From the Ground Up: How to Build Online Revenue

In the last article I gave you some ideas for a basic business foundation that includes community, including a link to information about how to develop a business plan. As you create your business plan, you might decide whether you want to become an affiliate salesperson for a product or service, or whether you might decide to sell your own merchandise or skills. How can you incorporate sales and still maintain some integrity with your site? In this article, I’ll demonstrate how you can become a small business “expert” in sales without appearing overt or downright scary to viewers.

One-Person Revenue-Producing Sites

Some of the examples I used for the last article were rather large sites, like C|Net, EBay, and Suite 101. These sites employ many people just to maintain and build a site, let alone to run business operations. What if you are a one-person operation? Do you have a chance to make money, or are you doomed to draining your bank account with your Web site? If you build and maintain sites just for the heck of it, then more power to you. Many of us, however, need to make enough money to pay for the server, bandwidth, and any other small (or large) expenses that come across our paths.

You can either sell your own merchandise or services, or you can become a sales associate or affiliate for another business. Even if you carry your own products, you might incorporate another business’s products or services to enhance your sales. Below, I’ll talk about some advantages and disadvantages between selling your own products/services and then how you might incorporate third-party sales.

Taking Design to the Desktop

Taking Design to the Desktop

How many of us use a background on our desktops? I think if I were to post a poll about it, I would get at least 95% of people saying ‘yes’. But what is it most of us see when you look at the same familiar screen 2 thousand times a day? A good looking woman, a sports car, or a tranquil scene of some fish floating around on a reef somewhere exotic is a good place to start when you try to envision other people’s monitors because the majority of people never stray further past the default wallpapers Microsoft ships with windows.

A few create their own wallpapers or use programs such as Microsoft PLUS to extend their desktop capabilities, when in fact there is a really cool way of using the desktop which was introduced back in Windows 98 which not a lot of people know about or care to use if they do.

That forgotten feature is the ability to use web documents on the desktop. And the fun doesn’t stop there. Not only does it support HTML, but if you use a page from the web then the options are quite open for what you can view.

Locally (using files off your own machine) you can use HTML, CSS & Flash documents.

Remotely, I haven’t tested it with all file types but I have ASP & PHP pages displayed with ease, so I’m assuming CFM pages etc. should run ok. If not you always have your trusty browser to rely on ;)

How to Make Community-Building Pay

Last week I reviewed Amy Kim’s strategies about how to build and maintain online communities. Her outlook on community carried an “organic” or growth-oriented perspective. However, Amy’s strategies concerned a human aspect rather than a profit motive. Unless you have a lot of time on your hands or an inheritance, you might wonder how to pay for this community. This week, I’ll offer a few examples to explain how to grow profit along with your online followers.

Online Community + Profitable Ideas

While some Web developers are happy with the commissions that they make from associate programs, other folks might dream about a Web site that makes enough money so that they can quit their regular jobs. As avid Web users, you might have noticed that many seemingly profitable businesses utilize online community to help build customer loyalty. How do they do it?