Starting Your Internet Business With Low Risk
Starting your internet business is actually pretty simple and it’s a very smart move given the times we live in. But getting it to generate the kind of income you want is another story. Your attitude to risk and your budget play a major part in this as does the way you set your expectations.
I’m now at a pretty good place in my internet business but it did take some time. I got it wrong a couple of times but stuck with it. Now I have a lot of time, location and financial independence. Here’s how I’ve done it without undue risk and some advice on how I recommend you do too.
Don’t look at starting your Internet business as a quick route to the kind of dream lifestyle you want. Lot’s of people do and I was the same. I saw all those videos shot on white beaches by the Indian ocean, the flash cars and all the rest of it. I could easily see how it could work: The billions of potential customers just a click away. Being a semi sensible and sceptical Scotsman however, I knew it couldn’t be as simple as the gurus made it look.
So much as I would have loved to, I didn’t jump on the first online business opportunity I saw and chuck my job. Instead I spent some time sorting through the obvious scams and unrealistic claims that emerge when you type “start an internet business” into Google.
Starting Your Internet Business On Solid Foundations
Eventually I found a company selling franchised e-commerce stores. I contacted them offline, asked some questions and got a feel for what was on offer. I reasoned that a ready built business model is a safer bet – online or offline. There was no need for my own products since this was an affiliate style business: Commission earned from selling other people’s products.
I could build this business in my spare time around my job until such times as I’d replaced most of my income. The franchisor assured me that this could take as little as 3-6 months. So I stumped up £3600 for my store (in the wine and related products niche) I populated the store with stock from a number of retailers, followed the training provided and felt very optimistic. At the time work was going badly with redundancy on the cards, so it felt fantastic to be building a life raft – a plan B.
I worked diligently on this for a year. I did make a few sales but not much more than beer money. Networking with other franchisees I discovered that all was far from roses for most of them. People were spending tons of time working on their stores and getting nowhere. The training was heavily criticised – backed up by some changes to Google’s policies – and people began asking for their money back.
Avoid Shortcuts That End Up As The Long way
Essentially their strategy centred on article writing. They provided software that “spun” articles. You’d write an article and this would turn it into 100’s of similar articles by replacing some of the words and phrases with alternatives. The software would then whizz through hundreds of article directories, sign you up for them and post your “articles” to them.
If you took a lot of time over it, your articles were still readable and somewhat “unique”. If you didn’t they read like something a monkey had written. Believe it or not, this used to work back in the early days of Internet marketing. All you needed to do was to put enough keywords in an article and the search engines would rank it. If you had enough articles with those keywords out there you could rank highly. Google got wise to that a long time ago however and that type of strategy will now get you on to page 10 million rather than page 1!
I was lucky enough to get a refund on my store. I had lost a little money and lot of time but I still had a job at least.There was nothing wrong with the business model itself, and I wasn’t deterred. It was obvious however that I had a lot to learn about online marketing. I still consider this period a valuable learning curve.
Many of the other franchisees I’d got to know were also undeterred and we kept in touch. We would share other opportunities and businesses that looked good. In that way I came to the next step in my starting an Internet business journey.
No Need To Re-Invent The Wheel
This was a Canadian business based around Internet banner advertising. It combined network marketing, affiliate marketing and MLM in an ingenious way that appealed to newbie’s and seasoned entrepreneurs alike. I invested about a third of my refund into one of their packages and got to work.
And work it did – for a couple of years. It did feel that myself and many others had found that ideal business. It took about an hour or two to run from anywhere you could connect to the internet and it more than replaced my income (I had lost the job by then) But it wasn’t to last. What started with a few teething problems escalated into an avalanche of trouble and the business collapsed. It’s too long a story to go into here but suffice to say I was back to square one.
But I was ahead of the game. While the ad business was working well I’d banked some good money. I’d also learned a lot. Primarily that of all the business models used in the online world, affiliate marketing is the one to go for.
You see the problem with all these clever (and so clever) business ideas, is that they are too complicated. If you are serious about starting your internet business, steer clear of them. With literally millions of bona fide, established and in demand products and services already in existence, there is no need to reinvent the wheel.
Starting Your Internet Business With All Your Ducks Lined Up
Affiliate marketing simply offers you the opportunity to promote these products and services to people who are already looking for them. The key to success is to choose what you promote wisely and to invest in learning Internet marketing. When you do that you can pick and choose what you sell and scale your business wisely. That’s how to build a sustainable business online that won’t just disappear just when you think you are getting somewhere.
The other thing I would seriously recommend when starting your internet business empire is to get mentors. Mentors won’t just hand you success on a plate but they will give you the benefit of their success. They’ve made all the mistakes so you don’t have to.
Life is full of “if only moments”. When it comes to starting your internet business, mine is “If only SFM had been around when I started looking”. They’ve been superb mentors, trainers and have provided me with products and services I’m proud to promote. If you read this (somewhat longer than I intended) post and want to avoid the mistakes and hiccups I described you should check them out.
Just click on the banner below or images in this post to get their free video training series. At the very lest you’ll be better informed around what it takes and at most you’ll be starting your internet business the right way in no time.
