Tips For A Successful Internet Business
By Loring A.
Windblad
Wednesday, March 23, 2005; 6:15pm EST
Let�s take a look at Business and Business Philosophy. A business
exists to 1) provide a service or product to customers and 2) to
make a reasonable profit for the business owner.
In the past this took the form of two kinds of traveling salesman
(the itinerant traveling salesman, working out of his wagon or
truck, who brought otherwise unavailable products to places who
simply could not economically travel the distance required to find
those products�.and the �drummer�, or �route salesman� who went to
the various �fixed location� businesses and sold them their
�restocking supplies�) and the �fixed location� businesses (stores)
who carried a selection of �most needed� products in their store for
customers to come in, select from and purchase.
Pretty much this mode of operation stayed true from the mid 1800�s
to the late 1900�s. But by 1990 there was a new inroad into this
model of business � and business philosophy. Or was there? And just
what was that inroad?
The Inroad was �The Internet�, in existence since the 1960�s,
started �going commercial� by about 1990. It is now 2005 and this
commercialization is an ongoing and evolving process. Business has
changed and is changing. Many fixed location store fronts also have
web locations and offer home delivery for online ordering, even for
local customers. But how about �Business Philosophy�? It is
changing, also? Or is it?
Right now internet businesses are proliferating at an alarming rate.
I cannot count and possibly no one can count the total number of
internet businesses in the world today. There are probably between
100 and 1000 �new� internet businesses starting every day somewhere
in the world, and this figure could be much higher. There even is a
�new category� of business which has evolved, sort of to keep track
of those businesses.
No, it is not the electronic store front which offers products or
services to customers anywhere in the world (though this is a major
evolution from a standard �fixed location� real store front on your
local street), nor is it the �hosting service� which electronically
locates and �displays� your electronic storefront for customers to
find. They are not unlike the building owner who sublets space for
offices and stores. The new type of business is the �search engine�
which �locates, catalogues and categorizes� all of these various
business enterprises and allows you to find what you are looking
for.
It is said that there are hundreds of different search engines out
there, proliferating and multiplying like lemmings�.and, like
lemmings, falling by the wayside for various inadequacies. Except
for the best and biggest. The number one �search engine� is probably
Google. However, MSN is gaining and Alexa, All-the-Web, Alta Vista,
AOL, Ask Jeeves, Lycos, Matilda, Scrub the Web and a few others may
be considered the �major� search engines, those which comprise, say,
95% or more of total search engine use worldwide.
There is possible a second type of �new business� brought to us by
the Internet. This is the browser. In fact, the browser and the
search engine work hand in hand and are completely different
entities. Basically, they generally are set to work hand in hand and
mutually complement one another. In fact, in my mind, the search
engine is slightly more valuable but less independent.
The Number One Browser is likely to be Microsoft�s Internet
Explorer. But there are several more �major� browsers, which include
AOL/Netscape, Firefox and Opera, as well as many more. These four
probably comprise more than 95% of the worldwide �browser use� on
the internet.
You could compare them (very loosely) thusly: look at the search
engine as an exquisitely detailed map, showing not only everything
that is there by business and location, but everything that is
inside those locations � the books and other resources within a
library, the entire stock of the local store, all the services of a
print shop, etc. And look at the browser as the vehicle that gets
you from where you are to the resources, products and services you
are looking for. It�s nice to have such a detailed map but the map
is useless without the ability to go there and see and use what is
there.
The search engine, slightly more valuable in a sense, is not a
�stand-alone� item. It requires a browser to be truly functional.
The browser, however, is a stand-alone item which benefits mightily
by the information the search engine provides. Compare the
search-engineless browser to a long trip in a vehicle with an
occasional rare find � a resource you may or may not have been
looking for.
So for you to be successful in your internet business endeavor you
must not only be there � on the internet � and accessible to
browsers, you must find a way to �be found� by the search engines
and mapped so that the people using the browsers can find you.
To do this you must do several things. You must build your web site
cleanly and meeting the �search criteria� of the various �search
engines�. Ideally you will want to use a pleasing layout, probably a
cascading style sheet, optimize your verbal content for the search
engine algorithms and engage the services of someone who really
knows how to do this kind of work. You must also carefully, very
carefully indeed, select the host for your web site. More on this in
the next article, but see my #1 web site below.
I personally recommend Lawrence Deon of http://www.rankingyourwaytothebank.com/
I have seen several resources out there similar to what Lawrence
Deon provides and they range in price from triple the cost to more
than 10 times the cost�.and they don�t do anything that Ranking Your
Way To The Bank doesn�t do.
Organic Greens dot US ranks right up in the top 10 for nearly 20
different search terms and on most of the world�s major search
engines. This is purely thanks to Lawrence Deon. I have this one up
and three more right now in varying stages of construction, all with
Lawrence Deon�s help. And I have more web sites up which are
designed with thanks to Lawrence Deon.
About the Author
Loring Windblad has operated his own HBBs for nearly 40 years, is a
published author and freelance writer. Loring has written books,
articles, grants, business plans and resumes that got the job done
right. His latest HBB endeavor is: http://www.organicgreens.us
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