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With so many niches and other gaps in the market all but sewn
up how does one in the world of cyberspace go about finding
something to market and then to make it work?
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1. Write these Things Down.
Everybody needs a starting point and where better to start
than actually working out what your own talents and fields of
expertise are. We all have something we can offer, by virtue of
past hobbies, jobs, sports and other aspects of our lives. If
you take a writing tablet and write down all the things that you
like doing as well as those that you don't; coupled with your
experience in the third column you will indeed be able to
establish a starting point as to where you are today. I want you
to brainstorm a bit here. Everything that sounds remotely
pertinent write it down.
In the duration of a half hour period you will develop a list
which should be reflective of who and what you are. It is more
or less impossible to move forward in creating your own Internet
Business when you don't really know what it is that you in fact
can offer.
The point to this is to understand your own assets and use
them to your advantage. Although we are sometimes not aware of
it we have several talents that we under-utilize. The time is
ripe to develop these and turn them into a potential profit
making situation for you.
2. Utilize Your Strengths.
Your strengths are those which you have either experience in
and/or indeed enjoy doing very much. If you have in the past
been working in a job that you don't like then for heavens sake
don't make the same mistake again! Although you may have
experience here it is indeed far better to take your experience
and apply it into something else that you will enjoy
substantially more as opposed to "The Devil You Know".
Maybe you've been playing around with a paintbrush or a
camera on and off over the years. Up until now it has only been
a hobby. Well, for starters we only ever start hobbies because
we enjoy them. Maybe you could use the Internet as a medium to
further your exploits in this field!
On the same token it is important that you develop your
weaknesses rather than accepting them simply as a weakness that
you can do nothing about. If you have always been a good
photographer but developing your photos has always let you down,
confront the problem and develop it accordingly so it will
indeed assist you in the future. In this example maybe you could
go to the local photo lab and ask to sit in when they develop
their next set of prints.
3. Make a Plan.
Developing a business online is no different in the sense
that it needs to be well structured in order to develop, survive
and naturally, thrive. I have made available today for readers
of this article my précis entitled, "Ten Brilliant Steps
To Attaining Your Own Goals" which is available by blank
email to: mailto:sendgoals@topliving.com
It outlines the basic steps required to put the "P"
into your "LAN" and we all know how important that
is!!!
4. Set Up Your Business from the
Start.
Now that you've got a business direction you want to set
something up online that will be in demand and have a readily
identifiable market.
You will also want to implement procedures to set your
business on to auto-pilot. This means setting everything up to
self-automate your business from the start. This is imperative
as when you strike the right chord you will want to be marketing
and serving your clientele as opposed to being bogged down with
administrative work.
Remember you are here to enjoy your life. Organizing your
business from the beginning to self-automate will be one of your
first steps in this pursuit.
5. Tap into Quality Online Marketing
Resources.
Your job will be made so much easier when you have quality
publications such as the ezine you are reading now to assist you
in your pursuits. You have subscribed to this ezine as you enjoy
the quality of information contained herein.
There are many different types of ezines that will assist you
here such as: online promotions, web design (using our above
example), technical know-how, marketing methods, associate
programs, self-development and an endless array of other
possibilities that will provide you with a wealth of
information. I have set up a web page especially devoted to
brilliant web marketing e-zines. You may access this at: http://topliving.com/ezine_list.htm
It is a "must do" that you subscribe to quality
publications as you will keep abreast of techniques, methods, etiquette
etc. Online ezines are the online media; but with a major
difference. The difference is the personalization that comes
with most quality publications. The publisher is quite often a
one man band probably working from home. This may or may not be
similar to your situation but as a result of this you will
receive an impartial non-bureaucratic perspective on your topic
of interest.
6. Ganz Oder Gat Nicht.
This is the German phrase for "All or Nothing". The
internet can present your wares to the world, but will amount to
absolutely nothing if you don't do all you can within your power
to make it work. People will not walk into your shop and out
again as if it was on the street. Your shop (in this case, web
design) will be one of a myriad of others potentially offering
the same service. You will need to give your business a special
kick. It will need a careful combination of your product
knowledge and marketing ability to bring people to your door.
Maybe with your web design business you could add an
abundance of value to your product by offering a life time
guarantee. I can say from experience that the longer the period
of guarantee, the less likely the chance that people will ask
for a refund. If you were to guarantee your design packages 100%
how hard would it be to make necessary adjustments based on
customer feedback for the entire first year? Not very difficult
I would imagine. Add value to your product and service. People
prefer value as opposed to simply the cheapest option.
Give your business a touch of difference. Make it work. Keep
to your goals and targets. Don't ever give up. Put the throttle
to full. Market well...and reap your rewards.
7. Quality Customer Service.
Your clients may never ever meet you, see you or even talk to
you. You will need to provide everything your literature has
promised to deliver. You will get many questions from people
asking you certain things before they commit to buying your
product. It is imperative that you are always there for your
clients.
Your client service enquiries can be somewhat reduced by
providing FAQ's both online and by autoresponder. To take this
even a step further you could in fact arrange it so that your
support email address triggers an autoresponder giving them
answers to questions or where to find answers to their
questions. This will indeed reduce the amount of personal
service you will need to give. In addition to this your
potential clients will be impressed at the speed you answered
their query (although you in fact did not even lift a finger in
this case). To see how I do this simply send a blank email to:
mailto:assistance@topliving.com and you will see the message
they automatically receive just by sharing their query with me.
This method saves me hours of answering emails each month.
When you go away on holiday; or when questions become
backlogged alter your autoresponder message to indicate this. If
I have to wait 3 or more days for an answer to an email there is
very little chance that I will purchase from this company. If
their customer service is not sufficiently organized before you
purchase, what are the chances that you'll receive the after
sales service you require??? Not much!!!
When you look after clients the true value is realized by
their continual re-purchasing. Take a long term look at your
clients and choose to win.
8. Look at What Your Competition is
Doing.
One of the best ways to develop new ideas for your own
business is to take a good hard look at what your competition is
doing. Using our web designer example it's always good to look
at what sort of design they have, how often they change it, how
many options they offer, payment options and an array of other
things that you can in fact analyze and learn from. I am not
saying that you should copy someone else's work. This can be the
first step to self-destruction if you continually copy the work
of others in order to attract clients. How will you serve them
adequately when you under utilize your own initiative? Not very
well! Use their tools to assist you in developing your own
ideas. Create your niche! Make your marketing position your own!
It is important to look at how your competition has in fact
developed over time as you will get a general idea of where
they're heading, what they are doing and then you can react
accordingly.
9. Always Be Alert for New Ideas.
Like an offline business, in order to stay in for the long
haul it will be necessary to be on the lookout for additional
marketing possibilities for your own product. In addition to
this you may consider marketing other products that are in
demand. As a compliment to your web design business you may opt
to go one step further and get into CGI Programming to provide a
personalized tracking service to your clients. This would be a
brilliant complimentary product to what you are doing as there
is an immediate connection between this and what you are
currently doing.
The best point about your new venture here is that you
already have a string of faithful and trustworthy clients who
would be more than happy to let you assist them at improving
their income earning potential.
This is just an example. Another could be if you are a
consultant you could actually get into associate programs to
sell the programs that have assisted you in the past. Believe me
it's a whole lot easier to sell things when you are a firm
believer in what it is you are trying to sell.
10. The Time is Now !!!
If you want to get into making your presence on the Net
known, do it now!!! Don't do it later or tomorrow as
procrastination is one of the biggest enemies to mankind. It
slows us down and reduces our creativity. The Net is a plethora
of opportunity and an abundance of potential. Learn all you can
about your field of expertise and please, for your own sake, put
it into practise today.
About the Author:
Darren Roberts is the
Publisher of "AAvenues 2 Your Success." He is a
marketing consultant at the helm of Topliving Consultancy. Visit
his web site at http://topliving.com.
Subscribe to Darren's popular "Success and
Self-Motivation" Weekly publication, "AAvenues 2 Your
Success". It's packed with this sort of material each week.
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