Disheartening? It doesn't have to be. You can learn from other's mistakes. Other people's successes in the online world drove you to want to start your web business. Their failures can help you.
Who wouldn't prefer to avoid rush hour traffic each morning on the way to the office and in the evening on the way in which home from the office? And everybody hates their boss. Even if you prefer your boss, you prefer not to have a boss at all. This is the allure of the internet. Making money in your pajamas and answering in order to yourself.
It's also one of the biggest reasons people fail in internet business. They have to answer to themselves. When you first venture into being your personal boss, it's extremely tempting to slack off on your work hours. It's even more tempting if you work at home. You have the television, video games, the refrigerator, the children and the actual spouse all to distract you. Being your own boss takes more discipline than using a job where you take orders from someone else. The lack of discipline in many online business owners causes them to relax their efforts ten times a lot more than they would if they had a boss to answer to. The the truth is that in some aspects, being your own boss can be more demanding than the usual job. Your businesses success and failure hinges on how much work you put in it.
Many online businesses fail because the owners dive into the venture using the wrong mindset. They try to take brick-and-mortar concepts and apply them towards the internet. The internet is a different monster than a brick-and-mortar retail store. With a brick-and-mortar retail shop, you start with a great location and also you build a beautiful store, a little advertising and the customers come. Online business owners put a myriad of money into building beautiful websites and then sit back and wait for that business to come to them.
It doesn't work like the late night infomercials let you know that it does. That brick-and-mortar retail store competes with only the other 4 or 5 retail stores in that plaza. You build your beautiful site and it competes with an incredible number of other websites. Now, how are people supposed to find your needle for the reason that haystack? Search engine optimization would be a good start. Create a site that the various search engines love. Hopefully, your site shows up at the top of the search results (this is prime real estate on the internet). But in order to achieve that, you have to plan accordingly.
Lack of planning kills any business. It is extremely detrimental to internet businesses. For an internet business to succeed, there's to a comprehensive plan that includes website design, the focus of your company, marketing strategies, fulfillment strategies, and strategies to handle customer complaints. Most new internet businesses don't have any focus. The owner just knows that he wants to start a online businesses. He has some idea in his head that he wants to sell game titles, for example. Unfortunately, he has not created a plan to differentiate himself in the other million and one websites that sell video games. He becomes a speck within the dust.
In order to properly plan, the online business owner has to know about every aspect of his business, marketing strategies others in the field tend to be employing with success, and the knowledge of internet marketing. Most online businesses fail since the owner jumps into the business powered by his dreams of financial success or freedom from the traditional job. They fail to take the time to learn the intricacies and strategies of internet marketing and what must be done to succeed in an online business.
An online business needs three factors to have success. The business has to generate traffic, keep constant contact with client and close the sale. Even brick-and-mortar businesses can't survive if they don't have any customers. Online businesses are the same way. If no one visits your site, then you can't make any money. Many new online business owners, their very first time starting a business online, expect that simply having their website online may generate business. It doesn't. They've gone several months before realizing that they need to generate traffic on their own. By then, it's too late for them to learn to use internet marketing to their advantage. They've already spent tons of money launching the company, warehousing products, and shelling out for expenses.
Some people have the luck of hiring a website design firm who has explained to their customer that they'll need site optimization, and probably offered traffic generation services. It's great to obtain traffic. But you're going to be throwing your hands up in the air in surrender if you have a thousand customers a day to your site and still aren't making anything. That's because you've failed to grab hold of this prospect and not let him walk from the door. Online businesses have an advantage over brick-and-mortar businesses. It's easier for an internet business to capture email addresses and information about customers than it is with regard to brick-and-mortar business. Unfortunately, some online business owners actually fail to do this particular. Simply capturing email addresses gives you the opportunity to invite this prospect to your site. The job that people say they despise the most is actually sales jobs. Even though we are constantly selling ourselves, people are therefore fearful of sales. Too many business owners take this same mentality to their online business. You can't be afraid to ask for the sale. Should you never ask for the sale, how do you know if you will every have it or not?
Finally, the greatest tragedy of all online business failures is neglecting using the tracking capabilities of the internet. The internet is such an incredible tool for tracking and measuring statistics. It's unbelievable how many online business people fail to track and measure their efforts. This probably is a byproduct associated with improper planning. But even planning without tracking and measuring results is useless. Because of the lack of tracking, you could end up spending more income into advertising efforts that aren't working and less time and money on efforts that work.