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Traffic Building Resource
Of-The-Week Beginning 1/3/05
For Drawing More Business Traffic

- by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com

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Ok, for those of you still waiting, the Internet won't go away.

Hang up the hopes that it represents a passing fad sharing the fate of the Beanie or the Pet Rock.

With legitimate high-tech stocks finally in the market, regular people doing "real" business online, and consumer acceptance to the point of purchasing movie tickets and homeowners insurance over the Internet, the Web is here to stay.

However, many people still get that glassy-eyed, far away dreamer look on their faces when they think of the riches awaiting them on just the other side of their own dot-com.

Well, whether your business represents a laptop on a TV tray in the basement, or a mega-corporation with offices all over the world, my last 7 years in the Wild West online has revealed a few "truths" which should last from here until the end of computers.

** There is no get-rich-quick! **

I guess it's in man's nature to desire instant wealth.

Since the dawn of history, people threw common sense to the wind and went off in search of "buried treasure." Unfortunately, instead of discovering riches, most just ended up buried under a load of debt, misery and despair themselves.

In the late 1990's we saw the modern day equivalent of a gold rush with high-tech stocks, dot-com companies, and investors who decided not to use common sense.

Well, we all know the result... many people lost a lot of money and the first online "gold rush" was over. :-)

** The "Secret" to online business success! **

Would you like to know the real secret to making money online that will govern the Internet for all eternity?

Here you go: Spend LESS than you MAKE.

That's right!

Simple math creates millionaires on the Internet!

Regardless of the market, size of your enterprise, or the nature of the product or service you sell, the people who make money online spend less than they make in revenue.

The people and companies that make money are the ones who let someone with basic math skills monitor the advertising department!

** People don't buy refrigerators online! **

That's right, most people don't buy refrigerators online, but to look at the way some companies operate, you'd swear they did.

Here's how people use the Web to buy a refrigerator (or any other major purchase): they go online, research different models and prices, look for a local store, go to the store, and buy one.

Companies that use the web to make money (instead of wasting it by the bucket-load) understand the difference between closing the sale online and providing information that leads to making the sale at a physical location.

If you don't know it by now, the Web is a direct response advertising medium.

What this means is, if you're trying to do business online, there are really only 3 things you can do:

1. Make the sale (they pay on the site)
2. Get a lead (usually an optin for newsletter, mini-course)
3. Make money on a click (referring through Google Ad Sense)

Knowing what your audience will and will not do online is critical so you know which of the 3 (or combination) is best for your site's maximum profit.

** The quick and the dead! **

People who buy online have little or no patience.

They go online to get information NOW, or to place an order NOW, or to get their questions answered NOW!

The online world is a "right NOW" world, where wait times get measured in seconds and people get mighty testy if their needs don't get met almost instantly.

Speed, not size, determines the victor in e-commerce because the businesses that meet people's immediate expectations as quickly as possible (if not faster) ultimately win.

That's great news for the "little" guy, or the individual entrepreneur who has an idea and can act on it quickly.

Often, the real opportunities online appear so quickly that a decision must be made and acted on in a matter of hours.

While larger companies are trying to arrange a meeting to discuss what might be done, small, fast operations have already tested their theories and started to slurp up the customers!

** "Change" - The only thing that stays the same! **

How we did it last year isn't necessarily how we'll do it next year.

The online world moves so fast that techniques and strategies for doing something can appear one day, get adopted as "the way we do things" and then disappear or get rendered useless in 6 months or less.

Perfect example: pop-ups and pop-up blockers.

Pop-up's used to be the #1 way to get subscribers... but now pop-up blockers have rendered them virtually useless.

No if's, and's, or but's -- Pop-up's are DEAD now that Microsoft has them in their sites as a security problem! (You heard it here first)

By the way, the catalyst for change can come from anywhere.

A casual comment... a bit of information from one place, combined with another... a hunch... a "feeling"... all of these combine to create opportunities, while also closing doors to "how we used to do it."

Accept change. Learn to adapt to change. Embrace change as a fact of life and business online and see it as opportunity opening up before you.

To do otherwise is suicide.

** It's Never Too Late To Start **

Many people never start anything because they think the bus has left them standing at the station.

They think it's too late for them to jump in the game... any game... and all the good opportunities have already been snatched up by somebody else.

All the good domain names are gone... (wrong!)

All the best businesses have already been started... (nope!)

Traffic is too expensive... (uh-uh!)

It's too complicated... (negative!)

I don't have the right skills... (hire someone cheap!)

If only I knew how to do this or that... (so learn!)

If only I knew so-and-so... (introduce yourself!)

I don't have a list of subscribers... (build one!)

All of these are lame excuses that actually have no basis
in reality.

If you want to get in the game online... just do it!

If you want to start an online business... just do it!

If you want to start a newsletter... just do it!

*** Here's a real "secret," something I learned about 14 years ago when I was a "green" loan officer at my first mortgage bank:

"The more things change and the faster they change, the easier it is to get into the game even if thousands have gotten in before you."

Why?

Because when something changes, EVERYONE goes back to square one and has to learn how to deal with the new information
that impacts the marketplace.

All you have to do is get in the game, things will change, and you'll be right up there even with everyone else.

Since things change so fast, the Internet actually makes it easier to start late, catch up fast, and even PASS the "old hands" and established players by adapting to change faster than they do.

The biggest mistake most people make is simply not believing in themselves enough to start... and if you never start, you can never cross the finish line.

But, just by starting.... you are on your way to winning!

--
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...

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