The Small Business Library

December 31, 1999 Top 7 Profit Boosting Strategies You MUST Use To Succeed Online If your goal is to start an e-business or grow an existing one in the new millennium, let me be the first to congratulate you. There was a time when prudent minds thought the Net was mostly hype, but no more. Some e-businesses are now valued at more than entire industries. E-commerce sites churned over $7 billion dollars in just weeks as 1999 turns to 2000. Even though the Amazon.com's, Dell's, and Yahoo's are the ones making the headlines, many relatively small home-based operations are earning six figures or more online each year. Here are seven vitally important things you MUST do to succeed in your own Internet business. You must Promote Consistently and Relentlessly-Everyday Lay out your daily promotion plan including free ads on top sites like Yahoo and AOL, low-cost ezine ads, participation in online discussion and newsgroups, establishing your expertise through your own articles and ezines, and press releases from time to time. Offline promotion through card decks and classified ads in the print media is also an important means of driving traffic to your Web site. I am often haunted by P.T. Barnum's stark reminder: "Without promotion, something terrible happens - NOTHING!" Position Yourself to be a Market Leader Are you content to follow the herd? Step outside of your comfort zone and dare to lead than to follow. Set yourself apart from the competition by developing your own USP-unique selling position sometimes also referred to as ESA (Essential Selling Advantage) What is your USP? It doesn't really matter "what" your USP is as much as it matters that you have one. Prospective customers MUST have a good reason to do business with you rather than your competition. It could be your superior customer service, your lifetime refund policy, best prices or the outstanding quality of your products. You have absolutely no reason to worry about the competition once your customers "experience" your USP. In fact, you can use your USP to ruthlessly eliminate your competitors. Keep your eyes peeled for new technologies and opportunities Many of the people making big money online got started with a new technology or business model. They worked on the cutting-edge to establish themselves. Stay ahead of the pack by adopting cutting edge tools and techniques that enhance the quality of your service and the speed with which it is delivered. At the very least, free up more time for yourself by putting your business on auto-pilot. Forge strategic alliances, joint venture with like-minded businesses and strive to build a successful affiliate network that could result in mega-profits without any extra effort or expense on your part. Pyramid Your Profits Into Multiple Streams of Income A sure-fire strategy to creating multiple streams of income is to invest a small percentage of each sale into more advertising. This will very quickly have a snowballing effect. As your advertising grows, so will your business and profits. Diversify. You may never become a household name but you will in time establish a presence nationally and with some persistence and sheer determination-even internationally. It is now easier than ever before to go global. Strive To Develop a Positive Mental Attitude Attitude is everything. It's often not what you are, or what others think you are that counts. You are who YOU think you are. If you doubt your ability to succeed, it is highly unlikely your new Internet business will get off the ground. Instead, if you know and believe you have the ability to learn new things, work hard, and make your mark online, your Internet business career will charge full steam ahead. Don't Create Mediocrity When You Can Copy Genius Why try to reinvent the wheel when you can easily model your business after one that already has a successful track record? I will leave you with these words from Anthony Robbins' best selling book, Unlimited Power. "If you want to achieve success, all you need to do is find a way to model those who have already succeeded. That is, find out what actions they took to produce the results you desire to duplicate. All you have to do is take a proven system and duplicate it and maybe even improve upon it. People who do this are virtually guaranteed success." The author, Collin Almeida runs several marketing Web sites, reprint-rights.com provides royalty-free rights to a wide range of info-products.   internetpowertools.com provides Internet marketing know-how. He is also the publisher of the AudioWealth Newsletter and CyberSmart ezine. Download his revolutionary new software "Starting a Home Based Mail Order Business" FREE at:  opportunitymarketplace.com. It walks you step-by-step through every aspect of starting your own business from home.