Categories and Key Questions for your Internet Business Plan

Having a strategy and a business plan is essential to ensure the continued success of your Internet business.

You should create your business plan immediately after you have created and decided on your business strategy. Planning is the ‘how to’ of your strategy and will tell you how to achieve the goals you have set out for your business.

Start the business plan by using the categories (only if appropriate) below and do some brainstorming with other players or partners in your business or if you are on your own, a big piece of paper and colour pens will do the trick.

Here are 11 categories to consider.

1. Selecting your Market and Product

To be more successful on the internet I would suggest (as many others do) that you identify firstly the market that you would want to operate in then find the products to sell into that market.

Identifying an existing market is always the preference, unless you have a unique product that you would like to introduce into a brand new market. This is of course the more difficult, but not impossible, option.

Key question: New market or existing market?

1. Product Strategy

Decide how you will market and advertise your product.

Key question: With my current knowledge which marketing and/or advertising strategy should I go for first?

1. Target Market and Competitors

Identify your target market.

Key questions: Who are they? (Age level, skill level etc) Who are the customers that already exist in this market? Does your product strategy cover these potential customers?

1. Economics

It is essential for you to understand your market and product costs. Research to see if the market you want to be in is economically viable. Can you sell your product in this market?

Key questions: At what price will my product be put on the market? Can my target market afford this product?

1. Implementation

Here you translate your market and product strategies into a set of tactics that eventually reads like your ‘to do list’.

The most important aspect of your implementation plan is set realistic timelines, continually review these dates and adjust where appropriate.

Key question: By when do I want my product launched?

1. Marketing Strategy

This is all about getting customers to your web site.

Key questions: How will I get traffic to my web site? How will I choose which of the traffic building methods to use?

It is important for you to choose perhaps only two traffic methods to start with and focus all efforts on those before you embark on adding more. Once you have mastered a technique and have it running well, then and only then add another method.

1. Resources and Tools

Identify the tools you need to start off your business. Use as many free tools as possible to keep your costs initially to a minimum.

Key question: What tools do I need to start? (Example, word processing)

1. Finance

Understand your financial situation thoroughly before you start. You do not want to get your business into financial difficulty.

Key question: What is my budget?

1. Risks

Make a list of any key risks that you can think of that might influence or impact your business.

Key question: What are my key risks?

10. Evaluate and Review

Identify the areas that you need to monitor and evaluate on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.

Key question: What do I need to monitor and with what frequency?

11. Growth Strategy

What will you need to do to grow your business? Make a note of any ideas that come to mind and continually evaluate to see if the idea is still valid.

Key question: How will I grow my business?

Remember, no two business plans are alike. Use categories only where you see fit and last but not the least, business plans change as your knowledge and your business grows, so adapt it as you go along.

 

Book of Methods Make Money Online

At long last I have completed and released the much awaited Book of Methods. This is 117-pages of top tips to help you start your online business or to grow your existing online business.

Subscribe Now and get some free ebooks as step one.

 

Generation XYZ to G How and Why?

So tell me, when did we move from the baby boomers generation X, to Y, to Z and now G?

When everyone was branding the various generations X, then Y then Z I was wondering what tag we were going to come up next. Alpha, beta..? I guess it was the same crazy person that tagged generation X after the baby boomers.

I keep looking for some logic but there clearly is none.

Generation G after Z?

Let’s take a quick history lesson to understand the various branded generations.

The Baby Boomers were between 1946 and 1964. Those brash and confident bunch that  pushed their values and political views on anybody that would listen. A whole bunch of them became very successful and rich benefiting from all the post war demand for anything and everything.

And yes, they are still around, lots of them are our managers, bosses or our politicians. We can definitely brand them as a bunch of know-it-alls and who love doing, pushing and competing . We keep thinking that they will retire at 65 but no way, as long as they have their health we will not stop them.

From 1965 to 1979 we got Generation X. Oh man, what a laid back bunch. Straight from Woodstock. They made love freely, studied harder than their parents and when it came to relationships commitment was not high on their agenda.

Low and behold we got generation Y from 1980 to around 1997/8. These were our risk takers and our computer bof’s. They loved the internet and their communication skills evolved around it.

Ok, so now we have our current rug-rats born from 1998 to-date, Generation Z. Wow, do they live in the age where information flows at an all time high. These rug-rats play a major influence in the buying economy as they are the driving force behind all parent decisions.

With this generation I am not sure what happened to childhood, but they certainly stepped right over it.

Now that brings us to Generation G. Unlike the other generations, G is not characterized by age but spans across all the generations from Baby Boomers to Z.

Generation G covers any age, where you as an individual have come to the realization that the most important aspect of any business is its generosity to society as a whole.

What caused this shift?

1. The recent economic melt down caused a lot of people to realize how greedy and disgusting society has become.

2. We started to look for and want more from the corporate world than bonus payouts. We want corporates to care about us and our fellow citizens.

3. As individuals we have started being less selfish and caring more for others. We are a far more generous society than before.

4. We have also grown very aware of our planet and our environment and the damage we do each and every day. We try harder to be kinder to the environment and we are changing our bad habits.

So there you have it, G for Generous. Go to my web site and download some free ebooks.

And, yes, let me know what you think about the various generations.

 

How to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

I worked at this amazing place where for many years I had one challenge after another. This was why I loved my job and could spend many hours at it with complete disregard for friends or family.

But one day I started realizing that I was going to work hating every minute of it. On analysis of my day to day activities I came to the realization that the reason for this discontent was, that I was in my comfort zone.

What happened to the challenges? Was I missing opportunities because the job was too easy? No, that was not it. I looked around my environment and had a good look at my job.

My job started feeling like a jail sentence. Why was that? The same beautiful office environment now started feeling to me more and more like a jail. Walls started closing in on me on a daily basis. Yet, I could not leave. Was I too scared to change, too comfortable in the environment that I have been in for more than a decade?

Yes. I loathe admitting it but there it was. I desperately wanted out, but did not have the guts to go. I was too scared to leave this comfort zone that I had worked myself into as the thought of failure sent my thoughts straight back to the “I cannot leave because..” and there were a million reasons that I would come up with to justify why I could not leave.

Yet, my discontent grew day by day as I watch my life go by. Longing for something else I could not put my finger too.

So I got up one day and told myself, this far and no further. I could not let my life go by whilst I saw hundreds of others leave there comfort zones, take risks, fail, get up, do it again and again, then success steps in.

Success never comes at an assigned date, it just happens in its own time as the universe plans for you to have it.

Yes, that was what I did. I held my breath and took that giant step out. I felt free and with renewed strength took on the unknown with open arms.

The step out is as easy as that. Here is a few simple how to steps:

• Decide what you want to do

• Put all your focus on that idea

• Throw away or talk yourself out of your fear

• Trust yourself. Remember when you fear failure you are basically saying “I do not trust my own skills. I lack confidence in myself. I don’t believe in myself”

• Be persistent. When making mistakes or if an attempt fails, ask “what did I learn from this?”

• Get up, incorporate the learning and try again. Failure is when you never tried again.

• Get a positive mantra to keep you going

Remember:

• Nothing ventured nothing gained

• All winners at one time were filled with doubt

Do not sit in your comfort zone and watch your life go by. There will be nothing worse than some day saying the dreaded”if only I..”

Reach for your future with a smile. The sum of persistent attempts equals success.

 

Make Money With Cell Phone Advertising

We are all aware of Adwords and the power it has and still holds today in the online advertising world. Any web site owner worth their salt will or is advertising using Adwords.

There is however a relatively new market that is growing far quicker than the current online advertising market and that is the cell phone advertising market.

Currently, this new market has a potential client base of around 4.3 billion!

If you go to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) web site, they have some interesting statistics. ITU has also been the leading United Nations agency for information and communication technologies for over 145 years.

Did you know that 61% of the World’s population use a cell phone and this number is growing on a daily basis?

Most advertisers who have targeted this market markets mostly to one particular phone, which is the Apple iPhone. Doing some research on the market share of the various phones, you will find that the iPhone holds only about 11% of the cell phone market.

That leaves literally 89% of cell phone users that are not targeted.

A recent report from OgilvyOne and Acision made an interesting prediction about where cell phone advertising will be in 2020. This report said that by 2020 advertising will be far more people-centric, meaning you will not get just random ads delivered to your inbox, but far more personalised ads based on your tastes and preferences.

This is good news for most of us, who on a daily basis are receiving in excess of 50+ ads, which we mostly delete. If we can have control over what comes into our inboxes, life will most definitely be just a tad easier and less time consuming.

Now, all you web site owners, product pushers and affiliates out there, this is good news.

So, get to know what type of web sites are suited for cell phone advertising and start getting to know this new market better as it is growing. The OgilvyOne and Acisions report also predict that the proliferation of 3G and 4G networks will significantly grow the mobile advertising market from where it is today.

To learn more about this new market and its opportunities, go to MakeMoneyCellphone.com

 

How I Started in Affiliate Marketing

Do you often wonder how another person started in affiliate marketing?

Well, let me tell you my story.

My career in technology started way back, past many of your birth dates, and in the computer dark ages, if that is how we could describe it today. Although I know that when you get to my age, today’s technology would also get described as the dark ages for computers.

The world is changing so fast.

Ok, let me get back on track.

I started in computers as a programmer and did that for many many years. I absolutely loved it. But as life went on I got involved in implementation of software systems and slowly my career evolved to taking over these implementations, by being appointed the project manager. So a little less programming got done. And as the years went by I started climbing the corporate ladder and got more and more involved in taking over the leadership of technology teams.

So over the years my leadership expanded from not only leading software teams but also the hardware side of technology. Sure learnt a lot about communications and network technologies.

In any event, this all led to a time in my life where being at the top of the game, were the loneliest and most political place to be.

Now, that’s when I realized that my passion for technology had evolved to a place where I started hating my days, my job and my life.

So there I was one morning feeling as if I was an egg, shell intact but all the juice sucked out of me. Now What?

Got up, got dressed (normal corporate stuff, stilettos, which I love and the ever present black suit!). Got to work, called my boss and said ‘I am out of here, can we talk’. My boss being the good person that she is, understood, that it was time for me to go. We agreed and I left the corporate world for the unknown world.

In my last years in my job I had also qualified as a coach and when I left my corporate job I thought that that was what I was going to do. I will go on and complete my masters in coaching and do professional coaching for a living.

It felt good to be free and for a few months, 3 to be exact, I got up late, fooled around on the internet a bit, went to gym at 11 in the morning. Read countless books, all this whilst doing coaching as well.

Ok, so I like people and I like to help them, but coaching? Naw, not for me. Not full time in any event. Phew that was a relief; at least that was sorted.

But, something was missing. I still did not feel as if this was what I really wanted to do.

I came to the conclusion. It is great to do nothing, but us, we humans, like to have a purpose and a goal to work towards. So doing nothing was not for me either.

In my internet travels I came across this ‘affiliate marketing’ thing and started researching and reading about it as much as possible.

I sat down and started a bit of soul searching. Going back and writing down all the things I use to love doing and noting down the things that are so-so and the things that I really did not want to do.

This is what I got: What do I love doing?  

Dabbling in technology,

Researching,

Learning new stuff,

Creating and writing.

I loved doing research. I love creating ads. Oh, I forgot to mention I had started dabbling in Adwords, spend a bit of money, made a bit of money. Now that was exciting.

I went on courses, Html, Dreamweaver and SEO.

Started creating my own websites.

All this moved me into affiliate marketing and I love doing it.

It is very challenging as there is a lot of competition but that is also part of the fun. It is not an easy profession but it is creative, competitive, lots of money to be made and you learn something new every day.

Doing the internet travelling made me realize that here I can work, travel, chat, write, make money, 24 hours a day 365 days of the year.

Yes, there are risks. Scammers and hackers and just plain dishonest people were everywhere. You just have to know how to identify them, and sometimes you don’t and you get taken for a ride and yes sometimes you come across a virus. But you learn something new every minute, hour and day that you interact and worked on the internet.

You cannot ask for anything more exciting.

Do I miss my corporate world of big easy money and almost no risk?

Not for a nano second.

Are you thinking of getting into affiliate marketing?

Are you an affiliate marketer?

Love to hear your stories?

 

How to Find your Niche in Affiliate Marketing

When you start out as an aspiring affiliate marketer, one of the most difficult questions that you will come across is; which niche market should I focus on?

Finding the right niche for you to operate in can mean the difference between success and failure.

Let’s look at the word niche, what does it mean?

A niche is normally a sub set of a market that specialises in a particular area within that market. For example, a business that addresses a need within a market that is not being addressed by the mainstream providers through their particular service or product is focusing on a niche.

So where do you start?

Take a piece of paper and jot down the following:

·         What are you passionate about?

·         In what areas do you have a lot of knowledge?

Now go on the internet and go and do some research. Use Google Zeitgeist, here you can lookup Google trends, website trends, hot trends and insights into the types of search that Google users do every day.

Using your passion or key areas of knowledge, search on Google and analyse what you find. Can you identify a potential marketing area?

If you find a matching market, is it too big? Ask yourself; can I break down my expertise or passion further and create an area of speciality?

If you do not find a matching market, you could be lucky, this is when you can create one. Beware however, that you do not try and start a market where there is no interest. Be very sure that there could be potential customers that would be interested in what you wish to sell.

Finding your niche is the most important start of your business as an affiliate marketer. Spend time and effort finding out which market you should get into before you spend any money.

To find more information that could help and assist you find your niche, visit http://www.NicheNavigatorSecret.com. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ingrid_David

 

How to Choose Affiliate Marketing As a Business

Introduction

Why is everybody so gung-ho on this Affiliate Marketing or Internet Marketing business? This is a question a lot of people are asking. Why? The answer actually is quite simple. There is so much being written about it. There are so many outrages claims being made, specifically around the amount of money you can earn. So, how do you make an informed decision on whether or not you become involved, take some risk and spend some money on a course to teach you how to do affiliate / internet marketing?

20 Questions to Help you Decide

Use the following criteria as a benchmark for self evaluation and depending on the outcome make your decision:

1. What hours would you like to work?
2. Are you comfortable to spend hours in front of your computer?
3. Do you like research?
4. Are you creative?
5. How persistent are you?
6. Do you give up easily, when things get tough?
7. Do you like change?
8. Do you believe in the internet economy?
9. Are you disciplined?
10. Can you afford a small investment?
11. Do you like working on your own?
12. Are you competitive?
13. Do you believe in yourself?
14. Are you comfortable to step out of your comfort zone?
15. Do you like challenges?
16. Are you up to learning new things?
17. Do you fear the unknown?
18. Do you ask for help easily?
19. How committed are you?
20. Do you set goals and work towards it relentlessly?

So Which ‘Yes’ Answers = GO

Obviously some of us would not answer yes to all the questions above and on top of it there are more than just the twenty questions. The questions that I would rate the highest and here you must have a yes answer would be:

1. Are you comfortable to spend hours in front of your computer?
2. Do you like research? You will spend, specifically initially, a lot of hours in front of your computer doing research. So be prepared.
3. How persistent are you?
4. Do you give up easily, when things get tough? As they say, never give up. Persistence pays off.
5. Do you like change?
6. Do you believe in the internet economy? You must believe that there is growth within the internet and accept that this world changes by the millisecond.

7. Are you disciplined?
8. Do you like working on your own?
9. Do you believe in yourself?

These 3 are probably of the most important as you must believe that you can do it. You must be disciplined in your approach and set specific objectives and tasks to do every day. Above, all you need to understand that you must be able to work for hours on end alone!

10. Are you comfortable to step out of your comfort zone?
11. Do you like challenges?
12. Are you up to learning new things? I have no doubt that most people who get into internet marketing learn new techniques, technologies and programs all the time. You need to accept that you will go through steep learning curves.
13. How committed are you?
14. Do you set goals and work towards it relentlessly? Then to top things off, commitment to your goals is essential.

Let me reiterate; believe in yourself, be persistent and understand that the chances that you will fail a few times is OK, because from failure comes success.

Food for thought; if you never failed, would you have learnt?

Henry Ford said “If you believe you can, you can. If you believe you can’t, you can’t”

So go on believe you CAN!

http://www.ChooseMaverickMoneyMakers.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ingrid_David

 

Are You Tired of Your Corporate Life?

This is how it starts:

You join a great company, you move up the corporate ladder and you get to the top and guess what? There is nothing there, its empty, lonely and full of B.S. and politics. You wonder what happened, where did the years go and most of all NOW WHAT?

How do you change?

You are an expert in your line of business, knowledge gained over many years, challenges in this line of business, no problem. But, you want out, but the Big question is to what?

Everybody, most of all your kids! talk about the internet and you know that is where the current generation (half you age, on top of it) is making their money. That’s where you want to be too.

But, how to start? Where to start? On top of everything, it’s a little hard for you (and your ego) to admit that as knowledgeable as you are, you are a little clueless when it comes to doing business over the internet. Because, hey; I had staff doing all that for me!

All the above; well that was where I was.  I bailed on my corporate career and felt wonderful for it. Freedom at last! No responsibility, no corporate B.S. and politics, no traffic, the list is endless.

But, as we all know, most of us do not have an unlimited amount of funds, at some stage the finances are pinching and in any event, if you are like me, I like being busy, learning new things, new challenges it keeps my brain active and I feel alive.

So, I got into the internet and started researching. Oh man, there are endless amount of opportunities and yip, wait for it! A lot of scammers (for want of a better word). Yes, you are reading correctly. There are as I said lots and lots of business opportunities but if you are not careful (trust me when I say I learned the hard way) there is a whole lot of opportunities that is very superficial with very little to back them up. Most of these are not very expensive but it all adds up to wasted money.

Ok, enough of that. I did however come across an internet marketing program that teaches you quickly some of the basics of making money on the internet; it is from the internet guru Harvey Segal. Harvey’s program is called the Ultimate Supertips.

You can download an ebook for FREE, that’s right, you are reading this correctly, it costs you nada. With this free information you can start earning some money and get to know the basics of internet marketing.

Internet marketing is exciting and changes constantly, so if you are like me, and like to get involved in a challenge that will make money this is for you.

Go on it costs you nothing to take a look.

www.SupertipsforProfit.com

Watch my blog. I will keep you posted on my progress, keep me posted on yours.