Yes this IS The "Secret" - Building a Real Business vs. Making Money Online

Hi,

How is everyone? Here's a question: if you've ever written a business plan or done any kind of formal venture capital "pitching" you'll know the importance that investors place of the "real" value of any company.

The logic behind it is simple. Find out who your ideal customer is, how much they are willing to spend and how they make buying decisions - then give it to them better than anyone else. Hopefully, they'll come back to you again and again, thus sustaining your business for years to come.

What I find lacking in alot of the AM/IM circles is that most people learn "how to make money online" but very few people are taught "how to build a business".

As an example, very few people follow the best practice of capturing info from the people they get affiliate commissions from - then sending them related offers.

Everyone's always chasing traffic even though statistics from many reputable organizations (PM if you want links, I am too lazy to hunt them down on my comp)....many organizations say that it is any where from 50 to 1500% more costly to get new customers than it is to get repeat business from old customers.

As an example, suppose someone is running a dating affiliate site or a diet advice site. Most people shop around (i.e. lead commissions) or they buy several products (sales commission). What if more people focused on following up with people who had converted then showing them 2, 3 or 4 OR 5 similar products or services??

Anyway that is just a major piont I wanted to make - THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MAKIKNG MONEY ONLINE AND BUILDING A REAL BUSINESS ONLINE. A real business has brand equity and loyal customers and basically "recurring revenues" - think of it almost as a lifetime commission which is popularly discussed these days - why because these people come back again and again and again.

The beautiful part is that once your business or website hits critical mass, you can get off of the never ending traffic merry go round. You will WANT traffic but you won't NEED it?

Why? Because there are 3 ways to increase your sales/revenues:

1)get more customers/clients/visitors (what most people focus on in this buisnes)

2) keep the same number of customers/visitors, but get them to buy more of the same thing (wouldn't like 2 of those sir not 1?)

3) offer them related products - "would you like fries with that McDonald's hamburger"?

Just some thoughts to share. I'm an ex corporate drone (worked with a rather prestigious, publically-traded firm) who's been working online full time for 2 years. It's sad how long it took me to learn this. If there ever is any SECRET that alot of people aren't sharing or are just not aware enough to vocalize, I would say this is it!