Where to Start?
by: Susan Carroll
That's the question you may be asking yourself today as you venture into a new partnership, a new marketing campaign, a new web site, starting your list or any of the other new things you may be starting for you online business.
Maybe you've started a similar project before so you have some experience and you know what you're going to do. Maybe you've never done this type of thing before so you have to learn how.
No matter what you're starting and no matter if you have experience or not, the 7 things you must do first are:
1. Decide what you're going to start.
2. Decide what the goal of the project is.
3. Make a plan on how to reach your goal.
4. Break each step of your plan into smaller, doable steps.
5. Learn what you must do for each step of your plan.
6. Learn how to do the things necessary to implement your plan.
7. Do it.
(Side note - If your project is big like starting a business for a new targeted market or writing an eBook, you should do some research first to make sure the targeted market buys things online or the information in your eBook is in demand.)
If your among the few who are lucky enough to have the resources to pay others to do some of the work then you may not have to learn how to do things like create a website or write an article. But, if you're like most online business people, then you're a do-it-yourselfer and you must learn enough about every aspect of having an online business to do everything.
This is a Big Task for those first getting started.
Remember when you first started your online business and you weren't quite sure what to do?
You may have launched your first attempt of having an online business by joining some affiliate programs and advertising them in ezines. Maybe you created a site and filled it full of banner ads promoting your products.
Did you have much success?
If you did then consider yourself lucky because you are in the 2% who didn't fail.
If you didn't have much success but continued learning and trying then you are in that same 2%.
Starting your online business is like growing your online business. You have to have a plan, you have to have a goal, you have to learn and you have to start. If you do something wrong, you have to learn from your mistakes and change something. If you do something right, you remember how you did it so you can repeat it when you start your next project.
Now I could repeat one of today's most common pieces of advice and say that "not getting started is the biggest mistake" but I won't. The reason I won't say it is because while not getting started is a big mistake, not having a plan of action is just as big.
Image going to visit a friend you haven't seen in awhile. Not getting into the car won't get you there. But then, getting into the car and driving around aimlessly because you don't know where your friend lives won't get you there either.
No matter whether your an experienced online marketer or someone just starting out. You must start with a plan.
About The Author
Susan Carroll owner of
http://www.friendswhocare.us has formed a global community of online business people through her weekly newsletter.
Susan recently finished a free report about adding automatic content to your website that search engines can see. It's available at:
http://www.friendswhocare.us/content.htm.
