More than a few folks have started out as online entrepreneurs with high hopes thinking that success was just a matter of time and that the online business arena had better be prepared for them. Guess what, things didn’t exactly turn out as initially planned for most of them.
If you don’t want to be taken by surprise once the inevitable occurs, understanding the 5 most important phases you will go through is a must:
Phase 1: The Reality Check
While they may have thought that publishing a quality website would be enough, they have soon realized that no matter how great your resource is and no matter how much value you add to the Web, people won’t visit if they don’t know that you’re out there. Here is where things get tricky.
While spreading the word and promoting your website may not seem all that complicated on paper, reality sometimes has the habit of making things more difficult. Sure, promoting a quality product is always easier than promoting a bad one, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have quite a long and potentially bumpy journey ahead of you.
Phase 2: Understanding That You’re Not The Only Game In Town
No matter what niche you may be targeting, you will most likely encounter some serious competition and they won’t exactly be thrilled to give up their market share without a fight. In the end, it’s all trial & error as far as website promotion is concerned. Sure, you may think that you have everything figured out, but speaking in general terms is simply impossible. No, something which has worked for a certain website will not necessarily perform all that great with yours. You will just have to try as many different options as possible on for size, stick with what works for you and drop what’s not.
Phase 3: Foolproof Plan? Highly Unlikely.
You may think that your plan is foolproof but you will soon understand that tweaking or in some cases even changing certain aspects is simply a must. You may originally start out by thinking that the online business world will be ready to hand everything out to you, but unfortunately, that simply isn’t going to happen.
Phase 4: Fight For Every Right
Just think about it: if being successful were that easy, everyone would be rich. Any person with common sense realizes why that is not possible in today’s less than perfect world. As such, you will have to fight for everything and you will have to always give it your best, even when (not if) things get rough.
Most online entrepreneurs who are just starting out will quickly realize that the online business world will not treat then nearly as good as they had initially expected. Is that your case? Have you realized that being successful is not a piece of cake? If so, then your reaction in such cases will make or break you as an online entrepreneur.
Phase 5: Hero or Back to Zero?
You can either be disappointed and choose to give up, thinking that the situation is hopeless, or you can continue to work just as hard, even if it seems that quitting is the only option. Always remember that the choice is yours and only yours to make, always remember that the easy way out is, in most cases, not the best one, and you are on the right track.
Written by Alan Johnson, the author of The Online Business Handbook