Forum Moderators: buckworks
[edited by: lorax at 11:47 pm (utc) on May 8, 2007]
[edit reason] removed specifics [/edit]
To make money quickly, you have to sell something someone REALLY wants at a better price than anyone else.
From all the brilliant resources here at webmasterworld I flagged one thread in particular, which would have saved me a lot of learning, if it had been published before I started going online in 2001:
Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone
[webmasterworld.com]
Another very interesting resource for success in competitive markets is the long tail concept [en.wikipedia.org].
The greatest problem with ecommerce shop-solutions IMHO is this: How can you integrate your own passionate writing about your website topic into the shop-system in order to improve the ranking of your landing-pages.
To make money quickly, you have to sell something someone REALLY wants at a better price than anyone else.
This is not a mistake, it's right on the money but to some ewxtent it depends on what you are selling. Like many others in here I buy online. When I do so I know what I want before I make the purchase so I look at prices online then I look for the best price.
This is a common newbie mistake. You don't have to undercut to gain entrance into your market, you simply have to offer value.
Isn't value subjective to a great extent? Products are products and when comparing a red, ACME, type A, widget that comes with a carrying case then isn't price the only comparison left?
I prefer to concentrate on two alternative advantages:
1) My customer's comfort: they won't have to move their ass to the store, but may order from the sofa instead. Due to a good navigation and usability (landing-pages), they may also find, what they were looking for, much quicker than in a 50000 sqft. superstore.
2) Products the larger local stores don't sell any more. And there's many of these out there. As I mentioned elsewhere, I believe that there are more different products on this planet than people (>7 billion). A very long tail indeed.
I hardly ever do. What counts for me, is either friendly staff in my local stores, or a good and quick navigation in online stores, which both help me save the most valuable thing I have: My time.
yes absolutely in this instance, but not all products are like that, but for those that are i think the market would be hard to get into ... like Oliver Henniges says there is no point in competing with amazon for books and so on.
there is room in other areas though for sure because price comparisons are not always so straight forward, plus service counts for something, even online stores can score here, for instance, accepting and answering questions quickly can help a whole lot.
funnily enough i agree with this, with b&m stores, staff attitude goes a long way for me, and with online, ease of use is certainly a factor
What counts for me, is either friendly staff in my local stores, or a good and quick navigation in online stores
This is not a mistake, it's right on the money but to some extent it depends on what you are selling. Like many others in here I buy online. When I do so I know what I want before I make the purchase so I look at prices online then I look for the best price.
To make money quickly
While the opposing points are all valid, none of them spell a fast track to a self-supporting e-commerce site, nothing "newbie" about it.
none of them spell a fast track to a self-supporting e-commerce site, nothing "newbie" about it
The problem lies in the fact that there are lots of others targeting this same market so getting the website on the first page of results is not going to be easy.
I have created sites in similar situations and when I do I always ask the client if they have done their market research and if they are going to market the website outside of the SEs. If this is not their intention I always tell them to allow six months to a year to get an initial idea how the site is going to do and to be prepared for it to fail.
The gold rush is over, there is no get rich quick.
Nothing has changed in human nature this century, there are new things appearing on the horizon daily. Innovation and hard work still apply. I have a friend that was working minimum wage in our tech support department and had An Idea. A idea that no one was doing and everyone wanted. He started slamming out content. In 6 months, he had made enough to quit his job. He didn't need advertising, the news of his site spread far and wide, and fast. I will only say it involved networking and gaming (not gambling.)
Two years later the man was a millionaire. Literally. It happens and is still happening, so for those of you that believe in your ideas, keep at it, review them objectively, and . . . keep at it.
Two years later the man was a millionaire.
It is quite unlikely you will find the great unifying theory in physics from studying the writings of Newton or Einstein. It is quite unlikely you will become a great politician, just because you intensively studied the biographies of Alexander, Caesar and Newton, even if you read some Macchiavelli additionally.
To have a great idea is always historically exceptional.
The only profit you can draw from those stories, is the positive psychological motivation that it MAY happen for you yourself, but as lifeinasia indicated, that may be a really hard path; and noone ever talks about those other 999 out of a thousand, who failed and ruined their whole family.
Nevertheless I wouldn't say that the gold rush is over. I'd even doubt it has ever taken place. It's just that most entrances to the gold-mines close to the surface have been discovered and made a few people rich. The rest is hard work: dig it.
Also, interesting point about if product is unique, then price is not so important.
Competition is the backbone of our society (not sure if that's so great), but always honor your competitors copyright and come up with your own original ideas.
That's what sells...until someone again copies you.
It's not onlythe greatest form of flattery, it's also the greatest form of thievery.
I think your comments about creditors should be used a qualification - If you have NOT had to do that then your not and have never been in business.
If you are implying that ALL businesses have had to deal with not being able to pay creditors, then I am afraid you are quite mistaken. There are plenty of businesses that have maintained sufficient cash flow throughout their lives, includign the startup phase, to pay all their bills on time.
There are a gazillion ways to skin a cat.
We started an online widget shop with two guys and a garage and one IT guy. In less than 6 months we were doing very well. We moved into SEO and other avenues of marketing and continued to grow.
In less then a year we launched a completely different widget online store and were doing very well again in less then 6 months. For this widget store we focused on CPC advertising, affiliates, and SEO. Now two years and 6 months later we are doing over 4 million dollars in revenue between our two widget stores and have over 20 employees. We are now preparing to launch a third widget online store in another market.
We do not have a B&M store. Everything is online. I believe the key is having good people with the passion and skills to make it work online. It is important to research the market and ensure that there is enough volume and room for growth before pursuing an online widget store.
the question is whether anyone else can really LEARN anything from those exceptional figures
The only thing to be learned really is that it CAN be done, and to have passion for what you do - which is my only point in bringing it up. It gives those of us struggling along with less than extrordinary ideas the hope that it will succeed, which I believe answers the question posed by this thread.
It is quite unlikely you will find the great unifying theory in physics from studying the writings of Newton or Einstein.
good point except that there are many, many, many millionaires if that is your goal, you don't need to be an einstein or a newton to get rich, you just have to follow a well worn path and have a bit of luck.
i think the key is finding something that works and sticking with it, and being able to drop ideas that don't, and having the detatchment to really see what is working and what isn't eg spotting the slow burner and not chucking it out and being brave enough to dump the flash in the pan after it has flashed so to speak.
'The key is finding something that works' - it is the 'finding something that works' which through trial, error and hard work or sheer good luck, can be the hardest part of all and also the most time consuming. Being able to step aside from what you are doing in order to see what is working/what is not and figuring out why can also take time for some more than others.
From everything said, I'm going to give ecommerce a go and if I can make it work - great, if not, at least I will never have to look back and think, what if. Life should be full of no regrets... (gosh, I could start getting philosophical now...)
So, my next question is, does anyone know of a good hosting package for a windows server environment with ASP.NET 2.0, Microsoft SQL Server (2000 or 2005)? I am also looking for a dedicated SSL certificate , any recommendations?
So, my next question is, does anyone know of a good hosting package for a windows server environment with ASP.NET 2.0, Microsoft SQL Server (2000 or 2005)? I am also looking for a dedicated SSL certificate , any recommendations?
For best results you may want to start a new thread when asking a new question. Your inquiry is more likely to be seen by someone with the expertise to answer it, instead of burying it at the end of another thread.
People buy from people - therefore, you need to put these principles into place. You have to ENGAGE a user first and then put them at ease. A mistake many newbies have is to place ambigious contact details (normally whilst they are still at work and don't/can't take the call). You have to be honest and transparent or the user will see straight through you.
So, build an accessible, easy to use site. Don't lie. Don't over promise. Don't write for search engines. And remember, you must deliever what you say you will deliver on time and without delay. Like a B&M business - fail this and your site will fail.
It can be done - if done correctly.
[edited by: lorax at 3:22 pm (utc) on May 17, 2007]
[edit reason] removed specifics [/edit]
there are many, many, many millionaires if that is your goal, you don't need to be an einstein or a newton to get rich, you just have to follow a well worn path and have a bit of luck.
Sure. A million isn't really much nowadays (unless you made it by the age ot 25 or so, that would be exceptional). I'd rather consider it the minimum goal for anyone working the web self-employed, and - to come back to the initial question - it IS possible with ten to thirty years of hard work on an online shop: At relatively low risk, IF you have the intellectual capacities. To retire on that level would mean at best 50k safe revenue per annum, which is comfortable, but not really exceptional in the industrialized countries.
But, in general, I was aiming at the question, whether and what we can learn from those, who made it in three years, instead of thirty.
I remember starting our first site back in 1998.
We were complaining that it took up to 3 weeks to get listed in DMOZ, and up to 6 weeks to get a free commercial listing in the YAHOO directory. Looking back, I wish for those good old days :)
Our most recent website (2006) took a year to get the traffic we got after the first month in 1998.
The web is becomming a mature market, but their is still plenty of niche markets to make money, if you know where to look, and are prepared to spend years of hard work in developing your site.
