“What software do I need for my internet business?”

It’s Monday again! That means it’s time to dig into my inbox, and answer YOUR questions.

This week, from South Carolina, where I’m visiting a client on a really cool — but currently, top-secret! — new project.

And remember, if you have a pressing question you’d like to have answered here… Hit “reply” if you’re reading this in your email, or send your question to [email protected]. There’s currently a backlog of a few weeks’ worth of questions, but send yours now and I’ll queue it up for the next available Mailbox Monday on the calendar.

Okay, here’s the question from reader Steve De Lima…

Steve, I’m glad you asked this question.

And not just because it allows me to give you a handful of affiliate links to products I use and endorse because of my personal experience!  (Bureaucracy says I gotta tell ya – why not have fun doing so?!)

More importantly, because it gets at a core mistake many internet entrepreneurs make.

Namely…

Spending WAY TOO MUCH MONEY on all the wrong things in starting your business and getting it firing on cylinders!

I don’t know if YOU are, in particular — but many do.

And so we’re going to go back to the core fundamentals of internet marketing and business to find our answer.

Because the best way to ensure you know which software to buy is to know what job each piece of software does… And how THAT helps you accomplish the core strategies and principles that apply to ALL internet businesses.

Let’s go way back to 1994. The very start of the visual internet — and the year Marc Andreessen launched the Netscape browser.

That same year, a future colleague and client of mine, Ken McCarthy, hosted the very FIRST internet marketing seminar. In Silicon Valley.

Even then, Ken was focused on what would become the TWO fundamentals of The System — his (and the most-proven) approach to applying EVERY-media direct marketing principles in this new and rapidly-evolving medium called the internet.

Qualified Traffic and Consistent Conversions!

Together, these two represent the ONLY things you need to have for a profitable internet business. (You’ll note they work together to get you to the one goal I talked about Thursday — selling one product people like at a profit.)

Let’s define each…

Qualified Traffic: In short, this means you need to have people showing up on your website. But not just any people. You need people who will be ready, willing, and able to buy what it is you’re offering. You can get this through SEO and social media, but those tend to be paid for in massive effort (despite their supposedly “free” price tag). It’s usually better to be able to BUY traffic — through pay-per-click and other channels — because it tends to scale rapidly and gives you the best opportunity for maximum profits.

Consistent Conversions: It’s not enough to get people to show up. You also must get them to buy things. Without this, you have no business. (Just ask the countless Silicon Valley darlings who had a ton of traffic but no sales, and who imploded with the dot-bomb crash!) In short, you need a way to display your sales message online, and a way to take orders and payment.

You must have Qualified Traffic and Consistent Conversions to have a profitable internet business…

There is NO other way!

And so my recommendation for not just new internet businesses — but ANY internet business — is to use these two simple principles to measure your need for software, products, services, or ANYTHING you think might help your online business grow (or anything being pitched to you as the latest “must-have” for your biz).

I’m going to assume, for now, that you have the basics — a computer, internet connection, basic text/document editor, phone, etc…

And I’ll go one step above that to lay out…

The bare-bones software EVERY internet business should have…

First, a place to visit!

Technically, you could probably run a business from a Facebook page, a hosted blog, or other free options hosted on someone else’s platform. DON’T DO THIS! If you’re serious about building your online business, ALWAYS pay to have your own site online.

I use WebHostingBuzz. They can host your site for you, and also sell you a domain name or URL, which is your address someone types in to visit your website.

Once you’re setup with a hosting account, you also need to be able to put content online — for that I strongly recommend the ubiquitous WordPress website software.

Once installed, it’s very easy to publish and update content, change the appearance by uploading a new theme (paid and free), add functionalities by installing plugins (paid and free), and do everything you need to run the site without touching a line of code. (And if you end up needing tech help, it’s easy to find because WordPress is so common.)

If you need to, you can pay a tech to install WordPress on your site for you. Though with most web hosts (including WebHostingBuzz) it’s point-and-click easy to install through the cPanel administration interface.

(NOTE IF YOU’RE TRYING TO DO A “RETAIL” SITE. This recommendation is catered to the vast majority of my readers who are likely in specialized, limited-number-of-different-products, probably publishing and information marketing businesses. If you’re starting a “retail” site with a ton of products, my recommendation is very different here. I’d back up and recommend you do your entire retail site through a platform like Amazon Webstore, Yahoo Store, or BigCommerce. Almost everything else is the same — these platforms are just better-catered to exclusively-storefront sites.)

Next, you need a good way to reach customers and prospects.

We’ll talk about getting people to your site for the first time later. For now though, let’s talk email.

There’s no better way to stay connected with and in front of customers and prospects than by email.

For this, I DO NOT recommend you manage your own email sending or lists — there are too many things to worry about. Instead, I recommend a good email service provider who has made it their business to help your email marketing be successful.

Aweber.

Using Aweber is easy. From putting the little box on your site that people use to sign up for your list, to sending email and seeing how they performed…

I’ve tried others — including options costing many times more — and wholly recommend Aweber for MOST samll online businesses.

You also need a way to get the money!

If you’re selling consulting services — like copywriting, for example — this can be as simple as your clients sending you a check in the mail.

Selling products — physical or digital — usually requires online payment as an option.

There are a TON of options for this, but I recommend PayPal.

It’s simple, has high trust because it’s well-known, and doesn’t have to cost you anything to get started (you only pay on successful transactions).

You can do a lot of automation by integrating PayPal with Aweber — search for tutorials online.

You can also get WordPress plugins like WordPress eStore, which is what I use on Breakthrough Marketing Secrets — though even in recommending this I risk sliiipping into the unnecessary.

Finally, you need traffic!

This isn’t necessarily a software problem. But you should acquaint yourself with how to do AdWords advertising and Facebook advertising — and that’s just a start!

Because you want to be able to buy qualified traffic for your business, in large quantities.

My FIRST online publishing business…

I’ve been helping others sell online since 2005, with a ton of success. My own first online publishing business was at FoamWingCutting.com.

There I sell a video my dad made on how to cut foam wings for model airplanes.

That site — while small — has generated me thousands of dollars from a TINY, miniscule market over the last few years. And it’s near-untouched since its launch. (Bad practice, but that’s the facts!)

It runs pretty much on exactly what I told you. WordPress through WebHostingBuzz, Aweber, PayPal, and Google AdWords.

When customers pay for the video through PayPal, they get an automated download email from Aweber. Simple as that.

Until you’re able to sell on product people like at a profit, you don’t need any more than that!

Good news: this is cheap!

For well under $500, you can be up and running with your very own internet business.

Even better news: most of these things DON’T have to be bought twice for multiple businesses. While small, you can test and try many different sites and mini-businesses on the same hosting. (And when you outgrow that and need to move to a higher-level platform, you’ll have the revenue to afford the upgrade!)

Before we end, just a final warning…

Beware the hucksters!

There are many shady marketers who’d love nothing better than to sell you a very high-priced software platform to run your new internet business…

Run the other way!

A successful online business is made by selling products people like at a profit. You do this by driving Qualified Traffic to your website, where you have a sales message that gets Consistent Conversions.

Anything else is superfluous and unnecessary!

Yours for bigger breakthroughs,

Roy Furr

Editor, Breakthrough Marketing Secrets