So you want to start an internet business?
The internet is a great place for those that want to start abusiness to do so with out the worries of having to rent a storefront or warehouse.
For some reason many get the idea all they have to do is sign upfor an associate program of some sort, submit that url to asmany places as often as they can and the cash will start rollinginto their pockets in no time.
Despite what many are lead to believe however, there will beinvestments that have to be made and their are certain stepsthat must be taken,for your and other's protection.
Legal steps:
1. Check with your local agencies and find out if you need abusiness license. In many places,there is no charge for theinital license as your tax will be determined by your incomereported.In my area, you must report every quarter stating youmade X amount of dollars or even if you made none (afterexpenses). Many will require that you must advertise yourintention to set up a business in a local newspaper under the'fictious business' notification section of the ads. You do nothave to incorperate in most cases.
2. Check with your tax person and find out what you may claim asdeductions.
3. Check and see if you qualify for government loans for smallbusinesses.
Internet Steps:
You will have to make up a budget at this time. Never spend morethan you can afford to lose, but spend what you can afford. Anybusiness whether on the internet or not, is a gamble. Some makeit, many don't.
Find and read as many articles as you can on every aspect ofinternet business, pay attention to promotional(advertising)methods. This will make or break your business veryquickly. 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 theyadvise. ( Remember, if they get complaints about you,you maylose your ISP connection). Some well known ISP's ( such as NetZero, AOL) ,ay have special requirements and may also have theoptions 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 showenough income to show a profit after expenses, unless you havedeep pockets. If you have qualified for a loan, you will begiven guidelines to follow.
Find a product or service to sell. If you are not an expert inthe field, take training or find a product or service you arevery well versed in.
IF you do not have your own website with it's own domain, youwill not be considered as 'serious'. The next two steps may bedone in either order:
1.Secure your domain ( example: Joe's autoparts.com).This willbecome your URL (Universe Resource Locator). Keep it short butto the point.
Have the domain directed to your hosting companies server set upfor 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 theless it will cost). You will be charged for each 'extension'also. (example: .com, .net ). Remember, .org is for non-profitsand educational sites such as your local college or the RedCross, etc. and .gov is, well you know, do not even try to getone of those or you will find yourself in a whole lot of troublefrom the start ( unless your business is going to be one ).
2.Hosting: You have to have your domain 'hosted' or residing ata server somewhere. This is where all the files that make up agood website are stored. Many hosting companies will also securea domain name of your choice,for a smaller fee. DO NOT get'Free' or cheap hosting. As they say, you will get what you payfor. Get the best package that the hosting company has forcommercial sites that you can afford. Many of these will comewith 'basic' options to get you started and others that you mayget as you need them. (as 'secure server' for credit cardpayments, etc). Do NOT use the 'homepage' your ISP may beproviding you with. You will lose your ISP if they find yourrunning a business from it.
3. Your domain will have to point to your 'index or home' pageof your 'web'. Your hosting company will have a 'temp' page foryou to edit. Many also will have a simple editing program if youdesire to do your own website work.
4. Site set up and page(s) design. If you don't want to spendthe time to learn to do so, then you will have to pay to have asite set up. Once again, many good hosting companies can do thisfor you also,at an additional charge, or you will have tocontact a company that does such things and pay for it to bedone.
Remember, the internet is all about information. Keep your mainsite page ( the one people will see when the type in yourdomain's name) fairly clean of pictures, sounds and the like,unless the site is professionaly done for you. The programersknow ways to make the pictures etc load on your visitor'sbrowser with out slowing down the 'load time'. Many visitorswill not 'wait' for a site to load for more than five to tenseconds.
5. Promotions
When you have your site set up, a good product or service tosell (or re-sale), you will now want to advertise it on theinterenet AND in your local papers and yellow pages, etc. (Youcan do both from the internet itself).
You can pay for a company to do your promotions or you can do ityourself on the internet.
Find out exactly what the SEO companies (Search EngineOptimization) will do for you. It may be more cost effective togo this route the first year or so.
In spite of what you may have heard, you do not have to beranked in the top ten,one hundred,or even the top 100,000 to getyour site noticed. There are many companies making millions ofdollars a year that have sites ranked past the 'million' mark inthe rankings.
Many search engines will not list your associate ( or re-salesite page given to you) if your going that route. Instead,youwill want to have a description of them and a 'link' to it (orthem) on your site page. If you later on change associations, itwill be easier to change the content of your main site page, andany related pages,than to start over. Remember the business isyours, the products may change or you may add more as you grow.
There are many 'factors' that effect how your site will beranked and if you are not well versed in Search Engines, thenlet the pro's do it for you or start getting yourselfknowledgable. There are thing such as traffic volume,keywords,meta tags,how the title is worded etc to be taken intoconsideration. Some engines will visit your site before listing,some you will have to pay to get listed with, and some willrequire periodic checking to see if your listed or to staylisted. Some will list you right away,some may take months andsome 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 notlist' list, and as many engines share information between oneanother, well guess what happens?
Do not start any e-mail campaigns untill your understand howe-mail works and how to do it without getting into trouble. Hereyou will want to apply 'reverse marketing' only at the start.
The most important factor in the whole equation will be YOU. Donot let your desires outweight your common sense.
Good Luck.
Robert Nixon
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About the author: owner and webmaster of the Cpu Cash Net, a sited dedicated toassisting others with their site promotions.
