Starting an Internet Business and optimizing it using a search engine

Starting an Internet Business and optimizing it using a search engine

Obviously, you’re here because you want to learn how to start an internet business. If you are a self starter and you read the marketing information here carefully and thoroughly, you will have most of the information you need to start a successful online e-marketing business. Our menu is organized so that if you follow it step-by-step, you should learn how to start an internet business. You’ll also find useful online marketing and internet business links on nearly every page of our site.
You don’t need a lot of money to be successful in internet business, although it is not realistic to expect to do it for free. Even small, home-based internet businesses that can fill a niche can operate successfully and profitably. The number one mistake someone thinking of starting an online business can make is to think too broadly, and/or to try immediately to sell products to other people that teach them how to start an internet business. Ironically, many people with no knowledge whatsoever seem to think that they can teach others how to do what they, themselves, have not accomplished.
The Internet , e-marketing, and e-commerce can make a lot of money for you. You need to have a niche to fill, then design, buy, or represent as an affiliate a product or products to fill that niche.
As we go through this section, we’ll refer you to examples of successful web sites. Every web site reviewed here is successful because they found a niche to fill and found or created products or services to fill that niche!

That said, how does one go about starting a business online?

There are four general types of internet businesses that you can start.

• A portal site or a portal that sells digital products.
• An e-commerce business that sells a digital product.
• An e-commerce business that ships tangibles to people.
• A business to business and/or service-selling web site.

In addition to the above, you can also start either an affiliate marketing business, or can do network marketing online. In both cases, you can start and run these types of online businesses with or without a website.
One other type of internet business or web site is called BrochureWare. This is a site that acts as an online catalog for your company or organization, but from which people can’t purchase online. These sites do serve a purpose but have very little to do with running an online business for profit, so we won’t be discussing them.
OK, let’s dive in and see some examples of successful online businesses.
Portal sites or portals which sell digital products
This a very exciting model that requires mostly knowledge and time. A portal site is a site that provides information to people for free, or for a fixed price, and sells digital products to site visitors. You might be asking yourself, how do I create a portal, or do I have what it takes to build a portal site? To build a successful portal you need the following:
A lot of information to share on a particular subject that people are interested in. If you have this, then creating a portal site can just be just plain fun and sometimes\ very profitable.

You need to learn how to build and edit your own web site.

A product of your own creation, or products you advertise as an affiliate, so that you can “monetize” (i.e., earn income from) your web site.
One man, in particular, specializes in teaching people how to create and run successful portal sites (he calls them “content sites”, but they are really the same thing, as we use the term). If this type of site interests you, you owe it to yourself to learn about internet business at Sitesell.Com.
This is some of the most solid information you can find on how to run an internet business, and the cost is a fraction of what many other people charge for information that is of lesser quality, and lesser volume. You simply cannot go wrong following Ken Evoy.
The truth is you don’t need a lot of money to build and launch a web site! You can start your first Internet business with an investment as small as a few hundred dollars. Where else in the world can you open a business with world wide exposure for so little? Only on the Internet! Let’s look at an example of a very successful portal site that sells and promotes digital products, while providing a great deal of free information.
The Newbie Club is an example of a great portal site dedicated to helping people who are new to running a business on the Internet. Their web site is not only a portal but they also sell their own digital products to club members and nonmembers. This type of web site, a portal that sells digital products, is really the wave of the future. Most of the products available at the Newbie Club are related to how to use computers and how to use the Internet effectively.
Examine the site layout and content. Their design is very deliberate and straight forward. Visit this internet business information site and see for yourself. This is a classic, high quality portal site.
A somewhat different type of portal site is exemplified by my own work at home resource portal. While the site itself is short on information, it contains numerous links to affiliate programs, other free resources, and sources of information on how to work from home and start an internet business.
By looking over these sites, you’ll not only learn about how to start an internet business, you may even find a product or two that will help you. These are very popular sites for people who are interested in internet business startups, for good reason. The content and products are first rate!
If you’ve studied this model, I’m sure by now you realize that this site, Emarketingman.Com, is also a portal site. The information here is free, and many of the links you’ll find here for suggested and recommended products are affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission when you purchase the product through my link. I also run another “content” portal that teaches you how to start an internet business

E-commerce business site that sells a digital product

This is becoming a very common approach to selling on the internet. Imagine having a downloadable digital product, like an e-book or software program, that can be sold online. All you have to do is find the market that needs this product, create the product, set up your web site and start raking in the money. Yeah, right! This isn’t all that difficult, but neither is it as simple as some people make it sound.
Let’s take a look at some high quality digital products and two web sites that are great examples of how to sell digital products. Notice the big difference in web site style and presentation, by comparison to a “content” site.
Blogging-Bonanza.Com is the sales mini-site for my newest digital product, which is a guide to using blogs and RSS for internet marketing.
This type of web site consists primarily of what is known as a “sales letter”, and is often referred to as a mini-site, since it contains only a few pages, primarily the sales copy, and the ordering page. The sole purpose of this site is to move you to purchase the product. You will notice that the design is very different from the design of the typical portal or “content” site. The entire web site is automated, including the pages for purchasing and downloading the ebook, and entering the private area of the site.
An example of a more ambtious sales site is my own online bookstore, which features emarketing ebooks and software. You’ll notice the relative absence of free information, except as it relates directly to the products that are sold there at www.best-biz-builders.com.
An e-commerce business that ships tangibles to people
This is probably the most common platform that people use to start an online business, and also one of the most difficult. This type of internet business is more familiar to most people than the portal and content sites discussed earlier. Most people find the concept easier to relate to, because they are accustomed to buying and selling tangible products in the offline world, and most people have bought something over the internet. There are thousands of large businesses using this standard e-commerce model. A great example of a small business using this model is the web site of Chris Smith.
MagicSmith.com is run by a professional magician. He started his web site because he loved to teach other magicians new magic tricks. His web site was started in his house nine years ago, and is now one of the most popular destinations for magicians on the Internet. He has since moved his business to a commercial center, sells products to large commercial establishments, and employs more than ten people. His web site is not a portal, he just sells magic tricks! Check out this successful internet business site here.
An increasingly popular variation on this model is to sell drop-shipped products, either through a direct-sales web site, or by using online auctions, such as E-Bay. For many people, this is a simple and lucrative e-commerce model. We go into more detail on another of our web sites, and you can learn about this form of e-marketing here.
A business to business web site
In a nutshell, a “B2B” web site offers a product or service that other online business owners need and use. It could be an ezine directory, traffic generation, accounting services, autoresponders, or countless other things. In a sense, this is a very shrewd business move, since your target market is not the general public, but other business owners. You know they have money to spend, and you know they need your product, and you know where to find them. By doing internet business “B2B”, you’ve solved many of the dilemmas faced by people trying to start an internet business.
Let’s take a quick look at several of these business to business web sites.
If you’re going to sell anything from your website, you need some way to take payments. You can go to a lot of trouble getting a merchant account, and doing all of your own fulfillment, or you can “hire” this software to do it for you. Check out this business to business web site to see how a well-known internet marketing guru capitalized on this need.
Another service that many internet business owners need, especially if they intend to do any aggressive e-marketing using permission e-mail, is an autoresponder. This particular one is a product developed for and marketed by another well-known online businessman. See how he capitalizes on the needs of other online entrepeneurs and sells this needed e-marketing tool.
The Internet continues to spawn more and more services geared to helping other Internet business owners succeed. If you want your web site to be seen by web surfers, you need to understand what key words or phrases people are using on the search engines to find your type of product or service. Wordtracker has created an affordable service that allows you to research the optimum phrases and words to use for your page title and your key phrases. This is another great example of an internet business selling services.

I don’t have a product but, I want to start an Internet business!

If you, like most people, have the desire, but no idea where to start, you have a couple of choices. One is to take up either Affiliate Marketing or online Network Marketing, and represent someone else’s product for a commission. Most people doing this don’t make a great deal of money, but those who are dedicated have a shot at the elite, that 5% or so of who become “Super Affiliates” or “Network Superstars” and do extremely well.
Affiliate Marketing can also provide a great second income stream, if you already have a web site and can pick up some products to represent as an Affiliate. Your goal, of course, is to find products that complement rather than compete with or contradict the theme of your existing web site.
Regardless of whether you’re an internet business “newbie” or a web site owner looking for additional income, you can find tons of products to represent at two of the biggest affiliate marketing portals, Clickbank and also Commission Junction
A more lucrative way to start internet business is to develop and sell your own info-products. In the long run, this is a better approach to starting an online business, because you own and control the product, and instead of competing with hundreds or even thousands of other affiliates, you are only competing against other similar products.
If you’re going to create your own products, though, you really need to do some research, and find an internet business niche. It’s been said that “the riches are in the niches”, and it’s absolutely true.