Essential Online Resources For New Web Enterprise

If you are just beginning to think about how to start an Internet business, I shall suggest a few ideas for further exploration prior to writing your business plan.  These will point you in the right direction, help you understand the unique jargon of Internet marketing and allow you to build a business that can grow over time.

I’m not really arranging these in terms of the order of their importance, because all three are truly necessary for anyone examining the possibility of a web enterprise.

A short course on starting an e-business.  Sometimes you can even find a free course on how to start an online business.  Whatever course you choose should not promise to reveal some hidden secrets.  It should just be a straightforward, honest overview of the major points to focus upon as you begin your Internet enterprise.

Google Account.  Just go the Google home page.  Below the search box, you will see a short list of links.  Click the link titled “Business Solutions.”  There you will find a list of more than a dozen resources that Google offers to business owners.  I suggest that you simply take a few hours exploring in detail what they have to offer.  Eventually you may find some that will never be useful for your business.  However, many will be.  In my various businesses, I use the following most frequently:

– Checkout (a payment processing system)
– Website Optimizer (conducts tests all of content on your website)–free
– Google Site Search (allows your users to locate content on your websites)–free
– AdWords (the advertising program for Google’s for their pay-per-click alternative)
— Analytics, which data for all of your major website traffic metrics–free

I also use additional services from Google that are available to any Internet user, such as Google Docs and the Google (RSS) Reader (both free).  Signing up for any of the services will provide you with a Google account that is valid for all their services.

I use a free hyperlinked resource guide.  I got mine from a website that provides one in a pdf document.  It lists a number of useful free resources as well as recommended software and memberships that are not free.

These three things will get your new online business off to a good start.