Ever Thought of Starting An Online Business?

Something has been plaguing me these past few months.  Todd and I have been learning so much about growing our business, internet marketing, generating sales and more important, trust with our customers.  We have been attending seminars – in person, over the web and on the phone.  We have put into practice many of the business tips that we have learned and have tripled our business income in just 3 months.  I am not writing this to boast, but rather I say it with utter amazement.  The marketing tips we have put into practice have cost us little or no money and have produced incredible returns.  And what has been plaguing me is this… so many people would love to do what we are doing (work from home, spend more time with family, enjoy greater ministry involvement, etc.) and I just can’t keep this information to myself.  I want to share it with you.

That’s right, a home business can free you up to pursue ministry – the Lord’s calling on your life. 

Will every online business succeed?  No, certainly not, but with the tools that are available to you now, you can follow in the footsteps of successful entrepreneurs who have gone before you, learn from their mistakes and successes.  This will give you a much better chance for success.  There is a lot of worldly advice out there on starting your own online business, but not a lot of training from a Christian perspective.  There are also a lot of scams out there to steer you wrong.  Well, we considered putting together our own course on how to start your online business on the right foot, until we heard that it has already been done for you.

"How to Start Your Own Business...For Families and Teens!" Workshop on DVD has just been made available this month and we want you to be some of the first to be able to glean this wonderful information and incorporate it into your brand new family business.  Give your teenager or yourself a headstart in business. 

Here are some of the features of this product, along with some of the benefits you will gain upon completion:

1. It is a very unique product. I am unaware of any other video course that teaches families how to start their own business from a biblical perspective.

2. The author of this video has had his own businesses for the last 20 years. He did not just read some books on business and decide to make a video about what he had just read. Consequently, the video has many, many practical examples and business "war stories".

3. The last hour of the video is devoted to teaching families to profit from the internet. This gives families a portable business they can take anywhere in the world with little capital investment and huge potential returns.

4. Students who follow the instructions in this course will come away with at least 15 potential business ideas and a working business plan and marketing plan for at least one of those business ideas.

Learn from this DVD course and then tell us what you think.  We will be starting our own newsletter based on business tips we have learned and put into practice.  If you would like to get weekly tips for starting and running your own family business, subscribe to the Knowledge Quest, Inc. business tips newsletter below.  This is a completely separate newsletter from our educational one that we send out monthly, so be sure to sign up if you are interested.

KQ BUSINESS TIPS NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP

We look forward to sharing our knowledge with you.  We are truly just one small step ahead.  You could be just a few weeks away from profiting from your own online business.  We’ll be sharing with you how to choose a product, set up a website, write a sales letter, market your product(s) online, start joint ventures, get affiliate commissions, set up your own affiliate program, and much more.  Stay tuned and enter the information above to sign up for this weekly newsletter. 

Here is Tip #1.  Brainstorm for potential products you could sell.  You do not have to be creative and come up with your own product.  You can just find someone else’s great product and help them sell it.  This can be done a couple of different ways (which we will talk about in the upcoming weeks).  First of all, identify a subject that you find fascinating (if you can’t generate enthusiasm for your product then it is not a good product for you to sell).  Let’s say that you love old fashioned box camera photography.  Next, you need to find out if anyone else is interested in this subject.  You would start by searching on Overture’s Keyword Selector Tool at http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ for photography and then run down the list for a heading that matches the specialty that you are interested in.  This tool tells you how many people searched using these keywords last month.  This is an incredibly powerful and useful tool!  Imagine, you can know ahead of time how many people are interested in your potential product or subject.

Here is a real live example.  We sell historical outline maps.  I plug “outline maps” into the Keyword Selector Tool and I find out that 7,040 people searched for “outline maps” last month.  That is a large enough audience to target.  When I search for “historical maps” I find out that 11,149 people searched for this last month.  This is actually too general of a term for us, however, because our maps are a specific type of historical map.

In the upcoming weeks, I will tell you what to do with some of this information that you find out.  For now, your homework is to find subjects that interest you that a niche market is also interested in.  Aim for keywords that show that at least 5,000 people are interested in your topic, but probably not much more than 20,000 or your topic is too broad and your competition too fierce.  Be sure to direct your energies toward non-mainstream words.  Golf, for example, is a mainstream word (half a million people searched with the word “golf” last month), but “golf shoes” is not (only 20,000 searches).  You would be interested in the number of searches made for golf shoes, not just golf – too broad.

Next week, we will learn how to match your interests up with a great product or two.  You do not have to create this product yourself.  You can joint venture with another company or sell another company’s product through affiliate marketing or a standard wholesale agreement.  We’ll provide links for how to locate these products, walk you through setting up a website (storefront) and dialog about how to drive traffic (potential customers) there.

Our upcoming newsletter topics will include proven techniques tested by those that have gone before you.  You will learn how to develop a great product line, find a niche market, write an e-book, market your products online, set up affiliate marketing, write winning sales copy, develop a customer base, write newsletters and more.  Scroll up to subscribe to the Knowledge Quest, Inc. business tips newsletter.

If starting an online business sounds like something you are interested in, then start to take some steps now.  Set some goals and decide on a business structure.  (We’ll talk more about corporations, LLCs and sole-proprietorships in the weeks ahead)  This is not a get rich quick scheme, but e-commerce is a wave that is still building out at sea.  Get on now and you’ll be able to ride it in.  The internet is where more and more customers are shopping and it is a great home business opportunity.  I will not make you any pie-in-the-sky promises, but I can show you the path that we are walking.  Our internet business is becoming our main income source and it is nice for both Mom and Dad to be able to work from home.  Starting a business is not something you can do for free, but internet businesses have less overhead, do not usually require staff, can be based out of your home and travel with you.  Initial start-up funds can be quite small.  Keep track of your expenses in starting your business - they are deductible (including the DVD course we are recommending to you.)

Sign up above for the KQ Business Tips newsletter for weekly tips for starting your own home based internet business, and purchase the "How to Start Your Own Business...For Families and Teens!" Workshop on DVD that has just been made available to you.  Stephen Beck will not make you any promises either, but he will walk you through the intimidating forest (called business and the internet) and show you easily what he has learned the hard way.

Wishing you the best of success and more time for family and ministry,

Terri Johnson

For more business tips on starting a business, setting up a website, marketing and more, visit our new website at www.kqbusiness.com.

Terri Johnson is the creator of Knowledge Quest maps and timelines.  Her mission for the company is to help make the teaching and learning of history and geography enjoyable for both teacher and students.  She has created and published over 15 map and timeline products.  Her Blackline Maps of World History have been widely recommended in the education community and published in The Story of the World history series by Susan Wise Bauer.  Terri and Knowledge Quest recently won the “Excellence in Education” award granted by The Old Schoolhouse magazine for best geography company of 2003 and 2004.  Terri resides in Gresham, Oregon with her husband Todd and their four children whom she teaches at home.