How Im Running My Business Successfully On The Internet

It all began in 1994 when I started noticing all those funny .coms, http:s and @s appearing in magazines along side telephone numbers and business addresses. I learned that these were internet addresses.

I attended a free seminar on Internet Marketing and was introduced to a software program called "Netscape Navigator". It was a very eye opening experience. I then started a quest to obtain as much information on the internet as I could find.

I found a book called "How To Make A Fortune On The Information Superhighway" by Canter and Seigal.

Canter and Seigal were (to my knowledge) the first people to use the internet for commerce and their experience led to the internet community coining the term Spam - Unsolicited Bulk Email, which caused them all kinds of problems; being Flamed, cut-off from their Internet Service Provider, etc., etc.

This book taught me about the World Wide Web, Email, Newsgroups, FTP, and gave me many clues as to what information I needed to research and gave me a good idea of what was possible on the net.

At that time I had a music product, a relaxation cassette which I had composed myself. I had been selling this cassette by cold canvassing businesses in my local area. After reading the book by Canter and Seigal I became confident that I could use the internet to increase my sales.

I saved up enough money to build my own PC to access the net with. I opened an Internet Account which cost me $7 (Australian) per month and allowed me 2 hours of access time. I taught myself HTML programming and built my own Web Site - PLETHORA Interactive Music.

This Web Site contains samples of my music thats available on two different cassettes. After building my Web Site for my music I was surprised to find that I had achieved the No.10 position in the Australian Music Top Ten Web Sites, was listed as No.72 in the 1996 Australian Music Top One Hundred Web Sites and just came in as the No.1 Australian Music Resource Web Site.

I got together with my friend Paul, who had just graduated with a business degree and I asked him if he would like to start a partnership called "Abundance Unlimited Internet Multimedia". Our main objective was to help other businesses to get an internet presence with the hope that they would experience the same success as my music web site.

I upgraded my Internet access account to $25 for 25 hours per month. I needed that because I was subscribing to so many emailling lists and getting so much mail per day. Now I get about 200 emails per day. I recommend this to everyone. Ive learned so much from all the lists I subscribe to.

Just go to your favorite Search Engine (http://www.altavista.digital.com) is a good starting point, and do a search on "E-Zines" and youll find an abundance of e-zines to subscribe to on a large variety of topics, and most are free.

Ive been finding people who dont have a web site and if I think that a web site would benefit them I offer my services. Ive made a few trade deals with people. I offer to make them a Web Site and they offer me something other than cash in return. One man offered me an information product that I could resell in return for making a small Web Site for him.

That was a great blessing. I now sell this information product via my own Abundance Unlimited Internet Multimedia Web Site.

Ive done a lot better than I thought was possible in the last several weeks. Ive decided to find as many information products as I can, as I feel that information is the Ultimate product for selling online. Especially considering that my advertising and distribution costs are close to Zero!

I just merely started asking people if I could be an agent for their products and they are starting to show up.

I wanted to keep this article short, who has the time these days to read long detailed articles these days?

I wanted to make the point that you too can succeed at marketing on the internet. Just keep your eyes open, find out what others are having success with and duplicate it, with a little bit of originality thrown in for good measure!

And most of all keep learning, and act on your ideas NOW!

About the Author

Geoff Williams is the founder of Abundance Unlimited Internet Multimedia, an internet presence provider and electronic marketing consultancy. Geoff has been programming computers for 15 years, has studied contemporary multimedia and music composition at The Southern Cross University N.S.W. and Multi Media Solutions, Coffs Harbour N.S.W, has trained in sales and marketing with Action International, The Australian Salesmasters Academy, The Interactive Distribution Association and Pinnacle Training.

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