Website Business Tips

A very common question, especially from people new to internet marketing is “what business should I start” or “what niche market should I get into” or my favorite “what is the most profitable business topic”.

My answer…

There are NO bad markets! I know, that’s different from what most people will say, but hear me out…

It doesn’t matter if you want to start a business selling shoes online, become a freelance writer, or even give tattoo advice (yes, I made money online doing just that!).

Whatever you want to do, you CAN do it online and you CAN make money doing it. There are however, a few “guidelines” I follow when picking a business topic or niche market.

1. The bigger the market, the more money can be made. This is pretty obvious, but many people overlook the concept. Obviously there are more people who want to lose weight than there are people who want to teach their cat to do back flips. Don’t be scared of getting into big markets though. Just because that’s where the “big boys” (or girls) play doesn’t mean there isn’t room for you to come in and get a piece of the pie. In fact, I prefer large markets over small niche markets any day (for reasons you’ll learn about below)…
2. The group of people you are targeting have to be willing to spend money (or at least do something for you that earns you money - ie click your ads). Again, the more money people have to spend, the more you can make. BUT, just because you want to get into a market that doesn’t have much money, it doesn’t mean you can’t make money from that business idea. Look at all those celebrity gossip blogs and websites. Those site owners have readers who rarely buy products from them, but they are earning millions of dollars by displaying ads to the hundreds of thousands of visitors they who are reading their websites each day.
3. Pick a topic that is interesting to you. If you are not interested in the business, you will not be motivated to work on the business. I fell in that trap a couple times, and the most money I’ve ever made online was with businesses that I was passionate about. It doesn’t feel like work when you do something you love doing.
4. Pick a topic that other companies would be interested in. Like I always say, your business exit strategy should ALWAYS be to sell your website at some point. When I start a business online, one of my first steps is to find a company that I would like to get acquired by one day. I build the business to compliment nicely with this other business right from the start. I try to target their same customer demographic, offer similar but non-competing products, maybe join their affiliate program to begin building a business relationship with that company, etc. Then when I want to sell the business, it’s practically sold before I even list it for sale because it’s such a perfect match for them. Big businesses grow by acquiring smaller businesses like yours, get used to the idea and you might get rich in the process…
   (even if you don’t end up selling your website to this company, there will likely be others like them that will want to buy your business, such as their competitors!)
5. Try to stay away from trends or fads. Things like “specialized diets” (ie Atkins) that fade away a few months after they are released are not good business models. Yes, you can make money from trends and fads, but it’s not a very good long term plan.

It really depends on your goals and how much money you want to make. If you are happy with earning an extra $300 per month from your web business, then you can start almost any kind of website to make that much money. If you want to make at least $75,000 per month, then you need to focus on the bigger markets and be prepared to work a little harder.

I know most of these tips you’ve never heard before, but I guarantee it’s the most valuable advice you’re going to find online.

Until next time…