There are (at least) 10 absolute musts for anyone who desires to run a successful online home-based business.
1. Thou Shalt Not Pursue A Free Lunch:
Chances are, you will not get rich quick. Deal with it. Don't waste
your time convincing yourself or listening to others who tell you
differently. Hard work and perseverance will not fail you.
2. Thy Products Must Solve A Prospect's Problem:
We humans are greedy creatures most times. We want comfort, ease, peace
of mind, and a plethora of other self indulgencies. Put yourself in the
customer's shoes and ask "What's in it for me?". If your ads or
products do not clearly spell this out, and tell the customer how you
will give him what he desires, most times you will not make the sale.
3. Thou Shalt Educate Thyself:
Read, Read, Read. Observe other successful people in your field. What are they doing? Read some more.
4. Thou Shalt Budget For Advertising:
Free advertising is an oxymoron. The only people reading free ads are
the ones who are placing them there, and all they're looking for is
their own ad, not yours. Instead, learn all you can about your target
audience, and find them. Whether it is through pay-per-click
advertising using highly targeted keywords, eZine ads, banners on
related sites, etc. Don't go after the general public. Go after people
who are looking for your type of product or service. Allow a certain
monthly expense for advertising and stick to it.
5. Thou Shalt Track Thyne Advertising:
You made a sale! Congrats! How did the customer find you? If you have
10 different ads on 10 different sites, how on earth will you know
which one(s) are working? View your server logs to see where the users
came from. Create unique URLs to use in each ad. For example:
http://www.yourdomain.com?ad1 http://www.yourdomain.com?ad2 etc. Just
add the ? and ad number to the end of the URL you post along with each
ad. Change the number for each one & for goodness sake, write them
down somewhere! StatCounter.com offers a great free service that will
assist you in tracking your visitors.
6. Thou Shalt Tweak:
Familiarize yourself with the term "split-run". A split run is where
you take 2 ads and send them out simultaneously and measure the results
to see which ad pulled more clicks and sales. You take the better of
the 2 ads and create another one. Run a split-test again with your best
ad & your new ad. The winner moves on to the next round. Repeat
this process often.
7. Honor Thy Mailing List:
Your current and previous customers are an incredible source of revenue
for you. It's a shame that many online business owners neglect this
each and every day. Stay in touch with your prospects by sending an
email or printed newsletter or flyer. Offer them special discounts and
loyalty bonuses. If you forget them, they will surely forget you.
8. Thou Shalt Not Be Hindered By Failure:
You will fail. Period. Dust yourself off & get back on the horse.
It is part of your education. Learn from it and move forward.
9. Thou Shalt Duplicate What Works:
Commandment number six goes hand-in-hand with this one. The wonderful
thing about doing business online is the ease at which you can scale-up
your operation. If you find something that works, do it again, and
again. Reach a larger audience. If you've found a successful niche as
an affiliate with a mini-site, set up 25 more sites.
10. Thou Shalt Reward Thyself:
You need some time away from the computer. Go outside. Go shopping.
Visit friends. Buy yourself a new toy. Read something non-technical,
fiction maybe. You've earned the right to treat yourself. Make it a
habit or it will become a resentment.
