Bruce Hughbanks - Internet Business Blog

Promotion Sites

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:07:19 +0000

Promoting your business is something that will generally be important if you want to bring in customers and make a success of it. There are numerous ways of doing this, some of which are expensive and others which, as a matter of relief to the person looking to get a business up and running quickly and on a budget, are free of charge. Free promotion of a business has its drawbacks compared to when paying for it – it is less direct and will not be as prominent. On the other hand however, there are clear upsides to free advertising. For one, well, it is free, and for another it is really quite simple.

Getting free advertising is something that need only take half an hour – and that is allowing for writing the advertising copy and ensuring that it looks good. There are sites devoted to free advertising – two of the most famous being Gumtree and Craigslist. Both of these sites simply require you to write a short description of your business, prices and some contact details so that interested parties can get details from you and arrange a deal.

These sites make their money by placing advertisements on the site from companies who will pay for exposure in a setting where people are looking to conduct business. You make your money by placing an attractive advertisement that will make potential customers want to know more. After that it is a matter of handling enquiries and arranging deals. All of that for zero outlay, too. Isn’t it amazing?

Promotion is Important

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:06:08 +0000

There have been people – many people – who have set up a website for their business and sat back expecting it to become lucrative immediately. While the Internet has made business a lot easier for the individual with the intellectual capital to make it happen, there is little scope for making money without investing time and effort. However, compared to setting up a High Street business, the Internet can deliver results for a relatively small outlay on your behalf. An advertising budget makes things easier – no-one would ever deny that – but it is certainly not essential. A bit of time and awareness will also bear results.

The Internet is crawling with forums and message boards. For just about any topic of conversation you can imagine, there will be at least a few message boards on the Internet, each slightly different in the way they look at the subject. Certainly, there will be a message board that discusses things that have a connection with your business. By registering on these forums, you can make your business known to a receptive audience. Many forums have anti-spam measures that prevent you from posting irrelevant content or linking without context, but there are no reasons why you cannot link to your business in the signature box that most allow beneath posts.

Depending on the nature of your business, the possibilities for promotion on the Internet are many and varied, and they make for a real opportunity to drive your business forward, usually at no extra cost to yourself.

Getting Quick Cash on the Net

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:59:21 +0000

When we first start out in business, there is a lot standing in the way of us being successful. It is often the case with a bricks and mortar business that you will have been trading for months or longer before you have anything resembling a steady income. In addition to this, presentation is everything in face to face business, and you can be unlucky simply because of completely superficial factors. But if you want to quickly realise the value of an asset, the Internet is a major advantage, one you cannot afford to turn down. The advent of auction sites which allow you to sell items at the click of a mouse means that you can decide to sell something one day, and receive the money for it the next.

This ability to sell something and see the money instantly may not be anything new if one takes into account the existence of pawn shops. But the ability to reach a much wider marketplace, and potentially get a good deal more than you otherwise would have is something that was impossible prior to the Internet. If you need working capital in order to take advantage of an opportunity, the Internet has made it a whole lot easier. People sell all kinds of things on the Internet, from extremely small, cheap items to cars and even in some cases their house. While selling your house is generally not a good idea in such a short space of time, it does show what is possible.

Selling online

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:58:03 +0000

Once upon a time, setting up a business meant opening up a shop somewhere where you could be sure that customers would come to see you. You needed to order stock and keep the shop tidy, well-heated or ventilated, and you needed to always be there. All of this meant that starting to sell would be preceded by weeks, even months of extremely diligent work, and with no guarantee of success anyone looking to set up a business would often decide that, on balance, the risk was too big. Now those problems are things of the past, and the potential businessperson can get things up and running very quickly.

The thing about “bricks and mortar” businesses is that they relied a lot on location and the other factors mentioned above. By going electronic, your sales room can be a small study under your stairs and your customers can be anybody. There is plenty of technology available which allows you to process payments electronically from a customer’s credit card or online banking facility. But even if you are not in a position to do this, you can set up a PayPal account and do your selling on eBay. Scarcely any initial outlay for you, and potential for the money to come flowing in with scarcely any delay. And now you can do business in your pajamas at 1.30am. so many of the obstacles to someone hoping to make a way in the business world have been removed, and it is all thanks to the Internet.

Getting Paid

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:56:33 +0000

The number of hoops through which a individual had to jump in order to get a business up and running, prior to the Internet revolution, was enough to turn a lot of people off. At one time, being a businessperson was a highly specialised job, and the business world was a place with a language and customs all of its own. As a minimum you would need to have a business bank account, separate from your own personal account, and either an accountant or the ability and time to do your own accounts. Getting started now requires nothing more than a computer, an Internet connection and knowledge of what sites to use.

The online payment site PayPal has become hugely popular in the space of less than a decade. It is a way of transferring payment electronically from one account to another. The funds leave one person’s PayPal account and hit their intended destination almost instantaneously. The receiving account holder can then transfer this money out to their bank account, or use the electronic funds to purchase goods or services. While cash is still king, PayPal is now welcome in many more places than before, and you can now apply for a PayPal top-up card which operates like a credit card and updates with any new funds in the space of a working day. This means you can be spending money the day after you have done your work. The world of business is no longer impenetrable and murky – it is more simple than ever.

Website No-Nos

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:54:37 +0000

Setting up a website in order to bring business into your company is an essential step in the present day. Even from watching advertisements on television or picking up a magazine you can see that, alongside the bullet-point information in the ads, there is almost invariably a URL for the company website. The Internet is a serious business tool for the biggest companies, and the smaller companies use it too as it is often cheaper and more effective than going ahead with simple old fashioned business practices. Advertising, for one thing, costs a lot more in print and in public than it does online.

A good company website, then, can be the difference between your business sinking and swimming. There are certain things that can turn a potential customer off a company just from a short view of a website. These are simple things, but they can cost you big money if you allow them to. Good spelling is an essential – the potential customer may have doubts about your ability to deliver a good service if you cannot proof-read your documents. Readability is also important – no long, rambling sentences can be allowed, nor can a poor choice of color combination (navy blue text on a bright red background will not do).

Poor use of images is also dangerous. The wrong image, the wrong size, the wrong placement – these are just three things that can make a potential customer’s mind wander. And if you let their mind wander, it may just wander all the way over to one of your rivals.

Website Dos and Don’ts

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:53:43 +0000

When setting up a website for Internet business there are a few things that need to be kept in mind at all times. Certain dos and don’ts like these can be the difference between success and failure, and are the reason that many companies outsource their Internet work to real experts. The Internet is a serious business tool, and incorrect use of it can drive potential customers away. Keep this in mind when it comes to setting up a business website, and get unbiased feedback on it before you “go live”. It may take a bit of time, and may even require some spending, but the benefits of a good website are unarguable.

Having the content of the site written and designed professionally can be worthwhile. If you are good with words, it is less so – it is important to do as much of the work as you comfortably can. Badly worded text, however, can hole you beneath the water line. A memorable URL for your site is also just about obligatory. Trying to get people to remember a long website address is likely to result in them upping sticks and going elsewhere. The site should also be easy to navigate and carry prominent contact details. Your potential customer may be very impressed by the flashing text and the snappy images, but if they cannot phone you or send you an e-mail, it won’t be much good to you. Try also to present a welcoming image on your site – sometimes just being made to smile can persuade a customer to spend their money.

Getting a Website

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:51:04 +0000

In order to make money and become successful in Internet business, the first thing that you will absolutely need – after the obvious computer – is a decent website. It is easy to recognise the companies who are not on the ball with internet business, because their websites look unprofessional and old. When the internet revolution started all those years ago, web pages were simple text on a screen, with possibly a little bit of color and graphics if the webmaster was experienced. Now, with technology improving by the day, a basic website is not generally acceptable in business.

Information Technology classes in schools now cover Internet resources quite thoroughly, as the use of computers has been revolutionized by the Internet. The major reason that people now use their computers is to go online for one reason or another. Many people, particularly younger people, have some knowledge of HTML, and in many cases can put together web pages that would have made the original experts blush. It is likely, then, that you know someone with this skill – and for a good rate, they will create a website for you that will bring in plenty of customers.

If you do not have a friend or family member who can put together a good website, then you may need to outsource the work to a professional. This can be expensive depending on what you want, so as a holdover it is worth setting up a blog. These can be customised to look like any other website, and will aid you in making enough money to pay for a professional to design your site.

the site owner, in the signature on your e-mail and on forums, as well as other innovative ways of spreading it – is all-important for you to bring in business.

Maximize Your Potential

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:37:08 +0000

The Internet is a global marketplace, and allows people living in small villages in one corner of the country to trade with someone half way across the globe in a similar village. Twenty years ago, such trading would have been enormously tricky and would have taken a lot of time – by which point a customer could well have reconsidered, or circumstances made the deal impossible. With the increase in efficiency that the Internet has brought it is now possible to move goods, services and money between nations at almost instantaneous speed. While this may have removed some of the browsing time, it does mean that you can make money quickly.

Although there are many reasons why people go into business, we would be kidding ourselves if we claimed that there was not one factor which motivated business above all others – money. Being able to make money at the click of a mouse has made the Internet an indispensable item for those who have become used to it – and there are several businesses now which will not trade any other way. The costs that a business used to incur have disappeared in large part, and every bit of money you make can be a profit if you do things the right way. The advantages that the Internet has bestowed on us are really quite startling.

The Internet is a way for potential businesspeople to maximize their potential and make money fast – money which they can use to streamline their business further, make more money, and make it faster.

Freelancing

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:36:07 +0000

The life of a freelance worker before the Internet was a very different thing to what it is today. In the past, any freelancer would need great mobility or a very sympathetic pricing plan from their phone company. In order to get around to pitch yourself to potential customers, you would require boundless energy, and an ability to deal with being told “no” face to face or over the phone. So much of freelancing is about speculation, after all. You can try and sell yourself a hundred times and could be told “no” a hundred times – and the chances are that you will get at least fifty rejections even if you are excellent. Although the Internet offers no guarantees of acceptance, it does make things a bit more equal for the freelancer.

There are many sites on the Internet that offer the opportunity for freelancers to pitch to potential customers on specific jobs – a searchable database means that you can even check for jobs that match up perfectly with your own specific skills and abilities. You can name your price and tell the customer how quickly you can turn a job around. The days of having to get out there, pound the pavement and then be told “sorry, we’re not interested” are more or less over. Not to mention that the Internet provides a truly monumental research tool for the jobs that require a bit of extra knowledge. The internet is nothing less than a launch pad from which to set your career in motion.