June 2000

 

Sounds Like Something New, But It's Not
Wilma Schuh

Pitchmen for home-based business opportunities continually, on late -night infomercials and in the ad pages in business magazines, promise untold wealth for minimal effort. The pitch rarely changes, but the product does.

One product being heavily hawked these days is Internet-related business. "Yes," they say, "you can earn thousands of dollars a week at home by starting an Internet company. The best part is that it will take little of your time and you can do it in your pajamas!"

There is a rule of thumb that applies to just about every opportunity: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And, though the lure of the Internet is stronger than any business pitch in recent memory, the rule holds true here, too.

Gene Fairbrother, a spokesman for the National Association of the Self-employed, says "the Internet has opened a lot of doors. "The pitches fall into a gray area between someone who's selling snake oil and a really good business opportunity. You really can make money with a home-based Internet business, but most people won't."

Internet tool kits and Internet business start boxes that are being sold are no different from the startup kits that were sold to people years ago who wanted to start other kinds of businesses such a medical billing business or even a publishing business.

The main problem is that, while many have heard of the Internet riches, not enough people really understand how the Internet works.

"Less than 50 percent of people even have access to the Internet so there's an ignorance factor that fuels this," Fairbrother said. "What they have heard about are billionaires from places like monster.com and they see all this stuff and say the Internet is a gold mine."

Like it or not, there is still no substitute for hard work and training. Most people without computer training and knowledge of graphic design are probably not going to make it as Web site designers. Likewise, you can't simply put a product on a Web site, sit back and expect the checks to roll in with no understanding of marketing on the Internet.

People who buy into these companies don't realize that they are customers, not new business owners. Internet companies are selling the American dream and people are buying it.

There is a way to start a business over the Internet. But it doesn't come without a lot of sweat and it doesn't come from anyone trying to sell you a ticket to a seminar where you learn the tools of the trade or a tidy package of "Internet Tools." The best idea is to find your own niche.

• Start with your idea, your own passion.
• Create a site centered on something you are interested in and can speak honestly and intelligently about.
• Create a community with people that know you and trust you.
• You must create some reason for people to keep coming back to your site. Update it with new and useful information.
• Once you have a following of people who know you are legitimate, you can start selling products on your site.

The one thing that should be foremost in anyone's mind when thinking about buying into an affiliate organization is what direction money travels. The money should go in a certain direction and that is not you paying them to sell their products.

Source: Adapted from an article in Electronic Entrepreneur authored by staff writer Hope Hamashige.

 

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