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I had a very nice conversation with one of our members a while ago regarding her business. She has been in business for 11 years with her current company, which is a traditional business started long before the Internet came around.

She has been successful for those 11 years and is still doing very well. She started her online business several months ago with the same products as her traditional business. The problem was her online business was only costing her money and to date she has made no sales, but has spent over $1,500 in advertising and marketing--just for the online side of her business alone.

Here is a news flash. Business is Business! I do not care whether you are on the Internet or in a shopping mall. The same basic principles apply to both businesses.

1. You have a product
2. You need to advertise to get customers to buy your product.
3. You need to support your customers who buy your product from the advertising you did.
4. You need to build a loyal customer following, so you can maintain a profitable business.

Many people believe that because they are selling online that some of these steps can either be skipped or they need to go overboard in one area or another. Customer service on the Internet is for the most part--non-existent. Companies that tell you they will get back to you in 48 - 72 hours might as well tell you they are closed.

The bottom line regarding selling online, whether you have your own product or you are just going to focus on reselling affiliate programs, you will need to advertise, and you will need to take care of your clients.

There is no magic about online selling. As an example, our members purchased an ISOR membership for a reason and other people will purchase for similar reasons. We work very hard at ISORegister, Inc. to ensure our members and treated fairly. We provide toll-free phone numbers, 7-days a week support, we answer our emails the same day we receive them. These are a few of the things we do that 99% of the online companies do not.

You do not have to get your own toll-free phone number or work 7 days a week. What you do have to realize is that if you are reselling an affiliate program or your own product that you are in business for yourself.

You have a choice as to how you want to run your business. You can sit back and wait for sales to happen or you can go out and make sales happen. Run your home business like you expect to be treated by other businesses. Do not spam people; do not buy a bunch of worthless hits, do not pay someone to get you posted in the top search engines.

Run your new home business just like a real company because it is a real company and you have a real opportunity to be successful or to fail. The only difference between an online business and a traditional business is location and in some cases inventory. Everything else is about the same. You have a product and you want to sell that product to people who want your product.

Think about this...Remember, building a business takes time and patience. If you are promoting affiliate programs do not sit around waiting for someone to find your affiliate page. In addition, too many people think that once they have put up their own website the traffic is just going to pour in. This is not true as anyone with a website knows but it is a reason so many people get frustrated and quit. You need to go out and promote your website or affiliate program and you need to be aggressive in your approach.

There is nothing magical about running your Internet business. This business is run the same as any traditional business and it will succeed or fail depending on what you put into it.

Read any book or bio from anyone who has ever started and run a business and you will see that everyone put a lot of time and energy into their business. Do the same and treat your own business or affiliated businesses like your own and you will do fine.

Copyright 2004 Jeremy Gislason