Forget all the hype and flamboyant promises. Here is an online business in a nutshell:

1. you need to sell something
2. what you sell needs to be something people want and/or need
3. for them to buy from you they need to get to know you
4. for them to get to know you you need a way to contact them
5. for them to give you their details you need to have them find you

It’s not so different to a traditional business, really.  The principles are the same and you have probably heard these lines before:

“Nothing happens until you make a sale” (point 1)

“People buy on emotion and purchase on logic” ie they rationalise their gut reaction (point 2)

“People buy from people they know, like and trust”  (point 3-5)

So, fill in the blanks for yourself:

1. what can you sell?
   • services, courses, information, products
   • will you create them, have them created or
   • sell someone else’s?
2. how do you know people want or need what you have to sell?
   • what market research have you done?
   • have you been on relevant forums to watch what people are struggling with?
   • have you asked people you already know?
   • have you worked out appropriate keywords and checked them out
3. have you got an autoresponder?
   • is it setup and loaded
   • is it flexible enough to send one-off broadcasts
   • can you easily read replies and respond to people asking questions or commenting?
4. where can I sign up?
   • for each service or product you are go9ing to sell
   • do you have optin pages (landing pages)
   • do you have your autoresponder script included
   • what are you offering to the subscriber in return for their contact details?
   • have you got a thank you and/or download page or are you sending the gift in the autoresponder?
5. how will they find you?
   • will you write a swag of articles on the topic of your sales item and submit them to ezine directories with a call to action and back-link?
   • will you jump on relevant forums, get known by being helpful and then include a signature to your optin page?
   • will you join forces with someone else in a complimentary area and make the offer to their database of people?
   • will you run some teleseminars or webinars to demonstrate your stuff and build credibility
   • do you have your optin page on things like business cards, brochures and the like if these are relevant to you?
   • are you going to use FaceBook or Twitter or other social media to educate and inform people and lead them to your optin?

That’s it, in a nutshell.

Be open. Be honest. Avoid the hype and follow good marketing practice.

Make a decision on one thing and stick to it. Don’t switch and continually  chase rabbits down holes – you might find you are leaving the money on the table right under your nose.