Online business can at times seem complicated however the main principles are actually very simple and consist of just three things.

Three simple things

• The offer – something of value
• Conversion – influencing action
• Traffic – people

The offer is usually a product or service that provides something of value to a person willing to pay for it. Conversion is the ability to influence a person into taking a desired action like buying the offer. Traffic is simply people visiting your online business so they can see the offer.

Let’s illustrate this with an example.

Business example – learning French

Source: dilbert.com

Let’s imagine our friend Bob wants to learn basic French because he is planning on holidaying somewhere that speaks it, this is what Bob might do.

Bob goes to Google and types ‘learn french’ to see what his options are and discovers he can learn French by various methods – online courses, local tutors, afterschool classes, mobile apps, textbooks and more.

Bob has just discovered a range of OFFERS.

Bob visits each website to learn more. Bob has now become TRAFFIC for each business from Google.

Each website has information about their offer which attempts to influence Bob to CONVERT and become a customer.

The offer that Bob ends up buying will be the one he feels he gets the most value from.

Value isn’t necessarily the lowest price, it is whatever is deemed to be important which may also be quality, convenience or reputation.

By remembering these three simple things, you’ll soon realise that everything else in online business is just an activity that helps support an offer, conversion or traffic. It really is as basic as that.