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Before moving to the detail allow me to present a mini case study that on an online business to sell audio, entertainment and information products. In the posts that follow, I will cover matters that will impact upon the other options listed above. 6.2.2 e-BusinessThe first enabler to making money online is to establish an e-Business. to market digital information products collectively that you, for example, set up a: - website,
- blog,
- LinkedIn profile,
- YouTube account ( YouTube is now the second biggest search engine in the world, and you can upload video content to YouTube directly from a SMART phone),
- Twitter following,
- Facebook page,
- Google+ account,
- Yahoo, DMOZ, www.Webo.directory and other directory listings, etc.
You will also need to establish quality backlinks to these sites and that you promote these sites via article syndication. Note that Market Samurai will publish articles for you and you can commission backlink gigs to establish backlinks on www.fiverr.com at pricing from $5)). You can add to these e-Business options with the rule of thumb being “the more, the merrier.” The purpose is to create diversity like your Internet exposure and to link all of the options to each other. A risk of purchased popularity is that your site is blacklisted for low quality “robotic” page ranking boosters. Assessing the quality of e-Marketing assistance is critically important and is achieved by following up on testimonials that are offered. Given a circle of influence on the Internet, you will improve your search rankings, and this will drive traffic to your site. In the offline world, this would be like a local shopping mall running a bus service that drops people off at the mall so as to increase the number of shoppers in the mall. 6.2.3 e-Commerce
In this example, we will be looking to collectively market digital information products in the “health and wellness” niche. To do this, we would set up an e-Commerce store that offers many digital health and wellness information products to customers that our e-Marketing plan will drive to our e-Business marketplace sites. There are a wealth of ready-made digital information products available on affiliate marketing websites that can be found by way of an Internet search for affiliate products.
Traditionally one would set up a website to sell a single affiliate product. Adding a number of related affiliate products into an e-Commerce store unlocks the economies of collective marketing.
6.2.4 e-MarketingThe reliance on one revenue stream puts your business at risk. Adding the Google Adsense revenue stream, as an example, to a blog, website or other e-Business site is a good idea.
As an objective, you should be looking to build a loyal subscriber base to your e-Business sites from traffic other than that provided by search engines. In this respect, you should be promoting your blog for the relevance of the content, your YouTube channel for the importance of the video content, your Twitter following for the relevance of your tweets, etc. In essence, what your objective should be is to pull rather than to push content by way of attraction marketing. When your content is attractive to users, then they will become return customers. When you need to service your opt-in lists, you will be pushing content to subscribers that they may not wish to receive. In the latter case you run the risk of losing some customers but given a high conversion rate and content attraction, you stand the chance of building your customer base.
The secret lies in feeding customers with content that meets their needs and desires.
Research keywords that generate high online traffic. This will ensure that you focus on marketing to established markets. Next, research your interest, skills, knowledge and passions to determine the availability of good quality information products so that you can become a knowledgeable affiliate marketer to the high traffic niche that you select. Do not do this the other way round such as by first finding digital information products and then trying to gather knowledge on this niche to build relevant e-Business sites. For success, creating a suite of e-Business sites is critically important. It is better to create a group of sites that address individual target markets than having a single site with a variety of products that target multiple markets. Having knowledge on a niche will enhance the chances of success. Having said this, it is not impossible to learn about a niche so as to advise customers on good product choices and it is not impossible to establish an online market for a great new product for which, at present, there is no demand.
Be sure to establish a variety of revenue streams such as Adsense income, affiliate commission income from mature and established affiliate marketing companies and network marketing sign up fees for network marking training.
Generate your network of traffic from quality backlinks, from subscribing users, from online articles, from your Twitter following, Facebook and LinkedIn friends, etc.
Join a mature and established network marketing organisation to learn how to drive traffic to your e-Business and e-Commerce sites so as to maximise the revenue streams that you have established.
Keep your e-Business sites fresh, keep the SEO compliant and maintain relevant Meta Tags if they get used.
Keep a complete suite of social media sites fresh and operational.
~ Facebook and Twitter: keep it conversational.
~ LinkedIn: expand your network and find influential customers.
Build your online brand:
~ Consumers trust the recommendations of others more than they do the advice of sales staff.
~ Gather consumer testimonials and market them to build your online reputation.
Build COMMUNICATORS that target valuable alerts, links and lists for sharing with target markets and advertise on them. If the content is good, they will go viral. 6.2.5 The trio of enablers: e-Business, e-Commerce, and e-MarketingCreating an online business that deploys the principles of e-Business, e-Commerce and e-Marketing as is outlined above will maximise your revenue streams and it will enable you to: - Work from anywhere with Internet access.
- Work to a flexible working schedule for a flexible amount of time for the day.
- Allow you to target markets with solutions to established markets with problems no matter where they may be.
- Allow you to generate, over time, returning customers that are automatically serviced and this then will provide you with the proverbial residual income “earned while you sleep.”
You can go it alone and establish the above 3e’s to making money online or you can join a coached team. For a small business, there is another dimension, and that is that they need to optimise their profitability. As stated above, in simple but realistic terms profitability can be read on a gauge or dashboard where there are two “needles;” turnover and costs. The objective is to sustain and boost the turnover needle and to reduce and suppress the cost needle.
Often increasing market share in existing markets by way of up-selling goods and services through needed new products is easier to sustain than taking new products to new markets.
Fixed costs are “lumpy” and the outsourcing of work, even at high prices, can be cost effective until volumes justify the investment in the extra overhead capacity. It is better to pay higher piecemeal prices for quality outsourced services than it is to invest in cheap labour that is underutilised. Variable costs can often be significantly reduced by buying significantly more. To enable this research the local market to find buyers that are not competitors and form a collective buying group. Collective procurement negotiations will result in variable cost savings for many everyday items such as office consumables, delivery, packaging materials, etc. All businesses will face the reach of competitors into their marketplaces.  Take the Test - Are you likely to be facing the prospect of being a “Stay at Home Mum?” If so have you considered opening an online shop that you can run from home?
- No traffic, no boss, schedule your working hours to suit other commitments, what are your passions apart from tea and cake? If you can find something that you are passionate about and which passes the tests as outlined in this e-Book, congrats! Be cautioned that creating demand is a tough job that often will require much more than a meagre budget to establish.
- It’s time to start researching for a few related keywords that are in demand but which are not competitively traded.
- Start touring local industrial parks for wholesale showrooms. Research trends in other countries. Decide upon a marketplace that you would like to trade in. Gone are the days when you could moan about marketplace limitations in small towns. The internet offers choice. Work from anywhere and trade in any marketplace.
Take the Test - Read on to establish if your existing business is ready for online trading.
- Given that you have an established business that provides goods or services, you could take it online.
- e-Commerce is a part of the modern market place, and the user experience will be impacted by the nature of the product or service as well as by the marketing approach adopted.
- The popularity of e-commerce lies in the ability of an enterprise to extend it’s market reach, and if it does not compete in the broader online market place, it will find its competitors competing in its “back yard.”
- In fact, this may already be happening and for this reason, the matters discussed here are equally as relevant to the merchant with an established business as it is to those without one.
I hope that I have nudged you to reflect upon your plan to go online. If so, please share the link to this topic with your friends on Facebook and with your Business Connections on LinkedIn. To do this log into your preferred social media account and then click the share option at the top of this page.
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