What Do Successful People Do?

When I first began surfing on the Internet in 1997, I easily believed the messages saying that all I had to do to become successful (please read wealthy) was to build a web site, join affiliated programs or start a newsletter.

Well, after doing all of the above and repeatedly failing, I quickly reconsidered online marketing. "You have these two choices", I said to myself:

a. to become an expert by making all possible mistakes of internet marketing and to try to make some money advising people to avoid what you've already done, or b. to change the aproach and hope it's a winning choice.

After six years I've neither succeeded to make every mistake in order to become an expert, nor found the right approach to lead me to the big money. But I'll still try to find new things and ways that will improve my expert knowledge. Certainly I shall inform you about my accomplishment. Just stay around for another six years.

But, one thing is crystal clear: do what successful people do, unless they are internet experts. Anyway, you won't live long enough to make all possible mistakes on your own.

What do successful people do?

1. They act when the right time comes.

As you already know winter is the time for the sales fiesta on the internet. Then start pushing. Even if you live in Australia or New Zealand, I've heard some rumors that Santa will come soon. After the holidays try weight loss treatments. People like to look gorgeous in the spring and summer.

2. They are consistent.

Their messages are clear, concise and attention getting. They create interest, desire and a call to action.

3. They use the most appropriate form of communication.

A postcard is much more easily read than a nice letter covered in an envelope. A website is perfect when a substantial amount of traffic is driven in.

4. They know to whom to send messages.

Putting products in front of potential buyers is the key to marketing and selling. No potential buyers means no selling. If they miss the target audience they create one using a newsletter or/and optimize their sites to meet search engines' queries.

With these four components outlined, you can differentiate what's working in your business and what's not. Now take a little time to think.

© Copyright 2003 Valerian Dinca has been around long enough to know what works and what doesn't.

How to Build an Online Business Part 3 © 2003 Terri Seymour

In Part 3 of this series, I would like to discuss online networking as a way of building your business.

Networking is when you come in contact with as many people you can to learn, share, promote, and form relationships with prospective customers. You want to talk about your business, but not blatantly a^dvertise. Get to know others, learn from them, let them learn from you and get to know you.

There are many benefits to online networking such as:

Meeting new people/making new contacts Learning through other people's experiences/knowledge Making friends Building your reputation Increasing your confidence

All this and more can be done through sincere networking through discussion groups, email, message boards, etc. By sincere, I mean really make an effort to get involved, answer questions when you can, help others as often as possible, become a part of the group, not just a lurker waiting to get in some fre*e a^dvertising.

You can also do a lot of networking through your own email. People will email you with questions, concerns, suggestions and ideas. Answer all emails as quickly and efficiently as possible, always being courteous and respectful. This is a great way of building your networking list and very possibly picking up customers.

When visiting message boards and email discussion groups, remember these guidelines.

1. Do not sp*m. A lot of forums do not allow blatant a^dvertising, but do allow sigtags. Make sure you read all rules carefully before posting. There are groups that allow a^dvertising of any kind, however these are not very useful as far as networking or learning anything of value.

2. Do not flame. Forums are a means for people to express different opinions and ideas. You should never insult anybody because they do not agree with your point of view. This is one way for you to lose all credibility for your business and your reputation.

3. Do participate in the discussions. You definitely want to get involved in the discussions and make yourself known. Answer questions whenever possible and give advice. People will come to respect you as an expert in your field and trust what you say.

4. Do treat others with respect. Always give others on the boards the same treatment and respect you would want them to give you. No matter how much or how little someone knows, they still deserve the same respect as others. Always remember, you started out not knowing much either.

5. Do build relationships. I have "met" so many wonderful people since starting on the Internet. It is a great way to build personal and business relationships. So go to the boards/groups, start a conversation and just have some fun, while building your business.

Message Boards
http://www.internetbasedmoms.com/bb/index.php
http://homebizlink.com/wwwboard/
http://www.internet-marketing-forum.com/forum/index.php
http://www.im4newbies.com/forum/index.php
http://selfstartersweeklytips.com/forum/

Email Discussion Groups
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/myfavoriteezines/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ideasbypost/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WahmHits/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CommonConnection/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digital-women/

So start networking and have some fun!

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Terri Seymour owns and operates MyOwnEzine.com Learn to publish and promote your own ezine

How to Build an Online Business Part 2
© 2003 Terri Seymour

To continue on with this series on how to build an online business, I would like to talk about a^dvertising. There are various ways of a^dvertising your business, website, or ezine. Some are fre*e, some not. Some are effective, some not.

Let's take a look at some that, I think, are effective.

EZINE A^DVERTISING -Buying paid a^d spots in an ezine can be very effective. Some ways to find out which ezines are better for your a^dvertising ...

Subscribe to the ezine to get an idea of the consistency, reliability and quality of the ezine.

Contact the publisher to see if they make themselves available to their subscribers. If the publisher is not available to his/her subscribers, chances are the trust/respect relationship is not there.

Read the feedback of other a^dvertisers to see what kind of results they got.

JOINT VENTURES - Another way to effectively a^dvertise your ezine/business is by participating in joint ventures with business associates. Examples of such Joint Ventures would be:

A^d swaps - Contact fellow publishers to see if they would be interested in swapping a^ds, that is, they run your a^d in their ezine and you do the same for them.

Group PopUnder/Over Windows - Joint ventures like this enable your ezine/business to be a^dvertised on several different sites everytime they get a visitor.

SigTag Swaps - Find yourself a sigtag buddy and swap signatures for a period of time...a week, a month, whatever you agree upon. When that swap is over, arrange another one. This can bring you a lot of additional exposure.

WRITING ARTICLES - This is definitely one of the most powerful and effective methods of fre*e a^dvertising. Writing and submitting articles can get you tons of exposure in ezines and on websites. This also helps your search engine ranking.

The first article is indeed the hardest. Once you get started they will come much easier. Do not be afraid to give your articles a little personality and/or humor. Subscribe to some ezines and read the articles to get an idea of what people are writing. But do not try to copy somebody else's style. You want YOUR knowledge and personality to come through in your articles.

These are just a few of the numerous and creative ways of a^dvertising your business/ezine on the Internet. Next issue in Part 3 of this series I will be covering networking ... another effective form of a^dvertising.

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Terri Seymour owns and operates MyOwnEzine.com Learn to publish and promote your own ezine.

Since I review business opportunities and internet gurus all day for a living, you can guess I know which ones work and which ones don't. Click here to see how I make my money.