The Four Keys To Online Success

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The Four Keys To Online Success - By: Wayne Van Dyck, Posted on: 2008-03-27

Before you can start building your online empire, you need to first understand the four elements that make up every online business. It's your job to master each of these and then bring them together into an operating unit whose end result is the creation of cash flow into your bank account.

The FOUR elements are:

1. TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE - The Internet is a digital network, and everything you do online is converted into digital data and moved and processed by computers and software. So online businesses require lots of technology. The more technology employed the less work you need to do and the more leverage you get.

Even simple micro businesses require Websites, marketing and selling systems, credit card systems and business systems. You need such components as hosting services and Webservers, Website builders, audio and video systems, email autoresponders, customer databases, product delivery systems, merchant accounts, tracking and accounting systems and more.

Just as if you were going to open a store in a mall to sell books, you would need to lease a location, install the shelves and lighting, purchase inventory, lease cash registers, and hire sales people -- all before you could open for business.

Likewise, your online business requires that the technology infrastructure to perform these same functions be put in place before you can start getting traffic or making money.

2. PRODUCTS - The way you make money is to sell something people want. In the online world, there are two categories of products you can sell: (1) third-party products that pay commissions or (2) your own digital products.

Selling third-party products is a huge and well-established business on the Internet. It's called the "affiliate income business." It's easy to do. You sign up as an affiliate for a product or company and send them Internet traffic. When any of your traffic makes a purchase, you earn commissions that range from 5% to 75%. Last year over $8 Billion in affiliate commissions were paid out to thousands of people, just like you.

You can also develop and sell your own digital products. While they require a bigger upfront investment, you can get others to become your affiliates and sell your products and make even more money.

3. TRAFFIC - Once you have your technology infrastructure in place and you've selected the products you're going to sell, the third element is getting traffic to your online business.

Putting a Website online does NOT mean you'll get any traffic. A Website is like a store in the desert, nobody knows you're there unless you market with advertising or some other method.

Without traffic your product and technology investments are worthless, so learning traffic strategies is your number one job. The first thing to learn is that all traffic is not equal. What you want is "targeted traffic." If your site is selling baby books, then traffic with lots of golfers is worthless to you. You want traffic with new parents or "prospects," called targeted traffic.

There are hundreds of different traffic strategies, so it takes time to identify the best ones for your particular sites.

4. CONVERSION - Traffic is worthless unless you have the tools and know the strategies for "converting" your prospects into customers and collecting their money. In the offline world, this is called "selling" or "closing the sale" and is normally done by salespeople. In the online world, selling is called conversion.

Conversion is achieved through the written sales copy, graphics, page designs, audio and/or video sales messages, the offers you make and your guarantees. Learning conversion skills is key to big incomes online.

Conversion is measured as a percentage of the "buyers or purchasers" divided by the total traffic. Generally conversions range from 0% to 5%.

Making money online requires that you learn and manage these four elements and coordinate each to work as a part of a successful business unit.

Article Source: http://www.girlarticles.com

Wayne Van Dyck is the CEO of Six Degrees Media in Sausalito, CA and is a developer of Internet tools and technologies for building online businesses. To get your FREE "Money Making Analysis" and FREE copy of "How to Make Your First $50,000 Online...WhileYou Sleep" go to: SmartMoneyWebsites.com.