Internet Business

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Internet-Based Businesses

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Definitions:

Affiliate Marketing: An Internet based marketing practice where a business pays an

individual for each customer or visitor brought about through the individuals marketing efforts.

Click and Mortar: A business model where a company has both offline and online

presences. Also known as Bricks and Clicks. Content Advertising: Content based advertising placement such as that pioneered by

Google, also classified ads and ‘pay for performance’ models.


Definitions: Cont…

eCommerce: Electronic commerce that takes place over the

Internet. Incentive Marketing or Pay for Performance: A business model used in online advertising where

an ad agency charges a marketer for the results achieved by the ad campaign.

Monetize: How something earns money. Virtual Merchant: A retail sales business that only has a presence

online, rather than a ‘brick and mortar’ storefront.


Internet & Business:

The power of the Internet has leveled the playing field

It possible for anyone to start a business and earn income.

The majority of the top earning web sites in the world are run by talented young men and women under the age of thirty.

The Internet has opened up the world of global commerce to anyone, not just the big corporations that had traditionally controlled the market.


Internet & Business: Cont….

Anyone with a computer and a credit card can easily setup a website overnight and be ready to sell their products or services to customers from around the world.

The advances in technology and the new world economy also give business people access to resources and suppliers without having to leave their desk.


Internet & Business: Cont….

This opens up many more potential business models to individuals that have never before been so readily available such as importing or exporting, self publishing, software publishing, affiliate marketing, incentive marketing and virtual merchants, or e-retailers like Amazon who only have an online presence.

The explosion of E-commerce and the increasing availability of Internet access around the world, small businesses are able to easily gain access to foreign markets so they can either locate unique or less expensive products to import for sale in this country, or they can export their own products for sale abroad, either wholesale to other distributors or retail to foreign consumers.


Self-Publishing:

This is the publishing of books and other media by the author, rather than a third party, is a popular example of a successful new Internet business model.

The ability to sell e-books, videos, software and other digital content directly to the consumer without having to go to the expense of a big print run or other production and packaging expenses, has made many entrepreneurs wealthy while at the same time providing consumers better access to specialized information.


Affiliate Marketing:

Affiliate marketing and incentive marketing are both business models where an individual or business puts up a content based website then partners with other websites with the agreement that they get paid for either sending traffic or sales to the partner (affiliate marketing) or for getting a site visitor to perform some action like signup for a newsletter (incentive marketing).

With this model the website is monetized, or earns money, from the affiliate or pay for performance fees.


Traditional Business Models:

Traditional business models have been reinvented and redefined by the Internet, such as drop shipping, content advertising, auctions, and broadcasting.


Drop Shipping Business model: It allows individuals and businesses to sell

another company’s products online through their own website or auction sites without ever having to touch the products.

You simply take orders from customers then you turn around and place the orders with your supplier who has agreed to ship directly to the customer for you.


Google AdSense:

Google AdSense program pioneered content advertising, where advertisers pay to have their ads displayed on other relevant websites.

The advertiser pays on a per click or per impression basis, and the website that displays the ads gets a portion of the fees.


Auction Sites e.g. Ebay

Auction websites like eBay, eBid, Overstock, uBid, and Yahoo Auctions allow individuals and businesses to sell anything and everything online, either for a fixed price or to the highest bidder.

Sellers can list new or used items and are only charged minimal fees, typically an initial listing fee plus a small percentage of the final sale price.


Information Broadcasting:

Information broadcasting has traditionally been limited to those companies able to make large investments in media outlets, print and/or broadcast equipment.

This business model of selling information or content through subscription services E.g. HBO, online newspapers) or selling advertising space

within content (e.g. magazines, television commercials, classified ads) has easily translated to the Internet.

E.g. bloggers earn income from the ads that show up alongside their blog posts, and membership sites earn monthly fees for access to clipart , templates, coaching, educational materials and other types of information.


Internet Technology:

Internet is the single biggest advance for small business people everywhere and the surge in its use has led to a growing number of Americans working from home or starting home based businesses.

This Information Age, where anyone with Internet access can have instant access to information that was previously difficult or impossible to find, makes it both easy an inexpensive for people to start Internet based business ventures.


Information Technology:

One of the greatest benefits of the Internet is that there is no commute so you can have more productive hours in the day if you’re able to work online from home, or you can easily “moonlight” with your online startup after hours while keeping your day job as a safety net.

More businesses today involve creating, processing, and moving information and by relying on technology like computers, fax machines, video conferencing and other tools, it makes it much less complicated to start and run a successful business.


Online Marketing Methods: Article Marketing Auto responder Email Systems Blogs Directory Submissions DMOZ Listing Forum Posts Google AdWords (pay per click advertising) Google Indexing Opt in Mailing Lists Paid Advertisements Partners & Affiliates Point of Purchase Up Sells


Online Marketing Methods: Cont...

Partners & Affiliates Point of Purchase Up Sells Press Releases Search engine optimization (SEO) Signature on email messages Social Bookmarking – Digg, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon Social Media – Facebook, Twitter, MySpace Testimonials – Both Giving and Receiving Them Webinars & Teleseminars


How to Start your own Internet-Based Business: Terms… Angel Investor: Affluent individual who backs emerging entrepreneurial ventures. Bootstrapping: Starting a business without outside investors. Domain Name: The address or URL of a particular website. Hosting: A service where a web server maintains and serves the files for

one or more websites. URL: Uniform resource location or web address of a site. Venture Capital: Money and resources made available to startup firms and small

businesses that exhibit exceptional growth potential.


How to Start your own Internet-Based Business: More and more entrepreneurs are realizing

their dream of establishing a business online, and now that you understand how to use the Internet for business, and the types of business models available, your next move is to go from planning to action.


**The hardest part of any journey is the first step**


Setting up your Internet Business: Most important step to starting an internet-based business is to

create a larger presence. When just starting out, odds are that you don’t have an excess

amount of cash to spend, so you’ll need to focus on doing everything within your power to make it appear that your company is established and perhaps larger than it is in reality.

The best way to appear big is to avoid doing things that will make your business seem small or inexperienced. E.g. Every company needs business cards, but it’s surprising

how many startups go for those fancy but “free” business cards that come with the printing company’s logo on the back.

This not only makes an enterprise seem small, it also makes the company look cheap.


Setting up your Internet Business: Cont…. This same principle goes for your email address

and web hosting—do not use free services and expect to be taken seriously.

Free hosting accounts typically come with advertising banners that you can’t remove, and you don’t want to waste your efforts to market someone else’s business.

Using a Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail or other free email account as your main business address will make your potential customers question your professionalism


Setting up your Internet Business: Cont…. Set-up a website for your business once you’ve

registered a domain name. No matter how large or small the business, every

company needs a website in this Information Age, even if it is merely a one page site with contact

information. A website is the best marketing tool you can have

for your business as it will help you to build your company’s identity and brand around the clock.


Importance of Dressing the Part: Wear business attire whenever you visit with

potential customers, partners, or if you’re attending business related functions and seminars.

Share that people really do form an opinion of you based on their first impression, so dress professionally and people will think of you as a professional.


Tools:

There are technology tools that you can use to make your small business look big,

such as virtual phone systems that allow you to route call and faxes to and from all of your phone numbers so you don’t have to hire a receptionist or secretary until you can afford one. Tell them if you need an actual meeting space to get

together with potential clients, then look for office or meeting space that you can borrow or rent by the day or by the hour


Tools:

Many home-based businesses do not need this much. Many times you can have a phone conference or video chat to do this.

However, if your business needs full-time office space, but you can’t really afford to hire support staff yet, then you could also look for co-op style office space where you rent an individual office and share a receptionist with others in the same building.

Have a professional sounding voice mail.

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