How To Be An Effective Internet Entreprenuer Part I: Choosing Your Business Plan

A common mistake made by new Internet Entreprenuers is that of settling on a particular business plan without figuring out whether or not it stands a chance of making decent money in return for the time spend operating the business.

There are several factors to consider:

• Your desired lifestyle & how much time you want to spend working your business
• How much money you want to make
• What your target market is
• Whether your target market has money to spend
• How to gain access to your target market

In terms of lifestyle, some people would rather travel and speak, While others need to stay at home and raise their youngsters. Certain business models cannot be delegated or automated effectively, so one must be prepared to spend time operating the business. Other models require quite a bit of preparation on the front end but once launched, require minimal adjustment.

There is a reason for asking how much money one wishes to make. This is partly to establish valid monetary reasons for putting in the time required, but also to help understand one's business goals in terms of real numbers. Creating a fully-automated passive income stream leaves the creator with time whereas forging an online empire may require every spare minute.

Your target market is important. Although you may understand a particular niche through familiarity, in order to get them to spend money on what you have to offer, you need to be providing what they want. Of course, what they want and what they need are two different things. David DeAngelo is one person who understands this well. He sells men what they need (lifestyle coaching) under the label of what they want (how to approach women).

You also need to know whether or not your target market will be willing to spend money on what you have to offer. A good indicator is whether or not they are currently spending money, and on what. I recently surprised a client with some research results showing that the dominant market niche for her product consisted of middle-aged Hispanic men. (She had been assuming that her target market was new age women). One way to discover what your target market is willing to spend money on is to perform searches on topics which appeal to a particular group and note which advertisements are carried in the sidebars. Ineffective ads get pulled.

Once you have determined your target market and whether or not they are willing to spend money, it would be wise to look for effective avenues of access. If you are lucky, you may find that your expertise gets you an Oprah interview, and you are instantly famous, but odds are that you will find yourself advertising in specific periodicals or looking for longtail keyword combinations that are favored by your niche market.