Different Types Of Internet Businesses

There are a thousand ways to generate income on the Internet ... I will try to identify for you the great types of Internet businesses that exist. To simplify, there are three big families, to fix ideas:

- The sale of physical products, referring to electronic commerce.
- Advertising, referring to blogs, portals, platforms that offer a service or free content in exchange for advertising.
- The sale of services of a lifetime, either directly or indirectly.

I invite you to reflect on these 3 different models, with the idea of helping you to define the model that best suits you.

The first family is the electronic commerce route that is, basically, an online sales business of physical products, products that you have to deliver to a final customer.

Traditional online stores

E-commerce businesses are, above all, a logistics business where your ability to manage, store and deliver the products that your customers buy at home is vital for your business and perhaps it is a type of business that requires a strong investment initial, both from the needs you can have to operate (you will have to buy products, you will have to store and deliver them) and the need to position your website very quickly on the Internet to start selling.

Selling branded products is very important for most e-commerce stores, since it reduces the barriers when buying by a user. Building a brand is a slow process that you must take into account. If you sell branded products already known and recognized by the market, the price at which you will sell them and to which you will buy them is key to the profitability of your business.

For the most part, these types of businesses on the internet do not have a blog. They are dedicated to their catalog and to position themselves in Google.

There are also business to business enterprises. For instance, the company allstars distribution works as a wholesaler for retailers. This is a business that provides services for other businesses.

The sale of authentic products and crafts

E-commerce is a fairly consolidated business and I believe that more and more purchases are made on the Internet, even for things that 5 or 10 years ago seemed totally impossible, such as buying furniture, for example. As in many other sectors, there is a tendency to go towards more authentic products, with more personality than those sold by millions of units. I speak of the trade of handicrafts.

How does all this link with blogs? Well, we can imagine here, all the products that artisans can create: they can be jewelry, crafts, wood products, whatever. These products can be sold through a blog and delivered at the customer's home. Here the artisan merchant will have to face the harsh reality of building an arsenal brand, develop a relationship of trust with his audience, with the idea of reducing the friction of the purchase. Giving a face as an artisan and explaining the manufacturing processes of the product are key factors in these cases.

These types of businesses on the internet do lend themselves well to the use of a blog.

Have you heard about dropshipping?

There is a third way very little explored in Spain it is a DropShipping service; wholesalers that buy and deliver the products for you. This type of business makes all the sense of the world in B2B or industrial environments, since the purchasing power of a company in a market such as China can make important differences in prices and / or value for money, and also because the granularity of The distribution network is not too expensive (some are limited to deliver products in the Community of Madrid for example).

You can set up an online store and dedicate yourself to the sale of these products, having previously signed an agreement with a DropShipping operator that will do all the logistical work (purchase, stock, handling, delivery) at home).

Of course in a model like this, networking, the previous client base, blogs are fundamental tools to sell more and better and to get to know new customers. On the other hand, you lose flexibility over prices, and we are not going to cheat you also reduce your potential profitability too much, since the logic in an online store, if it is not everything, has a very high operational impact.

An example of dropshipping could be the case of an NGO as a complement to its traditional models (partners & sponsorships) for merchandising products and / or support products. In these types of businesses on the internet, the blog is not an option, but it is vital. Remember that if you sell with a dropshipper, your mission is ... to sell.

Second family is the way of advertising. It is a very unlikely path since very few people achieve it, but it is the one that everyone talks about, basically because it is the traditional model of the press, the media and the large networks of blogs. Come on those who inundate us with infoxication. The idea - the best myth is that on the Internet the only way to work is the "All free," and try to monetize your traffic through advertising.

The great portals and networks of blogs

At the time, these types of businesses on the Internet, started before all and achieved a leadership position (Case of Weblog S.L for example). Your business is to generate millions of pages and place more or less intrusive advertising blocks (contextual or banners) and get people to click. It is a business that works best in segmented products in the great publishing niches of all life (look at your kiosk the magazines that are distributed), and you have to talk about popular issues and if you do the first better than better.

If you own a small business, it is likely that you are not an expert in online advertising or an editorial expert. If this is the case, you should forget forever about these types of businesses on the Internet that are based on advertising because it is something that is totally foreign to you.

Advertisement is the gold of internet. Google profits on it. It's its the major income stream. Other platforms tap on advertisement in different formats. In video marketing, companies such as netaclient leverage on the growing video sales approach.

The professional services of a lifetime

Your concern should be different: what you want is to have a successful business; you do not want a successful blog. You can use the blog in another way, a blog that is at the service of your business objectives and that you do not have to transform your activity as a freelancer or as a professional in your sector to that of an advertising expert.

So yes there is a third way that the most likely way for all knowledge workers. What is yours in the traditional off line channel is to develop a relationship of trust with potential clients, try to analyze their needs and, as long as you can respond to their problems, try to make a proposal that they buy from you. It applies to all professional services such as consultants, managers, technicians, freelance designers, in short: it is the business of the self-employed/freelancer of a lifetime.