Becoming Rich from the Internet

I received a mail from an old friend this morning and this is what he had to say: -

Hi,

We have all heard stories about some poor chap who started a business on the internet and went on to make an indecent amount of cash. Personally, I’m a skeptic but there are just too many such stories to ignore that there is a chance the internet is really a money making instrument.

So….I have decided to go on a quest to experiment and see if this might really work out. At this point in time, I have absolutely no knowledge about starting and maintaining a business online. Common sense tells me that I’ll need to find out and learn among others, the following

1. How to identify and workout deals to get products to sell
2. A business oriented website vs. conventional websites – how to setup and what are the differences?
3. How to get hits on search engines
4. payment methods
5. logistics…..the list goes on

I will learn all this and I will put it to the test. But first things first, before anything can happen I need to create something called an “opt in list” and here is where I’ll need your help. An “opt in list” is basically just a list of people who are interested in purchasing goods online. Sounds insignificant but for an online business, it is bargaining power to access online business communities. By being in a list, you indicate that you are open to receive ads and promotions via email.

For me, creating this list itself is an experiment. I would like you to be part of my “opt in list”. If you have doubts about buying and selling online, the 2^nd part of my email is my 2 cents worth about the subject. Here’s what you do to be included in my list.

1. Instead of replying to this email, write an email with the subject “Opt in list” and send to kevin.chiu76@gmail.com Try not to use your office time and email to do this as I do not intend to steal your company resources.
2. Preferably, you may indicate in the email, what you are interested to receive promotions on.
3. If you own an online business, I would appreciate if you could share your experiences with me.
4. Pass this email to some friends of yours (preferably someone I do not know) who may be interested. This is not a chain letter so if you decide not to do anything, nothing will happen to you. But wouldn’t you like to try and see what happens? After all, you’ve already read so much.

I cannot offer you anything for being on my list because obviously I haven’t made anything from this. I can promise you though that the email you give will not be abused. I also encourage that if you are interested to setup your own online business, I’ll share with you all my resources and whatever I learn from this.

The above 4 steps are necessary simply for the reason that I want the people in my list to be a little serious about this whole thing. Then after you’ve done it, allow some time for me to set it up properly.

So that’s that, as promised I’ll share with you my experiences on buying stuff online. I have only bought flowers, a rare electronic tool, computer parts and plane tickets off the internet…..so far so good. Delivery time is excellent and price is way below what I would have to pay if I bought the same items in a conventional manner.

For those who have never tried buying online, some benefits include

1. Access to goods not available locally
2. Lower price because there’s no need to cover costs such as rent and other overheads.
3. Goods delivered to almost any address and you shop from anywhere with internet access.
4. Unlike stores, there are no operating hours
5. No long queues at the counter and you don’t even need to take cash out of your wallet.

But just to be fair, there are some limitations to shopping online

1. Some online businesses only deliver to certain parts of the world
2. Although there are other payment methods, you almost certainly would need to have a credit card.

When we buy or sell on the internet, it is a whole different business platform. In retrospect, we are buying from and selling to the whole world! Every year it is estimated that an additional more than 200 million people world wide get connected. So the market size itself is growing at an exponential rate. Even if a miniscule portion of that number shows interest in what we’re selling, it’s a lot. But you probably knew that already.

As you can see, my knowledge now is rather shallow. But I intend to change that……Let’s find out what happens

hmm... very interesting