When I mention that I make my living on the Internet, some people respond with a certain degree of wonder. It's as if the Internet, and how to make a living on it, are still part of the great unknown. I admit, I am still learning every day. There is a wealth of information out there, and "a zillion" different things that could be tried. Yet many people manage to make good money on the Internet, as I have. Here are five core secrets to my success:
1. Weed Out the Pretenders
While the net is literally teeming with excellent business information, there are plenty of spammers, black hats and downright hucksters on the scene as well. They are waiting to take your money, getting rich by selling get rich schemes. Here is a big hint: if somebody's main business seems to be selling residual income schemes, run as fast as you can in the opposite direction--unless, of course, you are a wealthy philanthropist desiring to contribute to their residual income. While I have purchased some extremely helpful e-books on the Net, I have also been taken in by a few meaningless mountains of drivel. There are people out there who can tape a whole video and somehow say nothing substantial. Then again, there are some writers whose websites are literally packed with timely and valuable information. Which leads me to my next point...
2. Follow the Leaders
While running as quickly as you can from purveyors of spammy websites and other useless information, you should be accumulating a list of writers and website resources that have been helpful to you. Find people who are experiencing the kind of success you wish to achieve. Learn what you can from their articles, websites, or blogs. Then apply what you can to your own website efforts. While you may never be Donald Trump's "Apprentice", you can receive training and advice from plenty of successful people on the Net. So find some good role models, watch what they do, read what they say, and apply it!
3. Make a Sale Worth Your Time
I know of several website owners who have chosen a line of business, worked hard to increase their online sales, and never got into the black. Their problem? The items they sell retail for only $2-3. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that these people have to generate a lot of website traffic and sales to make a dime on the Net. I started out with this type of business myself, selling used books on the Internet. At the peak of my business, I was processing 50-70 orders per day. Then more and more people entered the business. The online bookselling industry became a flea market of sorts, with many books going for $2.95 each.
I can say from experience that it takes a lot of time to catalog used books, store them, then pack and ship the orders as they came in. Although I love books and always will, I decided to switch to selling higher ticket items on the Net. Now people routinely buy $2-4,000 worth of furniture from my log furniture website, a business that, for me, has been much more profitable than the used book business. It doesn't really matter what you sell, as long as there is a demand for it, you have a great supply and the profit margin is good enough to justify your involvement in the business. I have a friend who sells more than a million dollars worth of silverware online every year. It's not like he is a fanatic about silverware, or even a collector. He just found a great niche with good markups and developed it into a very profitable business. That's what you should strive to do, too.
4. Sell Something Unique
While it's hard to be totally unique on the Internet, your business will have the best chance of success if you sell something unique. One of my sites sells a style of Amish log furniture that isn't readily available elsewhere. It's reasonably priced, sturdy, and heavily discounted for customers who order in quantity. There are competitors out there, to be sure. But the log furniture store's offerings are unique enough to carve out a niche.
Recently I have been designing a site for an upscale pet supply business. As I have input the product line of this website into the shopping cart, I have been impressed by the stylish selections made by the website owner. While her supplier offers hundreds and even thousands of products, this entrepreneur has narrowed it down to a sophisticated line of dazzling collars, Christmas sweaters with blinking lights, and doggie beds fancy enough to make any human jealous. There is a decided theme for this site, a niche, and that's what you'll need for your business. Unless your last name is Gates, Trump, or Buffett, you can't compete with the big boys. But there is plenty of room for the little people to offer quality products, stellar customer service and competitive prices to buyers who prefer to deal with a small but reputable storefront.
5. Stick With It
Everybody makes mistakes, and, as you develop an Internet business, you will too. The important thing is to learn from your mistakes and move on. Up until the time of his presidency, the life of Abraham Lincoln was marked by many failures. Yet he didn't give up. Many of today's greatest technological inventions were may by people whose first experiments failed many times, yet they didn't give up. There are times in business when the only thing left to do is cut your losses and run. But many people give up and burn out when they are just on the brink of success. Don't let that happen to you. Make sure you have a good business model, with adequate consumer demand and profitable mark-ups. If things don't go as you hoped, leave no stone unturned to figure out why. It could be something really quite simple.
Once when I was redesigning my website, I inadvertantly made a change that caused a security error on the site. Not realizing this, I was nonetheless very much aware that sales had dropped tremendously. When someone pointed out the error and I corrected it, sales came back up immediately. If there is a problem with your sales or your website, remember, it could be a very simple problem--or string of problems--that you need to correct. If you are inches away from success, it would be a shame to throw in the towel now. Instead, go back to your original business plan. Review it to see if you've strayed from the beaten path. Look at what your successful competitors are doing, and compare it to your site. Ask your friends, children, spouse--even your mother-in-law--to give you ideas. It may be the latest, greatest idea someone gives you that pushes your business over the top, making what had seemed like a borderline enterprise, into the success you had hoped and dreamed of!
Cari Haus sells rustic log furniture at http://www.rusticdecorator.com/