How To Choose The Right Online Business For You
by Brian Cotsen

No matter what your motivations for running an internet or online business are.

To really be successful in business on the internet, you need to decide on the style of business that suits, what you are interested in as well as the methods by which you are going to promote the website or blog and drive traffic to it.

 

So how do you decide which online business is right for your?

 

• Why is it so confusing?
• What marketing strategy is right for you?
• What are my strengths?
• A case study - how one on line business decided on their marketing strategy

 

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Do you ever think:

"How do I decide what sort of internet business is the right one for me?"

Blogging, article submission, Viral marketing, forum submissions, link & list building

"How do I decide what internet marketing methods to follow?"

 

Why is it so confusing?

These two questions have to be the most common and biggest stumbling blocks most people face when sitting in front of their screens deciding on how to create a successful website or online business.

Drop shipping, affiliate marketing, online auctions (ebay), developing and selling a product, writing content for websites, affiliate malls, adsense, pipe line profits, niche marketing?

Article writing, blogging, traffic swarming, forum submissions, link and list building, viral marketing?

Truly the internet has seen an explosion of ideas that people have developed to take advantage of the billions of internet users and harnessing the internet to make money on line.

Now, like in so many businesses, some are good, some are bad and some are out-and-out 'Scams'. I'd go so far as to say that if 'it seems to good to be true... then it probably is (too good to be true)'.

 

But then do remember that:

Millions of people are making good living online - either running a full time internet website business or making a second stream of income to compliment other income streams.

We have only seen a hint of the money making that will eventually be being made on line ... the internet and internet marketing is Truly in it's infancy.

An ever growing market of internet users is developing. Not just in the western world but China, Russia and India... imagine the growth to come!

Be under no illusion, there is money... good money to be made from running a business successfully on line... but the key word is successfully.

So.

"What marketing strategy is right for you?"

Imagine you're buying a new car... think about the process that you would go through to come to the right decision.

Sports, saloon, hatchback, family,SUV, 4X4, suped up, convertible, top of the range, budget, economic.....

The choice is bewildering. So your first port of call is to reach for a pen and paper and make a few notes...

• What are my needs? - for myself, for my family, for fun, as a 'run-around', for my business...
• What is my budget? - how much money, second hand or new, do I need to get a loan?
• What information is out there on different cars? - where will I find out about different cars - internet, magazines, TV shows, ask friends?
• What do different reviews say about each? - reliability, economic to run, resale value, responsive, value for money?
• How much time can I spend looking? - I need it tomorrow, I intend to buy in the next year

All these questions and the answers that you give help to eliminate certain options and move you closer to making a decision that you feel happy with.

Then of course you can decide on the fine tuning such as colour, extras & add on's.

Well I know that many people make these decisions everyday... and are confident and there is no difference between that sort of decision making and choosing the type of marketing methods that you feel would work for your chosen business.

Having decided what sort of website income business you are going to run... the question to then decide is "how will you promote it?".

This needs to be thought about before you:

• Build the website
• Write your content or copy
• Begin to acquire tools to help you

Because the very style of the marketing will effect all of the above... and the style of the marketing is all about 'You' and your intended 'market'.

 

What are my strengths - Ask yourself these questions:

• Am I good at writing articles?
• Am I organised and good at keeping information up to date?
• Do I like speaking with people or would I prefer to communicate via emails & newsletters?
• Do I like learning about & using new technology?
• What will my intended audience be persuaded by?
• Do they like new gadgets and amazing new functions on websites?
• What is the style of the product I am selling... does it need a special form of promotion?

Again with your pen and paper you can begin to make lists and notes and begin to see which functions are vital to the type of business that you want to develop and those that either are not very important or not suitable at all.

 

A case study

My online business is www.property-coack.co.uk a website aimed at people who are thinking of moving home or want to improve the home that they are living in.

These people are looking for services, information, advice and ideas on this subject.

The demographic split (makeup of the visitors) is ...

• female:male 70:30, age between 35-65.
• Dial up:broadband 50:50.
• Need for simple straight information in small bites
• Do not want to have to download lots of audio/ video files
• Like regular bits of information
• Like before and after pictures
• Like recommendations
• Often use the website while at work so don't like windows opening up unexpectedly
• Don't want to commit to signing up or paying for anything with out knowing what they are getting
• Use internet to search for home staging, home decorating, interior design, de cluttering and related information on home interior decorating
• Like directories to other businesses,

 

This gave me lots of useful information and from it I could see that they would appreciate:

• Free ideas, newsletter, course
• Free articles on the website.
• Lots of nice visuals to keep them interested.

It also told me that they:

• Wouldn't be interested in blog's/ podcasts or videos or
  Regular postings of new ideas.

 

I also wrote out what I felt comfortable doing in order to promote the website.

• I had some time to put aside to write articles.
• I enjoy chatting with people and giving talks.
• I like new technology but take time to learn lots of new skills.
• I knew nothing about blogs (at the time)
• I didn't have lots of spare cash to buy extra software or pay others to do promotion work for me.

 

With all this in mind I came up with the following marketing campaign.

1. Build my website links with other like minded sites where visitors might find the link to property-coach.

2. Make sure that my website focused on those keywords that the likely visiting market would use to find what they were looking for.

3. Decided to offer an opt-in or sign-up form so that I could capture visitors emails and build a contactable list. The incentive for those visitors would be to receive the free 10 part course on 'How to stage a property'.

4. Build a library of free articles on the website that anyone could reuse on their websites so long as they gave me a credit and back link.

5. Develop lots of pages with nice before and after pictures and tell the story.

6. The articles could also be posted onto article directories to further expose property-coach to interested and focused visitors as well as building up more one way links.

7. To use Adwords to advertise on very specific keywords to attract visitors and sign them up for the website.

 

So from here I was able to see that my marketing would very much focus on:

• Writing a simple mini course.
• Writing articles focused on home interiors and home staging.
• Building links with other interior/ home oriented websites.

 

There was a final list to make... the tools I would need to help me achieve this efficiently.

1. A good auto responder or follow up email tool- can be done by hand but will soon get out of hand as your list grows.

2. A facility to help me find and build links with other websites - can be done by hand but is very very time consuming.

3. An article submission tool to help to submit articles to internet article sites.

With all this information it was then possible to build a schedule and focus my time, effort and attention on marketing the business in a way that would get results.

Follow this and make your marketing campaign easier to organise.

Don't make costly and time consuming mistakes by choosing the wrong method of marketing just because you are reading everywhere that 'Strategy X' it is the latest thing... it may be, but not for your business model.

 

If you want to read more about the tools I chose for property-coach take a look at Get Response (autoresponder), Linksmanager (link & directory building hosts), Article Announcer (for article submissions).

 

 

 

I hope that this article gives you loads of ideas on how to improve you affiliate marketing business success.

Yours

Brian

Author Bio
Brian Cotsen writes articles and reviews tools to help you succeed with your website or online affiliate marketing. Visit www.simplewebsitemarketing.com

 

Keywords used in this article: affiliate business tools, affiliate marketing tools, affiliate selling tools, essential affiliate tools, affiliate website tools, marketing tools for affiliates, tools for affiliates, necessary affiliate tools.

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