Internet and Businesses Online

Individuals and Small Business

On the small scale - to individuals with little or no investment seed, the Internet represents the toughest challenge. It's not that there aren't opportunities, it's just that there are so many chasing them. In addition, the competition is global, unlike in your country of origin. Many choose to open a shop, an online version of something you might find in a mall or shopping centre. There is no shortage of these businesses already, and initial dreams of virtually snipping the ribbon and watching customers virtually pour through the doors, should instantly be dispelled.

Yes, you can make good money by opening an online shop and your overheads will be lower - but your competition will also be greater and someone, somewhere, will be able to get their goods cheaper (or sell in a currency more favorable to bargain shoppers). So - before you start, research your market. What's missing from the current market? What isn't currently being supplied? There are two reasons for something not being supplied. The more likely - nobody wants it. Or the less likely, but better prospect - few have thought of it.

The second major option is traffic. Create some content, or a service (such as a portal, directory, video clip library, advice centre, collection of jokes, etc. etc.) which other people will want to visit. This also requires diligent research - look for the most successful sites regarding traffic (Alexa.com can help here) and see what they offer. What types of portal are the most popular, is the competition as good as it could be, can I compete and offer something better or something new? If so - go ahead (there are thousands of these sites, with good traffic, but very few are particularly memorable). These sites will cost you time (and expertise), but traffic is like a snowball rolling down-hill, the more you accumulate, the more valuable you become to other sites (affiliates, advertising, blogs, social networks, etc.). Meaning your traffic, will accumulate more traffic.

To get to that stage of critical mass, will require a developer to build your site and some good, honest SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Although it's certainly possible to learn how to do this yourself. The truth is it's much harder than it seems, shops are not for the faint-hearted and neither are CMS sites. Connecting to a database (which any dynamic site needs to do) requires an understanding of scripted code (PHP or ASP usually) which is embedded in XHTML, some CSS, a database (MySQL or SQL-Server usually) - some knowledge of FTP, some Unix, Apache server, graphic design. It's usually simpler to pay someone else to do it.

SEO is also hard graft, requires constant re-assessment and usually substantial help. Getting that initial traffic, to start gaining a reputation, is like all advertising - you put a lot in initially and get little return - but keep at it and the rewards will come (SEO is covered in another article). Affiliation is a viable way of making money through traffic, but it's highly competitive and anything which claims to make you rich, with little work - is by its nature, designed to sound more appealing than it is.

If you're an individual - a shop, or site with traffic are very viable money-making methods, yes, both require long hours and persistence, but the market is there. Spend 10 times longer planning your niche, than you originally intended. It will repay you in untapped traffic. The best method of all? Do both and let each support the traffic of the other. For example, route people from your sports news portal to your sports shop and vice versa. At this stage of the process you're probably behaving like a medium-to-large enterprise, and they can attract value in different ways.