Comments on: Online Business – The Naked Truth

By: KellyR

KellyR — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:48:13 +0000

two guy's in my town just started a web site. It's actually doing very well for them. It's a yard sale web site. Where people from the town can take pictures and post things for sale ( yard sale prices) and other people in the town can go on the web site and purchase the item. THe guy's who started the site just charge people $8.00 a month to post their items. It's kind of like e-bay but they don't take a percentage of what you make. Here is the web site address, take a look at it.

hollomanyardsales.com

By: Teddy

Teddy — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:56:06 +0000

Hi Teddy,

I don't like very much the approach of focusing in "how much" before having a very good idea about "what", "to whom", "how", and "why".

The way I like doing this is:
1) I think about the target market (who do I want to send the message to?)
2) I think about ways to reach the target marketing: the media they use, the language they like, the keywords they use, etc.

Once I've defined the target public and the product, I can think about message options (what to say and how to say it). Each message option has its own cost and limitations and that is the point where I start thinking about budget.

As you see, each marketing action has its own cost and it doesn't have much to do with your income. This situation is even worse at the very beginning when your income is expected to be lower.

By: Heron By The Sea

Heron By The Sea — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:35:57 +0000

you might try to contact an established school and see if you can offer your course through them.
Barnes and Noble has a line of online courses where this might fit.

By: puzzled_guy

puzzled_guy — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:49:00 +0000

My suggestion is to do some research on the subject before starting. Check with your local Chamber of Commerce, the Secretary of State, the Small Business Administration. Read up on it — go to your local library, check Amazon, etc. Write a business plan — there are plenty of books available on this subject.

Prior to investing your time, money & effort into an online business name, it is strongly advised that comprehensive research be conducted to ensure that the name you're interested in is truly available.

This entails searching the pending & registered Federal and State trademark files as well as the US National Common-Law files. Then, if clear, you can decide if you would like to file for a Federal or a State trademark.

Research is needed to make sure your trade name is legally available, before opening, before expansion, before incorporation or before designing your logo. Similarities in sound, appearance and meaning affect you too!

There are 16+ million trade names in use in the United States. Similar names matter, if close in sound, appearance or meaning. Similar names in related classes, distribution channels and customer matter too. You are affected by Common Law use (14 million), State Trademarks (500,000) and Federal Trademarks (2 million).

By: lemichele101

lemichele101 — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:31:11 +0000

I recommend checking out the SBA, Entrepreneur, The Start Up Journal & Nolo. All 4 are great informational resources for the new/small business owner. I posted links for you in the source box. These 4 sites should get you on your way in terms of what needs to be done (e.g. licenses, permits, taxes, etc.)

Associations may be a good avenue to explore as well. These organizations will address many of the thoughts, questions and concerns you'll inevitably have as well as many you haven't anticipated yet. See the source box for some relevant links.

Research, research, research – this cannot be stressed enough. Read as much as you can about the industry. Here are some book titles that are relevant:

* Too Good to be Threw: The Complete Operations Manual for Resale & Consignment Shops by Kate Holmes
* A Common Sense Entrepreneurial Guide: How to Open & Run a Successful Consignment Shop [DOWNLOAD: PDF] by Nancy L. Nolan
* How to Start and Run an eBay Consignment Business by Skip McGrath
* Specialty Shop Retailing: How to Run Your Own Store Revised by Carol L. Schroeder

There are plenty of free informational resources out there. Check the source box for links to articles.

Hope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!

By: Margaux

Margaux — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:11:26 +0000

Yes, I can help…

I use a step-by-step approach and it works all the time. Here you go:

1) First validate the demand (FREE keyword tool):

Are there people searching for what you want to offer?
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

2) Build your website with this FREE tool:
http://www.officialsitebuilder.com/

3) Select a URL and setup Hosting (not FREE but darn cheap and reliable – something like $4 per month…):
http://www.officialsitebuilder.com/domain-checker.php

4) Drive traffic (not FREE but you cannot do without):
https://adwords.google.com/

5) FREE Online Business Creator:

(http://www.sandrosalsi.com/tools/online-business-creator.html)
This is a list of tools and resources I use myself to build and market my websites.

Highly recommended. Hope this helps…

By: Anna

Anna — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:40:19 +0000

I use both Paypal and Alert Pay. Never had a problem with either one.

By: zim519

zim519 — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:28:51 +0000

You don't have to register with the state. When you are up and running get a business license from the city. It cost less than $200 to start an online business, so you should be able to save that in a week or two…. if not perhaps you are not the type to be success in business?

By: GS

GS — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:25:43 +0000

First you have to figure out what type of product you want to sale. Did you want to partner up with a business that's already well established or do you want to start one on your own. This will require a lot of work. You can create a web site (or pay someone to create it) had have your items on their set up like a Internet shopping mall. You can partner up with other stores and have links to their web sites and make a percentage off of saling their items. You can also get together with other business owners and sale their products from the site and take a commission out of it. So many different ways to make money in home based businesses, you just need to figure out which way works for you.
After you set that up, you need to network it so that you drive traffic to these sites. You can get together with survey companies and have your web site added on their sites for people to purchase online, and they take a percentage out of what you pay. This gets a little tricky when they pay you by cc, and you pay your distributers and you pay all the expenses. It's a tough business to get involved in. Especially when theirs so many internet malls, sites etc.
I guess because your wanting to do Internet work, your wanting a business to start out of your home, or from a lap top. Theirs a lot of different businesses that you can take a look at that are much easier to do and run and start then this business that your trying to do. You will quickly find out, what a pain it's going to be, and the income isn't like you think. You'd be better off selling things off of Ebay or something like that. Making your own things or selling your old junk.

If you'd like some business ideas to get started in. Your more then welcome to take a look at my 360 page Blog that I created on home based businesses. There are over half a dozen different ones to chose from on there to give you different ideas for different industries. Most have online web sites that you'd have, as well as phone calls and Internet work to do at home. Depending on what it is your looking into doing.
Well, I hope I've shed some light on Online businesses. If you can do the time that it takes to be successful, then I say do it. But if how difficult and the length of time required is an issue, then I suggest you look into other avenues.

Tiffany