RichMan Millionaire 2010

Copyright © Halstatt Pires

The first step to starting any Internet business is conducting keyword research to determine if there is any interest in your idea. Once you identify a need, it’s time to consider what your site should look like.

What Is The Goal?

In considering the look of your site, you first need to determine what elements are needed to promote your service or product. There are endless books, forums and people with adamant opinions on the subject. Some opine a site should be all about linking, while others opine creating a community through message boards is the key. A third set righteously point out a site should be slick or cool, while a fourth group will argue just the opposite. So, who is right and who is wrong? The answer is…all of them.

When developing a site, the goal is actually very simple. Your site should be useful. That’s it, the big secret. The problem, of course, is “useful” means different things for different sites.

A site that provides a service to businesses, such as consulting, should focus on content and linking. A site that promotes something related to entertainment should have an element of cool and have message boards to discuss rumors, etc. A site that sells products should focus on linking and loading quickly, i.e., a simple, clean design. The point is that each site is unique and there is no universal answer. Whatever the particular direction of your site, simply make sure it is useful to your users.

Site Examples

Let’s use Google as our example. What does Google do? It gives users the ability to search and find relevant information. So, should the home page of Google look “cool”? Should it have a lot of content on how to conduct searches? Should it have forums to create a sense of community? No, the home page would be most useful if it simply let you search without bombarding you with a lot of clutter. Indeed, the Google home page is just that.

What about a product site? Let’s use Nomad Journals – http://www.nomadjournals.com - as our example. The site sells writing journals for outdoor activities such as hiking, travel, rock climbing, etc. The site is simple, clean and loads fairly quickly. Unlike Google, the site immediately needs to convey an outdoor impression to visitors. This is accomplished with three outdoor images, a graphic of a “nomad” and images of the journals. The text is keyword dense, but compact and to the point. The page conveys the nature of the product and the “vibe” of the business.

On the other end of the spectrum, consider an entertainment site such as American Idol – http://www.idolonfox.com. The site is slick, offers polls and has community message boards where fans can post messages about the competition. This is a very good layout for this site, but would be horrible for Google or Nomad Journals.

Don’t Rush

From the above examples, you can see that there is no universally correct design for a site. Before charging off to build a site, spend at few days considering what it should look like and WHY. Visit sites that you use frequently. Why do you keep going back? What annoys you about other sites? How do factors translate to your site?

Once you have the answers, you will be on your way.

About the Author: Halstatt Pires is with http://www.marketingtitan.com - an Internet marketing and advertising company comprised of a search engine optimization specialist providing meta tag optimization services and Internet marketing consultant providing internet marketing solutions through integrated design and programming services.

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Copyright © Halstatt Pires

The vast majority of web sites are destined to fail before they are even built. Why? Because people building sites almost always put the cart before the horse. Actually, most don’t even include the horse.

Evolution of Your Site

New sites follow a typical evolutionary process.

1. The first stage involves slaving over the design of the site to get just the right look;

2. The second stage is the publication of the site;

3. Third comes the first thought about how to get traffic to the site;

4. Fourth, the discovery of pay-per-click options;

5. Fifth, the pursuit of PPC campaigns and realization of sales!;

6. Sixth, the “misery stage”, occurs with the realization that sales are being made at a loss!;

7. Frustration, frustration, frustration;

8. The “extinction stage” - With profitability seeming impossible, the PPC campaigns are closed and the site just sits there.

Does any of this sound familiar? You need not suffer this evolutionary extinction! Taking one step before you build a site can save you a lot of wasted time and money.

If You Build It, Will They Come?

The first step to developing a successful web site is keyword analysis. Keywords are the anchors of each page of your site, a collective summary of your products and services.

The first step to developing an online business is to identify whether there is sufficient traffic for your business product or service. Let’s look at a very simple example.

If your are selling boating products, each page of your site should incorporate boating-related keyword phrases. You must analyze whether there is a sufficient number of searches each month to make your boating site a viable entity. A free method for doing this is to use the Overture inventory tool:

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

In our example, we would do a search for “boating” to see how many searches there are for the keyword as well as other boating-related keyword phrases. A quick search shows there were over 100,000 searches for “boating” and over 4,000 searches for “boating supply” in March 2005. These numbers suggest that there clearly is enough traffic to build a site selling boating products.

Alternatively, assume that we want to build a site promoting our hiking guide service in Nevada. If we do a search for “Nevada hiking” using the Overture inventory tool, we find that there are only 100 or so searches a month. Should we go ahead and build the site? Probably not. There simply isn’t enough interest to justify spending the time and money.

Unfortunately, we often talk with site owners that have spent significant amounts of money building a site only to find that there is little interest in their product or service. By performing keyword analysis, you can determine whether a site should be built before you spend the time, energy and money on it. There is little reason to build a site that has no chance of success.

About the Author: Halstatt Pires is with http://www.marketingtitan.com - an Internet marketing and advertising company comprised of a search engine optimization specialist providing meta tag optimization services and Internet marketing consultant providing internet marketing solutions through integrated design and programming services.

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Copyright © Derek Vaughan

Want to start an Internet business? Great! Let’s get started quickly by looking at five simple and necessary steps to getting your Internet business off the ground.

1. Select Your Domain Name - It is very important to select the proper domain name for your business. Why? It’s how customers will find you online. A couple of simple pointers: shorter is usually better, I’d stick with a .com name - not one of the other top level domains. It can also help search engines to list you higher if your domain name contains some of the keywords you want to be found for.

Believe it or not, there are still a huge number of domain names that have never been registered. Sure, the so-called ‘dictionary’ and common single word domains have all be registered long ago, but there are strategies to circumvent this issue.

Why not simply add a modifier to a word in order to create a compelling domain name? For example: let’s say that you sell bicycles and bicycle parts online - here are some domain names that come to mind that are almost certainly taken:

bike.com
bikes.com
bicycle.com
bicycles.com
bikeparts.com
bicycleparts.com

So how can we modify these common names to create names that are available? Let’s try adding some simple descriptive terms either before, or after the main word. For example:

Deluxe
Premium
Best
Superior
Cheap
Discount
Online
Universal

I’m sure you can think of many others that apply to your products and business. If you simply add this short list of modifiers in front of the original short names, you can create multiple new names that are available right now!

You can search to see if your domain name is available here: http://www.dotster.com.

2. Hire a Web Designer - Ask around to locate a great designer that someone else has used. The design of your site can make you look professional, or like an amateur - it’s clear which way you will want to look.

An alternative that can be very cost effective when compared to a custom designed web site is to use pre-formatted templates - either put together by another company, or filled in with data yourself. For example, Affinity Internet, Inc. offers a professional web design product through it’s ValueWeb brand that is billed out at a low flat monthly fee. According to the ValueWeb website the ReadyWeb product offers the following advantages: “A professional web designer will set up a consultation with you to better understand your business and online goals to ensure your web site is not only impressive but successful.Our web site professionals will make updates to your website on a monthly basis as needed. ReadyWeb includes two hours of maintenance and updates each month at no additional charge.” You can learn more about the ReadyWeb product at: http://www.valueweb.com/readyweb/readyweb_learn_more.htm.

Alternatively there are do-it-yourself templates available at sites such as http://www.templatemonster.com.

3. Choose Your Web Hosting - Every small business that sets up a web site online will need to host it somewhere. According to industry expert Tamara Field, President of Apollo Hosting (http://www.apollohosting.com) these are the top three things to consider when selecting your web hosting company.

* REAL Live Support - Call their tech support number NOT their sales number, and see if you can talk directly to a technician. Or go on their live chat and see if you are able to talk to a technician. How long did it take for you to get someone on the phone or live chat? That’s very important. Just because they say they offer live support, doesn’t mean they really have people there when you need them.

* Guarantees - Money back guarantee, price freeze, uptime, and a guarantee of a refund on unused portions. There are so many hosting companies that don’t offer money back on unused months if you cancel early! If you sign up for 1 year, believe it or not, many hosting companies won’t give you ANY money back if you cancel 3 months later. A money back guarantee is important as is a prize freeze guarantee. But these days, look for the refund on unused hosting. Many companies don’t mention it because they don’t offer it.

* Upgrade Path - If you see your business growing, and you might want more products/services in the future, then you will need an upgrade path. It is a real hassle changing hosting companies. Just getting lots of bandwidth and storage is not the answer. Many customers don’t use near the amount of bandwidth and storage that many hosting companies are offering. This is really just a marketing technique for a lot of hosting companies. Look for extra products that they offer. What about ecommerce? Do they offer the best ecommerce products, SPAM/Virus filtering, marketing tools etc. Remember that these days hosting is not just about storage and bandwidth. It’s about a whole lot more. Don’t settle for just space on a box.

You can easily compare web hosting options by looking through web hosting directory sites as well. These sites offer information about multiple hosting providers, and special offers and product information. Several of the more useful directories are: http://www.websitehostdirectory.com, http://www.cheaphostingdirectory.com, and http://www.tophosts.com.

4. Set Up Your Email - It may seem like a no-brainer to some, but you simply cannot adequately conduct business on the Internet without an email address. Your email address will let your customers and potential customers communicate with you, and give you valuable feedback on your web site, products, services, and ordering processes.

You’ll also need a way for you to communicate with vendors and others who can help you market your web site. Each hosting provider has different protocols for setting up your email account, so you’ll have to look to your provider for help with your specific account. One other important note: be sure to include a signature line at the bottom of every email that includes your business name, URL, and a brief description of your products and services. This idea alone can increase your business.

5. Promote Your Site - There are so many ways to get traffic to your web site that it would require several separate articles to cover the topic. Here are a couple of basic ideas. Try to educate yourself about, and get listed on search engines. A few basic steps can go a long way towards traffic driving in this way. A great step-by-step manual is at http://www.searchenginewatch.com.

If you have a budget to advertise, you may want to try Google AdWords as a method of reaching the search engine keyword market. Information is available at: http://www.google.com/ads. Alternatively, if you simply want to pay someone else to manage your online search engine advertising campaign for a flat monthly fee, you could check out ValueWeb’s ValueTraffic program. ValueTraffic costs $100 per month, and guarantees traffic and impressions to your website. You can see further details at: http://www.valueweb.com/online-marketing.htm.

Of course, you should print your web address on all of your existing marketing materials such as: business cards, stationary, brochures, newsletters, product sheets, etc. You may find that driving qualified traffic to your website is as easy as releasing information on where to find it in your company promotional materials. Customers are always eager to utilize faster and more convenient forms of communications with companies.

Good luck with your new site, and remember - it takes a while for any great project to get real traction - the same holds true for your website.

About Derek Vaughan

Derek Vaughan has been actively marketing on the Internet since 1995. His extensive online marketing experience includes serving at the Walt Disney Company as the online marketing manager for ecommerce at ESPN.com. Mr. Vaughan was also the marketing manager for the launch of the NASCAR Online Store.

In web hosting, Mr. Vaughan served for over 4 years as Senior Director of Marketing for Affinity Internet, Inc. and Vice President of Marketing for Aplus.Net. Mr. Vaughan holds a bachelors degree from Purdue University and has also earned an M.B.A. from the Owen School at Vanderbilt University. He now consults for http://www.cheaphostingdirectory.com, and runs http://www.webmastersales.com.

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Copyright © Don Berthiaume

Stop for a minute and think about how much we are, by nature, comparison shoppers. How many times a day do we compare things and make a decision based upon this comparison?

And why is that? We could sit here and rattle off a number of reasons. But it comes down to one thing – perceived value. This perceived value is based upon our individual tastes, desires, moods, feelings and expectations. Is it what we want?

Information overload – too many choices

We have 4,952 channels on television and nothing on! We have 24 varieties of peanut butter, 57 versions of the “same product”; low sodium, no sodium, low fat, no fat, regular, lite, ultra; 14 aisles of breakfast cereal. And, as of my last check 7,930,000 search results in Google for “start internet business”.

The power of persuasion

Most of us still work hard for our money and we don’t want to see it go to waste. We often take advantage of choices and choose what we feel is right based upon the information we have at hand, or our knowledge base.

It is only when we are afforded no choices, given the impression or made to believe there can be no other product that would benefit us more, made to believe time is of the essence we will lose out if we don’t act immediately – we abandon our “comparison shopping”.

It is then we can be more easily persuaded into believing what it is we “think” we want or need.

Seek advice

Sometimes we relinquish the responsibility of “comparison shopping” to others; a committee, a professional in the field, or someone who has done the necessary research to help us decide. Sometimes we gladly pay to be able to be advised “what we want” or at least have the field narrowed down so we don’t have to spend as much time choosing.

Your Internet business

Here you are today, wanting to start an online business or make an existing one more profitable. But perhaps you lack the specific knowledge on how to do it. So your first step and every step thereafter is to seek out the knowledge that you lack.

The averages predict it is unlikely you will “score the big one” on your first attempt or any subsequent attempt. Sobering as it is, less than 5% of all Internet businesses survive.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it

Experts and so-called experts abound and are more than willing to get you to spend your hard-earned cash on their advice, their solutions. So what do you do?

You need to narrow down your selection to a smaller field of experts who are included within the less than 5% who have actually succeeded with their Internet business.

There is not one expert out there that, on their “sales page”, offers comparison information for other, competing programs. Their ad copy is intentionally made to make you believe you have no other choice and you need to purchase their plan and do it NOW, or at least before Midnight tonight!

But you can wait. You don’t have to fall for the sales hype or sense of urgency. That is what the ad copy is intended to do, and that’s OK. You will find there are people out there who earn a six-figure income coming up with this ad copy and you will be using it yourself with your Internet business.

The point is, in all likelihood the same offer will be there tomorrow, you do have more time than Midnight tonight!

So, in order to narrow down your selection, you need to maximize your efforts – your time and your money. You need to “comparison shop”.

Selecting an expert you can trust

Just make up your “long list”. Make a list of 75-100 “experts” that are out there promoting their strategies and solutions and visit and read each of their websites.

Then, once you’ve visited each site, your task is to keep narrowing the field. After visiting the sites, many of the so-called experts will become apparent and can be taken off your “long list”.

Here is a partial list of what I recommend you check out with your long list:

Understand the topics of information covered

How informed does the expert really seem to be on his / her “expertise”

What is the expert’s background

Program cost

Guarantee

Affiliations / Commissions

Provision for customer assistance / support

And finally, learn to read “between the lines” of the ad copy.

Once you have the field narrowed down, come up with your short list. Revisit the sites of your short list and review the information provided on the sites once again.

Think about the different expertise each expert possesses. Not all of the strategies and techniques will be used in the early stages of your Internet business, but rather later on as you grow it. Keep these experts in mind as resources for your growth. If you have questions or concerns, email them and ask your question. Make sure your questions and concerns are addressed.

Your goal is to narrow down your long list of 75-100 to a short list of 10-15.

Will it be time consuming? Yes it will but it will be time well spent. This list of 10-15 experts will be your Internet business shopping list and the list from which you will have all of the resources to have the potential to make your Internet business a success.

The final key will be your desire, your willingness and most of all your commitment.

Don Berthiaume is the owner/webmaster of “Internet Marketing Plans – A Beginner’s Guide” and publisher of the “Internet Business Start Guide”. He spent many years as a multimedia developer and has designed and developed numerous websites.

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Copyright © Mike Casals

Creating and building your home internet business does not need to be a daunting task. Knowing how to start an internet business will pretty much be the most important thing you would want to know. Starting on the wrong foot could discourage or demotivate you into building your home internet business.

First things first - “an internet business is not for everyone”. Find out why . . .

First - to start an internet business entails making sacrifices. Do you have the desire and persistence to succeed? Do you really want to make a living online or are you simply hanging around the net?

My marketing mentor advised us to look at the end goal. And the end goal of course is enjoying the freedom and independence of working from home. So the question would be - Are you willing to take the necessary sacrifices to achieve your end goal?

Second - you will need physical and emotional space to make your home internet business successful. Do you have the support of the people around you, if you’re alone - can you motivate yourself enough to do the things you have to do on the internet.

Starting an internet business requires attributes similar to being an entrepreneur.

Third - you need to know where you are going and how to get there (your roadmap and tools and resources). Where are you going? - don’t jump at any and every opportunity, tool or resource that comes along - follow your roadmap.

These three preliminary simple but important elements may spell the difference between success or failure to start an internet business. Obvious as it may seem, it is often overlooked. Check if you have enough fuel before going on a trip.

About the author:
Mike Casals shares his experience, success (and mistakes) in making a living online. To find out more and to subscribe to his newsletter visit: http://www.about-work-from-home.com

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