Thousands of people are now making a living online and the opportunities
are abundant as the Internet continues its growth. An added benefit of
running an Internet business is that you can usually start one part-time
while you maintain your job and steady income. An internet business can
also be an extension of a regular brick-and-mortar business, adding
credibility to your company and your offerings.
How Do
You Get Started?
First you
need to know what kind of business you want to run. Your venture should
be something you can be passionate about and more importantly, something
that can make money. Here are some options for generating online
revenues:
Sell a Product - This can be the most costly option since you
have to acquire inventory and determine how you are going to sell your
merchandise whether it’s through your own site, eBay or other online
reseller. If you are a collector, this could be a fun way to turn your
hobby into a business.
-Sell a
Service – If you want to provide a service such as writing business
plans, website design, pet sitting, etc, you can use your website to
market your business. A service business is typically inexpensive to
start, however you need to calculate how much you will charge and how
many clients you will need to service to generate income.
-Sell
Information – People are hungry for information so if you have
information that people want, you can potentially make a profit with
your knowledge. You could sell reports, articles, classes and other
learning materials Ebooks are growing in popularity and are fairly easy
to create if you have Adobe software or use a service like the one
offered by The
Ebook Directory.
-Affiliate
Programs – Many companies, large and small, are offering affiliate
programs including eBay, Buy.com and Amazon.com. When you sign up to be
an affiliate, you set up custom links to products from your website. If
the customer clicks through and makes a purchase, you get a small
percentage of the transaction. To be successful with affiliate programs,
you need to generate a lot of website traffic with a target market that
is interested in the product links you are providing.
Commission Junction offers
affiliate links to many businesses, including Yahoo and eBay. You can
also set up your own affiliate program and provide incentives for other
business to link to your site.
Setting
Up Your Website
It’s
relatively inexpensive to start a website and often the biggest
investment will be in your time. You can hire someone to help you get
your site up and running, or you can take this on yourself.
If you
want to have the flexibility to manage your site and change the contents
frequently, it would be worth it to learn how to do it yourself.
Microsoft Frontpage and Dreamweaver are two of the most popular software
programs for website design. If you don’t want to design it from the
ground up, many companies offer templates that you can purchase for as
little as $15. You can then customize the template to meet your needs.
Check out the offerings from
The Template Store.
If you
decide to hire a website designer, there are many to choose from. The
best way to find one near you is to ask business owners in your
community for a referral. You can also ask someone whose site you admire
to share their designer with you.
Website
Hosting
Website
hosting costs as little as $12 per month through providers such as Yahoo. Yahoo also offers free tools for website design, so if you
want to create a simple site with just a few pages, their tools may be
enough to get you started.
Merchant Card Services
If you are
going to accept credit card payments online, you can attempt to get a
merchant services account. Unfortunately, these are difficult for new
businesses to obtain from the big banks due to the amount of fraud in
the small business arena. There are many merchant brokers that provide
credit card services, but keep in mind that you will have to pay a
monthly fee in addition to the percentage per transaction. Luckily,
PayPal has come to the rescue and now offers affordable credit card
payment services. They also offer free shopping cart software if you
decide to add some products to your website. This is a great solution if
you want to offer a few products for sale.
Automation
For a more
advanced website, one that generates revenues around the clock, you
should consider setting up website automation. Auto-responders can be
configured to answer your incoming email messages automatically. You can
use them to manage orders, newsletter subscriptions and most of your
correspondence. You can schedule messages to go out at set intervals.
For example, you can use auto-responders to send a weekly email to your
customer database.
There are
virtually endless possibilities for automating your site and making your
business as efficient as possible and there are just as many vendors who
offer these services. Keep in mind that if you add different services to
your website such as auto-responders, shopping cart and merchant
services, you are going to have to make sure each software package is
compatible. One company that offers a full solution for a professional
website is
Marketers Choice. Their programs allow you to process credit cards,
create shopping cart services that allow you to set up sales on
specified products, set up your own affiliate program and automate all
of your email correspondence.
Business Licenses
Business
license requirements vary by state, county and sometimes even by city.
Be sure to make your business legal and talk to your accountant about
whether you should set it up as a sole-proprietorship or a corporation.
There are also some great home business deductions available. To locate
licensing requirements for your area, visit the regional page set up by
the IRS.
Marketing
While a
great idea is a good start, it’s the execution of an idea that makes a
business successful. You can’t set up a website and hope it will be
visited, you must let people know you’re there.
There are
endless opportunities for marketing your site. Here are a few
possibilities: • Trade links with other websites.
• Set up an affiliate program and join other affiliate programs.
• Advertise your site with pay-per-click programs like the one offered
by Overture.
• Write articles for publications that reference your site.
For more
marketing ideas, visit
BusinessInfoGuide.com.
Education
The best
insurance for developing a successful business is education. You don’t
need a master’s degree to run an online business, but you do need some
tools and background. You can self-educate with the help of books,
magazines and websites. Study your industry carefully and seek business
start-up advice from fellow entrepreneurs. The more prepared you are,
the more likely your business will be a success.
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