P.T. Barnum has been associated with the statement, "There's a sucker born every minute." Though it is questionable that he ever uttered the line, most people think about him when they hear this quote. Whoever coined the words might have phrased it differently if they were living in modern times to something like, "There's a sucker born every minute, and they are all trying to do business on the internet." Despite all the many twists and turns, promises and hype, anyone with the dream of owning a successful business on the internet has a road to travel that in many ways is more difficult than opening a successful brick and mortar enterprise. With a brick and mortar business, it can be easier to find qualified walk in business than it is to create lucrative traffic to a web site. Before you get all excited about creating your own internet based money machine, there are some things you should consider.
The day you decide to start a business on the internet, be prepared to hear the sound of the money vacuum starting up to suck all the cash you can feed it out of your pockets. Where there are hundreds of ways to throw away money in starting a local business, there are thousands of sure fired ways to waste your money in getting started on the internet. Some of the easier to find ways to waste your time and money with no guarantee for return on your investment involve a variety of "traffic building" schemes. Though any means of attracting qualified customers can lead some people to success, a serious internet entrepreneur should be slow to jump at using some techniques which may not sound bad at first glance.
1. Paid "Banner Advertisements" - This type of advertising promises big dividends in qualified traffic to your website. The method is the equivalent of waving an advertisement in the face of anyone passing by on the sidewalk, with the hope that a few who glance at it will be intrigued enough to click to your site and see what you have to offer. If someone happens to be thinking about what you are trying to show them, a few might take time out to have a quick look at your site. If your products and services are in such high demand that anyone would buy them if they only know where to go to get them, a banner ad may be useful. The question you need to ask yourself is how many times you or someone you know has not only clicked on a banner ad, but actually bought something from the site where it leads. This type of web advertising can be very costly, and may require thousands of visitors to your site before you make one sale. This method has been around long enough to have many internet users conditioning themselves to block out any distractions created by these ads.
2. Opt-in Email Advertising - This method of traffic building can also be expensive, and for many well intended businesses, is one step away from falling into the spam bucket. Whether or not your potential customers did something to invite your email based advertising, it will not take many repetitions of this to become irritating to the recipients. Unless your customers are highly intrigued by what your business offers them, chances are very good that they will decide to delete your money down the drain on sight.
3. Pay Per Click Advertising - One of the "dirty little secrets" about using search engine pay per click advertising is that good keywords cost you money faster than the spinning drums of a slot machine. Search engines can also bar your site from using certain keywords which actually bring traffic to your site whenever the whim strikes them. Getting people to engage in your web based services is far more difficult than getting people to visit. Gaining page one positioning on a search engine by the name of your business is only good if your business name is how people are looking for what you have to offer.
4. Ready-made Site Building Businesses - There are a lot of companies on the internet that promise to make you rich with "proven" packages, site building assistance, marketing, and help with getting your business started. Few of these, if any, guarantee any kind of return on your investment. If the service is not free to you, and does not guarantee a return of the money you invest to get started, prepare to watch your money disappear.
5. There are many companies that offer to sell you the "secrets to internet success," that promise you everything except a guaranteed return on your investment. When given a taste of what these packages have to offer, they promise top placement on internet search engines, lots of hype, and a lot of tired advice on how to build a successful web site that you can get for free elsewhere. Be careful of people who are willing to sell you a $300 package on how they made millions on the internet, especially if the secret advice is to replicate their convincing hype, and sell the same package with your name on it.
If you are wondering about whether or not to start your own internet business, consider how much more difficult it will be to build trust with your potential customers when you cannot get to know them in person, and physically interact with them as you would be able to do in a retail store. With all the scams, fraud, and downright dirty tactics unscrupulous businesses use to hoodwink people in the real world, you can multiply the worst the planet has to offer in cyberspace. These risks pose a threat on both sides of the table. Both businesses and customers are using the internet to discover new ways to cheat people with false hopes and false intentions. Despite its potential for good, the internet has rapidly grown to become a place for conscious scrutiny.
As a legitimate internet business, there are things you should look for to help enhance your chances for success. Some of these include the following points.
1. Be prepared to wait a long time to build a viable customer base from the visitors you receive from the web.
2. Demonstrate your good faith in doing business by responding quickly to customer requests for information, inviting on site feedback, and offering customers the ability to receive your product promptly upon payment.
3. Offer customers free trials, discounts for bringing new customers to your site, volume discounts, coupons, and other incentives to help them get to know you and your business.
4. Find ways to build relationships with visitors to your site, and allow them to contact you by email, mail, or phone.
5. Be prepared to change your site to provide more of the things your customers express an interest in coming to you to learn about.
6. Be prepared to offer a level of value in your products and services that could not be obtained outside the internet, or found anywhere else.
7. Utilize as many free traffic building resources as you can in building traffic to your site. If you are paying for such services, find out what guaranteed return on investments the plans have to offer. A query on this alone will eliminate getting stung by programs that do not deliver what they are trying to convince you they have to offer.
8. Remember that no matter how good your ideas and services are, they are worth nothing if you cannot connect with the customers who are interested in receiving them. No matter how much you try to plan for contingencies, you will not know if your business can succeed until you make an attempt. Chances are good that you will have to figure out on your own what is making or breaking your business.
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