Top 10 Reasons Why Your Online Home Based Business Could Fail
By Bob Withers
You”ve just created your home based business online and you”re very excited about your prospects for success on the Internet. You”ve heard about the many success stories and you”ve read many of the testimonials on the Internet marketing websites and you have great expectations of making a killing online. However many more home based business enterprises on the Internet fail than succeed and there are many reasons why they fall short.
Here are my top ten reasons why most home based businesses online fail and we”ll do this David Letterman style by starting at number 10 and working our way up to number 1.
10. You don”t have a forum or chat room on your website. People love to socialize online and discuss issues related to a particular business. Having a chat area allows your customers and potential clients to get to know each other and helps your home business site increase return traffic.
When people establish relationships they will come back to continue to socialize on your website. This helps increase your return traffic and as we all know the more often a visitor returns to your home page the more likely they will become a paying customer.
9. As the old Internet marketing adage states “content drives traffic.” Therefore it makes sense saying if you don”t give your visitors what they want they won”t come back. Good quality content is the life blood of any website whether it’’s a home business web page or a blog.
For example, if your website theme is Internet marketing then your content must reflect this by including first class information and software or other products such as e-books associated with this topic.
8. Your website doesn”t contain free offers. People enjoy receiving free stuff and will come back again and again to see what you have to offer.
Once again this helps increase your return traffic which will eventually lead to an increase in sales. Be sure to change your free offers on a regular basis to keep people coming back for more.
7. Your sales page doesn”t instill a sense of urgency in your visitors. If you don”t try to persuade your guests to make a decision sooner rather than later they will continue to procrastinate until you eventually loose their business to another enterprise.
By stating this is a limited time offer, or by providing a free gift to the first 50 buyers or by placing a count down clock on your home page counting down to a time when prices will increase you”ll be instilling a sense of immediacy for a decision.
6. Don”t give your guests access to your free stuff before they read your sales page. Make sure your visitors have to read your offer before they are allowed to download your free information, otherwise they will take what they want and leave without ever knowing what you”re promoting.
5. Your home business website doesn”t have a professional look or feel to it. People want to do business with professionals and if you treat your business page as if it’’s a hobby or you give it the appearance of a facebook page then the vast majority of your visitors will never come back and they will take their business elsewhere.
4. You don”t portray yourself as an authority in your field. For example, if your theme is Internet marketing you could write and post articles to the top article directories online related to your topic.
You could also offer a free Internet marketing course on your website and offer a free session on a different topic each week. This is a great way to stimulate return traffic and also to represent yourself as an expert to your visitors. People are more likely to do business with someone they trust and respect and displaying yourself in this light is a great way to give this impression.
3. You don”t track your Internet marketing results. In order to find a strategy that works you test and re-test until you find one that gives you the intended results. This of course refers to advertising, ad copy, sales letters and sales themselves. If you don”t track your results you”ll continue to waste your time and money on ineffective tactics which produce limited or no effect.
2. You don”t have a safe and secure ordering procedure. In order for people to trust both you and your website you must have a secure ordering mechanism in place to protect your guests personal information and you must prominently display a security seal of approval.
Identity theft is a major problem online today and if your visitors have any doubt whatsoever with regard to website security then your sales or lack thereof will reflect this fear.
And the number one reason why most online home based businesses fail is:
1. You don”t use a squeeze page to collect your visitor’’s contact information. As another Internet marketing adage states, “the money is in the list” and from the very beginning of your online home business career your number one priority should be building an email list of potential customers and of course current clients.
When you have this list compiled you”re able to persuade your prospective customers to become paying clients and you can promote other offers to your current customers. A targeted email list is essential to your home business and Internet marketing success.
By avoiding these top 10 pitfalls your odds of becoming successful with your home based business online will increase greatly and your ride to Internet marketing riches will be a smoother one.
About The Author
Bob Withers is a professional sales and marketing person with over twenty years in the field. He has now set his sights on Affiliate Marketing and creating successful Home Based Businesses online to apply his trade. If you want to get in touch with Bob or learn more about Affiliate Marketing or setting up an Internet based Home Business please visit:
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