Thinking of a really good product to sell through your online business is only half the battle; you have to then attract traffic-that is potential customers-to your site to see your products.
Arguably, attracting and keeping traffic is harder than coming up with the products because there are so many other stores online and it is very hard and very time consuming to attract anyone, let alone enough people to make your store worth maintaining and make you a profit.
The problem is further exacerbated by the mentality of most amateur online business owners-they believe that they have to spend the majority of their time and energy on their products and then have nothing left to give to the traffic building aspect of their business.
Many others don't know how to effective drive traffic to their business and so the store fails and the owner is forced to return to a job he or she didn't like.
If you don't want to end up like this, you have to have a strategy for building traffic as well as building products.
The first way to advertise yourself is to go with your strengths.
If you enjoy joining communities, than join forums and online communities and contribute regularly to the chats and discussions to establish yourself as an expert.
If you enjoy writing, then contribute articles to directories and set up a blog.
If you enjoy graphic design, then create banner ads for yourself.
Playing to your strengths will not only allow you to create methods of driving traffic to your site, but your enthusiasm will also set you up as someone who knows about the products and enjoys them, which will inspire others to feel the same way.
When you pull the money together, outsource any traffic building methods to other experts and enthusiasts that you can find.
Help can be found in third party sites that link up workers with employers, or on sites like Craigslist.
When you have someone else helping, you can broaden your range of advertising and thus get a wider net of traffic to your online store, meaning more money in your pocket.
You can also take advantage of traffic that you may not have been able to before, such as an additional blogger, a social media site that someone you're hiring is involved with, or even word of mouth.
A lot of advertising can become automated after a while, such as banner ads and word of mouth.
Other things have to be updated regularly, such as submissions to article directories and blogging.
Once you get into a regular rhythm, you'll find that traffic building is much faster and you'll be able to enjoy having more money come into your bank account.
Traffic building is the other half of running a successful internet business, so be sure to put as much thought into this aspect as you did into your products and website design.
You'll find you stand a much better chance of being successful when you spend time attracting as many customers as possible.
Arguably, attracting and keeping traffic is harder than coming up with the products because there are so many other stores online and it is very hard and very time consuming to attract anyone, let alone enough people to make your store worth maintaining and make you a profit.
The problem is further exacerbated by the mentality of most amateur online business owners-they believe that they have to spend the majority of their time and energy on their products and then have nothing left to give to the traffic building aspect of their business.
Many others don't know how to effective drive traffic to their business and so the store fails and the owner is forced to return to a job he or she didn't like.
If you don't want to end up like this, you have to have a strategy for building traffic as well as building products.
The first way to advertise yourself is to go with your strengths.
If you enjoy joining communities, than join forums and online communities and contribute regularly to the chats and discussions to establish yourself as an expert.
If you enjoy writing, then contribute articles to directories and set up a blog.
If you enjoy graphic design, then create banner ads for yourself.
Playing to your strengths will not only allow you to create methods of driving traffic to your site, but your enthusiasm will also set you up as someone who knows about the products and enjoys them, which will inspire others to feel the same way.
When you pull the money together, outsource any traffic building methods to other experts and enthusiasts that you can find.
Help can be found in third party sites that link up workers with employers, or on sites like Craigslist.
When you have someone else helping, you can broaden your range of advertising and thus get a wider net of traffic to your online store, meaning more money in your pocket.
You can also take advantage of traffic that you may not have been able to before, such as an additional blogger, a social media site that someone you're hiring is involved with, or even word of mouth.
A lot of advertising can become automated after a while, such as banner ads and word of mouth.
Other things have to be updated regularly, such as submissions to article directories and blogging.
Once you get into a regular rhythm, you'll find that traffic building is much faster and you'll be able to enjoy having more money come into your bank account.
Traffic building is the other half of running a successful internet business, so be sure to put as much thought into this aspect as you did into your products and website design.
You'll find you stand a much better chance of being successful when you spend time attracting as many customers as possible.