Developing an internet business, building an online business to sell

DEVELOPING AN INTERNET BUSINESS, BUILDING AN ONLINE BUSINESS TO SELL

Developing an internet business, building an online business to sell on at a profit at a later date, advice on how to develop an internet company

The thing to understand is that an article that took you two hours to write might only earn you £5.00 a month in additional income. However, that equates to £60 per annum and if you hold the website for 10 years, your two hours invested will have earned you £600. The more articles you write, the more content you build, the more income you earn and at some point in the future; should you choose to sell the website, you have also earned capital growth as well. You could expect to develop the website and double the income and therefore the value of the site over a five year period.

There are absolutely no guarantees with regards to future income but you do have a certain amount of control over your little business and for many people, it also gives them a hobby or interest that is earning them both income and capital growth.

DEVELOPING AN INTERNET BUSINESS

How would a website like this earn money? The most obvious source of revenue would be Google Adsense income, affiliate marketing and possibly a BANS website. (All covered in detail in other chapters). If you had specialised in something like skin complaints or migraine etc., you could even write an e-book and sell it through the website and other affiliate marketing programmes. Plus there would be medical supply companies and other medical related services who would pay commission on any sales your website generated.

Possible problems could be: " Finding a suitable website that is for sale. It is a bit like online dating, you may have to wait for the right type of website to become available. We wouldn't buy a specialist website of this nature unless we had a client or doctor looking for an IT partner waiting to buy such a site. We are pretty talented people but we draw the line at brain surgery. So you would need to lodge your interest and wait. " If you are not internet savvy, you would be best to retain us as IT partners which would add to the overall running costs. However, having an experienced IT team can also dramatically increase and improve the income. " Alternatively, we buy the website together as joint partners with you managing the business and providing the additional content whilst we manage the technical stuff. Just because you are a doctor doesn't mean you have to buy a medical site. You might be a keen golfer, or been a pediatrician in which case a golf or baby related website might be up your street.

Build web pages here and drive traffic to your website

Advertise here and get more visitors to your website

BUILDING AN ONLINE BUSINESS TO SELL

We have to be just as convinced that you are the right person for the job of running the site as you are of our technical abilities to make the site work and become more profitable if we are partnering each other. Trying to match a buyer with a website can be time consuming and therefore selling a website does not always happen overnight. Having said that, most websites that we buy, improve and sell on go very quickly because we have waiting lists. A few however can stick around for a while but all the time we are waiting for the right buyer, we are earning money. This will apply to you as well of course if you are working with us.

If the subject matter of your website is a passion or something you really enjoy; investing in and owning a website can be an extremely pleasurable way of making your money work harder for you. You have to understand however, that you are going to need to work at it as well. The internet, despite everything you read is not a way of earning money whilst you sit on a beach somewhere and twiddle your toes in the sand. You will need to be typing and clicking from time to time whilst you are twiddling.

A website needs to grow, emails and questions on forums need to be answered and your IT team need to be on top of developments as the internet is fast moving and changes happen all the time. Buy a website as a going concern and just sitting back and letting the world pass you by will almost certainly see the traffic levels drop and the income diminish. It sure beats letting your money rot in a bank and allowing inflation to erode its value though.

ADVICE ON HOW TO DEVELOP AN INTERNET COMPANY

If you are interested in buying or selling a website, your best starting point is to contact us. We may have a suitable website we wish to sell, we may be developing one that we plan on selling when we are happy with the performance or we maybe brokering a suitable website on behalf of a client. We may even consider a partnership with you.

We will talk you through all the pitfalls, explain the dangers and advise you of your best options. Just one more thing: the search engines are the lifeblood of any website and it is important you understand how to make the search engines work hard for you. I cover this in the next chapter....

You are reading an extract from

The Golden Web - The Internet Entrepreneur's Definitive Guide to Making Money Online

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Developing an internet business, building an online business to sell on at a profit at a later date, advice on how to develop an internet company