The wild west of our age, as some refer to the internet, with it’s still seemingly uneasy, somewhat free-for-all and sometimes tactless disposition, ecommerce, or online businesses are still quickly becoming the mainstream, architectural structure of entrepreneurship.
What does that mean, exactly? It means, that due to ecommerce’s truly infinite array of possibilities as a result of it being, “the wild west”, entrepreneurs are venturing out, like pioneers, to explore it and they are liking what they find; despite its risks and the unknowns of selling online. One does not become a successful entrepreneur without taking risks. Beginning an online business is a risk, however, the risks of an online business are not outweighed by the benefits, most dedicated entrepreneurs are finding out.
Like any business, the rout in which you approach conceiving it is fundamental and entirely dependent upon the type of business you are intending to start. Myspecailnow.com/au has come up with a guide to the different types of online businesses that your idea may encompass along with some directions on how to successfully procure a spot in the global ecommerce.
There are four basic categories within which your online business idea will reside; Affiliate Marketing, Online Store, Membership Sites and Freelance.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is advertizing other companies on your site. This form of marketing is generally in place of Membership Sites, so that the user does not have to help maintain the financial straits of the website. Facebook and Twitter use this form of marketing, but if you have a successful blog, e-newsletter, e-magazine, or website that receives a decent amount of patrons and or viewers, this could be an option for your ecommerce. Just like a newspaper or television station inserts ads and commercials, you would be inserting ads into your interface for varying amounts of profit, however unlike the commercials and adds, you set up a link that directs viewers out of your site and into the site of the company. This is definitely a benefit to you, because then your traffic directly affects their traffic. The viewers only have to go to your site and click. There is no third party intervention. Obviously, the more traffic you can prove your website receives, the more lucrative your Affiliate Marketing approach will be.
Proving the amount of traffic your business receives is fairly simple. Some programs, like WordPress and Facebook have an imbedded traffic tracker. Facebook will lay out a report to the administrators of that particular page that states the amount of views, posts, friend requests and likes, compared even with previous reports. WordPress will provide you with rating reports that can be broken down into per post or kept as overall in order to provide you with the information you need. However, these are not the only two traffic tracking programs at your disposal, but they are both free at their basic levels.
Online Store
An online store is the traditional online marketplace. Whether you are going for an online auction, like Ebay or marketing a storefront online, like you can do with sites just like myspecial.com/au, where you have a set price and customers buy your products outright, the basic structure of an online store is the same. Whether you create your merchandise yourself, or buy it from a provider, it is basically the same process as if you were to physically rent a storefront to sell in. However, the benefits of an online store are that the rent is significantly lower, if any exists at all, there is a vast amount more flexibility and no set hours, yet your store is opened twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. In addition to supplying a global market, opposed to just a set radius of customers, it is possible for you to sell your items and ship them out yourself, so there is no worry or concern with hiring anyone. You can be a one-person show if that is how you choose to work.
There are countless websites that allow you to create a web-store of your own, some of them for free. Depending on your location, personal preference and the financial investment you are intending to make for a website, there are a few different levels of website design that could work for you.
First, there is the free website design web store. This type of web store will probably have their name tied into your URL. If this doesn’t bother you, there are some very interesting sites that offer a lot of simple solutions to an online store, such as http://www.freewebstore.org.
Then, there is collective and very well known business websites for a certain country or region, like right here on myspecial.com/au! Myspecialnow.com/au offers easy setup, your business will automatically have guaranteed insertion into the Australian business directory and you will receive unlimited cart and post options, in addition to the best internet marketing deals and features on the front page of the Myspecialnow.com/au website! If this sounds like something your Australian business would benefit from, visit http://www.myspecialnow.com.au/signup. If you are not an Australian business owner, there are other websites that are country or regionally directed with similar offers.
A third option is a globalized online store, such as GoDaddy and other providers. Most of these webhosts have special deals or trial periods attached and will allow you to keep only your URL, without tagging theirs on. For some entrepreneurs, especially those whom have already established a name, this could be the best option for you. Paying for your own URL could be how you would like to market your business. The prices vary for each provider, but packages are regulated by the amount of bandwidth you receive, the amount of graphics you are allowed as well as personal preference and other cosmetic differences. http://www.godaddy.com/ecommerce/shopping-cart.aspx
In the end, if you have a good product and you are smart about how you market your product, you have a good chance of success, regardless of the option you feel suits your business the best.
Membership Sites
Membership sites are very simple. They can be any type of website, but they are marketed exclusively; like a subscription. Whether it is an e-newsletter, a website, an e-bookstore, a gaming site, a blog, or e-newspaper it is marketed to a certain niche of people who would be interested; like a trade journal. However, be warned that with this type of online business, you need to have an audience who is willing to pay and to be honest and upfront, you need to be able to consistently offer exclusive information that cannot be found anywhere else. If you are selling products and potential customers have to pay to get into your site, it probably will not be successful. This is probably the hardest online business to market because unless you have a very solid, outstanding reputation, or a product that people are willing to take a gamble on that it will please them, you really do not have much grounding to stand on.
And if you do start getting members, you must keep them by frequent posts and interesting media as well as exclusive content.
Additionally, patrons will probably be upset if you switch to this type of business after you have been established. If you have great information for free or even to buy and then switch to a fee to subscribe to the site, people may be offended or offset by this decision. Yet, to build a reliable following, you may have to begin with a free forum and then slowly work your way into a paying membership plan.
Online newspapers seem to be the most successful at this, but only the ones who have been around, offering subscriptions forever in printed format.
However, sites such as http://www.ediets.com/ have been very successful with their Membership Site, because their subject is one which people are constantly craving. Not only is their product is appealing to a broad niche of people globally, but the information in addition to the product is something that customers seek.
Freelance
Freelancing can be whatever you make it; because it is you. You are not providing a product, you are usually providing a service; you are providing yourself. Whatever talents, whether they lie in multimedia, writing, programming, engineering, finance, marketing, sales, art, you name it; there is probably a freelance market out there for you. You must truly be dedicated to your craft when you freelance, because it is truly a reflection of your ability. A freelancer trades product overhead and traditional business cost for the management of reputation, a little more than other online businesses.
This online business is probably the easiest to manage and very rewarding if in fact, you are a master of your craft. With sites like www.elance.com and www.odesk.com, it is simple and at the basic level, free, to find job posts and interact with prospective employers. For people with a passion, it is definitely a great way to live your dream.
When using a site like the two mentioned above, the general procedure goes as follows; you sign up, you create a profile, explaining who you are and what you do and then you search for jobs. Once you find a prospective job, you submit a proposal, outlining your qualifications and maybe even provide some samples of your work and hopefully, you hear back from the potential employer. Sometimes they ask you questions or talk to you over email or Skype before hiring you and sometimes they are impressed enough with your proposal to hire you on the spot.
However, every proposal you send in is a gamble, since literally the whole world, conceivably, has the same chance to vie for that position. The good thing is that you also become a lot more in-tuned with the rest of the world, since the employer you are submitting to may also live across the world from you.
Freelancing can be a very useful, very rewarding experience, though it takes a great deal of mental endurance and perseverance.
So, whichever online business you decide to pursue, we here at myspecialnow.com/au wish you all of the success and happiness we know is acquirable through the ecommerce trade.
Sources
http://www.subhub.com/articles/subscription-or-membership-websites-top-10-subjects
http://www.godaddy.com/ecommerce/shopping-cart.aspx
http://en.support.wordpress.com/advertising/
http://www.squidoo.com/types-of-business-ideas-for-self-employment
http://laidoffandpaidoff.com/different-types-of-internet-business-ideas/