Thousands of people now make a living online, and opportunities are plentiful as the Internet continues to grow. An added benefit of running an internet business is that you can usually start one part-time while keeping your job and steady income. An Internet business can also be an extension of a regular physical business, adding credibility to your business and your offerings.
How do you start?
First you need to know what type of business you want to run. Your company should be something that you are passionate about and, more importantly, something that can make you money. Here are some options for generating income online:
Sell a product – This can be the most expensive option since you must purchase inventory and determine how you are going to sell your merchandise, whether through your own site, eBay, or another online reseller. If you’re a collector, this could be a fun way to turn your hobby into a business.
Selling a Service – If you want to provide a service like business plan writing, website design, pet sitting, etc., you can use your website to market your business. A service business is usually cheap to start, however you need to calculate how much you will charge and how many clients you will need to serve to generate income.
Sales information – People are hungry for information, so if you have information that people want, you can profit from your knowledge. You could sell reports, articles, classes, and other learning materials. E-books are growing in popularity and are fairly easy to create if you have software from Adobe or use an e-book service.
Affiliate Programs – Many companies, large and small, offer affiliate programs, including eBay, Buy.com, and Amazon.com. When you sign up to be an affiliate, you set up custom links to products on 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.
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 do it yourself.
If you want the flexibility to manage your site and change content frequently, it might be worth learning 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 scratch, many companies offer templates you can buy for as little as $15. You can then customize the template to meet your needs.
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 can cost as little as $12 per month through providers like Yahoo. Yahoo also offers free website design tools, so if you want to build a simple site with just a few pages, their tools may be enough to get you started.
commercial card services
If you’re going to accept credit card payments online, you can try getting a merchant services account. Unfortunately, these are difficult for startups 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 need to pay a monthly fee in addition to the percentage per transaction. Fortunately, 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 some products for sale.
Automation
For a more advanced website, one that generates revenue around the clock, you should consider setting up website automation. Automatic replies can be set to reply to your incoming email messages automatically. You can use them to manage orders, newsletter signups, and most of your correspondence. You can schedule messages to go out at set intervals. For example, you can use autoresponders 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 many providers that offer these services. Please note that if you add different services to your website, such as autoresponders, shopping cart, and merchant services, you will need to ensure that each software package is compatible.
Business Licenses
Business license requirements vary by state, county, and sometimes even by city. Be sure to legalize your business and talk to your accountant about whether to set it up as a sole proprietorship or a corporation. There are also some great home business deductions available. To locate the license requirements for your area, visit the regional page created by the IRS.
Marketing
While a great idea is a good start, it is the execution of an idea that makes a business successful. You can’t set up a website and expect it to be visited, you have to let people know you’re there. For a free list of places where you can submit your website to search engines for free, visit www.BusinessInfoGuide.com.
There are endless opportunities for marketing your site. Here are some possibilities:
o Commercial links with other websites.
o Set up an affiliate program and join other affiliate programs.
o Advertise your site with pay per click programs.
o Write articles for publications that reference your site.
Education
The best insurance to develop 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 educate yourself with the help of books, magazines and websites. Study your industry carefully and seek advice from other entrepreneurs on starting a business. The more prepared you are, the more likely your business will be a success.