Ten Reasons Why Online Businesses Fail

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Here’s a huge secret to turning your online business from Failure to Success. Start treating it like a business. Read the article below very carefully. I clipped it from Builder AU. A site by developers for developers. It was written by Tony Stevenson, ZDNet AU.

If you don’t know where you’re going, in your online business,  you’re likely to end up someplace else…Anonymous

1. Failure to acknowledge differences

To be successful with a Net-based business, it’s vital to know the differences between an online business and a conventional businesses. For instance, many business owners venturing on to the Net simply convert an existing sales brochure into some form of online content, publish it, and then wonder why they’re not attracting customers to their site. The textual content of Web sites needs to be expertly written (small and to the point since visitors won’t hang around), be easily navigated, and be backed up with high quality graphics that have been professionally designed.

2. Lack of promotion
No matter how well-designed and presented a site is, it won’t just magically start to attract visitors (a “build it and they will come” mentality). Instead, a site has to be vigorously promoted, and that takes time, money and persistent effort.

3. Stale content
The content of a Web site has to be updated regularly with new material to ensure that visitors will return, and to also tell their friends and work mates about the site. Even loyal people who have come back a number of times will soon tire of seeing the same ancient material.

4. Lack of incentives
Business owners have to give potential customers an incentive for doing business online with them. It could be the convenience of being open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year round. Or it could be that buying online is cheaper than from a conventional outlet. Before venturing on to the Web, a business needs to work out what tangible benefits they are offering to their customers, and what differentiates their Net business from a bricks-and-mortar store.

5. Not easily contactable
If it proves too hard for customers to contact a business online, they’ll soon go elsewhere. For example, not everyone wants to fill out a detailed or longish online form. A better approach is to set up personalized email addresses for each of the employees responsible for a specific part of the business. But there’s small point in providing email addresses like this if staff members don’t respond quickly. Or worse still, not at all. It seems that the business culture of some companies is that it’s OK to ignore email. Unbelievably, some sites don’t provide even a single email contact address.

6. No visitor analysis
Unless you know what’s incorrect, it’s impossible to fix it. But business owners who ignore the statistics for their site are putting themselves in that situation. By not analyzing visitor statistics, there’s no way of knowing what does and what doesn’t work on a site. There are plenty of software packages available, as well as companies, that can provide up to date and comprehensive statistics. The sorts of statistics that can be gathered, for a specified time period, include total visitors, number of first time visitors, total page views, page views per hour within the period, types of browsers used by visitors, and so on.

7. Not reaching out
When running any type of business – conventional or online – it’s simple to slip into a state of being reactive, that is, “flying by the seat of your pants”, instead of being proactive. By adopting the latter approach, a Net-based business owner can use the available technology to reach out to both existing and potential customers with new information and offers. An brilliant example of how this can be achieved is by publishing an email newsletter. Don’t just patiently wait for customers to visit your online business. Excite them with what you’ve got to offer by regularly telling them about what’s happening on your site.

8. Hit and miss
In their enthusiasm to get their Web site up and running, a large percentage of owners don’t take into account the larger picture, that is, where they want their online business to be situated in six months time (or a year or even 5 years time). How an online business starts out is not necessarily where it will end up, and there needs to be a certain plot in place for how the online business is to evolve.

9. Failure to delegate
Small business owners are notorious for trying to do everything themselves, or trying to do it on the cheap. An online business site is an investment, and money must be spent in making it look excellent, simple to use and protecting confidential information. Owners should make it a policy to hire the “right” professional people for the different tasks that are involved in setting up an online business. For example, the securing of online transactions is best left to an expert in that particular field.

10. Going it alone
A much too common reason for an online business going under is the failure of the business owner to forge partnerships or agreements with other non-competing online businesses. A better, more productive approach is to enact the ancient maxim of “strength in numbers” and to learn collectively. For example, a site that caters for seniors could join forces with an online bookshop to showcase books that are relevant to that age group.

Tony Stevenson is the author of the two best selling Internet books, “The Australian Guide to the Internet” and “The Australian Guide to Online Business”. His company also publishes the two well loved, free email newsletters, “Internet Update” and “Sites of the Day”. These newsletters are distributed to readers in more than a dozen countries.

To Your Success,

Bob Coleman

How To Manage Your Website After Google Panda

What is Google Panda?

Matt Cutts, Google Search Quality Group

According to Matt Cutts, it is an algorithmic change from Google’s search quality team. It tends to rank lower quality sites lower and allows higher quality site to rank higher. It looks for signals of quality that users love.

If you want to succeed on Google, you have to step into the Google mindset and think about things the way Google does.

A main target of Panda are content farms that tend to offer low quality or even spam content and that tend to have lots of revenue sharing ads on the page.

These sites, although they offered little in user value tended to be SEO’d to the point where the would outrank legitimate sites and even authority sites.

Google has finally stepped in.

If you own a website or a blog, undoubtedly you have some concerns about how the Google Panda algorithm change will affect it now and into the future.

The only way to manage your online presence effectively is to understand what Google is doing, what they want and ultimately to give it to them.

Forget loopholes and hacks. They only work temporarily. If you’re into marketing online for the long haul, watch the video below for real insight into what is behind Google Panda.

 Roadmap Beyond Google Panda

Wow… there’s alot there to digest, but hopefully the video did it’s job and gave you a complete overview of just what Google is up to with it’s latest algorithm change and provided you with some hints as to how you can build profitable websites and blogs in light of Google Panda.

For those interested in dominating your niche with websites/blogs that are guaranteed to get results in the Search Engines, let me suggest great resource, Feeding the Panda.

This 67 page guide literally maps out a plan for moving forward beyond the Panda release and prepares you for the direction Google is headed.

Check out Feeding the Panda and discover proven strategies, not simply gimmicky fixes or minor tweaks just to address this one algorithm change.  Remember, you’re in it for the long haul… Click here!

Tips for content Google Panda will like.

Deadbeat Millionaire

If you haven’t heard of Dan Brock’s latest money making software, listen careful right now. Dan’s well known for completely over-delivering in his products, and his new automated “Deadbeat Millionaire” software is no exception.

Back in November 2010, Dan’s Deadbeat Super Affiliate training changed the affiliate marketing industry for excellent, and now he’s chose to take it to the next level. His Deadbeat Millionaire software is a completely done-for-you automation software not only automates the process of setting up the same kind of high converting websites that make him over $25,556/m, it also helps automatically drive buying traffic straight to your affiliate websites.

One aspect of it that I really like is not only automates the process, but that he even gives you his own personal websites that earn money for him on a daily basis. You can use them for yourself to make money, and you can also learn a lot about making successful affiliate sites by dissecting what he did to make them.

Here’s where Deadbeat Millionaire gets really cool:

He picks specific niches and shows you exactly how he’d go about promoting them. He even provides you with in depth affiliate intelligence about each niche so you know exactly how to promote it – Not only which keywords to go after, but where to get multiple sources of traffic, where to find back links, and pre-written articles based around the niche so all the work is done for you.

But it doesn’t stop there…

For free, every single month, he continues to provide you with more niche training and done for you websites as he discovers new niches to make money in. This is such a fantastic feature because it makes it simple for you to stay on the pulse of the industry.

You can check out Dan Brock’s Deadbeat Millionaire software here.

Deadbeat Millionaire Official Site

Amway Helped Me Succeed Online

(This is not an advertisement or recommendation for you to join Amway!)

Earlier today I was watching a video by Devon Brown where he addressed a common question raised by new online marketers.

The question goes like this, “If I follow your system to the letter, exactly for 30 days, how much money will I make?”

Devon gives what I believe is the absolute correct answer: “Nobody knows!”

You see the real issue behind the question is not about making money, it is about belief, confidence and faith in yourself.

Amway, which is short for American Way was started in 1959 by 2 young entrepreneurs – Rich Devos and Jay Van Andel, with the belief that the average American, from any walk of life, could start and run a successful home based business selling soap! What they needed was opportunity and training.

People laughed… people laughed a lot.

But today, Amway is a debt free multi-billion dollar corporation and remains the preeminent model for home based multi-level marketing.

Through Amway, thousands have built successful businesses, many earning 6 figures or even 7 figure incomes; selling soap!

What I Learned From Amway…

It was over 20 years ago when I became an Amway affiliate. I was introduced by a friend I trusted and it appealed to my entrepreneurial nature. Did I make a lot of money? No, and after a couple of years I dropped out.

However, what I learned was a lot about myself and about selling in general. Moreover, I learned a lot about prospecting, presenting, human nature and the power of a Positive Attitude. These lessons served me well in my career later in life, especially when things were tough.

One of the most important aspects of my “Amway” training was a constant diet of tapes and books that reinforced the power of maintaining a Positive Mental Attitude.

You see success is 90% mental. You have to believe you are successful, even before the success happens.

The vast majority of new online marketers lack the mental fortification and ego strength to persevere until success happens.

So they typically jump from system to system in search of the “magic” bullet that will make them successful. It does not exist.

Regardless of how easy sales pages, videos, podcasts and the whole lot of marketing tricks make it seem to earn money online and go from online “zero” to “hero”  INSTANTLY, the truth is it takes WORK.

I know that dirty little 4 letter word – WORK!

Making money online is not hard, but it is difficult (at least in the beginning).

Let me explain…

The model or blueprint for earning money online is extremely simple. Executing it is the difficult part.

Consider this analogy…

The average salary of a professional baseball player in 2010 was $3,340,133. The average batting in 2010 was .277. Major League Baseball Salaries

Putting that into perspective, a Major League baseball player that gets less than 3 hits out of 10 times at bat; that is a hit just 28%  of the time, earns over $3,000,000 a year.

Hitting a baseball 3 out of 10 times seems simple…

But what if that baseball is coming at you at 95 mph and it has movement (curve, slider)?

You see, the pitcher is not making it easy for the batter to hit the ball. The pitch is not coming straight across the middle of the plate. Not to mention there is the added pressure of getting a hit in front of 60,000 screaming fans (some who hate your guts!)

Now, hitting a baseball is not so easy.

You see, the average onlooker overlooks that fact that Major League players, have years of practice, have developed an eye for seeing certain pitches, have mastered the mechanics of batting, fielding etc., and they practice every day. Yet, still the best of the best are batting around less than .300.

Put another way, they fail 7 out of 10 times they come to the plate!

Get the point…

Making money online is a lot like Major League Baseball. It looks easy to the fans in the seats, but there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes.

Amway Blueprint

Spend some time to build you. There are a lot of naysayers in the world. Some of them may even be in your own family (your wife, your husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, co-workers).

• Set goals. (Why do you want to do this?)
• Set income goals (How much do you want to earn and how soon?)
• Determine a plan of action based on your schedule (How much time can you devote to building an online business?)
• Choose a system and work that system until you see results.
• Keep a daily journal (this way you can record successes and failures)
• NIKE! (Just do it…)

Lastly, I recommend you grab my FREE report, Beyond The Newbie. This was the first guide I read that really put things into perspective and helped me to understand running an online business.

Click here >> Beyond The Newbie

Google Sniping For Page Rank

(Google Sniping.. no techno, mumbo-jumbo…)

Google is the most popular search engines on the Internet. Not only is Google’s search engine the absolute largest of its kind, the company focuses on making web information easy to access and even easier to find.

Google has designed a unique system and the search engine has yet to be surpassed in terms of the information it provides. Google has grown immensely since its early beginning in 1996 and it will continue to be a predominant force on the Internet.

Furthermore, because Google offers easy access to immediate information, they own one of the top Internet search engines in the world.

Therefore, it would serve you as an online marketer to become familiar with the Google’s Page Rank process and algorithm that is based on inbound links and other factors that ultimately determine the position of listing of your website in the Google Search Engine.

“PageRank is a numeric value that represents how important a page is on the web. Google figures that when one page links to another page, it is effectively casting a vote for the other page. The more votes that are cast for a page, the more important the page must be.”

Also, the importance of the page that is casting the vote determines how important the vote itself is.

Google calculates a page’s importance from the votes cast for it. How important each vote is is taken into account when a page’s Page Rank is calculated. “

Page Rank is the big G’s way of deciding a page’s importance. It matters because it is one of the factors that determine a page’s ranking (search engine position) in the search results. It isn’t the only factor that Google uses to rank pages, but it is an important one.

If you are looking to improve your Google Page Rank you can do so by starting a link campaign. A link campaign can help you increase more inbound links to your website and in turn, more inbound links will increase your Google Page Rank.

Google Sniping vs Linking campaign?

Well, you can go the hard route by scouring the Internet to find websites similar to your own. Or, you can learn a system known as Google Sniping, which teaches you how to get first page rankings in Google without the headache of locating site similar to yours and then trying to get them to link back to you.

This is an arduous process.

More About Google Sniping

Google Sniping is based on creating a specific type of site that get you on the first page of Google for the exact keywords buyers of searching with.

To find out more about Google Sniping and how it can get you on the first page of Google without the hassles of Page Rank, go here: What is Google Sniping?

So you think your company may need to do some advertising to drum up business in this down economy?

Smart idea.

But before you hire an ad agency, or do it yourself, I’d like to arm you with some information that will make your job easier, and your ads more effective.

Keep it simple.
A cluttered ad screams “small-time.”  Savvy advertisers know that people don’t remember a complicated message.  If you give them more than one main point, or throw a bunch of graphics and copy into the mix, chances are pretty good they will either skip it, or quit before you get a chance to ask for the sale.  Keep your message, your headline, and your visual clean, simple, and singular.

Exude brand personality.
All brands develop personality, whether you want them to or not.  Which is why smart marketers make sure their brands reflect the personality they specifically craft.  What is your brand personality?  Your ads – and all your advertising and marketing materials – should always reflect your brand personality so that your  target audience will have constant reinforcement of your well-crafted, deliberately thought out brand.

Cut through the clutter.
The average American is exposed to hundreds of commercial messages every day – some experts say as many as <i>3,000</i>!  So you want to do everything you can to make sure <i>your</i> ad is the one that gets noticed.  Do this by having a great offer, keeping your ad simple with lots of white space, and having a memorable and creative concept that exudes your brand personality.

Keep it strategic.
There are basically two kinds of ads:  1) ads that have a specific offer, and 2) image-building ads.  Both types of ads are important and should be used in conjunction with each other.  While the first type of ad is designed to have fairly immediate benefits (such as sales or attendance to an event), the second type of ad is designed to give you long-term benefits by creating top-of-mind awareness so when your target has need of your service or product, you’re the first company they think of.  My advice is to use both as part of your overall strategic marketing plan.

Look professional.
Very few things hurt your brand like an amateurish ad.  People viewing the ad will perceive your company as being second-rate.  So I   strongly encourage you to  think very carefully before doing the ad yourself, or letting the newspaper design it for you.  Think seriously about hiring a professional to create an ad campaign for you with a look and feel that will last for at least a year.  Consider having them develop four different ads that you can easily have resized for different publications and rotate throughout the year.  Also, think about having a “template” ad developed that can work for special sales or invitations to events.

Give them a reason to buy.
Whether you’re creating an offer ad or an image ad, be sure you give your target a great reason to chose your company, product, or service over your competitors.

Now more than ever, advertising is a smart idea.  Use these tips and you will create ad campaigns that cut costs…and the clutter.

© Copyright 2009, BusinessBurrito.  All rights reserved.

Donna Williams is the founder and creator of BusinessBurrito.com – a website dedicated to helping small businesses grow to their maximum potential. She is also a 25-year advertising / marketing executive, creative director, writer, and producer. Together, Donna and her husband currently own and co-own five small businesses. To read more of her articles, or to sign up for her free weekly e-newsletter, visit her website at www.businessburrito.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/small-business-articles/six-easy-steps-to-creating-a-killer-ad-campaign-907758.html

Micro-nutrients or minerals and vitamins are very crucial to our body’s daily functioning. They are the fuel and the oil that power our bodies.

Unfortunately, most of us do not get the required nutrients from our daily dietary intake, and that is why we must take a Health Food Vitamin.

Some people eat plenty of food, but not the right kinds for nutritional purposes. Others just do not eat enough to get the needed nutritional value.

What are the advantages of taking mineral supplements and herbs vitamin nutrients?

The primary benefit of taking a multivitamin is preventing deficiencies that can be caused by dietary intake deficiency, stress, and even medical conditions. Nutrients are important in making sure that the different functions of the body are carried out properly.

Not getting the right amount of micro-nutrients from our food can result in illness., Vitamins and herbal supplements help us get the daily nutrients that our body needs, especially when we are not eating balanced meals.

All Natural Supplements have proven to provide the following benefits:

• Increased happiness
• More energy
• Stronger nails and hair
• Improved eyesight
• Sharper and clearer mind
• Improved cholesterol levels
• Normalized blood pressure
• Stronger heart and circulatory system
• Improved sleep
• Reduction or elimination of some allergies

Another popular trend in overall healthy lifestyles has been the use of Pheromones

The human pheromones have been show to play a part in learning, perception, cognition and memory along with the more commonly known function in human sexuality.
Pheromones are being used avidly in the perfume industry since they are capable of making a person more attractive than their usual pheromone less selves.
The key to overall good health is balance, both in terms of nutrition and remedies for an overall sense of well being.

Superior Rugs provides great area rugs at discount prices. Maybe you’re like me and have hardwood floors throughout your house.

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