Andy Bacon asked:

If you want to have success with an online business there is one thing you absolutely must have. Without this piece of the business pie nothing else matters. You can have a great looking website with graphics and killer sales copy but it won’t help you a bit. You can have a great product with a killer offer but it won’t matter. If you don’t have the life blood of a great web business nothing else matters. What is the most important aspect of any business? Customers. If you don’t have customers you don’t have anything.

Customers are the fuel that drives any business. Everything must be centered on getting customers if you want to make money online or in any business.

When you have an online business the customers are known as traffic. This traffic is the people who visit your website or blog. Most internet marketing authorities agree that the vast majority of your efforts should be focused on getting more traffic to your site. If you want to know how important traffic is this ratio may be enlightening. You should spend about 10% of your time on the website and 90% your time on getting buyers to visit your site.

There are two types of traffic on the web. Social traffic and buying traffic. Social traffic is comprised of people just looking around. These people are known as tire kickers. They are not ready to buy anything. The social traffic is notoriously hard to make any money off of because they are not in the buying mood.

Buying traffic is also known as search traffic. Search traffic is comprised of people who are looking for a solution to a problem and they are willing to pay. This is the type of traffic you want to target because they already have their credit cards and are ready to buy a solution.

There are two methods to tapping into this buying traffic. You can get listed in the search engine result pages for free or you can buy ads on the search engine result pages with PPC or Pay Per Click. Both of these methods work but I like the free method best because it’s FREE.

Google has the largest search network so that is the one to target. If you want to get a lot of traffic from Google you have to be listed in one of the top spots when someone searches for what you are selling. For example, if you are selling “Red Dog Collars” you want your site to show up at the top of the page when someone searches for this term. A term like this is known as a keyword phrase.

So how do you get to the top of the search page? You make Google realize that you are the authority for “Red Dog Collars.” First you build a site about the subject. Then you spend all the rest of your time proving to Google that you are the expert. You do this by getting other websites to link to you saying you have great information on “Red Dog Collars.” These links are known as backlinks and they are like gold when it comes to getting ranked higher on the search engine page. Every time a website links to you with the keyword “Red Dog Collars” that is another vote to Google that you are the expert and so Google is more likely to send searcher to your website. At the end of the day the person with the most “Red Dog Collars” is going to be at the top of the search page and people are going to be more likely to visit that site.

About 40% of the people who search for a term will visit the first site listed in the search result page. So you can see that being in the top spot is very important. These searchers are usually people who are looking to buy a solution to their problem. Learning how to get to the top of the search page results is one of the most important skills you can develop to get more buying traffic to your site.

how to start a home based business

Jeremy Gislason asked:

I’m sure you’ve noticed that most websites include links to their “Privacy Policies” near the bottom on their home pages.  You might have even tried to read through one of these Privacy Policies and understand what their purpose.  If you have, chances are there was so much legalese that it was hard to figure out what it meant, and why it was there.

You might have also asked yourself whether you need something similar for your own online business.  The short answer to that question is yes.  If you are looking to maximize the protection of your online assets, you need to prepare and properly implement an appropriate privacy policy on your website.

Let’s walk through what privacy policies are, and how to prepare one that’s best suited for your web-based business.

What are Privacy Policies?

A privacy policy is a written statements that sets forth the terms and conditions under which your website handles the personal information that it obtains from anyone who visits the site.  There is no required length or standard form for a privacy policy, though many of them contain the same kind of terms and language.

The guiding principles for preparing your own website privacy policy are accuracy and clarity.  First and foremost, your privacy policy should describe the things you do or might do with the personal information you collect from your website visitors.  As a starting point, your privacy policy should contain the following elements:

1. Identify the types of personal information your website collects about its visitors.  You might collect the email address of each visitor who posts message to your website bulletin boards or chat areas, or who contact you through a web form or email.  You might also collect consumer preference information from website surveys or other pages, and there might be additional information that users volunteer or give while on your website.  You should identify each of these types of information.

It’s also good practice to describe the types of information that your website servers automatically log about each visitor, which might include the IP address of the computer the customer is using.  You should also state whether your website sets “cookies” on the computer of a visitor, and if so, what information is stored in the cookie and what that information is used for.

2. Describe how you use the information that is given by or collected from your visitors.  Do you use your customer information for internal purposes only, such as to optimize your website structure or content?  Do you share the information with outside organizations who may contact the individuals for marketing purposes?  If contacted by a government entity who wishes access to the visitor information, would you contact the individuals prior to releasing the information to the government entity?  You should disclose each of these uses in your privacy policy.

3. Describe how a website user can review and make changes to their personal information, if that’s an option available to them.  For example, if your website has an e-commerce component and you permit customers to store their shipping or billing information on your website, then you should state how the customer can access that information if he or she wants to review or change it.

4. Describe how you will publicize changes to your privacy policy.  Privacy policies are living documents, in the sense that they need to be updated and revised as you grow and make changes to the way you do business, and in response to changes in legal requirements.  Do you plan to email your registered users with an update about any changes to the privacy policy, or should the review the policy from time-to-time to learn about changes?

5. Provide your contact information.  At a minimum, you should provide a valid email address where a customer can contact you with questions about your privacy policy.  This is a good practice because it can help you identify

Do I Really Need to Have a Privacy Policy?

If you truly don’t collect any personal information from your visitors (such as if your business website is simply a single page that gives your physical store location and business hours), then you might not need to have a formal written privacy policy.  But if you collect any customer or contact information through your website, have an ecommerce element, or collect any other information from your visitors, or plan to do any of those things in the near future, then yes, you do need a privacy policy.  Not having an accurate privacy policy can expose your business to liability in a number of different ways.

The first is that you might face liability under a growing number of state laws aimed at protecting consumer privacy.  For example, California law requires a commercial website operator who collects any personal information about users to conspicuously post its privacy policy on its website.  While the term “conspicuously” isn’t defined explicitly in the law, it’s generally accepted that this means that the link should be on the website’s home page.

Pennsylvania and Nebraska both have laws which prohibit website operators from knowingly make a false or misleading statement in their privacy policies about the use of personal information collected from their users.

Should you care about these state laws if you don’t live in one of these three states?  The answer, again, is – probably.  If your business targets users across the country (or, more accurately, doesn’t target users in any particular locale), then your website will likely be held to the legal requirements of each and every state.  This will be the case if you are in the business of selling informational products like e-books, provide consulting services to clients anywhere in the U.S., or the like.

Even if your business is truly a local one, such as a hair salon that uses a website to provide contact information or allow customers to make appointments online, it’s still a good idea to make your privacy policy accurate.  The laws above are just those that are enforceable by the states themselves.  Private individuals might also bring lawsuits based on any kind of inaccurate or potentially deceptive practices set forth in your privacy policies.

What do I do next?

Thankfully, you don’t need to start from scratch when you prepare your privacy policy.  There are a number of resources available on the Internet that will serve as great starting points for your own privacy policy.  But beware of simply copy another website’s privacy policy word for word.  This will increase the chances that the policy doesn’t match what you do with your customers’ personal information.

Take the time to make sure that the privacy policy actually matches the way you do business, and meets the minimum standards described in this article (some website privacy policies in use today do not meet these standards).  If you have the resources, consult with a qualified advisor to make sure the proposed privacy policy works for you and your business.  This will help you maximize the protection afforded to your online assets.

how to start an internet business

Teddy asked:


I am new to selling online. If you own an online business, what % of income (from this online business) you would be using for online marketing? Is there a normal range — say 20-40% to keep the business running, and more than 80% to grow the business more aggressively?

how to start a new business

asif asked:

BUSINESS. A big word. A big commitment. A big step.

Very quickly, we can round everything up about staring an online business in four very simple steps. Understand. Prepare. Do it. Sell it. There are no short cuts to working at home, let’s put it this way. If you’re looking for a short cut that you can use to start a work at home business, you may want to ignore this article. But in order to start your own online business, there are tons of things to be done. The best thing is for you to hold on to your day job (if you still have one) and take all four steps we recommend here and THEN you quit your day job.

Understand

Research the industry. That’s the first thing you should do if you are really serious about starting an online business. Starting the new online business is not difficult at all. In fact, it is relatively easy and needs minimal funding. Do your homework; look at what your competitors are doing. See how successful they are, emulate their good points and avoid their bad ones. Define your services or products by researching on the feasibility of your online business. Remember, working at home is a career, not a part-time job. Even if you’re still under employment, you’ll still need to know everything there is to know about your online business environment and industry. No two ways about it.

Prepare

Next, you need to write your work at home business plan. Even if you don’t have everything right down pat about your new work at home business, you’ll find that the fog of uncertainty will start clearing up when you write your work at home business plan. It’s when you’re sitting there, writing, preparing and planning your online business that the jigsaw puzzle pieces starts floating into place quite effortlessly.

Don’t copy other people’s online business plans. That’s one big mistake you should avoid. If you want your work at home online business to succeed, come up with your own business plan. This is the only way to go. You can use software or programs to help you write your business plan, but you don’t copy other people’s plans. The business plan should include information about potential expenses, income, advertising, promotional campaigns, projection of profit…..etc.

There typically isn’t much in the way of legal paperwork to be done for an online business but before you start working at home, you should check with a lawyer or a friend who has an online business to make sure you’re not flouting any rules.

Do it

I must say that this has to be the most trying steps of all. Getting your online business off the ground. Deciding on and registering the domain name, hosting company, designing the website, setting up the merchant accounts, shopping carts, uploading all the pages and images, checking links….etc. Time consuming but at the end of the day, when everything works out, there is a tremendous level of satisfaction….knowing that doing all that enables you to work at home.

Sell it

Now that the business is all set to receive orders and you’re all geared up about your new work at home business, it’s time to start selling the products and services. Find ways to advertise online and offline, tie-up with partners and affiliates, get others to help you promote your business, use autoresponders, set up your newsletters, write articles, exchange links with other websites, join forums, participate in message boards and groups related to your business….etc. All in the name of selling.

With lots of patience and persistence, starting your online business could be as easy and smooth as you want it to be. Just keep your focus and direction. And remember, nothing happens overnight, so, be patient and persist, and never give up.

For more useful tips & hints, please browse for more information at our website :- http://www.adsence-dollar-factory.com

http://www.100earningtips.com

how to start a home based business

Margaux asked:


I am 18 years old. I am taking up BS Business Administration maj. International Management. I want to have an online business.
I am good in designing things such as jewelries and other things. I want to enchance my talent too.

[ also I want to help my father who is supporting my studies]

Can you help me how to start a business through internet?

Please give me some suggestions and advices for this kind of business.

Thank you.

new internet business

KellyR asked:


My husband and I would really like to start an online business. We don’t want to sign up for someone else’s business and get into a scam. My husband is an IT Tech and anything dealing with computers he can do, including building webpages. Any ideas on what type of online business we could start? We don’t have alot of money to invest. Anyone started the own online business and made a decent extra income, or even better made their full income? Again nothing like online mystery shopper, survey taker, etc. We want to build our’s from scratch

how to start a new business

Simon H asked:


I am new to the internet and after having tried a few HYIP schemes and lost money I am looking for recomended ligitimate home-based internet business to join up with to earn some good money from and hopefully be financially free in future?

A top 10 list of opportunities would be nice but any ideas would be appreciated.

Simon H

how to start a home based business

Richard Geller asked:

When my wife was pregnant with our first child, she chose to leave a career working for other lawyers and moved home. She became self-employed and has worked from home ever since.

There is no reason that you, as a paralegal or someone about to become a paralegal, cannot work at home. You will fix your own hours and run on your own schedule.

There are big advantages to self-employment for paralegals.

One is that you fix your own hours. That means you can work part time while you take care of your young children or spend more time pursuing hobbies and outside interests.

Another advantage is that it can be more lucrative to be self-employed. You can get a higher pay rate and you have the advantages of tax deductions that only are possible for you if you have your own business.

And a third advantage is that you do not have a boss. This is perhaps the greatest advantage of all. Working inside a law firm for one or more lawyers can be extremely stressful and not always pleasant. I would say that it is very much of a high pressure job that can sometimes be enjoyable but often brutal.

Lawyers may not be the best managers. They did not take a single management class in law school and are sometimes clueless about running a law firm and maintaining a good relationship with their legal staff including you.

Okay…now that I am starting to convince you about the value of self-employment for paralegals, let me introduce you to some options.

You can work with a small, medium or large firm and you can still work from home.

You simply visit your client’s office now and then, but do most of your document preparation at home.

You will require a good computer setup, a good but inexpensive laser printer, and a reasonable Internet connection. But you probably already have that, right?

You can do legal research from your computer and you can prepare and print documents there. Almost nobody uses a law library with actual books anymore. It’s all on line and therefore being a self-employed paralegal working from home makes sense. You can be a mom while you pursue your career part time.

And there is still one more option for you. A self-employment opportunity. That option is working with lawyers and their clients, helping their clients who are involved in litigation. Helping plaintiffs in personal injury lawsuits so they can pay their living expenses and manage while they wait for their settlement.

I hope that you will investigate litigation funding, or lawsuit funding, as it is sometimes called. There is great need for talented people in your profession to pursue this. Clients are grateful and you can really make a difference in people’s lives as you raise your family and make a good income at the same time.

new internet business

Lars Schak asked:




This article is about using electronic media to create new business.

The world of business has had a tremendous new way of doing deals on the internet. Tools such as e-mail, voicemail and the internet itself have become an integral part of our everyday workplace – just like the telephone in the old days. The influx of technology into almost every facet of business has created a streamlined workplace, but with some lack of human contact, in some companies.

If your company does business on the internet, your reputation can be made or lost by a single mouse click, so, one of the greatest challenges today, is to provide added value in a minute rather in days to your customer and also understand the power of the internet, both as a weapon in offense and defence. You must understand the impact that your online presence has on your customers.

One of the dangers of the new technology is to get caught up in the new technology and forget to talk and ask the customers, what they want and desire as customers.

Many professors have pointed, that one key to cyber success is developing customer loyalty. They also points out, that the cost of gaining a new customer is five times greater, than the cost of retaining a current one. It is clear, that customer service functions and customer care jobs are getting even more valuable to the company, when it comes to building business on the electronic highway.

The internet allows your company to be in direct contact with your customers, no matter where they live. You should really as a manager, think of the internet as a direct line to your customers. Your company could easily use the internet for competitive advantages; you just need to see the opportunities.

Use or see the internet as;

1) A service finger to all your customers
2) A new way of getting customers
3) A strategic tool to watch competitors
4) A new technology platform to serve customers with different products and needs
5) An extra opportunity to expand business

how to start an internet business

Phil Foster asked:

The FTC has been busy. They’ve been working a lot of hours busting down the doors of the scammers taking away our hard earned dollars. While part of me says, “Good job!”, there’s another part of me that says, “Work smarter, not harder, those are MY tax dollars you’re spending!”

Our Friends at the Federal Trade Commission have been listening. They’ve been doing some homework. I think they’ve been reading my blog. I wouldn’t be surprised if they subsribe to my MLMEruption.com Newsletter, either.

So what’s going on?

The Federal Trade Commission, the FTC, has announced that it’s outlining new laws to protect consumers from Get Rich Quick and Work From Home opportunities, and some new
laws to prevent people from creating these same opportunities. Of course, the law only targets those companies who you wouldn’t want to be in business with anyhow.
Those companies created around breakage. Those companies who make more money when you don’t hit your goals and when you leave them. For real online businesses, those who I would personally do business with, there is a downsizing of the compliance costs.

Most online businesses built on breakage require an initial investment below $500. $499, in some cases, but it’s always below $500. Why? Because the current FTC rule applies to business that charge $500 or more for an initial investment. The new law simply eliminates that hard deck figure. It would mean ALL start up business would be subject to the law.

The new rules would also require that a one page disclosure document would be created. This page would have to address 5 key issues.

1. Earning Claims – (additional Earning Claims Statement with proof)

Now when you see the infamous words, “Make $900 a day without doing anything!”, they’ll have to back it up with REAL proof.

2. Criminal Backgrounds (includeing marketing fraud)

Although a lot of this information is public record, this rule will require that the principles in the company be honest with you. Sure, we’re not all perfect, and a brush with the law doesn’t mean that the company is not one I would business with… but more importantly, the fact that this information is present up front is a good thing. However, I don’t think it will prohibit a company from not declaring someone as a principal.

There are several companies operating today with key figures in their offices who’ve done jail time for fraud. For some companies, this is EXACTLY what they’re looking for. After all, if a person got busted for fraud, surely they learned their lesson right? Of course, that lesson they learned was “how I got busted, and what not to do this time around to stay out of jail”.

3. Cancellation and Refund Policies

In a general statement, if this is NOT listed, you can almost be certain that it’s a 100% refund deal. However, there is time and energy in getting your money back. And that time and energy is something you can NEVER get a refund on. This disclouse up front will be a great thing for the consumer.

4. Number of purchasers (and those seeking refunds or cancellations)

I think that out of all of the new rules, THIS is the key. THIS RULE will expose companies based on breakage. You will be able to see how many people signed up, and how many people left. I would like to see this admended to include a “WHY They Left” statement. When you see more people leaving than staying, you can rest assured that this is NOT a company to get involved with.

5. A list of references.

I think this is perhaps the weakest rule change of them all. References? Please. The majority of the people associated with Mob Bosses will tell you how great they are for the community.

The new rules would also list unfair or deceptive practices – ones a lot of MLMs use today – this will certainly cause a lof of commotion in the MLM community.

If any of the businesses you are personally involved in start making changes over the next few months, there’s a good reason why. They’ve read the rules, and they want to continue making money. I am not suggesting that just because the business you are in makes changes that it is a scam — not at all — changes for compliancy don’t always mean that what the company was doing was illegal — it just means that they weren’t adhering to the law.

The Commission is open to comments on the proposed new business opportunities rule up until June 16 and for rebuttal comments until July 7.

FTC, Office of the Secretary

Room H-135

600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20580.

The FTC requested that any comment filed in paper form be sent by courier or overnight service because U.S. postal mail in the Washington area and at the Commission is subject to delay due to heightened security precautions.

new internet business