Success with a online business is not a simple matter of slapping together a website and putting online.  Building a web business is not much different than building a storefront business.  

1. You need a really great product that serves a specific target market.  If you try to sell the same product that 100,000 other people are trying to sell, odds are not in your favor that you will be successful.  Your chances of success are much greater if you promote a product or service that fills a need in a niche market.  Your ability to obtain top rankings in search engines is greatly improved and you are providing a unique product or service where you have much less competition.  Product or service selection is one of the most critical area's where great care must be exercised if you are to succeed.

2.  You need a really great website that sells.  Only 5% of websites that sell services or goods online, are truly designed to "get the order".  (Might be why only 5% of websites are successful) Your website must have as its main focus your Most Desired Result.  In other words every word and graphic must be focused to cause your visitor to take action.  Every component of a web page either advances this MDR or it detracts from your main focus.  We communicate with words and your word selection needs to create a feeling or favorable emotional response to your visitor.  A common error made is not understanding that you are selling on a one to one basis.  The most effective websites are sites that are directed specifically at the viewer as if you were in the same room talking to that visitor.  As the web becomes more sophisticated, visitors that buy demand a site that looks professionally produced which gives the visitor a feeling of confidence and trust.

3.  All sales whether you are going door to door or a large TV market is a matter of numbers.  For every 100X sales presentations that you make, you will make X sales.  Selling online is no different, you need to have a large number of page views (presentations) that are made to a targeted audience in order to achieve X sales.  You want to develop a large traffic volume that is looking specifically for your product or service.  You need to be generating thousands of targeted visitors.   If your traffic logs are only showing page views in the hundreds, you are going to need a very powerful website in order to generate any sales.  Website promotion is a continuous on going campaign that never stops.

4. You need to focus your efforts.  The most common mistake that individuals make, is failing to focus on one or two products, and performing a great job on those two products.  It is easy to fall into the trap of reading an interesting email, and the next thing you know you are trying to juggle fifteen different products, and doing a poor job at every one of them.  Write your goals down, write down a plan of action, and reread them every time you sit down at the computer.  By remaining focused you will achieve greater results than bouncing from one thing to another.  

5.  Automate your tasks.  One of the greatest things with computers and the internet is the ability to automate your daily tasks.  Use software and tools that makes your job go quicker, and to take care of repetitive tasks.  Spend your time on website refinement and promotion.  Only when you can crash your server do you have too much traffic.

6.   Don't do it alone.  Find an individual online that you can work with on a cooperative project.  Foster and develop business partnerships, and you will find the synergy of a partnership to far exceed anything you could do on your own.

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