The first thing you need to decide about Internet Business

I was with a new friend today, sharing about how can he take his brick and mortal business online again. He used to have a website similar to a store/catalog with all the goods he has in his store. He is selling balloons and other party-related goods.

Though we didn't really have anything materialized, I do learned something during our conversation. I think is good that I put it down for future reference.

During the discussion, we have the following pointers:

1. We have to decide what is the purpose of our website. Be it to inform our customers, educate our customers, sell something, build brand awareness, get them to visit other sites, call us for a quotation, make a donation, sign-up a newsletter, etc. From my point of view, if we don't decide at the early stage, we'll lose track of what we are doing later on. We build a website not for our own use, is for our visitors. If we are not clear, how can our visitors be sure, they can't read our mind!

2. There are 2 ways looking at his online business. One is to take it as a department that complements his existing business or take it as a totally new business. A separate department will be doing what he did before, an online store/ catalog model that sells what he has in his store. The challenge will be the stock he need to keep, manpower and logistics issue that he'll need to consider. No point having plenty of orders yet fulfillment is an issue. As a new business, he can create an information products that teach people how to hold a theme-party. The info product can be in downloadable form which the above issue can be minimized. And for info product, the advantage is that we create once and updates won't be happening every month.

3. Why he dropped his website has many reasons, but the main issue is the website consumes a lot of effort to create, maintain and market. I think in any business, you can either take a crash course for DIY, use a bundle service to avoid the headache of technology or totally outsource to a company that specialize in this. Well, the catch is that they all come with a price tag!

SenZe, The Uncommon Sense Internet Marketer!

SenZe, one of the pioneering Internet Marketer in Malaysia I came to know during the early years (some where in 2003) when I just about to explore the Internet.

He is the author of the "Mini Encyclopedia of Low-Cost, High Profit Internet Business Models". He shared what're the different Business Models available, the pros and cons, suitability towards one background, ways to set-up. As the book titled Mini Encyclopedia, is really a long read. Well, how I know - I bought it myself. What he shared is really worth the money and time spend as a lot of time and effort are put in with lots of ideas and information.

He presently runs a couple of Internet business models which are discussed in the book. Senze.com, his squeeze page or opt-in page model, basically to build his subscribers base. Solobis.com, his webhosting business. Hmm...... seems like many Internet Marketers will eventually have this business model with them. I think is because of the recurring income it generates, though is quite a small amount per month to host your website, but if you multiply that with the numbers of customers, it might be quite a substantial amount.

He runs a Master Resell Right program that is related to his Mini-encyclopedia. This is a powerful business model that is able to generate huge profit.

He also have another training business, OdysseyCo.com, not sure whether is still active.

The only thing that I can relate to him is we're both Malaysian. That is the time when I was still working in Singapore. He gives me the inspiration that "if he can do it, so can I". More or less like "Malaysia Boleh" kinda spirit.

He seems pretty quiet now in the field of Internet Marketing. Maybe is because there are so many Internet Marketing Seminars in the recent years. I can't comment much on his business direction as I'm not one of his personal friend/ associate. I just wish to share that he is one of the many that I learn from.

My first Internet Marketing Presentation

Just like to extend my gratitude to Money Mastery to offer an opportunity for me to present my first Internet Marketing Presentation in the MM Forum.

Also would like to thank all the MM members who attended yesterday evening. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to share.

Yesterday, I finally have the opportunity to experience 1st hand on what is like being a speaker. It's really tiring yet enjoyable experience. Yesterday turn out is around 30 pax, I think I'm still fairly comfortable with this number. What if the number increase to 50, or 100. I'm not quite sure, but I think I still be able to manage. Is a natural thing, I think, talking in front of a group of people. I don't have the stage fright or fear of public speaking. The only worry I have is whether I'll be able to deliver real good stuff to people. (Hmm.....do I sound arrogant?!) Anyway, I do enjoy the experience.

What do I cover during yesterday session, here goes the agenda:

1.1) Domain Name Basic

2.2) Hosting Basic

3.3) Web Design Basic

4.4) Shopping Cart

5.5) Payment Gateway

6.6) Merchant Account

7.7) Search Engine Optimization

8.8) Linking Strategy

9.9) Newsletter

10.10) Article Submission

11.11) Email Marketing

12.12) Affiliate Program

13.13) Online Advertising

14.14) Viral Marketing

15.15) Joint Venture

16.16) Press Release

17.17) Multi-Media Marketing

18.18) Offline Marketing

I've to apologize that we don't have enough time to cover all topics in detail, as we only have 3 hours. But, hopefully the overall of Internet Marketing topics will empower you to create another MSI we learned in MM.

Once again, THANK YOU!

Sitesell's Freebies!

Sitesell.com is one of the website that I look highly upon because they offer quite a numbers of free resources that are high-valued content and have plenty of usable information. I owed my knowledge and experience very much to SiteSell.com. However, one drawback of their ebooks are too detailed in their presentation that you've information overloaded after only a few chapters. This might suits certain people that want more information. For those that want to pick up some ideas and get going, it might not be that suitable.

If you want to know more about doing business online, you should take a look at their "Make Your Site Sell! 2002" ebook.

Download here for some of their freetrial softwares and free Ebooks.

Organizing My Blog........

I'm thinking that although writing blogs is a pretty labor-intensive work, yet I still need to organize it so that everyone can benefit from it.

The following are the labels that I'm thinking to categorize so that the information is easy to access.

1.) 2cents shop - where I post some of the thoughts I have in general.
2.) DIY shop - where I share some free stuff which I experience myself/ learned from others.
3.) Business Models - some business models that presently working well online.
4.) Freebies - some useful resources that is free for all.
5) My Role Models - some Internet Marketers that I look highly upon.

Hmm........I think these are some that is enough for me to get busy for a while.

Free WYSIWYG web authoring software

To start off with Internet, you can't do without a web design tool. It's a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web authoring software. Best of all, is free.

Download NVU and KompoZer.

Making Yourself Work!

Have not been posting for a month. What have I been up to?

I got a call from a sales trainer few weeks back where I attended his training couple years ago. Well, honestly, I look highly on him as he's always so energetic. He said that he got something great that he wanna share with me. The first thing that came into my mind is - MLM!

Well, since I respect him pretty much, I just go for the appointment. True enough, experience tells. He's with this new opportunity that came into town recently. I've heard about it but didn't really pay much attention to it.

To cut the story short, I'm being recruited. The reason being I understand that working with a Millionaire is always faster than trying things by myself. I would suppose majority of us would agree on this.

However, after a while, I start thinking............Am I just another opportunity junkies? My personal experience tells me that I've been always like that. From one opportunity to another. Got a very high energy boost, after a few days, back to square one.

After some deep thinking, I tell myself this................Every opportunity is good. Yet every single opportunity requires time to build. If there is some REAL opportunities that doesn't require building, I sure hope you tell me.

So, I tell him "Thanks but no thanks!"

Since I really wanna make a prominent present online and doing something close to my heart, I'll need to commit to myself until I see result.