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Five Steps To Getting Started OnLine…

By Stephen Spry

I’ve written this post as a result of dealings with a couple of my “students” whom I picked up after they dived into their new Internet businesses with lots of enthusiasm, but with no real clue of what they should be doing : )

Which is pretty much the case for lots of newbies to the online marketing world I suppose…

And as a result, Five Steps To Getting Started OnLine is probably one of THE most important pieces I’ve ever written!

Strong words Stephen… but I wonder how so many thousands of people can launch an online business without ever looking at these steps???

No wonder the failure rate for new online businesses is so high!

Please don’t make the same mistakes!

Look to these Five Steps To Getting Started OnLine before you take on ANY new Internet-based venture!

With a plethora of material available on the ‘net on how to make money online, it is surprising that the actual end result for many people who attempt to set up their own home based business online is not particularly pretty!

And the main reason for this is that with the excitement of it all, real planning takes second place!

Too many simply jump in with what they think is a “good idea”, grab a domain name and see how it goes!

Please… instead of rushing in blindly… do some planning!

If you want to set anything up online, here are five things you really should look at VERY closely before you actually “do” anything with your own website.

  1. Identify a niche that has a good chance of working. A niche:» which suits your interests and
    » where there is a “starving” crowd
    » who want immediate answers to a pressing problem

    This will involve (among other things):
    » looking to your interests for inspiration
    » niche keyword research
    » finding products already in the niche
    » determining the extent of the competition already in that niche

  2. Work out how you can monetize that niche, whether that be by selling any, or a mix of (and in no particular order):» advertising (including Google’s Adsense program)
    » your own physical stock/goods which need shipping
    » drop-shipped stock – selling other people’s physical products where they do the shipping/ fulfilment
    » affiliate marketing – selling other people’s physical or info products/services for an affiliate commission
    » your own information product or service, whether that be one single item or a continuity program

    Focus your visitor actions so they do what you want them to do – i.e. click an ad, sign up for your newsletter, read a review.

    Try to concentrate on one or two main money making methods per niche… too many may simply confuse your audience and result in them leaving!

  3. Identify possible products you can sell/refer people to, whether that be from your site or through your back end. But BE SELECTIVE! For example, many newbie affiliate marketers sign up for any and every program they see, and unfortunately NEVER end up doing anything with them.

    Or if you are doing an e-commerce site, don’t try to do one with a database of hundreds of products which needs constant maintenance to keep up to date!

    Instead, concentrate on a manageable number of programs and/or products! Pick what you think will be the top sellers (based on your research in #1) and go with some of those!

    Once you’ve got an idea of what works, then start to play around by testing other products.

  4. Decide what type of web site you need to set up – for example (and not a complete list):» a review site
    » an e-commerce/catalog site
    » a blog
    » a content site
    » a membership site
    » a “brochure” site
    » a mini-net (collection of sites)

    Decisions here will help determine the type of hosting and any special software you will need.

  5. Identify the back-end processes you can put in place to develop ongoing customer relations because this is where the real money is- i.e.» setting up support mechanisms
    » collecting email addresses
    » integrating one (or most likely more) auto-responder sequences
    » deciding on frequency and type of broadcast emails needed
    » deciding on relevant products to offer with an up-sell, down-sell, one-time-offer, or through ongoing email marketing

I’ll throw in a totally free, but equally important, “bonus” suggestion here too…

  1. Make sure you have systems in place to record ALL of the important information related to each aspect of your business! Such things as usernames, passwords, login URLs, bank account details etc need to be accurately recorded.

Phew! That’s a lot a stuff to do!

And I haven’t even scratched the surface yet with the things you need to do AFTER you do get your website up and running (I’ll leave that for another later post).

The point is…

You are supposed to be building a business!

If all you want to do is “play” on the ‘net… then, by all means, jump in and try out hundreds of different things without doing what’s really necessary…

But if you want to replace your day job and build something that can become an asset, then you owe it to yourself to do your due diligence in the first place!

And that means you must properly plan for every new niche you want to move into. Every new website you set up as part of your growing online “empire” deserves the best possible chance to succeed!

As they say in the classics…

“If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail”

UPDATE – August 2018

If you would like to take advantage of my foundational training on all of this… then head on over to Your Brilliant Idea where I can show you just what IS involved in getting your brilliant idea online!


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