1. How Passionate and Interested Are You?

Spend some time honestly contemplating your actual interest in the potential business idea. Just because it’s a good idea doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for you. In order for any business to be successful long term you want to be able to be interested and passionate about the topic for years to come. So is this new business idea something you could be excited about ten years from now? If so, it deserves further examination.

2. Is There a Legitimate Demand for Your New Idea?

How much demand actually exists for your new business idea? Use keyword tools to begin your research. If it seems like there is potential, consider also using a flycatcher page to evaluate demand. Create a quick product or publish a quiz to evaluate demand for your idea and to learn more about your potential audience.

3. Who Is Your Competition?

Once you’ve established demand, consider your competition. Again, use those keyword research tools to first determine how much competition is present. Then use keyword searching and competitive analysis tools to evaluate who your competition is and how well they’re doing. You may have a lot of competition, but if you can differentiate yourself then it may still be a good idea.

4. Time versus Money

Next, if the idea still has merit then it’s time to consider the time versus money equation. How long will it take you to reach your financial goals? If there is a lot of competition then it can take some time to reach your goals. Also, how much money will it take you to start and grow this business? Is this money you have on hand or will you need to find a way to raise the funds? Consider your budget.

5. Is It Realistic?

Finally, is this business complimentary to any business you already own? For example, if you own a service-based business then an information marketing business in the same industry might make sense. If the business is an entirely new endeavor then it might not realistically fit into your lifestyle. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a business idea to pursue. It is simply something to weigh when you’re evaluating the idea.

You’re an entrepreneur. You’re bound to have a lot of business ideas. Some of them will be gone ones. Some not so much. Use this five-step process to determine whether it is the right new business idea for you.

Here’s how to set up a Google AdWords Campaign

Step #1 – Sign up for an account. It’s free. Visit adwords.google.com/ and sign up. If you already have a Gmail account, analytics account or other account, you can simply log onto your account, visit “Advertising Programs” or “Business solutions” and follow the links.

Step #2 – Research your keywords. You may already be familiar with the Google AdWords keyword tool. If not, you can find it here adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. You’re looking for keywords that represent your product or service.

You also ideally want the keywords to have low supply and high demand. That will help your campaign be successful. The more supply there is for a keyword, the more expensive it will be for you to garner a first page position. Additionally, you want a lot of demand for your keywords so you reach plenty of eyeballs.

Step #3 – Click “create your first campaign”. You’ll be prompted to enter a campaign name. Choose a name that helps you stay organized. This is particularly important if you have multiple businesses, multiple offers and/or will be creating multiple campaigns.

Step #4 – You’ll also be prompted to choose your campaign settings at this time. These will be things like language, location, your daily budget and so on. Pay attention to these settings but if you’re unsure, that’s okay. You can go back and change them at any time. One that you may change often is your daily budget.

Step #5 – Once you’ve chosen your keywords simply click on the keywords tab on your AdWords account and campaign screen. Begin adding your keywords. You’ll also notice a negative keywords space. Negative keywords are keywords you don’t want your ad to show up for.

For example, if you have the keywords, “dog trick training,” and your negative keyword is “video” then anyone entering dog trick training video won’t see your advertisement.

Step #6 – You’ll then be prompted to add your text including your headline which is allowed 25 characters, your two body copy lines each getting 35 characters and your URL. It’s recommended to split test your advertisements to get the best results and return on your investment. You can test any aspect of your ad including your headline, your URL and your offer.

Step #7 – Stay on top of your PPC campaign results. Track your CTR and your daily budget. Make sure they’re lined up with your goals!

Pay Per Click campaigns can be extremely effective for driving both sales and traffic. However, a strategy and a plan to follow up is always advised. Start slowly, track results and repeat your success.

You don’t want to fail. You want to succeed. When you know why entrepreneurs fail, you can properly prepare for success. Here are the top reasons why entrepreneurs fail.

1. Lack of research – It’s vitally important to make sure there’s a market for your business before you launch. You have to research both demand and supply. Who is providing the same products or service? What problem are you solving for people? Who are your prospects?The research phase of launching a business is one of the most critical. Without proper research into supply and demand, you’re not going to be able to position your business successfully. Very few businesses succeed without solid initial research.If you’re unsure how to research your business idea, talk to an expert. Get help. Speak to other entrepreneurs you trust. You don’t have to share your idea with others, but rather learn how to research your idea.
2. They don’t understand their market – This also relates to research but it’s a different kind of research. Before you launch your business, it’s vital that you know exactly who you’re marketing to. Why? Because you need to position your product or service to meet their needs. If you don’t understand their needs, you may miss out on profits.
3. They don’t understand cash flow – Cash flow is essential to survival. Actually, poor cash management is perhaps the most common reason for business failure. Entrepreneurs must create a budget. They have to be realistic about how much they expect to earn. And they must have a tight rein on their expenses. In order to pay the bills, you need to have cash coming in on a regular basis. Cash flow is essential to survival.
4. An inability to market – Not everyone is a marketing genius. It’s important to realize that marketing is essential to success. If you don’t have a solid marketing plan, your business will not thrive. In business, the old “if you build it they will come” mentality just doesn’t work. If you don’t like or understand marketing, then hire someone who does.
5. No business plan – Many people believe that a business plan is only necessary if you’re seeking funding. This is not true. In order to achieve your goals, it’s important to plan how you’re going to succeed. Your business plan is your road map to success. Don’t skip this important step.

Take heart and think positively. While one in five businesses fail, the others succeed. Research, plan, and understand your market. Commit to marketing and manage your accounts with solid accounting and cash flow management. You’re destined for success!

One advertising medium that it is very easy to overlook though is the advertising program run by Facebook. Advertising on Facebook gives companies the ability to target their advertising efforts with laser accuracy while staying within almost any budget.

While Facebook does offer larger, more expensive campaigns for companies willing to shell out the kind of big bucks necessary for a large campaign with such a popular site, in this article we’ll focus on the benefits of using Facebook’s user ad publishing system, which any Facebook user can utilize.

The types of ads produced by Facebook’s user ad manager are the ones you’ll see on the far right hand side of the page while you’re surfing Facebook profiles. They are simple box ads with a title/link, a short description and an optional image.

Targeting:

The real attraction with Facebook ads is the ability for the user to target their ads with exceptional precision. Facebook ads can be targeted using the following parameters.

Geographic: When creating a Facebook ad, you begin by targeting geographically by country, state/province or city, depending on how narrow you want your geographical focus to be.

Age and Sex: You can specify your audience to be male, female or both, within any age range between 13 to 65. If you want your ad to show only to 23 year old men, then your ads won’t be shown to anyone outside of that demographic.

Keywords: This optional field will narrow your audience based on trigger words that occur in their Facebook profiles. Using a lot of keywords will generally drastically narrow your audience.

Education: You can choose to target by education with options including college grad, in college and in high school. If you select a single option, you can further narrow your targeting down to specific schools and even specific majors.

Workplaces: While Facebook is populated mostly by students, many workplaces have their own Facebook groups where employees chat and post information. You can use this field to target specific workplaces.

Relationship Status and Sexual Orientation: Finally, you can target your audience using relationship status (single, in a relationship, engaged, married) and sexual orientation (interested in men or interested in women).

After choosing all of the targeting factors for your ad, the Facebook ad manager will display the approximate number of users your that make up your targeted group. For instance, targeting people in the United States of all ages and all sexes, with no limiting factors chosen gives an approximate audience size of just over 42 million people. Meanwhile, choosing to target single men between the ages of 18 and 25 in Providence, Rhode Island yields an approximate audience size of 12,480 people.

Payment:

When putting up a Facebook ad, you have a couple of options as to how you want to pay for your message to be distributed among your target audience. The first option is Pay Per Click or PPC for short. This is the same system as most Google Adwords users will be familiar with, in which you bid a certain price that is the maximum you’re willing to pay for someone to click on your link and come to your site, and you’re charged a certain price at or below that bid (depending on competition) every time your ad is clicked through. This model works very well for campaigns in which your goal is to bring traffic to your website or landing page. The real benefit is that you only pay when a viewer takes action by clicking on your ad.

The second option is the CPM option, in which you pay not for clicks, but for views. In this option you set a bid that is the highest price you are willing to spend for your ad to be viewed 1000 times. A view constitutes any time your ad is shown on a users screen and 1000 views normally goes by very quickly! This model works very well for ads that have been proven to have exceptionally high click through rates. If you know that your ad will receive a lot of clicks, choosing the PPC model could end up costing an arm and a leg, whereas choosing the CPM model may cost you significantly less.

Optimization:

Writing Facebook ads optimally is generally the same as writing most other small format ads for the internet, which is covered in other posts and as such will not be discussed in detail here. However, one unique aspect of Facebook ads in relation to many other ad services is the ability to include a picture with your ad. This is an often overlooked, but extremely valuable option. When making facebook ads, always opt to put in an image. The better the image matches your ad, the better it will do, but overall, leaving an image out is normally a good way to make sure your ad doesn’t get noticed.