An online business follows a lot of the same principles as that of any other business type. However, starting and operating an online business is easier, and presents you with a wide range of more lucrative opportunities than its counterparts. These will be discussed below, and hopefully it will help you on your way to establishing an online business of your own.

Low start-up costs

The capital investments needed to start an online business are small compared to its more traditional counterparts. Such like retail stores. You can actually set up an online business for just a few hundred dollars. Usually monthly rental fees or inventory costs are the biggest expenditures for a company. With an online business however the monthly rental fees are almost non-existing. The only “properties” you rent, are your domain name (the Internet address) and server hosting, which you can get for $5,95 per month. Some online business doesn’t even require a physical inventory because they sell digital products like e-books or other peoples products on commission. Furthermore an online business can save thousands of dollars each year on salary-costs. This is mainly because the workload related to running the business is significantly lower than compared to a traditional business. Most areas of a website can be automated, hence less work, hassle, and expenditures for you to deal with.

Larger and international audience

Traditional businesses have limited marketing opportunities, since they are limited by their size, geographical area and their financial status. Online businesses however, are not limited by the same boundaries. The Internet is a border less medium that reaches out to 1.6 billion people globally, which means that you can sit comfortably in your own home and sell your product to anyone. However, this vast number of potential customers counts for nothing if you can’t reach them. Fortunately the question is not IF, but HOW.

Infinite marketing opportunities

Internet marketing can be very expensive if you don’t know where to look. Some sites take several thousands of dollars each year to just list your company on their site, and with no guarantee of yielding any return on your investment. However if you know where to look, that opportunities and gains are endless. Some come at a small fee, like Google AdWords and Chitika. Others are free, like Twitter and blog carnivals. All of these mediums can help you generate a steady of visitors to your site, which is essential to generate sales. Google AdWords and Chitika are cost-per-click advertising systems (CPC). Simply put it means that you only pay whenever someone clicks on your ads and is taken to your site, and the CPC is freely set by you. In other words, you decide how much you are willing to pay per visitor.

Easy traffic monitoring

Statistical monitoring of your online traffic can be a headache for many online business newcomers. Luckily, Google has made monitoring of your traffic so easy that even my mom can do it. Believe me! She has just started her own online business. So what is this wonderful tool that makes it so easy? It is called Google Analytics, and I use it on all my websites. Google Analytics allows for accurate traffic monitoring of your visitors. Find out who your customers are, how they found your siteclick here to read, how many pages they viewed, and much more. In short it helps you target your marketing efforts to the best of your abilities, and it works great together with Google Adwords. Oh, I almost forgot — Google Analytics is absolutely free!

An online business follows a lot of the same principles as that of any other business type. However, starting and operating an online business is easier, and presents you with a wide range of more lucrative opportunities than its counterparts. These will be discussed below, and hopefully it will help you on your way to establishing an online business of your own.

Low start-up costs

The capital investments needed to start an online business are small compared to its more traditional counterparts. Such like retail stores. You can actually set up an online business for just a few hundred dollars. Usually monthly rental fees or inventory costs are the biggest expenditures for a company. With an online business however the monthly rental fees are almost non-existing. The only “properties” you rent, are your domain name (the Internet address) and server hosting, which you can get for $5,95 per month. Some online business doesn’t even require a physical inventory because they sell digital products like e-books or other peoples products on commission. Furthermore an online business can save thousands of dollars each year on salary-costs. This is mainly because the workload related to running the business is significantly lower than compared to a traditional business. Most areas of a website can be automated, hence less work, hassle, and expenditures for you to deal with.

Larger and international audience

Traditional businesses have limited marketing opportunities, since they are limited by their size, geographical area and their financial status. Online businesses however, are not limited by the same boundaries. The Internet is a border less medium that reaches out to 1.6 billion people globally, which means that you can sit comfortably in your own home and sell your product to anyone. However, this vast number of potential customers counts for nothing if you can’t reach them. Fortunately the question is not IF, but HOW.

Infinite marketing opportunities

Internet marketing can be very expensive if you don’t know where to look. Some sites take several thousands of dollars each year to just list your company on their site, and with no guarantee of yielding any return on your investment. However if you know where to look, that opportunities and gains are endless. Some come at a small fee, like Google AdWords and Chitika. Others are free, like Twitter and blog carnivals. All of these mediums can help you generate a steady of visitors to your site, which is essential to generate sales. Google AdWords and Chitika are cost-per-click advertising systems (CPC). Simply put it means that you only pay whenever someone clicks on your ads and is taken to your site, and the CPC is freely set by you. In other words, you decide how much you are willing to pay per visitor.

Easy traffic monitoring

Statistical monitoring of your online traffic can be a headache for many online business newcomers. Luckily, Google has made monitoring of your traffic so easy that even my mom can do it. Believe me! She has just started her own online business. So what is this wonderful tool that makes it so easy? It is called Google Analytics, and I use it on all my websites. Google Analytics allows for accurate traffic monitoring of your visitors. Find out who your customers are, how they found your site, how many pages they viewed, and much more. In short it helps you target your marketing efforts to the best of your abilities, and it works great together with Google Adwords. Oh, I almost forgot — Google Analytics is absolutely free!