How To Find the Best Online Opportunity – Basic First Steps

There are many different avenues you could pursue to generate an income using the power of the internet.  Some of these methods require nothing more than access to a web-enabled computer – it doesn’t even have to be your own!  Having said that, selecting the most appropriate vehicle for your particular circumstances, is not exactly straight-forward.

A simple search for ‘make money online’ or ‘making money online’, using a popular search engine, will yield upwards of 180 million results.  A lot of these sites will provide you with nothing more than the opportunity to buy systems and product which promise to help you make money.  In reality, although the products themselves may be of reasonable quality, without any marketing expertise, you are unlikely to have any appreciable level of success with them.
So how do you decide what is best for you?
It is often said that all of the information you need on any topic you care to name is available on the internet.  Unfortunately, although the internet is a fantastic mine of information, it is not quality controlled and there are many traps for the unwary or naive.
Before you start parting with your hard-earned cash, you need to decide what it is that you really want to do:

• Do you want to spend time building and maintaining you own website and developing your own products, writing the sales copy and doing your own marketing?

• Do you want to find products which others will find attractive and buy the resale rights, again to put on a website of your own making?

• Or are you looking for a fully prepared and professionally built website business with a variety of possible income streams, which you can buy in to?

All of these methods can prove successful (and the list is not exhaustive) but they come with varying degrees of time and knowledge requirements.  For the purposes of this article, I will restrict myself to covering only the last option on the list.

First Things First


The first thing you need to do is not directly associated with ‘making money’ but more with ‘making you’.  Take a good hard look at yourself and decide whether you attitude is generally positive or negative.  Here’s a clue – most people have a negative outlook on life.  If you find yourself in a difficult position, how do you react?  Do you complain about the unfairness of the management/the government/life in general, or do you look for a benefit or try to find a happier outcome?

If you want to build a successful online business (or any business) you need to continually work on your attitude and outlook.  You can’t afford yourself the luxury of a negative thought.  If you do, you will quickly find yourself continually becoming part of the problem, rather than a catalyst for a solution.  Read books like ‘As A Man Thinketh’ by James Allen and ‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill.  Although these books were both written some time ago, the techniques taught in them are timeless and still relevant today.  You might also find ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ by Robert Kiyosaki a useful reference as it deals with what the author calls ‘financial intelligence’ – a subject which is not, as far as I am aware, on the national curriculum.

Find Your Business


The next thing to do is to have a look around at the various opportunities which exist and decide which best fits with your understanding of what such a business should be.  Bear in mind that the best opportunity in the world will probably not work for you if you don’t believe in it, or have doubts about what it is trying to achieve.

To help with this process, I would recommend that you look for a business which provides a good mix of products, from eBooks (digital books) to software as well as the opportunity for others to buy into the programme.  This will maximise your chances of making a sale to whomever visits your site as some will be looking for information or software, rather than a straight business opportunity.

The business you choose should also have a readily accessible support desk, manned during the working week at the very least.  You should also look for testimonials from others who are using the system to judge how successful you think it might be.  Forums can be useful but you should be aware that some of the posts are coloured by the individual’s approach, as much as the subject they write about.  For example, someone who gets into a business which doesn’t meet their expectations but did not follow the guidance and advice they were given, or the proven methods of working it, will post an ‘avoid at all costs’ message, but won’t tell you why they failed.

Don’t Do It Your Way!


Once you have settled on a package, pay your money and take action.  The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary!  Read all the information you are given and follow the step-by-step information which should be provided, and take full advantage of any mentoring which is available.  If you do all of this, although nothing can ever be guaranteed, your chances of succeeding will be vastly better than if you try to reinvent the wheel.  Frank Sinatra may have built massive success ‘doing it his way’ but you are unlikely to have the same results until you have built up some experience and credibility.