Site Reference Forums

What Laurie says is true, but there are some other aspects

1. Be prepared to learn how to build a website - even if you outsource in the end, the knowledge will be invaluable.

2. Spend a LOT of time researching what product service you will provide -don't be like every other wannabe and sell jewellery, lingerie or kids clothes. Find a niche that has good profit per sale, or that is overlooked and has good turnover potential and make that niche yours.

3. My advice is NEVER buy in stock. I have had countless people come to me wanting help selling their internet business - its not making the money they expected and they have a garage full of stock and they owe money on it....instead look at drop-ship opportunities or where you can buy on demand or in small qty's or it is a product you make or own

4. Give it time. If you start a internet business, it may take a year or more before you have an idea of how well it will do.

5. Be prepared to look at all forms of marketing, not just web - the website is part of the business, not all of it.

Matte

You have to put just as much effort into a web based business as you have to put inot a bricks and mortor business if you want it to be successfull

Also, If you want to do something new then you'll have to be a developer your self; learning server-side and client side scripting lanuages, HTML and proabably databases as well.

Alternativly you can give £20000 to a deveoper like me who loves new ideas and making new web businesses to build it for you.

Drop shipping or Affilliate marketing is probably he easiest route but incomes can be varied and if you don't know what you're doing you probably won't make a dime!

Find somehing your good at and enjoy; hen stick with it - The web isn't for everyone (well, it is; but only some will be successfull).

Just think, if everyone had a web-based business I couldn't go to my local takeway for a pizza because they'd be messing about online.

cipher wrote:

Hey thanks for the info, even i am now trying to get some business out of my site... I am planning to sell sculptures through my site. I am working on that section and competed the info part of it.
now I wish to monetize it.. What would be the steps to get my business working

1) I need to know how can I accept credit cards through my site... i looked in google and found many sites offering this service... are they trustworthy?

2) I use paypal... but  will people trust my site and give me all money in advance?

3) i do not want to put any money in the setup till i get something out of it... marginal is ok but i can not afford payment gateways..

4) setup is the main problem at this stage... i'll be back with promotional guidance later...


check my sites art section...
and one thing more... should i take a new domain or should I carry out my operations fromthis site only?

decipheringlife.com ---> art

Hi, there are a few different payment options that I have outlined on this site [http://funds1.notlong.com] You already have paypal, but you can also add other payment options like "paymate" and "mobillcash". The good thing about these payment options is that you don't need to pay anything upfront or even a monthly fee. There definitely are other payment options than having to pay a monthly fee (you only pay once a sale is made). See please take a look at the navigation bar for Mobillcash and Paypal ( Paymate is on one of these 2 pages) You can also find some free advertising sites to promote your business and some free SEO tools and free site submission. So please take a look and I hope this will help you.
warmest regards,
Snezana:lol:

Also, If you want to do something new then you'll have to be a developer your self; learning server-side and client side scripting lanuages, HTML and proabably databases as well.

Alternativly you can give £20000 to a deveoper like me who loves new ideas and making new web businesses to build it for you.

There are many user-friendly database solutions out there that mean you do not need to know too much scripting or lots about databases.

I've done pretty well for 11 years doing only very , very basic  scripting and only basic html and css, but knowing html, CSS etc is very useful even if you outsource the whole lot, even if only to know when developers are trying to pull the wool over your eyes (not referring to you Northie).

kathryn wrote:

Great! It is a good idea to start a web based business these days. Its better late than never! I am one such web based businessman who started it all from scratch just two years ago and now have an established business on the internet. I would recommend Analyzed Marketing Solutions who are specialists in Internet Marketing and solutions.
Best of luck

If you need help from a marketing company to start on the web then you've already lost

If you can't make it without the help of contrcators then you've alreday lost

I'd have to agree with Nic on that.

I've got tasks that I know I can figure out myself if I spend the time learning, but 'time' is not something I have readily available.

Of course, if you got all the time in the world, by all means..... learn something new.

I think it is horses for courses

A business person can be experting in supply chain stuff, in market research for what will sell, in pricing modeling, in fact everything else except for web design.

Lets face it there are some excellent solutions out there that mean you can have a very viable website up and running for low cost. So maybe outsourcing to get the site established etc may be very viable

Of course the issue come in when maintenance, add/delete products or other minor changes come in. Then knowledge of basic html etc etc comes in real handy

The danger is, as we have all seen many times, is someone thinks a web business is an easy road and money can be made easily, rather than the opposite which is mostly the case.

Northie wrote:

I'm talking start-ups here

a one person start up cannot afford to out source; and if they can afford to outsource it's not the wisest investment. The first bit of business advice anyone is given is know your product and know your market.

I agree that when a company gets to a certain size that outsourcing becomes a viable option for some aspects; so that the core principles of the business can be maintaintained.

Same goes for the web

The web is one of the few places where start-up capital is low; but also a place to loose lots of money if you just throw it blindly at the web hoping for the best

i've outsourced as much as i could from day 1 with my online start-ups, same as i did with my offline

i'm not an expert at everything and would rather let people better qualified then me handle some of the important aspects my business

if i tried to handle everything myself i'd be sitting in my mom's basement right now reading a "Websites for Dummies" book

however outsourcing seemed to work for me both on and offline- the lights are on, there's a bit of food in the fridge (more when i go shopping later- but at least i have the $), and several years later i'm still running my own businesses

Do what you're good at and outsource your weeknesses

or alternatively, you can spend a heck of a lot of time trying to master every business aspect yourself- however while you do that the $ may not come in as fast as you hope- so you better have a nice amount saved

*
*
I have look a lot at getting a Web business and have not found anything that looks good to me. Many of the offers are hipe, both the ones you get by way of e-mail and hard copy mail offers. Be careful.