5. I would have researched market better before developing a very time-consuming product. I would have posted questions on related forums, created a mini-product, and located my major competitors first.

If I had done my homework before creating my 1st product, I would have realized that I needed to target it better. In other words, I would have focused on a specific niche of customers to market it with more success. Product that is too generic is hard to create an ad copy for, find good places to advertise, come up with good keywords for Search Engines and discover common characteristics in your customers.

************ Even though I have made a lot of mistakes in launching my e-business, there are some things that I would have still done same: ************

1. I would have still created my free book, which was actually a smaller version of my 1st product. There are a lot of web sites and directories which collect free e-books (or link to authors' pages) and bring a lot of quality traffic.

If free book is of high quality, it also spreads a good word about you as an author. Amazingly powerful viral marketing tool, and I found it to be excellent for building my mailing list.

2. Regardless of controversy about reprint rights, I would have still offered resell rights to my products. It helped me generate quick cash and allowed me to acquire things my business really needed: advertising, software, and supplies. Somehow, until you start making money with your business, you are very hesitant to spend any. Reprint rights gave me resources I needed to take my business to next, more professional level.

But since there are many loopholes in reprint rights business, I will think twice now before doing it again with my future products.

3. The fact that I chose to write about what I already know saved me a lot of time and embarrassment. It is always better to focus your business on what you are already an expert on, or something that you really want to get into and are willing to invest time learning.

4. I would have definitely hired a professional graphic artist again to design my book covers! What a blessing... You see a cheesy e-book cover and you think, they want me to buy this piece of trash? Regardless of book quality, people are bound to judge it by its cover :-)

5. My own domain name (actually 4 of them) was a really smart decision. A memorable and a unique name makes you look more professional, serious about your business, and Search Engines will love you! And, yes - Search Engines. I wouldn't spend my life on optimizing my web site for every Search Engine and directory, but I would definitely devote some time to choosing right keywords and submitting once a month. Just so they know you exist.

There is a lot more to discover and much more knowledge to gain. Learn from your mistakes and don't repeat them next year.

It's a proven fact that most people will not buy from you on their first contact. There are no exceptions to this rule. A prospective customer must have exposure to your business an average of 5 - 8 times (depending on your products and services) before they will even contact you.

The world of professional selling tells us that most sales closes take place on 7th contact.

What does this tell you?

If you work so hard at getting new people to your business front, but then not getting them to come back - you're building for failure.

Don't do it!

Stop right now and look at your sales systems. Do they make allowances for automatic or semi-automatic follow up? Do you offer Autoresponders from your website? Do you have an offline sales letter follow up plan. Do you use contact management software so that you don't loose track of potential customers?

Why do you think Pro's in your industry are top income earners? Think about that. They keep in touch with people.

3. Get them to refer their friends, family and associates.

This is cream of crop.

When you set out in your business, you must focus 80% of your time on getting new contacts. As your business develops, you must then change that focus to 80% gaining referrals.

Referrals are sweetest prospective customers of all. They are already pre-qualified. They already want what you have to offer.

And you don't have to spend a cent getting them!

If your business is online, you can do this with a simple, click and refer a friend script. If you're not on web, you can do this by using a business card referral system.

But even more - are you ready for kicker?

You must ASK people for their referrals!

When you've got a great product and a great service, it fantastic. But there is really no point in working really hard to get a brand new fresh customer at great expense when all you have to do is ASK your existing customers for a few referrals.

Don't be shy. You ask, and most of them will happily give.

It's that easy. Easy to do, easy not to do.

Can you see pattern developing here, difference between success and failure, those that do and those that don't?

All these things are easy to do. They are, really. But most people opt for easier choice - not to do.

The choice is yours. Build your business for success in 2002 with qualified customer flow and you will reap rewards.

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