This is a guest post by Misheal on what to pick – a product or, a service for you online business. You can check out the guidelines for guest posting on our write for us page. 

What does your online business provide to its customer -a product or a service? A very basic question that business owners seldom reflect on. These are two distinctive terms that entrepreneurs never really focus on and end up making wrong business strategies. In layman terms, a product is an object, a tangible item that is sold and bought with a claim to ownership. On the other hand, a service is an intangible item, an activity that provides benefits to the customer, with no claim to ownership.

What should be your online business?

Anyone with ample amount of capital can set up a product based business, while not everyone can set up a service based business. You need different type of experience, skills, knowledge, tools, strategies and monetary investment for both of them. It would be unfair to label one better than the other, because they have their own plus and minus. However, if you are considering to set-up a business, knowing about the pros and cons will help you make a better decision.

Start up Requirements

With products, you need ample amount of capital investment, along with a proper infrastructure where stock items can be stored. You will need to establish an invoice system, a buying/selling system and good connections with distributors. You must also make sure that products are updated and that customers are getting the latest items the market has to offer. A business that offers tangible commodities often has to start off with good capital, good venue and good promotional/convincing powers. This is something that is applicable to an online business as well.

Services require experience, skills and expertise. It doesn’t need huge monetary investment; however it needs a proper infrastructure and business model. You have to plan on services offered, their stages and service cost/charges. Sites that offer SEO and content writing services, web and graphic design services are some of the best examples of a business that works on the service model. As can be seen, services usually require experts to be at the helms of affairs; someone who knows the industry well enough to provide customers with the best solutions at the most affordable rate.

A look on mere startup requirements will portray tangible items as an easier business model that can be adopted by anyone who has a good starting capital. While services can be provided with zero capital, as long as you have the expertise.

The decision as to what to offer in your online business will also depend upon how much you wish to invest. This investment can be in product development, website management, back end sales management etc.

Running Costs

The cost of running a tangible product based business is more than the service based business. Businesses, including an online business often face big losses when their products cross a certain limit and are no longer purchased. The items then have to be sold off at a very cheap rate. Inventory management is the most important factor that leads to high running costs. Add to that, shipment costs, worker wages, transportation costs, maintenance costs and you have a high bill to look at every month.

With services, there are minimal running costs, and there is not much to worry about. You can be a one man team and still be able to offer services at the cost of pennies.

It is because of this low running costs that services is the most preferred option by any online business.

Profitability - 

Here comes the most important and the deciding factor for most businesses. The bad thing about services is that in most cases, it can take a very long time to bring in good income. Till then you might feel dejected and at loss. However, the good part is that you have nothing to lose. You didn’t start with any heavy cash investment, so even if you decide to shut it down, it won’t cost you a dime.

The reason of failure may lie in many factors; including poor research, lack of patience, not targeting the right audience, or not doing enough marketing, not satisfying the customer or simply not being able to meet your client’s expectations. To get the clients, you need to have a portfolio as a proof of your skills. And for all this to happen, you have to do rigorous marketing.

Internet can come handy to establish yourself as an expert; you can reach out to national and international clientele using social media, start a blog, and use other online marketing tactics. This is where services score over products for an online business.

The profitability in products is a simple measure of the difference in selling and purchase/production price. Are customers ready to buy products at the rate at which you are selling and does that offer a good profit margin? If the answer to this question is in “yes” then your business will succeed. However, you should remember the costs like marketing, and delivery. Delivering the products to customer’s doorstep is a sizeable cost for an online business and you must keep that in mind, because it will have a serious dent in your overall profitability. Still, if you can discover the right equation, a product based business can turn out to be much more profitable than a service based business.

What should be the choice for your online business?

Most online business owners have no difficulty in picking services as the choice for their businesses. Since managing and running a service based business is much easier as compared to a product, internet entrepreneurs go with this obvious choice.

But the fact is that, product if developed such that they address the problems of a starving crowd, can do extremely well in an online business. Just because most of these products are to be created once and be sold over and over again, since it does not involve a physical product as in a conventional business, they can become a set-it and forget-it option.

About the Author:

Our guest blogger today is Misheal Rome, an internet marketing expert by profession. Currently, she’s working for a UK based website that features restaurants in Plymouth and restaurants in South Wales. We thank her for this post on choosing the best thing for your online business.

This is a guest post by Evan on the traits of successful entrepreneurs. You can check out the guidelines for guest posting on our write for us page.

Success in business doesn’t always come with a degree or a pedigree.  Although a certain amount of knowledge and experience will undoubtedly help you to do better in the business world, those entrepreneurs that enjoy success in their chosen field often have some kind of indefinable quality that allows them to leap to the head of the pack.

In truth, most successful entrepreneurs have not just one, but several traits that work together to make them fruitful in their endeavors.

Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs -

Successful entrepreneurs have a lot of such virtues which we call as traits. Listing them all in just one post will mean boxing an ocean in a match box.

Here are just a few that you may want to emulate in order to enjoy success in your own business ventures.

Ingenuity

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but ingenuity is the father.  And most wildly successful entrepreneurs are at the forefront of their industry because they themselves have come up with new and improved products, services, or ways of getting things done (or they recognize and promote talent in others).  Just look at Steve Jobs; he saw a niche for the MP3 player before anyone else did and to this day, no other company has been able to rival the death grip Apple’s iPod has on the market.

Intuition

Great opportunities don’t come along every day, and the ability to recognize them when they do could make or, break an entrepreneur.  But there’s more to it than just seeing an open door and walking through.  The truly successful entrepreneurs will also see those diamonds in the rough and put in the time and effort to turn them into something great.  Knowing the difference between a sound business opportunity and a sinking ship is what separates the men from the boys.

Motivation – What every successful entrepreneurs need

Successful entrepreneurs seem to have some kind of inner fire that keeps them going and sometimes makes them appear as tireless machines.  Take business moguls like Richard Branson or Donald Trump, for example.  Each has had their fair share of setbacks and even outright failures, but like the Energizer bunny, they just keep going, racking up more successes.

And they’ve always got their hands in something new, whether it’s an airline or a reality TV show.  The point is, life never slows down for these guys, and they’ll probably be working until the day they die.

Dedication – Can you do without it?

Having that spark that makes you want to pick yourself up and try again is one thing, but being married to your work is something else entirely.  For most people, there will be days when you just want to throw in the towel, and this is where dedication kicks in.  When the weight of the world is on your shoulders and you feel like you can’t take another step, you’ve got to muscle through if you want to be successful.  And devotion to your cause is what will see you through. This dedication is what makes successful entrepreneurs.

Flexibility

Few successful entrepreneurs get where they are by taking no for an answer.  They find ways to make it happen (whatever “it” is).  Suppose you get a huge order that could take your business to the next level but the bank won’t advance you the funds you need to make it happen.  Are you going to give up?

A successful entrepreneurs would beg money from every source, get purchase order financing, or talk to bank managers until he found one willing to help him out.  The point is, you need to be flexible because the game plan is going to change frequently and you have to be able to roll with the punches and find alternatives.

Can you be one such successful entrepreneurs?

If you can be one such successful entrepreneurs, will entirely depend upon how you take up the responsibility of being an entrepreneur. There are thousands of book written by numerous successful people and many thousands read these books everyday. But how many of them actually follow what they have read and aspire to be one like the writer is the million dollar question.

If you have a strong dream to pursue and a goal in life, you will achieve it and you will succeed.

About the Author -

Our Guest Blogger today, Evan Fischer is a freelance writer and part-time student at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.

We thank her for this article of the traits of successful entrepreneurs.

This is a guest post by Megan on Vlogging and its benefits. You can check out the guidelines for guest posting on our write for us page.

Video blogging, otherwise known as vlogging, has become a popular form of Internet communication thanks to falling webcam prices, greater broadband adoption and the rise of the smartphone.

Popular video blogs regularly fetch hundreds of thousands of views and can be released episodically, effectively re-generating those views with every new blog. These numbers give vlogging incredible marketing potential.

Vlogging – The acceptance quotient

Vlogging has increased in popularity with the commoditization of YouTube, a website that has become a haven for Internet entrepreneurs. Offering a virtual face-to-face with potential clients is a proven way of generating buzz about your product/service and, if done with flair, could find a larger “viral” audience. There is also the fact that YouTube pays YOU if the video strikes fame.

There are a number of famous vloggers you may have come into contact with during your Internet life: Fred and Ciaela are good examples of the blogger speaking to audience setup. The Talking Orange started as a video blog and grew into a full fledged internet comedy show. Some vlogs focus on music reviews while others emphasize basically anything you could want to know about.

Vlogging in Interpreneurship

For entrepreneurs, the issue is getting your message out. Video blogs are a great way to do that, but usually as part of a larger marketing plan. For example, if you have an existing email marketing campaign, adding a video blog into your regular transmissions can give you a schedule and increase the amount of information that actually comes across to the consumer. Reading isn’t quite dead, but videos are preferable to walls of text these days and hence vlogging is a preferred medium.

Of course, you should not launch into a video blog because I think it’s a good idea. Evaluate your product and the information you plan to put in the video: is that better conveyed through video or words? You will essentially be using the video blog as marketing, but to make it overtly so would kill interest. Who wants to watch an infomercial of their own volition?

Vlogging as a medium of discussion

Another good technique for business vlogging is simply talking directly with consumers. Notify them how things are going, spring a contest to spur engagement. Microsoft’s many departments regularly produce video blogs to get people interested in what the company is up to, whether it’s the development of Windows 8 or, where the Xbox will be in a year’s time. People respond to these because they are inclusive and bring consumers who are already interested into the world of the business. Obviously, you will not forfeit any trade secrets in these videos.

Another thing to remember is that vlogging is almost always serial; if you do engage in an effort to video blog, count on making more than one video. It can often take time for people to warm up to videos, and if you are successful in producing them you will be able to generate buzz and pull more consumers in. Your primary target is people who are familiar with your brand and ideally you will reach potential consumers who have been linked to your video blog or have shared it in one of the myriad ways that social media offers.

Vlogging is a fun, effective way of connecting entrepreneurs with current and potential clients. Done right, it can be an art form. The technology is in almost anyone’s hands to produce a video blog regularly and release it to the Internet where it has the potential to skyrocket. It may not be a viable form for every business, but it is definitely worth taking a look at through the lens of a marketing budget and seeing whether you and your customers can benefit.

What are your thoughts about vlogging?

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This blog is a immediate business resource if you are willing to make some money on the internet. There are multiple options of monetization from the make money flipping websites niche, that has been built into it.

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The Making Money Flipping Websites Niche

This is one of the hottest niche today. Making money flipping websites is pretty rewarding and a lot of people are seeking information on this topic.

The blog on sale here caters to this niche and provides a lot of handy information on making money flipping websites. There is also a 7-day course on making money flipping websites that is built into the blog. All you have to do is add your auto responder code and you are done.

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Premium domain on making money flipping websites

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Go over to Flippa now and bid on moneyflippingwebsites.com in the making money flipping websites niche.

This is a guest post by Althea on building a successful online business. You can check out the guidelines for guest posting on our write for us page.

They are just simple people with simple dreams, yet because of their ability and perseverance they have made online money making easier to see. Behind Facebook’s success, there is a man named Mark Zuckerberg and by the age of 26, he is one of the youngest billionaires in the world.

Age is not a hindrance when it comes to developing a business especially today with all the technology around. There is really no definite time to start an online business, one just have to be very keen in deciding to make the best kind of online business that they could handle since it needs to have hardworking people dealing with it. When outsourcing a service, you as the owner have to have the guts of leadership and responsibility when it comes to handling people.

Building a successful Online Business

There are certain skills that one needs to have when trying to start an online business.  Although they are not required, one must at least have the ability to do these skills since he will be doing the business all by himself at the very starting point of taking this kind of endeavor. Success comes in a matter of years through hard work when dealing with online business related stuffs.

Here are some of the things that one needs in order for him or her to have a successful online business in the future.

The Ability to Systemize – Key to a successful online business

There are times that you have to get the best kind of strategy in order for you to systemize your online business even if you are alone. Some people make use of HR softwares to get the best skilled workers that they need for the job position available in their online company.

The people management is important in doing online business because most of them would work at a different location and most of the time, language barrier would be a big problem. Learn about the best workforce management that you could use to be able to unify your workers into doing a productive output for your business. Remember that man force is one of the strongest foundations of a stabilized company or business.

The Ability to Organize Your Time

A business to become successful, the owner have to dedicate a huge amount of time managing it. Since online business has become one of the largest growing businesses today, many online business owners are having a hard time controlling their bodies to stop working because in online business, work is essential to gain profit.

Make a habit of getting you some time off to be able to work properly in the next few days. This will also help you in determining what to do first and what to do least. Prioritize those things that have a greater impact into your business and have ample time to get some rest.

The Ability to Take Action

Dreams will just be mere dreams unless one will work it out to make it a reality. Taking actions when it comes to doing business online is essential since many people are able to give the best kind of strategy even though it is not really required. Many are trying to get softwares to ease the job of generating fast outputs when it comes to their online business.

Just start doing things for your business. In no time, you’ll be able to be one of the millionaires in the world!

The Ability to Cross Sell

Common idea about cross selling is that one practices selling a certain product or service to another clients or customers who are already established. This is to give you the best kind of options when trying to do some transactions with someone.

The Ability to Manage Client and Customer Expectations

It is one of the most important parts of owning a business- your relationship with your clients. Since online business offers a wide range of expectations when it comes to services offered, it is a good thing to give quality services. It will gain them more confidence to you and your business as your clients to have better management talks for both parties. It would also help them in having a good kind of relationship with them, treating them as your business partners.

A Final Word on building a successful Online Business

A business requires a professional approach from the businessman. Just because an online business is not a brick and mortar business doesn’t mean that you are not a businessman like any other. You as a businessman will have to build the belief that you are doing a real business. Building a successful online business involves believing in yourself and taking action.

Let us know how we can help you build a successful online business.