Earning Money With An Internet Business

Put simply, the Internet is a “network of networks,” a global web of 25,000 computer networks of all shapes and sizes, ranging from huge research institution mainframes to modest personal computers tucked into the corners of home offices.
Information on the Internet flows across all sorts of wires - from copper-wire telephone lines and satellite dishes to fiber-optic cable and cable TV. Once a government-funded research network that linked teams of bureaucrats and academics, the Internet now connects more than 20,000,000 people worldwide, a community that encompasses high school students, college professors, writers, programmers, and even florists and real estate brokers. And the Internet’s growing at over 150,000 new users each month.
Although the Internet’s academic flavor remains, many new users represent businesses and other commercial ventures. These days, corporate giants such as IBM, General Electric, J.P. Morgan, Xerox, Merrill Lynch, Motorola, and Schlumberger are tapping into the Internet for everything from electronic mail to international research and development. Most excitingly to us, so are thousands of electronic entrepreneurs selling everything from cheap and easy Internet access to software, sites, music, computer chips, toys and flowers.
Marketing experts are also starting to recognize that the Internet promises a veritable bonanza—20,000,000 people who have conveniently sorted themselves into interest groups that focus on topics ranging from medieval literature to drag racing, C programming to dating. On the Internet, no one has to buy a mailing list and pay for printing and postage. Post a product announcement or press release on the appropriate Internet discussion list, and without any further effort or cost, your message is zapped automatically to every subscriber.
But don’t run out and log onto the Internet yet! Although the Internet represents a huge, easily accessible market that doubles as the world’s largest post office and library, doing business on the Internet can be perilous for the uninformed.
Internet-connected companies point to increased productivity, better collaboration with strategic partners, and access to a seemingly infinite array of information, but businesses also are quick to agree that the Internet is virgin territory when it comes to marketing and advertising. As a result, savvy entrepreneurs are moving cautiously to avoid alienating Internet users—their potential customer base— by being sensitive to the network’s not-for-profit heritage, which emphasizes free information and egalitarian access to markets.
Realize before you set out that the Internet isn’t just another magazine in which to advertise. On the Internet, you can’t distribute empty puffery, breathless hype, or innuendo about your competitors—and expect to get away with it. Instead, proceed cautiously and view the Internet as a sort of supertown square, where different corners have different values and expectations but all have a basic set of expectations of how newcomers will behave.