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ARTICLE
The advent of the Information Technology with its ability to link
computers and transmit information at very high speeds and the fact
that Personal Computers have become mainstream, are factors in the
incredibly fast explosion of the Internet. This is THE MOST IMPORTANT
development in communications in this century's last decade. It
definitely has the potential of changing the lives of many people,
if they so desire.
For example, take people like me. See, I live in a country in Latin America called Honduras. You've probably never heard of it (unless you're a diver, because we have one of the best diving spots in the whole American Continent, The Bay Islands). This country, according to the "Tiempos del Mundo" (Times of the World), a Latin American weekly newspaper, is in position 118, out of 180 countries listed, in relation to its "Human Quality Life". That can give you an idea of the problems that afflict us (the country) on a day to day basis. We have to struggle with poverty, high crime, insecurity, government corruption and a great amount of maladies that affect all societies at one level or another. The newspaper even talks about a new type of "guerrilla" that may raise due to a situation like this, they call it "The Indigent Guerrilla". This, they say, will be people who, because of the needy situation they encounter themselves in, are willing to, literally, fight for food, rights, education and so on. This gives you an idea of the kind of place I'm living in.
It's interesting, however, that even in places like Honduras, technology is also advancing very fast, to the point of being a country that has a high degree of technology available. Of course, this technology is used mostly in the cities by the high class. But this is changing, because even though they rely heavily on agriculture (i.e. coffee, bananas and so on), the proliferation of computers is growing rapidly by the day. And the important factor is that the Internet is growing with it. Now you will be able to find Cyber cafes and Computer schools all over the country. It's like when satellite TV caught on, everybody wants it, it's like a fever. And, I'm sure, this phenomenon is occurring all over the world. This opens a very big door of opportunity, and people like me are pondering all the time about ways to take advantage of this opened door.
On the Internet, the fact that I live in Honduras, by itself, is of little importance. I can set up shop on the Internet and sell stuff. A lot of which is deliverable through the Internet itself. Where am I located? It really does not matter, as long as the client is treated responsibly and the goods are delivered on time. Of course, for something like this to be feasible it is necessary to have an online method of collecting payment.
Enter the credit card companies like MasterCard, Visa, American Express, etc. These companies provide an invaluable service when their system permits you to collect money from different parts of the world in an instant. Several companies, looking at this opportunity have started offering what they call "Online Merchant Accounts" to people worldwide. So, once you have an account like this you're ready to start profiting from the Internet in a big way, no matter where you are, as long as you have access to a computer and to the Internet. And now, with satellite technology getting better and cheaper everyday; that, for all practical purposes, is anywhere on the planet, be it an island in the middle of the Pacific or a desert in the middle of Africa. If, somehow, you can get connected, you can do business on the Internet.
Another factor that helps people located outside of the United States (most of the e-commerce promoters are in the U.S.A.), is what's called "Drop Shipping". This is an legal arrangement made between a broker (intermediary) and the manufacturer where it's agreed that the broker will promote, market and sell whatever goods the manufacturer has to offer. The manufacturer, in turn, will agree to deliver whatever goods the broker sells. Of course, this is like this, after making sure all due payments have been made.
Now think of this. Anybody with a real presence on the Internet (i.e. owner of a domain) is given the opportunity to do marketing for this drop shippers' goods and ends up earning a percentage of what's paid for the goods. What's more, a lot of these companies are willing to help you; some of them will give you a free site or free information that you can reproduce and tailor to your personal web site. This is a great help especially when starting out in this business.
This leads us to another Internet opportunity available to anybody, anywhere. It's called the "referral system". On the Internet there are thousands of companies that are willing to pay you a commission if you refer to them anybody that will buy something from them. Think of companies like Amazon.com, considered the biggest bookstore on earth, or CDNow the biggest music store on the Net, they both will accept anybody with a decent Internet presence as an associate; a person who will refer people from his/her web page to theirs. If that visitor buys a book, a CD or anything they are selling they are willing to pay you a commission for having sent that visitor to them. Since there are millions and millions of people on the Internet the probability of someone going from your page to some company's page and buying is very high.
Now, let's talk about the other side of the tortilla, as they say here. No matter where you are, or how many megabytes you have available at your site or what company is providing you with Internet space, you have to have visitors to your site to be able to sell anything. The people visiting your site is what's called TRAFFIC and this is one of the most important thing you need to have in order to be successful as an Internet Entrepreneur. The question now is: How can someone generate traffic to their site? Well, there are several things you can do:
* Post VALUE loaded ads on classified pages around the Internet
* Give people visiting your site the opportunity to earn some money (people is always interested in Money)
* Offer something FREE at your site that makes people want to come back to it for more
* Offer FREE unlimited classifieds for other people to use
* Offer FREE unlimited postcards for other people to send. (The good one about this one is that the recipient, who might have never heard of you, has to come to your site to pick up his/her postcard)
* Create an E-zine pack full with benefits for your visitors
* Transmit a Value loaded Newsletter (for this one you'd need email addresses, so you have to make a provision on your page for capturing these, with the visitor's permission, THIS IS OF PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE, and it's also a big help if you have a LISTSERVER to manage the mailings. I don't support spamming and neither do a lot of people on the Internet) so people will WANT to subscribe to it.
There is a lot more you could do to attract traffic to your site, but this will give you an idea of the kind of stuff you've got to do to have people come to you. Once they are in your property, you should have a plethora of offers and things to sell. If you do, chances are, your visitors will buy something from you, no matter where in the world you are.
If you apply all these principles consistently, and you improve the quality and quantity of the offers on your site, be sure that the Internet will pay you back, EXPONENTIALLY, not for a few days or months, but for years to come!!! And, I reiterate, that's independently of where you reside!!! In fact, if you live in one of those poverty stricken countries, like Honduras, you might be doing your share in improving your life and that of the people you care about and, who knows? you might become so successful that jobs are created for the people in your country and, in this manner, you will be contributing to the improvement of that part of the world you live in, your country.
If you'd like to set up shop on the Internet, or improve your chances of making it in this new medium, or have more specifics about all the principles mentioned in this article, don't hesitate to visit http://www.knowledge4cash.com or drop me an email at: hermann@knowledge4cash.com, I'm standing by to give you a friendly hand....
