Online Business: Are you Making Money yet?
by: David Lumsden
If you follow my articles, you will know I am not much into denial. You know what I mean: I would have done this but:
The tiles fell off my roof
I had to pick up the apples that had fallen down in the wind
I felt I had a cold coming on Etc, etc
Back to my original question? Online Business: Are you Making Money yet? Are you or is it all a bit spend, spend, spend, dribble in, spend, spend, spend?
In the immortal words of someone I have forgotten. “You are not alone”. I ask not to gloat, but to help.
Starting any business, online or offline, HAS to have its start up costs. For an extreme example, let us suppose you have a monopoly on money growing trees. We are talking the genuine article here, a seed which when planted, nurtured and reaches 5 metres high after 4 years, produces $100 notes, accepted at all good department stores.
This fine tree produces kernels, similar to acorns, and the kernels when opened provide the $100 notes. The point is, the growing of the trees cost money. The anti-money tree virus treatment costs money. The advertising yawn yawn cost money.
In other words, the website may have cost a fortune, add the cost of:
Domain name
Hosting
Auto responders
Article publishers
(Possibly a new computer)
(Probably a few items of software)
ISP
(Broadband)
Need I go on? I will ignore a new offline business, but I can assure you an online business will cost you in the setting up. It is highly unlikely that you have a business that will bring in huge profits immediately. So what is important?
WRITE DOWN ALL YOUR OUTGOINGS. KEEP RECORDS. What records? Easy.
How much, to whom, when next and why. ($19, Domain name, Each Month, Web address). Regardless, do it your way.
Next question, how do I cover that $19 cost? For example, can it be done by having other people use the same Domain name provider? Almost certainly. How? Become an affiliate, introduce 2 people and you will probably find you are $1 in profit.
Very often when you buy a service online from a recognised provider, they will have an affiliate program that you can join. (You may have automatically joined at outset anyway). If there is an option, join it. It will not take much to cover your own monthly cost and move to profit.
If you make a profit, teach your downline too as well. (Quite likely your profit will go up too).
My advice is to cover your recurring costs as soon as possible; this then allows you to develop your online business at your own speed. (It also takes the pressure off a little bit and when you are starting out, that is very important).
Hope this has helped a little.
Copyright 2005 David Lumsden
About The Author
David Lumsden
Not long ago, I didn't know ANYTHING about Internet marketing... However, within just 2 weeks, I launched my own website AND learned how to profit from an opt-in list, pull in sales with ezines, make money with Google Adwords and setup my own BLOG! Here's how:
http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-9996
