It looks like a loaded question, doesn’t it? If it was as easy as writing a ten part guide to making money online, and if everyone who read it followed the principles then we’d all be rich, wouldn’t we?
The days of the Internet scams and get rich quick schemes should be well and truly over – or are they?
The emails galore circling our globe and asking people to part with money or bank details, and people fall for it, despite the frequent warnings. E-mails are still being sent around which look like they are from banks, and asking us to use the links in them to login to the bogus lookalike websites. People are still falling for those too.
I’m not going to jump on the making money via a scam routine, as any money that is made honestly online is a lot of work for small return in the beginning.
Anyone can start a website or start up a free blog and promise the earth so I will get down to some basics of what you need to do to try and make your business a success in online circles.
1. The business that we need to cultivate online is not simply going to make it with its competitors if all you do is update some information onto your website once a month, and then don’t check how that information is being received by your audience. If you don’t check, how do you know you are not writing to an empty space. There might not be anyone visiting your blog at all if you don’t promote it in the right circles.
2. Contrary to popular belief, social media needs you to be social. That means the people you socialise with online and offline need to make a connection with you. It involves TRUST and building up your BRAND, and as a result, giving yourself the REPUTATION of someone who is seen to know what they are talking about. If you don’t think your BRAND is good enough to shout from the rooftops about, how is anyone else going to.
3. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you or your BRAND are the best thing since sliced bread out there. If you don’t fill a social networking need in your local area, you can be sure that someone else will.
4. Make a conscious effort to build your social network. If you have researched Klout, you will realise that they spend a lot of time monitoring your influence and your reach. Your influence is monitored by how many people react to what you say online. If you constantly talk about yourself or your BRAND and never engage with your audience, then you will find your influence is low indeed. They also measure your reach as based on how wide your social network circle is.
5. Build your social networking strategy efficiently. It takes time and patience and some semblance of organisation to compete without it fully taking over your life. Don’t cultivate followers for the sake of statistics. 50,000 followers who don’t live and breathe any way to bring you in a monthly pay cheque could be a wasted effort. You may have much more success with 1000 targeted followers who are interested in your niche, and you can reasonable be able to keep up the levels of interaction that you need to build relationships that mean something. For some businesses quantity does mean more than quality, but you need to build that into your strategies for your particular areas.
6. Use free E-Courses for business. They are a good way to build a network of people who are looking for information in the area that you work in. Make sure you use those types of list responsibly and ethically. Selling clients e-mail addresses will slot anyone who does that into the same category as scammers by a large proportion of their clients. That means it is not good practice to take an email list and use it at every opportunity to send emails about marketing and promotional opportunities.
7. Offer to help your social networking clients as building a business is more about relationships than about your individual skills.
8. Make sure you attend local events and get your business out and known in the real world. Sitting at home waiting for business to come to you might mean that you miss the opportunities that could be close to home. Again, if you don’t get out there and promote your business, someone else is going to fill that slot.
9. Decide what your potential customers need. The only way you are going to find that out is to ask them. We can make all our own decisions based around what potential clients may need, but if they don’t want it, your business is not going to make you any money. Find out by using newsletters, promotional information and offer a discount voucher, or giveaway a product if you have tangible goods. Each business has different strengths to their bow, and you need to use those strengths.
10. Look after your existing clients and give them the first opportunity to take advantage of offers and discounts. Word of mouth is your friend in the business world, and I am going to bore you by saying it again, it all comes down to your relationships with your clients.
