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Blueprint for Success; the steps that distinguish successful online startup businesses

Startup businesses need to start with the end in mind. Where do you want to go? It is unimaginable for most people to go on a vacation without an idea as to where they are going once being seated in a car. How would you pack for such a trip? You might end up in a desert rather than on the ski slope. This is exactly the conduct for many online businesses. They start out pretty clueless.

Step 1 Pick an online business monetization model. There are four ways to make money on line:

- Ecommerce model - this applies to any business that has a product or service to sell online.

- Lead generation model - this is the cost per action (CPA) approach where information is sold to other businesses

- Advertising model - this applies to sites that are rich with content and attract lots of information seekers and repeat visitors. The site makes money through pay per click and affiliate products. It relies heavily on high traffic and repeat visitors.

- Support - this applies to businesses that specialize in solving customer problems

Once your business model has been defined ("your travel destination") you can figure out the steps needed to get you there. In some cases, there will be overlap of models but one will prevail as dominant.

Step 2 Identify the steps you need to accomplish your goals. Here are the minimum requirements for online success:

- Keyword research - This is a crucial first step that is most often skipped or done in a shoddy manner. It accounts for the majority of startup business online failure. It is so critical to be done right, yet most startups fail to take the time to fully research it. They make the mistake of brainstorming keywords that "sound" right. If they do any keyword research they usually stop after identifying keywords that are highly searched. They don't continue the investigation by finding out how much competition exists for those keywords. They don't determine whether the people searching on those terms are information seekers (and will never buy anything) or actual buyers. Keyword research needs all three of these components. If one of these is missing, it is extremely likely that the website will not succeed.

- An SEO friendly website - Failure to develop a search engine optimized (SEO) website is another typical and huge mistake that startup businesses make online. Unfortunately, the main focus is on looks (whether that be "pretty", "trendy", or professional). Many startups make the mistake of using web designers who know little or anything at all about SEO. They are graphic designers who will make a site look terrific but will be a coding nightmare for search engine spiders. They often include excessive amounts of flash (spiders are just starting to be able to make some sense of it) and dynamic scripts (e.g. spiders cannot read JavaScript). The focus should not be on creating the most beautiful website but rather on the most functional one that has high visitor usability.

- Great content - Sites need to provide the content that is highly relevant to the expected audience and that is also of great quality. It must contain the right keyword weight, frequency and proximity. The content needs to be chunked in a way that makes it easy for visitors to find and consumed. Correct spelling and grammar are required to look professional.

- An obvious call to action that is easy to execute. Anything that is frustrating to your visitor is likely to send them away (even if they are in the midst of your shopping cart).

- Web analytics - Business owners need to follow the Japanese concept of kaizen. This is looking for ways to make continuous improvement. Web analytics is essential for all web businesses. It can tell you about the way visitors enter and exit your site, how long they stay, what pages lead them on and which ones cause them to leave and so forth. Web analytics will tell you where your site needs to make improvement otherwise you will be completely clueless as to why the traffic your site gets does not convert.

- Marketing strategies - This includes developing organic search engine traffic (developing back links etc.), PPC and Social Media strategies.

- Business processing software - Systems that automate your business will cut down costs, prevent follow up failure and make your business manageable. This is important even no matter what size business you have. If you are a solo entrepreneur, it can be the difference between having free time or not.

Step 3 Evaluation of your resources:

The first thing to realize is that there a lot of technical steps that need to be done. Startup businesses need to determine what in house skill sets exist and what needs to be outsourced. Solo entrepreneurs and small business owners typically have the "must do it yourself" attitude. This can result in on line business that look unprofessional, never get found by search engines, and never get beyond the idea stage of development. It is not necessary to learn HTML, JavaScript and PHP. It is not necessary to become and SEO or analytics wizard. It is however, essential to know that you need these things. So very many of online business failures are because of this. They are missing so many crucial elements because of not knowing or by doing things in an incomplete, haphazard and non-professional manner.

Evaluation of resources includes determining what can and should be done by whom. It includes deciding on how to allocate funds so that your business will grow. The reality is that most individuals to not have all the skill sets that are needed to do the required tasks of a successful online business. Getting the help of experts is the most cost effective route. Fortunately, getting expert help for an online business is highly affordable; especially compared to the costs of starting an offline business. Many do-it yourself individuals turn to "silver bullet" solutions. Startup businesses need to evaluate the benefits of the many do it yourself type of products that are available from internet gurus. While many of these products do have value, the cost in terms of time to learn how to effectively use them (and the energy involved) must be considered. How many products will be needed for the do-it-yourself approach? Will the product do what it says? The reality is that the cost of hiring professionals is often the same or less than attending workshops and buying products. After the workshop is over, small business owners still need to attend to execution of the details whereas hiring a professional accomplished this.

There is no doubt that startup businesses who follow this three step blueprint will distinguish themselves from the vast majority of new online businesses that fail.

About the Author

Lori Olson has a passion for helping small businesses develop strong online presences. Her team of 250 professionals analyze & implement SEO, SEM, PPC Campaign Mgmt, Social Media,Copy Writing & Web Development strategies which are customized to fit any needs, wants & budget. Update Small Business also provides leading edge employee & sales assessment & training; & CRM solutions.Small Business Consulting or call 877.265.6568.