Tods Shoes

So, after reading my introduction post, where I talk about my story on how I started on this world of trying to make some money online, you might be aware that I’ve failed miserably on my first try. I was entirely overwhelmed by the never ending information that I was consuming and – as a consequence – I rushed some phases and mixed up some other things that, needless to say, prevented me from succeeding. Thus, based on my experience of failing an internet business (an e-commerce to be more specific), I consider myself a person with enough authority to give you some tips on what NOT to do when building your own e-commerce.

1. Starting too soon without enough knowledge

This one is a classic beginner mistake. You’re enthusiastic and full of energy for building your online store. You are confident and want to make things work fast – even because you’ve seen dozens of gurus claiming to be totally feasible to start making $5000 in under 30 days. I’m not saying that’s not possible, I myself know people that have achieved such results in this timeframe, even though they had years of experience and knew all the shortcuts, but for a starter that’s completely unreal. Thereby, you get hyped and start creating your business sooner than you should, believing that in no time you’ll be making 5 digits monthly. That’s when you see things are more complicated than you thought it was. It isn’t take a long time to realize that you got yourself stuck without knowing what to do next or what you’ve done wrong. I think the majority of beginners make this mistake and many end up giving up after realizing that it isn’t as easy as they heard from internet gurus. I consider this to be one of the main reasons for my failure in my first online venture.

I consider this Shopify article essential for rookies who are initiating their journey on building an online business.

2. Thinking that clients will eventually show up

If you really think that after structuring your online store you just have to wait for customers to come and start buying all your products, sorry for disappointing you, but you’re completely mistaken. Creating your online store was certainly a challenge and costed a considerable ammount of time (and maybe money), but that’s only the beginning – the essential part, which is making sales, requires even more effort and dedication. You will have to study deeply organic and/or paid traffic if you want to start making sales. Either way, you’ll have a lot of work to do – and here I will give you some task examples just to give you a better understanding.

Organic Traffic

• On page Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Off page SEO
• Write good and relevant content on a consistent basis
• Networking
• Manage all sorts of social media, etc

Paid Traffic

• Create your video or image advertisement
• Setting up your campaign
• Contacting facebook pages, instagramers or youtubers
• Analyze the results from different strategies and platforms

These are just few examples of the work that will need to be done. Unfortunately, the only way to get to know them all and to be prepared is to do it yourself. Here’s a video that will give you a better understanding on the Organic X Paid traffic matter:

3. You don’t make track of your business

That’s one common beginners mistake as well. You just simply do the tasks that need to be done but don’t make any register of anything. I think almost everyone who tried to make any type of online business was in that spot before. That’s the kind of thing you only realize the real importance when you start to make an organized log. That way, you can see what strategy is giving you the best results and focus more on the things that give you more returns. As the prominent management consultant Peter Drucker says: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” That’s your new mantra from now on.

Conclusion

Building a successful e-commerce isn’t an easy duty – it surely has its merits. All I have to say is that you must not give up on your first failure, this is a long term game, just like a marathon and not like a 100m sprint. There are plenty of opportunities on the internet, so do not panic if you do not succeed on your first try, you still have plenty of time to improve and hopefully build the business you dreamed of.

So I assume that you’re decided to start your online business, right? If not, you may change your mind after reading this post and discovering the numerous possibilities that the internet has to offer to us in the matter of making money. Don’t worry if some business models don’t match your persona, this isn’t an exact science and – hopefully for us all – there are many ways of earning your well deserved money online. Okay, enough talk, lets see where your future source of income will come from (I’m not joking when say this!).

1 – Adsense

Adsense is the most straightforward method of making a revenue on the internet these days. Essentially, it consists in creating a site with valuable content and driving traffic (usually from organic search in search engines such Google, Bing and Yahoo) to it. You receive your paycheck from the clicks (CPC) on the ads and from the number of views you got (RPM), i.e. the greater your reach is, the more money the ad platform will pay you. Of course there are many variables that will influence how much your site will be making, but, as a rule of thumb, more views are always good.

Let me explain the process in a more detailed way. Google earns money from the advertisers from the clicks and views generated through the traffic in your site and then pay you a percentage of the total earned. Google has what’s called Google Display Network (GDN), which is a network of websites that allowed adsense in their sites. With the GDN in hands and the ability of reading the content of the website, Google knows what ads will be relevant to the visitors. In summary it goes like this:

1. Traffic is generated to the website
2. Visitors click and/or view the ads
3. Google charges the advertiser
4. Google split the money with you

There are many factors and different strategies to take into consideration when optimizing your earnings. I will not talk about them in this article because the main idea is to only give you a brief introduction of the different online business models that exist. That being said, let’s see the next model.

2 – Affiliate marketing

This business model, along with adsense, is one of the simplest and most suitable for those who are starting up in their digital ventures. You just need to sign up to sell a specific product – it can be a real or digital product or even a service – and then create a site about that. If the visitors of the website purchase the product through your link, you’ll receive a comission on the sale – which can vary from 10% up to 70%. There are affiliates programs literally about anything, so there will be plenty of options for you to make some cash.

As any other business, there are pros and cons about it. The main benefit about affiliate marketing is that it is a fairly passive income you will make if you take the route of generating traffic organically (without paying for it). Also, the terms of service of affiliate networks are much more flexible than Adsense, so you’re less likely to get hit by a ban and lose your income source. As for the cons I can cite the high competitiveness, since the entrance barrier is minimal, and the bad reputation that this business model has, seen as a sleazy or even scammy way of making money.

3 – Lead Generation

That’s one of my favorites for starters. The main idea behind this business model is as follow: You build a website and direct your visitors to a company that will provide them with the service that they’re looking for. You are the middleman, your job is only to connect the potential client to a company that’s offering the service they’re looking for. Depending on the niche, you can earn hundreds – even thousands – of dollars per qualified lead. Of course the best paying niches are extremely competitive and will be virtually impossible for any beginner to thrive. But don’t get discouraged. I will reveal the great opportunity behind this business model for starters.

The main secret is to target local markets, in which the competition is much milder and the returns on your efforts are worthy. In general, local business owners are too much worried about other tasks of their business and end up neglecting the opportunity of growth that the internet has to offer. Many of them are even unaware of this possibility. Then people who know how to set up a site for those local companies that ranks well on search engines can make a good ammount of money without much complication. Don’t worry if you don’t know how to do this, it’s not that hard and you can find quality content on the internet for free. Who knows I might write something about it.

What should you do?

Well, that’s an answer only you can tell… But I can tell you that if something of what was written is of your interest you should be prepared to spend some time in learning new concepts and techniques that will be essential in your path as a successfull online entrepreneur. If you are interested in reading more about other online business models, I suggest reading the article and downloading the pdf from this link – you won’t regret it! Don’t get desperate, no business was built overnight. Patience and persistance are essential and, with them, you will eventually achieve your goal. Best of luck on yours venture and make sure to read how I got in this world of making money online.