How Many Online Entrepreneurs Actually Provide Value?
March 5th, 2008 by AlanAuthor info: This post has been written by Alan Johnson, who has identified The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Online Entrepreneurs over at TheRatingBlog.com.
Sure, every online entrepreneur wants to make a killing online and they come up with all sorts of approaches which they think will get them one step closer to reaching their goals. Some seem to think about almost everything, yet lose sight of the most important aspect: providing value. They want to make money, they want to be successful and they want to make a name for themselves, but what exactly are they willing to offer in return?
Not As Easy As It Seems
You publish a website, generate traffic and monetize it. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, things are a lot more complicated than that and, once again, providing value is the name of the game. Yes, you want to generate traffic, but in order to do that, you have to give others a valid reason to visit your website and, of course, return, if you are serious about reaching your goals. If you want your website to be attractive to potential advertisers, it has to receive as much traffic as possible and that will only happen if you make your resource one worth visiting in the first place.
You may, on the other hand, be interested in making money by developing a certain product and selling it or by offering services. Once again, the issue of providing value will be in the spotlight. What will customers have to gain by purchasing your product? How will the service you are offering be able to make their life easier?
Are the results they would be experiencing as a result of purchasing your product or as a result of taking advantage of the services you’re offering good enough in order to justify the price? These are just a few of the questions you need to be asking yourself as an online entrepreneur if you are serious about long-term success.
That doesn’t mean you can’t make money without providing value but, in the end, any business model which doesn’t have providing value as an important component doesn’t stand a chance in the long run.
Why Do People Go To Your Site?
Think about it: when you visit a certain website, you do it as a result of the fact that you find it informative, entertaining or, why not, even both. In other words, you consider following the resource in question on a regular basis time well spent on your part. The same way, you only purchase a product which provides value to you, and if you think that spending a certain amount of money on it will prove to be a wise decision on your part.
What is your way of thinking as an online entrepreneur: are you actually providing value to the people you work with? What do you give back to visitors, advertisers or customers, are they satisfied with the value you are currently providing? The answer to such questions will, without a doubt, play an extremely important role in determining the overall success of each and every one of your projects, as well as your success as an online entrepreneur in general.
Save to del.icio.us
Digg This!
Post to Facebook
StumbleItRelated Posts:
Introducing Our New Regular Contributor - Monika Mundell
A goal that I have had for Court's Internet Marketing School in the last few months is to step up th...
Why Do Entrepreneurs Struggle With Discipline?
Entrepreneurs and discipline are polar opposites like day and night, black and white or yin and yang...
Make Money With Freelance Writing
Freelance writing has been the business model for many online entrepreneurs to fuel their dreams of ...
Court’s Links - 4/23/2008
Here’s what I’ve been reading as of late! If you would like to be featured in the next edition p...
Terms and Conditions
I will make every effort to provide the best information I possibly can on this site. That said, I w...
How To Make Money On The Internet
Many of you will find this article by searching for either 'how to make money on the internet' or 'm...
March 5th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
I think I provide value, plus I sell very little currently from the site where I recount my online marketing experiences. I think I can provide what the normal make money bloggers sell with my posts and links. And instead sell tools to get these processes done. My “make money” blog makes about $200 a month. I write about my efforts that currently make me thousands a month. By being very choosy about what I do “hock”, I think I can set a higher bar and get a name for being truthful.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
I agree. To question yourself what value your site, or in general your new business, will provide is truly important. It helps that you know how you can differentiate your brand from others offering similar product. I’m an online newbie and is in the process of starting a few projects. I’ll surely keep your advice in mind. Thanks for this article.
March 5th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Thanks for the post…. I am starting a new blog soon, and this has confirmed that I really need to provide some top quality stuff in order to get people to come, to get people to return, and to get some rss subscribers.
So many times I get distracted by the dollar signs, that providing value does come second more often than not. It’s time for me to change that.
March 5th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
I think you should have a value because it can attract the user. also to ad traffic to your site
March 5th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Yes, I do agree with the emphasis in quality. I’m about to enter into business online and I’m very focused in ensuring quality. thanks for the tip
March 5th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
[…] Excerpted from:How Many Online Entrepreneurs Actually Provide Value? […]
March 6th, 2008 at 12:11 am
Some good points. In the end, quality matters and content is king. Sure adsense blogs and keyword snipping blogs can bring in revenue, but quality will provide long term success.
I think online success is the same as offline success. Its partly about diversification. Low content sites can be part of your network, but to stay around for a while, I think you need to provide some thing to bring your visitors back constantly.
And especially with Google constantly singling out spam sites, made for adsenese, and keyword niche seo sites…
With a legit site or service, I believe you’ll be less affected by all the odd things Google throws at the SEO community.
March 6th, 2008 at 2:29 am
You say in the post “That doesn’t mean you can’t make money without providing value but” - I don’t see how anyone can make more than pocket change without providing value. I’d say that all of the truly successful entrepreneurs do provide value in some way otherwise I dont see how they could survive. Of course, some always provide more than others…
March 7th, 2008 at 9:24 am
There are more than a few ways to make money (and definitely more than pocket change) without providing value to the Web. However, providing value is the way to go if you are interested in seeing long-term results.
March 6th, 2008 at 8:50 am
If at all there is a problem, I believe that it is due to treating this as something different from any other business. If you treat your online business like any other business, say a Mom and Pop stores, unless you give value for money, who will visit you? Perhaps those who may not have a choice, but, I believe that kind of visitor will be short lived and will actively encourage a competitor to set up shop.
March 6th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Its unfortunate, but many if not most online entrepreneurs don’t offer valuable content. I believe in the old adage “content is king” and wouldn’t structure a business around anything other than content that people will find truly valuable, regardless of the niche. This a very inspiring post and I hope that people coming into this business will take note and follow what has been shared here, so thank you.
March 7th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Thanks for your comments, glad to see that you’ve found my guest post useful
Best wishes,
Alan Johnson
March 7th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
In a perfect world, I agree, everyone would provide value. Unfortunately, my surfing of late has uncovered far more blogs with no interest in providing value. I would have to attribute this to the insane increase in paid blogging services that make it much easier for beginners to make a quick buck with paid links instead of creating thoughtful content.
March 9th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
[…] How many online entrepreneurs actually provide value?, over at Courtney’s blog. […]
March 13th, 2008 at 12:31 am
Heya, my blog is more of a political blog but I hope that it provides value or at least ethics. I cannot say that it really provides anything in the Make money online category, but I’d like to hope that someday it would provide some sort of value in its niche.
March 16th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
This is great advice - I have to start a blog now - so many benefits.
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:02 pm
[…] 244) Is Building a Website All it Takes? 245) The Online Business Journey 246) How Many Online Entrepreneurs Actually Provide Value? […]