Four Models of Successful Internet Business Sites!
Stuart E. Elwell
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Four Models of Successful Internet Business Sites:
One of the best methods of learning how to succeed in your
Internet business is to first find a successful site to model
your business on.
Over the years I have studied many successful web sites to
try to find out what it is that is making them a successful
Internet business. And not just in one particular field, but
many fields, from the many different types of websites out
there. Next time you view an Internet site that you know is
very successful, stop for a moment to try and decipher why it
is so successful.
You will find successful sites on just about any subject matter
you care to think about. There seems to be no barrier to
developing a successful site in any field. You name it, people
are probably making money out of their website in that
specialized area.
Just about anything, if planned appropriately, can be sold
online. If you want to be successful too, why not look for
examples of businesses which have already achieved the success
you would like, and model your business after that, i.e. play
follow the leader.
It would be too much information to try and describe every
single model of success, but I would like to introduce you to
just four model websites which keep springing up. Sites that
are obviously benefiting from being a successful online
business model.
Look at these models to see if you are on your way to
becoming just like that type of business.
Model No.1 - Opt-In List Builder
This is a good model to build your site around by providing a
free newsletter or ezine. If you are building a mailing list
this way, then you must provide high quality information to
your list on a weekly or monthly basis. Never send just ads
or useless information. If your newsletter is just an excuse
to push ads you can be certain it will not grow. On the
contrary, your subscribers will opt-out quicker than you can
replace them, and you'll probably not make any sales anyway.
Learn how to write effective testimonials instead of blatant
ads. These should be a small part of informative articles.
They should fit in nicely and naturally along with this
information, indeed be a part of it! Once your list gets
into the thousands, you should start to see an almost
guaranteed income. Continue to use your website to build your
list up each month and watch your monthly income grow
alongside it.
It can be an effective way to create income, but you have to
be willing and able to write a weekly or monthly newsletter.
It doesn't have to be long, in fact it shouldn't be. But it
does have to be informative. If you hate writing this may not
be the route for you.
Model No.2 - Free Services
There are many services on the Internet that people like to
use, or even desperately need. Examples include such services
as providing an autoresponder service, traffic generating
services, providing free webspace, reciprocal link checking
etc. Sites which provide something valuable for free can
often become extremely popular. Once this popularity is
achieved, and you start getting a lot of daily traffic, then
you can start to charge for allowing advertising on your site.
You're probably thinking something like "how could I possibly
provide such a valuable free service, surely you need lots of
programming knowledge and experience to run such a thing?".
In reality it isn't that difficult. All you need is the right
pre-written script to add to your website. Have a look here:
http://www.cgi-resources.com . This website provides many CGI
programs, many of which are low or NO cost. Some of their
scripts could make great traffic generators for you if you
use them on your site in a highly relevant fashion.
One of the biggest advantages of this web business model is
you don't necessarily have to pay for any advertising. A good
press release might be all you need, particularly if you are
providing something unique. The hard part is coming up with a
good idea. But if you can, because you are providing a
valuable free service, word of mouth can get round very fast.
Model No.3 - One Product Page
If you have a hot product that you want to sell, then create
a good sales page and focus all of your marketing efforts
towards bringing that page to people's attention. When you
present just one choice at your site, you decrease any
distraction which may come from offering multiple
alternative pages.
Getting interested people to click through to this web page
can produce excellent profits, but this is also the hard
part. You will probably have to pay for all of your traffic
so a well thought through pay-per-click campaign may be
your best choice for this business model.
Model No.4 - Affiliate Programs
A popular website model for new webmasters is to create a
site that catalogs many different (but hopefully related)
products within their site. To do this you will either need
a number of different affiliate programs to sign up with, or
you'll need to join an affiliate network such as Commission
Junction or Clickbank. These bring a huge number of
affiliate programs together - under one roof as it were
(i.e. all available through the same intermediate provider).
In order to make this work you have to develop a specialized
site. It needs to be an information source primarily, but
definitely not a sales pitch. Your visitors will want to be
provided with up to date information related to their subject
of interest which brought them to your site in the first place.
You have an unlimited array of possible subjects to choose
from, but you should opt for something that interests
yourself very much. This way you'll have no problem deciding
what other people with the same interest will want to read,
learn or talk about.
Within this context you can then have recommended products
directly related to whatever you think people will be
interested in, so long as it is genuinely related and of
value to your readers. If your visitors value your site and
are interested in your opinion you will make sales.
The real beauty of developing this kind of site is you can
potentially do very well in the search engines, and that
can provide you with a lot of free traffic. I have provided
lots of information to help you with this at my site;
http://www.websmart-marketing.com . Working your pages around
popular keywords is how its done, and when people type these
words into their favorite engine, you want your site to come
out as close the number one spot as possible.
Each of these website business models represents a possible
online business for you. Can you integrate the one which
interests you the most in with your favorite hobby or
pastime? What do you enjoy doing the most? What do you like
to think about when you have the free time. Whatever this is,
there's probably a wide audience of people with the same
interest. Why not build them a website they can visit. You
could find it relatively easy to make money at the same time.
Best wishes for your future.
About the Author
Article by: Stuart Elwell, Webmaster for WebSmart-Marketing.com;
http://www.websmart-marketing.com/home.html ...which provides
good advice and strategies for making money from the Internet.