Making Money Online is so easy anyone with a PC and Internet connection can do it. This is often the pretense that is used to sell online business packages.

With that thought thousands of people on a daily basis come running to the ‘Net looking for that “next best business opportunity” and overnight riches.  It’s not that much different from the 1800’s Western American gold rush.

Many of these overnight Entrepreneurs have no idea how to build success online. They often don't realize the complex planning that is needed to build the traffic that is vital to making it from the start.

They often think that the technology can be applied with a few mouse clicks and that all that is needed for anyone to succeed online.  OR so they are told that.

As the Rich Sage, my contention is that online business building is even harder than in the real world --if you don't study and plan what you can do. 

Why?  Because of competition.

In the real world setting up a business often takes a lot of money, a good location and the right product line.  Getting these organized, funded and complete for a business is no easy tasks.  Just getting started is a huge obstacle. 

However, online, the barriers to starting any business are very small.  Some technical knowledge with a basic understanding of software is essential.  Then some writing skills and know-how to find information.

After that what do you do? 

Selecting the product line is very important, but the location is not significant.  Of course, having a well recognized brand or website name will help.  And as for the start up funds, that’s often just a few hundred dollars. 

The overwhelming problem will be competition, and what you can do to SET YOUR SELF APART from the rest of the pack.  This is often what drives traffic and most people are lost when it comes to designing a way to “stand out of the crowd”.  Usually, this is achieved by using a brand.  Most Entrepreneurs don’t have any unique identification of their own.  Their products or services may only complete at the price level.  By branding online, you can set yourself apart.

There is no easy solution for competing at a price level. The only solution is to work with unique marketing methods.  This might be the way a product is demonstrated online.  The unique style and look of a website. Or even the way visitors are encouraged to participate on a web site.  These are all methods that sellers who are completing on price can use to make online sales effectively.
You can see my own brand by searching Google for the “Rich Sage”.

The next stumbling block for new online Entrepreneurs is the building of traffic as a small business.  What the Entrepreneurs fail to do is follow the same practices as larger businesses in the real world.  For example, when a real-world business debuts a new product, they also send out a press release or two about it.  Running an online business, do you do that?  Real world businesses release videos to the media.  Do you do that?  Now a days’ making a product demonstration is as easy as capturing the screen anconcurd making a video from it. Then uploading it to YouTube.  Many videos get thousands of views and result in a good percentage of the viewers becoming visitors to websites.  Since the entire process is free and even video can be made with a very small budget, I strongly encourage online Entrepreneurs to use video to build their traffic and sales.  You can search “video” at the Rich Sage’s learning site to see how very cheap video can be made.

Lastly, large business joint venture(JV)  with others to build distribution channels.  This is a key element that Entrepreneurs can focus on by teaming up with very successful  online marketers and websites to distribute ones products.  Although a sales commission has to be paid to the Joint Venture (JV) partner, this is often a small price to pay after a sale is made.

Perhaps, the most important of the top three business building ideas that Entrepreneurs have to explore is the use of an Affiliate Program to generate sales.  I was faced with this decision just a few months ago and found the perfect software to run thousands of Affiliates.

The major advantage of an Affiliate program is that the cost of sales are calculated after a product or service is sold.  There is no upfront cost in the sales process other than setting up a sales channel that can be measured and tracked.  Therefore, I feel that an Affiliate Program is vital to the sales effort of any online Entrepreneurs.