The Fundamental Realities of Small Business Online
Date: March 30th, 2009
Category: Business Strategy
Voice of Sanity subscriber Dr. Ken Evoy is the founder and CEO of SiteSell, an Alexa.com top 1000 Web site. SiteSell is totally self-funded and has been profitable since its inception. Remarkably, its tremendous growth has been, and still is, 100 percent word-of-mouth driven. SiteSell’s SBI! software is an exciting new way of doing business on the Web, with a focus on ongoing, long–term results
By Dr. Ken Evoy
E-commerce is still a very immature and confusing way of doing business. Hucksters and false experts abound at every level. It’s difficult to decide on the best approach to doing business on the Internet and who to listen to.
You can chase the gurus who claim to have the secret system. Or seek out the magical Search Engine Optimizer who claims to be able to get you to the top of the major search engines. Or you can depend on your Webmaster, who talks so far over your head that you have no way of knowing if he’s competent or not.
But what you’re really interested in finding out is why your site gets so little free traffic from Google, Yahoo!, et al. And that begins with taking responsibility for your own life and future, applying your own common sense, and making changes that empower you to use the Web in a logical, effective way.
If you would like to be able to “get the Net,” the first step is to dispel one common myth: that it is hard to create a Web site. The truth is that any monkey can put up a Web site and “be found” by someone looking for his company name or products.
You don’t need a Web site to enable customers and prospects who already know you to find you (although it’s nice to have a special area for them). Rather, you need a Web site to grow your business with people who have never heard of you before, whether your business is as local as a dental office or as global as a software company.
Having said this, I’d like to introduce you to my Five Fundamental Realities of Small Business Online.
The First Fundamental Reality of Small Business Online:
Most of the world does not know you. Use your Web site to grow your business.
Yes, there are other reasons to have a Web site, such as customer support, loyalty programs, etc. But this article is about using the Web to infuse your customer list with high volumes of new blood, find new audiences, and reach clients in corners of the world that you would otherwise never know you existed. Which brings us to …
The Second Fundamental Reality of Small Business Online:
People search for “content.”
Lock that firmly into your forebrain, because it will change everything for you. It’s about how and why people use the Web. Content is information, whether it’s being used for a university project by your daughter or in search of a cure for the type of cancer your uncle has.
Or perhaps in a quest for the perfect golf swing, research on the best planting mix for cacti, or planning a vacation. Whatever the purpose of the consumer of content, your site’s job is to deliver that content, not to sell products. (We will, however, get to that part later).
You must meet your pre-customer at “the point of search.” Deliver the content he wants, and your site will greet (at no cost to you) tens, then hundreds, then thousands of visitors every day — real people who will be interested in you and your business, but who likely had never heard of you before.
Of course, you could advertise on Google. It’s a good adjunct if you have a high-profit product or service to sell — and if you have the resources to assign an in-house person to it or hire expensive outside consultants. But even if you can figure out how to buy Google ads profitably, you still need to be aware of …
The Third Fundamental Reality of Small Business Online:
If you don’t generate your own free, targeted traffic, you don’t own your business.
What this means is that folks who work at building an eBay business really work for eBay, because eBay owns the traffic. E-auctioneers are subject to regularly increasing prices and restriction of practices. Ditto if you depend on traffic through advertising. And the same goes for any company that is not generating its own targeted traffic.
If you don’t generate your own traffic, you are missing the incredible diversity of new pre-customers you could be reaching by building high-value content that people want. And you are squandering the power of providing the “Web 2.0” means for them to provide content for your site and spread your brand and business virally to ever more people in your target market(s). The importance of “high-value content” brings us to …
The Fourth Fundamental Reality of Small Business Online:
Over deliver what your visitors want. Pre-sell, then monetize.
Pre-selling through high-value content warms up your customers with a good first impression. Remember, they found you, so they start off in a favorable frame of mind. Convert that into an interested and motivated sensation that wants to know more about you — the person/company that is a special provider of top-notch information.
Whether you sell widgets or propagate rare tortoises, someone is looking for information related to your business. Give first, then take. Pre-sell, then sell. Only after you pre-sell are you in a strong position to monetize.
Which brings us to the exchange of goods and services for dollars, as explained in …
The Fifth Fundamental Reality Of Small Business Online:
In the world of the Internet, you are not what you sell. You are the content you provide.
Offline, we tend to define ourselves by how we monetize. We’re doctors … or salespeople … or writers … or we wear any one of a thousand other monikers. Online, that translates into creating content sites about whatever your particular specialty happens to be. Remember: You monetize last.
In summation, SiteSell’s success formula is:
Content 
Traffic Pre-sell Monetize
The good news is that it’s simple to apply this formula to your business. Not easy … but simple.
Why not easy? Because, contrary to popular belief, the Internet does not override reality. It takes gravity for an apple to fall to the ground. It takes two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen to produce a molecule of water. And it takes effort to build a serious, long-term, profitable business.
So, when I say it’s simple but not easy, I mean that once you recognize the reality of C T P M, all you need to do is act on it.
Hopefully, you already know a lot about your business area of expertise. If so, all you need is a vehicle to remove the technical barriers, as there is no good reason for them to exist anymore.
First off, you must shed the lure of false gurus, magical Search Engine Optimizers, and the purveyors of get-rich-quick schemes. Being successful on the Internet is not about getting a site up quickly, cheap, and easy — as so many of the large Web hosts would have you believe. It’s about building a real and lasting business.
Focus on the realities of building an online business that grows long-term, ever-increasing profits. If you do, I can assure you that you will dramatically multiply the profits and equity value of your company.
A Voice of Sanity was so impressed with SiteSell’s philosophy and results that it became a SBI! user itself. If you would like to learn more about this remarkable new way of doing business on the Internet, click here.