What You Can Expect From An Online Business
Eight years ago I decided to start an online business, never knowing what that would entail. I truly believed the hype of a business running 24/7 by itself. How utterly naive I was.
Essentially an online business does run by itself, once it is set up. However, an online business is constantly changing. New challenges await the unwary behind every website. Not only does it keep changing and challenging you the business owner, but as your business evolves so do the challenges. How you adapt to these challenges and changes will determine whether your online business will succeed.
From my personal experience, once you decide on the home based business you want to involve yourself in, allow at least three months to learn new strategies, for some a new language (computer speak), and to improve the multitude of new things you will be learning to enable you to run your home business. Have patience these first three to six months as they will be over in a blink of an eye; you need this learning curve to succeed. You need to know what you are doing and how you are doing it to start to grasp the concept of your running a home based business, and not chasing the dream of owning one.
Is Your Business Turning A Profit?
In a couple of weeks the children will be back in school and a few weeks after that mothers will start thinking more about what they want to do with their “free” time. So some start to look on the Internet in hopes of finding that perfect part-time job, that can be done while the children are at school or sleeping.
The only problem with this concept that I have come across is that a lot of mothers with businesses find that they have no idea whether or not their business is making any money.
Most “newbies” jump in with both feet and have no idea what it is they are suppose to do to make money. Or they simply do not have any cash flowing through to make money. At the end of the 6 months or even a year, they sometimes realize they have spent more than they have made. Then usually I hear the cries of “It is a scam!” I am here to tell you not everything on the Internet is a scam; they are quite a few legitimate work at home jobs or businesses.
If you don’t know alot about finances, and the vast majority of people don’t, then how can you determine that your business is making money? If you don’t’ keep track of advertising and sales-then how do you know how to improve? And how do you plan on staying business? Here are some tips to help you answer these questions:
Blogging–What a Great Word!
I like blogging. I like the word…the word came into existence around 1999 and actually is another name for Weblog, which we all know started out as a a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.
However, blogging is such a cool word. Much better than saying “I Weblog”. People would look at you and wonder if you were going off the deep end.
So why do I like blogging. Because of this, what I am doing right now. I am putting all my thoughts and ideas down to share with others. Providing those who are interested want to share it with me. No one has to read it or agree with anything I write. It is nice if they like what I write, but not necessary to my overall satisfaction.
I have been article writing for my home business for some time. I like my home business, I enjoy it, I find great satisfaction from working at home. But I never really felt comfortable writing an article. I think it stems from my childhood and the problems I was told I had with the English language. The offhanded remarks of some pretty insensitive teachers gave me a lifelong fear of writing my thoughts for anyone else to read. I never even kept a diary for fear someone else would read it and make fun of it.
How to get ideas for your articles.
The hardest part of writing an article is getting an original idea. There is so much written on work at home business, home business, home opportunities, and every other combination that come to mind, that it is hard to write something new and informative.
For the newbie one good way of getting ideas is to research several articles by the “experts”, then take the main talking points of the articles and write in your own words how those talking points has helped or will help you with your home business.
One of the ways I find subject matter is to do something relaxing. For instance, I love to fish. From April through November I fish every opportunity I get. Living in Michigan I am surrounded by water and lakes, so there is plenty of opportunities for me to indulge my favorite past-time.
I take a small notebook with me, and as I am sitting in my boat waiting for that one fish to come eat its lunch, I let my mind drift along with the boat. You would be surprised at the ideas that pop into my head. Not all are printable! For most of these ideas I will take the time, as the fish aren’t hungry, to write down key points of the thoughts.
If I thought of a new way to market a product, or a product itself, this gets written down in my little black book along with other tidbits I don’t ever write about. I think you can see where this is leading.
Thou Shall Not Spam
Couldn’t they have come up with another name for junk mail on the Internet? I mean Spam, that is a meat by-product that as far as I can figure out only older men seem to like.
I mean no insult to the Spam connisseur. I am sure it taste wonderful, if you like salty canned meat. I prefer my meat to look like meat and not all pressed together so it resembles a brick.
First off…meat is not supposed to come canned. To me and I am sure to thousand of others, this is not natural. Then there is the jell type substance that is in with the meat. What is that? Is it necessary to the canning process?
So why is internet junk mail called “spam”? And when someone speaks of it they almost have a combative tone to their voice or email. Thou Shalt Not Spam! They say it like it is the 11th commandment. I don’t remember anyone saying anything about Moses coming off the mountain with 11 commandments, or was I sleeping through Cathecism again?
So why not call it what it is “Junk Mail” “Unwanted Mail” anything is better than “Spam.”
And another thing, even though as an internet marketer I am not suppose to do “it”, I receive hundred of unsolicited emails in all 5 of my email accounts daily. I didn’t ask Joe Blow to send me information on Viagra, I am sure I would remember. So didn’t Joe spam me? That didn’t sound right, but I am sure you know what I mean…or if you want take it anyway you want…let your imagination flow.
