Don’t Be Afraid to Start an Online Business

By now, you have long forgotten about those New Year's resolutions you made back in December. Maybe you were successful with a few. But, like most of us (me included) they just didn't happen.

Even the fitness and diet advertising is starting to fade. They are still going, but certainly not at the frequency a couple of weeks ago.

However, don't be afraid to start an online business. I say this because if I can do it, so can you. It just takes knowing how to do it. I've got you covered there!

What Kind of Business Should You Start?

I will point you to some great training on how to choose your market, or more specifically, your niche. A niche is just a narrowly-focused market.

Suppose, for instance, that you always had an interest in jewelry. You have always loved jewelry. You have tried your hand at making it and you love to buy it.

Now, choosing jewelry as a niche is probably going to be highly competitive. You will go up against major players such as Zales, Kay, and even Amazon. The department stores also have entire departments on this market.

But, what if you drilled down into the jewelry market, and found that ruby earrings are not so saturated? Or, you could narrow it down by some other demographic, such as earrings for Millennials, etc.

I will show you how to determine how far to drill down later. And, you can certainly take this too far where there aren't many potential customers interested in that niche.

How Do You Make Money?

You'd think you would need to have a line of products to make money online. But, that is not at all necessary. You could find suppliers who will ship products for you in bulk. This requires storage for those products.

You can also strike deals with suppliers and distributors where they ship single products on your behalf. Your customer buys via your website and you contact the supplier with the shipping details. You pay the supplier less than you charge your customer. The difference is your profit.

This concept is known as Drop Shipping.

All the previously mentioned methods are viable ways to start an online business. However, it's going to require that you immerse yourself in some form of a supply chain. Specifically, here is what is needed:

You can probably guess that the above steps are involved, and you'd be correct. Another problem is that you have to be savvy in knowing which products are going to sell. What happens if they don't? How will you handle the excess inventory?

There is a business model that can circumvent the problems associated with the above methods. It's the affiliate model.

What Is the Affiliate Business Model?

With an affiliate business model, you still reach out to a supplier or manufacturer. The difference is you don't buy any products upfront. In fact, you don't worry about shopping carts, payment processors, returns, or any of that.

When a potential customer lands on your website, you get them interested in a product. You could do this by offering a product review. Or, you could present them with information about a vendor's products that they may not easily obtain on their own.

Then, the customer clicks on a banner or link which directs them to the vendor's page for that product. If they decide to make a purchase, you will receive a commission.

The vendor is going to give you a code, called your affiliate id. Most will even give you some banners and links that automatically contain your affiliate id. When the customer clicks on those banners or links, your affiliate id is passed on to the vendor. The vendor looks up your affiliate id and knows you are the one who sent the traffic. You get credit for any sales made by the customer.

This is an oversimplification, but you get the idea.

Could It Be This Easy?

The dynamics of an affiliate business model are this easy. You receive commissions when customers purchase via your affiliate links.

But, getting those potential customers to click through using your affiliate links is becoming more challenging. Inexperienced affiliates throw up a bunch of ids and banners and hope for sales. This is not an effective strategy.

You have to focus on why the visitor to your website would be interested in clicking and even further, why they will buy when the get to the vendor's website.

Online businesses obsess over getting traffic to their websites, and there's no doubt this is important. The thinking is the more people get to their site, the higher chance of getting sales.

However, this logic is flawed. You can (and will) get plenty of people onto your website who have no business being there. They could be freebie seekers or they simply arrived to your website by accident.

These people will never buy from you no matter how great your sales copy is or what kind of information you give them. If you were searching for information about how to paint a mountain landscape, and instead your land on a page about bird watching, what are the chances of that person buying information about bird watching?

It could happen. If your page about birds is seductive enough, you may get a few converts. But, overall, people want exactly what they are looking for and will leave your website if it's is irrelevant to them.

Always try to imagine how you would react if you were a visitor to your own website. Even better, have a friend give you feedback about your website.

Next Steps...

I created a five-step program that will get your business off the ground for 2017. Each day, you will receive one lesson. Each lesson will contain one step, which will let you grasp it quickly. Most training tries to throw way too much and you get overwhelmed.

Simply sign up for your five-lesson plan and I will send you the first lesson right away. Please use a valid emails so we can assure you get the lessons!