Starting an Online Business – Get the Basics Right

Many aspiring online entrepreneurs are taking advantage of the vast cyber market that has been created by the advent of the internet.

Whilst, innovative entrepreneurs have discovered a wealth of opportunities to be converted into viable businesses in cyberspace, many are seeing little or no return for their efforts.

The common misconception they labor under is that they expect the internet to make them money, when in actual fact their strategy should be to use the internet as a vehicle to market their goods and services to the cyber market, known as the world wide web.

However, because internet businesses can be set up at virtually no cost or with no risk, more and more people are seeing the internet as a good way to making money easily and quickly.

Well, the reality is that most of these would be internet marketers are not getting the basics right, get disheartened with the lack of activity & money being generated by their businesses and end up quitting with barely making a dollar.

Getting these basics right will at least afford your business a decent chance of longevity and success.

1. Mindset

Often the wrong mindset creates unrealistic expectations in terms of returns and the amount of input required.

So, prior to launching your business you need to understand that success won’t come easily, you won’t earn money in the short term and that you more than likely will not get rich quickly.

Depending on your product, service, market, niche, etc, online businesses generally take a reasonable length of time to become established before they start generating any sort of income.

You also need to understand that despite putting in the long hours day in & day out, that this alone won’t guarantee results – persistence, testing and continually trying different strategies are also some of the requirements.

2. Plan

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!

Success often comes about when a good opportunity is intercepted by a good plan.

Often internet entrepreneurs are opportunists who reap the rewards when they’re in a position, i.e. have planned & are prepared, to convert opportunities into good money.

3. Web Presence

Your web presence has to portray your business as a professional organization that is geared and prepared to add value to anyone who visits your site.

As there is so much competition on the internet trying to attract your site visitor, your site needs to be innovative, functional, properly structured and well optimized.

Also, whilst your domain name needs to be properly researched and appropriate to your business, your web host needs to be of high enough caliber to ensure 100% uptime and rapid response.

4. Reach and Develop your Target Market

Having a great website without visitors won’t do much for your bottom line so it needs to be properly optimized for search engines (a whole topic on it’s own), popular and very sticky, i.e. your site visitors need to want to come back time and again.

Furthermore, pay per click campaigns, offline marketing and other methods can be employed to drive targeted traffic to your site.

5. Legal Issues

Aside from adhering to the normal legal requirements that need to be adhered to for setting up a business you need to take cognizance of those issues that pertain specifically to Internet Law as well.

For example not checking that your chosen domain name may infringe on a legally protected trademark or other intellectual property rights can cost you a lot of time and money in the long term.

Whilst there are many other aspects that are key to the success of an online venture, the above basics all need to be maximized to give your business a shot at internet success.