The Four Pillars to Online Success

A friend and colleague forwarded an article from a fellow online marketer stating, "…Mega success on the Internet is all about copy alone. Unquestionably, it's also helpful to know about other things like search engine optimization, squeeze pages, twittering, teleseminars, order forms, testimonials, seminars etc. But without powerful copy to fuel the marketing engine you will not even be able to make a living online. Let alone become wealthy."

I agree…well, sort of.

I don’t think to be a success online an entrepreneur needs just copy alone, per se. Before good copy is developed, you need a few other things, which I’ll go into in a moment.

First, I’d like to clarify the difference between content and copy. Content is editorial…beneficial, value-oriented information that helps a consumer in some way, shape or form without a blatant sales pitch. Copy is creative writing…a promotion that is trying to get the consumer to take action (whether it’s to buy a product or give an email address). Great copy is engaging; tells a story; plays on emotion (i.e. greed, fear, vanity) and evokes response.

In my view, great copy undoubtedly will help seal the deal, but before you even start the "deal" you need:
1)a big idea
2)valuable content
3)strong copy
4)powerful multi-channel marketing

You see, there needs to be a foundation to any business model. And for online marketing, there first needs to be a big idea. The aforementioned may seem simplistic, or even outdated...but they truly are the staples to business growth (online and off).

You need to determine what is your idea’s "unique selling proposition" (USP)? What makes it unique from its competitors? Is there currently market demand for it? Is it solving a problem for the consumer in some way?

Once you have content, you can repurpose it into a variety of products for a variety of objectives, such as:
-For SEO (articles, back links)
-For PR (buzz, website traffic)
-For sales and leads (i.e. free whitepapers for lead generation, paid ebooks, DVDs, CDs, member websites, paid newsletters, instructional binders, webinars, teleseminars, conferences)
-and more!

To me, those are the four pillars to online success.

Could you make a go starting an online business without one of the four? Sure, but you wouldn’t be running on all cylinders, and quite frankly, you would leaving money on the table.

In my opinion, anything worthwhile should be worth doing right.