How To Put A Good Online Venture Together
The internet is probably the best opportunity ever for anyone to
get into a rewarding venture of their own, at amazingly low
cost. We're in financially troubling times, why not start now?
Just think about this... a local store can easily cost thousands
of dollars before you can open it's doors. This involves
property lease or rent, insurance, display shelves, office
furnishings and supplies, equipment, advertising, stock, more.
When you finally do get it open, money left for working capital
may be very low. This makes it difficult to meet the on going
expenses until the business can survive on it's own. The market
is limited to just your area. So in comparison to that...
As a 'Netpreneur, the world is your market; expenses are less.
That is true, everyone knows it. But too many people believe the
empty promises and schemes that are rampant on this new
frontier; just like the old gold rush days you read about.
"There are no free lunches" still holds true. Advising you what
business to get into on the net is not intended here, that's a
whole other subject we can get to later on. Let's assume for now
that you have some venture ideas in mind. Actual profit is
rarely immediate, but that is always possible.
While not impossible, usually those over night results we hear
about took a very long time (maybe years) preparing for that
particular night. This is certainly not meant to discourage any
one. It is just meant as a help in making decisions about how
much faith, risk and will power you'll invest in your ventures.
This simply means, if you can't have that much faith and will
power for a business idea, or if you aren't ready to learn and
take a little risk to test waters, you had better look for some
thing you can feel more confident about. When our money is
involved, no matter if it is only a small investment, those are
decisions that do become much easier. In fact, I have found that
it is better to have some money invested because it will keep us
motivated and focused when there is some risk and our "eye is
steadily on the prize".
There's a valid point to holding off expense as long as you can.
Even when you are ready to "go live", it's usually quite a while
before we see enough money made. Costs add up during that time,
usually monthly, for websites, hosting & promotions. So that
expense as well as any product investment needs to be recouped
as a first goal. Set your goals like steps on a ladder to your
ultimate goal at the top. It's easier to go step by step in a
systematic way. It is very exciting and keeps you going to reach
each next step on that ladder.
To make money, you MUST make it easy for people to buy.
This means good clean website design and navigation. People want
to see quickly what you're offering, if it will benefit them,
how it will be delivered, how much it costs, and how you are
going to back it up. Be sure your site loads fas. Never use any
applets, cutesy decorations nor script that does not relate to
one of those five factors. Every headline and sentence needs to
make them want to know what is next. It must hold their
attention until the buying decision is made.
You MUST accept "Plastic Money" on the internet.
I don't know if your product is tangible (shipped), an
intangible (downloadable) or subscription (recurring billing).
But whatever it is, buying needs to be easy, fast and securely
done. Having a merchant account of your own is the best way if
you have a great deal of buyers. It can be very expensive to set
up, even if some companies offer full service, including a
shopping cart.
But you have to pay monthly fees and usually have a volume
requirement to meet to earn the lowest prices. Also you need to
have a business checking account... more monthly costs. The
advantage is the low bank commission percentage you will have to
pay on your sales. You need ($?) sales to break even.
You don't have to pay that much if you do this:
I prefer to go with a third party provider. They'll handle all
the bank card transactions for you. There is little or no set up
cost and no monthly costs. It is true that a commission
percentage you pay them is higher than your own arrangements
would be. Third party providers will usually ask around fifteen
percent of the sale price. But you only pay if you are actually
selling your products or services. You can quickly see how much
less you have to sell to break even, or just "catch up". Even
when the business does get going, you may want to stay with the
third party provider, because...
You can start your own affiliate program at no cost too.
Think how fast your business can grow with others selling for
you. A two tier afiliate program is another benefit given to you
and managed for you by some third party providers. They will
update the stats for both you and your affiliates and pay them
out of the proceeds that they'll generate for you. If you think
about how much time and money, plus the expertise, it would take
for you to implement all this, you realize: Not only can a good
third party provider do all this for you at a low cost, it frees
you up to promote your business and affiliate programs.
Who are they? My favorite third party providers are:
For tangibles, www.ccnow.com is my choice, which does have a
monthly fee of about nine dollars. Their commission is lower,
only about nine percent, which compensates. They give a full
shopping cart and handle auction sales as well. There is not an
affiliate program provided for their merchants yet. There are no
set up fees.
For intangibles, there is a third party provider that has a set
up fee of about fifty dollars, but no monthly fee. You can have
up to fifty products, or more by special arrangement. Commission
is about fifteen percent. They'll handle an affiliate program
too. Clickbank: http://www.clickbank.com
For intangibles, like downloadable ebooks and recurring billing
(subscriptions), like Right Stuff Co PrivateSite for webmaster
information, we use GloBill. There is no set up and no monthly
fee. The Commission is about fifteen percent. They do provide an
excellent two tier affiliate program. Support is good & their
service is great. They have no minimum payout for affiliates; if
they earn it, they get paid, twice per month. It is motivating
for affiliates to get money into their hands quickly. This is
true, even if it is only a small amount in the beginning.
www.globill-systems.com/
I'm not suggesting you do this forever, just until your business
is stable; can pay for your own merchant account and affiliate
arrangements and show a nice profit over the costs. There will
be more profit then, since your commission percentage outlay
will be lower. You should be able to get where you want to be
much faster without worrying about having to recoup the huge
getting started expenses.
Plus (heaven forbid) if the business does not work out in the
long run, you have not lost much more than time & advertising.
Other capital investment money you have is still available for
promotion or additional ventures. Maybe, down the road you will
want to have several businesses up and running when you take the
leap into managing your own customer payment and affiliate
programs. Accepting credit cards is one success key.