WHAT IS THE EXIT STRATEGY FOR YOUR WEB BUSINESS?

Author: David Bain
You need to decide on your Internet business future if you haven't done so already. You're likely to be considering four options:

1) Keep on growing the business as a sole operator and live off the profits

There are already thousands upon thousands of people who have started an Internet business by themselves, have developed an excellent online income, and have no employees. Take Markus Frind for example who started the free dating site PlentyOfFish.com in 2003 and now earns $10,000 US a day with very little overhead and no employees. Also, Michael Cheney - author of the Website Marketing Bible - made $250,000 in one week from the sale of his 'Adsense Videos'. Is it really worth the hassle of employing people?!

2) Start employing people with an aim to own a bigger and better business

Although it may not be as easy as it was in 1999 to get your hands on some venture capital, if you can start an online business and prove that the business model works, you still have a good chance. Make sure that it's not for vanity's sake though. Meetings with potential investors can take your eye off the ball. Anyway, is it not possible to build your business further without any additional investment?

3) Start employing people and growing the business with an aim towards IPO

An Initial Public Offering (IPO) happens if you choose to launch your business as a public company. If your goal is world domination, this one's for you. Bear in mind, though, that it's common for investors to stipulate that a more experienced management team is necessary to excite the marketplace. Shares belonging to a public company can be freely traded.

4) Sell the business as soon as possible

For many people, their goal is to be bought out by a larger competitor. If you have a tight grip on a particular regional market, niche industry or market segment, then you're making it a worthwhile proposition for a larger company to buy you out. In their view, it may be a lot more beneficial for them to buy your customer base and goodwill instead of starting afresh. If you want to sell out, you need to consider what your unique selling point is as well as subtly making potential purchasers aware of what you have to offer.

About the author

David Bain is founder of the independent business articles resource, www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz. BuildYourOwnBusiness offers the latest business news & management advice on how best to build your own business - business articles on Strategy, eBusiness, Change Management & much, much more.

WEBSITE VISITOR STATISTICS - WHAT INFORMATION DO YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR SITE?

Author: David Bain
You need to keep on top of who is referring your visitors to you, what kind of technical capabilities their computers have, where your visitors are form, how long your visitors are staying with you, which pages your visitors are viewing, whether or not conversion goals are being reached.

1) Find out who is referring visitors to you

These referrals generally fall into three categories: paid advertising, search engine traffic and natural linking. If you rely too heavily on paid advertising then you need to aim to increase the other two areas. If you rely too heavily on one search engine, and especially one search which only refers your visitors to your home page, then you need to encourage deeper linking as well as researching the reasons why you are only listed with the one search engine.

2) Find out what kind of technical capabilities your users' computers have

You need to make sure that the majority of your audience can view your website in the manner that you intend them to see it. If your website is tailored towards an end user with too high a 'computer spec', then you must consider how your website will load and view with a lower screen resolution, older browser, different browser and low-speed connection. Likeways, if your website is too basic, then it may turn off too many people - people who prefer a flashy, 'more professional' website. It's up to you to ensure that you strike a balance and appeal to as many people in your chosen market segment as possible.

3) Find out where your visitors come from

What's the point in tailoring your product or service offering towards Canadians if all your visitors come from the USA? You need to analyse on a regular basis whether or not your visitors have the potential to make you any money. If not, you need to do two things. This first is, be a lot more proactive with local and category specific marketing. Appear in more directories and discussions relevant you your industry. The second thing is to ask yourself the question, 'How can I use these visitors to my advantage?' Take time to think about how you could sell any products or services to these people. The least that you could do is collect their personal preferences and contact details with a view to forming a strategic alliance with another company, and making use of the information in the future.

4) Compare your statistics with your competition

Take time to review how your competitors have amended their own website over time, and view how changes in strategy impacted on their volume of visitors. Archive.org shows you how many websites used to look like. Use Alexa.com to compare the timescale of design changes with peaks and troughs of their site visitors.

5) Set conversion goals and review their performance

It's so important to make sure that you've got the basics right. Are visitors being turned off for some reason by your home page? You don't want to be succeeding in all the hard work of delivering the right type of visitor to your website and then fail to take advantage of it when they arrive. Make sure that you take the time to study articles on conversion rates. Test different types and designs of forms. Ask your own customers for their feedback. Do whatever it takes to optimize the results of your marketing efforts.

About the Author

David Bain is founder of the independent business articles resource, www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz. BuildYourOwnBusiness offers the latest business news & management advice on how best to build your own business - business articles on Strategy, eBusiness, Change Management & much, much more.