What is the best internet business to start?
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M$6 Answers
What is the best way to market my hand made dolls and stitch patterns online? http://budurl.com/yjh9 .
To directly answer your question, Rumrock:
1 - EXISTING MARKETS)
The first thing that you'll want to deeply consider Rumrock, is what types of businesses are successful online. All successful online businesses fall into one of the following segments:
a) Turnkey Internet Business
In this type of business, an entrepreneur buys an existing web business and either improves it or simply continues to receive income from it. I've placed Turnkey Internet Businesses in its own category because people who are successful at this usually buy a few different types (or groups of) of Internet Businesses at the same time.
b) Marketing Businesses
In this segment, business owners promote (through a variety of methods) a product or service. People who do business in this segment could be considered "resellers", "affiliates" and sometimes even have their own products or services to sell.
c) Internet Services
This is the "business to business" segment of Internet Business. These services include website hosting, advertising, outsourcing, etc.
d) Content Creation
Content is king. The people who create the best content online make the most money. It doesn't really matter what the content is so long as it's outstanding. Blogs, Mahalo Answers, video sites like youtube, even social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter fall into this segment.
2 - SELF ASSESSMENT)
Next, you will want to consider what you're already good at and what you enjoy. I've found that more often then not, business that fail in startup are those that do not have leadership that is already involved in the industry in which they are trying to operate.
For example, if you were a top Sales Engineer for a company that manufactures paper, you likely already know the ins and outs of stock wight, claying, setups, etc. Your interests and past experience would not lend themselves well to becoming the next Perez Hilton and blogging about celebrities.
Take a close look at your individual interests, hobbies, experience, etc. Self introspection is one of the hardest things to accomplish when operating a business independently. It's something that most folks overlook. I strongly recommend that you seek the assistance of your friends, family, heck even acquaintances. Rally everyone behind you not only to help you figure out what segment (above) of Internet Business you will succeed in but to help in starting the business itself.
3 - MAKING A CHOICE)
Now, you know about the different segments that people successfully operate online businesses in and what segment your skills, experience and interest will lend themselves to.
Devise a master plan. Create a plan for wold domination in whatever segment you've chosen. Don't employ just one tactic, think about them all. Break open a huge wide view of what excites and interests you. Personally, I use a huge whiteboard where I draw all sorts of bubbles, mind maps and paragraphs. The only important part of this is step is not to take yourself too seriously and don't think that anything is written in stone - be flexible.
Rumrock, you mentioned that you already run a few successful online local blog-type sites. This genre is an easy example. Throughout your online local blogs, there is likely a core process or theme that runs through each. Together they form a collection. Take that collection and think of ways to expand on it. For example, how about selecting 10 interesting businesses in each local area and filming a short (1 minute) psudo commercial that highlights the owner. Create a new site not only to feed your blogs but also to accept ads and promotional content from local merchants and groups.
This line of expansive but related thinking can be very effective. Ideas are not in rare commodity but related, profitable ideas that come to fruition are.
4 - GETTING IT DONE)
There are a TON of entrepreneurs that fail simply because (for whatever reason) they can't get their project done. You can profit online from this fact by buying what they've started (see segment a, turnkey). However, simply by realizing this and doing whatever it takes (literally) to get your ideas done is VERY important.
You mentioned that you have had a bad experience with elance. Don't fret, you're not alone. Many people find outsourcing sites like elance, scriptlance and rentacoder difficult. Personally, I like outsourcing sites and use them regularly. However, it takes a lot of work to clearly define a project and communicate effectively to get work done in these arenas.
Here are a couple of other options to get difficult things done:
a) Hire a project manager
Consult elance (or here even) for a regular project manager. This person should be part programmer, part diplomat, part teacher. This person should be responsible for taking your ideas and "making them work". This is likely a partnership role but in the economy today, you may simply be able to hire someone.
b) Start small, build up, learn
This is of course a much longer DIY path, but I've seen people do it. Start with very small projects. Complete the start of each learning project yourself and then outsource the completion of it. You'll have a MUCH better idea of your project if you start to code it yourself and then talk to the outsourcer about how they solved the problem.
c) Think big
Collect your ideas to form a single, wide reaching idea. Gather, beg or borrow the money that you need to complete it. Mahalo is a good example of this where a line of ideas have been brought together to form one large project. A group of experienced Internet businesspeople went out and received a large amount of money to complete their projects. Think big and big things will happen. Start small, but think big.
5 - SPECIFIC IDEAS)
I've outlined current segments of Internet Businesses that are excelling, how and why to evaluate your personal skills, and how to bring your ideas into the light.
You mentioned that ideas aren't your problem. It's the business of those ideas that is. Hopefully, these 5 very important points will help you gather and refine whatever products, services or content you wish to create.
Above all else, keep this in mind:
The Internet is currently undergoing a revolution. Traditionally, advertising has driven the revenue model of online businesses and people have been able to build sustainable incomes based on this advertising. The revolution is significantly affecting online advertising. You will read many (dated) things online that will tell you (or hint that) online ad income will sustain your product, service or content. That is no longer the case. Diversify your revenue stream. Ensure that you have at least a plan to receive tangible income that is not directly related to online advertising networks or private ad sales.
0 - THANK YOU RUMROCK)
Thank-you very much for asking such an interesting question. I sincerely hope that what I've wrote will not only help you succeed online but that it encourages you to dive head first into this exciting arena.
I personally generate all of my income through Internet related business. I have years of practical and theoretical knowledge about Internet Business and consistently learn and explore new and evolving online business trends.
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M$
a) you having experience in--and seem to enjoy-sales. That's excellent. Most internet companies are not big into sales.
b) you are motivated to start someting
c) you're at the bottom of the market, so you can find people to work on your project (i.e. there are a lot of folks out there with free time).
Now I would ask yourself the follow questions:
1. Where do you have the most "domain expertise?" Are you big into the financial field? Have you spent 20 years in real estate? Starting a company when that relates to your domain expertise is a very good idea. Kevin Rose started digg which focuses on tech news--he was previously a tech journalist. I started Weblogs, Inc. and was previously a print journalist. If you don't have domain expertise I'd look for someone who does to pair your sales skills with.
2. What's a large and growing market? I like to surf on a beach with great waves. IN 1996 I started a magazine about this new thing called the "internet." In 2003 I started a blog company when folks didn't know what the word meant! Two years ago I started a "human-powered search engine" --which no one understood (and still today only 50% understand). In other words, try and find a growing market.
3. If this is your first time I would go work for a great entrepreneur for a year. Seriously. I've had many folks come in and spend a year or two working with me and then they go and start their own companies (Brian Alvey is doing CrowdFusion, Peter Rojas and Ryan block are doing GDGT.com, and the list goes on and on). Go find someone who has done it two or three time and stand next to them, ask them a lot of questions, etc.
4. Since you're good at sales go meet with folks in a growing market and ask them what the biggest problems they have are. If it's a lawyer and they say it's managing their paralegals, come up with a system to do that. If it's real estate brokers and they say it's keeping track of their former clients, solve that problem. Find a nice juicy, but solveable, problem and knock it out of the park. Then you can build from there.
5. Find like-minded folks to start this business with. Go find a programmer who can't sell and you'll be in great shape!
Good luck, and please don't hestitate asking a follow up comment!
all the best, Jason
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M$
For Jason and the other readers,
Another responder asked me some questions about my hobbies, career, etc. which I'll also answer here:
I live in New England and I have been working in capital equipment sales and marketing. I am not really interested in working in that market online though as I plan to keep working hard at my current career and don't want a conflict of interest. Instead, I would like to bring the skill I have developed over to this new venture. Hobbies are technology (TWIT, Mac, Podcasts, blogs), Golf, audiobooks, home filmmaking, and photography. I buy everything online and I am very familiar with the current online trends. I own a few local blog-type websites (i.e. for my town) which are doing well and even making a little money from advertising I sold. Last year I tried to use elance to make a tinyurl clone with mini ads embedded in the tweets but I was way over my head. Luckily I had only spent about $1000 before abandoning the project. I get a good idea for an online business every day but never know where and how to start (and finish). The post on Mahalo was placed to generate this discussion. Thank you for asking.
-rumrock
Jason, thank you for the detailed response.
You make an excellent point about tying the business idea to domain expertise. Also, thank you for your recommendation about working with another internet entrepreneur. In fact, earlier this week I send an e-mail to an internet entrepreneur whose work I admire suggesting that I volunteer my time in their sales organization. I can contribute one to two days per week. We'll see if he responds!
-rumrock
P.S. Looking forward to the next TWIT - it should be a great one.
As the asker has no background in programming or web development, how can he tell if the product/website built by this programmer is good or full of security holes?
In the same vein, I can't help thinking that someone with the capital could buy up huge amounts of liquidated products, especially denims, store them in huge warehouses that are located in low cost, dry areas, such as southern New Mexico or Arizona and then wait until this time next year to begin selling the merchandise out of discount warehouses.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$My advice to you would be to install a Content Management System (CMS). This is a basic site with many features. Installing it is really simple. I would recommend Joomla! http://joomla.org
Once you have done that choose a theme for your site and add your unique content.
After, you should buy a domain (.com, .co.uk recommended)
After that sign up to Google Adsense. http://google.com/adsense/
With adsense you can display adverts on your site (each click from a visitor on a advert rakes in cash to you).
After that become an affiliate with some large companies so you can earn decent comission from your site. You can even quit your day job and rake in earnings if you do it properly.
Good luck :-)
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
@robbrown I think this may be one of the most thought out and well explained answers we have seen on this site so far. The fact that you bring so much personal experience to the table on this subject should not be taken lightly as you have done something with this answer that I don't believe many people would think of... making a point to look at the TYPE of business is often the focus that people will talk about and they completely miss the fact that not every person can run any kind of business.
I too have a couple of internet related businesses (though I have not focused my time on them enough to make them my only source of income... though I would like to do that *hint* *hint* rob lol) and I have personally learned over the years that going into a segment, without thinking about how I personally fit into it, can turn out very bad.
I would suggest one addition to the choice that someone makes though... After you look at the type of business you want to run and gone through the self-assesment, be sure to go with your heart... if you go into something because you just want to make money you can become successful at it but the lack of enjoyment offsets that success. You have to love what you do so you can enjoy the successes that come your way... be sure to research your choices and write down the Pros and Cons you see with each one and make sure you can live with the balance that it presents!!!
If I may quote you, "You will read many (dated) things online that will tell you (or hint that) online ad income will sustain your product, service or content. That is no longer the case. Diversify your revenue stream. Ensure that you have at least a plan to receive tangible income that is not directly related to online advertising networks or private ad sales."
I am heading toward the theory that this is because the number of ad-network users has grown astronomically, and is probably not too far behind the number of those exposed to the ads.
In other words, the people exposed to the ads are many of the same people using ad networks. They are not quite as likely to click the ads as non-technical, non-blogging, non-website owning basic internet users.
Great answer, by the way. No matter what field a person is coming from - the advice you gave should be a great start towards a successful online business. The key is knowing what one enjoys doing!
Rob,
Thank you for the detailed and thoughtful answer which has already generated some ideas for me.
Jason, if you read this - it looks like we set the going rate for a great answer to this question at $20. This was worth every penny to me. Thanks to all, hope the discussion continues here.