Starting an online business ...

[jhtweee455]

Anybody here interested in starting an online business or working online ... ?

Please share your experiences.

 

[LongSprint]

I started an online business a few years ago. My only piece of advice is don't underestimate the amount of time it will take to maintain it. If you're working full time you may find all your spare time gone, as I did. The online business went and I can ride again!

 

[jhtweee455]

I started an online business a few years ago. My only piece of advice is don't underestimate the amount of time it will take to maintain it. If you're working full time you may find all your spare time gone, as I did. The online business went and I can ride again!

What kind of business was that. Mind sharing? I figure it is e-commerce?

 

[BroDeal]

Look at the online competitors for your potential business. In the wacky world of organic search traffic and PPC advertising, this means more than just companies that directly compete with your products. Indirect competitors may dominate the search results and jack up the PPC costs. Those indirect competitors may also have different business models such that it is economical for them to pay much more than you can for keyword clicks. Their profit per sale may be higher, their conversion rate may be better, or both. They may have also gamed the search SEO environment so that they dominate the SERPs for a huge number of keywords. If several large companies have spent ten years building an unassailable mass of backlinks, much of which may come from their own private blog network or other online properties that they own, then you are pretty much screwed when it comes to getting a good SERP position.

The reason why a lot of people who set up money sites on the Internet choose fringe niches that have a low number of exact search matches per month is because it is too hard to rank a site for a popular (lots of broad searches per month) keyword with strong competition.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Looks like good advice from BroDeal there, going beyond my knowledge.

I do know this from experience though being partly self-employed in the past and contracting out others to work for me: It's going to take a lot longer than you think to get your business stable and with positive inertia. I thought I could pull it off in maybe two years, and was flat wrong. Even with a tremendous amount of effort I could never sustain it.

I got the impression that starting just about any business is going to take up up to five years, and a lot of constant work.

 

[Susan Westemeyer]

I work online and have my own company, offering my services a a free-lance sports journalist and translater.

It's a nice way to starve to death slowly.......

Susan