An actual stable business strategy

From Wiki:

Okay, why am I posting the above?

Do you think maybe GM had a solid business model and not some "scheme" that relied on tricks?

What you are looking for doesn't exist. Your business will always depend on external factors. The key to having a long term business is not putting all your eggs into one basket as I did. One hit to my traffic source and that was it...8 years of profit down in flames.

You want to look at every little thing you do and ask yourself "where can this go wrong?" and then do what you can to minimize those risks or have a backup plan.

Unless you build a business entirely on your own platform, meaning using no third party sources at all, there is always some risk. If you build a list and use an autoresponder service, there is always a chance they'll cancel your account. If you take payments through PayPal, there is always a chance they will freeze your account. I don't care what you do. There will always be things out of your control.

In today's day and age, the word stable has very little meaning. Yes, that is my opinion that I am sure a lot of people don't share. But I know the horror stories. I know where the bodies are buried thanks to some inside info. If you've been around this forum for a while, you know who the people are who crashed and burned like I did. Their sites are gone. Their businesses are gone. And these are marketers that many looked up to.

Do you want to give yourself the BEST chance of being successful?

Pick a product or service that fills a real need. Something that people will gladly spend money on. Most of these are pretty competitive, so do as Brian has suggested to many people. Pick out a small segment of that bigger market and specialize in it. I'm sure if he comes to this thread he'll give you some examples.

After you've done that, don't rely on any one avenue for generating traffic. Because if that avenue dries up, your business goes with it.

While this is something that I never did (it was never an issue) you might also want to have multiple ways of taking payments. If you just use something like PayPal and they shut you down, that's it. It's going to take you some time to get up and running again. In the meantime, you're losing business.

Finally, don't be afraid to jump on a trend IF it's related to your main business.

For example, I produce music. Recently, a video production software came out that is very hot with marketers. It's weak in the music area and I see an opening there for me to fill a need related to the software itself.

Your business has to grow. It can't remain static. You have to keep up with the times. Look what happened to GM.

Stay away from the "How To Make Money Online" crap as a seller. It's a rat race and if you're looking for a strategy yourself and not making any money, you're in no position to teach others how to do the same. It's hypocritical and ludicrous.

Make a business plan. Write out everything from start to finish so you leave nothing out. If you don't know how to make a business plan, get a hold of a coach who does.

You can be very successful on the Internet. I was for 8 years. One stupid mistake cost me. Don't make my mistakes. Cover your ass at every turn. Don't rely on just one income stream, on just one payment processor, on just one list provider, on just one source of traffic. If you do, you're looking for trouble.

My 2 cents for whatever they're worth.

Here's a solid business strategy: find an opportunity, offer real value, WORK HARD to please your customers. Worked in the past. It is currently working now. It will continue to work in the future. Stay away from PUSH BUTTON or TURNKEY solutions. They don't work and just exploit people's LAZINESS and GREED.

A robust and sturdy business relies on customers coming from multiple locations, e.g... Google, Social media, Videos, PPC etc... Your hear a saying around this forum a lot, don't put all your eggs in one basket. They will always tell you to diversify your traffic sources so if you get slapped by one, you only loose a bit of your traffic, not all of it. There you go, thats how you build a firm foundation, only problem is, takes a ton of work .

There is no such thing has a "sturdy/reliable" business strategy. You either make money or you don't, it as simple as that.

get off the i.ming info business. That is so short term. Every scammer/**** will copy/clone if it's successful and ruin it long term.

A solid business model needs to revolve around providing value to other people. If you can do that and you can build up an audience and become an authority in your niche, then that would be all you need to have a solid business.