What does an Internet business organization look like?
I now know what I want to achieve in my internet business but I don’t know how to organize my business. I am getting all these associations and I am not controlling them. I am signing up for this email and that affiliate and this service and that provider and I don’t know how to control all this stuff, so stopped doing anything else and I started looking for information on just this topic and then I found one free ebook and one email that had what I was looking for. If you have not read, “Internet Business Manifesto” and “Internet Business Manifesto-The Missing Chapter” by Rich Schefren then you are missing an important tool in starting and organizing you internet business.
The ebook “Internet Business Manifesto” can be downloaded free from this site: http://www.strategicprofits.com/manifesto
My organization of information consisted of one folder on my hard drive where all my downloads went and my emails were separated by either a general directory for miscellaneous emails or separate folders for each sender that I like and receive regular emails.
My organization of business was, well, I didn’t have one and didn’t know how to have one. I have tried a few web site organizations, and canceled all of them. A few that I had forgotten that I had signed up for, because I was signing up for things just to see what they did, finally reminded me by sending me a bill for $24.95 for a months service when I did not even remember I had it, so I surely did not do anything with it, but I still had to pay the bill. They really don’t care that I was clueless about what I am doing. I signed up for the service, so I had to pay. I wonder if there is a graphic some where that has my pic and is titled “Clueless.”
Among other things I did not have a clue about and was guilty of was just what “Internet Business Manifesto” brings up as its first topic, opportunistic thinking. Now who has not been taught that being optimistic is a good thing. I have always thought that I should think positively about my future, if I see a win-win positive opportunity it is something I should check in to.
With my positive optimistic mind set, away I went looking for positive opportunistic goals. Do you see a flaw in this? I did not, that is the way I had always thought. That is why “Internet My Way To Riches” made sense to me. The promotion said it was a Win-Win-Win deal. A win for the customer, they buy something they want, a win for me, I get a commission and a win for the promoter he makes some money as well. The problem was that it was not something I was interested in doing or promoting and I felt I was not going to learn anything worth learning. So I canceled another “Opportunity” and set off looking for another. Even though I repeated this pattern a few times I did not understand what ideas I was working with that were wrong and even if I had I did not have another idea to replace it with. Then came along the “Manifesto,” and I permanently changed the way I think about business.
The “Manifesto” describes an opportunistic approach as “you grab it,” going day by day taking action on what’s appealing.
So what is the alternative? Strategic thinking. Strategic thinking is purposeful and goal oriented. A businessman to be purposeful first needs to have a good inventory of his own resources and what he is able to achieve, then knowing his resources, target a goal and not let day by day opportunities distract and turn him away from that goal.
Me? I was all over the place looking for opportunities, but not any more. I knew what I wanted to do in my eCommerce work but I was letting myself get pulled all over the place. After reading this I set a path. I know as a beginner I can not go from where I am today to an “Amazon” tomorrow but I can set a path of learning and mile-stone achievement markers to keep me on my path.
The next part of this little free ebook is nothing but golden. He breaks out Internet Business into twelve (12) parts. Then he gave a conclusion that set me back in my seat for a little while. A few of these categories he details a little further. What follows are those twelve parts and his details and some of my added details.
INTERNET BUSINESS PLAN
1. CONTENT
1.Articles
2.Products
1.eBooks & physical books
2.Audio & Video
3.Software
4.News Letter – The Adventures of Internet NewBees
5.
3.Content pages for SEO
4.Graphics
5.Free reports & eCourses
6.eZines
7.Bonuses
8.Blog Posts & Podcasts
9.Internet Marketing
ReSeller: some one who buys the rights to someone else’s products and sells them as their own for full profits.
a.Basic Resell Rights
b.Master Reseller Rights
c.Private Label Rights
d.Give Away Rights
e.Rebranding Rights
Pick resell rights of good quality:
a.Comes with a guarantee
b.Marketing materials provided(letters, images, thank you pages, testimonials, etc.)
c.Products with demand
d.Has a back-end income
e.Author’s reputation is positive
f.Appropriate terms and conditions
g.Whether the product is outdated
Affiliate Marketer: sells someone else’s products for part of the commissions, they do not need to pre-purchase the product.
1.Capture leads on the first page (opt-ins).
2.Redirect these leads to the affiliate page.
3.Continue endorsing the affiliate products to you opt-ins.
Outline for Internet Marketing
a.Domain name and hosting prepared.
b.Have you own auto responder.
c.Have an opt-in page (your squeeze page).
d.Redirect ot affiliate link.
e.Set up your auto responder messages (at least 5-10 emails).
f.Get traffic (usually through PPC Search Engines).
g.Back-End sales with higher priced products.
h.Nurture on what you have and replicate the process.
2.LIST
1.List building tactics
2.List management
3.Segmenting
4.Deliverability
3.FINANCE
1.Merchant accounts
2.Paying affliates
ClickBank, payment processor for selling digital products, also integrated affiliate system.
PayDotCom, integrates with PayPal.
3.Accounts payable
4.Vendor sourcing
5.Budgets
Domain name - $9.95 per year
Hosting - $25.00 /month
AutoResponder - $0 – 45.00 /month
Aweber’s - $19.95
Getresponse - $17.95
Payment Gateway - $0 – 47.00 /month
Statistic Reports - $0 – 15.00 /month
Marketing budget - $0 – 100.00 /month
6.Taxes
7.Insurance
8.Payroll
9.Accounts receivable
10.Copyright fees $30. non-refundable filling fee
You’ll need a completed Form TX or Short Form TX and one full copy of work(s) . You can send work (ebook) in on standard printer paper.
Mail to: Library of Congress
Copyright Office
101 Independence Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20559-6000
4.TECHNICAL
1.Software development
2.HTMP pages- most important parts
a.Your first page title
b.First Header
c.First 250 words of text
d.Anchor text link
e.Meta tag description
f.Meta tag keywords
g.The first IMG Alt tag
3.Site maintenance
a.Domain name. www.namecheap.com - $8.88
b.Hosting, www.LunarPages.com, High storage and bandwidth
www.HostGator.com, host many domain names.
www.Host4Profits.com, lots of professional features.
4.Computer maintenance
5.Tracking
6.White listing
7.Server maintenance
5.SYSTEMS
1.Internal systems
2.Software development
(sometimes you create your own software to automate recurring tasks)
6.SALES
1.Copywriting
a.Sales letters
b.Order pages
c.Affiliate recruitment
ClickBank
PaydotCom
d.Pay-per-click
e.Banners ads
f.Emails
g.Opt-ins
h.Name captures
2.Testing
7.TRAFFIC
1.SEO
2.Link buying
3.Link building
4.JV recruitment
5.Viral programs
6.Pay-per-click
7.Blogs
8.Buying and existing and expired domains
9.RSS feeds
10.Banner advertising
8.CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS
1.Getting testimonials
2.Customer service
3.Free offers
4.Return processing
5.Fulfillment
9.MARKET ANALYSIS
1.Niche detective
2.Surveys
3.Keyword research
4.Ask database
5.Up-sales
6.Backends
7.Bumps
10.BUSINESS BUILDING
1.Acquisition potentially of related Web sites
2.Buying competitors or buying similar Web sites
3.Buying sites offering what people would buy before or after they buy you product.
4.Product licensing
11.LEGAL COMPLIANCE
1.FTC Regulation
2.SPAM issues
3.Terms of service
4.Business licenses
5.IRS filings
12.AFFLIATE MARKETING
1.Scanning of programs
2.Figuring out which affiliate programs should be member
3.Developing separate sites, to promote other people’s products, so you can build a better list for your own product.
Now here I am getting organized and purposeful and the Manisfesto throws in one more golden nugget. “What is your time worth?” and what is productive time?
I know it looks like I am not writing much about me but I am. I am telling you how I changed from opportunistic business hopes to strategic business goals, from scattered organizations to opportunistic organizations to strategic plans. Now in just a few pages he makes me aware of my wasted time and how to calculate and purposefully design in my day productive time.
There is one more list that put it all together for me. I received it in an unusual email.
1.Your Domain Names
2.Your Web Hosting Account
3.ALL of Your Email Addresses
4.Your Website Content
5.Your Web Server Information
6.Your Online Databases
7.Your Internet Service Provider
8.Your Products/Services
9.Your Auto-responders
10.Your Contracts and Agreements
11.Your Licenses
12.Your Memberships
13.Your Payment Methods and Details for Each
14.Affiliate Programs & Passwords
15.Promotions
16.Automated Monthly Expenses
17.Outsourceing Information
With these list I can either go crazy opportunistically grabbing associations or files or what ever to put items in my list or use the list as aids, business parts, as I work toward a specific goal. Knowing me, and I do, I will probably do a little of both until I get use to being more and more purposeful and deliberate.
I still don’t know the details to get to where I am going but this has been a big step to getting me there. What about you? Did this fill in any pieces for you? Send me an e-mail let me know what you think of this note.
Untill then,
Be blesses, be happy, be prosperous.
The eBizNewbee
