We're living in a time of unprecedented change.
The world is reinventing itself right in front of our eyes.
It's a period of stunning technological innovation, surprising political reform, great cultural
change, and best of all, unprecedented economic opportunity.
The digital revolution is in full force.
Nothing symbolizes these rapidly evolving times more than the internet, the global communication
network capable of transmitting data, text, graphics, photos, sound, and video from one
computer to another anywhere in the world at the speed of light.
The internet is breaking down barriers of time and distance by inexpensively linking
millions of people worldwide.
The net has the capability of reaching more people than any other medium at a fraction
of the cost of traditional communication and marketing methods.
Whether you're a business owner who doesn't want to be left behind, a corporate manager
exploring new marketing methods, or an individual thinking about starting a new business, this
video training will arm you with the knowledge you need to make money on the internet.
And he's made on the internet by using it as a communication and marketing tool.
You know, the technical side of the internet changes every few months and will continue
to, but the underlying business principles will not change that much.
That's why I always instruct my clients to focus on the application of the technology,
not the technology itself.
A couple of comments about this course.
My training philosophy is this.
Give a man a fish.
Feed him for a day.
Teach him how to fish.
Feed him for a lifetime.
I've carefully organized this material so that you'll have a working knowledge of the
essential tools and techniques for making money on the net.
You may not have every question answered at the end of this video, but you'll have a lot
better questions.
Where will you find the answers to these questions?
On the internet, of course.
On the disk that accompanies this video, I've included comprehensive background material
and detailed answers to the most frequently asked questions, as well as software that
will take you to the sweetest fishing spots on the web.
Simply open the file with your web browser, log on to the net, and the hyperlinks will
take you to hundreds of destinations in cyberspace, including dozens of examples for each of the
major concepts I introduce you to in this video.
Oh, one other thing.
This video is decidedly non-technical.
There are plenty of good resources out there to provide you the nuts and bolts of how to
navigate and use the internet, including my video, Internet Basics.
But for this course, Making Money on the Net, our time will be focused on the practical
business applications of these tools.
Now before we launch into the money-making methods, let's take a moment to get on the
same page regarding some basic concepts and definitions.
What is the World Wide Web?
The World Wide Web is the user-friendly, graphical, point-and-click portion of the
internet.
It's essentially just a user-friendly interface, a program, if you will, that runs on top of
the internet to allow multimedia.
This is accomplished through a special programming language called Hypertext Markup Language,
or HTML.
Of course, the web is the part of the internet where you find electronic storefronts and
web pages of all kinds.
Computers use a program called a web browser, such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Explorer,
to browse through the vast amounts of information available on the web.
Are commercial online services the same as the internet?
Commercial online services are companies like America Online, Microsoft Network, CompuServe,
Prodigy.
Online services are private services operated on a subscription basis.
Online services have emulated some of the features that can be found out on the actual
internet and World Wide Web, but have simplified these features and made their own versions
available to their subscribers.
In a user-friendly online environment, they offer electronic forums, news and information
services, and the ability to post messages and download software.
Keep in mind that you can do all these things out on the actual internet for free.
What is an electronic storefront?
Electronic storefront is just another word for web page or website.
Think of it as a virtual storefront for your business, where people from anywhere in the
world can electronically receive information about your company, your products or your
services.
This can include text, graphics, photos, sound, even video.
Depending on the design, it may resemble a brochure, a multimedia sales presentation,
a newsletter, a color catalog, or even an MTV video.
What about search engines and directories?
Directories are electronic indexes of web pages categorized by subject.
Think of your local white pages or yellow pages, but on the web, they're electronic
and constantly updated.
They're also free to use and best of all, free to be listed in.
Search engines allow you to search through millions of web pages for specific keywords.
Many use software called spiders to roam the web and bring back the keywords from the millions
of pages out on the web.
Search engines are how you find things on the internet and how your prospects will find
you.
Popular search engines and directories include InfoSeek, WebCrawler, Lycos, AltaVista, and
Yahoo!
Part Two.
The Benefits of Putting Your Business on the Internet.
This course is about making money on the net.
To do that, you obviously have to put your business or your idea up on the web.
As an overview, let's explore some of the main reasons that businesses are migrating
into cyberspace.
The internet may be the greatest communication and marketing tool ever invented.
A few of the reasons that the internet is such a powerful money-making tool include
your marketing message can reach millions for just dollars a day, increase your market
recognition and penetration, you can sell anywhere in the world, provide a better and
higher level of customer service, offer a virtually unlimited amount of information
about your products or service for your customer, inexpensively test out a new business idea,
the ability to provide information and to take orders 24 hours a day, open a virtual
business from anywhere in the world, reduce overhead and operating expenses, printing,
postage, long distance, travel, and staff expenses.
Some businesses have procrastinated getting on the web because they think it's going
to be very expensive or terribly time-consuming.
A few years ago, that was true, but not today.
Having a web presence is not expensive.
You can make as expensive as you like.
Many companies have the resources for, let's say, someone to write something, someone to
design something, being creative.
We've been able to use the existing resources of our company, and we're a small business
with 30 full-time employees, but we've been able to take advantage of these resources
and apply them to the internet with the help of what we call a system administrator or
someone who understands the programming side, and that's something that we don't have to
learn.
They're able to take the information that we want to get up on the internet and put
it on in very few hours, just a couple of hours of programming, and what we want to
see on the internet is on the internet.
The software that's been developed today, available at the retailer on the corner, CompUSA
or Computer City, they're selling software where you can take your information, you can
put it up on the internet.
It's definitely not expensive.
If you want to be frugal, you can do so, and if you want to spend a million dollars, you
can do that also.
Before the internet, it was difficult, if not impossible, for a small to medium-sized
business to gain global visibility.
Even for a large corporation that could afford national advertising, it would cost a fortune
to gain global exposure.
Today, using the internet, a business can reach a worldwide audience of millions for
less than it would cost to advertise locally through traditional advertising.
Suddenly, David stands as tall as Goliath.
Visibility is really what it's all about once you produce a film.
It's getting the film out there.
Your film could be the greatest film in the world, and if people aren't aware of it and
aware of its presence, then you really haven't gotten into the market, and that's really
what we've tried to do, to utilize our web space as a way to market the film, just like
the big guys, just like Paramount, just like Columbia.
We're an independent film company, but we look much larger because we have a virtual
space that is global, and because of that, we've gotten a lot of visibility.
It's allowed a lot of distribution companies and a lot of PR areas to visually look at
our space and see what we're all about.
The biggest reason why a company needs to be on the internet is because it levels the
playing field.
You can be a Sun Micro, or you can be an IBM, or you can be a Bob Edwards on the internet,
and if your site is developed properly and you've done quite a bit of research in it,
they can't tell the difference.
What any local business that wants to use the internet needs to remember is you have
to have a reason to be there.
It's like any business model.
You can't just throw up a website and then expect business to come to you.
The internet is different.
It is also, right now, it's not the path of least resistance.
It's more difficult to reach people that way.
They're more used to conventional means, but remember the power of the internet as you
learn how to use it, and that is the internet is the only medium where I can educate you,
entertain you, I can market to you, sell to you, and even fulfill an order, all without
sending you anywhere else.
No other medium can do that.
We've been talking about making money.
The other side of the coin for every business person is, of course, saving money.
How does it affect the bottom line?
When a technology is introduced that dramatically lowers the cost of doing business while maintaining
or improving productivity, history has shown that business embraces it quickly.
Think of the telephone, fax machines, cellular phones.
It's possible to dramatically slash your operating cost by becoming automated and using internet
tools.
Having a web presence is incredibly cost effective.
I mean, you kind of have to look at it as, you know, I mean, people have talked about
cable TV, having 500 channels.
Well, I mean, a web presence is, in a sense, your own channel.
The only advantage is, is that, you know, you have very little cost to maintaining that
broadcast presence, and the other thing is it's not just broadcast locally or regionally,
but it's broadcast globally.
Certainly using the internet can save a company, any size business, expenses in a lot of different
areas.
I mean, I for one save money on travel expenses.
I mean, I, in the past, if I had a client out of town, I would have to buy a plane ticket,
stay at a hotel, do all that, make a presentation.
I mean, when we're set up with access to the web and video conferencing, we can walk a
client through some of our work, still in our office, they're in their office, and we
can conduct business, reach a decision, move forward, and, you know, we're still maintaining
the relationship.
We're not neglecting the relationship, but yet we've saved and economized on a lot of
the traditional expenses of doing business.
A key to business success is to model what's already working.
Most successful businesses have borrowed an existing idea and improved it or reapplied
it in a new way.
on the net today fall under one of six categories, products, services, information industries,
internet careers, electronic publishing, or electronic advertising.
To understand the various ways you can make money on the net, let's explore these six
proven internet business models.
like real estate, consumer items, electronics, books, music, instructional videos, computer
hardware, computer software, household items, clothing, jewelry, and this is just to name
a few.
We're a small publishing company, and I've authored a book and a few courses on handwriting
analysis.
Now, what we really do is we market information, which is what anyone does that, you know,
puts a book together or a tape series, etc.
And that's what we've done.
We've packaged our information into the form of cassettes, tapes, books, newsletters.
Traditionally, in our mail order business, it would cost us a dollar or two dollars per
lead to ship out a bunch of envelopes, which is still a good deal if they spend $200, $300
with you.
But now we're getting hundreds of people seeing all of our products, all of our sales
letters, all of our information for free.
Another example of marketing products on the net is schoolhouse videos and CDs.
In a sense, you can think of them as an online catalog of products.
In their video library, you'll find everything from academic studies to martial arts.
Yet another example of products is Waveform.
This independent record label uses their site to promote their artists.
Their site offers news and information for their listeners, plus a promotional tie-in
with a radio program called Musical Star Streams.
Portable media such as books, tapes, CDs, and videos are a natural.
In fact, any company that already has a mail order business set up should obviously be
on the internet.
As a matter of fact, think of direct mail marketing.
What is the internet?
It is electronic direct mail marketing.
It's easy and cheap to generate leads for your mailing list.
It's inexpensive to communicate with your customers worldwide.
Your customers can look over your products on your online catalog before they buy.
Plus, an online catalog costs only a fraction of what a printed catalog costs and reaches
more people.
Online merchants can conduct transactions with their customers in a variety of ways.
The customers can mail in their orders with a check or money order, the same way mail
order has done it for years.
The customer can pick up the phone and call the merchant either direct or via a toll-free
number.
The customer can also pay with their credit card.
Thanks to recent developments in encryption technology, secure credit card transactions
over the internet have become standard.
There are numerous virtual banks offering various forms of digital cash.
This is the state of the art in secured transactions.
For additional information regarding online transactions, refer to the disk that accompanies
this video.
Services.
This includes professional services like accountants, attorneys, consultants, architects, and trainers.
In fact, any service that can be advertised can be advertised electronically.
Intellimatch is an internet service for matching job seekers and employers.
Intellimatch offers a worldwide database.
Job seekers can submit an electronic resume.
can use search tools to find the ideal candidate.
Obviously travel services are one of the most successful types of businesses on the internet.
Online travel services offer trip itineraries, flight and fare information, hotel and car
reservations, and other time and money-saving services.
RentNet is an interactive database of furnished and unfurnished rental properties nationwide.
You can search by location, price range, and even find out if they allow pets.
Information industries.
In a sense, these are people who gather, synthesize, package, and resell knowledge.
This includes information brokers, professional researchers, communication professionals,
consultants, and authors, just to name a few.
I used to have a rep and she would lug around a portfolio and call on clients.
Well now I have an internet presence which is a worldwide rep that can go anywhere as
long as somebody calls up the home page or where I get listed in the search engine.
Dan Janal is a marketing consultant and the author of the Online Marketing Handbook and
101 Businesses You Can Start on the Internet.
His site is designed as an online magazine.
You can read articles, order his books, or even find out where he'll be lecturing next.
This is the home page of one of my favorite authors, Douglas Rushkoff.
In addition to information about books and software he's authored, you'll also find
links to articles by him and articles about him, as well as links to some of his own favorite
websites.
Internet careers.
Today this ranges from avant-garde to engineering, including graphic artists, web designers,
programmers, technical types, web development jobs, computer and software trainers, and
internet consultants.
In terms of new jobs, this is one of the fastest growing segments of our economy.
WebLogic is an internet consulting and web development company in addition to being an
internet service provider.
Their site offers educational information as well as information about their products
and services.
This site provides interactive online portfolios of photographers, graphic designers, copywriters,
and multimedia artists.
Their goal is to be a comprehensive resource for the advertising and marketing communications
industry.
Internet media is an internet and intranet developer.
Not only do they provide a lot of free information and tools, but you can even take a test drive
of an intranet as if it was your own company's.
Electronic publishing.
This includes magazines, newspapers, newsletters, coupon books.
Literally anything that is published can be converted into digital format and uploaded
onto the web.
In the very near future, you'll find that most publishers of printed publications will
also publish an online version.
The marginal extra cost of the online edition more than pays for itself in additional readership
and advertising revenue.
Today we're seeing an explosion of online-only publications, which cost a fraction of what
it would cost to publish a printed version, not to mention saving a few trees.
Ad agencies are now building new media budgets.
And for publishers like myself, it's very exciting because when we went to them in the
past, there was no budget for this.
Regardless of how many people were viewing it, regardless of the success of the internet,
there was no budget for it.
So now the large corporations and the ad agencies are starting to budget for it, and it's really
going to be a great opportunity for publishers to take advantage of that.
Money is being made available that wasn't there in the past.
Travel Host magazine is published in 139 editions around the country.
They print 880,000 copies a month with 12 million readers a month.
We use a plugin, a plugin to Netscape, such as a Shockwave plugin or Adobe Acrobat plugin.
We use a plugin called Envoy.
So anyone can download the Envoy plugin, run it through Netscape, and be able to see Travel
Host magazine exactly as it's printed in the magazine.
So it saves all the ads, it saves all the small print, saves all the articles.
It has a search function on it.
What this does is allow a traveler, if you know you're going to be in Chicago tomorrow,
you can check the TV Guide up in Chicago.
You can check the restaurants by reading through the magazine.
You can see the interesting sites where you may want to visit up there all locally from
a local point of view before you even get on the plane.
Electronic advertising is essentially selling advertising on the web.
This is a fast growing and constantly changing field.
There are new media advertising agencies that specialize in creating and selling advertising
space on the web.
Technically, anyone who has a website that generates enough traffic can get sponsors
or sell advertising on their site to companies wishing to reach that target market or demographic.
That's a form of electronic advertising.
Even the major search engines and directories on the web, such as Yahoo, InfoSeek, and Lycos,
are examples of this model.
They generate a lot of traffic at their site, so they sell banner advertising to businesses.
If I wanted to start a newspaper or a magazine relating to windsurfing, I probably would
have a difficult time in my local city trying to get enough sponsorship to be able to support
a publication by selling advertising.
But with the internet, if I wanted to publish a windsurfing magazine, I could not only attract
subscribers or readers from all over the world, but at the same time then it would be attractive
for an advertiser to be able to advertise and reach all those people through my magazine.
So essentially I'm providing content by drawing people of a similar interest together that
I can now support through advertising or sponsorship globally that I couldn't do locally.
What's more that's interesting about a publication is that I have no distribution costs, because
to distribute through the internet is essentially free, and as well as I have no printing costs.
So I don't have to print anything to paper and eat up costs on paper costs.
So I have no cost of goods sold and I have no distribution costs.
And I can support it through advertising.
Part Four.
Website Development.
Planning Stage.
Define the purpose and objectives of your site.
Define your marketing strategy.
Research your competition and define your target market.
Register your domain name and set up your server.
Assemble your team.
It will probably include someone with internet business tools and skills like an internet
business consultant, a copywriter, a graphics person, a programmer with HTML knowledge and
tools, and the person who will manage your site, your system administrator or webmaster.
Production Stage.
Design the site with your team.
Construct the site.
Prototype and test thoroughly.
Get as much feedback as possible before launch.
Promotion Stage.
Launch the site.
Announce, publicize, and advertise your site to generate traffic.
Actively track your results and respond to that feedback.
Evolve the site.
Continually adjust, improve, expand.
Websites are not static.
The medium and the audience demand that they be dynamic.
Part Five.
How to Increase Traffic.
Once you've launched your website, the next step is to increase traffic at your site.
There are three ways to increase traffic at your website.
The first way is creating value that attracts people.
The second way is online promotion and advertising.
And the third way is offline promotion and advertising, that is, in the real world.
First, let's focus on number one, creating value.
How do you create value for people?
What do people value?
What do you have that you can offer that will be perceived as valuable to web surfers?
If you answer, well, I have a great product at fair prices, that's not what we're looking
for.
That's an ad.
That belongs in the yellow pages.
To create value on your website, you have to dig deeper than that.
Savvy web designers create value on their site in three ways.
Entertain, which means be interesting, interactive, fascinating, or fun.
Enlighten, let them learn something valuable or discover something useful or useful information
at your site.
Free stuff, because the only four-letter word better than sale is free.
The internet is an extremely effective way to not only save money, but make money.
I can give you a couple of examples.
One of our clients is Dallas Gold and Silver Exchange.
They're primarily a dealer of precious metals that do precious metals trading.
We developed, in a very low-cost way, we developed a system by which, through the internet,
you can get real-time quotes of gold, platinum, and silver prices updated every 10 seconds.
The interesting thing to Dallas Gold and Silver, then, is that they're able to see exactly
who is on their site and register those people as potential customers.
Those customers, or people that are browsing that site, are always one click away from
learning everything about Dallas Gold and Silver.
From an advertising standpoint, it is extremely inexpensive.
If you consider the cost of a couple of advertising pages, monthly advertising pages, and a large
publication for the price of essentially building an online trading system, it was a way in
which Dallas Gold and Silver could provide real content, could provide real value.
Not just simply throwing up an ad about, we sell diamonds and rings and watches, but it
was a way in which it provided real information.
And the sites that are successful now, and the companies that have websites that are
interactive and provide real valuable information, are the successful sites.
Those are the ones that are going to be making money and prospering.
The Dallas Gold and Silver website is an example of offering valuable information.
It could also be viewed as providing a valuable free service.
Giving free information is probably the most obvious free stuff approach, but in the digital
world you're not limited to just giving free information.
There's other free stuff you can give away too.
We've developed a site where we distribute free software so that when an individual is
browsing through the web and they come to the free software shack looking for free software,
they can download a program.
Well, you don't get to download the program directly from the free software shack.
It may link you to one of our client sites.
And that's a great draw.
That's a great way to bring in traffic to our clients.
So what we try to do specifically is find software that would be an attractive draw
to our clients' customers.
So for example, if one of our clients is trying to reach a CEO, then we may find a very high
quality piece of shareware that will do portfolio analysis for a CEO.
But that's linked to our client site.
So the concept there is, let's say the shareware is only worth $20 or $30.
Well the question then is, would you lean over and pick up a $20 bill?
Well the answer is yes, and probably 30 million other people on the internet would as well.
To promote your site online, you will list your site and all the major search engines
and directories.
This way, anyone on the internet, anywhere in the world, when they do a keyword search
and type in keywords that deal with your product, service, or business, your page will
pop up in a list of related pages.
If you've created value at your site by offering free articles, valuable information, or free
stuff, you can list each one of these pages individually in every search engine.
And there are hundreds of search engines.
How much does it cost to get all this valuable worldwide exposure?
What do search engines charge to be listed in them?
Nothing.
They're free.
Another way you'll promote your site online is through complementary links.
Here's how it works.
You do a search for sites that are related to yours.
Complementary businesses, products, services, or information.
Then you send them an email offering to create a link from your site to theirs if they will
create a link from their site to yours.
You can also use news groups, electronic mailing lists, and even chat rooms to inexpensively
promote your site online.
We've been talking about promoting your site online.
Well it's also important to advertise your site online.
What's the difference?
With online promotion, it's usually free.
With online advertising, it costs money.
Where do you advertise online?
Actually there are new ways to advertise electronically being invented every month.
But here are a few of the more common ones.
Banner advertising.
Banner ads are ads that go horizontally across a web page, usually about one inch tall, hence
the name banner ads.
And they include a brief statement or description and a graphic with obviously an invitation
to click here.
If you're running a banner ad and your prospect clicks on your banner ad, there will be a
link that brings them directly to your website where they can get more information.
So obviously you can use banner advertising to draw a lot of traffic to your site.
There's one other point about banner advertising.
Actually any site that gets enough traffic on it can sell a banner ad to other businesses
who would like to reach that same demographic.
Purchasing keywords in search engines.
You can actually purchase keywords in search engines.
And every time someone types in that keyword and does a search on that word, up pops your
banner ad across the screen, of course with an invitation to click here and link directly
to your site.
Electronic advertising can be very sophisticated.
Think about it.
You can buy any keyword in a search engine.
the names of your competitors and their products.
So imagine someone comes in, does a keyword search, and types in the name of your competitor's
product.
Bang!
Your ad pops up on their screen.
Sponsorships.
You can actually pay a website a sponsorship fee.
And what they'll do is they'll put a small ad on their site saying, this site sponsored
by and your name.
Think of all the websites out there that are already attracting your target customer, your
target market, your demographic.
Why not sponsor those sites?
And when the prospect clicks on the ad, bang!
Now they're at your site.
You can also place ads in commercial online services like America Online, CompuServe,
Prodigy, and Microsoft Network.
Now let's talk about promoting your site offline, that is, in the real world.
A rule of thumb in electronic marketing is always promote your online presence offline.
Think of all the places that you can announce your web address offline.
Business cards, existing advertisements and other media, yellow page ads, print advertising,
direct mail, radio, TV ads, your outgoing telephone messages, your fax machine, your
newsletter or mailing list of existing customers, even your invoices.
Anytime you mention your business, you should always remember to announce your web address.
Promote your online presence offline.
The whole concept is to make sure people know you're there.
Just becoming a presence on the internet is not going to be the answer to all of your
problems.
But being able to develop a presence there and then use conventional advertising to notify
your not only potential clients but your existing clients that you're there will spread the
word a lot quicker.
Free publicity can be a powerful marketing tool.
With a determined effort and a good publicist, almost any business can get free publicity
in newspapers, magazines, on radio and even television.
Anytime your company gets a publicity mention, be sure to give out your web address.
In fact, there are many examples of companies that have received a lot of publicity because
of their web presence.
In fact, some companies actually use publicity as their main source of advertising, always
with the purpose of driving more traffic to their website.
Publicity is actually the main engine that drives our sales.
It drives into our mail order business and of course the internet address.
I learned a long time ago that if I can get free publicity, it's a lot cheaper than paying
for an ad.
Here's how it works.
I get myself booked on radio talk shows and occasionally a TV show and I talk about the
products that I've authored and generally about what I do.
What's exciting is I get to give out in exchange for a good interview an 800 number and my
internet address.
What is so exciting about this is I have found a way to combine publicity, which is free
advertising, with the internet, which is basically free mail order and I'm getting customers
and orders for very little, if not free, no cost.
Always be on the lookout for promotion opportunities.
There are numerous ways to tie in with other companies or events and get your web address
out there.
Start associating with others who drive traffic.
This is obviously a very powerful medium.
Get associated with that university that's going to have live sporting events thanks
to people like Audionet and advertise.
Sponsor that event on the internet and put your banner, put a talking ad, in other words
learn to use the internet to drive traffic to your site and then tie it in with other
media.
By that I mean if you already buy radio, if you already buy television ads, use them to
basically what we say is a call to action.
By that I mean using a password maybe that's only on the internet site and if you have
that password you can take that into the store for a discount.
In other words, begin to think of the mediums together, intertwine them as opposed to thinking
of the internet separately.
We've discussed some of the main internet marketing tools, web pages, search engines
and directories, online promotion and advertising, offline promotion and advertising.
Now let's explore some additional tools that will be important to you as you expand your
internet marketing efforts.
Email is a cornerstone of all internet communication and internet marketing.
It's the lowest common denominator, that is everyone that has internet access has an
email address.
Email is one of the primary ways your prospects will request more information from you and
email is one of the most effective communication tools ever invented.
In many cases it's more effective than the telephone.
Electronic commerce is really going to change a lot of aspects of business.
I use email extensively and one thing that electronic commerce has allowed me to do is
it's allowed me to expand my client base beyond just a local regional focus.
I can connect to anybody anywhere.
I've picked up clients in Florida, in Chicago, I'm talking to some people in California and
in the past there was a you have to be right next door kind of philosophy.
With electronic commerce and the internet you can exchange information, you know you
can communicate on a daily basis via email.
It's really made a lot of, it's removed a lot of barriers in terms of expanding my business.
Electronic mailing lists are another powerful business tool.
Mailing lists are similar to electronic newsletters, basically they're just lists of hundreds or
thousands of email addresses of people who share an interest in a common subject.
When you subscribe to an electronic mailing list every time someone posts an email message
to that list you and everyone else that is subscribed to the list receives a copy of
that email message.
Many mailing lists have as many as 5,000 subscribers.
There are mailing lists for almost every conceivable subject.
Whatever your business, industry, product or service there are electronic mailing lists
on the internet that can give you access to thousands of new potential customers.
Again, like many things on the net, electronic mailing lists are free.
Now when using electronic mailing lists remember to use netiquette, that is net etiquette.
Be respectful of others and don't abuse the privilege.
If you have a commercial announcement to make be sure that it's relevant and newsworthy
to the people on the list, never post ads.
If you blatantly advertise on an electronic mailing list you'll get flamed.
A flame is a critical, often vulgar, email message.
What's newsworthy?
Well, think of traditional publicity.
A publicity mentioned in a newspaper or a newsletter is different than an advertisement.
The same applies to electronic mailing lists.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
Spend some time online, subscribe to the mailing list that you're interested in.
Notice how others interact, then follow their lead.
News groups are similar to electronic mailing lists.
There are over 20,000 news groups on almost every subject you can think of.
News groups are like bulletin boards where anyone can post messages.
Then when you use your browser to view a news group you will see those messages.
Old messages are archived.
Entire conversations can spin off as one person posts a reply to someone else's message.
These conversations can spin off into what's called threads.
By following these threads you can read and contribute to these ongoing electronic conversations.
Like with mailing lists, if you post a message be sure that it's relevant to the subject.
Don't advertise in news groups.
But again, if it is relevant, then it's newsworthy.
Let me give you an example.
If your company is a manufacturer of kayaks and your company has developed an improved
design for navigating Class 5 whitewater, then what you could do is you could go in
and make an announcement and request feedback from the kayaking news group.
Electronic malls follow the same logic as traditional shopping malls.
A small business benefits from being in a location with a lot of built-in traffic.
Some electronic malls have as many as a million visitors per month.
An electronic mall may have hundreds of individual electronic storefronts or home pages usually
categorized by subject.
People visit electronic malls for the same reason they go to traditional malls, convenience
and familiarity.
You know there are hundreds of electronic malls on the internet and more being added
every month.
Some electronic malls also offer electronic classified advertising.
Electronic classified ads are an inexpensive way to test ideas, headlines or new product
offers.
And of course there are commercial online services.
There are several ways to advertise in an online service such as America Online, CompuServe
and Microsoft Network.
You can sponsor a forum, place a display ad on a popular service, place classified ads
or even have a home page within the online service.
This form of advertising is a little more expensive than other forms out on the actual
web, but it can be very effective if their subscribers meet your target demographic.
Think of it as advertising in a magazine that has a million subscribers.
I've only covered the basic money making tools here.
You'll learn more with experience.
And remember, the different ways you can combine and use these tools are limited only by your
imagination.
Like anything else in life, you learn by doing.
You must immerse yourself into digital culture and experience it to understand it.
That's how you'll get the most from these powerful tools.
If you use your electronic tools effectively, you can even leverage that into a variety
of other marketing, promotional and publicity opportunities.
These tools work best when combined with the traditional marketing tools.
Digital media is not here to replace the traditional ways of doing business.
It's here to supplement and expand your options.
More choices is always better than less.
Get good with these tools and you'll have unlimited opportunities to make money.
We have two really funny guys out of Milwaukee that believe they should have their own comedy
show and that they were funny.
So we said, okay, here's your chance.
So they basically pay us a monthly fee and all of a sudden they have an audience to the
world.
And now thanks to AudioNet and the publicity they've gotten through being on AudioNet,
two Milwaukee radio stations are going to pick their show up.
And they will now be on traditional radio.
So this, to the best of our knowledge, is the first example of kind of what we call
reverse media, where we've now used the internet to drive them back to radio.
Let's review what we've learned.
In part one, we covered internet basics and frequently asked questions.
In part two, we looked at the benefits of doing business on the internet.
You can inexpensively advertise and market globally, offer more information for your
customers, and operate 24 hours a day.
You can save money on long distance, postage, printing, and overnight shipping.
In part three, we learned the proven internet business models, products, services, information
industries, internet careers, electronic publishing, and electronic advertising.
In part four, we learned the phases of website development.
We looked at the planning phase, the production phase, and the promotion phase.
In part five, we learned how to increase traffic, create value, online promotion, online advertising,
offline promotion and publicity, and offline advertising.
In part six, we learned some additional money making tools, email, electronic mailing lists,
news groups, electronic malls, and commercial online services.
Do you need to have your company on the web to maintain the business you have?
Probably not.
Do you need to have web presence to increase your business and to increase your credibility
and to become more aggressive?
Absolutely.
The advice I would give a business person who's considering should I have a web presence
is I would just say, you know, take the step.
Don't, you know, get worried about what technology or what's going to happen two months from
now, three months from now.
You know, it's not, your web presence is not static.
I mean, you can get on there with a presence that's clean, that's solid, that's informational,
and you can go back and upgrade it.
You can continue to upgrade it and evolve it, add things, add links, but you have to
get started.
You've got to make that leap.
Humans learn best by doing, not just reading, talking about it, or even taking a training
like this one.
You've got to take what you've learned and apply it.
It's easier to catch a wave when it's small, but as it grows, it gets harder to get on.
The digital revolution is creating a tidal wave of change.
The place to be is on the crest of that wave, sink, swim, or surf.
I hope you'll use the tools and techniques you've just learned in this video to start
making money on the net immediately.
Surf's up!
The accompanying disc contains additional information as well as links via the internet
to examples and valuable resources that correspond with the subjects covered in this video.
Simply log on to the net, then use your browser to open the HTML file on the disc.
If you would like in-depth training for navigating cyberspace, in addition to the essential information
skills mentioned in this video, you'll want to get the video Worldwide Guide – Internet
Basics.
For additional information on internet commerce, including interactive marketing, web-based
customer service, intranet technology, and other subjects essential for business on the
net, see the video Worldwide Guide – Conducting Business on the Net.
One of the most valuable resources you'll find in cyberspace is of course the Worldwide
Guide website itself.
We add valuable information, tools, and links to our site daily, so be sure to bookmark
us and surf by often!