Chapter 8. Myth No. 8: The Internet Isn’t What It Was All Hyped Up to Be
Truth No. 8: There Are Many Legitimate and Enjoyable Ways to Make Money Online

Introduction

An unfortunate myth that discourages people who otherwise could make a good living as business owners is the belief that the Internet isn’t all it was hyped up to be. It’s not difficult to understand where this sentiment comes from. During the Internet bubble, which lasted from 1995 to early 2001, there were predictions that the Internet would change everything and that brick-and-mortar stores were doomed. After the bubble burst, and thousands of Internet companies went out of business, it became clear that there had been some over-exuberance involved. It’s hard to forget the spectacle of companies like Pets.com, with its playful sock puppet, losing its investors’ millions of dollars and the sharp decline in the stock market. One Internet stock, Yahoo!, declined from $118.75 a share on January 3, 2000, to $4.06 on September 26, 2001.

Fortunately, the stock market recovered, and the Internet has proven to be resilient.

In fact, the number of Internet users worldwide has almost tripled since early 2001.¹ The number of businesses, shoppers, and people making a living online is also sharply up. It is estimated that United States online sales will increase 17.5% a year from 2007 until 2011.² Other activities online are also growing. For example, as mentioned in Chapter 7, approximately 400,000 businesses now maintain blogs, up from near zero in 2004 when business people started blogging.³

The truth is that the Internet has turned out to be a remarkable tool and platform. There are a growing number of ways that individuals and businesses are making money online. In fact, one of the beauties of the Internet is that people don’t necessarily have to have products or services to sell to make money.

If someone knows a great deal about a particular topic, such as cooking or home repair, she can launch a Web site, populate it with articles, tips, and other useful information and make money online by essentially selling access to the people she attracts to her Web site. This is done primarily by selling advertising space on the Web site, as will be discussed throughout the chapter, to companies who sell products or services of interest to the visitors to the site. This one factor alone has enabled numerous people to convert hobbies and personal interests into part-time and full-time businesses.

To more fully discuss these topics and further dispel the myth that the Internet isn’t all it was hyped up to be, this chapter proceeds in the following manner. First, we describe three factors that facilitate Internet-related business success. Second, we describe the most common ways that individuals and businesses make money online. Third, we describe the manner in which the Internet provides a platform for the sale of products and services produced by people working on a freelance basis.

Factors That Facilitate Internet-Related Business Success

Of the many factors contributing to Internet-related business success, three stand out—acquiring Internet-related knowledge and expertise, attracting users, and patience. Many people are not successful making money online primarily because they fall short on one or more of these important factors. Let’s learn more about each factor.

Acquiring Internet-Related Knowledge and Expertise

The first factor that contributes to Internet-related success is acquiring Internet-related knowledge and expertise. While you don’t have to be a computer geek to launch and run a successful Web site or other Internet application, you do need a certain level of expertise. For example, even if you hire someone to build your Web site or blog, you will normally maintain it and update it yourself. If you decide to monetize the site by participating in an affiliate or pay-per-click program, you’ll need to know how to set these programs up. For example, if a business is approved by Google to display AdSense ads, you’ll be provided some JavaScript code to paste into the html document that underlies your Web site. While this task isn’t difficult you have to know what you’re doing. In addition, the more you know about html (the main language for Web sites) and Web site design, the better you’ll be at moving the ads around your site to see where they perform the best.

It’s also important to know the basics of how the Internet works, particularly as it relates to how to obtain an Internet domain name, how to find a company to host your Web site, how to set up an e-mail account that corresponds to your Internet address, and so on. It’s also helpful to know as much as possible about your options before you settle on how to utilize the Internet. For example, if you make crafts at home and plan to sell them online, you might not need your own Web site. You could sell them on eBay or another auction Web site. You could also utilize a service like Etsy (www.etsy.com), which is an online marketplace for the buying and selling of handmade products. If you become an Etsy member, the company will set up an online storefront for you.

The best way to get up-to-speed on these and similar topics is to read Internet-related books and magazines and find help through other reliable sources. Small Business Development Centers often host seminars and workshops on how to start an Internet business. There are also companies that specialize in helping people design Web sites and set up Internet businesses. While many of these companies are legitimate, be careful. There are companies that prey on people who hope to "get rich quick" on the Internet and insist on being paid upfront. Make sure to check out any company before doing any business with them and ask for the names and phone numbers of people who they’ve helped before. If they won’t provide names and phone numbers, look elsewhere.

Attracting Users

Regardless of the type of Internet business you start, one of your main goals will be to attract users or visitors to your site. A large measure of a Web site or blog’s value is the total number of unique visitors it attracts on a weekly or monthly basis and the match between the demographic makeup of the visitors (that is, gender, age, occupation, interests, and income level) and the product or topic the site is promoting. The money a Web site or blog can generate is also roughly proportional to the amount of traffic it can produce.

As a result of these realities, it’s important to take steps to attract people to your Web site or blog and to increase your traffic over time. There are several ways to do this. It’s important to launch a site that satisfies its visitors. This means good quality products and services and a pleasant shopping experience for e-commerce sites, and rich content for blogs and special interest Web sites. These positive attributes keep people coming back and engender word-of-mouth referrals. The degree to which the people who launch a Web site or blog are passionate about their businesses also shows. It takes a lot of work to launch a well-designed, fully functional, and content-rich Web site or blog. If you throw something up quickly primarily to try to make money, it normally won’t fly.

There are also specific steps that can be taken to drive traffic to your Web site. One step is to become an expert in your field and write articles and columns and frequently post comments on the blogs of others. Work should always be signed, and the business’s Web site address should be listed. When you do this, you are giving people who have an interest in what you have to sell a way to "reach you" through your Web site.

There are also online article directories, such as Free Article Depot (http://free-article-depot.com), which people contribute to for free, hoping that a Web site will pick up the article and post it on its site. These articles have a signature box at the end, which provides you space to tell the reader about yourself, list keywords that pertain to the article, and provide your Web site address. Doing this directs people to your Web site, which is then picked up by the major search engines. As a result, the more articles posted, and the more Web sites that publish them, the earlier your business will appear in Google and Yahoo! search results. Some people claim that the best articles they’ve posted on Free Article Depot or Ezine Article (another directory) have spread to over 10,000 Web sites within a week. The key is to write articles that Web site owners see as valuable or interesting.

There is also an entire science referred to as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which suggests additional techniques to get a business’s name moved up in search engine results. The idea is that the earlier your business’s name appears in search engine listings, the more people will click the link and visit your site. There are many resources, including books, magazine articles, and Web sites, that provide information on this topic.

Patience

Patience is a third factor that contributes to Internet-related success. It takes time and effort to successfully launch an Internet business and build traffic. Because of this, many Internet companies start as part-time businesses, adding content and visitors over time, before they’re able to make much money. Top-tier companies only advertise on Web sites and blogs once they’ve reached a certain threshold of traffic. As a result, if you started a blog that focused on running marathons, you might need to post entries on your blog two or three times a week, write articles to draw attention to your blog, and promote your blog in other ways for several months or longer before you have enough traffic to attract good quality advertisers. People who don’t understand this can become easily frustrated. Unless you have a generous advertising budget to promote your site, it will take time for users to find you regardless of how good you are.

It also takes patience and restraint, after you launch your Web site or blog, to resist the temptation to try to do too much too fast. As just mentioned, the primary way to build a successful Internet business is to satisfy users. For e-commerce sites, this means targeting a specialized niche market first rather than trying to tackle broad markets. In the case of a specialty Web site or blog, it means adding advertising slowly rather than quickly to avoid irritating early users. The cardinal rule in building an Internet business is to focus on quality first, and the money will follow.

The Most Common Ways That Individuals and Businesses Make Money Online

There are a growing number of ways that individuals and businesses are making money online. In fact, when the dot-com bubble burst in early 2001, most of the money-making tactics and techniques described here didn’t exist. The Internet is a much healthier marketplace today, with multiple legitimate ways for individuals and businesses to sell products and services online and to monetize other types of Internet applications.

The following is a discussion of the six most common ways individuals and businesses make money online. An overview of the most familiar ways the Internet is used, along with an identification of money-making techniques that are most commonly utilized in those areas, is included in Table 8.1.

Table 8.1. How Businesses Make Money with Internet-Related Activities

Affiliate Programs

An affiliate program is a way for online merchants, like 1-800-Flowers or Amazon.com, to get more exposure by offering a commission to Web sites and blogs that are willing to feature ads for their products or services. In most cases, the ads are small text ads, and the merchant sponsoring the program pays the affiliate a small commission every time someone clicks the ads and buys one of its products or services. eBay and similar membership sites have a slightly different type of program. If you’re an eBay affiliate, you get paid $25 to $35 every time someone clicks the eBay ad on your site, creates an eBay account, and places a bid within 30 days. You also get between 50% and 75% of eBay’s revenue on all winning bids or Buy It Nows (BINs) within seven days of the click.⁴ Some online merchants have extensive affiliate programs. 1-800-Flowers, for example, has more than 40,000 affiliates.

The beauty of participating in an affiliate program, from the perspective of the owner of a Web site or a blog, is that you can make money on your site without incurring the costs involved with creating your own product or service and providing customer support. Your job is to attract people to your Web site or blog, and every time they click on your affiliate marketer’s link, you get paid. This approach allows people who are experts in certain areas, like fitness, health care, or investments, to put up Web sites and seemingly give away vast amounts of information. The way they typically make money is by participating in affiliate programs and/or pay-per-click programs, which are described next.

There are two ways to get involved in affiliate programs. Many online merchants place information about how to sign up for their affiliate programs on their Web sites. For example, on Overstock.com, toward the bottom of its home page, there is a link that reads "Become an Affiliate." This link describes Overstock.com’s affiliate program, including the commission rate they’re currently paying. At the time this book was written, Overstock.com was offering an 8% commission. That means that if you created a Web site and became an Overstock.com affiliate, every time someone clicked through to Overstock.com’s Web site from your Web site and spent $1,000, you’d get paid $80. Some affiliate programs are even more lucrative. Amazon.com has offered up to a 20% commission on MP3 downloads that originate through one of its affiliate’s sites.

You can also work through a company that manages affiliate programs for others. Examples of companies that do this are Commission Junction (www.cj.com), Link Share (www.linkshare.com), and ShareASale (www.shareasale.com). These companies have access to thousands of online merchants that have affiliate programs. Their job is to find the best match between firms that sponsor affiliate programs and the Web sites and blogs that have the most potential to generate click-throughs to their sites.

Pay-Per-Click Programs

The second way that individuals and businesses make money online is through pay-per-click programs. The basic idea behind these programs is similar to an affiliate program. A Web site or blog allows an advertiser’s link to be placed on its site and gets paid a small commission every time someone clicks the ad.

All of the major search engines sponsor pay-per-click programs. Examples include Google AdSense, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and MSN Adcenter. Google’s AdSense program is by far the best-known and the largest. You’ve seen AdSense ads many times as you’ve looked at Web sites and blogs. They are easy to spot because they have a small emblem underneath the ads that says "Ads by Google."

Anyone with a Web site, blog, or other Internet application that has content can apply to participate in a pay-per-click program. Most Web sites and blogs, if they have reasonably good content and meet the search engine’s terms of condition, are approved. As mentioned earlier in the chapter, there is a little work involved with setting up a pay-per-click program, but once things are setup, AdSense or any of the other programs do the rest. The most compelling aspect of pay-per-click programs is that they deliver contextually relevant ads. So if you start a blog about fitness, AdSense will place ads related to fitness on your blog. It’s actually fun to watch because the ads will change based on the specific topic you’re blogging about. If you write about running on one day, the ads will be for running related products, like treadmills, running shoes, and running apparel. If the topic is swimming two days later, the ads will change and focus on products like swimsuits, goggles, cruises, and sunscreen. AdSense does this by continually scanning blog entries and matching ads with keywords it finds.

Similar to affiliate programs, pay-per-click programs help people who put up special interest Web sites and blogs make money by selling access to the people they attract. Content-rich Web sites often place AdSense ads in multiple locations on their sites. For example, Tim Carter, a well-know columnist on home repair, has a Web site named Ask the Builder (www.askthebuilder.com). Information and instructions on all types of home building projects and repair are available on this Web site, as are links to areas that focus on specific topics, like air conditioning, cabinets, deck construction, lighting, and plumbing. Clicking any one of these areas brings up AdSense ads that deal with that specific area. All together, the site has hundreds of AdSense ads. Carter is able to do this and still attract large numbers of visitors because the information he provides is good and helpful. He might also believe that his ads, in a certain respect, add valuable content to the site. If someone is looking at the portion of his site that deals with how to construct a deck, he or she might actually appreciate seeing ads that point to Web sites where books and blueprints for building decks are available.

The one thing people should strictly avoid in participating in pay-per-click programs is trying to game the system by clicking ads on your own Web sites (to make yourself money) or asking your friends to click the ads. Google, Yahoo!, and the other providers of pay-per-click programs consider this to be "click-fraud" and have extremely sophisticated systems for detecting when this is happening. If you get caught doing this, you can be kicked out of a pay-per-click program, and once you get kicked out it is reportedly very difficult to be readmitted.

Direct Ads

The third way individuals and businesses make money online is through direct advertising programs. These ads tend to be banner ads, skyscraper ads (tall ads that run along the side of a Web page), or ads with pictures that are embedded in the content of a Web site or blog. If you run ads like these on your Web site or blog, you’re paid a commission based on either the number of times an ad is clicked or the number of times it’s seen (that is, the number of "impressions"). This type of advertising was more popular before affiliate programs and pay-per-click advertising caught on. Many Web site and blog owners shy away from banner ads in particular because they tend to be seen as more intrusive than text ads.

Similar to hooking up with an affiliate program, you can get involved with direct advertising in one of two ways. The first way is to contact an advertiser directly and negotiate the placement of ads. The advantage of doing this is that you eliminate the cut that AdSense or one of the facilitators of an affiliate program takes to deliver you ads. Many Web sites have links that say "Advertise Here" to encourage people to contact them directly. For example, on Ask the Builder’s Web site, there is a link on the toolbar at the top of the site labeled "Advertise." This link provides detailed information about Ask the Builder’s direct advertising program.

The second way to get involved in direct advertising is to work through a company that arranges direct advertising for online merchants. There are many companies that do this, including BurstMedia (www.burstmedia.com), DoubleClick (www.doubleclick.com), and Tribal Fusion (www.tribalfusion.com). An example of a Web site that is almost always displaying direct ads is Deal of the Day (www.dealoftheday.com).

The judgment call that Web site and blog owners have to make, as it pertains to affiliate programs, pay-per-click ads, and direct ads, is how much is enough. It’s a delicate balancing act. As a Web site or blog owner, you want to maximize the earning potential of your site without driving away visitors. One of the nice things about the Internet is that the owner of a Web site or blog can track the traffic on the sites on a real-time basis. As a result, many people are constantly experimenting with the amount of advertising that’s displayed on their sites and carefully monitoring how changes in the amount and types of advertising affect the number of visitors they attract.

E-Commerce

A fourth way that individuals and small businesses make money online is through e-commerce. E-commerce refers to the direct buying and selling of products and services online. Several of the Internet businesses we’ve highlighted in this book, including Wadee (children’s toys and gift items) and Odd Ball Shoe Company (odd sized shoes), are e-commerce companies. They have Web sites that are online storefronts and utilize the Internet to sell their products.

There are various types of e-commerce companies. Some companies sell services. An example is onlc (www.onlc.com), a company that sells access to online training videos that help people learn computer software products like Microsoft Access and Excel. Other companies sell matchmaking services. TechStudents.com, for example, sells a service that matches people who need Web sites designed and similar services with technology-oriented college students who are looking for part-time work.

For e-commerce companies that sell products, there are two primary ways they go about it. Some companies, like Wadee, make their own products, warehouse them, and ship them to customers when they receive an order. Other companies utilize a process referred to as drop-shipping. Drop-shippers feature an online storefront but do not have any inventory. Instead, when they take an order, they pass it on to a wholesaler or manufacturer who fills the order and then ships it directly to the customer. The product is normally shipped in a box with the online retailer’s name on it and the retailer’s invoice inside, so it looks like it came directly from the online retailer. By utilizing this method, an online merchant earns a lower margin than it would if it controlled the entire process itself, but its costs are lower, too. It also doesn’t get stuck with inventory that goes out of style or doesn’t sell for some other reason. The system is not completely friction-free. The online retailer still has to offer customer support and deal with shipping complaints and returned items.

eBags (www.ebags.com), an e-commerce company that sells luggage, handbags, backpacks, and similar items, is an example of a drop-shipper. One of the most attractive aspects of eBag’s online store is the sheer number of bags it has for sale—over 8,000. It’s unlikely that eBags would carry so many bags if it had to maintain its own inventory and take the risk of getting caught with outdated products.

Most e-commerce companies do not participate in affiliate, pay-per-click programs, or direct advertising programs, opting instead to feature clean-looking Web sites that focus strictly on the products or services they have for sale. This isn’t always the case, however. Buy.com, for example, is primarily an e-commerce Web site but almost always has other types of advertising prominently displayed on its site. The reverse also occurs. Some special interest Web sites and blogs that make most of their money on online advertising will have some e-commerce. Ask the Builder, for example, has an online store along with the content and advertising described earlier.

Subscription Services

A fifth way that individuals and businesses make money online is through subscription or monthly access services. These sites typically have specific services that they provide that have sufficient value that people in their niche markets are willing to pay for. Examples are companies that provide "members only" access to online games, music downloads, newsletters, and streaming video coverage of sporting events. For example, Rhapsody is an online music download site. For $14.99 per month, you can download an unlimited number of songs from Rhapsody’s two million song library. The songs only remain available, however, while your subscription is current.

A common strategy among firms that charge subscription or access fees is to give away a basic version of whatever they offer for free, to attract visitors, and then sell access to upgraded versions of the service. An example is Box.net, a relatively new online company. Box.net provides online storage for documents, photos, video files, media clips, and any other type of digital file. There are three levels of participation in the company’s business: Lite, Individual, and Business. The Lite service, which includes one gigabyte of storage, is free. The Individual service includes five gigabytes of storage for $7.95 per month. The Business service includes 15 gigabytes of storage for $19.85 per month.⁵

Interestingly, some of the subscription-based sites are very resilient in direct competition with sites that offer a similar service for free but include ads on their sites. An example is SmugMug (www.smugmug.com), an online photo sharing site. SmugMug charges $39.95 per year to store unlimited photos online. Other sites, like Shufferfly, Flickr, and WebShots, offer photo storage for free. Ostensibly, the reason SmugMug is able to charge a fee is that it offers higher levels of customer service and has a more user-friendly interface (in terms of how you view photos online) than its competitors. But the owners of SmugMug feel that its ability to charge goes beyond these obvious points. Some of the free sites have closed abruptly, and the users have lost photos. (Who wants to lose their photos?) SmugMug, because it charges, might be seen as more reliable and dependable for the long-term. In addition, the owners believe that when people pay for something, they innately assign a higher value to it. As a result, SmugMug users tend to treat the site with respect by posting attractive, high-quality photos that are in good taste. SmugMug’s users appreciate this facet of the site, compared to the free sites, where unseemly photos often creep in.⁶

Other

There is a variety of other ways that individuals and businesses make money online. Redfin (www.redfin.com), for example, allows customers to buy and sell homes online and charges a commission on each real-estate transaction it brokers. Sermo (www.sermo.com), a social networking site for licensed physicians, makes money by monitoring discussions and determining how doctors feel about new drugs and then sells data reflecting aggregated trends. The names of the individual doctors, of course, are omitted, and the practice is fully disclosed to Sermo’s members when they register.

Platforms That Help Freelancers Sell Their Products and Services Online

One exciting group of Internet businesses, which are increasing in prominence and use, are Web sites that serve as platforms to help freelancers sell their products or services online. There are many people who have full-time jobs and earn extra money on a "freelance" basis as a consultant, business plan writer, artist, photographer, or through some other means. Historically, a challenge these folks have had is getting the word out about their work. Many people are excellent photographers or Web site designers but have never made much extra money because they haven’t found a practical way to connect with people who need what they do.

A growing number of Web sites are sprouting up to solve this exact problem. These sites not only help people earn extra income but in some cases have helped people start home businesses and transform a hobby or skill into a full-time job.

This section discusses two categories of Web sites that act as platforms to help freelancers and others sell their products and services.

General Web Sites That Help Freelancers Sell Their Work

There are a number of general or all-purpose Web sites that help freelancers find work. The largest and best-known sites in this category are Guru.com, Elance.com, and Sologig.com. The primary purpose of these sites is to match individuals or businesses that need work done with freelancers who specialize in a specific area. The breadth of specialties that these sites cover continues to grow. Guru.com, for example, claims that it has helped over 30,000 companies employ over 629,000 freelancers to do various jobs.⁸ The jobs range from data entry to Web site design to installing kitchens.

Most of the sites are free to the employer and charge freelancers a monthly or yearly membership fee and a 6% to 10% commission on the money they earn. Some sites allow freelancers to bid on jobs, while others introduce companies to freelancers and allow the two parties to negotiate a price. Nearly all of the sites post ratings and reviews of freelancers provided by the companies they’ve worked for and vice versa, so there is a strong incentive on the part of everyone to perform. Although the sites do not indemnify the work of the freelancers, several of the sites will hold a company’s money in escrow, and the freelancer is only paid when a job is completed satisfactorily. On some of the sites, YouTube videos of freelancers demonstrating their work are available. In most cases, you can also privately chat or instant message with freelancers without sharing personal contact information.

To get a good sense of what these sites are like, spend a few minutes browsing around Guru.com or Elance.com. Pay particular attention to the sheer number and variety of freelancers who are involved and the amount of money they’ve made. One of the biggest advantages of these sites, from a company’s point of view, is that a freelancer can normally be "tried out" fairly inexpensively. So if you’re an advertising or public relations firm, and you design logos for your clients, you can normally find someone on Guru.com or Elance.com to outsource this work for $200 or less. If you like the work the person does, you can use them for future jobs. If you don’t like their work, the most you lose is $200 (or whatever the fee was). This logic makes it easy to understand why so many companies are opting to use freelancers to do work for them rather than taking a much larger risk by hiring additional employees.

The one thing that sites like Guru.com and Elance.com are not, and are not intended to be, are job sites like CareerBuilder.com. The matches they make are for project-based work, like copywriting an article or a book, designing a Web site, or photographing a wedding. In fact, the average contract handled by Guru.com is less than $700.⁹ This aspect of Guru.com and similar sites is their biggest strength in the eyes of many freelancers. Freelancers are not typically looking for a full-time job, but are looking for ways to earn income by doing project-based work in their free time.

Specific Web Sites That Target Freelancers Who Work in Certain Areas

There are also Web sites that focus on specific types or categories of freelance work. A sample of these sites is shown in Table 8.2. Many of the sites have interfaces that resemble Guru.com and Elance.com. Their fee structures and setups vary. Freelance Switch (http://freelanceswitch.com) provides a directory of niche freelance sites like those shown in Table 8.1.

Table 8.2. A Sample of Web Sites That Target Freelancers Who Work in Certain Areas

There is also a growing number of Web sites designed to help freelancers in another way. Instead of directly matching freelancers with companies, these sites provide a marketplace or storefront to help freelancers sell their products directly to the public. eBay is an obvious example. Another example is Etsy (www.etsy.com), mentioned earlier in the chapter, which is an online marketplace for the sales of handmade products. Etsy provides a platform for people who make crafts and similar products to display their work, and the Internet provides the leverage Etsy needs to reach a global audience. It also reconnects buyers with handmade items. Started in 2005, the company now has nearly 550,000 registered users, 60,000 of whom are individual artists selling more than 700,000 different handmade items.¹⁰ There are 30 different categories of items listed on the Etsy Web site ranging from Accessories (aprons, belts, umbrellas) to Woodworking (carvings, clocks, home décor). Each Etsy freelancer is provided an Etsy store to sell his or her products. Kate Black and Karen Adelman are Etsy freelancers. Their Etsy stores can be seen at www.kateblack.etsy.com and www.kartdesign.etsy.com, respectively.

A similar example of a Web site that provides a platform for freelancers to make money is Zazzle.com. Zazzle is an online service that allows its customers to upload images that can be printed on T-shirts, stamps, posters, cards, coffee mugs, and a variety of other items. This approach allows freelancers to place digital images they’ve produced on products, like coffee mugs and posters, and resell them at craft shows and through other outlets. In addition, Zazzle maintains an inventory of digital images that are posted on its Web site, many of which are provided to the company by freelance photographers. If an image provided by a freelancer is used to create a T-shirt, poster, coffee mug, or other item by a third party, the creator of the image is paid up to a 17% royalty.

Summary

It’s important to know the most common ways that businesses and individuals make money online. Almost all businesses now have Internet strategies, so the extent to which the various ways of making money online are appropriate for a business is an essential issue to discern. It will also become increasingly important to know how to utilize the Internet to make various forms of a business more effective. For example, a growing number of businesses are utilizing the services of Web sites like Guru.com and Elance.com to find good people to complete project-based work.

The final chapter of the book focuses on the myth that it’s easy to start a business, but it’s difficult and stressful to grow one. This myth is a tough one to grapple with because it sometimes is true. As indicated in the chapter, growing a business can be a joy or a nightmare—it all depends on how the process is managed. In the chapter, we tackle the most important issues pertaining to firm growth and lay out a roadmap for how to approach this important topic.

Endnotes

1. Internet World Stats home page, http://www.internetworldstats.com (accessed October 21, 2001).

2. "U.S. Retail E-Commerce: Entering the Multi-Channel Era," eMarketer, http://www.emarketer.com (accessed October 21, 2007).

3. Rachael King, "Make Some Noise," BusinessWeek SmallBiz, August/September 2007, 71.

4. eBay home page, http://www.ebay.com (accessed October 21, 2007).

5. Box.net home page, http://www.box.net (accessed October 21, 2007).

6. nPost home page, Don MacAskill, CEO of SmugMug, http://www.npost.com (accessed October 21, 2007).

7. David Enrich, "Turning an Online Community into a Business," The Wall Street Journal, February 27, 2007, B8.

8. Guru.com home page, http://www.guru.com (accessed October 25. 2007).

9. James M. Connolly, "Putting Individual Contractors to Work," Microsoft home page, http://www.microsoft.com (accessed October 25, 2007).

10. Etsy home page, http://www.etsy.com (accessed October 25, 2007).