|
Copyright (c) 2009 OnlineBizU.com The economic recession is pushing more and more people to consider self-employment. Starting an online business is a very low-risk way to put your toe in the entrepreneurial pond because the start up costs are minimal, the overhead is low, and the returns can be high. Despite these benefits, however, an online business is just like any other and needs to be thoroughly researched before starting to determine if there’s a need in the marketplace and how viable the business idea is. The Internet is rife with exorbitant claims of how much money can be made as an online entrepreneur and that you can be rolling in the dough by next week. Remember, most “overnight” success are 1, 2, or more years in the making, and online businesses are no exception to this rule. How do you determine if your online business idea will sink or swim? Here are 10 steps you can take to test your idea without breaking the bank: 1. Research. Comprehensive research is always the first step for any business idea. Brainstorm a list of keywords someone might use to find the product/service that you’re offering, and then use a keyword tool finder to see how many searches have been done on these keywords. The keyword tool will also make suggestions of related keywords to try. Once you have a list of keywords, conduct searches (use quotation marks around your search term for stronger results) in Google, Yahoo, and MSN to see who else is out there. Evaluate the popularity of the sites you discover by checking out their Google Page Rank and Alexa ranking. Use the same keywords to see if articles have been written about your topic in the major article banks. You’ll uncover your competition in this research, as well as potential strategic alliances. Employ a powerful bookmark program to help you track your research results. 2. Monetize the idea. After completing your research, have you discovered enough competitors in the marketplace who are making money from doing something similar? If so, how are they making money — is it from the sale of info products, consulting services, subscription to their site, advertising, etc? If you don’t see much competition, that usually means one of two things: a. There’s not enough demand for the product/idea or b. You’re ahead of the curve in seeing the profit potential. Unfortunately, in most cases, that result means that there’s not enough demand for your idea in the way that it’s been presented. 3. The “so what” factor. From your research you should be able to clarify what it is that you’re offering and what group of people need what you’re offering. In order to be successful, your offer must pass the “so what” factor in light of your competition. To take this test, you must successfully be able to answer the following question after telling someone what you do, “So what? How is that different from what x, y and z are offering?” You can answer these questions best if you review the benefits of what you’re offering (the What’s In It For Me) rather than just a listing of the features, and if you can speak from the heart about your idea. An online business will take time to manage and develop, so you want to settle on something that you love. If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, you quickly become a prisoner in a prison of your own making. 4. Industry information. Set up Google Alerts for your industry keywords and track them from info posted on websites, blogs, and newsgroups. Reviewing the alerts you receive over the next few weeks should help you expand your view of the problems/issues with your subject, help you see the “movers and shakers” in the industry, and help you discover other places (blogs, discussion forums, social networks) where your target market hangs out online. 5. Test the waters. The easiest way to test your idea is by creating a blog. Buy a keyword-rich domain name for the blog and map your blog to that domain. Then begin to blog about your insights on your topic, or reprint articles others have written on your subject. The idea here is to begin to establish your online presence and your online brand. 6. Build a list. Once you’ve got a blog set up, you need to begin to build your marketing list. The easiest way to do this is to create a free giveaway on your site (ebook, video, report, audio recording) and a form for the visitor to input his name and email address to receive your giveaway. Your privacy policy should be readily available to them and outline how you’ll use their info and what they can expect to receive from you. You’ll also need an email marketing service or shopping cart service to manage your list. 7. Crown yourself the expert. The only way to become an expert in an area is to believe that you are one. By virtue of the research you’ve already conducted, you know more than a large percentage of your target market. Therefore, don’t hesitate to begin to refer to yourself as an expert in your industry 8 Drive traffic. Once you build your blog, they (visitors) won’t come without some encouragement. Create profiles on prominent social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Start writing articles about your topic and submitting those to article directories. Discover if your target market hangs out on niche-specific social networking sites and start networking there. Interview experts in your industry and release the interviews as a podcast. Create a weekly email newsletter to stay in touch with the prospects on your email list. Create powerful inbound links by getting your blog listed on various blog and website directories. 9. Implementation time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is a successful online business. Allow at least three months to give your idea a test run and evaluate it after that time. Have you been able to build a list? Are you getting traffic to your site? Are you attracting attention of others in your industry? If so, you’re ready to move to the next step. 10. Move forward. If you determine that your idea is viable, what’s next? Creating info products or a membership site? What are your longer terms goals to develop this idea into a business? The best way to harness all the info that you’ve collected thus far is to create a business plan. It doesn’t have to be complicated — it can be only one page, in fact. What you need to commit to paper is your offer, your target market, your ongoing goals for how to monetize the idea, and an outline of how you plan to grow the business over time. It’s not too late to get your start in an online business. Don’t be distracted by the false promises of quick wealth overnight. Success takes time and planning, so invest some planning and research time into your business idea. That’s the strongest foundation you can create for yourself to become a successful online entrepreneur. |
|
Leads for your Commercial Insurance Agency Agent Builder, Inc is the leader in Helping insurance agents significantly grow their book of business, by supplying insurance business outsourcing for generating commercial Insurance leads and growing your insurance business. Get 2 Months for the price of 1 month!!! Until March 13th 2009 At Agent Builder we understand that managing a calendar can be over powering. We manage your calendar and set and confirm the appointments for you. This gives you more time to sell and less time worrying about calendar management Email: sales@agentbuilderinc.com Phone: 916-273-8430 www.agentbuilderinc.com Information Contact Information Ken Adams sales@agentbuilderinc.com 916-273-8430 Rates Rate: $50.00 per item Payment Methods: Visa, MasterCard, Paypal, Cash, Check, Money Order Links Agent Builder Inc Profile Service Area: USA Years of Service: 2 Service Type: Creative Market Focus: Premium Calendar Mgmt: We Mangage your appointments Lead Generation: Get exclusive appointments Web Site Services: We design your website Campaigns: Online advertising Powered by vFlyer.com VFLYER ID: 2301782 All information in this site is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and is subject to change
|
Agent Builder Inc|
How to get rich the smart way? Read what some creative people did: 1. Million Dollar Homepage
1000000 pixels, charge a dollar per pixel – that’s perhaps the dumbest idea for online business anyone could have possible come up with. Still, Alex Tew, a 21-year-old who came up with the idea, is now a millionaire. What is the idea? (from FAQ on the site) The idea is simple: to try and make $1m (US) by selling 1,000,000 pixels for $1 each. Hence, ‘The Million Dollar Homepage”. The main motivation for doing this is to pay for my degree studies, because I don’t like the idea of graduating with a huge student debt. I know people who are paying off student loans 15-20 years after they graduated. Not a nice thought! 2. SantaMail
Ok, how’s that for a brilliant idea. Get a postal address at North Pole, Alaska, pretend you are Santa Claus and charge parents 10 bucks for every letter you send to their kids? Well, Byron Reese sent over 200000 letters since the start of the business in 2001, which makes him a couple million dollars richer. About SantaMail from their site Since 2002, Santa has been helping us write over 275,000 personalized Christmas letters. Santa makes sure that we use the finest heirloom-quality, acid-free linen paper so that his letters last a lifetime. As Santa’s helpers, we help Santa print his letters and then mail them to him in North Pole, Alaska where he affixes a Christmas stamp on it and sends it on the way to your child. From there, the letter gets postmarked and mailed. (After December 16, he has us mail them directly from Austin, Texas so they reach the children in time!). 3. Doggles
Create goggles for dogs and sell them online? Boy, this IS the dumbest idea for a business. How in the world did they manage to become millionaires and have shops all over the world with that one? Beyond me. About Doggles from their site We are famous for Doggles goggles for dogs – the first and only eye protection designed and created just for dogs! Seen on CNN, Regis and Kelly, The Today Show, Good Morning America and many others, they are quite a hit with everyone who has tried them! We are also an environmentally conscious organization, using as much “green” or recycled fabrics and materials in our products as possible, always keeping in mind that what is good for our planet is also good for our pets. Our standards are high, and you will see this in each and every one of our products. We are market leaders in the design and manufacture of tough and durable and yes, even “green”, dog toys. Please be sure to check our offerings in the toy category as you look through our site. Our outdoor line has won the praise of many an outdoor enthusiast as we continue to grow and improve the line. And of course, our fashion sense has never ended as we are always adding and improving to our fashion harness line. We have a wide range of products that are truly functional and have helped many pets over the years as we continue to innovate in the pet products field. As always, keep an eye on us for more. 4. LaserMonks LaserMonks.com is a for-profit subsidiary of the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank, an eight-monk monastery in the hills of Monroe County, 90 miles northwest of Madison. Yeah, real monks refilling your cartridges. Hallelujah! Their 2005 sales were $2.5 million! Praise the Lord. 5. AntennaBalls You can’t sell antenna ball online. There is no way. And surely it wouldn’t make you rich. But this is exactly what Jason Wall did, and now he is now a millionaire. 6. FitDeck Create a deck of cards featuring exercise routines, and sell it online for $18.95. Sounds like a disaster idea to me. But former Navy SEAL and fitness instructor Phil Black reported last year sales of $4.7 million. Surely beats what military pays. 7. PositivesDating.Com How would you like to go on a date with an HIV positive person? Paul Graves and Brandon Koechlin thought that someone would, so they created a dating site for HIV positive folks last year. Projected 2006 sales are $110,000, and the two hope to have 50,000 members by their two-year mark. 8. Designer Diaper Bags Christie Rein was tired of carrying diapers around in a freezer bag. The 34-year-old mother of three found herself constantly stuffing diapers for her infant son into freezer bags to keep them from getting scrunched up in her purse. Rein wanted something that was compact, sleek and stylish, so in November 2004, she sat down with her husband, Marcus, who helped her design a custom diaper bag that’s big enough to hold a travel pack of wipes and two to four diapers. With more than $180,000 in sales for 2005, Christie’s company, Diapees & Wipees, has bags in 22 different styles, available online and in 120 boutiques across the globe for $14.99. 9. PickyDomains Hire another person to think of a cool domain name for you? No way people would pay for this. Actually, naming domain names for others turned out a thriving business, especially, when you make the entire process risk free. PickyDomains currently has a waiting list of people who want to PAY the service to come up with a snappy memorable domain name. PickyDomains is expected to hit six figures this year. 10. Lucky Wishbone Co. Fake wishbones. Now, this stupid idea is just destined to flop. Who in the world needs FAKE PLASTIC wishbones? A lot of people, it turns out. Now producing 30,000 wishbones daily (they retail for 3 bucks a pop) Ken Ahroni, the company founder, expects 2006 sales to reach $1 million. |
