Internet Business: the Basics
When we look around today, we see technology everywhere - to an extent that even the most detailed of 1970’s reality-scifi would have been ambitious to imagine. From cars to microwaves, televisions to mp3 players - our world is full of computers, in both our personal and professional lives. At the forefront of this, no other tool connects the modern world in the simple but powerful way than our PC’s do. The Internet provides a medium of communication for these millions of users, and in doing so it has become a resource so powerful it has the ability to provide information of any kind to anyone, anywhere, anytime. When you consider that access to the Internet is now cheaper and more widespread than ever before, levels of older and younger users are increasing, and developing nations are increasing their spending power, it is no surprise that the Online World is booming. With this growth comes opportunities, and not just for the big players with big budgets, but for EVERYONE. Confused? Let me explain…
Just what is ‘Online’ Business?
Well, firstly it is important to recognise that there are a number of accepted terms to describe business on the internet and in online communities. Whether you prefer to call it e-commerce, online business, internet business, e-business, etc etc.. it all boils down to the one objective. For the purposes of my writing I tend to refer to any business, or the pursuit of financial gain online, as ‘Internet Business’ - it’s in this post’s header and you’ll see it in most of my articles. However, due to the ever growing variety in the types of business on the Internet ( some of which we will be looking at in a moment) I like to look on this as an umbrella term, which encompasses a range of activities.
So what are the main forms of Internet Business?
As in any arena, people pursue their goals online at a variety of commitment levels - from those who may be able to set aside only an hour a week for their activities, to the full time participant who seeks to make money online in place of a ‘traditional’ job or business venture. Towards the former, more ‘recreational’ end of that spectrum there are a number of forms of Internet Business. Here are the 4 main activities which I think it is important you know about…
E-Commerce
By far the best known and probably the most easily accessible of which is what is generically called ‘e-commerce’. By this I mean simple buying and selling activity - facilitated by the power of a virtual marketplace (i.e. small investment Vs. traditional capital costs of a real-world store). Here are a few of the most common examples, you may wish to take a minute to familiarise yourself with these sites…
ebay has become something of a victim of its own (incredible) success in recent times, as huge growth in all its stores has combined with an ever increasing amount of fraudulent buying and selling to bring its safety into question. That is not to say it isn’t still a powerful forum for your online business - it has a lot of great tools for you to use but beware, competition is strong (even in very specialist products) and fraud can be very costly for sellers.
Niche Markets
Alternatively, it is possible to establish your own e-commerce site - whether it be to sell products you produce or distribute (very effective as an add-on to a ‘real-world’ business) or in a market that reflects your own interests. One ofthe biggest trends in this area is Niche Marketing. This method has come about through the sheer ’saturation’ of the Internet with mainstream commercial sites and massive marketplaces like ebay. The idea being that the niche marketer can research not what is on the internet (which it often seems is almost anything and everything) but what is NOT on the internet, or at least not widespread. To give you an example, you may select a particular sub-genre of music (either due to a personal interest or research) which you find may not be available from many outlets online, or which is not easily found on ebay or Craigslist. Now, this may be a very obscure sub-genre for which you may think there would not be many people searching for online. Well, you may be right but there will still be some people who share your interest looking for this music. To put 2 + 2 together - all you have to do is provide those fans with a good resource for their interest and chances are, provided you market and promote your site well you will soon have a strong platform to sell any products related to this music genre from - whether it be CD’s, Vinyl, Concert Tickets, T-shirts, whatever you think the fans will want..
You don’t have to be experienced in Internet Business to see that this is a very strong concept as it slots precisely into the age-old dynamic of supply and demand which (in case you hadn’t guessed) is just as relevant in e-business as it is in any physical marketplace. By seeking out gaps, niches and opportunities to sell specialist products online you can not only build a clientele but easily tap into word-of-mouth and other promotional methods to get your business growing. Obviously one limiting factor on this sort of activity is still capital investment, generally in building inventory to begin trading, but this really needn’t be the end…
Affiliate Marketing
Loosely connected to e-commerce is what I will call ‘Affiliate Marketing’ for the purposes of this introduction. Now, this term covers a lot of ground in the current world of business online but for the moment, and in reference to the previous topic of Niche Markets, I’ll explain how becoming an affiliate can facilitate e-commerce. For example, going back to our niche music-store idea, being part of an affiliate program (preferably from a large merchant such as amazon or ebay) can allow you to set up your store without investment in product as you simply advertise your associates goods and then collect your agreed share of the sales commission when someone buys the product. Now, as I mentioned before, depending how individual your idea is it may take some work to find a program that suits - but chances are you will find one. This now becomes a very attractive proposition as it limits your investment and most affiliate programs base membership only on the quality of your site (be wary of any program that requires a ‘buy-in’).
With your partnership in place (most major sites have a ‘Join Our Affiliate Program’ link on their homepage or site map) you can now go forward and market relevant products on your own site, or even blog (we’ll look at blogging in a second). I’m not going to lie, even without the work of taking stock and managing an inventory, maintaining your site can be hard work and time consuming - adding new links, writing good content, etc. There are ways to automate this process and one which I’d highly recommend is the Build a Niche Store software, this software more than pays for itself by automatically feeding relevant ebay content to your site - with the benefit of a very quick setup and easily customised templates to allow you to create a professional looking ’store’. If you’re serious about trying the Niche Marketing route then this is definitely a good option as the one-off fee for this software gives you a license to create as many stores as you like with it. If you combine that with a hosting package which allows you to host multiple domains (HostGator do packages from $7.95 a month) then you can create as many stores as you can find niche’s for.
Blogging
Blogging has been a massive phenomenon on the internet in the last couple of years, as (like so many online activities) it has come into the mainstream and exploded in popularity as companies have seen the opportunities to make money through publishing peoples blogs. A blog, in its simplest form, is what we would have called a diary or journal not so long ago. Now, however, blogging has diversified and a blog can basically be any sort of content that you care to post regularly.
In part 2 I’ll be taking you through…
What are the gains?
time + effort = money …that is unavoidable. BUT, you can make it easy…
How do you get involved?
links to different categories, or an action plan of how to use this site…
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