Thought Leader Thursday – Donna Fontenot, DazzlinDonna.com

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group | April 16th, 2009

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with us today Donna. I think a lot of people have run across you at some point on one of the many forums or blogs that you routinely contribute to, but I think you’re probably best known for your DazzlinDonna blog, where you offer a wealth of information for people looking to start making money online. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started with online business?

I went through my own economic downturn quite a few years ago when the job situation all but disappeared in my area. I’d been laid off from yet another job, and I’d grown tired of working for companies that always seemed to fail no matter what size they were. At that point, I decided I’d rather try working for myself. At least then I’d know if a failure was coming ’round the corner or not! Since I’d been working as a ColdFusion programmer for a few years, I decided to sell a few ColdFusion scripts online. It seemed like a good idea, and it probably would have been, if I’d only known how to run an online business back then. I did sell a few each month, but I struggled for far too long, because I didn’t have enough experience yet.

New entrepreneurs seem to have a lot of misconceptions about starting a business, especially one that exists strictly online. In your experience, what are some of the most common, and what impact do they usually have?

There are many lessons to be learned when venturing into an online business. If you’ve never tried it before, you tend to believe any and all of the hype that gets thrown your way. So the first misconception is that online is no different than offline. In fact, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is – especially in the online world! The second misconception is that you’ll start rolling in the big money right away. While that is possible, it’s about as likely as it is that you’ll win the lottery. Possible, but not likely. What these two misconceptions really boil down to is that people tend to think that running an online business is somehow going to be a magical adventure that requires little to no work. That just isn’t true. An online business, just like an offline business, requires hard work, and it will take time for it to generate a decent income. Sure, you might get lucky and create one of those magical, crazy, “next big things” right away, but in most cases, it will take a bit of work to get it there. As long as you are prepared to work hard and be patient, you can succeed at just about anything.

We’ve seen a lot of businesses come and go, and many people seem to make the same mistakes. What pitfalls do you see people run into most often, and how can they prepare for them?

Actually, mistakes are a wonderful thing. The biggest pitfall people tend to make is to give up when they make a few mistakes. The key of course is to learn from those mistakes and do something different or better the next time around. I’ve personally had a lot of sites that didn’t live up to my hopes for them. Nearly every failure was a result of some mistakes I made, but each of those mistakes added another layer of knowledge that would serve me well for a future site.

You’ve been writing a lot about personal branding lately. I think most people underestimate the importance that it has on the success of their business. When someone is trying to develop their own personal brand, what are some approaches that you reccomend they take to differentiate themselves from their competition?

The easiest way to differentiate yourself is to be yourself. Each of us has our own quirks that help make us who we are. As long as those quirks aren’t outside the boundaries of good taste or professionalism, let them show! Embrace the odd details of your own personality, polish the rough edges a bit, if necessary, and then inject those oddities into your brand. People sometimes think I go a little crazy with purple, and maybe they’re right, but those who have heard of me now associate me with that color. As long as your quirks can help people remember you in a non-negative way, you’ve made an impression with your personal brand.

When differentiating yourself, you need to carefully consider what you want to be known for. Once you make that decision, consistently project that image. People won’t remember something you say once, but if you repeat it consistently, or live up to a particular image consistently, you will eventually be associated with that image. Although people may connect purple to me, that’s not what my personal brand is all about.
It is a quirk that helps cement me in people’s minds, but it’s not my brand; it’s not who I am. Use your quirks to cement your personality, but craft your brand around your larger goal.

There are a lot of ways to generate exposure online, but if someone doesn’t know what they’re doing, they can quickly waste a lot of money. When someone starts their first online business, what can they do to ensure they get the most from their budget?

This question is a little difficult to answer because there are so many variables involved. Generally, though, I recommend utilizing free, open source materials (information, designs, scripts, programs, operating systems, etc.) as much as possible. If you find something you need or like and it costs money, first check to see if there is something comparable that is free and open source. If so, use it. If you absolutely must spend money to get the quality you need, that’s perfectly ok. Just make sure it’s necessary first. Sometimes, spending money is the only way to get real quality, but it should be spent only when necessary. When you do throw cash around, try to only use it on a product or service that has been recommended by someone you trust.

Finally, after you spend the money, check the return on your investment.

If it was worth it, and can be repeated, do it again and again – as long as it remains profitable. If it was a waste, drop it quickly and don’t throw more money down the drain. Count that as a mistake and a lesson learned.

If the budget is going to involve learning or coaching, I recommend hanging around some of the bigger forums in their niche for a while.
Get to know the people who are the most knowledgeable and the most helpful there. Once you feel comfortable with them, and know who you’d trust to give good advice, you can either hire one of them, or ask them for a referral.

And speaking of hanging out at forums, that’s also a great way to make connections that may be useful later on. At some point, you may find that you can trade services with the people you’ve made connections with, and that can be a fabulous way to stay within your budget.

You’ve created a lot of resources for people to help guide them through starting an online business. What are some of your top picks and what benefits will they provide to people who invest in them?

There’s no perfect “one size fits all” solution for everyone, but there are some general resources that are good for most situations. Of course, I recommend my own ebusiness coaching service  for anyone wanting to transition into making a living from their online business. By hiring me as an outside objective observer, you get feedback, suggestions, motivation, and guidance to help you create a plan of action that’s tailored specifically for your business. Depending upon your goals, I can then make suggestions and recommendations for resources that would work best for your individual situation.

For a more generic approach, I suggest taking a look at the Beginner and Comprehensive Guides to SEO, Link Building, PPC, Social Media, Affiliate Marketing and Blogging post that I wrote a while back. Although not every section is necessarily relevant to every person, you can pick and choose the topics that you need help with the most. Since there are a million ebooks and guides for nearly every topic, I condensed it all down to a list of my favorites to make the selection process much easier for everyone.

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