We have organized the material we have to present in a series of
lessons, each estimated to be about what you can process in one
enjoyable seating. Let's discuss some
introductory items before we go
to our first lesson.
It's the engineer in me ...
I went to engineering school
where you begin every project by listing your assumptions. That seems to
be useful here.
We assume that you are
interested in running your own
business, and willing to
learn a lot and work hard to make it successful. We further assume that
you are limited in the amount of money you have to invest in developing
a business opportunity.
We will assume little else,
except that you are
comfortable using the
Internet, but not
necessarily technically proficient. We will be discussing Internet based business opportunities
that you can operate from your home, or anywhere else you might prefer
(where you can get an Internet connection).
Our approach
The topics in any
Internet Marketing Course must include the
importance of keywords, how best to list in Internet search engines,
building link popularity, effective advertising and measurement, and a
few other necessary skills.
We attempt to be
non-biased at all times, but we must say that we
think we cover these topics better than anyone else. We try to keep the
process enjoyable, while thorough, and to treat the concepts, while
giving you practical
tools and advice.
Along the way, we will stress the importance of being a good Internet
"citizen."
The objective of the course is to serve as a guide to your selecting, sharpening, and implementing
your business opportunity.
The key concepts in achieving our
goal of a work from home way to make money online are:
-
finding the right business
opportunity, in fit and feasibility,
-
to enable us to work
from home,
until the business outgrows it,
-
and, to make money online.
We will try to avoid too much "jargon," while defining those terms that
you are likely to come across while building your
Internet venture. We will take you through the process of going from
selecting the business opportunity that
really
fits you, laying out a plan to get you to where you
want to take your business, and then going through the implementation
with you for as long as you feel like we can help.
So where do we
start?
The U.S.
Small Business Administration's
Checklist
for Going into Business suggests that we examine our
motivation before
pursuing any business opportunity.
How important to you are the
reasons commonly given for people going into business for
themselves? Among these reasons are freedom from work
routine; being your own boss; doing what you want when you want;
boredom with the current job; financial desires, and; a
perceived business opportunity.
We can add wanting
to work from home as a motivator, and narrow the field to ways
to make money online. Do you have
a
specific opportunity in mind? If not, we will have
to find some "niche" on which to focus our efforts.
How do we find our niche, that business opportunity that lets us
work from home while we make
money online? Most of us would probably add that it should be
something we enjoy doing.
We'll save that conversation for a little later,
when we begin with a case study of sorts from my own experience,
talk some more about finding our niche, and go on to introduce
The Six Difficult Steps to Financial Success on the Internet. But
don't leave us yet.
A Word from
Our Sponsors
As some philosopher once said, "nothing
happens until somebody sells something." No matter how much we
enjoy being able to
work from home,
we still need to
make a
few sales to meet our other goal, that is, make money online.
We are constantly testing products to assist us in this process, give us
all the capabilities of our larger competitors, and provide the
information we need to manage effectively. Our web site contains
reviews
and critiques of some of the programs, products and services available
to help us to achieve success.
In most cases, we are pretty sure that you will appreciate our suggestions. In
others, you may consider them merely commercials. We will try to
add
value to your business opportunity in all that we do along
these lines. Feel free to give us feedback.
Let's finish up with a few specific points
about "infrastructure," namely the best that we have
found on some of the basic needs of a home office. To make
money online, you have to spend a little and we'll work to keep it as
little as possible.
Infrastructure and business opportunity
Many of you are space constrained as we stake out the
headquarters for "Me, Inc." Likewise many probably do some work from
home already and are "set up."
Linda Novey-White wrote a terrific article on "How
to Set-up a Home Office." Check it out at
SCORE.org.
If you need to buy electronics gear,
computers, or
software, please
visit our online store.
Another place to check, for some unbelievably good deals on computers
and related equipment, is
Surplus Computers. It's always a fun
shopping experience.
One must-have program is
Symantec's Norton AntiVirus 2005, the best selling
antivirus
solution. It removes viruses, worms, and Trojan horses
automatically - without interrupting your work. Norton AntiVirus
can also detect spyware and other non-virus threats. All I know is that
it got me out of a jam when my other anti-virus protection let
one slip in.
| How
are you fixed for an Internet service provider?
NetZero
costs half of what AOL does, with "HiSpeed" versions for
both dial-up and broadband. I was an early subscriber to
broadband, before NetZero was available here, but I hear
great things about them.
Still on dial-up? Not ready for broadband yet? Stop missing important calls while online
and
try CallWave's
Internet Answering Machine free for 30 days.
Offline, I have always been impressed with products from the
FranklinCovey people, and
PlanPlus looks like a real winner! |
 |
 |
One more offline product
to get you organized lets you screen and transfer your cell phone calls. CallWave
says "It's what's next for your cell phone." They will
also let you
try it risk-FREE!
Before you go to the next lesson, be sure you've signed up for
our newsletter and checked out our end-of-page features below.
Once you have subscribed, send us an
email about your interests, or suggest
topics you would like to see
covered, or ask us a question about your business concept.
That takes care of the preliminaries.
See you at
Lesson 1. >>>
