1. INVESTMENT

To start an online business you'll be investing in:

a) Your own website (this is your 'shop' or 'store')

b) Advertising

c) Tools

d) Product/s to sell

2. MARKET KNOWLEDGE

Here you're going to have to do some serious researching.  Your market will depend on the product you're selling.

3. PRODUCT

This is without doubt the major decision in your online business.  What can you sell?  All I can say is - the list is almost endless!  You can decide to sell digital goods - ebooks, software, information, reports - anything that can be downloaded from your host's server.

Or non-digital goods.  This is much easier than it may appear.  There are thousands of companies looking for reseller outfits on the Internet.

4. ADVERTISING

No matter how good your product or how wonderful your website (store) is, if nobody knows about it then you're stuck!

One way to make yourself known is by advertising in ezines.  If you're not much of a writer and don't know how to write gripping ad copy get someone to do it for you.  There are some very good ad copy writers available on the Internet but they aren't cheap!

Get your website on the search engines.  Get a good placing by optimising your website.

Build a mailing list to publish a newsletter with information and news about your product or line of products and then admit your newsletter to directories.  Another way is to 'buy' quality leads.  But before you rush out and buy leads make sure the leads you buy will be accepted by your autoresponder service.  By my experience they won't accept 'Opt-in' or 'Safelist' leads.

5. SALES

If you don't 'sell' you won't earn money!  The stronger the competition is for your product the harder it will be to sell it.

If you have a 'niche' product - fine.  I can already see you laughing all the way to the bank!  A 'niche' product means you have a product for a very narrow market and your customers are practically lining up to buy.

For those not fortunate enough to have a 'niche' product with stiff competition everywhere, it is the ability to 'stand out in the crowd' that helps those sales.

To be able to 'stand out in the crowd' you need a unique angle, offering your customers what others aren't.  That could be personal consultation for example.  Or quality product related give-aways.  'Loyalty discounts' is another one.

What you can do is understand the essence of a sales letter.  Find the convincing points and then write your OWN.  You can get good ebooks on this subject.  Study them and tweak your own sales letter until you get the desired results.

6. ROI (RETURN OF INVESTMENT)

This is your 'bottom line'!

The simple formula: (Sales minus Investment = Profit) gives you your ROI.  This is enough for any home business.  There are more complicated formulas with more variables that show you exactly what your ROI is on any given product or period of time.

This is your measuring tool.  Your ROI will tell you what you're doing right and what you have to improve.

In conclusion, building a business takes a lot of effort.  It means hard work, courage, commitment, persistence and discipline.

It isn't 'rocket science'.  Doing business on the Internet is sometimes daunting and can be very frustrating until you get your 'breakthrough'!  Even then it's not all 'plain sailing'.  Yes, it will put demands on you that I hope are somewhat clearer now.

Set your target and ALWAYS keep your sights set.

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