Starting an Online Business

Transcription

1 Making Everything Easier! 6th Edition Starting an Online Business Learn to: Identify a market need and choose the right Web hosting service Enhance site security and boost your customer service Improve your site s search rankings Market your business through social media Greg Holden

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3 Starting an Online Business FOR DUMmIES 6TH EDITION by Greg Holden

4 Starting an Online Business For Dummies, 6th Edition Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ Copyright 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) , fax (978) Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) , fax (201) , or online at Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITH- OUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZA- TION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at , outside the U.S. at , or fax For technical support, please visit Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Control Number: ISBN-13: Manufactured in the United States of America

5 About the Author Greg Holden started a small business called Stylus Media, which is a group of editorial, design, and computer professionals who produce both print and electronic publications. The company gets its name from a recording stylus that reads the traces left on a disk by voices or instruments and translates those signals into electronic data that can be amplified and enjoyed by many. He has been a freelance writer since He is an avid user of ebay, both as a buyer and seller, and is a blogger. Greg recently assumed the role of Director of Communications for the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago. One of the ways Greg enjoys communicating is through explaining technical subjects in nontechnical language. The first edition of Starting an Online Business For Dummies was the ninth of his more than forty-five computer books. He also authored ebay PowerUser s Bible for Wiley Publishing. Over the years, Greg has been a regular contributor to CNET and the Web site AuctionBytes (www. auctionbytes.com). He also contributes to PC World and the University of Illinois at Chicago alumni magazine. Other projects have included preparing a Web site for a hedge fund management firm with NewCor Group, a group of freelance professionals. Greg balances his technical expertise and his entrepreneurial experience with his love of literature. He received an M.A. in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago and also writes general interest books, short stories, and poetry. After graduating from college, Greg became a reporter for his hometown newspaper. Working at the publications office at the University of Chicago was his next job, and it was there that he started to use computers. He discovered, as the technology became available, that he loved desktop publishing (with the Macintosh and LaserWriter) and, later on, the World Wide Web. Greg loves to travel, but since his two daughters were born, he hasn t been able to get around much. He was able to translate his experiences into a book called Karma Kids: Answering Everyday Parenting Questions with Buddhist Wisdom. However, through the Web, he enjoys traveling vicariously and meeting people online. He lives with his family in an old house in Chicago that he has been rehabbing for well, for many years now. He is a collector of objects such as pens, cameras, radios, and hats. He is always looking for things to take apart so that he can see how they work and fix them up. Many of the same skills prove useful in creating and maintaining Web pages. He is an active member of Jewel Heart, a Tibetan Buddhist meditation and study group based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

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7 Dedication To Peggy Lester. Thanks, Mom, for bringing us together. Acknowledgments One of the things I like best about this book is that it s a teaching tool that gives me a chance to share my knowledge small business owner to small business owner about computers, the Internet, and communicating your message to others in an interactive way. As any businessperson knows, most large-scale projects are a team effort. While the online business landscape has changed since this book was first published, some basic principles remain the same. One is the fact that the most successful entrepreneurs also tend to be the ones who were the most generous with their time and experience. They taught me that the more helpful you are, the more successful you ll be in return. I want to thank all those who were profiled as case studies. Thanks go to: John Moen of Graphic Maps; Jeremy G. Alicandri of SimplyVentures.com; Lucky Boyd of MyTexasMusic.com; Mike Holden of lp2cdsolutions; John Counsel of The Profit Clinic; Jeffrey E. Edelheit; Lars Hundley of Clean Air Gardening; Laura Milnor Iverson; Mark Lauer of General Tool and Repair; Doug Laughter of The Silver Connection; John Raddatz of SoftBear Shareware; Skye Ryan-Evans; Kharisma Ryantori; Sarah-Lou Morris of Alfresco; Judy Vorfeld of Office Support Services; Marques Vickers; and Scott Wills. Special recognition also goes to attorney David Adler ( com) for his assistance with Chapter 16. I would also like to acknowledge some of my own colleagues who helped prepare and review the text and graphics of this book and who have supported and encouraged me in other lessons of life. And thanks as always to Ann Lindner, whose teaching experience proved invaluable in suggesting ways to make the text more clear. For editing and technical assignments, I was lucky to be in the capable hands of the folks at Wiley Publishing: my project editor and copy editor Susan Christophersen, and technical editor Joel Elad. Thanks also to Neil Salkind of Studio B and to Kyle Looper of Wiley Publishing for helping me add this book to the list of those I ve authored and, in the process, to broaden my expertise as a writer. Last but certainly not least, the future is in the hands of the generation of my two daughters, Zosia and Lucy, who allow me to learn from the curiosity and joy with which they approach life.

8 Publisher s Acknowledgments We re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at , outside the U.s. at , or fax Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development Project and Copy Editor: Susan Christophersen (Previous Edition: Rebecca Senninger, Jennifer Riggs) Acquisitions Editor: Kyle Looper Technical Editor: Joel Elad Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen Media Development Manager: Laura VanWinkle Editorial Assistant: Leslie Saxman Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case Cartoons: Rich Tennant ( Composition Services Project Coordinator: Sheree Montgomery Layout and Graphics: Samantha K. Cherolis Proofreaders: Lauren Mandelbaum, Bonnie Mikkelson Indexer: Potomac Indexing, LLC Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director Publishing for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director Composition Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

9 Table of Contents Introduction... 1 You Can Do It!...1 The Water s Still Fine...2 Where This Book Is Coming From...3 How to Use This Book...4 What This Book Assumes about You...4 What s Where in This Book...5 Part I: Launching Your Online Business...5 Part II: Establishing and Organizing Your Online Business...5 Part III: Building Traffic Through Social Networking and More...6 Part IV: Expanding beyond Your Own Web Site...6 Part V: Keeping Your Business Legal and Fiscally Responsible...6 Part VI: The Part of Tens...7 Conventions Used in This Book...7 Icons Used in This Book...8 We re in It Together...8 Part I: Launching Your Online Business... 9 Chapter 1: What s New: The Latest Tools and Strategies for Your Online Business New Ways to Spread the Word...12 Facebooking your business...12 MySpace for MyCustomers...13 Tweeting for fun and profit...14 Blogging to build your business...14 Search marketing...17 New Ways to Accept Payments...19 Google Payments...19 Amazon.com Payments...19 Reaching New Sales Venues...20 Beyond ebay: Expanding to Amazon.com and more...20 Partnering with a service provider...21 Moving to brick and mortar...21 Expanding to auction sales...22 Sharing your work with Flickr...22 Google s world of business resources...23

10 viii Starting an Online Business For Dummies, 6th Edition Technologies You Need to Exploit...24 Feeding your site with RSS...25 Setting up site feeds...25 Connecting with new customers: VoIP...28 Chapter 2: Opening Your Own Online Business in Ten Easy Steps Step 1: Identify a Need...32 Getting to know the marketplace...32 Cee-ing what s out there...34 Figuring out how to do it better...36 Step 2: Determine What You Have to Offer...36 Step 3: Come Up with a Cyberbusiness Plan...37 Step 4: Assemble Your Hardware and Software...38 Finding a host for your Web site...38 Assembling the equipment you need...39 Choosing business software...41 Step 5: Find People to Help You...41 Hiring technical experts...42 Gathering your team members...42 Step 6: Construct a Web Site...43 Make your site content-rich...44 Establishing a graphic identity...45 Step 7: Set Up a System for Processing Sales...46 Providing a means for secure transactions...46 Becoming a credit card merchant...46 Keeping your books straight...47 Step 8: Provide Personal Service...48 Selling by sharing your expertise...48 Making your site a go-to resource...49 Becoming a super er...51 Step 9: Alert the Media and Everyone Else...51 Listing your site with Internet search services...52 Reaching the entire Internet...52 Step 10: Review, Revise, and Improve...53 Taking stock...53 Updating your data...54 Chapter 3: Choosing and Equipping Your New E-Business Mapping Out Your Online Business...56 Looking around...57 Making your mark...57 Evaluating commercial Web sites...59 Flavors of Online Businesses You Can Taste Test...59 Selling consumer products...60 Hanging out your professional services...60

11 Table of Contents ix Selling your expertise...61 Opportunities with technology or computer resources...62 Being a starving artist without the starving...63 Easyware (Not Hardware) for Your Business...64 The right computer for your online business...65 Processor speed...66 Hard drive storage...66 CD-RW/DVD±RW drive...67 Monitor...67 Fax equipment...68 Image capture devices...69 Getting Online: Connection Options...71 A second phone line...71 Cable modem...72 DSL...72 Smart phone...73 Software Solutions for Online Business...73 Web browser...74 Web page editor...74 Taking a step higher...75 Discussion group software...75 FTP software...76 Image editors...76 Instant messaging...77 Internet phone software...77 Backup software...78 Chapter 4: Selecting Your E-Commerce Host and Design Tools Getting the Most from Your Web Host...80 Domain-name registration...82 Marketing utilities...83 Catalog creators...83 Database connectivity...83 Finding a Web Server to Call Home...84 Using software to build your Web site...86 Investigating electronic storefront software...86 Easyhosting...90 Moving into an online mall...90 Turning to your ISP for Web hosting...91 Going for the works with a Web hosting service...95 Fun with Tools: Choosing a Web Page Editor...98 For the novice: Use your existing programs...98 For intermediate needs: User-friendly Web editors...99 For advanced commerce sites: Programs that do it all...101

12 x Starting an Online Business For Dummies, 6th Edition Part II: Establishing and Organizing Your Online Business Chapter 5: Organizing Your Business Presence and Attracting Customers Feng Shui Your Web Site Creating Content That Attracts Customers The KISS principle: Keep it simple, sir (or sister) Striking the right tone with your text Making your site easy to navigate Pointing the way with headings Becoming an expert list maker Leading your readers on with links Enhancing your text with well-placed images Making your site searchable Nip and Tuck: Establishing a Visual Identity Choosing wallpaper that won t make you a wallflower Using Web typefaces like a pro Clip art is free and fun A picture is worth a thousand words Creating a logo Inviting Comments from Customers Getting positive feedback Web page forms that aren t off-putting Blogs that promote discussion Providing a guestbook Chit-chat that counts Moving from Web Site to Web Presence Extreme Web Pages: Advanced Layouts Setting the tables for your customers Breaking the grid with layers Achieving consistency with Cascading Style Sheets Chapter 6: Making Shopping Easy on Your E-Commerce Site Giving Online Shoppers What They Need Showing what you ve got Don t be coy about your prices Earning trust to gain a sale Giving the essentials Managing Goods and Services Handling returns Adding shipping rates Maintaining inventory...147

13 Table of Contents xi Keeping Your Web Site in Top Shape Using software to keep score When your service goes out to lunch Outsourcing your business needs Keeping Your Business Safe Separating the personal and the professional Heading off disasters Installing firewalls and other safeguards Providing security with public keys Keeping other noses out of your business Chapter 7: Accepting Payments Sealing the Deal: The Options Enabling Credit Card Purchases Setting up a merchant account Finding a secure server Verifying credit card data Processing the orders Choosing an Online Payment System Shopping cart software PayPal Merchant Services PayPal s personal payment services Google Checkout Micropayments Other payment options Fulfilling Your Online Orders Providing links to shipping services Presenting shipping options clearly Joining the International Trade Brigade Keeping up with international trade issues Researching specific trade laws Exploring free trade zones Shipping Overseas Goods Getting Paid in International Trade Chapter 8: Providing Customer Service with a Virtual Smile Keeping Your Customers in the Loop Providing FAQs Writing an online newsletter Mixing bricks and clicks Creating an RSS feed Helping Customers Reach You Going upscale with your Creating forms that aren t formidable...207

14 xii Starting an Online Business For Dummies, 6th Edition Making Customers Feel That They Belong Putting the person into personal service Not letting an ocean be a business barrier Enhancing your site with a discussion area Chapter 9: Sourcing Worldwide for Your Business Knowing What Sells Well Online Finding Products Yourself Cleaning out your closets Outsourcing your sourcing Garage sales and flea markets Secondhand stores Working with Wholesale Suppliers Finding wholesalers Approaching wholesalers Turning to the Far East: Alibaba, Brokers, and More Working the Trade Shows Part III: Building Traffic through Social Networking and More Chapter 10: Advertising and Publicity: The Basics Coming Up with a Marketing Strategy A brand that speaks for you Being selective about your audience Publicity Strategies That Are Free A newsletter for next to nothing Participating in mailing lists and newsgroups A contest in which everyone s a winner Waving a banner ad Guerrilla Marketing and Advertising Strategies Pop-up (and under, and over) ads Adding life to your ads Minding Your Ps and Qs (Puns and Quips) Speaking their language Using the right salutations Making your site multilingual Using the right terms Chapter 11: Search Engine Optimization Understanding How Search Engines Find You Keywords are key Links help searchers connect to you...260

15 Table of Contents xiii Don t forget the human touch Taking the initiative: Paying for ads Knowing who supplies the search results Going Gaga over Google Googling yourself Playing Google s game to reach # Getting started with Google AdWords Leaving a Trail of Crumbs Adding keywords to your HTML and don t forget about Bing Registering your site with Google Getting listed on Yahoo! Getting listed with other search services Adding keywords to key pages Don t make your pages hard to index Maximizing links Monitoring Traffic: The Science of Web Analytics Software to improve SEO Do-it-yourself options Chapter 12: Selling on Craigslist, Amazon.com, and CafePress Selling the Smart Way on Craigslist Gather details Take photos List the item Becoming an Amazon.com Seller Become an Amazon.com Associate Creating an astore Join the marketplace Professional Subscription WebStores Letting CafePress Sell Your Creative Work Part IV: Expanding beyond Your Own Web Site Chapter 13: Running a Business with Online Auctions Understanding ebay Auctions Building a Good Reputation Feedback, feedback, feedback! Developing a schedule Creating an About Me page...306

16 xiv Starting an Online Business For Dummies, 6th Edition Preparing Sales Descriptions That Sell Details, details Including clear images Being flexible with payment options Providing Good Customer Service Setting terms of sale Packing and shipping safely Moving from Auctioneer to ebay Businessperson Opening an ebay Store Striving for PowerSeller status Branching Out to Other Marketplaces Chapter 14: Taking Advantage of Google s Tools Spreading the Word with Google Getting yourself listed in the Google Directory Optimizing your site for better search results Adding Google Apps to Your Business Becoming master of a domain Verifying ownership Creating user accounts Delivering the goods with Gmail Staying in touch with Google Talk Keeping track with Google Calendar Creating pages with Google Sites Adding news headlines and other gadgets Googling Business News and Trends Looking up newspaper and magazine articles Searching through blogs Working smarter with Google Analytics Selling Your Wares with Google Chapter 15: Spreading the Word on Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs Developing a Business Presence on Facebook Attracting likers to your Facebook page Letting your customers comment Creating a Facebook kiosk Building a Fan Base with Twitter Setting up a Twitter presence Signing up and posting Using Your Blog for Profit... and Fun Choosing a host with the most for your posts Adding ads to your blog Asking for donations Achieving other business benefits...351

17 Table of Contents xv Part V: Keeping Your Business Legal And Fiscally Responsible Chapter 16: Keeping It All Legal Trade Names and Trademarks Determining whether a trademark is up for grabs Protecting your trade name Making sure your domain name stays yours Copyright you can count on Making copyright work for you Licensing and Other Restrictions Local regulations you should heed Restrictions that may restrict your trade Deciding on a Legal Form for Your Business Sole proprietorship Partnership Advantages of a statutory business entity Chapter 17: Online Business Accounting Tools ABCs: Accounting Basics for Commerce Choosing an accounting method Knowing what records to keep Understanding the Ps and Qs of P&Ls Accounting Software for Your Business Full-featured software: OWL Simple Business Accounting Keeping It Simple: QuickBooks Simple Start The Taxman Cometh: Concerns for Small Business Should you charge sales tax? Federal and state taxes Deducing your business deductions Part VI: The Part of Tens Chapter 18: Ten Must-Have Features for Your Web Site Secure Some Easy-to-Remember URLs Provide a Convenient Payment Method Promote Security, Privacy, and Trust Choose Goods and Services That Buyers Want Have a Regular Influx of New Products Optimize Your Site for Search Engines Be Current with Upkeep and Improvements Personally Interact with Your Customers Help Your Customers Get to Know You Provide Lots of Navigation Options...393

18 xvi Starting an Online Business For Dummies, 6th Edition Chapter 19: Ten E-Commerce Marketplaces Worth Exploring Making Your Own Product Line: Etsy.com OnlineAuction.com ecrater ioffer WorthPoint/GoAntiques Chatting It Up on Bonanzle HighWire ArtFire Webstore.com Taking a Personal Approach: Wensy.com Index

19 Introduction You ve been thinking about starting your own business for a while now. You heard about the woman whose Julia and Me blog was turned into a book and a popular movie. You ve heard about young entrepreneurs who ve made billions creating popular Web sites such as Facebook. But you ve been slow to jump on the bandwagon. You re a busy person, after all. You have a full-time job, whether it s running your home or working outside your home. Or perhaps you ve been laid off or are going through some other lifechanging event and are ready to take off in a new direction, but the economic upheavals of recent years leave you understandably reluctant to make a big career change. Well, I have news for you: Now is the perfect time to turn your dream into reality by starting your own online business. More individuals than ever before regular folks just like you are making money and enriching their lives by operating businesses online. The clock and your location are no longer limiting factors. Small business owners can now work any time of the night or day in their spare bedrooms, local libraries, or neighborhood coffee shops. If you like the idea of being in business for yourself but don t have a particular product or service in mind at the moment, relax and keep yourself open for inspiration. Many different kinds of commercial enterprises can hit it big on the Internet. Among the entrepreneurs I interviewed for this book are a woman who sells her own insect repellent; a mapmaker; a woman who provides office services for the medical community; a housewife who sells sweetener and coffee on ebay; a sculptor and painter; a young man who started selling electronics online at age 16; and several folks who create Web pages for other businesses. With the help of this book, you can start a new endeavor and be in charge of your own cyberbusiness, too. You Can Do It! What s that? You say you wouldn t know a merchant account, a profit and loss statement, or a clickthrough advertising rate if it came up to you on the street and introduced itself? Don t worry: The Internet (and this book) levels the playing field so that a novice has just as good a chance at succeeding as MBAs who love to throw around business terms at cocktail parties.

20 2 Starting an Online Business For Dummies, 6th Edition The Internet is a pervasive and everyday part of the business landscape these days. Whether you ve been in business for 20 years or 20 minutes, the keys to success are the same: Having a good idea: If you have something to sell that people have an appetite for, and if your competition is slim, your chances of success are hefty. Working hard: When you re your own boss, you can make yourself work harder than any of your former bosses ever could. But if you put in the effort and persist through the inevitable ups and downs, you ll be a winner. Believing in yourself: One of the most surprising and useful things I discovered from the online businesspeople I interviewed was that if you believe that you ll succeed, you probably will. Believe in yourself and proceed as though you ll be successful. Together with your good ideas and hard work, your confidence will pay off. If you re the cautious type who wants to test the waters before you launch your new business on the Internet, let this book lead you gently up the learning curve. After you re online, you can master techniques to improve your presence. This book includes helpful hints for doing market research and reworking your Web site until you get the success you want. The Water s Still Fine When I first started revising this new edition in the fall of 2009, I was not surprised to find that many businesses had reduced sales a year after the serious economic crash. I was surprised to find that new businesses had started that same year and were doing well. It turns out that any time is a good idea to start an online business as long as you have a good idea and a smart business plan. New resources, many of which didn t exist when I wrote the previous edition, present entrepreneurs with opportunities to market themselves and their products and services. Twitter, Facebook, Google Payments, WordPress all these Web standards were all either just emerging or hadn t yet come to fruition just a few years ago. Well-known marketplaces such as ebay give businesspeople a solid foundation on which to start a new business. Other well-known Web-based service providers (such as Yahoo!, PayPal, and Amazon.com) give you a way to reach millions of potential customers. Bloggers are an everyday part of the cyberspace landscape, and some are making a regular source of income from their online diaries. Google and Yahoo! are making it easier than ever to gain advertising revenue.

21 Introduction 3 As the Web becomes more of a way of life and broadband Internet connections become widespread around the world, doing business online isn t considered unusual anymore. Still, you may have reasonable concerns about the future of e-commerce for the very entrepreneurs this book seeks to help individuals who are starting their first businesses on the Web. Your fears will quickly evaporate when you read this book s case studies of my friends and colleagues who do business online. They re either thriving or at least treading water, and they enthusiastically encourage others to jump right in. I feel the best time to start an online business is when you are positioned to begin. I do not feel that there is an advantage/disadvantage to waiting for a better time to start, says Mark Cramer, who has run a business called MePage.com for a decade. The Internet is here to stay, and we have just scratched the surface in terms of potential, says artist Marques Vickers, who has thrived online for the same amount of time. Both provide proof that you can make money online doing just about anything as long as you have the right level of knowledge and enthusiasm. Where This Book Is Coming From Online business isn t just for large corporations, or even just for small businesses that already have a storefront in the real world and simply want to supplement their marketability with a Web site. The Internet is a perfect venue for individuals who want to start their own business, who like using computers, and who believe that cyberspace is the place to do it. You don t need much money to get started, after all. If you already have a computer as well as an Internet connection and can create your own Web pages (something this book helps you with), making the move to your own business Web site may cost only $100 or less. After you re online, the overhead is pretty reasonable, too: You may pay only $10 to $75 per month to a Web hosting service to keep your site online or nothing, if you sign up with one of the specialty marketplaces that give you a platform for creating Web pages and selling products, and charges a fee only if you make a sale. With each month that goes by, the number of Internet users increases exponentially. The growth is greatest outside the United States. To be precise, in early 2009, Internet World Stats released data indicating that the number of Internet users worldwide surpassed the 1 billion mark in the previous year and was currently over 1.5 billion. South America posted the fastest growth in the fourth quarter of 2008, with the number of Internet users shooting up 63.2 percent compared with the same period the year before. There are 647 million Internet users in Asia, compared with fewer than 250 million in

22 4 Starting an Online Business For Dummies, 6th Edition North America; the low rate of 17.1 percent of the Asian population that has access to the Internet at home means that there is much potential for future Internet usage growth in Asia, the report notes. We have long since reached that critical mass where most people are using the Internet regularly for everyday shopping and other financial activities. The Internet is already becoming a powerhouse for small businesses. How to Use This Book Want to focus on what s new and different in e-commerce? Jump right in to Chapter 1. Looking for an overview of the whole process of going online and be inspired by one man s online business success story? Zip ahead to Chapter 2. Want to find out how to accept credit card payments? Flip ahead to Chapter 7. Feel free to skip back and forth to chapters that interest you. I ve made this book into an easy-to-use reference tool that you ll be comfortable with no matter what your level of experience is with computers and networking. You don t have to scour each chapter methodically from beginning to end to find what you want. The Internet doesn t work that way, and neither does this book! If you re just starting out and need to do some essential business planning, see Chapter 2. If you want to prepare a shopping list of business equipment, see Chapter 3. Chapters 4 9 are all about the essential aspects of creating and operating a successful online business, from organizing and marketing your Web site to providing effective online customer service and security. Chapters 10 and 11 examine the many ways to market your business cost effectively online. Chapters explore a variety of marketplaces and services you can exploit, including ebay, Amazon.com, Google, and Facebook. Later chapters get into legal issues and accounting. The fun thing about being online is that continually improving and redoing your presentation is easy. So start where it suits you to do so and come back later for more. What This Book Assumes about You This book assumes that you ve never been in business before but that you re interested in setting up your own commercial site on the Internet. I also assume that you re familiar with the Internet, have been surfing for a while, and may even have put out some information of your own in the form of a home page.

23 Introduction 5 This book also assumes that you have or are ready to get the following: A computer and a modem: Don t worry, Chapters 3 and 4 explain exactly what hardware and software you need. Instructions on how to think like a businessperson: I spend a good amount of time in this book encouraging you to set goals, devise strategies to meet those goals, and do the sort of planning that successful businesspeople need to do. Just enough technical know-how: You don t have to do it all yourself. Plenty of entrepreneurs decide to partner with someone or hire an expert to perform design and technical work. This book can help you understand your options and give you a basic vocabulary so that you can work productively with the consultants you hire. What s Where in This Book This book is divided into six parts. Each part contains chapters that discuss stages in the process of starting an online business. Part I: Launching Your Online Business In Part I, I describe what you need to do and how you need to think so that you can start your new online business. The first chapter summarizes what s new in e-commerce in case you want to get up to speed right away. Chapter 2 follows the story about how a business started by a graphic artist turned mapmaker has grown into an Internet success story. Subsequent chapters also present case studies profiling other entrepreneurs and describing how they started their online businesses. Within these pages is where I also describe the software that you need to create Web pages and perform essential business tasks, along with any computer upgrades that help your business run more smoothly. You also discover how to choose a Web host and find exciting new ways to make money online. Part II: Establishing and Organizing Your Online Business Even if you sell only on ebay or only make money by placing affiliate ads, at some point you need to create a Web site a series of interconnected Web pages that everyone in cyberspace can view with a Web browser. A Web site is a home base where people can find you and what you have to offer. This

24 6 Starting an Online Business For Dummies, 6th Edition part explains how to create a compelling and irresistible Web site, one that attracts paying customers around the world and keeps them coming back to make more purchases. This part also includes options for attracting and keeping customers, making your site secure, and updating and improving your online business. Part III: Building Traffic through Social Networking and More Some of the most exciting options for starting a business online are ways to build a name for yourself and attract customers to your products and services through word-of-mouth advertising, social networking, and other advertising strategies. In this part, you find out all about those options as well as discover the ins and outs of advertising online. You find how to improve your visibility by optimizing your catalog listings and Web site for search engines such as Google and Bing. Also see how to spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, and your own blog. Part IV: Expanding beyond Your Own Web Site You can generate sales revenue without even setting up your own Web site from scratch. Rather than go it alone, you can sign up with one of the many well-established business marketplaces on the Web that enable individuals just like you to create storefronts or sell individual items. In this part, you find out about creating Web sites or storefronts on Google, Amazon, and ebay, among other venues. Many of these sites enable budding businesspeople to conduct a cost-effective and highly targeted form of online advertising called search engine optimization (SEO), which I describe in detail in this part. Part V: Keeping Your Business Legal and Fiscally Responsible This part delves into some less-than-sexy but essential activities for any online business. Find out about general security methods designed to make commerce more secure on the Internet. I also discuss copyrights, trademarks, and other legal concerns for anyone wanting to start a company in

25 Introduction 7 the increasingly competitive atmosphere of the Internet. Finally, you get an overview of basic accounting practices for online businesses and suggestions for accounting tools that you can use to keep track of your e-commerce activities. Part VI: The Part of Tens Filled with tips, cautions, suggestions, and examples, the Part of Tens presents many tidbits of information that you can use to plan and create your own business presence on the Internet, including ten e-commerce marketplaces worth exploring. Conventions Used in This Book In this book, I format important bits of information in special ways to make sure that you notice them right away: In This Chapter lists: Chapters start with a list of the topics that I cover in that chapter. This list represents a table of contents in miniature. Numbered lists: When you see a numbered list, follow the steps in a specific order to accomplish a given task. Bulleted lists: Bulleted lists (like this one) indicate things that you can do in any order, or they list related bits of information. Web addresses: When I describe activities or sites of interest on the World Wide Web, I include the address, or Uniform Resource Locator (URL), in a special typeface like this: Because the newer versions of popular Web browsers don t require you to enter the entire URL, this book uses the shortened addresses. For example, if you want to connect to the Wiley Publishing site, you can get there by simply entering the following in your browser s Go To or Address box: Don t be surprised if your browser can t find an Internet address you type or if a Web page that s depicted in this book no longer looks the same. Although the sites were current when the book was written, Web addresses (and sites themselves) can be pretty fickle. Try looking for a missing site by using an Internet search engine. Or try shortening the address by deleting everything after the.com (or.org or.edu).

26 8 Starting an Online Business For Dummies, 6th Edition Icons Used in This Book Starting an Online Business For Dummies, 6th Edition, also uses special graphical elements icons to get your attention. Here s what they look like and what they mean: This icon points out some technical details that may be of interest to you. A thorough understanding, however, isn t a prerequisite to grasping the underlying concept. Nontechies are welcome to skip items marked by this icon. This icon calls your attention to interviews I conducted with online entrepreneurs who provided tips and instructions for running an online business. This icon flags practical advice about particular software programs or issues of importance to businesses. Look to these tips for help with finding resources quickly, making sales, or improving the quality of your online business site. This icon also alerts you to software programs and other resources that I consider to be especially good, particularly for the novice user. This icon points out potential pitfalls that can develop into more major problems if you re not careful. This icon alerts you to facts and figures that are important to keep in mind when you run your online business. This icon alerts you to find related information elsewhere in the book or in another book altogether. We re in It Together Improving communication is the whole point of this book. My goal is to help you express yourself in the dynamic medium of the Internet and to remind you that you re not alone. I m a businessperson myself, after all. So I hope that you ll let me know what you think about this book by contacting me. Check out the For Dummies Web site at You re also welcome to contact me directly if you have questions or comments. Visit my personal Web page at or send to me at greg@ gregholden.com.

27 Part I Launching Your Online Business

28 In this part... What s all the fuss about starting an online business? In this part, I answer that question with a brief overview of the whole process. Happily, it doesn t need to involve a lot of fuss. The following chapters help you set your online business goals, draw a blueprint for meeting those goals, and explore new ways to market your goods and services. For those of you who have some familiarity with the subject, I begin with a review of new tools and approaches in the field of e-commerce, including social networking. Just as dentists prepare their drills and carpenters assemble their tools, you need to gather the necessary hardware and software to keep your online business running smoothly. So in this part, I also discuss the business equipment that the online store owner needs and suggest ways that you can meet those needs even on a limited budget. Let the step-by-step instructions and real-life case studies in this part guide you through the process of starting a successful business online.

29 Chapter 1 What s New: The Latest Tools and Strategies for Your Online Business In This Chapter Diving into social networking to boost yourself and your business Creating a business blog to produce word-of-mouth publicity Exploring new ways to accept payments online Expanding your e-commerce operation by opening multiple storefronts Generating revenue via the Internet Exploiting technologies for fun and profit New technologies are always popping up in the world of online commerce. Things are started on a whim, or just to see whether they ll work at all. When millions of people begin to participate, people think that there must be a way to make money off this opportunity. Companies with money then throw money at the project or buy it outright, and the project becomes more commercial in nature. Finally, average people like you and me pick up on these technologies and add them to our mix. Before long, they become part of the cyberspace landscape. This scenario is still happening, and anyone who thinks it s too late to make money online has only to look at Facebook, Twitter, and other new venues to see that entrepreneurship is still alive. Keeping up with all the new trends in online commerce is getting harder because it s a constantly moving target. This chapter gives you an overview of some of the many new and exciting ways to conduct e-commerce. If you ve heard about e-commerce before and weren t attracted by the thought of creating a Web site and sales catalog, take a look at these innovative options for generating revenue.

30 12 Part I: Launching Your Online Business New Ways to Spread the Word When I wrote the first edition of this book back in 1998, you could advertise your online business in a few ways: through a Web site; through postings on online discussion boards; through placing banner ads; and exchanging links to other sites. Now, you can do viral marketing (word-of-mouth advertising) on social networking sites. Social networking sites are the modern-day equivalent of the town square. When you go to a social networking site, you again strike up a personal relationship with a merchant; after you do, you re that much more likely to buy something from that person. Social networking sites give potential customers another place where they can find you and get to know you. The best-known sites are Twitter ( Facebook ( MySpace ( Friendster ( If you want to reach a younger generation of consumers, places like Friendster and Facebook are among the best ways to find them. If you sell services that depend on personal contact with a customer, such as a group of musicians that plays for weddings or a wedding planner, people sometimes hire you as much for your personality and personal approach as for your actual work. In these kinds of fields, social networking sites are even more important. Another networking site, LinkedIn ( lets you build a network of business contacts that can get in touch with one another and, they hope, build a community. Facebooking your business No, Facebook wasn t started with the idea of business in mind. It is primarily a site where you connect with friends, family, and others on a regular basis. You sign up for a Facebook account and create a page where you post information about yourself and (optionally) a photo. You then make the decision about whether that information is available to the public at large or only to people you invite to see it. That s the nice thing about Facebook, as far as I m concerned: You control who communicates with you because you invite or approve them as needed. If you are approached by someone you don t know, you simply decline to approve that person s access.

31 Chapter 1: The Latest Tools and Strategies for Your Online Business 13 For me, Facebook is a terrific way to keep in touch with friends I don t see often enough and family members who live far away. Lately, I ve been using Facebook to write a story that I share with my Facebook friends. I write an episode of the story on my blog and then announce it via Facebook. One of these announcements is shown in Figure 1-1. Figure 1-1: You can use Facebook to keep in touch or promote a story or a cause. As often happens, this popular online resource has become a place to do business for a few early adopters. With more than 400 million registered users, 50 percent of whom log in every day, it s a natural for businesspeople to advertise themselves and even offer items for sale. The statistics about Facebook come from the site itself: press/info.php?statistics. A marketplace for artists called ArtFire ( allows its members to display items from their sales catalogs on their Facebook pages. Not only that, but if you shop in one of these Facebook kiosks, you can make a purchase there without having to go to ArtFire or another site. The utility costs ArtFire members only $12 per month. In Chapter 15, you can read about one enterprising seller who s sold items through Facebook. MySpace for MyCustomers MySpace has been around longer than Facebook, but at this writing, it isn t as hot as it used to be. That s probably because MySpace functions more or less as a Web hosting site. It allows anyone to create a free Web page and gives anyone in the world access to it. The friend concept espoused by