B – Business
U – Useful
I – Interested
L – Long term
D – Diversify
BUSINESS
You should always treat any money making venture as a business and running websites and selling online should be no different. This means having a business plan, registering with the relevent tax authorities and if your idea becomes successful then look at incorporating.
By treating your idea as a business you will also be in a stronger position to negoatiate with suppliers or partners too. So from day one, get respect and remember your idea is a business!
USEFUL
If you are going to create a website or an online product then ensure it is useful. For instance, if you are going to start a blog, make sure the subject area has a decent following and that the information you will provide is actually of use.
If you idea is useful to your site visitor, then they will do your marketing for you, and recommendations is very much the thing in a world of social networking.
INTERESTED
I have always been interested in travel as its a big passion of mine. Therefore creating sites on the subject of travel has always come easy to me and I rarely struggle to come up with new articles and ideas.
My readers are also hopefully engaged more as I have attempted to become an authority on niche areas of travel, so through my interest I have gained online respect.
Had I created a site about flower arranging I would not have been able to engage people who know about the subject purely because I have no interest, and that would have been obvious.
Having to write about a subject you have no interest in is very tiresome and not fun, so its unlikely you’ll be able to maintain the site.
LONG TERM
It took me over 6 months to really make any significant income and probably over two years before I was earning a decent wage so you should never expect riches overnight because this will not happen unless you are lucky on the lotto!
So be prepared to go in for the long term. Thats where its at.
DIVERSIFY
Once you have a successful website(s) or product then you should always be looking at diversifying. The reason is if your website suddenly loses all its traffic overnight then you are likely to lose all your income.
If your interest is broad, such as travel, then consider other areas of travel to get into. You can still stay within the main interest and diversify.
Its no different to putting all you money in one investment. Clearly no financial advisor would ever advise you to do that so look at alternative markets and products and keep B.U.I.L.D.ing.
