Online Business Options

In January 2003, I decided that I needed to have a website for my business. I knew nothing about design, hosting, databases, domain registration, etc. It took only a few months before I became a pro. A year later, people were calling on me for advice, design, and assistance with marketing. What a difference a year makes.

Let’s face it, thanks to Billy (and Al Gore, apparently) the Internet is here to stay. It has changed the way we communicate, the way we research, and the way we do business. There are several ways of using the Internet to create income. Choosing the one that works for you takes a bit of finesse, but maybe one of the following options will appeal to you. I could expand on each of these forever, (and actually have in an upcoming book) but for now, here are some snippets:

Ways to make money online:

1) An Affiliate program: this is where you have a website, you drive traffic to it, and then you sell other people’s products. Examples of this range from MSN (look for links to the Gap, etc) to marketing your own, or other people’s Ebooks from Clickbank.com
2) Website design: this takes time and effort and a huge learning curve. Believe it or not, the money is not in the design, it’s in the marketing. Anyone can put together a half-decent site, (heck, look at mine!) but not everyone knows how to market!
3) Selling your own products online: either through a traditional site, or through an auction house like Ebay, Amazon, or Craigslist. The problem with this is that you’ll have a lot of inventory, and have to deal with shipping.
4) Selling subscriptions: if you have a knack for something, and like to write, you can sell subscriptions of your ezine to people. I receive an ezine of listings for upcoming grants and such for artists. Very helpful.
5) Network Marketing: The Internet really lends itself to MLM and network marketing because you can do online training and conference calls with people all over the globe, and sell products directly from the warehouse, where your customers just punch in a code so that you get the credit.

Getting websites up and running is a relatively painless and inexpensive way to start a business. If you have no interest whatsoever in learning web design, I recommend going to elance.com and finding people to bid on your project. Or call on your local college kids for low-cost help.

Before you jump into the Internet waters however, make sure you fully develop your business plan and know your target audience. There’s no use in spending money on marketing if you’re not willing to take the time to plan out your actions.