Let's say you aren't an expert in html and don't particularly feel need to do it all yourself. Here's my recommendation for getting on-line fast and easy. Spend $15 or so to get your own .com address. It's easiest kind of address for customers to remember. Sign up with one of e-commerce providers that gives you a browser-based design system. All you have to do is type in your headlines, copy and paste in your text, and pull up some graphics to enhance your products and services.

Register with search engines. All4one.com has a great free one- click registration form that gets your site on spider list of major search engines. It’s been pretty successful for me, though they need to update site. Research abounds on other low cost search registrations. You can often expect significant numbers of visitors to find you through search engines, outperforming most other forms of promotion.

Tell World Why They’ve Come to Right Place

Share your story. Tell how you got into business you're in. Be sure to tell WHY you do what you do and what values, pleasures, and challenges make you continue in business. But most of copy shouldn't be about you. Tell people how you help customers. Talk about successes your customers have had. Quote your philosophy on how everyone needs BENEFITS your product or service gives customers. This is kind of story your customers and prospects can get into.

Be sure to include your contact info. Sites with insufficient contact information are not only inconvenient when you have a question, but they can cause skepticism in visitors. (Who IS this cyberspace business owner?) For service-oriented businesses, including your photo instills trust in customers.

Get business going fast by placing some e-zine ads. E-zines are online publications sent to people who have requested piece be sent. The lists can be quite large, and these are avid readers. Pick e-zines that have interesting content. Boring 'zines don't pull well.

For a busy person trying to get up and running on Net fast and cheap, it's hard to beat these simple steps.

http://www.myks.sitesell.com/products43.html

>>> Do you want to concentrate on selling one product hard, or spread over a wide range of products?

This is a very personal choice, and depends somewhat on target audience you will be aiming for and expected profit-per-sale. If you have a product that is fairly high ticket, aimed at a niche audience, then you are probably best off building a web site devoted entirely to promoting that product.

Why waste your time diluting your efforts?

If, however, your audience is broad, and/or your profit margin is small, then by all means try to cross-sell them other products.

The choice has to be your own, but a lot of money is being made at moment from single product sites.

>>> Do you want to accept payments online, or let other people deal with money?

If you are starting out in business and have no trading history, it will be difficult for you to persuade your bank to give you a merchant account and so accept credit cards online.

There are ways around this, but they will cost you a bigger percentage of your sale.

Don't even think about asking customers to send you a check. This is Internet: people just won't do it.

One good solution is ClickBank. If you plan to sell digitally deliverable products only, ClickBank may be answer. Their setup charge and commissions are low, and there are no monthly fees. Check them out at:

http://zzz.clickbank.net/r/?avisc

>>> Do you want to capture email addresses so that you can sell to them later?

An increasing acceptable business plan is based upon idea of building a customer list and then selling to them at a later date. To make this work, your web site must be capable of generating a high traffic, and must have content that is of real value to its readers.

Once you have established that, invite visitors to opt in to your mailing list. This act gives you permission to email them without risk of spamming (sending out unsolicited email, which can get you into serious trouble with your ISP). Then you set about building a relationship with them through e-zines, newsletters, special offers, tips, recommendations, site update announcements and so on.

It can take up to seven communications before you make a sale, so perseverance is required.

**************

This method is longer term, but virtually all Internet gurus agree that it is most effective way of making money online.

**************

>>> Do you want to run an affiliate program?

Affiliate programs are special relationships that you create with companies that sell online. You advertise their products and direct your visitors to their site. They do all work of selling, taking money and delivering product and you sit back and reap commission payments.

With an affiliate program you can create a web site offering one, two, or a million products. Create themed sites (books, music, jewelry, art, you name it, there will be an affiliate program for it). You can even create entire department stores online.

And every time a customer buys a product, you will be credited with anything from 2% to 60% commission. Just wait for those checks to come rolling in!

Sounds easy? It isn't. Like any marketing method on Internet, it only works if you put in effort. You can design best looking, hardest selling storefront on web and if nobody visits it, that is how many sales you get. Zero.

Have no illusions, to make money on Internet you have to put in work. Maybe not 12 hours a day, seven days a week, but in early days you will need to devote some time to setting things up.

Like anything in life, dream is alluring. But this dream can, with hard work and perseverance, become a reality. Then maybe you can think again about that day job!

************** "To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is meat and potatoes of life. The money is gravy." >>> Bette Davis (1908-1989), actress. **************