People have come in droves up to this point seeking to build successful online businesses. A staggering number of people have succeeded. Consequently, a larger number have failed.
Many are stay-at-home moms, laid-off factory workers, lawyers, accountants, landscapers, fresh out of school “kids”… The list goes on and on.
The one thing they all have in common is they were able to avoid the common pitfalls of “analysis paralysis” and “get rich quick”. But most importantly they were able to put each of these 7 “Critical Keys” into practice and spin them into some amazing results.
If you too want to experience the lasting satisfaction of starting your own highly successful online business from home – the right way – then these 7 “Critical Keys” are absolutely critical. Live by them and you’ll succeed beyond your dreams.
Ignore them and you’ll stay on the same unproductive hamster wheel that has ensnared so many people before you.
So dive in, put these keys into practice and see how fast your new business can take off.
Critical Key #1
There’s No Magic Bullet
You don’t have to look hard on the Internet to find someone promising easy and fast riches with an online business.
“Get rich quick” opportunities flood the Internet like a Biblical plague.
The problem is they don’t work. “Get rich quick” has never worked online or off. Sure technologies online make certain processes like market research, prospect communication, and international business much easier.
But the way to “get rich” or just have a profitable business has never changed. It takes hard work. It takes realizing that you’re building an asset – possibly a very valuable asset – and that takes a lot of effort.
At least initially.
Because the beauty of having an online business is that ultimately, once you have it up and running, it allows you to leverage your time and the time of others to earn 4 or 5 times what you’d make punching a clock everyday.
But at first, it’s going to take some good old fashioned “elbow grease” to get your business positioned where it can be consistently profitable.
Just understand one thing: It’ll NEVER be perfect. If perfection is what you’re seeking, starting an online business is not for you. Things change. People’s interests and what appeals to them changes. Often on a dime. If you wait for your business idea to be perfect…you’ll never get off the ground.
Just get it going. Take action, start moving, and make corrections along the way.
Critical Key #2
Picking Super Competitive Niche
One of the biggest mistakes new entrepreneurs make when trying to make money online is they decide to jump into some of the largest, most competitive markets online…
…And they get creamed!
The great thing about starting an online business is the markets available are almost endless. And many many of them are small with little or weak competition. You have to start thinking of easy points of entry.
For every large market there are hundreds of possible smaller niches and micro niches that cater to a smaller subset of the larger market.
For example, instead of jumping into the “weight loss” market, “organic smoothies” may prove to be a lot easier to crack and make a profit in.
To figure this out, it’s really important that you identify who your competitors are. The easiest way to do this is to head over to Google and start searching for some of your main keywords and see which sites come up.
So if you’re in the “organic smoothies” market, you might search with terms like “organic smoothies”, “organic smoothie recipies”, “weight loss with smoothies”, etc. Pay attention to the top 3 results especially. Those are potentially your competitors in the market. But that’s not all. You also need to pay close attention to the classified ads that run along the top of the page and along the right side.
These are Google Ads and they show up when you use a search term that they are bidding on. In other words, these are the websites that are PAYING to show up on Google for your search term.
If they are willing to pay, it’s because they are selling something. If you see a couple of sites always showing up in the ads for similar terms, chances are they are serious players.
There are two reasons you want this information. One is because if there are no or few competitors, chances are there’s no money to be made in that market. On the flip side if the competition is too stiff, then you’re going to have a hard time competing.
Follow the “video game” method of breaking into a market. In a video game, such as boxing, you typically start off fighting the weakest opponent for some easy wins. As you get better and advance the competition gets more fierce…but so do your skills. Eventually you’re fighting the toughest guy in the game with the skills to beat him.
That’s how you want to approach breaking into a market. Pick on the weaker niches first, get established, then as you grow you’ll be more successful taking on stron-ger competition.
Critical Key #3
Sell Information Products Online
By far and away, the easiest and best products to sell online are information products. That’s the chief reason people go online… to find information.
Plus it’s the easiest type of product to quickly create and produce. Whether it’s a downloadable e-book, a video, set of audios, automated webinar or pre-selling a product. You can create your product and begin selling it, sometimes in a matter of hours.
Personally, I wrote two e-books, Foreclosures & Flips & Internet Business Made Easy. The foreclosure book was sold on Clickbank, the Clickbank Marketplace is one of the best places to sell digital products.
Another huge benefit to info products is there is almost NO overhead. You don’t have to fill your garage up with boxes of merchandise. You don’t have to worry about shipping and production costs. Since they’re either downloadable or accessed by a password protected web page, the only overhead is the initial costs of putting it together. And if you create it yourself, you’re only investment is time.
Finally, a big benefit to your customers is instant gratification. In the “microwave age” we live in, people expect to get what they want fast. With info products, you can literally have your product in your customers’ hands instantly after checkout.
It doesn’t cost you a cent in shipping. Not only that, but this also allows you to sell your product around the clock to anyone in the world. That means you don’t have to stay chained to your computer fulfilling orders. You can set up everything to run automatically whether you’re awake or not…or even at home or not!
Critical Key #4
Figure Out Where The Puck’s Going To Be
Hockey Great Wayne Gretzky once said that his secret to making a lot of shots in the rink was to figure out where the puck was going to be… and be there.
When talking about competition, we said it’s important to see if your potential market has anyone selling anything right now. Competition is a good sign that there’s money to be made in that market.
There are very few, if any untapped markets online. Smart marketers have tested just about every conceivable market in the world. You can pretty much bet that if there’s no one selling stuff in a market you’re considering, it’s because no one in that market is spending money.
A good example is the “free video game tips” market. This is a group of people interested in one thing…finding ways to play their favorite video games FREE. There maybe a lot of “gamer’s” searching for these tips, but the chances that they’ll actually pay for the tips is basically nil.
So don’t be a Lone Ranger. You need to target what’s already selling… then think of faster, better, and/or cheaper ways of selling the same type of thing.
The only way you could potentially earn money this way is from a blog site. With this idea, your main objective it to offer blog entries with free tips. Your blog would make money when visitors clicked on Google Adsense links or if they bought through Affiliate Links.
Just be sure to check the competition prior to starting this journey. Because there are over 4.4 million blog posts created everyday!
Critical Key #5
Just Do It – Take Action & Start Your Online Business
One of the biggest obstacles to succeeding online for many entrepreneurs lies within a six-inch space… their own head.
They study, they learn, they buy new programs or products about starting their own business. They think long and hard about what they are going to sell. They tinker with their websites. They attend seminars and daydream about their business.
But they never get around to taking action. They suffer from an infection common to most would-be entrepreneurs… analysis paralysis.
People analyze every conceivable outcome and potential problem their new business venture could possibly face. They may think they’re just carefully thinking things through. But the reality is they’re stalling. And usually because they are overwhelmed and afraid.
Afraid of failure. Sometimes afraid of success.
You’ve got to blast that sort of thinking to oblivion or you’ll never get started. Understand that your product and website will NEVER be perfect. Don’t wait for perfection.
Instead follow the advice of successful marketers through the ages…
…Ready, Fire, Aim.
What this means is it’s far better to take action, and clean up the mess afterword. Because in most cases, the “unknown” that you try to plan against, simply stays unknown until you take action.
Legendary copywriter and marketer John Carlton once said that marketers are like people standing around a pool. They ask questions like, “Is the water too cold,” “Is it too deep,” “What if I can’t touch the bottom?”
He said they just walk around the edge of the pool asking one procrastinating question after the next.
His response: “Just jump in the damn water!”
And this needs to be your response. Stop fretting over a thousand “what if’s.” Because, to quote Wayne Gretzky again…
“You miss 100% of the shots you DON’T take.”
Critical Key #6
Don’t Reinvent The Wheel
A huge advantage of identifying your competitors and analyzing what they sell is you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. It’s not necessary to come up with a completely original idea.
In fact there’s probably no such thing as a purely original idea anyway. You’re fastest path to success is to look at what’s already selling… and sell a better version.
The advantage of modeling other successful websites gives you the chance to capitalize on what they’ve already tested and found to work in your market.
From their website, to their order process, to the product itself… everything your competitors are doing right is available for you to model and build upon.
A habit you need to get into is building a “swipe file” of ideas from your competitors or sites that compliment yours. This swipe file can contain samples of sales copy, graphics, notes on their site design… anything you see that you want to model.
Be careful not to plagiarize or rip off someone else’s work. That’s why we use the word “model”. You still have to make everything uniquely yours… you just don’t have to start with a black piece of paper (or computer screen) to make it happen.
Critical Key #7
Law of Large Numbers
Whenever people go online to search for anything, they typically start off with a pretty broad search term like “golf.”
As they look at the results that Google returns, they’ll usually refine their search by being more specific like “beginners golf tips.” Search terms like this are called long tail keywords because they typically have 3 or more words in the phrase and they aren’t broad like the term “golf.”
Here’s the key. The more they drill down, the more specific they get, the better prospect they are. Because the more specific they get, the closer they are to finding what they are looking for.
By using free keyword tools like Google’s Keyword Planner Tool, you can get a pretty good estimate of the number of people searching for specific phrases. And this gives you an idea about the demand.
You can very quickly develop a list of long tail keyword phrases being searched for by tens of thousands of people.
Once you know this and you figure out who your competitors are and what they are selling to these same people, you have a much better idea about whether or not it’s a market you can compete and profit in.
The critical thing to keep in mind is you have to know your numbers. That’s what you hear on Shark Tank all the time. Never go into a market blindly and “hope for the best.” You need to know what the demand is for your market, what the supply is (competition), what the average price for products your competitors are selling is, and more.
And once you have your site up and prospects coming by, you need to track how many and where they are coming from. This will help you zero in on the best ways and places to find your market.
The Internet may make the world seem smaller. But the truth is it’s still a very large place.
CLOSING
Starting an online business is a dream for many people. Unfortunately, most have no idea how to get started. Running a successful business online is all about finding the right market and matching it with the right product using the right message.