How to Become a Very Successful Online Business Consultant.

If there is one industry in this world that has grown larger than any other in human history and yet at the same time still has room for limitless potential moving forward, it’s online business. Yet despite this, most people who get involved with it will fail and certainly having a consultant who can help them avoid that pitfall is recommended and one who is competent enough to give good advice.

So in this article, I want to cover online business consultants specifically and explain how they can be very successful at piggybacking of businesses who NEED their help.

how to become a successful online business consultant

The money you can make as an online business consultant is huge. Let me share a story…

My eyes opened to the possibility of being an online business consultant many years ago when I was training at a martial arts school and the head owner asked me to have a sit down with him and someone who was pitching their own services to him.

The reason he asked me to participate in that discussion was because he knew that I was a successful online businessman who did work for himself and he wanted to make sure the person pitching his services wasn’t trying to rip him off (spoiler, he was…). Being that I was good friends with the trainer, I agreed and so we sat down to talk.

Right away, as I was hearing this person’s pitch, I immediately filtered out what was nonsense, big talk from the actual substance of the services being pitched, and frankly there was very little the person offering the services could actually do to help the business.

The price however was one of the big points that caught my attention.

At a measly $5,000 a MONTH, the services could be given out to my trainer to help him grow his school. I politely suggested that we given a little bit of time (a few days) to decide, although at the moment I suggested it, I did feel an air of distrust and frustration from the sales person, because I think he knew that his fancy sales abilities weren’t going to work.

And so I sat down with my trainer and basically starting giving him the full explanation of what I took from the sales person’s pitch, that most of what he was offering wasn’t exactly marketing services as much as it was a list of unnecessary services they (the sales guy) was slapping on in order to jack up the price, and that he didn’t need to waste so much on this stuff, when (and this is when I interjected with my own personal suggestions) I could give him a few tips to update his website, his SEO, his marketing efforts and that itself would be enough to not just do everything the sales person claimed he could do, but also get more out of it.

What did I charge my trainer? $0.

And the reason is, I didn’t want to engage in these projects because I had already been busy enough with my own.

However, to charge anything for a simple consultation would be a rip off, and all I did was suggest his website editor make a few changes here and there to their main website, a few updates and links to be placed on their YouTube videos, and before we knew it, the trainer’s website rankings picked up, traffic poured in and new clients began to flood into the school.

As a result, I had forever solidified my trainer’s trust in that what I recommended worked. And moving forward, rumors began to spread through other people inside the school as well as connections about what I did and what I could offer people, and so, I was presented with numerous offers from other potential clients throughout the years.

This is a perfect example of what a successful consultant can be, as well the income potential of what the person can make if…

-They know exactly how to help people looking to grow their online business honestly.

-They can give out advice that leads to that growth.

-That alone will give the consultant enough income potential from just 1 client to live quite comfortably and moving forward, the reputation of that consultant being able to do what he/she does will spill over to other potential clients hearing about it and wanting to hire them.

So how do you personally get started to reach that point eventually?

1) You very clearly need to understand how an online business starts, how it works and how to grow it. In order to do that, you need to understand…

2) SEO, PPC and social media and how these 3 things are critical for any website/business’s growth.

I would say SEO is the most important. The person who you are consulting for will need a website and you will have to explain to them what SEO is and that in short, it’s a form of marketing to have their website get more visitors and that this will help them grow.

In terms of PPC, this is also an important factor in growth and you will need to explain to them how to set up ads, how the model of PPC works and that you can help them pay very little and get a lot of out of it.

Now finally in regards to social media, it will be necessary to show/update the business owner on how to set up fan pages, get likes and other type of social media exposure. 

3) Ideally, you want to personally have your own example/experiment of a successful case study. Being that in my personal case, I had numerous examples from websites I’ve made and grew from nothing to making a lot of money, that helped give me the experience to help other website owners that sought that same result, to give them a starting point and strategy of what to do.

This makes the selling of your services absolutely simple. A person who knows what they’re doing gives off that confidence and at that point it doesn’t even become necessary to sell anything, the business owner will fully trust you.

4) Finally, the marketing of your services is what honestly comes last, because everything before that is what I would call your resume and proof of services. 

After you can establish at least 1 or 2 good relations with a client/s, and make them happy, then word will naturally spread about you to other people they know, that if you can make those other clients happy, they will also spread the word about you. 

You can certainly consider and even make a central website where potential leads/clients can connect with you and a lot of online consulting firms do this but before that, there needs to be a “bedrock” of happy clients and proven to work experiences/case studies to give reassurance that you know what you’re doing.

Specifics…How to implement each step above:

Fortunately I have a tutorial for every single step above.

1) For the first one, to learn how online business works, check out this tutorial. Now specifically, this deals with personal blog websites, but in all honesty, there is a “core” strategy to building an online business and that tutorial encapsulates that.

2) If you read the above article, you have the SEO understanding covered. Next would be PPC, here is the tutorial for that. Social media is a bit different and I currently do not have a tutorial set up for it, but as soon as I will, there will be a link placed right here for it.

3) There is no tutorial I can provide, but instead a program recommendation which will give you the training to create your own successful websites and let that propel you to show off to future clients. The program is called Wealthy Affiliate.

The training they provide can help you establish your own personal brand of successful websites and/or utilize the knowledge they teach to help you help personal business owners and this is why no matter how many tutorials I give to people, my end advice is to join that program, because from their teaching is where everything else becomes possible. 

4) If you can learn to create your own personal websites, use the training inside Wealthy Affiliate, then there is nothing else I can personally suggest to you in order to market your services to clients, from that point, it will become easy.

But if there is any 1 tip I can offer, it’s to seek out people with big businesses and just give them a free consultation on what they are doing to market their stuff online. If you can see holes in their existing marketing strategies, suggest a cheaper/personal option to them and say you’ll do it for a cheaper price. That usually is what will get the whole formula working in your favor. That’s how I did it with the trainer at the gym I exercise at.

My final thoughts: 

Despite there being a huge demand in online business consultants out there, my experience has shown me most of them are horrendous at what they teach and/or they have never personally done the things they teach, which honestly makes them less trustworthy. I really believe through the successful experiences I’ve had offering consultations that the 4 step approach above is quite possibly one of the best ways for you to become successful at it as well. 

Now one final thing I want to explain is that when you deal with clients, especially in a high paying industry like this, you are expected to answer tough questions and deal with the client’s behavior, which may sometimes be irrational and difficult to reason with.

This is one of the reasons why I personally don’t engage in this stuff (I only consult people once in awhile) and stick to my own projects, but if you are ready to do this and encounter that issue (inevitably it will happen), ALWAYS, discuss the issue with your client in a calm manner and explain how things will work and it will work provided that what you suggest to your client is something you’ve personally dealt with in the past and have seen get resolved (hence why the first 2 points on experience are so important, as they will basically lead to productive and peaceful talks). 

8 thoughts on “How to Become a Very Successful Online Business Consultant.”

  1. Great article! Until I started my own website, I never knew just how valuable it is to understand the benefits of knowing SEO, PPC and social outlets. Boy… this was quite a learning curve.

    I am a member of Wealthy Affiliate and I can definitely vouch that through the use of this program you learn EVERYTHING! There is no reason to outsource consulting and this saves you a TON of $$$!

    Reply
    • Hi Misty, I assume it is cheaper to be your own consultant and sell that as the service rather than pay someone. Sure this is absolutely true. You may also find that if you’re not experienced enough, you can run a joint business and pay someone to do the consultations while you split the commissions. But the success of that has to start from the website.

      Reply
  2. For years I sold collectibles on eBay. Buying low and selling high. This was my business model. On the weekends when I was off from my medic job. I would scout out yard sells and flea markets. Mostly I would buy off the internet. Usually half the stuff I bought sold for higher amounts online, the rest sold for less, the same price at which I bought it, or sold not at all.

    It was a losing system because the only way to accumulate more revenue was to increase my business model x20. Unfortunately, the demand for the stuff that sold changed so much and the resources available were always so scarce or marginally pointless that I had to move on to different endeavors.

    Only just beginning to get my feet wet in building a website and the basics of SEO. I am still new with much to learn. I am excited and anxious marching myself forward.

    It wasn’t till recently that my boss director wanted online advice as he built his own website. He overheard what I was doing and asked for my help. Still being a newbie myself, and being busy with multiple projects of my own, I explained to him that I haven’t much to offer. That I haven’t the time, skills, or knowledge to be of any use. I suggested he join Wealthy Affiliate and excused myself.

    A few days later he proposes that I work on his website for him and he will pay me a few grand.

    Whatever the amount he offers, I feel that I don’t have the experience or knowledge to work on his brand and website. Plus I’m learning my own brand and website and I haven’t the time or drive to work my free hours for him, or anything I am not passionate about.

    Time is the most valuable commodity because we never get it back, and I feel that working for him on his projects which I can care less about…instead of my own would be fruitless in the end.

    The only beneficial thing to be gained…that I can think of is website building experience…and some extra pocket cash to invest in my own business. But if I fail at monetizing his site I would just make a fool out of myself and a mockery of my name.

    What do you think?

    P.S. My bad for the long comment.

    Reply
    • No I totally appreciate you putting in all that time to write this! I am more than happy to lend my opinion on the matter, starting with the eBay model:

      As I was reading your history with it, I did think about how that business model was a hard one to maintain and that was before I got to the moment where you wrote that it had to be scaled 20 times in order to make good profits. This type of model would work well with more high ticket items, but in my opinion, it is such a tedious and stressful business that it doesn’t really give you much free time and there’s no real stability in it. 

      Some people like that type of lifestyle, but I prefer what I do now instead. 

      But moving onto your boss and him requesting you make him a website, I know exactly how you feel and I’ve been through that type of scenario several times. I have only had 1 moment where I built a website for a friend, with whom I was going to split the profits with and in that scenario, we decided he wouldn’t pay me, but the money made would be evenly split, thereby taking away that worrying idea that if I failed, it would affect our business and friendship. This is something I’d consider with your boss if you’re truly looking forward to building his website for him.

      If not and the website he wants you to make is not one you’re interested in making, then no amount of money should convince you to try it, it would make you miserable in the long run, this has been my experience in such scenarios. 

      Yes it’s good when someone is willing to pay you a lot of money and it will initially be a huge boost in confidence but in this scenario, we’re talking about a boss/employee relationship. Should the website fail, this may affect your overall job and I think you made the right, ethical call here.

      That being said, I will also offer the other side of this scenario in which most people who know nothing about website creation or traffic generation are usually very happy when you build them a regular type of website which is very easy to do. What would take you a few hours to make (the website and several pages of content) would make the boss probably feel like he’s got a huge business on his hands, but that type of website would require maintenance and further build up to work in the long run, and eventually, I feel like this would erode your efforts and make you want to quit, so basically, I’m right back where I made my point, in that, if you’re not interested in building this, don’t. 

      Ideally, work on your website and have it’s success or otherwise only be reflected on you. There’s nothing worse than failing and taking other people down with you, it’s the reason I work freelance and don’t partner up with anyone when it comes to online business, except with that one scenario I listed above, but in that instance, there was no loss on the friend’s part since he didn’t invest anything. 

      Reply
  3. Hi Vitaliy. Great article. Really well written, clear, concise and conversational. I as a WA Member myself offer consulting as a service. I completely agree with your point about SEO being the integral factor in getting an online business to grow and become successful. As someone who has devoted the last 4 years hungrily devouring every possible resource and piece of information I could find on the process of making money online, I can completely relate to what you’ve saying here. Well done. 

    Cheers, 

    Rachael

    Reply
  4. Vitaliy, I am very interested in making money online, and your post inspired me to take the next step. I enjoyed your story of what your experiences were early on, and how you got involved in the business. My question is, for someone with a website up and ranked, what’s the next step to making it successful?

    Thanks for the post, 

    Steve

    Reply
    • Hi Steve, I would say repetition of whatever it was you were doing that initially got it ranked, which specifically would involve consistent content creation, keywords being targeted and an overall expansion of your website (which happens if you do that stuff). Specifically, here’s 2 things that will help you do this.

      Reply

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