Article #1 [Home Based Business - The Basics]

You have a new PC, Modem and ISP and have a Idea, Product or service you want to tell the world about, and perhaps even make some money doing so. Guide for the basic home user that wants to setup a webpage with Affiliates or PTS. Step 1. Do some research on websites that offer commissions to other webmasters or host a join affiliate link. There are many websites out there currently offering such programs. e.g. http://www.one-and-only.com or you just want to join PTS type programs and promote them with your IDs. Step 2. Join a FREE Web hosting site. Step 3. Design your page using the correct URLs you were supplied with and effective slogans and graphics. Step 4. Promote your new Webpage. This is the hardest thing to do in all the steps. But you can email your friends and family to show off your new page and show them what your up to and what fun your having using the internet. To get listed on a search engine can be hard and there are several thousand now available but you need to get listed on the top search engines to promote your page and business. There are currently are 10 top search engines and YAHOO is the number one search site to date!. Our experience you always have to pay the $200 to get listed thought! @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Guide to setting up a Internet business selling a product or idea you have. Step 1. Research your Market base. What are the type of users you want to attract. Is it priced correctly? Will other websites advertise it for you or post a link to your site? Step 2. Choose a Web hosting site/server that can handle the traffic of visitors and not be down for servicing. You might want to pay a site to design and host this internet webpage of yours or perhaps you want to design and try hosting it yourself on a FREE webpage hosting site to test the waters first? Check out the Biz Resource section for some ideas. Step 3. Hardest part is now to advertise and promote your business and products. Pay to get your commerical site listed on the top search engines such as YAHOO. Avoid free advertising and FFA sites and dont even think of sending out SPAM emails, Although maybe purchase Opt-in non-spam email service so can email users who agreed to receive commerical emails. You will probably need to have to invest a few thousand dollars to get your web business of the ground and start to see some results. JUST THINK 300 MILLION internet users and the potential audience and buyers. "AS YOU KNOW, NO MATTER HOW GOOD YOU THINK YOUR WEBSITE IS, IT CAN ALWAYS BE MADE BETTER! Webpages are always evolving, like man himself and technology he developments. Its how we stay on the cutting edge and competitive." TIPS for the new comer with a business webpage. 1) Turn Your Site Traffic into Profits Many websites continue to have hard time to keep site visitors coming back and make sales. Turning site visitors into customers has become the biggest challenge for e-commerce websites that run by small business owners. Several areas should be re-examined before implementing major promotions. It is crucial to understand following guidelines that work for most small business websites. 2) Improve Your Site Navigation First of all, you must make sure that your website has a user-friendly navigation structure. The first-time visitor might get lost in your pages. It is very important to enable your visitors to easily find way around your site; In addition to a search engine, a site map should be also helpful. It should contain fewer images so that visitors don't have to wait too long to get through. Text links connecting each page should be underlined. Most site visitors no longer prefer buttons and text links without underline. I highly recommend that you use a detailed structure for your site map. Finally, you should avoid large size photos on your website. Keep in mind that most visitors are still using regular modem, you don't want turn them away. 3) Display Your Return Policy Many site owners have asked me the same question: "my website gets a lot of hits, but I'm not making any sales! What am I doing wrong?" So many times, when I visit such sites, it is not difficult to find the problem. Some of websites lack basic details on return policy. It is understandable that visitors will not buy when return policy is not clearly displayed. From time to time, many customers tell me that they are very concerned about ordering merchandises at websites that are run by entrepreneurs or home-based businesses. To boost consumer confidence, you should have a FAQs page on return policy. If you ship merchandise through UPS, then add a link of UPS so that your customers can track their shipments online. There are some e-commerce rating programs you might consider to participate, such as VeriSign.com, Better Business Bureau online, ePublicEye.com. Sites with their logos have a big impact on consumer confidence. 4) Communicate with Your Site Visitors Do you respond your site visitors' inquiry within 24 hours? If not, you will definitely lose potential customers. It is very important to reply your visitors' emails in a timely manner. A while ago, I found an interesting business newspaper that I had interest in displaying an ad for our Internet marketing service. I sent an email to inquire their advertising rates. After a few days without any response, I sent another inquiry, and no reply was received. I finally gave up because I did not spend my money with a company that does not care about its customers. Many visitors will not become your customers when they initiated inquiries. Keep their emails and send follow-ups on a regular basis and remind them your new services and products. 5) Implement New Approaches As a website owner, you must continuously implement different approaches to keep your visitors coming back and attract new visitors. Think creatively. I have advised our clients to offer a free sample or discount coupon with each order that customers place. Online discount coupons are very popular among consumers. You may consider offering rebate to your customers during holiday season. 6) Seek a Third Opinion Ask your family members and friends about how they think about your website. Your web developers are not always telling thetruth. Ask your friends to rate your website's design and functionality. Constantly survey your customers about their satisfaction and ask them to rate your website as well as your customer service. An independent opinion will help you conduct your e-business in a more effective way. After all, I think most people have dreamt of owning a business, no matter how small it maybe. More and more people are pursuing self-employment opportunities today for various reasons. They want their own businesses for the self-satisfaction that it provides, desire for independence, No manager telling you want to do all the time, time and resource pressures put on you that you DONT control! However, majority still fails to translate their entrepreneurial dreams into success, as most businesses fail in the first 2 years according to average statistics. The number one failure? They are frozen by their fear of failure and taking a risk to give it a go. I will State again, many businesses, whether home-based or a large corporation, fail because there is not an adequate market for their products or services. A comprehensive analysis of the business is especially important for home businesses, since some businesses lend themselves well to a home- based environment, while some do not. If your business requires you to see clients, you must first check how your family (and neighbours) will react to the movements of people in your house. If you have employees, make sure adequate parking and what are your financial laws for your country and state. Before starting any business, it is necessary that you conduct a thorough market examination and market analysis. Passivity. If you are passive, your best bet is to work for someone else. Unless you can immediately afford to hire employees, you may start out as a solo operator. As a one-man team, expect to do everything from writing your business plan, manufacturing your product, marketing and selling your products and services, doing bookkeeping chores, and a million other tasks! Remember, you have only yourself to rely on! While you may not be an outgoing person, you need to show aggressiveness in getting the word out about your business. No customers mean no business! Passiveness will not get you anywhere in business. If working entirely of the NET then consider your time management. You still needs to spend some time, webdesign, research, promotion and following clients emails so poor time management avoid, eventually it may run it self most, but you still need a few hours a week to keep building it up. One of the advantages of working at home is that you get to manage your own time. This, However, presents an interesting dilemma: it is hard to manage your own time! Poor time management is the Achilles’ heel of many home office workers, since you are on your own with no one to supervise you, help you organize and prioritize. Complicating this problem is the fact that distractions may be a few steps away! Your wife/girlfriend and/or kids may demand attention, your neighbours or firends can drop by, and hey, The TALK SHOW today has an interesting guest line-up today! There are a billion and one reasons to distract you from being productive, and you need to learn to manage your time effectively! Another failing is considering your home business to be less serious than a traditional job. You may not have a lamorous office in downtown or you may not need to wear those power suits to go to work, but a home-based business needs to be treated wih the same professionalism that you put in your traditional job. After all, your income will be directly correlated with the amount of time, effort, thinking and money that you put in the business a far cry from the days of being employed when you get paid even if your definition of a productive day is to write 25 personal emails to clients. _______________________________________________________________ GOOD LUCK with your efforts in the Internet Biz World !