So you want to start an internet business?
So you want to start an internet business?
The internet is a great place for those that want to start a
business to do so with out the worries of having to rent a store
front or warehouse.
For some reason many get the idea all they have to do is sign up
for an associate program of some sort, submit that url to as
many places as often as they can and the cash will start rolling
into their pockets in no time.
Despite what many are lead to believe however, there will be
investments that have to be made and their are certain steps
that must be taken,for your and other's protection.
Legal steps:
1. Check with your local agencies and find out if you need a
business license. In many places,there is no charge for the
inital license as your tax will be determined by your income
reported.In my area, you must report every quarter stating you
made X amount of dollars or even if you made none (after
expenses). Many will require that you must advertise your
intention to set up a business in a local newspaper under the
'fictious business' notification section of the ads. You do not
have to incorperate in most cases.
2. Check with your tax person and find out what you may claim as
deductions.
3. Check and see if you qualify for government loans for small
businesses.
Internet Steps:
You will have to make up a budget at this time. Never spend more
than you can afford to lose, but spend what you can afford. Any
business whether on the internet or not, is a gamble. Some make
it, many don't.
Find and read as many articles as you can on every aspect of
internet business, pay attention to promotional
(advertising)methods. This will make or break your business very
quickly. Keep your site 'web based', that is off your ISP
(Internet Service Provider) and off your home PC.
Notify your ISP that you are starting a business and what they
advise. ( Remember, if they get complaints about you,you may
lose your ISP connection). Some well known ISP's ( such as Net
Zero, AOL) ,ay have special requirements and may also have the
options to give you reduced advertising rates or more.
Give your new business TIME to get established. In my opinion,
it will take at least two years for the average person to show
enough income to show a profit after expenses, unless you have
deep pockets. If you have qualified for a loan, you will be
given guidelines to follow.
Find a product or service to sell. If you are not an expert in
the field, take training or find a product or service you are
very well versed in.
IF you do not have your own website with it's own domain, you
will not be considered as 'serious'. The next two steps may be
done in either order:
1.Secure your domain ( example: Joe's autoparts.com).This will
become your URL (Universe Resource Locator). Keep it short but
to the point.
Have the domain directed to your hosting companies server set up
for you. If they offer it, get one that will re-direct e-mails.
Get your domain for at least two to three years ( the longer the
less it will cost). You will be charged for each 'extension'
also. (example: .com, .net ). Remember, .org is for non-profits
and educational sites such as your local college or the Red
Cross, etc. and .gov is, well you know, do not even try to get
one of those or you will find yourself in a whole lot of trouble
from the start ( unless your business is going to be one ).
2.Hosting: You have to have your domain 'hosted' or residing at
a server somewhere. This is where all the files that make up a
good website are stored. Many hosting companies will also secure
a domain name of your choice,for a smaller fee. DO NOT get
'Free' or cheap hosting. As they say, you will get what you pay
for. Get the best package that the hosting company has for
commercial sites that you can afford. Many of these will come
with 'basic' options to get you started and others that you may
get as you need them. (as 'secure server' for credit card
payments, etc). Do NOT use the 'homepage' your ISP may be
providing you with. You will lose your ISP if they find your
running a business from it.
3. Your domain will have to point to your 'index or home' page
of your 'web'. Your hosting company will have a 'temp' page for
you to edit. Many also will have a simple editing program if you
desire to do your own website work.
4. Site set up and page(s) design. If you don't want to spend
the time to learn to do so, then you will have to pay to have a
site set up. Once again, many good hosting companies can do this
for you also,at an additional charge, or you will have to
contact a company that does such things and pay for it to be
done.
Remember, the internet is all about information. Keep your main
site page ( the one people will see when the type in your
domain's name) fairly clean of pictures, sounds and the like,
unless the site is professionaly done for you. The programers
know ways to make the pictures etc load on your visitor's
browser with out slowing down the 'load time'. Many visitors
will not 'wait' for a site to load for more than five to ten
seconds.
5. Promotions
When you have your site set up, a good product or service to
sell (or re-sale), you will now want to advertise it on the
interenet AND in your local papers and yellow pages, etc. (You
can do both from the internet itself).
You can pay for a company to do your promotions or you can do it
yourself on the internet.
Find out exactly what the SEO companies (Search Engine
Optimization) will do for you. It may be more cost effective to
go this route the first year or so.
In spite of what you may have heard, you do not have to be
ranked in the top ten,one hundred,or even the top 100,000 to get
your site noticed. There are many companies making millions of
dollars a year that have sites ranked past the 'million' mark in
the rankings.
Many search engines will not list your associate ( or re-sale
site page given to you) if your going that route. Instead,you
will want to have a description of them and a 'link' to it (or
them) on your site page. If you later on change associations, it
will be easier to change the content of your main site page, and
any related pages,than to start over. Remember the business is
yours, the products may change or you may add more as you grow.
There are many 'factors' that effect how your site will be
ranked and if you are not well versed in Search Engines, then
let the pro's do it for you or start getting yourself
knowledgable. There are thing such as traffic volume,
keywords,meta tags,how the title is worded etc to be taken into
consideration. Some engines will visit your site before listing,
some you will have to pay to get listed with, and some will
require periodic checking to see if your listed or to stay
listed. Some will list you right away,some may take months and
some may not list you at all. Many will not tell you either way.
If you 'spam' a search engine you may be put on their 'do not
list' list, and as many engines share information between one
another, well guess what happens?
Do not start any e-mail campaigns untill your understand how
e-mail works and how to do it without getting into trouble. Here
you will want to apply 'reverse marketing' only at the start.
The most important factor in the whole equation will be YOU. Do
not let your desires outweight your common sense.
Good Luck.
Robert Nixon
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