Friday, December 28, 2007

Online Marketing - Reverse Psychology

Online business isn't for you. No, it's far too much work and there are too many unknowns. It's ridiculous to think that anyone would seriously consider developing a business for the web; after all there are marketing strategies that are somewhat different than traditional stores. You have to think things through. There's merchant accounts to set up, a web site to design. You have to worry about terms like SEO, PPC and RSS and how they might affect your business and its future growth. In online business you don't get to see people face to face, but you want email addresses from people who do drop by. The technical issues of running an online store are mind blowing. Just thinking about the many details that have to work together in Internet business is enough to make you want to run and hide. Yes, it's much easier to simply stay working for someone else who makes the decisions and just leaves you to do the things you've always done. Sure you have dreams for your future, but it's safer to think that you could have done something if you really wanted to than to try, and fail. Nope, online business is a bad idea. To many risks, too much work and not enough assurance that it will be worth it in the end. Perhaps it's best to simply avoid the appearance of being a dreamer. Dreamers are simply not very sensible. You know this whole scenario reminds me of a motivation poster I once saw which read, "For every winner there are dozens of losers. Odds are you're one of them." OK, everything said so far was designed to provide a sense of reverse psychology. The truth is developing an online business is hard work and there are unknowns. The harder truth is that not every online business will be successful. You may have to give up a certain sense of security to launch a business website, but sometimes the passion associated with the dream of business ownership becomes so big it can't stay inside and it won't go away. There will be terms and strategies you will need to learn and utilize, but this becomes part of the adventure instead of the roadblock you always thought it was. Maybe the best way to describe the start of an online business is to describe what it is like to start an exercise and weight loss program. It's easier to simply avoid the process or simply think you will do it someday, but that day is always somewhere just beyond the next 24 hours. When you finally decide to do something about it the hard days at the beginning give way to a fighting trim that makes online business not only possible, but also potentially profitable. As demonstrated at the beginning of this article it is very easy to become pessimistic about an individual's ability to successfully launch an online business. It can be easy to listen to voices that say it can't be done. But it can be very satisfying to simply take charge of your decision-making and then watch a ‘business' flower bloom in the wasteland of Nevergonnahappen.

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