So do you know your online marketing costs? Most people don’t, and because of that, they roam online for decades trying to make money in every possible deal. But what they don’t realize is that no matter what business they try to make money in, it will never work if the costs of online marketing are not taken into account. Have you seen this in your business?

So why is it important to know your costs? It is important because it helps you predict your income each month. If for every dollar you spend in marketing you’re making $ 30 more, you can’t beat that. But you know what? Most people are not in a position to have those kinds of numbers in their business. For most people with a website, they just guess their numbers and follow their competitors.

Most people think that whatever their competitors are doing must be working as they have a huge amount of website traffic every day. But people fail every day. Your competitor too. So it’s “the monkey sees the monkey do” and “the blind follows the blind.” You don’t have to worry about your competitors. You need to worry about your numbers so that you can achieve the profitable business you want.

Isn’t that why you went into business in the first place? To escape the rat race of work … to be your own boss … to wake up when you want to wake up … to earn the amount of money you know you deserve to earn? If THIS is what you really want, then you need to take your numbers seriously. There is only one situation where I see that people are serious about their numbers, but they don’t have the skills to push that success to a higher level.

What situation am I talking about? EBAY. On eBay, your profit potential is predictable. But WHY is it predictable? Simply because eBay provides you with the traffic. No one ever asks “Where does eBay get its traffic?” Your website and eBay are no different, just that eBay is profitable and the executives know what they are doing. More importantly, they know their numbers.

Have you heard of the term “cost per sale” before? Your cost per sale simply means the amount of money you have to spend to get a sale. So if your cost per sale is $ 30 and you sell a $ 20 item, you lose $ 10 on every sale you make. If your cost per sale is $ 30 and you sell a $ 200 item, you make a profit of $ 170 on each sale. Now I may not sell $ 200 items, but I hope you get my point.

So do you know your cost per sale? Do you know your online marketing costs? How much money do you spend on advertising each month? If you are generating leads, what is your cost per lead? What percentage of your potential customers convert to customers? What are your web hosting costs? How much is the monthly fee for your WordPress blog? What percentage of your customers become repeat customers? These are all things you need to keep track of if you want to be profitable.

But if you’re like most beginning online business owners, you’ll get caught up in all the hype about all the money you could be making in your first 30 days. Why is that? Is it because you get sucked into hype and promises, and not because of what it really takes to run and have a successful business? This is an important question to answer. This is why you need a trained and qualified internet marketing coach or consultant to guide you in the right direction.

Think about your other costs in addition to cost per lead and cost per sale. Since you have an online business, you need an internet connection. So there is a monthly cost for Internet access. There is the cost of your computer. The cost of a merchant account. The cost (potentially) to employees. The cost of inventory (even if you sell e-books). The cost of advertising. The cost of automation tools, etc. Online marketing costs are real and it is the most important part of your business.

Listen, marketing strategies are important. But no marketing strategy will be effective until you have figured out how you are going to profit from every item you sell in your business. I have no idea what you’re selling, but it doesn’t matter. Every online business owner needs to know the costs in their business and has to develop the plan to get that money back.

Online marketing costs are real and are a real consideration before spending a penny on advertising. This was my fatal flaw when I started. All I heard was “earn $ 30,000 per month”, and I forgot about everything else. So I lost over $ 20,000 over the years trying to make an online trade work. Once I learned, I started making money. It first started out small, but then it turned into something profound.

It started with easy sales of $ 7, to $ 37 sales, to $ 2,500 sales and now to attract customers for $ 300 an hour. Can you say that for your business? Probably not, because you probably don’t know numbers in your business and you probably don’t believe in math. The math is real, and trust me, I know … the fight is real. But if you want to have a real shot at financial freedom and take care of your situation, you need to know your online marketing costs.

If you can conquer this, then everything you do in your business will make sense. It will go from letting your business run it, to letting you run your business. So eventually … your money will work for you, instead of you working your business for money. You will become a smarter entrepreneur and realize that ultimately you are a MARKETER first and an entrepreneur second.

This is some of the best advice you have ever heard, so you need to act on it and take it seriously, because what I am telling you is real and true. So start documenting and learning about your online marketing costs now.