Ecommerce is simply commerce which is enhanced by technology. Today, anybody can be involved in this thriving income generator.
Ecommerce uses the internet, which as you know connects a lot of people throughout the world. There are millions of computers connected to the internet; and the number of internet users increases exponentially. This is one of the reasons why the internet is considered a realm of opportunities. Many businesses such as, eBay and Msn are places that you can visit only on the web even if they run their operations from offices. This is why they are called “Click and order” businesses (businesses that exist solely on the internet). Billions of dollars are generated each year by ebusinesses; there are ecommerce entrepreneurs that make for themselves thousands of dollars monthly, some of whom are ordinary people with no prior experience about ecommerce. Quite a few factors make Internet entrepreneurs or businesses successful, one obvious key factor is the plans that they establish to meet their goals.
Today, entering ecommerce is easier than a few years ago. This is partly due to a lot of improvement in technology and the increasing number of services allowing small ebusinesses and entrepreneurs to emerge. The tools that the internet provides today allow ordinary people to have a great income stream. Even one person can operate a successful business on the internet. Some investors and businesses are really struggling on the internet today and have a lot of difficulties to break even, whereas others keep increasing their profits on a monthly or quarterly basis. It stands to reason that the businesses that are successful follow patterns that work.
The big question here is: How to find these patterns and stick to them? Well it is not that difficult. If you are interested in making money on the internet and are a beginner, the first incentive for you is to be patient, and start learning what will help you achieve your goals. If you haven’t set your goals yet, I absolutely advise you to do so. Maybe your goal is to generate a lot of traffic on your website, if so define how many visitors you would like. If your goal is just to make money, elaborate the average income you’d like to have on a monthly basis; it could be $3000, $5000 or $10000. However, you need to consider something; always measure how viable your goals and the resources that you have to meet your goals are.
Another key thing to consider is: what is it that you’d like to do on the internet? Do you have any product or service to offer? If not, there is still hope. You can enter into an affiliate program; an affiliate program is a program in which you promote or sell other people’s products or services and receive a commission. For example, let’s say you own a website, where you give suggestions to real estate investors on which books and investing tools to buy to meet their goals. Basically, what you just do is market the products and/or services of the company selling them. You will have to bring your visitors to the company’s website that provided you with the affiliate program (by placing links, banner ads or other marketing tools on your website). Afterwards, when these visitors buy a product or service from the company that you linked them to, you will receive a commission.
However, before choosing affiliate programs, you need to consider whether you would like to make money through affiliate programs. When you have taken a decision about this, the next step will be to think about a theme or subject in which you are interested in. Choose subjects for which, you have passion, knowledge and experience. By starting this way, you are on the course to produce good outcomes.
Now regarding commissions, different companies offer different commissions, rules and even affiliate programs. You have to do some research and select those that will help you meet your goals. There are people who are successful in affiliate programs, whereas others are still struggling to generate a weak income. One advantage with affiliate programs is that you don’t need to have a shopping cart or some order processing software on your website; you just market products or services and cash your checks. One simple drawback associated with affiliate programs is that just like any other business; you lose when you do not operate them the right way. You could lose your visitors, credibility, time, effort and money.
Article by Stephane Kouandi, Owner and Webmaster behind ecMeans. http://ecMeans.com provides free tips about E-commerce and Marketing for beginners, small businesses and Internet entrepreneurs. For more articles, subscribe to ecMeansNews by sending a blank email to ecmeansnews@ecmeans.com
