Internet Business Reality Check - Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, we swallowed a small dose of reality – that building a successful Internet marketing business is entirely possible, but that it’s going to require some real work on your part.

Now that we’ve gotten real about things, the first key is to understand and accept the fact that the basic formula for success for an online business is no different than any other kind of business:

1. First, you have to find a niche with lots of potential customers that are both willing and able to buy whatever you’re selling;

2. Next, you have to create a compelling sales pitch that has the ability to generate massive interest in the products or affiliate program you’re promoting within that niche;

3. Then you have to get that awesome message in front of as many prospective customers within your niche as possible, and generate lots of qualified leads;

4. Finally, you absolutely must follow up with those leads in a timely and effective manner and convert them into paying customers – ideally, happy, long-term customers that will buy from you again and again, and who will refer others to you within your niche!

I remember a college course I took on entrepreneurship. Our crazy professor gave us a single, comprehensive final exam that had 100 true-false questions on it (which, by the way, all turned out to be true!) and one extra-credit bonus question:

What’s the one thing every business needs in order to be successful?

After an entire semester of talking about business plans and the like, almost everyone in the class answered “a solid business plan” or “positive cash flow” or “adequate capital”, or some such.

But the correct answer, which everybody missed, was: “customers”!

You get the point, and you probably even agree with it... But, how do you get customers?
In almost every industry that has ever existed, the top players tend to share common traits – habits, if you will – that enable them to reach the pinnacle of their industry and stay there. Every book and training program ever created on the subject of success focuses on this very thing – identifying the commonalities between successful people and companies, and teaching the student how to replicate them. Invariably, there are always a half-dozen or so factors that make the majority of the difference.

So, in order to build a successful and sustainable online business, you first need to find others who are already having success in promoting an existing affiliate program, study what makes them successful, and then do those same things yourself. Better yet, to do it as quickly and painlessly as possible, find someone who has already done that work for you, and who has a model that you can replicate!

In Part 3 of this series, we’ll introduce the habits that are practiced by successful internet marketers…