When starting any business, there are factors you will generally need to consider and starting a business online is no exception. They act as guiding factors that will give you the best chances for your success. Planning can be almost everything but it is also nothing. I mean that planning is nothing without execution. You need to carve a niche for yourself if you are going to be successful.
No one starts a business with the intention of failing but not all get to thrive and this is due to a number of reasons. The way you start determines how long you online business will last. It will also drive people to your site and allow them to interact with them. Ultimately leading to success is what I want to help you accomplish. To gain the most out of it I have listed below some things that you should do.
Identify a niche
Before you get to think about anything else as you plan to venture in this kind of business, consider the current need in the market that has not been met. It should appear as one that people out there are seeking for this one person that will realize the need that exists and move in to respond accordingly. You can find this information by researching.
Keywords that have no competition from various sites but which a great number of people are searching. I discuss a lot about keyword selection in another post.
Competitors to identify a gap they have not yet filled and take advantage of that as you seek to stand out. I mean don’t just focus on dating for example. Think about the audience to whom you are trying to sell your product. What about divorced men between 30 and 40. Think about their needs, what they want, and their actual questions. In other words solve their problems
You can find the problems that your target audience is looking to be resolved by reviewing questions being asked from various forums and message boards. These can be niche specific or even just the Yahoo or Ask forums. Answering those questions will help build a following.
Make Your Writing Spectacular
If you think in the same way a customer does you will be successful. It is important to anticipate what they will ask, what their objections will be, and how you can provide answers to them. Consumers are always looking for the best, most convenient way for them to get a product at a reasonable price.
A guarantee that is backed by strength, this can be both good and bad. I feel the best guarantee is a free trail. Some products a free trial is not possible. In the cases that a free trail is not possible you need to think outside the box. For example if you give a person a free trial of your eBook why would they ever buy it. They just got it for free. What about giving them a good juicy sample of the book and solve just one of their problems that the book addresses.
You should be a successful problem solver. If you noticed a theme so far is it is all about helping people. You need to find ways of helping people. Don’t worry about the money, especially at first. The more you help people the more they are willing to buy your product.
Many people use pressure sales online. We all hate these tactics, but the reason they exist is that they work. Creating a sense of urgency is one way that gets people motivated. I personally try not to do this often but I have used it in the past when circumstances where out of my control. A great example was my post about Wealthy Affiliate Black Friday Deal. The offer was only available for a limited time, so I had to be honest to my reader.
Offers, why not offer them something for free. Maybe an e-book, free classes, free mentoring, or whatever would be appropriate for your niche, would be helpful in building a relationship with your customers. For example I have just completed a 6 day email course on starting a business if you sign up to my newsletter. It is free and you can read it as you please.
Your Website Design
This comes in once you have identified the product and target market and it needs to be simple but eye-catching as well at first sight. You can approach this in this way:
Opting for a clear background that has one or two plain fonts, in other words keep it simple. Try not to overcomplicate things. Fancy is nice but it is very distracting. You want people to easily find what they are looking for and are able to move on.
Using video, graphics or audio if they are meant to put emphasis on the information you are passing on to your reader. This is something that I need to work more on. Video is a great avenue for both delivering content and driving traffic to your offers.
Collecting email addresses which is enabled by having the opt-in offer. If people come to your website just once, you have one chance to impress them and make a sale. The truth is almost 80% of all sales occur after the second contact. So to keep in contact with your potential customer you should collect their emails and give them meaningful information to their email account.
Targeting Your Audience
This does a lot in terms of raising your ranking on search engines and pay-per-click advertisements work better for new establishments. It helps you to identify your highest-converting keywords using PPC ads; it promotes immediate display of PPC ads on search pages and allows you to try out various selling tactics, keywords, prices and headlines. I would suggest staying away from PPC ads at first, and instead focusing on learning how to do proper keyword research.
Once you have a good understanding on keyword research then you can delve into PPC. PPC is a great source for traffic. It can be very costly if you do not understand how it really works. For example The first time I tried PPC, I had no idea what I was doing. I spent $100 in less than a week and had one sale for revenue of $1.50. That is a quick way to go out of business. Once you really understand keywords, how they work and the sales process, then you can start a real PPC campaign.
You’re an Expert
Information is what people are seeking online and if you result to provide this to other sites freely, they will always set up back links to your site where it is appropriate. Don’t spam your link all over the place people will quickly ignore you. Just be yourself on social networks and every once in a while mention something special in your business. 
Most social networks allow you to put up a website on your profile page. Don’t miss that great opportunity. If you talk in groups that are around your niche and you are helpful, people will you’re your website and visit it. This can lead to a massive increase in traffic.
Don’t forget to have share buttons on your website so that others that find your site will share the information with your friends. You should use the social media that best suits your chosen niche. As long as you are active and contribute to the community you will find a good source of traffic there.
You also have forums; start becoming active in a couple of forums that are in your niche. Make sure that the forum allows for a link in your signature. Then help people, I mean really help people. Answer questions. Don’t spam your link. In fact I would suggest being active on the forum for a month before you even put your link in your signature. Then place your link in your signature and continue to be active in the forum.
Okay I told you to make sure you have those share buttons. Well use them yourself. Make sure that you share your content as well on those social media platforms. It can be articles or videos or even an eBook. You don’t want to push it too much though, don’t plater every post with a link on only your things. Share other things as well. In other words keep it real!
Email Marketing
As I stated before don’t forget to get those emails. This is a good way to increase and foster a longer term relationship with your buyer. With email marketing you can not only increase your overall conversions, but you can have a long term buyer. They will buy multiple products from you as long as not every email is a sales page.
You should give them a lot of free information that centers around your niche. By doing so you instill that you are there really to help. Which is what you should be doing anyway, helping them. If done properly you will end up with a fan and loyal customer.
Return Customers
A reward program is valued by every client that makes a buy from you because it increases chances of having repeat purchases in future which will increase your overall bottom line. Stay in contact with your past buyers. Ask them if there is anything you can help them with. Ask them is there anything they would like to see available from you. These not only help you build customer loyalty but they also help you understand your customer’s needs more.
Once you have that information, what should you do? Well simply give it to them. Answer those questions. Fill the void that they have. It doesn’t have to be free, but some of it should.
These are just some of the things that I have learned on how to start an online business. It takes time and effort. You can learn this and so much more at my top recommendation. I never give a recommendation based on what I get paid, but instead if I feel it was helpful to me. You can see all of my recommendations here.
As always please feel free to leave any comments or questions below. I like hearing from you. You can even let me know what has worked for you. Thanks again.