Internet Marketing Help ? 10 Reasons Why Most Online Businesses ...

Starting an online business is one of the easiest things to do these days, and consequently, most failure prone. Since it is extremely easy to launch an online business, very little thought is put into the nitty-gritty of running an actual business that is supposed to generate revenue sooner or later.

Business, whether it is an Internet-based or a conventional brick-and-mortar one, needs to offer something tangible, something valuable and something people would like to pay for. Aside from that, you also need to let people know that you are running a business. You also have to convince people why do business with you, and why not with another person providing similar products or services. If you haven?t considered these factors very seriously, there is a great chance that your business is going to fail in the very near future.

Under the Internet Marketing Help section of my blog I?m going to highlight 10 top reasons why most online businesses fail. Please keep in mind that these points/reasons are not here to dissuade you in any manner ? we can emerge stronger only when we know our weaknesses and this is precisely the underlying philosophy behind this blog post. So here are those 10 reasons:

1. Starting the business without any clear-cut idea of exactly what is the commercial viability of your online presence

As already mentioned above, it is very easy to launch a new business on the Internet. All you need is a broadband connection these days, an ability to register a domain name (some people don?t even do that and create websites using free hosting services), and a web hosting account you can avail for as little as ? 2 per month. Consequently, very little thought is put into strategy, direction and implementation. Before launching your business you need to figure out

• What value you are delivering
• Whether there is actually a demand for your product or service
• How easy it is to purchase your product or service from your website
• How you plan to project yourself as a credible, genuine business

Once you have prepared answers to these questions you can proceed to the next level.

2. Not investing much in your website design

By the end of the day it is your website that is going to do business for you. People are going to come to your website, go through your various offers and then decide whether they want to do business with you or not. So when you have opened shop online, the way your website looks, feels and functions is as important as the quality of products and services you are offering.

Most people commit the mistake of using freely available templates that have already been used by thousands of other webmasters. This prevents your prospective customers and clients from having confidence in your business, because if you aren?t even confident enough to invest in the design of your website, how confident can you be about your business?

3. Believing in ?get rich quick? schemes and starting your business based on them

Although there is nothing wrong in people quickly getting rich using revolutionary ideas and ingenuity, in the real world it rarely happens and if someone is promising you hundreds of thousands of pounds in a matter of a few months, then there is more than 99% chance that something is fishy.

Every serious business requires serious commitment, serious investment and above all, serious effort on your part. There is no lazy man?s way to becoming a millionaire (unless you hit a jackpot or inherit a fortune). There are some very promising affiliate programs on the web but you need to choose them carefully and keep in mind that merely having a web page or a landing page isn?t going to get you in a business. You need to generate lots of targeted traffic and you need to have constant visibility, in order to make some money.

4. Not engaging your visitors

To use a cliche, engagement is the name of the game these days. With your content, with your interactions, you constantly need to engage your visitors. Many aspiring online entrepreneurs simply put up a small website having 5-10 webpages, fill up those pages with 1000 or so words and then start waiting for queries to pour in. In reality, nobody cares for your business or your webpages unless you can invest enough time in knowing people and engaging them.

On your business website the best way of engaging people is publishing a regular blog. A blog that is routinely updated inspires confidence among your visitors. In the comments section of your blog you should encourage your visitors to communicate with you and with each other to maintain the buzz.

5. Using your social media and social networking profiles simply for pushing marketing messages

Your social media and social networking profiles can be excellent places for engaging your prospective customers and clients provided you can hold meaningful conversations with them instead of pushing drab marketing messages. Talk to your friends and followers over Facebook and Twitter. Ask them interesting questions. Regularly post relevant, topical and useful information. Be an asset rather than an unknown noise.

6. Not tapping into the potential of permission-based e-mail marketing

Permission-based e-mail marketing remains one of the most potent marketing tools available to online business owners, still. Please note that there is a big difference between regular e-mail marketing (spammy kind of) and permission-based e-mail marketing. In the latter, people give you permission to send them occasional messages. You need to build your own list of e-mail ids and this can be achieved by having a subscription box (where you accept their e-mail ids and perhaps their names) in your sidebar or on a separate page. It can be time-consuming, but it is the best way of promoting your business offers in front of an audience that is eager to receive them.

7. Not paying enough attention to search engine optimisation

Despite Facebook and Twitter (and now Pinterest) the biggest chunk of your traffic will come from search engines and for that to happen, you have to optimise your website for the right keywords and search expressions. Most online business owners get too obsessed with their own way of thinking about their business, totally bypassing how their customers and clients think. Unless you are a known brand, optimise your content (and your website) according to features and benefits rather than product or service names. While carrying out your search engine optimisation strategy, take into consideration the keywords and key phrases that your prospective customers and clients will be using rather than jargons you are comfortable with.

8. Not keeping pace with the times in terms of design and usability

Does your website look as if it was designed in the early 2000s? Despite more than 60% people accessing the Internet via their smart phones your web style still isn?t mobile-friendly? You still haven?t incorporated social sharing features into your web interface? These are pure signs that you?re not keeping up with the times and you don?t pay much attention to what is happening around you. This can be really harmful if you offer your products and services to a comparatively younger audience.

9. It takes you ages to respond when people try to contact you or send you queries

People need instant reactions these days. Although it isn?t necessary that you respond to business queries within a couple of hours, if it takes 3-4 days for you to respond to customer queries, there is a big chance your customers are going to lose track or lose interest, or worse, contact your competitor and do business with her or him. If the queries are not time sensitive then a reasonable time would be 8-24 hours, but not more than that.

10. You make tall claims or make promises you cannot keep

Surprisingly, it is one of the most prominent reasons why most online businesses fail. People have no idea of what they can deliver and what they cannot deliver, and even if they have an inkling, sometimes just in order to get business, they make insincere commitments and end up sullying their reputation, forever sometimes. Such people don?t just spoil things for themselves, they also make things difficult for people who are actually sincere and committed. Remember that it is already difficult to have faith in people on the Internet simply because you cannot talk to them face to face. You have to tread very carefully. Even small mistakes can cascade into a big branding disaster. Promise only what you can deliver, or don?t promise at all. Always be sincere.

So under the Internet Marketing Help section, these are the 10 top reasons why most online businesses fail. Of course there can be scores of more reasons. Why not share them in the comments section?

Source: http://tiptopmarketer.com/internet-marketing-help-10-reasons-why-most-online-businesses-fail/

seal keystone pipeline seal and heidi klum drew peterson untouchable herman cain south carolina bath salts denver nuggets