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The Top 10 Reasons Why Your Online Business is Failing... And Actions You Can Take to Fix it!

By Wes Waddell

Today is a wake-up call for many of you; we are doing our top 10 list of reasons why your online business isn’t making any money and what you can do to get it going...

#10 - You haven't done anything to start it up!

This is my favorite and what I feel is the best place to start a list like this... many people just don’t know where to start. Others have slapped a website together and just put it up on a free or guest page server without ever doing any type of promotion for it.

You have to promote your website!

Even if you don't have a dime to spend on advertising, you can still place Free Classifieds & Links (search for them), publish news releases (www.PRWeb.com), and participate in chat rooms, forums, and newsgroups. How many BLOG’s are there now?

There are so many free ways of advertising online, it’s appalling that the average website gets so little traffic a year!

You either need to spend the time to let people know it’s there or you need to spend the money to have others do it for you.

#9 - You don't accept credit cards or electronic checks!

If you want to do business in the information age, you have to accept credit cards. That’s just the way it is. If you aren't currently accepting credit cards, many of your possible clients will look at your business and see it as a hobby or small time operation.

It used to be difficult to get a merchant account or credit card processor if you were a new business or had anything less than an "A+" credit rating.

Now, with new third party merchant account providers like PayPal and StormPay out there, everyone has the ability to take credit cards and online checks.

So, you have NO more excuses for not taking credit.

Check out:

https://www.paypal.com

http://www.stormpay.com

http://www.paydotcom.com

http://www.clickbank.com (for digital products only)

for more information on accepting credit cards… do it today!

#8 - You don't take your orders online!

Someone comes to your website, they are excited by your products, they are ready to order... AND then you make them call or send an order in by mail! You must be kidding... there is no worse way to lose the sale than this. This is the instant information age, not the: “you can get it in a week age.”

This is also the other half of #9 above. Once you have your credit account (or accounts) set up, get the buttons and links on your site. Don’t make your potential clients work any harder than they have to when they are ready to exchange their money with you.

Make it as easy as you can for them to find and pay for your products or services.

#7 - You don't have your own site and domain name!

WHAT? You haven't bought your own domain yet... Well, get busy. This should honestly be one of your very first expenses.

You’re a business, act like one!

Having your own domain name gives your business it's own identity instead of just being a /member/ of a guest or free web host. Plus, if you ever need to changes hosts (where your web site is located), your domain comes with you.

If you change hosts from a free or public server, your name and traffic stay behind. That means that you are essentially starting over in your online business.

Even if you leave the old site up for a while with a link to the new site, how many of your visitors are going to go to the trouble of clicking another link to get there? The bottom line… you will lose clients that way.

Save some pain later. For low cost monthly domain hosting, check out one of the providers we use and recommend called Exovian.com at http://www.exovian.com/ or just do a search on any search engine for web hosting. Compare and make your own web presence known. Do it now.

#6 – You’re confusing your visitors!

Way too many new webmasters have too many products online, too many pictures, and too many links. The longer I live and work in businesses online, the more I learn that simplicity is the key to a successful Internet Business.

We often try to make it too difficult for our prospects and ourselves.

You will be better off, especially in the beginning, if you try to focus on only one or two products on your website. You are then free to use other products for backends (follow-on sales and upgrades) of your main products.

Make your new clients decisions easy. Concentrate on just one action for your visitor per page. Always be asking yourself… what is it that I want them to do. Then make it as easy as possible for them to do just that.

#5 – You’re not giving people a reason to come back!

Is your website just one big sales presentation, or do you include free “VALUABLE” information in it as well?

Have you considered using Free Articles or Reports you have written, Classifieds, Free Postcards, or other Traffic Building tools as free items on your site?

You can pretty much be guaranteed that if all you have is a sales presentation, your website will not generate the recurring visits you need to become successful.

You have to give people a reason to come back... because most times your sales will not be made on the prospective clients first visit to your site. In fact, most marketers in any field will tell you it takes anywhere from 7 to as many as 17 times before they trust you enough to make the purchase.

#4 - You don't follow-up with your prospects!

Speaking of trust and recognition… The fortune in marketing is in the follow-up. That’s your repeat messages/calls/mails, etc. that you send or use after the clients first visit to your site. If you don't follow-up on your prospects, you could be missing out on the majority of your sales.

Do you even try to get the email address of your visitors?

Do they provide you their e-mails and names to get your free information we talked about earlier?

There’s a type of autoresponder, which automatically does your follow-up for you. Widely available these days, this just could be the answer to keeping in touch with your clients, even for many of us who are too lazy to consistently do it on our own.

You can check out some of the revolutionary new Internet marketing tools at:

http://www.autoresponseplus.com

http://www.1automationwiz.com

http://www.aweber.com

#3 - You don't have your own newsletter or e-zine!

If you don't have your own online newsletter, also called an E-zine, you are missing dozens of marketing opportunities. We just told you above that you must follow-up or keep in contact with your clients. What better way to do that than to provide them with new valuable information related to their interest on a regular basis?

I know that there are many of you that are too scared to start your own ezine because you don't think you know how to write.

That is not an excuse.

There are dozens of writers in any type of market, all of them online, who will be willing to give you good quality articles for your ezine for a small fee and even for free.

Here’s a couple of the sources I use on a regular basis:

http://www.goarticles.com/index.html (FREE)

http://www.PRWeb.com (FREE) news and articles

If you don’t find what you need there… look around. There are thousands of sources, just do a web search and start publishing today, now, immediately.

#2 - You don't have your own front or backend products!

Being an affiliate or a reseller of other people's products is a good beginning and can be a great opportunity… but I would always recommend you develop your own product(s) if possible.

When you own your own product, you can make the maximum profit from every sale. You can build a good business reputation. You can set up dealer networks.

What’s more, you set the prices. You are in total control.

What’s the easiest product to develop?

The easiest product to create is also the same product that generates the most profit. It’s an information product.

What do you love doing? What are good at? What would you do even if no one paid you a dime? Where is your passion?

Start working on a simple information product in that area. You can be the prime-source for a product or service or you can interview other authorities and have the interview transcribed into a report or a book. Publish the audio on CD or for download as MP3.

It’s easy… you just need to get started. Follow your muse!

And finally…

The #1 reason your online business isn’t making any money… You aren't constantly seeking out new Internet marketing training and information!

Every one of the most successful Internet Business owners I know is an “Information Junkie”, they can’t get enough of the stuff.

Want to make it on the Internet or in any business? Then you need to take the above advice and put it into action. The sooner the better! Internet Beginners Start Here.

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