There are usually two main problems causing  indecision: lack of information or experience, and the habit of procrastination.

First, lack of knowledge and experience. Should you go to Paris or Rome for your holidays? This seems a great choice to have but not if you’re indecisive, on top of which you know nothing about either place. By the way, we could back up here: some people don’t know why they want or feel the need to take a course of action in the first place. They haven’t thought about it. But let’s presume we have this choice.

To get knowledge, research is needed on the internet, bookshops, libraries, friends. You can get vicarious experience through other people who’ve been there or, at least , near enough to have useful information about what to do.

Second, a clear plan of action will overcome your procrastination, especially of you decide to do certain things by certain times. In the example, ending research time, setting an end time to decide by, buying what you need, booking tickets.

In terms of setting up your online business, you need to decide what niche you’ll be in and why – what’s your purpose? Follow this with what type of business you want. Then, set out a plan of action to get you there. Finally, follow the plan in a consistent but flexible manner until you get there.

If you have a habit of indecisiveness, planning and doing the actions of the plan will keep you to your purpose.

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Of course, this type of website is not yours. This may seem an obvious thing to say but people can forget when they go into affiliate marketing that they do not control the merchant’s sales site. That is, they’re totally dependent on the look, feel, organisation, and copywriting of that site.

Firstly, just check it over yourself! Would you be convinced by it and buy from it? If not, can you see yourself selling their product?

Secondly, what’s its Page Rank? This will give you an indication of how Google(TM) sees its importance.

Thirdly, what’s its Alexa(TM) ranking? Just go to the Alexa site and type in the URL. The lower the number the better. You can also check its traffic there and how old it is. The older it is, the more long lasting.

Fourthly, if you found the product on a site like Clickbank(TM), you can tell whether it’s selling very well. If it is, and you think the website is a poor one, affiliates must be getting round this somehow.

Fifthly, go into the Google Keyword Tool(TM) to check the site’s keywords. Make sure the button is clicked for searching a URL. Ensure it’s set for all countries and that when you get results you change from broad to narrow results. You’ll have the keywords the website is using to attract search traffic.

None of these pieces of research are guaranteed to give you exact information but they’re a guide if you’re concerned about the website or the product.

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You need knowledge and, of course, skills. What to do?

Think about what do you already know about, such as:

websites

hosts

autoresponders

and anything else you think is important.

You’re not only looking for the extent and depth of your knowledge but also the gaps in it.

Once you’ve got this kind of “map” of what you need, choose one aspect or area that appeals to you or is important and concentrate on it.

For example, if you have absolutely no idea about blogs and blogging, focus on this until you have enough understanding and some experience in doing something about or with blogs before you move on. The emphasis here is knowing or understanding enough for what you want to do: a starting point.

So, where or how would you find out about blogs, for example?

Some obvious sources are these:

newsletters on internet marketing, and blogging specifically

forums on internet marketing and blogging

places like Yahoo! Answers(TM)

wiki pages

There are plenty of others.

How to find any of the sources?

You can use the search engines, click through links on those sources suggested above, and you could use the free Google Alerts(TM) service to be referred to lots of places. In all of this, you’ll quickly find which ideas are repeated, which are useless, and begin to discriminate for the best information – all part of growing your knowledge.

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The emphasis here is on business which means long-term commitment which means you’ll have to be persisitent and organised. It is not about setting up a hopefully money making website and doing a bit of marketing. However, there is the presumption that, at first at least, you’ll be working on your own. Nevertheless you must think into the future.

  1 Are you ready for this? You must do proper research of your niche, product and how to go about building your business. This means, also, have you an individual style of doing business and marketing you want to develop. In other words, who do you want to be online? How will people identify you?

  2 Check out your niche and its market. Especially find out how many searches for your type of products, what problems do searchers want solving, how much competition do you have and who are they?

  3 Investigate what types of website there are (not just sales sites) and which ones you will need in the short and long-term. Decide whether to build them yourself or pay someone to do it.

  4 Your business is always a work in progress, so have the tools to track your progress so you can see ways to improve. For example, you can have a program of split-testing every aspect of your sales page or home page over time.

  5 What’s your vision for your business into the future, where do you want to get to (not just money), and what are the steps you must take to get there?

  6 If you’re starting an online business by yourself, then you could just be using your own money and will finance developments from profits. However, you might need to raise finance now or later to establish a substantial business. Consider such possibilities from the start.

  7 Have a marketing plan, no matter how simple initially, and develop it as you go on. For example, you may have no marketing money to start with and will need to know how to advertise and get traffic for no payment.

  8 You will be responsible for running your own business, so organise your working procedures and ensure you’ve covered any legal requirements.

  9 If you’re successful you’re going to want to upscale your business and the problems to be solved will upscale too: managing your time, managing other people, and keeping your motivation.

  10 Finally, if you’re really successful in the years ahead, how will you deal with such a substantial business: stock market flotation?   Engage in mergers? If you really do want to be successful then this is where you could end up.

Think big rather than small. Starting an online business is more than selling a couple of affiliate products. You need to be ready for continuous development.

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I don’t mean “manic” in any technical sense!  But I bet you know what I mean.

If you’re on several IM mailing lists, for example, as I am, you must get a lot of emails.

You know, list after list of subject lines like:

Thanks For Your Order – Here’s Your Free Download!  (You’re thinking: I never ordered anything!)

Here’s Your Free Gift! (This is the most common type. You’re thinking: Well, what sort of gift is it? Do I really need it?)

Here’s Your Gift Worth $97 (You’re thinking: Is it really worth that amount of money? Why would someone give it away? What’s the One Time Offer going to be?)

Get Your List Built In 3 Days! (You’re thinking: Impossible! If someone could guarantee that they’d make a fortune!)

And yet, page after page of seemingly urgent (desperate?) offers come streaming through.

Often they’re the exact same offer from 2, 3 or more different people. With the exact same subject line!

Then, the same offer can be sent repeatedly by the same person over several days.

Unless you really are totally new to all this, aren’t most people simply deleting these now?  Of course, one or two might look useful and you click through.

But the saddest thing of all is that in this manic urgent rush, the jostling of quite similar subject lines to grab attention, there will be, at some point, a genuinely valuable offer or product.

By “genuinely” I mean actually useful and valuable to particular people in particular circumstances in their business lives. It gets lost in the crowd.

The solution? Do your own research, and even see the emails as on-going research rather than in-the-face offers to be accepted or rejected.

Thanks for reading!

Can’t afford that $2,000 internet marketing course? I’ve got good news for you. You probably don’t need it – at least, if you’re just starting out. Everything you need is actually available on the internet somewhere, for free. Here’s how to go about it. So stop wasting your time surfing the web and start working creatively for yourself and build a business.

First, decide what will be in your course, what you need to find out about and learn how to do. Try this organisation:

    - how to keep your business centralized as much as possible and organised systematically

    - what product to sell: affilate is quickest

    - how to find keywords for your product and how to use them

    - how to set up a website: a landing page or a blog

    - the various marketing methods but especially emails and search engine marketing

    - how to get traffic through these methods and what to do with it: subscribers and customers

    - how to maintain relationships over time with subscribers and customers

As you go through these, there may be some you know something about and others are totally new. Move the structure around or add to it as you develop your knowledge and pracrice.

Second, research your way through the structure. Remember everything you need is there somewhere. Most courses you pay for simply bring information together for ease of use.

Search in search engines, including advanced search, forums (why not just ask?), blogs and other sites with free information, ebooks (including free ones), reports, articles. In fact, anywhere you can gather information. Use the search function of forums and article sites. Join relevant newsletters – you often get free ebooks and ecourses ( join my newsletter on the right and get a “7 Key Elements” ecourse).

If you can afford it, buy relevant ebooks and ecourses or join membership sites and use the information. Too many people download valuable stuff and leave it. Differentiate yourself by deliberately and constructively using it.

Third, take notes. Yes, as you read, watch videos, listen to audios: make notes of the the important ideas and actions relevant to what you’re after. Often, one ebook, say, will overlap on several areas you’re looking at. Note both the connections (as it’ll probably be a method of doing somehting, like getting traffic) and the separate parts into the separate relevant parts of your structure.

Finally, in no time at all you will have masses of ideas organised for use. Now I wonder what you could do with all this material? Could there be a first product in here? Could you be selling your own internet marketing course?

All the best with your research!

You find an interesting internet business opportunity. How can you be sure about it, as best you can, before you shell out your money?

1 Do some research on the owner. Google(TM) their name, check and ask in forums, join their ezine, look at their blog. Maybe he has other cheaper products you could buy to test out the quality. Best of all can you contact him in some way – and get a prompt, courteous and relevant reply?

2 Check out the opportunity or product the opportunity’s about. Look for reviews and review sites, although these are often presell sales sites in their own right, so you’d have to know you could trust that site as well. If software is involved you need to find out if it’s stable and reliable. It may be a great idea but in practice just doesn’t stand up to pressure. If there are written materials, then find out if the information is current and up-to-date. Indeed, is it unique or original in some way so it would give you a genuine edge over your competition?

3 Promises. A sales page can promise all sorts of things, within limits. Ask yourself if it’s too hyped. You can expect sales talk but is it really just going too far in its claims? There my be promises about money that can be made. If it’s too exact, it’s probably claiming it can achieve too much financially. In any case, there’ll be a disclaimer somewhere about this – or there should be. Is it over-hyped about the life you can achieve. You know, the usual yachts on a warm deep blue sea, red sports cars, a holiday every 3 weeks, and all from 2 hours work a day.

Finally, even if everything else seems alright, will he tell you how to go about succeeding with this internet business opportunity, in some detail? Because if you can’t actually get it set up to work, it’s useless to you.

4 Check the free stuff. It might be possible to gauge from the quality of his free materials, how good his paid one is. If there is very good quality for free anyway, it’s more likely (though not guaranteed) that when you pay, it’ll be even better quality.

Succeed by choosing an internet business opportunity carefully and avoid jumping from one opportunity to the next.