Your First Internet Business: How Not To Crash and Burn
by Warren
(NY)
Your regular brick and mortar business’, why do these companies fail? I don’t know about you but I usually assume that it has something to do with the overhead expense and a poor location. With an internet business, overhead and location is usually not the problem.
Have you ever wondered about a common denominator? What’s usually the cause of a business’ failure, both brick and mortar or internet? In many instances, the answer revolves around traffic. Online, traffic refers to the number of visitors your website receives. Most online businesses fail for one of two traffic related reasons. 1. They either fail to research/gauge whether there is enough traffic to support their business or 2. They fail to develop a strategy capable of attracting enough traffic to support their model.
When planning/starting a new online business, one of the first steps should always be to determine whether there is enough traffic to support it. This can be accomplished via keyword research. Take your main keyword and perform a search using Google’s Keyword search tool.
The second thing that comes to mind, your keyword lists. Once you have determined what your keywords are, you must focus on them. Your keywords are an excellent indication of what your potential visitor is looking for. If you don’t provide the product, service or content in demand, then you need to find a way to. If you can meet a need, provide your visitors with what they are looking for, they will return over and over. Returning visitors are essential to building a strong business.
Finally, lets make sure that our first great idea for an online business isn't the one that causes us to bite off more than we can chew. The temptation to start our website on the broadest of subject matters is huge.
You want to capture as much business as possible. It is so easy to get caught up on the various things that you would like to provide, forgetting that it is what your visitor wants you to provide. To avoid this issue you have to concentrate on a niche.
For example, say that you just wanted to sell books. It should be pretty obvious that you will probably never be able to compete with Amazon. It is far too large and it has a huge head start on you. However, you could compete with Amazon in a niche market. If you decided to focus on books devoted to a certain niche, say home improvement or Eastern Philosophy then you would have a chance. True fans of a niche product are more likely to pay you the visit because of the specialization.
Overall, online businesses fail because people simply don’t invest that proper amount of time in planning and research prior to the start. Is there demand/ traffic, what is my competition like? These things are extremely important questions. If this is your first website, take the time to get to know our market and you competitors. If you are thorough and patient you are less likely to crash and burn.
