Is an online Business profitable

[Marcoh]

Good Day

I recently started my own online business, still very new but I always wonders if it was actually worth the money spent, I have designed my own site, so startup cost was next to nothing.

Does any one have experience in online businesses that care to give me some more information on their findings.

Thank you

[SilverNodashi]

I suppose it depends on what you do online, but our hosting business has been very successful since the day we started. And I personally know quite a few people who makes some nice money with various types of online website.

[Marcoh]

Thank you very much for the information, I am looking at setting up a ecommerce site with zencart, do you maybe know of someone that can explain to me exactly what is needed to make this work in south africa, modules etc.

[SilverNodashi]

ZenCart is probably one of the most widely used shopping carts in S.A. Check their forums and you'll find plenty info on anything you need

[Neville Bailey]

I'm not sure if my evolving business model would be considered as an online business or not...

I am slowly but surely moving my consultancy to a remote desktop consultancy, using TeamViewer and Skype, which means that I can conduct my business from anywhere in the world, provided I have internet access. I get such a kick when I get an enquiry from a total stranger who has filled in my website form, and I then assist him remotely, and then get paid for it, all in the comfort of my home, dressed only in shorts, T-shirt and slops!

As from tomorrow I will be taking a semi-holiday in the St Lucia area, where I will be putting my online business model to the test, and where there is no option of getting into a car and driving to a client!

Online business is truly liberating and very cost effective, provided you have set it up properly with a decent lead-generating website (i.e. Google-friendly).

[SilverNodashi]

Quoting the words or Morpheus in The Matrix: "Welcome, to the real world!"

Enjoy it

Doing business online, with only the only real requirement of internet access makes quite a difference to one's personal & family lifestyle -but you need to get a balance since it's often easy to work till 1am in the morning, in the living room.

[Neville Bailey]

... it's often easy to work till 1am in the morning, in the living room.

You are so right - especially when you get clients located in places like the Philippines... Believe it or not, Pastel (a proudly South African product) is used there as well!

[Marcoh]

I know exactly what you are talking about there softdux it so easy to go for hours on end designing, editing, refining etc your online "world" that you almost forget that there is a real world out there, I think we must look at the international front, they are way in front of us, which is a good thing in a way, because we can learn from their mistakes in the online world before ours start booming.

Neville I was looking into exactly the same business model a few months ago, and for some reason i stopped, its a good initiative. pm me if you are interested i branching out this business of yours.

[Marcoh]

I am currently in the process of building a community and dating website, with shopfront, it keeps me busy for hours on end, but the end result will result in much more free time at the end, online business has become so automatic that once everything is setup correctly you can almost just sit back and watch the money come in, or focus most of your attention on promotions and marketing.

LOVE IT!

[thinkman]

In my experience online business is more profitable......
Because i use this website for more than 5 years for buying and selling the domain name and hosting plans, in that site i earn very good profit......
They provide two types of reseller account, Basic Reseller and Pro Reseller..... Each account has different plans....
So that you can use this website goresellers.com and sell the domain name and hosting plans and get more profitable.....

In this website, some of the offers they provide are:
# WebSite Tonight
# Shared Hosting
# Search Engine Visibility
# Express Email Marketing®
# Secure SSL Certificate and many more plans

They provide many more offers to the Resellers so that still i use this website......

In better you can visit this website and get the clear idea about this website....

[clivemach]

Quoting the words or Morpheus in The Matrix: "Welcome, to the real world!"

Enjoy it

Doing business online, with only the only real requirement of internet access makes quite a difference to one's personal & family lifestyle -but you need to get a balance since it's often easy to work till 1am in the morning, in the living room.

For real. I'm still trying to find my way and sometimes I put my hands on the key board and eyes on the screen and realise the weekend is over before I know it!

[bellevue limo]

The question is: How much competition there is and how many you can sell/cost. It also depends on where you are located and where all you will ship, I hope you didn't forget about that. It all depends on website name, location, and pricing of stuff. By the way it is very hard to start a business like that, just because you have to beat out all the people that already have a loyal customer base/prices.