Posts tagged "online business"

Lesson6: Is there money being spent?

You should now have a list of potential ideas around which you could build your first online business. One of the final pieces of the research jigsaw is to establish whether it is worth doing so by checking whether there is any money being spent in any individual marketplace.

This is easy to do, and of course, costs nothing.

Take the phrase that is most appropriate to your subject (what is known in online marketing terms as a keyword or a keyword phrase) and run a standard Google search using that phrase. For example, if you want to know whether people are spending money on products or services that are related to autism, you would run a standard search using this phrase:

On the Google search results page, you see advertising that is placed there by Google. The more advertising there is, the more that would indicate that it is a mark it where there is money to be made, because otherwise, there would be no sense in companies or individuals spending money on advertising.

The most expensive adverts are those shown at the top left hand side of the screen, and there can never be more than three.

Down the right-hand side of the page, there can be a maximum of eight adverts. In this particular example, you don’t have a perfect ‘full house’ because there are only two adverts at the top left hand side, but there are still nevertheless plenty of organizations and companies who are willing to spend money in this market.

Once you have established that there is money in the market, there is one final thing that you need to confirm.

You need to know that should you choose to build a website based on this particular topic (autism), that there are enough people searching for information on the net to justify doing so.

Given that you have a list of potential site subject matter, if no-one were searching for the kind of information you are thinking of offering, you would move to the next potential subject on your list. However, assuming that there are enough people searching, the final thing to do is check the competition.

Lesson1: You must bring something to the table…

While it is true that the only external resource that you need to start an online business is a computer and a connection, you must have some personal qualities as well, because without these them, it is going to be a lot more difficult to achieve success - not necessarily impossible, but definitely far more difficult.

The first thing that you have to bring to your business is an absolute determination to succeed. From the very beginning, you have to be completely, 100% determined that whatever you do is going to succeed, without exception. You have to be willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that success, even acknowledging that there will sometimes be a ‘cost’ involved (e.g. less time with your family in the early days).

You must also accept that there is work to be done.

If you have not already done so, when you start searching the net for information about starting your own business, you will find that there is a lot of nonsense flying about, and you have to learn to recognize it for what it is.

There is no secret, magic formula that is somehow going to mysteriously transform you from an individual who has no money in your bank account to one with a million dollars, in six months or less. That is called the lottery, not business, but you will undoubtedly see products that make outrageous claims of this nature.

These products are successful because everybody is looking for the secret shortcut to success that means they do not have to do any work.

Don’t fall for this garbage. There is no secret, there is no magic formula

– success is in direct proportion to the amount of effort you put in, end of story.

You have to be organized and focused, and you have to have (and work to) a plan. If a job needs doing, then in the early days at least, it is down to you to get it done, and it won’t get done if you are disorganized, lacking in focus or have no plan.

You have to be a little thick skinned too, because when you tell people that you are trying to earn money on the internet, many of them (none of whom have any idea what they are talking about) will mock you and suggest that you are crazy. Ignore it, and bolster your spirits by remembering that it is you who will have the last laugh!

Bottom line is, everything that you need to succeed in business in the ‘bricks and mortar’ real world is needed to succeed online as well, except for the cash to get your business up and running.