Mining For Gold In Your Home Business
By Ron Taylor

Back in 1848 the employee’s of Sutter’s Mill discovered gold in the rivers and hills around what is now Sacramento, California. Unable to contain their excitement, they ran to San Francisco and shouted to the rooftops, “There’s gold in them thar hills.”

Virtually overnight gold fever spread like wildfire around the globe. Thousands poured into California to strike it rich. And amazingly, many did.

Today we are experiencing the gold rush of our generation in the form of Internet marketing and home business opportunities. The time has never been better to enter the market and stake your claim to a piece of the action. However, just like the gold fields, the marketplace can be a dangerous place unless you are guided by a few basic rules.

Over the past few years I have learned that following a few basic rules can dramatically increase the probability of achieving success. If you own a small business, or market products on the Internet, applying these simple rules can have customers flocking to your business, just as the prospectors headed for the hills in the California Gold Rush.

Rule #1 Identify Your Niche

The first rule the gold miners learned was that they had to know what they were looking for and where to find it. In modern day terms, this equates to identifying a niche market and understanding how to approach or access that market. A gold miner does not waste his time searching for gold in a salt mine, and you should not waste your time and money searching for wholesale meat customers in a room full of vegetarians.  Identifying your niche market makes sense, but we tend to violate this basic rule of marketing everyday.

Rule #2 Track Your Ad Campaigns

The gold miners recognized a second rule to mining success that you can use in your daily business. The act of prospecting means “looking” for good places to stake a claim. A gold miner would scour the mountains using a gold pan to test the richness of his “paydirt.”  In marketing terms, prospecting means tracking your ads and promotions in order to measure their response rates and customer conversions. A miner would not waste his time digging for gold in an area that had a low payout, and likewise, you should not run ad campaigns in mediums with low customer conversions.

Rule #3 Commit Yourself To Doing The Hard Work

Perhaps the most important rule a miner learned was that gold settles to bedrock, and can only be found by digging through tons of dirt and debris. The lesson we can take from this analogy is that success in any home business or Internet marketing campaign will take work. Sure, the first prospectors found nuggets lying on the ground, just as the Internet pioneers capitalized from the dot com craze. But sadly, we live in a different world today.  To find success toady, you will have to dig through a mountain of trash to find your pot of gold.

Despite the hardships, prospectors flocked to the gold fields by the thousands, and many struck it rich. You can find paydirt in your home business if you will identify your market niche, track and test your ad campaigns, and commit yourself to the hard work necessary to reach the bedrock.

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Ron Taylor mentors home business entrepreneurs who are serious about building a profitable home business. You can join his team by visiting http://www.5grandmonthly.com.