How Much Does It Cost To Start An Internet Business?
How Much Does It Cost To Start An Internet Business?
Domain: This is the first thing that you need. Most .com domains – which are the best ones to get, are from $7.95 to $10 from respected domain sellers such as Godaddy. Make sure that you get a domain that explains your business as this currently helps with your search engine rankings.
Hosting: You can obtain this from Godaddy or Hostgator which are both reputable companies and it will cost about $50 a year. If you need a database make sure that you get MySQL or similar. Shop around because many host companies offer software facilities such as shops, bulletin boards, scripts etc.
Web Design: This depends upon how complex you want your web site to be and if you need databases etc. At the lower end, a basic web site design can be obtained as a template from many domain and hosting sellers from “site builder” or similar. These are very low cost but do involve you with putting your own words into the pages and designing the structure. If you require flash, databases etc it can cost you more. You can get quotes from such sites are guru or Elance, but beware those that are too low as you get what you pay for! If you budget about $50 a year for services sold with hosting or domains and from $350 to $1,000 one off for a more complex web site you are quite close. Make sure that you have a list of what you want in your web site and make this very clear when you approach a web designer. Also make sure that you view their past work and references. There are some real charlatans around.
You should also budget for about 4 updates a year. This keeps your web site fresh and allows you to add news and product updates. Again try and learn basic html with MsFrontPage or similar and this becomes much cheaper to undertake. Remember to keep a copy of your new web site and all the changes in a safe place – just in case you have hosting problems or make a mess of your updates.
FTP: This is the piece of software that you use to load your web site onto your hosting. The cost of this is from zero to $50 so do a bit of investigation for one that you are comfortable using.
Payment Processor: Budget about 5% of your turnover of this expensive necessity.
You now have your basic internet business but there are other things that will make your web business much more professional.
Broadband: The cost of this varies all over the world so you should budget according to where you live. You should look at a speed of about 4mb upwards with a good uploading speed as you will be uploading to your web site as well.
Fulfilment Software: It is possible to obtain software that will send an email to your purchaser just after payment. If you sell digital items they can be used to send your links to them. Even if you sell physical products it makes your customer feel better to get an email from you directly after they make their payment. I use MyDigitalDispatch very successfully and it is especially good for ebay sellers as it integrates with eBay and PayPal. Budget $100 - $300 for this.
AutoResponder: It will be a good idea to set up your own mailing list so that you can keep in contact with your customers and potential purchasers. You should budget about $10 - $20 for this – but this cost is easily returned by your sales using this facility.
Marketing: The day of “build it and they will come” have long gone. If you want someone to buy from your new internet business you need to tell them you are there. You should budget from zero to about 15% of your turnover. The general rule of thumb is the more you spend the less effort it is.
Good Luck
How Much Does It Cost To Start An Internet Business - To learn more about this author, visit Lee Lister's Website.
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You’ve read all about how great the internet is for small businesses and decided that you want to put your existing business on the internet or start your own brand new internet business. So how much is going to cost to get a fully functioning internet business set up?
Domain: This is the first thing that you need. Most .com domains – which are the best ones to get, are from $7.95 to $10 from respected domain sellers such as Godaddy. Make sure that you get a domain that explains your business as this currently helps with your search engine rankings.
Hosting: You can obtain this from Godaddy or Hostgator which are both reputable companies and it will cost about $50 a year. If you need a database make sure that you get MySQL or similar. Shop around because many host companies offer software facilities such as shops, bulletin boards, scripts etc.
Web Design: This depends upon how complex you want your web site to be and if you need databases etc. At the lower end, a basic web site design can be obtained as a template from many domain and hosting sellers from “site builder” or similar. These are very low cost but do involve you with putting your own words into the pages and designing the structure. If you require flash, databases etc it can cost you more. You can get quotes from such sites are guru or Elance, but beware those that are too low as you get what you pay for! If you budget about $50 a year for services sold with hosting or domains and from $350 to $1,000 one off for a more complex web site you are quite close. Make sure that you have a list of what you want in your web site and make this very clear when you approach a web designer. Also make sure that you view their past work and references. There are some real charlatans around.
You should also budget for about 4 updates a year. This keeps your web site fresh and allows you to add news and product updates. Again try and learn basic html with MsFrontPage or similar and this becomes much cheaper to undertake. Remember to keep a copy of your new web site and all the changes in a safe place – just in case you have hosting problems or make a mess of your updates.
FTP: This is the piece of software that you use to load your web site onto your hosting. The cost of this is from zero to $50 so do a bit of investigation for one that you are comfortable using.
Payment Processor: Budget about 5% of your turnover of this expensive necessity.
You now have your basic internet business but there are other things that will make your web business much more professional.
Broadband: The cost of this varies all over the world so you should budget according to where you live. You should look at a speed of about 4mb upwards with a good uploading speed as you will be uploading to your web site as well.
Fulfilment Software: It is possible to obtain software that will send an email to your purchaser just after payment. If you sell digital items they can be used to send your links to them. Even if you sell physical products it makes your customer feel better to get an email from you directly after they make their payment. I use MyDigitalDispatch very successfully and it is especially good for ebay sellers as it integrates with eBay and PayPal. Budget $100 - $300 for this.
AutoResponder: It will be a good idea to set up your own mailing list so that you can keep in contact with your customers and potential purchasers. You should budget about $10 - $20 for this – but this cost is easily returned by your sales using this facility.
Marketing: The day of “build it and they will come” have long gone. If you want someone to buy from your new internet business you need to tell them you are there. You should budget from zero to about 15% of your turnover. The general rule of thumb is the more you spend the less effort it is.
Good Luck
How Much Does It Cost To Start An Internet Business - To learn more about this author, visit Lee Lister's Website.
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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David BarrDavid Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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