The foundation for a successful e business (this involves math)

One byproduct of 4HWW is it leaves you, as a newbie, with the impression you can make it overnight simply by developing a product, slapping a weebly site together and hooking it up to your checking account via shoppify.

I know, that was me a year ago.

This overly simplistic game plan may work for the very lucky few gifted with engineering/manufacturing genius or identified an untouched niche (also just as unlikely).

For the rest of us, building your 4HWW takes time, hard work, strategic planning and most of all, persistent follow through.

It all starts with identifying a niche. No need into going into how to use the Keyword tool because it really doesn't matter. Creating a run of the mill muse is just as much science as its an art and there's a formula. So whether your idea is in forex, internet marketing or dog underwear, to be successful there are tried and true best practices.

You need a domain....a good one. That means a .com with no hyphens and one of your keywords.

You need hosting. This is cheap.

You need a sales converting web design. This is simple. A header, a footer, an eye catching background color and a sales letter body culminating with a series of Add To Cart buttons.

You need sales converting copy. This is supremely expensive. Expect to pay $247 for a really good amature, $447 for a pro or over 1000 to have a master sales jedi like Adam do it.

You need a blog. Attach it to your sales page. This way, the keyword rich, search engine features of your blog bring your sales page along with it in terms of page rank and traffic driven to your bottom line.

You need people to pay attention to what you are doing.

So unless you're a wizard with photoshop ($199), camtasia ($199) and iMovie (free)and have a home recording studio (about $190 to get the necessary equipment), you're better off outsourcing at $67 to $97 a pop for a narrated video done by someone good.

PPC is dead. YouTube is chock full of pros who know how to put on a killer video.

So what are you going to do?

This goes back to finding the right niche. Then again, there is a tried and true technique to compete with the internet big dogs just starting out.

Build a list:

Ninja tactic #1) After you have developed your product and site. Pay current list owners to run a solo ad. Anyone who purchases from you is now in your list.

Ninja Tactic #2) Build a list over 1500 and begin doing ad swaps with other owners. Never stop building your list.....ever. And don't be afraid to pound your list weekly.

This is another post topic but keep it a 50/50 (content/sales pitch) mix. But most of all, ALWAYS TALK ABOUT YOUR NICHE's PROBLEMS.

People never tire of thinking/listening/hearing about there problems. Nothing closes a sale faster than holding yourself/product/offer as the solution to a very specific or range of problems the majority of your list has.

You'll make .40c-.75c per subscriber per month if you send a weekly mailer promoting your product or some related affiliate product so long as you focus on the list readers' problems. Seriously, rub salt in those wounds and do it with the nicest smile and sweetest voice you have.

Ninja tactic #2) Ninja Tactic #1 used to be THE yellow brick road. It is now obsolete as of September (ish) 2010. The accepted cutting edge is to host a contest via your blog.

Think of this as crowd sourcing. But in practice, it's like watching a pack of dogs fight over a single piece of meat. They fight by writing you blog posts, commenting on your blog's posts, posting to your facebook, commenting on your facebook, posting videos to your YouTube, commenting on your Youtube, writing articles about you, tweeting about you, referring contacts to your contest etc etc etc.

The net effect is two fold. One) an unbelievable boost in PR, social buzz, keyword rank, and other SEO benefits. Two) it grows your list. Each contestant is automatically a subscriber.

Ninja tactic #3) Ninja Tactic #2 is obsolete as of yesterday when I discovered how to incorporate Ninja Tactics 1 and 2 with a contest. The results are UN FREAKING BELIEVABLE and the potential is even sweeter. Leverage is your friend-that's the only clue

At any rate, back to start up costs. To recap you'll need:
*1 Year Domain-$9.99
*1 Year unlimited Hosting-about $60
*1 Year unlimited Email
*Sales Page Design- about $60ish if you find someone good
*Niche research--DIY: Free or $20 outsourced
*Info Product development-- (2-3 bonuses PLR for $30 plus a professionally edited 100pp+ eBook or video series-outsourced= $200 DIY=Free
*Complete High Conversion Sales Copy-$249-$449-$1000
just check the going rate for a sales letter on Warrior Forum
*Attached Blog to the sales page- $70
*Sales Funnel--(3 video squeeze pages offering a freebie to enter your mailing list)-$300
*Initial Blog Content of ten posts-$30
* 10 articles written and submitted promoting your site (variable depending on quality--avg $100)
*Contest Burner individual contest-$97
*eBook cover-$40 (if applicable)
*eBook/product image-$40
*Header/footer for sales page-$40
*1 Month of backlinking/forum participation (40 hours)- $200
*1 Month of forum participation (40 hours)-$197 value
* High Quality Sales Video $67
* Squeeze page video $37
* Intelligent Customer Service per month-$250
*A Mailing list built for you (you'll pay $200 per ad sent to 4000 people and maybe 200 will purchase your offer thus adding to your list-so at 1$ per subscriber you're looking at anywhere from a $500 to $1500 value once the contest is over)

If you outsource this piece by piece to a bunch of designers who have never owned a successful Clickbank product sales site or other single product offering, it's going to run over $2900 and there's no guarantee on the quality or consistency. Plus you always run the risk of not knowing what exactly you NEED versus what you want nor how to execute it. This leads to duplicated work, abandoned work and misdirected work which all costs you MONEY.

So, bottom line. Start with a blog within your niche. Promote the hell out of it (using a contest--it costs next to nothing) and BUILD YOUR LIST (via the contest and squeeze page freebie giveaway sites). Everyone is so focused with product creation. However, the real money is IN YOUR LIST.

If you can't wait to put out your product, do it concurrently with your focus on list building. You can always promote your offering along the way.

And if you still don't know precisely what you are doing and why, enlist someone who does.