Online Business: The Myths and Truths of Internet Marketing

The rapid growth in the amount of money being spent online has been matched by a huge increase in the number of people seeing the Internet as a medium for making money.

The problem is that it’s too easy to buy the hype which claims you only need access to a computer – and the latest guru’s advice – and you’ve virtually got a license to print money while you sip cocktails by the swimming pool.

There are two realities:

It is nowhere near as easy for most people to make a lot of money online as all the hype suggests.
If you have something valuable to offer, and you’re willing to promote it, the Internet has opened up huge opportunities for people to choose the lifestyle they want.

So, for people who accept the first reality, the opportunities of the second one await. Here are some of the things you need to be prepared for if you are thinking of building a business online.

Some people will never be satisfied: No matter how great your product or service, some people will find that it doesn’t suit their needs and they’ll ask for a refund. That’s cool as you should win many more customers by offering a money-back guarantee than you will lose by giving refunds. However, you’ll find that a small minority will buy your product always intending to ask for their money back. In fact, you’ll probably find that the biggest problems are caused by people who don’t buy anything at all. In both situations, the best option is to focus your attention on the majority rather than letting negative people drain your energy. You just need to recognize that they do exist.

People will steal your work: As much of your work will be easily available online, you’ll find that some people will steal your advertising, your products, your ideas and even your reputation if they can. Again they are a tiny minority. There are steps you can take to stop them pirating your work, but don’t let the fear of them keep you from getting started.

You have to follow ever-changing rules: Most of the rules for doing business online are just common sense. But some are serious legal stuff that could damage your business if ignored. Problems can include “spam” complaints, being banned from search engines or having your payment processor account suspended. Any of these could significantly damage your business – and you may not even find out what rule you’ve broken! For example, you’ll get spam complaints from people who’ve forgotten that they signed up to your list and just take the easy option of pressing the ’spam’ button rather than taking two seconds more to unsubscribe from your list properly. However, if you follow these key guidelines you should be fine:

Don’t sent unsolicited emails (spam).

Don’t violate your customers’ privacy.

Don’t make promises your product can’t fulfill.

Give people what they bought quickly and easily.

Deal with any complaints promptly and fairly.

Your business may depend on you: Many online businesses – even very successful ones – are run by just one person with limited help. So you must constantly make backups of anything it would be even mildly inconvenient to lose, such as website contents, customer records, products and passwords. Keep one backup in your house and another in a different location (such as online storage). And make sure someone responsible knows where to find all that information in case you get run over by a bus. It’s not fun to think about, but you need to do it.

Your friends will think you are crazy: People you know well are often not as supportive as they should be when you start something new. That’s because they know you in a different context and may have preconceived ideas of what constitutes success. Listen to advice but don’t let them convince you it can’t be done.

If you don’t make any of the big mistakes, you will probably be forgiven – and quite probably nobody will really notice.

If you take note of the drawbacks, the potential for your business and your lifestyle makes online marketing very worthwhile for many people – whether on its own or to expand an existing offline business.

Once you have a clear idea of what you want to do, the secret is to get comfortable with the basics and then just get started.

Don’t wait for everything to be perfect. Your product will probably never be good enough for you. You can always create upgrades later. And there’s a great chance that your customers will value it more highly than you do.

Get your ideas out there, start making money, learn from the feedback and you’ll find that it keeps getting better.