Don’t Go Broke Trying to Build an Online Business
Forty Thousand Dollars Later
How often are you purchasing ebooks, strategy guides and software to build your Internet marketing (IM) business? Are you spending money left and right in hopes of finding the perfect Internet business system? Do you have a habit of buying everything you can, hoping to find the one last piece of your profit puzzle?
You’re not the only one convinced that the only way to make money involves spending it in copious quantities. Many IMers are on the buy-buy-buy-and-buy-some-more treadmill.
And that’s totally understandable. It’s perfectly reasonable to purchase new products and information to refine your already-successful business. It’s sane and sensible to invest in new strategy guides to stay abreast of changes in the industry and to get your hands on innovative ideas. Making those purchases before you have a profitable business is a different matter, though.
Buying new tools to stay ahead of the games is very different from desperately making purchases in hopes of finding base-level success.
You want to handle this the right way. You don’t want to be the person who’s spent $40,000 on IM products and still isn’t making regular sales.
Making Smart Purchases
So, how do you avoid becoming the wrong kind of serial buyer? You need to build a solid foundation for your business. If you look at the core of Internet marketing, it’s really rather simple.
You need a product to sell. You must have a way to sell the product. You need a way to generate traffic to the site from which you’re making your sale offers.
That’s IM in a nutshell. All of what you do needs to relate directly to one or more of those core basics.
That means that you should start by building a solid foundation on all three fronts. Anything you buy as you’re building your business needs to address the construction of that foundation.
You need to build a solid foundation that will allow you to start making money online free before you begin worrying about the details. You can start experiencing real IM success after that foundation is in place. Then, you can pay for those new products with house money instead of digging a hole for yourself.
Smart Foundation Building
You can start building that money making foundation without going broke in the process. Here’s a great approach to getting the job done.
- Get a smart, big picture understanding of Internet marketing. You need to hear, straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth, how things fit together and what really works.
- Focus a great deal of effort on traffic generation. As noted, traffic is one of the three keys to a solid foundation. It’s arguably the most important component. Until you have adequate traffic, you won’t be able to find out if your products are attractive or if your copy is converting. You need to put eyeballs on your pages right away.
- Secure ongoing support. An ebook can be great. A video can be invaluable. However, there’s nothing like developing an ongoing connection with a coach or mentor who has a history of success and a willingness to show you the ropes. Good mentoring increases efficiency, makes it easier for you to build a foundation, and allows you to avoid common mistakes.
- Don’t overexpose yourself. Find a way to accomplish those objectives without putting yourself at risk of substantial loss. Find opportunities to get the essentials at bargain prices. Find a small business coaching opportunity that doesn’t require a fat up-front commitment and that doesn’t lock you into a multi-month contract.
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Welcome, my name is Ben Wan. I help people get started online by building their website. I also train them to run their own website.
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Hi Ben
There should be more posts like this out there for newbies. I spent way too much on internet coaching that were complete scams. Several of them in fact. Then I met the blogging cmmunity and got on track.
I was too trusting and far too naive to begin with. I now read and check everything before I part with money. There are so many free reports and I’ve had so many offers of help when I have got stuck. If I need to purchase anything I ask those more experienced than me, to make sure it is value for money and something I need at the moment.
Have also offered my services to proof read articles for people before they are published so that I can give back to this amazing community I am now an active member of.
Thanks for sharing this informative post Ben. Much appreciated.
Patricia Perth Australia
Patricia@lavenderuses recently posted..So Little Time- So Much To Do
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Ben Wan Reply:
December 2nd, 2010 at 7:32 am
Hi Patricia,
That was a great comment. You’ve strike a major point: the difference between the person who want to did it all on their own and those that’s got a community on whom they can rely and get information, support and mentoring from.
I give a secret here, the best way learn to do online business (or anything in fact) is to work for or with other people doing the same thing.
Ben Wan.
Ben Wan recently posted..Traffic Generation Tips
[Reply]
Hi Ben,
Of course you are right – buying books and courses is much easier than actually doing something.
Like Patricia, I overspent on a seminar that was to reveal the secrets of overnight IM success – but worse than that, I was overloaded with the pressure of reading email instructions and meeting achievement deadlines and fending off up-sells thereafter.
Now I am taking a slower pace and enjoying it more. But still, your post has stopped me in my tracks. What is my product ? What is my sales process ? Where is my traffic? I’d better do some homework before your next post.
Thanks for the reality check. Someone has to ask the hard questions.
thanks again.
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“To know and not to do is not yet to know” – I think that was Confucious.. and it applies to internet marketing as much as any other enterprise in life! I have certainly had that experience with a myriad of online purchases.. bought it, half studied it, didn’t quite implement it.. and so on.. so yes Ben the mentor – the person who helps you stay on track is way more important than yet another online course or product!
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I can’t really understand why others continue to invest on something that they haven’t proven to be working at all. I know that most of these effective strategies from gurus but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will also work for others.
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