Four Models of Successful Internet Business Sites!

By Stuart E. Elwell
Posted Friday, December 10, 2004

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One of the best methods of learning how to succeed in your Internet business is to first find a successful site to model your business on.

Over the years I have studied many successful web sites to try to find out what it is that is making them a successful Internet business. And not just in one particular field, but many fields, from the many different types of websites out there. Next time you view an Internet site that you know is very successful, stop for a moment to try and decipher why it is so successful.

You will find successful sites on just about any subject matter you care to think about. There seems to be no barrier to developing a successful site in any field. You name it, people are probably making money out of their website in that specialized area.

Just about anything, if planned appropriately, can be sold online. If you want to be successful too, why not look for examples of businesses which have already achieved the success you would like, and model your business after that, i.e. play follow the leader.

It would be too much information to try and describe every single model of success, but I would like to introduce you to just four model websites which keep springing up. Sites that are obviously benefiting from being a successful online business model.

Look at these models to see if you are on your way to becoming just like that type of business.

Model No.1 - Opt-In List Builder

This is a good model to build your site around by providing a free newsletter or ezine. If you are building a mailing list this way, then you must provide high quality information to your list on a weekly or monthly basis. Never send just ads or useless information. If your newsletter is just an excuse to push ads you can be certain it will not grow. On the contrary, your subscribers will opt-out quicker than you can replace them, and you'll probably not make any sales anyway.

Learn how to write effective testimonials instead of blatant ads. These should be a small part of informative articles. They should fit in nicely and naturally along with this information, indeed be a part of it! Once your list gets into the thousands, you should start to see an almost guaranteed income. Continue to use your website to build your list up each month and watch your monthly income grow alongside it.

It can be an effective way to create income, but you have to be willing and able to write a weekly or monthly newsletter. It doesn't have to be long, in fact it shouldn't be. But it does have to be informative. If you hate writing this may not be the route for you.

Model No.2 - Free Services

There are many services on the Internet that people like to use, or even desperately need. Examples include such services as providing an autoresponder service, traffic generating services, providing free webspace, reciprocal link checking etc. Sites which provide something valuable for free can often become extremely popular. Once this popularity is achieved, and you start getting a lot of daily traffic, then you can start to charge for allowing advertising on your site.

You're probably thinking something like "how could I possibly provide such a valuable free service, surely you need lots of programming knowledge and experience to run such a thing?". In reality it isn't that difficult. All you need is the right pre-written script to add to your website. Have a look here: (http://www.cgi-resources.com). This website provides many CGI programs, many of which are low or NO cost. Some of their scripts could make great traffic generators for you if you use them on your site in a highly relevant fashion.

One of the biggest advantages of this web business model is you don't necessarily have to pay for any advertising. A good press release might be all you need, particularly if you are providing something unique. The hard part is coming up with a good idea. But if you can, because you are providing a valuable free service, word of mouth can get round very fast.

Model No.3 - One Product Page

If you have a hot product that you want to sell, then create a good sales page and focus all of your marketing efforts towards bringing that page to people's attention. When you present just one choice at your site, you decrease any distraction which may come from offering multiple alternative pages.

Getting interested people to click through to this web page can produce excellent profits, but this is also the hard part. You will probably have to pay for all of your traffic so a well thought through pay-per-click campaign may be your best choice for this business model.

Model No.4 - Affiliate Programs

A popular website model for new webmasters is to create a site that catalogs many different (but hopefully related) products within their site. To do this you will either need a number of different affiliate programs to sign up with, or you'll need to join an affiliate network such as Commission Junction or Clickbank. These bring a huge number of affiliate programs together - under one roof as it were (i.e. all available through the same intermediate provider).

In order to make this work you have to develop a specialized site. It needs to be an information source primarily, but definitely not a sales pitch. Your visitors will want to be provided with up to date information related to their subject of interest which brought them to your site in the first place.

You have an unlimited array of possible subjects to choose from, but you should opt for something that interests yourself very much. This way you'll have no problem deciding what other people with the same interest will want to read, learn or talk about.

Within this context you can then have recommended products directly related to whatever you think people will be interested in, so long as it is genuinely related and of value to your readers. If your visitors value your site and are interested in your opinion you will make sales.

The real beauty of developing this kind of site is you can potentially do very well in the search engines, and that can provide you with a lot of free traffic. I have provided lots of information to help you with this at my site; (http://www.websmart-marketing.com). Working your pages around popular keywords is how its done, and when people type these words into their favorite engine, you want your site to come out as close the number one spot as possible.

Each of these website business models represents a possible online business for you. Can you integrate the one which interests you the most in with your favorite hobby or pastime? What do you enjoy doing the most? What do you like to think about when you have the free time. Whatever this is, there's probably a wide audience of people with the same interest. Why not build them a website they can visit. You could find it relatively easy to make money at the same time.

Best wishes for your future.

About the Author
Stuart Elwell, Webmaster for WebSmart-Marketing.com; (http://www.websmart-marketing.com/home.html) ...which provides good advice and strategies for making money from the Internet.