The reading level for this article is All Levels

 

On the surface, starting an internet-based business may seem like a dream come true. A business owner can start a business out of her home, selling her products and services everywhere and anywhere in the world without big marketing budgets or lots of advertising. However, once she puts up her first web site, that dream often comes crashing down â€" it’s not nearly as easy as it first looks.

So, she does her research. She starts learning everything she can about Internet Marketing.

But it’s still not as simple as what the “gurus” say. Maybe the business owner is still stuck at her current revenue goals and she knows she could be making more. Maybe she feels uncomfortable or “icky” around her marketing. Maybe she agonizes over every negative email and feedback she gets. And maybe she feels like there must be a better way.

Here are 3 tips to use to get more success through Internet Marketing:

1.      Pull up those big girl panties and get some business training. People start businesses for all sorts of reasons that have really nothing to do with owning their own business. They want freedom, to provide for their families, to not have a boss, to get their message out into the world, to make a difference. None of those reasons started with the words, “I love business.”

 

So it only stands to reason they have little to no training or experience in business. If that’s the case, it’s unlikely that business will come naturally. Learning to run a business is like learning to do any skill. Learn to run an effective, profitable business, and put Internet Marketing in its proper place, which is … 

 

2.      Internet Marketing is a tool in a business owner’s marketing toolbox, it is NOT a business model. There’s a certain amount of confusion about this whole Internet Marketing thing, that this somehow is a business model rather than a collection of strategies. While it certainly CAN turn into a business model, that’s not a desirable situation. Typically, when that happens, the business has turned itself into a “launch after launch” model, which is highly stressful on a number of levels (not to mention it’s not sustainable, long-term).

 

When a business owner views Internet Marketing as simply another tool in her toolbox, then her mindset changes. It’s just another tool â€" nothing more, nothing less. Certainly nothing to agonize about. Next step: focus on using that tool correctly.

 

3.      If there’s a part of Internet Marketing a business owner really struggles with, she should take a good hard look at it. One of two things will most likely happen â€" either she’ll see the reason she struggles is because she has a block around something else, and if she wants to fix it she will work on the block. Or she realizes this piece is just not going to happen â€" either she really hates doing it or maybe she feels like it doesn’t align with her or her business. If it’s the latter, she will have to find another way to get the same results, or she’s going to have to accept the consequences of not doing it.

 

But how does she know which one it is? If it’s a block or something else? And if it’s something else, how does she make the choice to do something different? And how does she know what the consequences even are, before it’s too late?

This is a problem I’ve seen over and over again â€" conscious entrepreneurs making a choice around Internet Marketing based on faulty or incomplete information and not realizing the consequences until it’s too late. It’s something no one else is talking about… but I am.  Stay tuned for more!