How to start an internet business

Starting an internet business can be hard work but the rewards are plenty. Now is a good a time as any to start a business on the internet. There are thousands of new people getting new connections to the internet as well as thousands each month upgrading their old dial up connections into broadband.

How do you start an internet business ?

If you don't already have a bricks and mortar business that you are simply wanting to put online, then the best business for you to start online is something you know a lot about. Of course, there are many people developing sites just for affiliate commission or even Google Adsense. But over the last few months or so, the search engines have killed a lot of these sites off so it is difficult to rank. So go for something you know a lot about.

Before you go online

Most web marketers and traditional gurus will always tell you to concentrate in a niche market. This way you can dominate this niche. Spread your net too wide and not only will your visitors not know what you are about but the search engines won't know either.

So now you have your niche do some research. Go into Google and type in your market niche in the broadest sense. See who is there ranking already and see how many results are returned. This will give you an idea of who to beat and how many pages are already in the search engines for this term.

It is very unlikely you're going to rank for this term for years. You need to face facts and think long term. But this research is key and you'll need to look for more focused niches. See keyword research from our main internet marketing page

Building your internet business

Again, it's best to think long term.

Start small and build your site. Search engines will shun a new site that has 10,000 pages. Generally because they are looking for unique content and it's highly unlikely that a brand new site is going to have 10,000 pages they haven't already got.

You need to earn your stripes and trust (in fact Google now have something called "trustrank" which gives your site a trust ranking!)

Structure your site into even smaller niches. So if you are for example doing a fishing site, you can cut this down further and developing sections on saltwater and freshwater fishes, then have sections on each fish. Make it logical for the user.

Making money with your internet business

There are 3 basic online businesses and you need to decide which one is for you. Only focus on this area and don't have a free for all site:

• ecommerce - ie: you are selling something
• subscription - people pay you a monthly fee for access
• advertising - you have a big content site and attract advertising

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