5 Internet Business Myths That Keep Success at Bay
by Louis Allport
Published on this site: July 26th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month
Interested in making a full time income running an internet
business?
Well, one of the first things you need to do is forget a
lot of the "myths" that keep being repeated online.
Let's go through five of them here:
Myth 1: "Running a successful online business is
easy".
No it isn't. No business success comes easy.
If money was really that easy to make, word would spread
and everyone would jump on it, including investors!
Business doesn't work like that - it's competitive, and because
of this requires hard work and vigilance.
If you treat your internet business like a job, and always
do your very best for your boss (you), then you're off to
a great start.
That said - if you're only looking to make $200 extra a month,
or even $500 extra a month, that IS easy. Just sell some odds
and ends on eBay. A part time income is not particularly difficult
to achieve online with online auctions and other outlets like
Amazon Marketplace.
But - if you're looking for a full time income, you need
to work at it. There is no "secret formula", never
was and never will be.
Myth 2: "Running an internet business costs next
to nothing".
Well, somewhat true, but it misses the point.
You can run an online business very cheaply (my basic running
costs are around $150 a month - hosting, autorespondersetc)
but if you want your business to grow at very low cost, you'll
have to do all the promotions for free.
Free online marketing tactics generally take time to work,
and require a lot of elbow-grease: writing articles to distribute,
writing pages to get search engine traffic, creating products,
building up an affiliate program, getting links in to your sites
Alternatively - if you want to speed things up, you can advertise.
And depending on how well your site converts visitors into
customers, and how targeted your advertising is, you can grow
very quickly that way.
If you're interested in putting a few hundred dollars aside
into an "advertising fund" and trying to build your
business quickly that way, pay-per-click advertising would
probably be the best way to start.
Focus on Google Adwords & Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly
Overture) for starters since they have the most traffic, as
well as the most responsive traffic.
But before diving in headfirst and potentially throwing good
money after bad on inefficient advertising, it's strongly
recommended you fully understand the subject, or get the advice
of a professional.
Either consult with one (if you can find a reputable one),
or devour eBooks on the subject.
Recommended eBooks are anything by Andrew Goodman or Perry
Marshall. Make sure the information is up to date though as
the pay-per-click field changes incredibly quickly. Twelve
months is a lifetime when it comes to the search engines.
Also recommended is spending time absorbing the Google Adwords
training site and also the Yahoo Search Marketing training
site.
Both these companies want you to succeed with your advertising
(since you'll advertise with them for longer) and so have
a lot of great information to help you get started and build
a successful advertising campaign.
Myth 3: "All traffic is the same".
This myth often presents itself as "Buy 10,000 visitors
from us for $9.95 and you'll make lots of sales!" (or
something along those lines).
Ignore such sales pitches - they're complete rubbish. And
here's why:
Bulk traffic like this is completely untargeted and a complete
waste of your time and money.
Just think - if you were selling a book through direct mail
on "How To Get Rich In Real Estate" and you had
to choose a mailing list to promote to, would you rather:
- Mail your offer to a list of people who had already expressed
an interest in the subject by purchasing similar products?
- Or would you feel it was better to instead pick names
at random out of the phone book and make that list the offer?
Silly question, right?
Well, it's the same online - all traffic is not identical.
People surfing have different interests and motivations, just
like they do offline.
To maximize your chances of making money, you want to target
the visitors most likely to convert to customers for you and
get them to your site.
Myth 4: "Opt-in email doesn't work anymore".
From my own personal experience:
Opt-in mail does work, but not as well as it used it. Many
spam and email filters are over-zealous these days and delete
mail people have asked to receive (opt-in mail) at the same
time as unsolicited email (spam).
Plus - people are very worried about phishing emails these
days (emails that try to fool you into typing in your private
details) and often delete emails out of fear if they don't
recognize who sent it.
But these points aside, opt in email can still work - so
don't discount it before you try it.
Myth 5: "You don't need any technical skills"
Let's be frank - without technical skills you're going to
struggle big time.
If you're going to run an internet business, for starters
you want to be comfortable with computers and familiar with
the internet.
And you really want to get to grips with HTML and FTP. Those
seven letters are the building blocks of creating any kind
of website and getting it live online. If you don't know them,
get to know them. There's plenty of great tutorials online.
Or even just for starters - you can easily create web pages
visually (without messing around with HTML code) by using
a visual web page editor. There's plenty to be found by searching
download.com.
So put these internet business myths out of your mind and
get cracking on building your business into a success.
Louis Allport is an online product developer and marketer.
He recently revealed a system that can help you create best-selling
products practically on demand:
http://www.createoffers.com
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