e-Business For Dummies

By Shahnaz Rauf
Posted Friday, November 5, 2004

A business is a business is a business. Here the bottom line is if you don’t sell anything, you don’t make any money. Whatever you sell does not really matter, but how you sell it does. Such cliches as selling 'snow to the Eskimo' or 'sand to the Arab nomad' are very true. You can sell absolutely anything if you do it the right way. The trick is to create a value in your customers mind and... Do it in the right way.

There are only 4 steps you need to follow:

1.Get the right tools -you must have the right tools and you must use them innovatively. Every trade has its tools... you cannot cook in the kitchen without the right pots, pans and spoons. You need an oven to bake, stove to cook, grill to... The rest is all a recipe. You need the right tools to make it work. Similarly to operate Successfully on the internet you need the following tools. Here it pays not to cut corners.

You need your own domain name and web-hosting for whatever you are selling... Whatever your product, company websites are simply no go as any successful e-preneur will tell you. Be sure your web-hosting service enables sufficient bandwidth and raw statistics.

You need a mailing list solution - this is an absolute necessity to develop your business.

You need an ad tracking solution... hey don’t be turned off, some days I get up to a 1000 visitors to my site with not one sale, at other times I get 5 or 6 sales with just 100 visitors. Then because I am tracking my ads I know where to continue advertising. Believe me it pays for itself.

You need a credit card payment option...

And most important of all you need a multi-series auto-responder system. Without it you may not be able to compete in the survival of the fittest.

2. Get A product – Though it is best to have your own product but until this happens, you can get products with resell rights, or any of those amazing affiliate programs out there. I am sure you have heard that in the gold rush era, it was not the gold miners who made a bundle, it was the spade (service) providers. So find a need and fill it. You can always ride high on the waves of change. [One very innovative example I came across recently: You may be aware that eBay recently acquired PayPal, so all those eBay merchants need to reflect this change on their inventory payments – so almost immediately I came across a site offering these integration services. Now that’s one smart surfer!]. So use those little gray cells in your head and read a few of those annoying newsletters in your mail box to tay abreast of latest issues. You could come up with your killer product much sooner than later.

3. Set it up to sell –This is a little tricky, but you can do it quite well if you have access to the right tools. Often the right tools can make all the difference between success and failure. So I will say it again: Do not cut corners here. You basically need to:

Set up a direct sales page.

Set up an autoresponder (5 or 7 days) course describing the beneficial uses of your product.

Set up a regular newsletter or mailing list.

Set up a free info-booklet about your product as a viral give away.

Set up a high paying affiliate program.

4. Promote, Promote, Promote. You can have the best of everything, but it will not sell if you do not promote. So here again, do not cut corners. Go for solo ezine ads; Go for guaranteed visitors; Go for site blasts; Go for power linking strategies; Go for Pay-per-click advertising; Go for press release; Go for search engine submission... Go for it. Give it your all . Create a ‘buzz’, ‘Halo’ or ‘aura’ about your business. Best time to give a power boost is in the winter months.

Now here don’t get discouraged. I know most of us are working on very tight budgets. If you are just a little smart you can always grab ‘the best bang for your bucks’... Look carefully through your email. It all basically boils down to where you want to see yourself in the future – Working to death making other people rich, or getting rich yourself and living the life style you desire. Believe me if you follow through, you will be able to achieve the financial freedom you want. It`s your choice.

About the Author
Shahnaz Rauf is a freelancer actively seeking writing projects. She is also The Editor of The Monster Twister– a Newsletter helping ordinary web owners achieve extraordinary heights without losing their shirts. To Subscribe mailto:themonstertwister-subscribe@snzeport.com Or visit her website at (http://www.snzeport.com)