How To Start Your Online Business On Solid Ground

In my last post, I discussed what I think about the “Do Not Track” list and how it might affect the web. Today, I will explain what I think you should do to ensure that ANY laws like this have a minimal impact on the money you make online.

Let’s just get straight to the point…

You Must Decide Who Your Target Customer Is And Build A Business For Them

You have to choose a target customer for your business and then provide them with what they want. That is the way to build a solid online business. If your business is customer based, instead of “idea based”, then you are much more likely to succeed long term.

The Biggest Mistake Most People Make When Starting An Online Business

Most people start their online businesses by creating a product or service to build their business around. They get a really cool idea and let their idea run their business. What happens is that they sell the product or service to anyone who will buy it. Or in the case of a website with Adsense, they don’t care who comes to the site as long as they click on the Adsense ads. Right?

The big problem with this is that it isn’t a sustainable business model. Building a business around a product or service is a mistake. What happens when some new product comes out that is cheaper or free? Or in the case of Adsense, what happens when your traffic goes somewhere else because someone else has created another informational site just like yours?

Your business goes Kaput!

You have probably heard people say that “conversation” is the new king on the web. But it’s not conversation that is king, it’s “relationships” (it always has been).

Relationships Are King On The Web

You need to have a customer focused business to succeed on the net. You need to choose your customer first. Then serve that customer (build a relationship). Give that customer what they want, whether it be software, ebooks, websites, etc… When you serve a customer base, you have a relationship-based business. That is the key to having long term success on the Internet. If affiliate marketing goes away and you are serving a particular customer base, it won’t matter. Just start building your own products to give them. Then make deals with other marketers to promote your products to their customers in exchange for promoting their products to your customers. You will still make money, it just won’t be through affiliate marketing.

PS. I learned this “secret” from quite a few good business people, but the first person I ever learned this from was Dan Lok (thanks Dan for changing the way I look at running an online business).