April 20, 2007 20:47
Category: Site Build It!
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Information business online has turned out as an attractive career option especially for retirees and work-at-home moms or dads. Their lifelong experience is so enriching that sharing them on the Internet can fetch very good returns. The downside to this extremely rewarding venture is lack of sufficient knowledge of how to present it online.
It's rarely that the older generation does not have it in them to run an information business. But since the Internet is a relatively new phenomenon, often the technical skill to put up a website becomes a barrier to give effect to information business.
Then again, simply putting up a website is no solution at all. It must have a direction to grow and enough content to lead it to that direction. This last point is important because it is easy to fall prey to know-all ubiquitous website designers who will make you believe that a good-looking website is all that you need to flourish on the Internet.
Nothing can be farther from truth. A website, even if it is not good-looking, can bring good returns if you play your dices well. What then are the main barriers you ought to break in order to profitably run your information business? Here are 3 of them that are most potent:
- » Lack Of Direction
- » Lack Of Technical Skill
- » Undue Expectation
In this part, we'll look at lack of direction, and how you can overcome the barrier for your information business. In the second part of this article on information distribution, we'll examine the other 2 barriers and ways to counter them.
Lack Of Direction
Imagine a bookstore that keeps small stocks of wide variety of latest titles. Since it advertises that it has all the latest titles, you may believe perhaps it has the latest cookery book too. When you inquire you find it doesn't have the book you want. You also find that several customers who are looking for just about a month-old book also do not find it in the bookstore.
It's a bad business sense for the bookstore owner. Obviously in his effort to have finger in many pies, he not only looses business, he also antagonizes customers.
Imagine now another bookstore across the street that sells only children's books. To your surprise you notice that the store is full with eager customers all through the time the shop remains open.
Like 'flesh-n-blood' business, information business - or for that matter, any business online - too needs a strong focus. Since you are not likely to compete with global giants like AP or Reuters, you've to therefore look for a niche category for your information business to start and flourish.
Way To Proceed
Clearly the way forward to structure a profitable information business is to focus on your niche ability. It is not as difficult as many first-time website owners think. Before we deal on this aspect, let us get a feel of what information business actually means.
The easiest way to understand an information business is to turn attention to your favorite newspaper, which can be any for that matter. A newspaper's business is to sell information, and any good mainline paper will have assorted news that appeal to different readers it caters to.
There are political news, sports news, lifestyle section, health news, entertainment section, and so on. This means there are readers for each of these categories, and so we can say newspapers are made of multiple niche categories of news.
Decide Your Niche Category
Often we're carried away with the thought that a person's lifetime service profile is the determining factor to decide his or her focus for information business. For example, a salesperson engaged in consumer goods business almost inadvertently decides on 'selling techniques' as his niche category to focus on.
Nothing wrong there, only that it's a very broad area. Instead, why not focus on an information business that simply discusses merits and demerits of latest arrivals in say home consuming sector?
But suppose playing violin has all along been your passion in off time even as you were busy hard-selling consumer products. If so, why not opt for violin lessons as your information business!
As you can see, there is no dearth of concepts that can easily qualify and indeed turn up as successful information business. There are SiteSell owners who sell myriad information. Examples: best birthday party ideas, preparing wedding plans, home decorating coaching, needlework tips, learning Portuguese, and so on.
Need Help To Decide?
Okay, you may still need some prodding to decide what is going to be 'your' information business. If yes, an excellent free help from SiteSell is ready at hand - Choose It! Here are some basic details (taken from SiteSell).
Choose It! is a decision making software. Use it to make important business, financial, even life-changing decisions. Yes, really! It brings amazing clarity, your own clarity, to any complex question or problem. People have used it to...
- » decide important directions for their businesses,
- » select career paths for their adult children, and even to
- » decide upon vacation destinations.
Best of all, Choose It! is free! Ready? Do the Quick Tour.
Summing Up
The focus of this article is to explain that like any successful venture, information business too needs a clear direction to build and grow. It pays to spend some time here because if the foundation is strong it will be relatively smoother to set your sails right.
After you have used Choose It! (use it as many times you want), you'll be a step closer to decide on your information business.
