Does anyone here have a successful online business? If so,do you have any advice for someone to get into entry-level profiting online?
I'm currently setting one up (although online is just one aspect of it). Most of the people I know are self-employed/freelancers/company owners, and I think I've probably absorbed quite a bit through osmosis. But there are so many different types of business that can be found online. Is it service-based, or product-based, for example? What's the audience/market, and is for the end-user, or a specialist group, or business-to-business?
ENTRY-LEVEL PROFITING ONLINE: There is no such thing. It takes money to make money, It takes work to make money. The average small business does not see a profit until the third year. There are many resources (free or paid services) online that will help you get your business plan in order. This is where you really need to figure out what, where, how, etc... A complete business plan is fairly extensive and for a good reason. Once you business plan is 'good to go' then you can go to the bank and start looking for loans for start-up capital or maybe even look for investors. Running your own blog or message board can be a money maker, but you have to take the time to post and build a following. You can connect your other social media services to your message board or blog. Then if/when you have a basic online setup with some, even just a few, followers/members you can start setting up advertising space (This space for rent...). The advertising can be enough to pay for you online presence or even produce an actual income, not just maintenance fees coverage. It depends on how much space you make available online for advertisers. If you are talking about a product based business then you need to set up online shopping, payment methods, inventory and control, vendors to supply your product and space to do these things, as well as the blog or website to promote your product. Then becoming a verified vendor with various websites and message boards will just help you even further. Regardless, it is work, not just a few minutes a day online and money flowing in. Just shooting some ideas off the top of my head.
I would also say, don't ignore affiliate income. Places like Amazon do a good scheme, which will pay out when a person buys something from them even if it was not the item they originally clicked through to. All you need then is for people to buy a few big ticket items, and you're looking at enough to cover running costs. It also helps if the online business is something that you pursue off line as well (even if not professionally but, say, as a hobby). If that's the case then a) you will have a better knowledge of the market, b) it won't feel quite so much like working for nothing, and c) you'll probably already have the contacts.
