By Terry L. Brock
Today is an excellent time to change your life for the better. It is a time when old ways of doing business are changing. Many are embracing the opportunities beyond searching for information, sending email messages and social networking. Many are embracing the Net as the main way to do business.
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Watch this Video as Terry Explains the 5 Key Steps to Build Your Business on the Net
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Building your business on the Net is like any other business — it requires proper research, hard work and diligence. In fact, building your existing business on the Net is a smart way to grow in any economy. Here are some steps you can use to either get started or to reposition your existing business so it excels on the Net.
1. Build Your Knowledge. If you were starting a retail store, you’d have to study the territory. Find out what exists and what others are doing. Look for gaps. A great way to do this on the Net is with a service like www.wordtracker.com where you can find what people are looking for. Also Google Trends (www.google.com/trends) is a great tool to see what people are searching for lately. Your business should be the intersection of market demand and your expertise. Find the areas where people want something bad enough to pay serious, cold, crisp, curvaceous hard cash. Then match that with those areas of expertise you have or can acquire.
2. Build Your Site. Once you’ve discovered what your market niche is ready, willing and able to pay for, you need a place for them to visit to get their needs met. This is your website. Today many websites are Blogs. 2 places are available that make this easy for you to set up in 5-10 minutes — for free. One is www.blogger.com (owned by Google) and the other is www.wordpress.com. Create a place where you provide essential and wanted information for your market niche. Don’t make it about you but about them and fulfilling their needs and wants.
3. Build a Better Site. This is where you need to think — and plan. Put in lots of tempting articles. If you have a garden site, articles about how to grow something better could be hot. If you’re selling sunglasses, think of ways you could explain the differences between the various UV ratings and what this means to customers. Find the confusion, the pain, the uncertainty that your niche is facing and address that. And be sure to use audio and video. Through services like www.youtube.com, www.blip.tv and others, you can create video on the Net for free. Provide solid information that helps your niche solve problems and then offer products and services they can use. Fine-tune your copy writing skills as this is most important to convert visitors and lookers into those wonderful people we call —- buyers! Remember your goal is not to get a lot of visitors. That doesn’t really matter. What matters? Buyers who purchase your products. That is the goal toward which all your audio, video and copy should be directed.
4. Build a Community. Today we want a place where we feel at home and are welcome. We all want various tribes where we share common beliefs, values and have our needs met. Make your site like that. If you have a garden site, don’t just sell seeds and garden tools. Concentrate on how gardeners can share ideas and information about what works and their experiences. People will come back for compelling information. Have a Blog that discusses relevant, compelling topics. Provide interviews (audio and video) with industry experts. Make your site a place where enthusiasts in your niche gravitate. Once they are visiting, provide multiple ways for them to become happily involved with you, your products and services.
5. Build Business. Remember, all your efforts revolve around making a profit and building a solid, profitable, sustainable business. In an age of Blogs, Podcasts, Video on the Net, Audio on the Net, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn (and a host of other good social networking sites) along with all the other stuff, it is imperative to remember this is about business. Have a solid foundation of the principles of building a business that meets the needs of your market niche. Keep renewing and changing as needs and demands change. It is never over. This is the challenge and the excitement about doing business on the Internet.
Building your business on the Net requires many of the same skills required to build a business offline. Today you can do it for a lot less initial capital and can compete effectively with more well-heeled competitors. On the Net, it doesn’t matter if you are a one-person start-up or a multi-billion dollar corporation. Satisfying the needs of your customers and fulfilling their wants is the core of making it work.
Today many have found that there is no such thing as job security when someone else controls your paycheck. You can be let go at any moment regardless of how long you’ve been there. Your only security comes in your ability to acquire and implement market-valuable skills in a profitable way. Once you master these necessary skills on the Net, the sky is the limit for you. A lifestyle of operating from anywhere, choosing your own hours and dealing with the people you want awaits.
Many are living that lifestyle now. If this is right for you, pursue your dream with passion and acquire the skills and expertise to make it happen. This is not just about building your business — it is about building the life you want.
Copyright © 2009, Terry Brock and Achievement Systems, Inc. Terry Brock is an international marketing coach and professional speaker who helps businesses generate profitable results. He can be reached at 407-363-0505, by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com or through his website at www.terrybrock.com. Twitter address: TerryBrock.
Bonus for You! Watch this short presentation where Terry describes the kind of thinking that is necessary to succeed on the Net and in today’s fast-paced world. This is a must-see for achieving success in a world of never-ending “new” today.
