Posted on: 22 November, 2001
Author: Bob Osgoodby
It's no secret that the US economy has slowed down, but the ... does appear to be on the rebound. ... of ... are still ... and are being forced to cut ... It's no secret that the US economy has slowed down, but the stockmarket does appear to be on the rebound. Thousands of companieshowever, are still struggling, and are being forced to cut costs,decrease benefits, and even lay off employees. Many of those wholost their jobs, will try their hand at doing business on theInternet.It seems however, that lately I've been hearing a great dealabout the difficulty of doing business online. Put aside thetalk about the hype and the scams. They existed from the firstday the Internet was commercialized. They are becoming moresophisticated with their promises of earning millions, but aspeople become more experienced, they quickly see through them.Fake email addresses, spam and broken dreams will continue toabound until either legislation forces them to do businessethically, or the well of suckers dries up.Sounds pretty negative doesn't it. Under other circumstances, itwould be enough to put someone off trying to do business on thenet. But let's look at the positive side. I don't know aboutyou, but I've met some pretty fine people on the web. They arehonest, hard working and a pleasure to do business with. Whilethere are a few "bad apples" (and aren't there offline as well),it's amazing how many friendly, helpful people there are outthere.In the early nineties, before the entrepreneurial invasion of theInternet, the only game in town was the proprietary bulletinboards such as run by Prodigy. Anyone who "dared" becomecommercial was summarily banned from the boards, and "blacklistsof offenders" were actually shared between the board moderators.But, as commercialism crept in, and the old bulletin boardsjoined the ranks of the dinosaurs, a whole new strategy startedto evolve.People have learned that you don't have to create something newor re-invent the wheel to make money online. You can join anaffiliate program to get started with a minimum of capitaloutlay, and a decent income can be made. But the old saying"there's no such thing as a free lunch" is even truer today.Sure, you can advertise online for free, but except for isolatedinstances, there is a catch. Forget the FFA (Free For All) siteswhere you can post a free ad for your business. They getthousands of submissions hourly, and most only keep the latesthundred or so current, so your ad has a life measured in seconds.How about the free ads you find in newsletters? If thenewsletter has content and a decent subscriber base, they are agreat deal. However, many times the only subscribers who receiveit are those placing the free ads, and once they check to see iftheir ad is there, they "click away" and don't even see anythingelse.While you might not immediately learn how to advertise yourbusiness, you quickly learn how not to. Email spamvertising issimply a waste of time and money. If it is annoying to you, andthe ads are summarily deleted without being read, why waste yourmoney on a similar campaign.Those who want to do business on the web, and are succeeding, areevolving into a whole new breed of entrepreneurs. They learnedfrom the mistakes that are being made, and have developed abusiness plan that is working.So, what is the secret. It really isn't a secret, and it is asobvious as the nose on your face. People are not stupid,inexperienced maybe.- but not stupid. Treat them with the samecourtesy and respect you would like to receive, and you will beamazed at the results.Unfortunately, many would be entrepreneurs don't take theirbusiness seriously, and will fail. This is not something you cando when bored, and there is nothing good on TV that night. Ifyour bottom line is to succeed, you must take your onlinebusiness seriously, and the returns you receive will be inproportion to the effort you exert. Article Tags: Bottom Line Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com