There’s a dreamy romance about the notion of making money while you sleep. This is one of the major motivations for new online entrepreneurs – which is understandable when you read stories about the gobs of money made by the great global success stories such as Amazon, Google, facebook and eBay.

Many people concoct amazing new web ideas every day; lots don’t get developed, and lots don’t make it online. Some run out of budget after launch, and sadly fizzle in the market. Here are some aspects to consider when trying to make it in the web world.

New, Unique Ideas are Rare

It’s hard to believe, but the web has been mainstream in Australia since 1996. In 12 years the web has evolved significantly with some 5 billion websites. Just on numbers, the big winners are few.

The internet is experiencing an era like the industrial revolution where multiple people fought over who was the first to invent particular machines. Brilliant ideas are dreamt up every day, and there’s a good chance someone else in the world has already thought of it. In fact, there’s a good chance someone else is developing it already.

Many people believe the web money now lies in narrow niche markets. For example, there’s not a great deal of room in the market for another major player like Amazon. But there are strong online opportunities for antique book dealers, collectible book specialists, rare and hard to find online bookstores.

Similarly, as more people seek to purchase local goods and services online, geographically niche concepts will become more important, and certainly more profitable.

Concept Development

The first step of any online entrepreneur is to get some advice from people in the know. Sit down with a number of IT gurus and thresh out your concept. Refining the idea early on will save you a lot of money down the track.

It is best that once you’ve talked to a few friends in the industry that you seek the advice of seasoned internet professionals. Most web developers who’ve been in business for 5 or more years are considered veterans and will happily work in a consulting capacity to assist you.

People mistakenly skip this step and try to keep ideas to themselves for fear of someone else stealing it. The reality is ideas need substantial development to make it to market, so it’s well worth investing in the professional advice of people ‘in the know’ and experienced with your market.

Traditional Rules Still Apply

The great rules of traditional business are equally but arguably more important for online business. A business plan, start-up capital and a strong marketing strategy are required for online success.

Business plans for websites are different beasts to those of bricks-and-mortar businesses, but you most certainly should not skip this step. Most web development companies will have somebody on staff to assist with the conceptual planning and realistic goal targets from an online perspective.

Start-up capital for most online operators needs to cover the cost of website development as well as realistic marketing costs to get the idea off the ground.

What’s your idea going to cost? Most customised websites with unique and interesting features start from $20,000.

What’s Hot

All the awesomeness of the web’s automation has won hearts in the past but customers now crave the essentials of traditional businesses; customer service and reliability. Unfortunately, it is usually the automation features that attract budding online entrepreneurs and it’s important to remember that customers require so much more to become regular website customers.

Automation trends now only impress when intelligent interpretation and intuition is used throughout websites. An example of this is where you fill out an online form and upon answering a question the form tries to predict the answer to your next question.

Delivering superb customer service through intelligent automation should be the goal of emerging web businesses. Think carefully about the text in automatic emails sent to your customers when they complete certain actions on the website, such as asking for more information or subscribing to your newsletter, as you can keep a visitor for much longer if you can continue to satisfy their curiosity.

Making More Money

Ultimately once your website is built, you’ll need to sink some marketing dollars into drawing visitors. The quickest way to do this is through Google’s AdWords program, or advertising on high profile websites within the region or industry in which you operate.

Many new websites skip some of the user testing techniques employed by the big websites to maximise profits. Try this simple one: find 5 to 10 people you know to participate. Just friends, work colleagues and family will be fine. Give them all a slightly different job to do on your website. For example, purchase 3 items using the shopping cart, or make an enquiry. Watch how they traverse the website, where they need to stop and think about their next action, and where they find the site easy and intuitive. Use this information to improve your customers’ experience.

The web is undoubtedly an exciting place to do business, and if you don’t lose sight of the basics of business, the road to success and profits will be much smoother.

This article was published in the May 2008 edition of In Touch In Business magazine.

Every now and again I will be contacted by a website owner who believes Google is punishing them. They may have experienced a significant drop in traffic, not appear in Google at all, or they’re not being found for keywords they used to be.

Search engines have always been very secretive about the punishments they deliver, but we do know that they’re automated, and they can mostly be reversed.

Punishments are a tense and uncomfortable time for business owners as there is very limited information about what specifically can be done to fix the problem. In my experience reversing punishments is not a quick and easy process, so can cause a drop in revenue through the website.

Penalty

This is the most common punishment we see delivered by the search engine gods, and it’s also the most difficult to identify.

Usually you will notice you have a penalty because your traffic from search engines will suffer a significant decrease. This is most commonly associated with your website not appearing for search terms that you formerly enjoyed traffic from.

If you are still listed in Google, but can’t be found in the first 50 listings, then chances are a penalty has been applied to your site.

Ban

The worst type of punishment is a ban. We don’t see these very often, but they certainly exist, and are to be feared.

A ban occurs when the website can no longer be found in the search engine. You can check if you have been banned by doing a search for your business name, or running a site command in Google.

The site command will tell you how many pages in your website Google has in its index, so if you see any pages at all, you haven’t been banned. Here’s how you check:

site:www.yourdomain.com.au

So in my case, I’d be typing in site:www.nickyjurd.com.

If you have been banned, the best thing you can do is wait a couple of days. Sometimes the engines have little jitters when doing an update and you might inadvertently fall out of the index temporarily. If after a few days there is no improvement, then you’re permitted to begin worrying.

Some new website owners mistakenly believe they’ve been banned, when they just haven’t yet been added to the index.

The May edition of In Touch In Business magazine is out now, with a great photo of Mario and Matthew Calanna of Calanna Pharmacy on the cover.

This edition contains a number of great articles about current issues we face in small business. Grab a copy if you’re located in Cairns, or read it online. Here’s a shortlist of my favourite articles:

• Love The One’s You’re With - Andrew Griffiths
• Meetings With a Meaning - Denise Olholm
• Money on the E-Market - Helen Bairstow

And of course… Realities of the Online Entrepreneur, by Nicky Jurd.

The anonymity of the internet allows businesses to easily hide behind a professional design and snappy text. Sometimes this can be a disadvantage though, with businesses coming across as stuffy, or bigger than they actually are.

It’s easy to forget that contact with small business is one the of the major advantages of eCommerce. I love buying from boutique and niche operators from places far away, and many others do too.

I am subscribed to a highly enjoyable eNewsletter written by Carol Dorman of Quill Writing Services. Carol’s newsletter is aimed at small-medium businesses and tackles communication and marketing issues. This article is extracted from a recent newsletter, I encourage you to subscribe.

Ever had a touch of the ‘bureaucracies’? A twinge of ‘official-itis’? You may not have heard of these conditions but, as a small business owner, perhaps you’ll recognise some of the symptoms:

A web page that tells visitors everything that the business does and how it does it using only words with a minimum of three syllables to demonstrate that it is sophisticated, knowledgeable about almost everything and will always know more than them even if it’s not in the business’ field of expertise.

Your web page should:

• Be friendly
• Make visitors feel welcome
• Be easy to understand while illustrating expertise
• Use bullet points and appropriate punctuation to enhance the reader’s experience.

These are pretty extreme examples but there is often the tendency to keep our selves out of our written communications with customers and prospects.

Why is this? Could it be that we’re afraid of being seen as less than professional if our customers see the human side of our business?

Perhaps it feels safer to hide behind: “Our office is obliged to remind you that payment is due” rather than: “I’d like to remind you that your payment is due.”

After all, isn’t it better if a client gets mad at The Office instead of me?

Let’s look at it another way. One thing that’s nice about living in a small hamlet is that business is always personal. The Post Office lady knows me by name, and I know her. The same with the couple who run the General Store. It’s never just about milk, bread and pop-rivets; there’s always a chat and a laugh as well.

What about you? Do you prefer a recorded message asking for your customer code when phoning a business or a real human being with a friendly welcome who asks how he can help?

It’s time to appreciate how great you are for your business. After all, it wouldn’t exist without you. So, let your customers in. Let them see who you are - the living, breathing, marvellous and fabulous being behind all the marvellous and fabulous things that you do.

Start with your letters. Write them from you instead of your office. Think of your customer as a living, breathing human sitting in a chair, holding your letter. Imagine her wearing glasses and reading by the light of an art-deco lamp. She loves that lamp; it’s been in the family for years.

Now write - to her.

You are the heart of your business. So let that heart shine through!

A call to action encourages someone to do something. Your website visitors need calls to action so they will do the things on your website you want them to do. Calls to action are extremely important for the success of your website.

Great websites use calls to action throughout their text to tell visitors what they should do next. This is especially important at the end of a page when you’re at the most risk of your visitor heading back to the search engine to further refine what they’re looking for.

You will recognise these calls to action from television:

• Call now for 12 free steak knives
• Vote for Danielle McKay to win Australian Idol
• Email a question to the ROSwall

Your website needs to emulate the calls to action of traditional marketing styled toward the goals you’re trying to achieve. Here’s some examples:

• Subscribe to our newsletter
• Learn more about fly fishing in Far North Queensland
• Contact us for a free quote
• Take a charter flight over the Great Barrier Reef
• Book today to receive your free bottle of wine

I’ve italicised the parts of these calls to action that should be linked. By linking to the content people expect to receive on the next page you increase the chance of them completing this action. It’s also very helpful for your search engine rankings to include good keywords within these links.

This guest star article is written by cityofcairns.com’s lead graphic designer, Belinda Vere. Belinda is an outspoken supporter of businesses having a strong brand kit and lifting the professionalism of small business with a functional and attractive website design.

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One of the most under-valued aspects of a business is its brand and identity. A business’ brand is a tool to increase customer familiarity and recognition and prove your worth as a professional, reliable business. It should be just as important as the appearance of your staff and the quality of the product and service you produce. Some things to remember when you are starting a new business or re-evaluating your identity are:

1. Don’t give up your day job

Are you a whiz on the computer? Did everybody love your kid’s birthday invitations that you created in Word Art? Don’t be fooled! This does not qualify you as a Graphic Designer and the identity you produce will look amateurish and therefore can not be taken seriously. Hiring a Graphic Designer to do a professional identity package for your business saves you time and creates a trustworthy, professional image for your company.

2. Hit the target

A professionally designed logo should appeal to your target market and reflect your product or service. Your target market determines your identity and should be a major influence on your brand. If you are trying to sell children’s clothing your brand will be bright, colourful and fun however if you are an accountant your target market are looking for somebody who is professional, efficient and approachable. Try not to let your own personal style influence your branding if you are not the target market.

3. Squish the rainbow

A succint choice of colours will help increase the familiarity of your brand. When we think purple we think Cadbury (or Darryl Lea depending on whose side you are on), yellow reminds us of the Golden Arches and red makes us thirsty for Coca Cola. Keep your colour palette to one or two key colours and stick with them throughout your branding.

4. Use it!

Use your brand in everything you do but keep it consistent. Print business cards, get a website, send emails with a signature and splash your brand everywhere just don’t confuse people by having a green car, a red website and purple decor. Remember to maintain your image, colours, logo and style throughout every aspect of your marketing.

1. Start a blog.
2. Tell people about your website.
3. Put your web address in your email signature.
4. Start a Google AdWords campaign.
5. Give a testimonial to a business you’ve recently dealt with.
6. Write an article for someone else’s website.
7. Start an eNewsletter.
8. Write more keywords into your web copy.
9. Ask other websites to link to you. Ask nicely.
10. Post comments on other people’s blogs.
11. Participate in online forum discussions.
12. Find relevent directories to post your website to.
13. Ask you customers to tell other people about your website.
14. Provide unique content people want to read.
15. Create a Facebook profile for your business.
16. Become a twitter.
17. Invent a gimmick that people will talk about.
18. Approach a business to link to your website.

Do you have any ideas to add to this list?

Have you got a links page on your website, or are you thinking of asking your webmaster to create you one? Don’t.

Links pages started as a logical place to store the websites you linked to in order to raise your search engine profile. I am not a fan of reciprocal linking as you might have read in previous posts, and ditching the links page is an extension of my distaste for this marketing method.

I never look at people’s links pages, and of the websites I monitor that have a links page, it is always the least popular page on a website. There are much better ways of linking to websites which your customers may be interested in.

Remember it is your customers who pay your bills. Make the website for them - not for the search engines.

You may have read previously how against reciprocal linking I am - but perhaps I should clarify - I’m against dodgy reciprocal linking. That is, when you exchange links with a website you have nothing to do with in the hope of raising your search engine ranking.

There are lots of legitimate reasons to link to another website. Here’s my favourites:

• Existing business relationship.
  Companies who you deal with regularly and whose service or product you can vouch for.
• Relevant or useful.
  Ideally these are within your industry or region. For example, if you’re a bed & breakfast operating on the Blue Mountains you might link to a region guide.
• Complementary.
  A product or service which goes with yours. For example, if you sell air conditioners, you might link to an electrician who installs the models you sell.

It’s much better to write some good quality text around your link rather than just having a list of links off to the side in a links page. Visitors are much more likely to visit the links this way, and it enables you to be seen as a helpful expert in your area. For an example, see the blog post I wrote about Flying Solo. How boring would it have been if I just stuck it off the side in a links page!

When you shoot a photograph the copyright of that creative piece is automatically assigned to you. Nobody is allowed to use your copyrighted material without your permission. You are the sole owner.

Many people don’t realise this, and might search the internet for a photo to use on their website. Google Images, Flickr and Picasa are popular places to search for photographs. If you want to use any photos you find you must contact their owner and ask permission.

Although the internet seems like a big anonymous place, you might find it’s smaller than you think when you steal pictures of someone. Taking photos without permission can be an expensive exercise. Photography companies will often charge you for using the picture, recently I heard of someone being charged $4,300 for a single photo they used on their website.

If your web designer uses a photo on your website which does not belong to you, check to ensure they have purchased it on your behalf from a stock photography library like iStockPhoto, or that they have permission to use the picture.

When you receive permission from someone to use their photo, you should credit them appropriately.

Cut Limes. Photo courtesy Kaj Haffenden. Knife courtesy Erick Zegeer. Limes from Rusty’s Markets. Chopping board from Yungaburra Markets.