Can You Really Have a Successful Internet Business

By Carolyn Shipp

A lot of the information that you see floating around on the Internet right now is about how you cannot have a successful business on the Internet if you don't have an e-mail list. As a matter of fact, it has been said that 95% of all online businesses fail because of this reason. While some of this is true, I personally do not feel this is the sole reason why so many businesses fail.

We are a country and a world that has developed into a "I want it right now" mentality. We want our riches right now, we want our businesses to be successful the very minute we put them on the Internet. We want everything to happen "right now!" Instant gratification is another name for this. People think that by having a business online they won't have to do anything. If you work for eight hours a day while working for someone else, why wouldn't you put forth the same effort for your own business? Advertising and marketing will not get done by themselves. You must be willing to do the work that is necessary every day. If you want to work from home, you actually need to work!

Part of the reason that many online and offline businesses fail is due to lack of persistence and lack of time. You cannot open up a store and expect people just to flock in. Before you open your doors to the public, there is usually a massive advertising campaign to let everyone know that you are going to be opening and on what day. You put flyers on cars, take out ads in your local newspaper and tell everyone you know that your store is going to be open! It took months of hard work to get your inventory and to set it up on shelves, etc., so you would not want all that work to go to waste by not letting people know about your shop.

The same must be done for an Internet business. Yes, it is good to have a large e-mail list to send information out to, but most of us who start an online business don't. So you need to get other forms of advertising promotions. Go online and look for places to advertise for free. Google and Yahoo are wonderful avenues to get this information from. I can't tell you how many sites I was able to submit to just by doing a search of "free classified ads" on Google alone. Always take a portion of your day and set it aside for advertising.

Another good form of advertising is through the traffic exchanges. Be careful though and make sure that a majority of your traffic exchange memberships are with manual exchanges. You want people to see your website, your ad, etc. and if you belong to a lot of auto surf sites, more than likely your ad is just flashing up to an empty chair. Many if not most people log on to their auto surf site and let the pages flash on by while they do other things around the house. You want your website seen for at least 20 - 30 seconds. This is especially true if you have a lot of detail on your website. I have seen websites on some of the 15 second sites that never fully load before the timer is out and the site never gets seen. You want people to see your site and you want them to have time to capture an impression in their minds about your product or service.

Don't be afraid to subscribe to newsletters and e-zines. Believe it or not, these publications are full of information that you would otherwise not get. Many if not all editors also love giving out free information as well. I cannot tell you how my knowledge has increased by being a subscriber to many assorted newsletters and e-zines. Just remember to join with publications that are of interest to you.

You might like the ones that have to do with marketing, advertising and online businesses. But if you have a product that is geared towards animals, you may want to join publications that have information that is about dogs or cats. No matter what, the knowledge you gain from these materials is incredible. I don't read all of them cover to cover, but I do look at each one and read the articles that I believe will help me the most. And if I browse through the newsletter and there doesn't seem to be any information that I am looking for, I just delete it and move on to the next.

Write articles about things that you know and submit them to newsletters and e-zines. This is another wonderful avenue to get advertising for your site. You need to make sure that when you submit your articles that you are submitting to sites that are relevant to your subject. People who are reading the e-zines don't want to read about animal training if they joined because the e-zine is about marketing techniques.

The most important thing to remember about all of these marketing and advertising techniques is that they will not bring success to you overnight. It takes persistence and time. I cannot stress this enough. You have to persistently look for new ways to get your site seen. You have to submit articles every day. Even if you just write one article and submit that article to 5 different e-zines or newsletters a day, after 30 days, you have submitted to 150 different avenues. You need to surf the traffic exchanges every day. Don't forget to really look at the sites as well because sometimes you will get great ideas for your own site by seeing others.

You will actually see an increase in the number of people visiting your website in approximately 30 days or so. But always give your business at least one year to really get going. It takes that long just to get the kinks worked out and ideas implemented. Don't jump from one business opportunity to another. Find one that you will enjoy and truly like to work with. If you don't like the product, find another. There are enough businesses and opportunities out there for you to find one that you really like. After all, you will be working every day to make this a successful business venture and you don't want to be working with a product that will eventually make you dissastisfied.

Don't forget to actually work! So many opportunities tell you that you can make 1000's of dollars by doing nothing at all and that simply is not true. You never get anything by doing nothing. Even when someone wins the lottery he paid a dollar, therefore he did something! Each day do something that is going to benefit your business. It can be submitting an article or submitting to free classified ad sites. But make sure you are putting forth the effort to do these things. Your website will not be able to do it for you. Bill Gates and Donald Trump did not get wealthy by doing nothing! They did a lot of hard work and put forth the effort to get their products known!

As I said in the beginning it is persistence and time that will lead you to success. Your persistence and time in advertising, your persistence and time with e-zines and even your own persistence and time in gaining knowledge will do this. It is hard work and anybody that tells you differently is just trying to get some money out of you. Always take the time to correspond with your customers and people who work with you as well. Keep in contact and don't forget to help people! Offer them free resources, offer them free help, and offer them whatever it takes for them to be successful because in the end that will make YOU successful.

So how does someone decide which home business is right for them? Research is the key by reading honest articles from a variety of sources.  This web site seeks to collect a host of ideas and opinions on a variety of business ideas that your can read and assess for yourself.

Good luck - live long and prosper!

The Perfect Options Team

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