by Craig Lock

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to use Internet, and he won't bother you for weeks." - anon

Introductory Thoughts:

I hope that following article based on our experiences may be informative and/or helpful in your online marketing.

A successful online business isn't built overnight; but is result of many late nights. If anyone says that they can teach you to make a substantial amount of money without hard work, realize they are talking through "a hole in head and are out of their trees".

After four and a half years doing it, here are my TEN COMMANDMENTS setting out how to conduct business online (in spite of recent demise of so many "high-profile dot-bombs"- ready availability to large amounts of capital, I believe, can be a big disadvantage to small/home business cyberentrepreneur):

* Now time to "get straight into it"...

1. Understand that technology should help you achieve your business and personal goals. It is merely a tool to move you forward with your vision: a "means to an end" to HELP and enable you, rather than being an end in itself, (or perhaps even be a disabler to "untechnos" like me). So make modern technology work to it's highest potential for you and your business. Spend time learning about various computer programmes and applications (hard though it may be for 'technically challenged'). Then "use it repeatedly , so you don't lose it!" Accept that vast majority of www. users are not "technofreaks" (like my "geek associate", Bill) and have great difficulty learning new computer procedures. Well, I certainly do (just ask Bill)!. However, by making a conscious effort and with discipline and effort habit ingrained makes it easier and easier, as your confidence grows in leaps and bounds.

2. Don't take competition for granted...and don't "knock" them. Never ever! Accept that no business can be best in every facet. The convergence of computer, media, entertainment and communications means underlying structures of computer world will change rapidly and soon... or so my "technogeek" associate, Bill (not Gates) says. The TV/computer/music center is not far away, I hear.

The net is a world wide market-place, so don't be too zenophobic (now that's a really big word, that I tried very hard to bring in). I think many Americans (and New Zealanders too) think that theirs is only country on earth in which to trade and is centre of world... and we're nearly falling off bottom near Antarctica!

Some of those businesses were mom and pop outfits while others had multi-millions of venture capital dollars to make them strong yet they all failed miserably for one simple reason: they did not understand "Secret Key To The Internet"!

Perhaps it is because "Secret Key" is so simple that it manages to elude our scrutiny and understanding.

No, it is not about numbers as many would venture to guess.

"More than half of nation is now online. In September 2001, 143 million Americans (about 54 percent of population) were using Internet - an increase of 26 million in thirteen months..."

That startling fact, which I have quoted above, is revealed in a truly important report, recently released by Department of Commerce entitled, "A Nation Online: How Americans Are Expanding Their Use of Internet."

This report contains an invaluable WEALTH of information regarding numbers of American households connected to Internet, details how, where and why people surf Internet, provides demographic details on income, employment status, age groups, gender, levels of education, urban or rural locations, race and a great deal more.

The report is available in both Adobe PDF format and also Word 2000, I download word report, which is a whopping 4263K in size. But it is worth its weight in gold for all information that it makes available; info, which you may well find essential in planning and executing your own business plan online.

In "Conclusion" section of report, they state that, "Approximately two million more people become Internet users every month!"

For those of us doing and wishing to do business online it is filled with nothing but encouraging good news.