Planning Your Internet Business

If you are just getting started, or are considering an Internet based business, this article should help you avoid many of the errors that can ruin your business before you even get started.

My Path has been two steps forward and one step back. You can get it right from the start by planning your business before you waste a lot of your valuable time and money.

Choosing a Product

The easiest way to go wrong is to start out with the wrong product. The wrong product is one that wont sell well on the Internet. The best product is one you own and control.

Products that sell well on-line include in the following order:

Information products
Internet related products
Software
Services
Low cost products
Computers
Hard goods
Health related
Multi-level Marketing

Your main product should be one in which you own all the marketing rights. Your other products should be related to your prime product in some ways.

Visit the following URLs for more information about choosing the right products :

The Easiest Path To Success
http://www.smithfam.com/news/april00a.html

Choose Your Products Carefully
http://www.smithfam.com/news/march00d.html

Grow Your Own Associate Program
http://www.smithfam.com/news/march00a.html

Launching A Complementary Product
http://www.smithfam.com/news/april00ab.html

A Professionally Designed Web Site

Would you hire your brother in-law to repair your teeth, fix your clock, or sell your house? Probably not; you look for someone who has developed the skill and expertise to give you confidence it will be done right - the first time.

One of the most common mistakes is to have your business website designed by yourself, a family friend, or inexperienced beginner.

Website designers are specialists; they should understand how to make a good first impression. In many cases, they can bring you at least 10 times more traffic if they understand how search engines will rank your pages. Forget about fancy graphics and sound for now, you want your business pages to look clean and load fast.

Obtain Your Own Domain Name

Its a must to have your own domain name. Make it as short and memorable as possible. Contrary to public opinion. there are still plenty of good domain names available. In fact, when I got my domain I assumed that smith.com wouldnt be available but a year later I found out it wasnt registered.

You can check if a name is available here:
http://rs.internic.net/whois.html

Get A Professional Hosting Service

Changing hosts can amount to starting over; especially once you have interactive scripts installed. In short, you want a host that has 24hour 7day online support as well as 800 phone support . You want a host that has been in business for at least 2-4 years. In general you get what you pay for, so dont be too cheap finding your host.

The hosting service I use costs a little more than the low end server where the most support is required. Its a lot lower cost than others for high end services like dedicated servers.

You want a host that can handle all your future needs no matter what. You also want one that will set up your domain for you as part of the deal; my host offers that service free.

The Facts Of Web Hosting:
http://www.smithfam.com/hosting.html

Hosting Services & Options For Comparison
http://www.virtualis.com/vr/rsmith45/options.html

Develop A 3 Step Marketing System

We all have heard of the 2 step marketing system, Get a prospect, then make the sale. I added a third step. It goes like this:

1) FIND A PROSPECT - Use e-zines advertising, Opt-in Email, and Offline advertising
2) FOLLOW-UP - Provide a series of short follow-up messages and dont forget to ask for the sale
3) OFFER RELATED PRODUCTS - Once you have made a sale continue to build your relationship, support your customers and keep in touch with regular email messages.
Increase Your Sales And Profits - 3 Step Marketing Process
http://www.smithfam.com/news/june98i.html

The Cyber Two-Step
http://www.smithfam.com/news/ma15.html

Develop Your Own Opt-In Email List

You cant usually meet face to face on-line with your potential customers, yet you need to build a trusting relationship over time.

You absolutely MUST develop your own opt-in mailing list. Make it easy to join. Answer your list email promptly and completely. Dont make promises you cant keep, and always say what youll do - then do what you say.

Opt-In Email Lists
http://www.smithfam.com/news/1e-lists.html

Follow-Up

One of the most successful ways to follow-up is to set up your own automated follow-up system. Deliver a series of messages for every product you sell. This will save you a lot of time. This has boosted my on-line income over 400%.

How I Doubled My On-line Sales
http://www.smithfam.com/autoinfo.html

Double Your On-Line Profits Using Programmable Followup
http://www.smithfam.com/news/sept99b.html

Communicate With Your Customers Regularly

You want to understand things from your ideal customers point of view. You can do this by asking for feedback regularly. Make it easy for them to get in touch with you. You can do this by publishing your name and email address and phone number at the bottom of every page on your website.

You want to automate your communication as much as possible with weekly or monthly messages. Better yet, start your own newsletter. You dont have to be a great writer. Just tell them whats new, whats working, and what isnt.

In addition, its a good idea to send out periodic messages that include a freebie or a product demo whenever possible.

How to Use Multiply Your Marketing Like a Virus
http://www.smithfam.com/news/july99p.html

Summary

Plan your internet business by creating your own product if possible. Later add complementary products that fit into your business niche. Dont try to do everything yourself. Get help with the difficult jobs. Use specialists when you lack professional level skills.

Dont start your business from a free server. Instead start out with your own domain name and a professional hosting service.

Develop a two or three step marketing system using opt-in email and programable follow-up. Once you establish a relationship, use it to communicate with your customers and prospects regularly.

Best Wishes
Bob

About the Author

ROBERT SMITH

bob@smithfam.com
http://www.smithfam.com/