Steve Mills - Online Entrepreuership with the SPOKE system

Online Business is more than just blogs

Just a quick post today to make sure that everyone knows that I am still around and kicking. I have had a busy last month, consolidating a couple of exciting new opportunities that have presented themselves, and getting my teeth into some challenging new internet marketing campaigns.

I just wanted to put the idea out there today to all of the bloggers out there that are wondering how to make money online with their blogs. The short answer is that you have a very small chance of making a decent income with just your blog alone. A blog that just has posts, a few adsense ads and some affiliate programs (like this one is at the moment) may turn some dollars, but not enough to get the bank manager excited every time you walk in.

You should not be considering yourself just a blogger, but taking the next step, treating this area seriously and start thinking about starting an online BUSINESS. Sure, a blog may be an integral part to it, but at the end of the day you need to know how to attract peoples attention and move some kind of product. The internet is full of bad information about “How To Make Money Online”, in fact there seems to be more of this around today then ever before. But in-between all of this there are some sound strategies of people that have gone before and made Sustainable Online Enterprises.

Like the byline of this site says, I am all about helping people become Sustainable Personal (as in personally branded) Online Connected Entrepreneurs. Its a simple phrase, a small acronym that can be easily remembered and applied to everything you do online. It is a system that outlines how to gain traffic, and then monetize that traffic so that your audience becomes your customers, and yes, even your fans in the year to come.

By utilizing the wide variety of ways to promote your business, develop content and target customers the SPOKE system deals with social media, google adwords, SEO strategy, blog optimization, marketing and advertising theory, personal branding and sound business knowledge to provide a comprehensive system to at the very least give a good online business idea a head start.

Sustainable Personal Online Connected Entrepreneur

So Steve you may be thinking, what is this Spoke system you keep talking about here? SPOKE is a system that I have been developing over the last two years to give people a systematic approach to becoming an online entrepreneur. It takes the best of social media theory, internet marketing secrets and online business strategy and combines them into a mindset that can guide you towards success online.

SPOKE is an acronym with two meanings. The letters stand for Sustainable Personal Online Connected Entrepreneur.

Sustainable

Everyone wants an internet business with longevity, one that will continue to pay off long after the initial hours of developing and setting up an online marketing system. I personally can not see the point of setting up a business that will be obsolete or struggling to find customers In three months time. Online businesspeople that follow the SPOKE system will be building long term digital assets, businesses online that will continue to provide revenue for years to come. This is not just about landing pages and Adsense, SPOKE shows you how to productise your knowledge, keep customers coming back and retain customers for longer by developing a sales funnel.

Personal

In this modern world, the main thing that separates you from the next business person online is YOU, your unique personality. SPOKE is all about you building your personal brand, and allowing your unique voice to shine through and be the thing that keeps people coming back to your online assets. It is about finding an online business model that allows all of your personality to express itself, and there is a definite emphasis on having fun. By building a personal brand, you make it easier for customers to find you as you begin to roll out your Internet Marketing Empire, and also raising your profile greatly increases your chances of connecting with other SPOKES of already successful online businesspeople.

Online

SPOKE recognises the immense advantages in becoming an online entrepreneur rather then setting up a traditional “bricks and mortar” style business. With low overheads, very small barriers to entry and new tools and software being released every day, there really has been no better time to start an internet business.  The SPOKE system shows you how use these online tools to their maximum efficiency to save hours each day, market your products more effectively and gather intelligence on the competition quickly and easily.

Connected

The SPOKE system recognises the power of social media to drive targeted traffic to your online business. It is my aim with this blog and the associated tools and books that you will get to understand and develop a social media marketing strategy that is easy to set up, but most importantly easy to maintain.
SPOKE is also about connecting to other entrepreneurs and offering products and services that combine your skills, knowledge and customer base to the mutual benefit of both partiers. SPOKE is also about connecting with outsourced providers so that you a free to grow your business and plan for its future expansion.

Entrepreneur

The aim of SPOKE is the development of  an Entrepreneurial business for yourself, one that has an end goal of removing you from the day to day running of the business, and allows you to choose the hours and place where you work. By developing an entrepreneur’s mindset you will learn to see opportunities as they arise and continue on your path to online business success.

The second meaning of the SPOKE acronym is that it refers to the Spokes of a wheel.
Each business can be thought of as a HUB, and it can be connected to other SPOKE business by coming to an arrangement to provide products and services to each other.

Your SPOKE business might be to develop website templates, and you might develop a relationship with another SPOKE business that sells website hosting packages. By complimenting each others services in a mutually beneficial arrangement you automatically increase your base of potential customers and sales.

So That is SPOKE in a very broad stokes and abstract nutshell. If you are interested in more information please subscribe via RSS, or sign up for my email newsletter to get hot tasty tips served straight to your inbox.