Relationship Marketing | Build Your Online Business

This is a post I wrote in March 2009, and today my thoughts are running in the same direction, so I thought I'd share it today rather than write another post. The event that has me unsettled is not malfunctioning machines as it was then, but the loss of another young friend in her 30's.

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As I sat in my office this morning and thought about what I wanted to write, I realized that for my thoughts to flow, I would need to take a moment to pray, think and then write. You might wonder what was so special about that?

On my ‘Things to Do List' this post should have been completed by 6:30 a.m. and it's now almost 8:30 a.m. Instead of being able to start writing at 6:15 a.m. I had to deal with issues with my Internet connection and while waiting for that to be resolved, worked on faxes and mail. The flow of thoughts I had were disturbed and it seems that while outwardly calm, negative emotions were creeping in. It was time to pray and ask for God's direction and peace…and I received it. (more…)

For someone new to marketing on the internet it can be like taking a four-year old into a huge specialty candy store.  There is so much to see and so many appealing and delicious type of  candies for that child to choose from that she becomes overwhelmed! Imagine that the parent said, “Remember, you are only allowed to choose one.” A typical reaction in a whiny voice could be, “I don't know which one to choose!”

One of the things I struggled with and am still working on is to avoid clicking on emails with a really good subject line. Sometimes it's nothing new, perhaps an e-book with a catchy title.  I know I've heard the topic before, probably have something similar in a binder on my shelf or on my hard-drive, or may even be in a class on the topic, but natural curiosity impels me to take a look to see someone else's take on a topic.  I may open the document and just scan it.  Five or 10 minutes later I've learned nothing new, but that's five or 10 minutes lost.  That's time I could have spent doing something in and for my business.  One solution I've implemented is to unsubscribe from a number of lists. (more…)

Your mindset is your mental attitude or disposition which affects the way you handle  situations that arise in your business.  Whether you market online on a full-time or part-time basis, you must have the correct mental attitude in order to experience success.  And the key to the correct
attitude is to treat what you’re doing as a  business rather than a hobby.  A hobby is something that you indulge in from time to time when the whim takes you, and you cannot afford to approach your internet marketing business in that way.

It's important for us as entrepreneurs to recognize that if we provide products or services, there are thousands more entrepreneurs providing the same types of products or services, so our mental attitude or disposition is what will determine how we handle a customer inquiry, a customer concern, any type of customer service issue.  Think about this for a moment:  by having an online business your market will be global.  Therefore, it means you could be dealing with persons in different time zones.  Would you be prepared to take a customer call at 2:00 a.m. your time zone?  Have you mentally prepared yourself for such an eventuality?  It would be interesting to hear how other online marketers have handled this situation when they had to take a customer service call at an ‘odd' time.

Keeping a positive mindset or mental attitude will allow you to deal with ‘inconveniences' when you are just getting started, knowing that how you handle these so-called inconveniences is the foundation that could lead to exponential growth in your business.  It seems to take a long time to build a good reputation online, one that allows people to know, like and trust you.  On the other hand that reputation could be lost in a flash if we fail to display a position mental attitude that supports growth in our online business.