'Planning a Successful Online Business'

Part 1: MindsetPart 2: Research & MonetisationPart 3: Online Business Models

About me…

• Founder/Owner of three successful online businesses.

• Replaced my income and now work full time from home with my amazing, handsome and sexy husband.

• Been working from home & online since 2008.• Sacked the boss officially in 2012.• Other interests are travel and property

investing.

Every new business starts with an IDEA.

But how do you turn it into a GREAT IDEA?

Where to start…

Business Idea CREDIBILITY

• Q: How would this business idea translate to the offline world. – Would it sell?– Could you become the authority on the topic?– How credible is the idea?– Is there a market?

The WEB only takes a good business idea and makes it more efficient.

$$$

• How to determine if your business idea is profitable.

• Google Adwords Keyword Tool – How many searches (Aust / Global)– How much competition– How much money…? • Product price X volume of converting traffic = $$$

– How much profit.

Top Google Result Gets 36.4% of Clicks

Case Study: Body Wraps– Google Adwords Keyword Tool• 6,600 Local Monthly Searches for (Body Wrap)

– Traffic Estimate if #1 Organically • 6,600 multiplied by 36% = 2,376 Visits• (19,700,000 results in Google)

– Conversion Rate Average is 3-5% (Australia)• 2,376 Visits multiplied by 5% = 118 Sales / Month

– Income (body wrap = $180)• 118 sales x $180 = $21,240 / month ($250k/year)

– Profit % multiplied by Income = Earnings

Great Idea!

• Mindset.– The Who, What, When, Why & How…

• End Goal?• How much money will I make?• How much time?• When will I take ACTION?• Who will be involved?• How much money will it cost (outlay)?

No Shortcuts

• Don’t look for shortcuts. • Fail, do it often, do it cheaply and learn from it.• Learn to do what you can do, outsource what you

simply cannot.– Learn how to:

• Buy a domain name & hosting.• Build a simple 5 page wordpress site. • Learn how to drive traffic to your site.• Learn how to write content.• Make your first sale online.• Rinse and Repeat.

Online Business Models

• Making money online can be broken down into:– Selling products (digital / physical)– Selling services– Selling other peoples products / services (affiliate

marketing / drop shipping)– Selling advertising space

Innovation?

• Innovators (3% of the market will respond)– New, unique, original (eg Tablet)

• Mass Market (60% of the market will respond)– Capture the movement (Apps)

• Laggard (37% of the market will respond)– late adopters (Mum is on facebook – Finally)

Competitor Analysis

• Competitors:– Who are your competitors?– What are they doing well?– What could be improved? – Try their products / services if possible. – What will be your point of difference. • Price / Quality / Service?

In Summary

• Start with an Idea.• Research your market.• Do some math.• Make a plan.• Take action.• Fail, Learn.• Rinse & Repeat.• Succeed.

Part 8: Marketing & Traffic (in a Penguin-Panda World)

Inbound Marketingincludes…

• SEO• Google+ Local (Google Places)• Adwords / PPC• Social Media (+social media PPC)• E-mail & Newsletter Marketing• Affiliate Marketing (as a merchant)• Video Marketing

SEO

• What to avoid:– Low quality links– Over optimised anchor text– Keyword stuffing– Thin content– Content farms– High bounce rates

SEO

On-Page

• Tips– One keyword per page.– Title tags:• Keyword #1 – Keyword #2 | Business Name

– H1, H2 and content • don’t aim for a keyword density, just include the

keyword naturally.

– Technical infrastructure• Wordpress is SEO friendly (use plugins)• Create an XML sitemap and submit to WMT

Off-Page

• Tips– Google Account• WMT (submit your xml sitemap)• Analytics

– Link building • Quality not quantity• Use the business name + URL primarily as the Anchor

Text• Social Profiles, Local Business Directories• Don’t pay for link building packages you will get stung

Google+ Local

• 30% of searches include a local search term• Source of traffic on Google, Smart Phones and

Tablets• Only for businesses that serve customers at

their physical location.• Claim and verify your listing – it’s free.• NAP – keep consistent.• Citations = high rankings.

Adwords

• Pay-Per-Click• Can be used while your rankings improve • Can be used to boost traffic volumes• Can be very costly. • Do the math:– Cost per conversion > profit on product then it’s

not worth the expense.

Adwords: Case Study

• Perth Plumber– Well optimised campaign – Average CPC >$10 for “Hot Water Service”

keywords– Tracking shows conversion rate is 5%.– Cost per conversion is $220!!!– Even though the sale is >$1000, at $220 the cost

of gaining that customer is too high.

Let’s get Social

• Assisted Conversions– Can track in Google Analytics (eCommerce enabled campaigns)

how many assisted conversions came from Social Media• Google+• Facebook

– Facebook have a very good PPC platform that is inexpensive– Have a strategy…how does one go from ‘like’ to ‘purchase’

• Twitter• YouTube• LinkedIn

E-mail / Newsletter Marketing

• Making the most of your database.– Remember a conversion is the collection of an e-

mail as well as a sale. If possible do both.• Free program: Mail Chimp (up to 5000)– Keep it regular.– Add value.– Make the sale.

Video Marketing

• Think ‘How To’ videos.• Google owns YouTube. – Optimise your videos titles, descriptions + tags.

• Bunnings do this very well…– Great content– Highly valuable to the end user– Optimised for the search engines