Below is a starting checklist to succeeding online. Take these, add your own and create a winning blueprint for online success.
These are not in any set order, but all are important aspects of working and succeeding online.
You will need money to succeed online.
One of the biggest killers of people starting a business online or offline is that they run out of money before their business gets going. This is probably especially online because all the scammers are telling you that you can make instant money or retire in a month or year.
Here is a good rule to follow for making money: For every thousand dollars a month of income you need to make, you should plan on it taking you 10 months to get to that point and costing you a minimum of $800 in up front costs. So if you need to make $3,000 a month, it will take about 30 months and your out of pocket costs will be around $2,400.
Now I know this is not what you want to hear, but this is what you need to hear and if you're not willing or able to invest in your business, then don't waste your time trying because while there are exceptions to the above rule, they are few and far between.
Don't get involved with working online and take the lottery mentality where you think you will be the one who is different and you will be the one to break the rule. This will only lead to loss of money and eventual failure online.
Play things conservatively, plan for the worst case situation and then if things happen faster--great and if not, then at least you are prepared and you can continue on while those who don't plan and jump in without any money to get them through the tough times fail.
If you think you can make money for free--You're Wrong.
This again is another of the great lies of the Internet where you have sites telling you that you can make money for free. You cannot make money for free, so if this is your train of thought, get off the Internet now because you will be miserable.
Here again, you need to use some common sense and realize that if everything is free, where does the money come from to pay you. I have seen sites that tell people they can make thousands of dollars for free every month and they always make me laugh.
Actually it is sad to think anyone can be dumb enough to fall for this crap, but tens of thousands of people do and they all lose in the long run because while they are chasing the elusive dream, the smart people are doing things right, investing in their business and growing it the right way.
You will need to invest in online marketing tools.
In any business you start, there are certain tools you need. If you were going to start a restaurant, you would need to invest in certain tools before you opened the restaurant or the restaurant would fail.
Can you imagine trying to open a restaurant without pans, grills, ovens etc.? Unfortunately this is what the vast majority of people do when working online, they start their business without the tools they need to succeed and they are setup for failure right out of the gate.
The main tools you are going to need will be an Autoresponder, Capture Page Creator and Ad Tracker.
The Autoresponder is used to build your prospect list and mail offers to your list. The Capture Page Creator gives you full control over your lead prospecting pages and the ability to test and try different headline, copy, images etc. The Ad Tracker is used so you know where your hits are coming from so you don't waste time advertising your capture page in places that don't work.
Don't even think about getting involved with any program, product or service until you have these 3 tools ready to work for you.
You cannot use free tools either and you cannot use Autoresponders and Capture Pages supplied by the program you're involved with.
Using free tools is just a complete waste of time becasue they will be ad infested and are very unprofessional. Using the replicated capture pages supplied by a program and their Autoresponder means you are only building a list for the program and not you.
You are working online for you and not for a program, so take full control of the entire online process.
You will need to devote time to your online business.
It's sad that people spend 2 - 3 hours a day watching television, yet they think their online business is going to grow without any help or support.
Reading the latest joke or watching the latest viral video does nothing to help your business. You need to invest time just as you need to invest money to run and build your business.
The amount of money you make online will be directly proportional to the amount of time you invest in your business. If you only spend a few minutes a day promoting or learning how to work online, then you can expect a long and difficult road to success.
If you use your time wisely in working online and never stop doing something positive with your time and your business, you can see faster and more impressive results.
You should setup an agenda for your business and follow the agenda as closely as possible. There is a saying for Scuba Divers that goes like this: Plan your dive and dive your plan. This simply means that before a scuba diver goes in the water, he/she has laid out a plan of action of what they are going to do, where they are going to go and how long they will stay down.
You need to do the same for your business and lay out a plan of action for everything from advertising to investing to managing your business daily, weekly and monthly and then follow your plan of action.
You will need patience.
This is a tough one for some people as they want success yesterday, but you will need so have patience with your business because building any business takes time. Here again, I know the scammers are telling you that you can have instant success, but that is not the way things work in the real world.
Just as we talked about setting an agenda and plan of action, you also need to add timeframes to each of those so you can measure your success and not get frustrated if things don't happen overnight.
Be patient and plan for the long haul. Whenever I create anything online, I plan on losing money for a minimum of 2 years. If things work out for the best and I make money faster, that's great, but if not, then at least I am prepared for the 2 years.
If you believe the hype online that you can succeed and make hundreds or thousands within days or weeks, you are only setting yourself up for failure.
Take it slow, do the right things and you can achieve the results you want. Remember that even Google and Facebook lost money for years before they ever made a dime.
You will need the right mentality to succeed online.
Before you ever do anything online, you need to make sure you have the right mentality and this has nothing to do with your intelligence.
Those who succeed with any business, online or offline have a can do attitude and they don't give up when things are tough.
They are fighters and not quitters. They are motivated and upbeat and not down and depressed all the time.
Successful people find a way to make things happen while those who don't succeed are always looking to blame someone else.
If you are going to succeed online, you need to take control, keep moving forward and not give up when things get tough. You need to have the resolve that you are going to succeed, you are going to do the right things and follow your head and not your heart and use common sense when getting involved with anything.
You need to sell what you believe in and not just for the money.
There are tens of thousands of programs on the Internet and more come online every single day. Some of these programs are very good and some are very bad.
You need to find something you believe in and something you use yourself instead of just going with something because they say you can make millions.
Selling something just for the money is always a mistake. I remember listening to Zig Ziglar years ago when he said if you're selling Fords, you need to drive a Ford and if you're selling Chevys, you need to drive a Chevy.
Think about that for a minute and how would you feel if I am trying to sell you some vitamin, but I don't use it myself or if I try and sell you my marketing system, but I use some other marketing system. Doesn't give you much confidence in the product or service does it?
I see this all the time where people are just selling something for the money and a prime example of this is free affiliate programs. Most affilite programs are free to join because the company wants as many people selling their service as they can get.
The reality is the vast majority of those people never do anything with the affiliate program because they have no motivation to do so.
As a business owner, I only want people selling my system who use my system so while a free member can be an affiliate, he/she is not getting paid until they are full paying members because if they don't use it, how can they endorse it to others?
So do your research on the program or service you get involved with and make sure you use the product or service and that it does what it says it does and be careful of testimonials.
I purchased some vitamins online and the main reason I purchased the brand I did was because the company had 100 times more testimonials than any other similar site. Then after I got the vitamins, I found out why. Everyone who purchses from this company gets $50 worth of vitamins for free if they submit a testimonial.
Great marketing tactic, but totally wipes out the validity of the product. As soon as I saw this, I immediately returned the vitamins and got a refund without even taking the vitamins. I personally detest fraud and that is all this was, pure and simple fraud.
Also don't put a lot of faity in all the negatives of a company either because generally only those who are not happy will complain while those who are satisfied will not say anything.
Bottom line is to do your due deligence for anything you get involved with.
You will need to advertise your business.
One final piece of the checklist is
advertising your business and this is where many people fall flat. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of ways to advertise online and there are tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of places to advertise online.
Lack of advertising is one of the biggest reasons why people fail online because if nobody knows about you, how can they buy.
Consistent advertising is another part of the advertising picture. You cannot just advertise when you want to and do it once a month, you need to advertise every single day and advertise multiple times a day.
I am not going into a lot of details on
advertising in this article as advertising is several articles or books by itself, but you need to understand before you get started that advertising or lack of advertising can make or break any business in the world.
Conclusion
Succeeding online is not as easy as many want you to believe. There will be hard times. There will be times you want to quit. There will be good times and there will be mad times, but you just have to keep moving forward, plan for as many aspects of working online as you can, use your common sense and avoid the scams of the Internet..
Check out
http://www.12-SECOND-COMMUTE.NET
all the best
Eric Burgoyne
Owner
Know for Profit The advertising results site.
http://www.knowforprofit.com