Entrepreneurial Laboratory - Market Testing Prior To Investing
by Riki Trafford
http://www.1dmom.com

During the last decade, the Internet has transformed into an "entrepreneur's lab". Remarkably in 1993, the Internet "point & click" Internet browser called Mosaic by Marc Andresen debuted to a receptive world. Consequently, a workable Internet for everyone was born! You didn't have to study odd programming languages prior to using a computer. All you now required was the ability to wiggle your fingers and to identify tiny images on a screen in order for your computer to accomplish tasks and to communicate with lots of people.

From the time when the Internet first appeared, it contained a galaxy of stuff covering a mind-boggling range of topics. The Internet quickly became an alternative for audio systems, VCR, telephone, and in some situations, television.

But for the entrepreneur, its most compelling, and potentially life-changing role is as an almost instantaneous, very low cost medium for direct mail advertising.

I'm not referring to corporate-style advertising seen on TV that aims to win design awards and build brand image. I am referring to advertising that calls you to do something, in contrast to TV ads that leave you gently smiling and asking "What was that all about?" This call might entail signing up for further information, downloading an e-book, phoning a customer center, or even supplying your credit card in order to request goods & services online!

Magazine advertisements commonly cost hundreds or up to thousands of dollars to set up. Then, the business has to wait weeks or months before getting back responses. In contrast, the Internet Entrepreneur can set up a small ad for a little more than tens of dollars or up to a couple hundred dollars and have the first visitor to his website within minutes! Measuring the performance of an ad in this manner is remarkable considering it takes only a few hours. You will automatically know which campaign is profitable and you're leaving behind risky ways of advertising that can cost a fortune.

Is this opportunity just what your business is ready for? Will your current business increase revenue upon adding a new online sales process? Or is it a new online business venture you're ready to launch?

If you take into consideration how much of the payment, ordering and fulfillment processes can be automated - along with many aspects of the sales process too - then this incredible technological medium contains tremendous commercial power.

Even though stepping across this frontier requires a range of skills - such as direct marketing, copy writing, and computer literacy - only two fundamental actions are called for:

1. You must attract the right visitors to your site. 2. Then, you must persuade these visitors to execute the desired actions.

Sound simple? In principal, yes, except in practice, several important questions along the way must be answered:
- Who are your "right visitors"?
- Where do you find them?
- How do you lead them to your website?
- Is your market large enough?
- Plus, what do you ask and offer your visitors when they arrive?
- Can you count on a percentage of visitors to respond?
- Can you increase these odds?

To assist clients step up the growth of their business, the Direct MO Marketing website at http://www.1dmom.com implements effective and simple solutions for ambitious online Entrepreneurs who desire attracting the right sort of visitors to their online business.

Copyright 2005 Riki Trafford. All rights reserved.
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Riki Trafford is the owner of Direct MO Marketing which offers low cost keyword-targeted web traffic. For comments and questions visit his web site: http://www.1dmom.com/
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