How To Start a Home-Based Internet Business in Under an Hour
As the 20th century came to a close, a lot of people were worried about the Y2K bug and the end of the world. I, on the other hand, was mostly worried about how I was going to meet my goal of becoming a millionaire before I turned 30. So I got to work building my very first web-based business. Turns out it was a lot harder than you might think! It took me months to get everything set up properly. Well, those days are long gone. It's the 21st century now, and while we aren't quite at the stage of simply telling a computer, "Build me a successful online business," and POOF, there it is, we are pretty darn close. With an abundance of free tools at your disposal, starting an online business is easier than you might imagine. Having started a few online businesses myself, I can attest to its ease. In just a few steps, you too could be owner and operator of your very own internet-based business. Let's take a look at the first major steps shall we? A traditional business requires a storefront. On the internet, your storefront is virtual and takes the form of a website. When I first started, this was no easy task. It required quite a bit of technical knowledge and lots of money to pay for high-speed access to the web. These days, companies exist whose sole purpose is to give you a presence on the web. These companies are called webhosts and you can get very reliable webhosting for just a few dollars per month. Most even offer free access to the powerful tools you'll need to complete your virtual store. Once you're set up with a webhost and have your website open to the World Wide Web, it's time to pretty it up. Don't know Photoshop or HTML? No problem! A good webhost can automatically install a content management system (CMS) that will allow you to create a professional-looking website with the same ease that a word processor provides. Once that is done, it's time to fill your website with content and other media. Because a CMS works very similar to a word processor, all you have to do is tell it what content you want and where you want it. The CMS does all the heavy lifting for you and makes it happen. You'll look like a professional web programmer and designer, even if you have never program a single line of code in your life! From here, you want to monetize your site (i.e. start making money), There are a couple ways to do this. Selling advertising space is one way to go, or you can go the more traditional route of selling stuff. Whether that "stuff" is information, ebooks, or actual physical products is entirely up to you. But whatever you choose to sell, you'll need a way to accept payment from your customers. Once again, a good webhost will come to the rescue with full integration of a variety of payment systems. In most cases, a few clicks of your mouse should be all it takes to get set up to accept credit cards, echecks and more. If you're selling physical products, look for a wholesaler that can provide you with a data feed of their inventory. By uploading their data feed to your webhost, you can automatically populate your webstore's virtual shelves with as many hot items as you wish. Just be sure to check with your webhost to ensure that they have the technology to accept such a data feed. If they don't, find one that does. Any self-respecting webhost will. And that's the end. Wait, what? Yep, it really is that easy! In fact, 60 minutes is truly a conservative estimate. But now you've got to get customers to your virtual door. And that's a whole other article. In the meantime, enjoy your shiny new business!Stu Lisonbee is a former eBay employee and PowerSeller helping others learn to [http://www.powersellerpros.com]sell on eBay as well as implement other strategies to [http://www.internetmoneyjunkie.com]make easy money online. Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?How-To-Start-a-Home-Based-Internet-Business-in-Unde...] How To Start a Home-Based Internet Business in Under an HourComments [0]
