You want people to remember. My domain name is

www.howyoumakemoneyonline.com. Although, I would have preferred fewer words,

the good ones were taken. So I chose to find a domain name that contains several of

the keywords my customers are looking for. Search engines give high weighting to

keywords in a domain name. When you register a domain name you’ll learn that

letters, numbers and hyphens are acceptable. There are certain rules regarding what a

domain name can and can’t include. Every domain registering site explains this.

Hyphens can often clear up confusing names.

If you would like help with choosing domain names try Overture’s Term Suggestion

Tool at http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/ or www.whois.sc

Check for expired domain names

Another suggestion is to check the availability of domain names which have not been

renewed. If you’re lucky, you may find a suitable name for your business. The other

added benefit is the residual traffic left over from the last business. That means some

free traffic which is half the battle. Traffic means visitors and visitors can mean sales.

Designing a Web site

When designing a web site you need to keep in mind the needs of your customers.

Your web site needs to be user-friendly not fancy and confusing. You need to plan a

navigation that compels your visitors to click and buy. Too many people make the

mistake of spending thousands of dollars making a web site look fantastic but hard to

navigate and difficult to follow the sales process. The result their visitors end up

leaving and there is no sale. A lot of sales are lost because people can’t find what they

were searching for.

The Headline

Internet buyers are unforgiving. Read my article on sales copy. You only have precious

seconds to convince your visitors to buy. A Headline is your attention grabber. It has

to compel the visitor to read your sales copy and buy! Simplify the process. Study your

competitors or similar sites to get an idea of what is a good web site. It is a good idea to

draw on paper a list of all the content, images, products etc you want to include on

your site. Draw your homepage etc and lay them out on a table. Then pretend you are

a visitor and ask yourself was this easy to navigate? Was I compelled to buy? Get other

people to test your design as well.

Build the website

So how will you build your site? There are plenty web designers eager to build your

web site and most are expensive. Nevertheless, you only need to do a simple site. You

could learn basic HTML and build it yourself or better still buy something like

Microsoft FrontPage which allows you to build professional looking web sites

effortlessly. Believe me it’s a simple process. Building it yourself is the best way to go.

You have complete control and you can maintain the site yourself. Furthermore, many

web hosts provide an online web site builder that are easy as 1 2 3. They are

WYSIWYG, (What You See Is What You Get). They also supply free shopping carts,

scripts for Pay Pal and so on.

Hiring a web designer

If you have big budgets then hire a web designer or web master. Be aware this could

cost you an unnecessary fortune. If you do hire someone make sure they create a basic

site with a professional looking logo, graphics and payment features you need. Also,

make sure you have complete control of your web site. Otherwise, you will have to hire

them for every little update. My Tip: Go to your local University or College and hire a

talented student. They will appreciate the work and you’ll get a great web site for a

fraction of the cost.

HTML online resources

There are many great online resources to teach you HTML. It really isn’t that hard.

Check out these FREE HTML tutorials. www.davesite.com/webstation/html or

www.htmlgoodies.com The important thing to remember is to keep your web site

simple. You should focus on the sales copy not a flashy beautiful web site. Having

fancy graphics and banners with flash is a waste of time. The text should do the selling.

The sales process should run from top to bottom.

Test your website

Now, its time to upload your web site to your host and test it. You will need a FTP

program such as CuteFTP to upload your web pages. Your host will provide

information on how to do this. Finally, you should test your web site on various

browsers such as Internet Explorer, Netscape and FireFox. If possible try to test it on

older computers with older versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer. There are still

many people out there with old computers and old operating systems. You should keep

this in mind when designing your web site. The whole idea is to get a sale not

entertain. Keep it simple and you should succeed

Why write a Business Plan?

Making money online isn’t as easy as you think. It requires careful planning and an

analysis of the competition. If you purchased an existing offline business and required

a substantial bank loan, the lending institution would require you to present a

Business Plan.

Even though you can set up an online Internet business with only a couple hundred

dollars, it is a good idea to write a Business Plan. A Business plan will help you identify

exactly how your business will succeed. It will also help you find ways to gain an

advantage over your competitors. A well written business plan is an excellent blueprint

and motivator for your business. It can be a basis on how to drive your business to the

next level and beyond. You can download great samples of business plans on the

internet. It basically consists of an executive summary of your business (usually 1 or 2

pages), description of your business, market strategies, competitive analysis,

development plan/and or operational strategy, financial plans and appendices if

applicable.

There are many books and free online resources explaining how to write a business

plan. There are hundreds of sample business plans to study. Writing a business plan

will guide you on starting a business. It will ensure you do an in depth analysis of your

customers, competitors and your chosen niche market. It can be continuously

reviewed and updated and will help you keep focused on your business. It is

paramount that you firstly research whether a niche market actually exists for your

chosen product or service. This exercise will save you a lot of time and money because

it will assess the business viability and profitability before you anything else.

I highly recommend you do a SWOT analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities

and Threats as part of your business plan. This is a great way to assess the viability of

your business. This should be part of the competitive analysis of your business plan.

The first part of the SWOT analysis is to identify the above four attributes of your

proposed business or niche market.

For example, strengths are the internal factors that are a benefit to the project. The

internal positives may be your skills and knowledge in the niche market, low set up

costs, no loans required, automation of the web site and your uniqueness.

Weakness: Weaknesses are the internal factors that negatively affect the project. The

internal negatives may be lack of knowledge regarding your competitors, lack of

planning, is the market large enough? How much is the cost of advertising to gain

traffic to your site?

Opportunity: Opportunities are the external factors that may lead to further

development of the project. External positives are factors such as industry growth.

Threats: Threats are the external factors that may lead to the diminution of the

project. External negatives such as governmental law changes, social trends and

competition may impact on your business.

The second part of the SWOT analysis is to take on board the information supplied in

the first part and then identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats as

they seem to apply to/in your business. This is the strategies and actions that you will

apply to maximize on the business strengths and opportunities, whilst minimizing the

effects of the weaknesses and threats.

The benefit of the SWOT analysis is to assess whether the niche market is viable. You

must find the market first and then develop the product or service. Too many people

make the mistake of developing the product/service first and then searching for the

market. Often they have wasted their time by learning there was no market in the first

place. The SWOT analysis can save you a lot of time and money by properly

researching your market and competitors.

Another advantage of the SWOT analysis is that you can maintain a competitive

advantage. Constant research analysis and education will help you identify and

understand important trends. Continually listening to your customers will ensure you

are meeting their needs, solving their problems and uncovering new niche markets.

As you can see, a well written and researched Business plan may mean the difference

between achieving success or failure.

As Nike says “Just Do IT”.

Developing a Niche Product

When looking for a product to sell on the internet you must apply principles of

common sense. Like anything, you must apply your due diligence and research your

targeted customers. If anyone makes wild claims that making a fortune on the internet

is easy it’s probably a scam. Beware, no one can guarantee a fortune. Like anything, it

takes a lot of careful planning, research, education and a lot of hard work.

Find Your Passion

The truth is you can make millions of dollars online but it takes lots of work. The first

thing you need to do is find your passion. It’s a lot easier to develop an online business

when you really love the service or product. Think of things you have a lot of

knowledge about. What do people ask you about? So how do you translate your

passion into a successful online business? Just focus!!! Some people love certain

hobbies, others sports, some love cars and others love education. Whatever it is just

stop and think. Make a list of things you like and write them down.

Now you’re ready to do some research. You basically need to make sure other people

are interested in your passion. This is the first step. You are identifying a targetable

niche market.

This is critical to your success. You must study the niche market and then develop a

product or service that solves people’s problems. Unfortunately, most people do this

the wrong way around. They develop a product or service and then find there is no

market for the service.

Identify a targetable niche market

Check out the online newsgroups, discussion boards, chat rooms and type in your

keywords in Google to locate markets that relates to your passion. You also need to

research your competitors and how they cater for these markets. Obviously, if there is

good demand for your product or service, and few businesses catering for their needs

your chances for success is high. Too many competitors or low demand means it’s not

viable. Some keyword tools that may be useful in gauging demand are Word Tracker

and Yahoo Overture’s Term Suggestion Tool. These internet tools assist you in

researching which keywords are frequently searched by your targeted market and will

identify your competition. Overture will tell you how many times words or phrases

were searched in Overture in the last month. If there is already too much competition

selling your product or services or not enough customers buying or searching for your

keywords, then it’s best to find another niche market. That’s why it’s important to

identify a targetable niche market first.

Develop your Product or Service

Once you have identified the niche market and a product or service people want it is

time to either source or develop the product or service. This is a whole new topic

within itself. It is sufficient to say that you can either source the product from a

wholesaler or perhaps drop ship the product. If it’s an information product you can

write your own eBook or hire someone to write it and sell the product electronically

online. Most people convert their information into PDF format or purchase software

programs that convert the information into an eBook format. The next step is to write

effective sales copy. Once again you can educate yourself and write the sales process

yourself, or hire an expert to do this. Your sales letter must be compelling and it must

address your customer’s problems with a solution. It has to be something they need or

want. In other words, you must address the niche market and then sell them the

product. Try to automate this process as best as you can. You must have good sales

copy, an automated ordering system such as Pay Pal or click bank, a plan to contact

customers such as email or newsletters, ads, headlines etc to attract traffic to your

website. This is an ongoing process and you should be constantly testing, tracking and

revising this process. Remember when you plan to succeed, you will succeed, but when

you fail to plan, you will fail.