Network Marketing Expertise

The Best Online Business Opportunity

The best online business opportunity I have gathered in my own journey to discovery through rendering virtual assistant services, search engine optimization and linkbuilding is keeping the house clean and organized to make it beautiful.

You are probably raising an eyebrow now thinking that the author of this article is losing her right senses constructing sentences which are really incoherent.

Well, let me tell you a simple story. Once upon a time there was a woman who received a message that the gods and goddesses of their virtual world would pay her a visit anytime. She wanted to make her house look beautiful and comfortable without drawing attention from the neighbors and the spies that she was putting too much effort on the said visit. She dressed herself and pretended to be someone else and tiptoed towards the shop through her backdoor to get stuff. Stuff after stuff piled up inside her house. She did not notice she had overstuffed the whole place making it crampy and uncomfortable. She did not even notice her visitors which came the front door she had avoided for so long. The gods and goddesses noticed how the place felt crowded. And they thought they will never pay a second visit to her house anymore.

The best online business opportunity is to develop a site, your own or someone else. This can gain more money if more people visit it with all the advertisers flocking your door. You can get more people to visit by beating the traffic in the web and being ranked high. This may be done through search engine optimization, linkbuilding, directory submissions, article submissions and more. However, it is this preoccupation that tends to forget the people who visit the site. The ones who read, get informed, get entertained in the site. It is ignored often times that for these people to keep coming back to the site is to furnish a good content and material to inform, entertain, teach and touch their lives.

The best online business opportunity therefore is not to overstuff the site with all the search engine strategies but to keep the house clean, organized and beautiful.

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A Business Opportunity From Home

Either you go for a business opportunity from home or business opportunity away from home. The given are as follows; to wit:

  1. I am a single mother.
  2. I have a daughter who is of school-age.
  3. Our house is an hour drive in heavy traffic to city proper where the school is located.
  4. I am starting up a business.

These are hypothetical situations I would like to be examined. I wake up in the morning the earliest time possible. I prepare breakfast and lunch for my child and me to avoid cafeteria food. Then we both rush to beat the traffic. I take her to school and drive over to the opposite route where I opened my small business. It is a boutique showcasing my very own designs. I arrive in front of the store forgetting the set of extra keys and with my assistant nowhere in sight. She has the other set of keys and assigned to open the store since I have to take my child to school. After a grueling day with minimal sales, I go back to my child’s school to pick her up so that we can head home and I can prepare dinner. The day ends in front of the tv. This is surviving day one.

Or I can opt for the same routine in the morning but the only difference is as my child dresses up and waits for the school bus to pick her up, I check my e-mails for business prospects. I might even consider an autoresponder when I can. My child leaves for school and I continue browsing through the net while the laundry spins. I might even take a dash for the vacuum cleaner for the house really needs tidying up. And I can have a list of other things to do while doing business online.

I am not painting a picture-perfect, easy way to earn through a business opportunity from home. There is a lot of effort needed to be successful in business whether home-based or not. What I am trying to drive at is the opportunity cost in business opportunities from home is less with consideration to resources like time, physical effort, office rental, transportation, even manpower. A business from home is an opportunity.

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“Internet-Based Business for Non-Business-Oriented People”

I thought of an internet-based business for people like me whom I categorized as non-business-oriented.

Do you believe that not all people are endowed with the innate talent of being a businessperson? Have you heard of conversations which tackle what culture are much better businesspeople? Or do you believe that everyone has the potential of being a good businessperson and it all depends on certain factors like attitude?

I am rather clinging into the former way of thinking about being a businessperson. I think that there are really people who were born to be businesspeople. I believe that the Chinese and Japanese are better businesspeople compared to the other culture. I am not agitating anything or anybody out of that comment. It is a personal and uncolored judgment. I believe that I am not endowed with skills of becoming a good businessperson. I am rather shy and aloof. In fact, more often than not, I am anti-social. I do not think these are good qualities in salesmanship. My idea of a good salesperson is somebody assertive. He has good command of language and personable. I do not think I can sell anything at all. I believe that I am not the only one in this category. We can be classified as the non-business-oriented people.

But I dreamed of becoming rich. And the world of business will make my dream possible. So, I was thinking, is there a business designed for people who do not possess qualities of good salesmanship like me?

And it dawned on me that starting an internet-based business is my answer. The possibilities of what I can sell and what I can offer in an internet-based business is so vast. All I have to do is set up a website and I can start my very own internet-based business without even having to sweat selling to people face to face. Internet business opportunities are endless even for people non-business-oriented like me.

Writing this post is selling in itself. It is because of this that I may change my mind about being endowed with the skills of salesmanship.

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5 Tips To Get Started With an Internet Business Opportunity

1. Choose a product or service for which you have some expertise.

Remember that expert is a relative term. Look down vs. up… what I mean by this is that when you’re evaluating whether you have enough expertise to offer in a given topic, look at what you know compared to people who have never even done what you’ve done vs. those that you would already consider experts. If you have ever made a quilt, you’d be an expert compared to anybody that has not. If you’ve never gone kiteboarding, I’d be an expert compared to you even though admittedly there are people with far more skill than me at kiteboarding and people what a lot more skill than you at quilting (assuming that’s your thing…).

2. Do something productive every day.

People get caught up in needing to learn everything they possibly can before they’ll take action. Don’t make this mistake. DO something every single day vs. read and research. Setup a website at blogger.com and write your first blog post or create a lens at www.squidoo.com or if you already have a website, post a comment on someone else’s blog, or an appropriate comment in a forum with your link in the signature.

There’s so much you can do on a regular basis that you really are preventing your progress by trying to learn everything you can. If you’re getting started and have only 2 hours to dedicate to building your business, start with no more than 1 hour of research or “learning” and then another hour of action.

Here are a few things to get you started:
- post an ad on craigslist.org or alternative classified website for an affiliate product, your business opp, something just to get used to “doing” something every day
- start a blog at www.blogger.com specific to your project (kiteboarding / quilting / you business opp)
- post a comment on a blog or forum related to your area of expertise
- answer questions on Yahoo – http://answers.yahoo.com and link back to your site
- submit your website to directories – http://www.addurl.nu

3. Set realistic goals for revenue and progress.

You should have milestones or specific measurable goals in place for your project. Do these on a weekly basis and also a daily basis with an idea of where you should be in 4 weeks, 8 weeks, etc. I’d recommend a good book called “Getting Things Done” by David Allen which you can get for less than $10 at Amazon.

I won’t pretend to be some guru at goal setting because it’s not something I excel at either, but this is something that is vitally important to your success with your internet business opportunity or any other entrepreneurial venture.

4. Use the internet as your mentor and instructor.

The internet is amazing. I’ve learned more from spending time on the internet than I have in any of my university courses both as an undergraduate as well as during my MBA courses. If you know how to ask, there are very few questions that aren’t answered on the internet. Use Google, use Yahoo, learn how to effectively search. Use the advanced search features that these engines offer. Learn how to use RSS and all things web 2.0. The internet is a master at revealing answers and “secrets” to those that know how to ask.

5. Never give up and never surrender.

I don’t know how many of you have seen Galaxy Quest, but that quote makes me laugh. It’s true though… the only way to fail at this is to give up. Don’t give up and keep after it.

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How Hard Do I Have To Work?

The answer: It depends… on how much you want to make and how bad you want to change your life.

This is a question that my students don’t typically ask me, but one they’re usually thinking. They want to know the least amount of work they have to do in order to be able to make money. I think this goes back to the whole mindset of entitlement that seems to be one of the major diseases of all time… and one of the main factors that prevents people from taking steps to insure they’re successful.

If you’re thinking about this question, you’re off on the wrong foot. This mindset is a serious mistake… it’s like saying, “What’s the least I can possibly do?” and goes against the whole concept of helping other people succeed which will ultimately come across in everything you do. This isn’t to say that you can’t get to a point where you truly only work for a few hours per week, but… to get to that point, you have to create the structure under which the “4-Hour Workweek” can actually exist which is usually a combination of time and money.

To get to the point I’m at right now, I’ve attempted no less than about 30 different projects at various degrees of time and money spent and only been really successful at about 3 of them. I’ve been doing internet business and been self taught with most of it since 1998. So, over a decade of playing on the internet with ecommerce, html / coding, graphic design, affiliate marketing, internet marketing, search engine marketing, etc… and I’m still learning new things every day.

In fact, I learned something new yesterday that I hadn’t thought of before just be paying attention at a training I was in for about an hour (of which I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be getting anything out of…).

So, hard work shouldn’t be seen as something negative, you simply need to find fulfillment in the work that you do. That is one of the reasons I enjoy internet marketing and ecommerce, affiliate marketing, search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing, etc. All of these things are like some huge combination of Monopoly, Risk, Aggravation, The Farming Game, and probably Clue… But real life where the stakes are higher and the reward is real.

You’ll find that approaching anything ecommerce related as “work” at least in the same way you look at a full time job as “work” will only ruin your desire and ability to make a project succeed. So, yes, this does go back to your mindset.

If you’re serious about an internet business opportunity, get something that will not feel like work or better put, not feel like a chore, something you look forward to waking up in the morning and jumping into vs. dreading the Monday return to your cubicle. I LOATHE the cubicle. In my latest job, I have two pics and they are of my kids, nothing else that would make this place feel like “home” because I don’t plan on staying. I could clear out my desk in 2 seconds by taking down the pics and walking away.

That’s me, and doesn’t have to be you, but remember that you’ll attract what you think about. Thoughts are things!

Brian

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3-Day Weekend Every Week

Most full time employees have about 2 weeks off per year along with some paid holidays. I’ve been employed before so I know exactly what this is like. In fact, my last full-time “job” I was already on 4 day weeks because I did 4-10 hour shifts. This was fantastic and I can’t tell you how much I missed this when I went back to 5-8 hour shifts.

I heard over the weekend that because of the increase in gas prices, many companies are looking to transition much more into the 4-10 shifts allowing a 3 day weekend every week. This is a great method and plan for conserving fuel and helping with the energy crisis.

Now… transition to the internet business opportunity seekers. Those that work full time from home are really helping with the gas and energy crisis going on right now. Internet business opportunities are great for those that want to conserve gas and this should be taken into consideration at least to a degree when calculating the cost of working from home.

Take, for instance, the fact that I drive (solo for now, not carpooling) about 20 miles each way. I drive a 1999 VW Jetta which gets 30+ miles per gallon. So, I’m basically using 40 miles per day worth of commuting, so I’m spending about $4 per gallon of which I can 30 miles, then another $1.33 for the extra 10 miles. Put in perspective of a daily spend, this isn’t too bad, but then taken over a longer period of time, such as a year, the $5.33 per day times about 240 days per year is $1279.

So, that number can add up and if you’re not getting 30 mpg or have longer to commute, this number can go up… or down if you’re driving something more efficient or have less of a commute.

I don’t know if this is ending up being that much more of an advantage of just the $1279 (at least in my case)… So, I guess thought I’m still a huge proponent of alternative energy. In fact, I saw a decal on a suburban the other day that said, “Legs: The Alternative Energy Source”.

Made me chuckle. So, with just the gas factor alone, working from home could save you $1279, but that assumes you aren’t driving other places to meet with people and do other things like that. From what I understand, Europeans are paying about $4-5 per liter… which is more like $10-12 per gallon. So, yeah, I think the oil conglomerates know the limits of what people are willing to pay based on the EU. We’re headed there… consider alternative energy sources including electric.

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Think & Grow Rich

This is one of those books that should be and is in many cases “required reading” for any entrepreneur. This is the book that is responsible for more millionaires than any other book. Simply awesome. If you haven’t ready this one for a while, pull it off the shelf again or get out the CDs and give it a go once again.

It helps remind us that not only is the mindset important, but that there is truth in the concept that “thoughts are things” and any success begins with our thoughts. I’ve used the example before that when you take a look at all of those that you would consider successful and look at what is different about them from those that aren’t as successful, you’ll find that there is no defining traditional education that makes any difference, no specific religious background, no heritage (necessarily), no country, no race or ethnic background, basically nothing that really separates the successful from the unsuccessful except for one thing: How They Think.

The question then becomes, “How do they think?”… If that’s the one key difference, then how should you think and what should you think about if you want to become rich?

The easy answer is that it’s all in the book… Napoleon Hill is going to explain this a lot better than I’ll be able to. If you haven’t already, you really need to read this book. This is a must for those of you who are internet business opportunity seekers. I believe what Thomas Edison said, (paraphrased…) but he said that ideas are in the air and if he didn’t think of theme, someone else would. These “million dollar” ideas are out there, but the successful people not only think of these ideas, but more importantly take massive action to accomplish their revenue goals.

Many of you have seen “The Secret” which I think starts to address some of the right mindset, but if you do nothing more than sit there imagining your Ferrari or mansion, you’ll never get there. It’s a start, but yes, you do actually have to “do” something.

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Let the Autoresponder Work for You

An autoresponder is an email system that automatically emails your prospects and invites them to take action that will generate you more money (and them assuming they’re following your lead).

If you were required to manually follow up with every lead that comes through your system by email or phone, you’d have an 80+ hour workweek with no free time. Because our target is the “4 Hour Workweek”, we need to leverage a system as much as we possibly can. Enter: The Autoresponder.

For most people that start an internet business from scratch, the autoresponder is an excellent tool that can follow up with your leads / prospects automatically with specific calls to action and more information that works with people to “convince” them to join you. The problem is that most people don’t have copywriting skills. We’ve all consumed a ton of advertising messages since we were little children and still do, but without conscious thought and analysis of these ads, we don’t understand why the ads are saying what they do. They speak to us sub-consciously.

After all, marketing is nothing more than applied psychology. In our case, instead of just “noticing” or subconsciously ingesting the ads, we should become students of the game and start analyzing why the ads say what they do…

Here’s a perfect example: Notice how many times ads tell you to buy something “because you DESERVE it!”?

Now that I’ve mentioned this, you’ll start hearing it and it will now stick out whereas before, it probably didn’t register. This is one of the oldest marketing tricks in the book… justification for some purchase because we “deserve” this… It works because it speaks to our inner self that wants a reason and justification for why we should be owners of whatever product is being advertised.

My wife and I laugh every time we hear that on the radio or TV now that we are listening for it… We kinda look at each other and think “suckers”… for all those poor saps who actually believe they need a 2 karat diamond ring because “they deserve it”.

Anyway, I’m off track here, but with the auto-responder, assuming you’re just getting started with becoming a student of the game and are relatively new to internet marketing and internet business you probably don’t have nearly the kind of expertise to be able to create a series of emails that will effectively sell your product, no matter how passionate you are about it.

I’d encourage you to not let this lack of expertise stop you. The auto-responder for most people will be a continual work in progress. As long as you’re observing exactly what it is that works and when you get an email that produces significant results, you need to ask yourself why and analyze as best you can why it is that that email worked where others didn’t produce those good results.

Emulate as best you can what you believe worked and why and then test. There are several really good books on the subject including Dan Kennedy’s “The Ultimate Sales Letter” and anything by Yanik Silver on copy writing. This is a skill that if you can develop and perfect will make you money advertising just about anything.

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Cold Calling Sucks… Find a Better Way

One of the reasons that many people choose to purse the internet business opportunity vs. a more traditional business opportunity is to get away from things like “cold calling”. I’m not necessarily averse to the concept of cold calling because it definitely has it’s place. But… what I’m more interested is leveraging a tool like the internet to do most of this qualifying for me.

I use a system called a “funded proposal”. If you haven’t heard this concept before or simply don’t recognize this concept by that name, a funded proposal is a system of offering a product for sale at a price point of right around $40-50. This is something that is relatively affordable for just about anybody and for those that you’re really trying to recruit into your business opportunity, this is the perfect way to qualify your leads.

Assuming you get about 100 leads per day, the old school mentality would have you calling all 100 with probably about 95% of them not really wanting to do anything with you. Enter the “application” or funded proposal of any kind (such as Mike Dillard’s “Magnetic Sponsoring” or “Building on a Budget” which are also funded proposals for lead generation). With this funded proposal, the same 2-5% of the applications that are actually interested are likely to pay the $50 application fee and the process will take care of eliminating the “lookie-lous” and the “tire-kickers” for you and leave you with “warm leads” that have specifically applied to work with you.

If you can see how good this is, then you’re starting to understand that this marketing concept is how most of the really successful internet entrepreneurs leverage the internet and time. You’ll always be trading time for money… pretty much no way around that no matter what you do. However, if you can do work one time and have that one project or period of time generate you revenue over and over again, your dollar per hour of work goes up exponentially.

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Building a Website

If you have a degree or even experience in coding, html, web design, dreamweaver, photoshop, or even knowing how to install wordpress and arrange web hosting, this blog post is probably not for you.

I coach students who want to learn how to start an internet business. These students typically have very little experience or know-how when it comes to building a website. I can coach some of them on eBay and Amazon because there is no real website creation required. Amazon does have astores and web stores, but it’s mostly point and click with little to no design. Others will use blogging platforms like wordpress or blogger to actually run their website. These are fantastic options as their relatively easy to get going.

Even with these easier methods of getting started using blogging platforms or sites like Amazon, there is still a turn-around time to get everything configured and get it “just right” in order to be able to start making sales. Assuming it takes about 4 weeks with a minimum of about 3-4 hours per day Mon thru Friday, we’re talking about 15-20 hours per week or about 60-80 hours total.

There’s nothing wrong with this, but consider a few options above and beyond the 60-80 hours I mentioned here because I believe that 60-80 hours is a bit conservative. In my experience, most students that I coach on this take a lot longer to get a fully functional website up and running before they’re really ready to start driving traffic to that website.

The alternatives are purchasing an existing website that is ready to go which has a cost associated with it. Depending on where you look, you can find ready made websites for as little as $20 and as much as $20,000 depending on what you’re buying.

Many webmasters will buy a site at $100 – $200, build it up, improve it over a couple of months, increase page rage, traffic, etc and turn around and sell it for $1000 – $2000 (a 10x return). This seems to be more of an advanced strategy and requires not only experience, but also a relatively savvy internet marketer.

For those people who are pursuing the internet business opportunity more than a more “traditional” internet business, consider something like a pre-built system that you can purchase and start using right away.

This is one of the easier ways to “plug into” an existing system that already has all of the landing pages created and optimized as well as the auto-responder that is also optional and can be configured to work with this system. What this allows you to do is “own” all of your leads. So, not only do you have the advantage of an optimized system that converts about 15-25% of all vistors into opt-ins, this system also allows you to keep your leads. The value of these leads over time will surpass the cost to acquire assuming you’re treating these leads right.

Look into this system for yourself by first going through as a “prospect” and my encouragement for you is to review this from a marketing perspective to see what type of possibilities this site may have assuming you decide this is for you.

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