The first way to fail at working an online business is to try to do everything at once. There are tons of gurus online telling you to do this, that and the other thing and you will be successful. What you as a person interested in online marketing has to do is successfully separate the “real” from the “fictional” and this is not always easy to interpret.

Look at the sales letter and see if there are what I call “massive statements” meaning those statements like, “Purchase this item and you will never need any other marketing tools” or “This particular item will be so easy to use that you will have $1,000’s of dollars in your bank account next day”. Exaggerated claims are the first key to knowing when you are being hyped. Only one situation will bring you success online and that is work and diligence to your business attitudes and service to customers.

Another way to fail online is to avoid spending time researching your niche or your marketplace. Your customers have a certain mindset, a way they like to shop, how they find your websites, etc. Make it easy for them to find out your attitudes, your service policies, and your abilities and do not hide behind the computer. Check other websites in your category and observe what they are doing and see how you can compete or do the service or product a better way. You will not capture every customer, but you do not need every online customer to be successful, only a portion. That is a very compelling reason to market online.

Marking a product or service too inexpensively will prevent you from becoming an online success. You do not have to have the highest pricing nor the cheapest offer online, but you do have to provide value for the dollar or you will not get repeat customers. Repeat customers, repeat this at least three times, are your bread and butter. It takes a lot to get a customer to your website, so you had better be prepared to do more than one follow up to complete that sale.

You need to decide how you will accomplish this marketing chore. Will you use autoresponders, an ezine or newsletter, a blog or just how will you correspond with your website visitors to continue to convince them of your integrity and honesty? It is a concept you should work out before you start to put up a website.

Also, you will need to have the proper tools and should consider their purchase part of your research and development to begin to build an online business. You need your own domain name or maybe a couple of domain names, a webhost, a product or service that you own and profit from, a way to build a website either by yourself or with a web designer, and you need a way to bring traffic to your website. Without any of these components, you will fail in your online business.

Only one component can compliment your ability to make a success online and that is a little four-letter word that is hard to find today. The word is “work” and there will be a lot of late nights and time spent in front of the computer before you see success in your business. If anyone tells you differently, that is a good sign that you need to run, not walk, to the next website!