Lately, I have been asked many times what the keys to having a successful business online are. Naturally, this question has compelled me to take a deep look into my five years experience doing business on the Internet. And I’m amazed to see how far I’ve come, from a complete green horn to one that knows with assurance exactly what works on the Internet.
Looking through the path I’ve come from in my online business journey, I have identified those things I eventually found after groping in the dark for sometime trying to figure things out by trial and error, and did that gave me success, and I’m sure if you imbibe them your learning curve will be shorter and you will hit success quicker and less expensively.
So here are my keys to owning a successful online business:
Have The Right Mindset
There are certain wrong notions about making success in online business that you have to be aware of and guide against if you will have a successful business online. In order to get you to purchase their course, a lot of Internet marketers out there will tell you their product will enable you to start making tons of dollars instantly with little or no effort.
That all you need is to bring out your credit card and place an order, and the money will start pouring into your account ceaselessly.
Of course this is a deceitful tactic, which not few new comers to the Internet fall into. With the prospect of making lots of money quickly and then be able to solve all their financial problems, a lot of them are immediately fired up to wanting the product desperately. But after one, two weeks of purchasing the product and no money is made, they get discouraged, abandon the program, and order another.
And after going through the same cycle several times, spending lots of money, they will most likely become completely despondent and cynical about anyone really making money online, and therefore pack up the idea of having a successful online business.
But the truth is that online businesses are not too different from businesses in the physical world. A business, whether done on the Internet or physically requires time to build. Success in business doesn’t happen overnight, it gradually builds up when you are consistent in it.
There is a learning phase, which you have to pass through to be able to understand the business and know how things work online, before you can get close to success. Remove from your mind the thought of making money fast; even the so called Internet marketing gurus who sell these courses never made money in their business as quickly as they say you would when they were starting out. Many of them started making money several years after they began their business.
The same goes for effort. Please know that there is work to be done to succeed in any online business just as in physical businesses. In fact, there is a load of work you will have to do yourself if your budget is not big enough to allow you outsource or pay for some of them.
Having an untainted perspective of what to expect owning an online business is the foundation to achieving success in it. You will be more prepared for the challenges ahead and gradually build the business to the point it will begin to make money.
Learn As Much As Possible
There is no question about it, without adequate knowledge of any business, success can never be made. You need to learn as much as you can about online business generally, and fortunately, there are lots of materials on the Internet that can help you with the education. Again, fortunately, a lot of these materials are free. You can get free information about online business or marketing by subscribing to newsletters published by proven experts, researching the Internet, reading blog posts, and visiting forums.
Choose A Business Model And Be Focused On It
There are many online business models, and you cannot do all of them together at the same time. To achieve success online, you will have to choose one business model and be completely focused on it for a reasonable length of time, say one to five years, before adding something else.
Your knowledge of the industry will help you here to decide the business model you want to do, and having decided it, you now have to concentrate on the model, and learn the deep secrets in it. You may have to attend seminars or take courses online, or buy relevant books to take your knowledge beyond the average, and this will definitely cost you some money, but it is worth it, and it will pay off good later.
Get A Coach To Understudy
You need to find somebody in the business model you have chosen who is already successful, and is passionate about teaching it. You can have him/her as a coach by subscribing to his/her program.
Apart from the fact that your coach will give you the necessary assistance to achieve success in the business, you will also be able to see the inner workings of his or her business, from which you can model yours after.
In addition to the person you have taken as your coach, you can also pick two or three successful people in the business to understudy. Visit their sites or blogs regularly, read their newsletters and sales letters and observe how they do their thing.
You will be able to identify the strategies that produce success for them, and implement them in your business too. I have personally gained a great deal of knowledge from this underground study of successful online businesses, and you too can explore this free avenue to picking the Gurus’ brains.
Build Trust In Your Business
Even more than is demanded from physical businesses, the success of online businesses hugely depends on trust. Your potential customers may be visiting your site from different countries of the world and they don’t know you personally. There will therefore be some resistance against their making purchases, however, if you have built integrity and credibility, you will sell more.
There are different ways you can make your site and business credible and trusted for people to comfortably do business with.
One way is to have trial or free versions of your products for your visitors. This gives your potential customers the chance to see how good your product or service really is. And if they are satisfied, they will not only buy, but also refer other people to you, as well as give you good testimonials.
Another way to make people trust your business and so buy from you easily is to have the testimonials of satisfied users of your product placed on your website for your potential customers to see.
Also, you can have a newsletter published frequently to give your subscribers updates, tips, and free useful information relating to your business. By doing this, you will be establishing a strong relationship with your potential customers, and with time many of them will freely buy from you.