| Internet Riches: The Simple Money-making Secrets of Online Millionaires |  | Manufacturer: AMACOM/American Management Association
Category: Digital Book Service
Buy New: $1.79
Avg. Customer Rating:  89 reviews
Format: Amazon Upgrade
Media: Digital
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 293
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.872
ASIN: B000MZHY9I
Publication Date: May 30, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Book Description
In this strategy-packed guide, top e-business consultant Scott Fox reveals the powerful but simple methods for striking it rich on the Net. Exclusive interviews with dozens of "mom and pop" entrepreneurs prove how easy it is to get started and build a million-dollar enterprise. Readers get:
An inspiring guide to e-business opportunities, including "instant e-businesses" that require no start-up capital or technical training * proven strategies for making money from home and turning hobbies into businesses * low cost web marketing and product tips * legal and financial advice * detailed vendor recommendations * years of expertise and experience in one easy-to-use book Internet Riches also offers an innovative action plan for brainstorming new business ideas, and fun exercises to help readers determine the best moves for their particular situations. Filled with practical pointers and motivational interviews, it's the most powerful guide ever to finding financial freedom online!
Q&A with Scott Fox, author of Internet Riches
A 2007 survey showed that nearly half of American workers aren't satisfied with their jobs. What do you feel is holding people back from going into business for themselves?
People give their hesitation lots of names but it basically boils down to fear. I wrote Internet Riches precisely to help people overcome these fears. Starting an e-business today is much easier, much cheaper, and requires much less technology expertise than most people realize.
Unfortunately fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear that the learning curve is too steep, fear that there will not be a payoff for their work, fear that they cannot afford to do it, fear that they won't be able to live up to their own expectations or the needs of the business combine to keep many people from even trying. It's sad but true that in an effort to be "rational", these fears often combine to create a self-image where a person can't imagine themselves building a successful e-business.
The problem is that this fear is based on an outdated 20th century understanding of the risks required to start your own business. As thousands of my readers have found, if you update your assumptions to reflect the realities of how easy it is to start your own business in the Internet Age, the conclusions change dramatically and in your favor.
The facts are plain: online markets are continuing to grow explosively, the costs of the equipment and infrastructure have dropped dramatically, the flexibility of working from home on a part-time basis means that people don't have to quit their full-time jobs to pursue online success, and the great upside available to people who own their own small businesses have all combined to completely change the risk/reward equation.
Based on your research and experience, what areas have the most potential for growth in the coming years?
I'd put these opportunities in 3 buckets: The first bucket is filled with the obvious growth opportunities such as international markets and the mobile web (By this I mean the evolution of e-commerce into mobile commerce on your handheld device). Continuing explosive growth in these markets offers major profit opportunities.
The second bucket is the mining of niche markets. Because the Internet lets people communicate more easily than was possible in the 20th century, we are seeing the rapid emergence of millions of micro communities based on niche interests. This means that almost any hobby or issue can be used as the basis for a community of like-minded individuals. And anywhere there is a community, there is a market for goods and services which solve the problems faced by that community. The Internet allows entrepreneurs greater ability to service these niche markets cost-effectively than ever was possible before the Internet.
The third area of opportunity is the hardest to quantify but the most explosive: This is where entrepreneurs find new and unexpected ways to exploit the efficiencies of the Web to create new products, services, and markets. When one of these ideas finds particular success, it can spread like wildfire across the web and create very profitable new businesses very quickly. The big success stories like Facebook are very well covered by the media but there are thousands of smaller, millionaire-making e-businesses emerging all the time.
The benefits of starting a niche company are many; work from home, mesh passions with profits, be your own boss, etc. However, what potential pitfalls do niche market businesses need to look out for?
Getting ahead of yourself is probably the most common trap that I see for entrepreneurs. Especially because so many "get rich quick" gurus promise unrealistic returns, entrepreneurs can get hurt by diving too deeply, too quickly into their new passion. So, although one of the best parts of starting a business is turning your own enthusiasm into a revenue generator, this enthusiasm can also blind you to possible flaws in your approach.
Three ways to reduce these risks are:
1. Do your research. This means thoroughly investigating the competition (both online and off), pricing the goods and services needed for operations, and setting a realistic budget up-front for both your money and your time.
2. Take advantage of the new e-business paradigm by keeping your costs down, especially at first. Try a few versions of your business model to learn what works the best. Wait until you have found the most profitable approaches before signing any long term contracts or investing heavily in a new venture. In other words, don't quit your day job until you have evidence that your new web site can lead to the pay-off you're targeting.
3. Manage your time, relationships, and expectations with extra care during the start-up period. It can be hard on your family and relationships if you are suddenly working two jobs at once. Just as with your financial budget, you should develop a time line for your projects. Discuss this plan, and its associated trade-offs, with your family to get them on board, too.
These steps can help you keep your enthusiasm from overwhelming your good business sense. They can also help preserve your capital until it can be used most effectively.
You state that venture capital is no longer needed for today's internet start-up. Is this a product of cheaper technology, gun-shy investors, or both?
Venture capital can still be appropriate for capital-intensive ventures or to accelerate an already growing business. But for the niche entrepreneurs reading Internet Riches, it's rarely needed because all the competition among technology service providers has so significantly lowered the costs and risks of starting an online business.
This trend is driven by competition in the technology sector, not just on the prices of hardware but also on the costs and ease of use of software, plus the economies of scale enabled by the Internet's penetration into daily life and business operations worldwide.
For example, technologies that 10 years ago required tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and an IT engineering team on staff are now available to small businesses in easier to use web-based versions for a small monthly fee. Server maintenance, software upgrades, and tech support are included. This used to be called Application Service Providers (ASPs) but the latest buzzword is SaaS (Software as a Service). Companies can also source goods with increasing efficiency, pricing transparency helps lower prices, and there are more people online shopping than ever before. These trends combine to lower costs, speed up time to market and increase the profit potential of any new e-business venture.
Cheaper, more efficient and easier-to-use technology has also greatly reduced the costs of infrastructure for setting up a new e-business. Now entrepreneurs can work from home, in their spare time, and not have to invest in office space, parking, furniture, insurance, signage, etc. etc. Most of those "real world" costs that were required to start a business in the 20th century have been eliminated for today's Internet entrepreneurs.
Technology advancements have also revolutionized advertising. Services like Google's Adsense/Adwords and Yahoo's Search Marketing Solutions allow any business to advertise cost-effectively to consumers worldwide from a desktop PC. At the same time, those services can make money for entrepreneurs because they will place paid advertising on even the smallest, newest of web sites for no up-front cost. This gives any niche entrepreneur access to a potential advertising revenue stream previously only available to companies that owned newspapers, TV stations or radio programs.
If a business is less expensive to run, its products are cheaper to deliver and faster to market, and its advertising budget is more cost-effective, then it will also need less capital to get started. The combination of all these increased efficiencies and lower costs means a LOT less risk for entrepreneurs, and therefore less need for venture capital to sustain the business until revenues get started. Entrepreneurs can instead focus on growing their businesses instead of on technology support or on raising money that they may not need. Sorry, venture capitalists!
How important is search engine optimization (SEO) to a budding business?
SEO is a key strategy for marketing success, both for online and `real world' businesses.
In my seminars, I often say "Search engines are the Yellow Pages of the 21st century." You wouldn't traditionally have started a business without listing your phone number in the phone book would you?
Online is increasingly where the consumers are, so your business needs to be there as highly ranked as possible to attract as much traffic as possible. Today you can pay for prominent listings, just like in the days of the Yellow Pages' dominance. But you can also get good search engine display "organically" for free. This means carefully crafting your web pages' appearance, copy, and keywords to attract a high ranking from Google and Yahoo.
Often overlooked is the increasing importance of search engines for "real world" businesses, too. If you have a real world business based on local marketing (like a chiropractor or dry cleaner) you may not need a constantly updated e-commerce web site. But you should put up a basic "brochure" web site that is optimized for search engines. As everyone spends more time connected to the Web, you'll want to be easily discoverable by your local customers online, too.
Internet Riches has three chapters about online marketing tactics for small business. These "No Budget Online Marketing Secrets," "Small Budget Online Marketing Secrets," and "Real Budget Online Marketing Secrets" chapters discuss "pull" marketing tactics like free organic search engine optimization, as well as "push" marketing techniques like keyword advertising and email newsletter publishing that can help any small business grow its online profitability.
Book Description
Now anyone can be an online millionaire! These days it's easier, cheaper, and safer than ever to start an Internet business using readily available technology and turnkey opportunities. In this strategy-packed guide, Scott Fox reveals the powerful but simple methods he and thousands of others have used to strike it rich on the Net. Exclusive interviews with "mom and pop" entrepreneurs prove how easy it is to get started and build a million-dollar enterprise. Readers get: * a guide to e-business opportunities, including "instant e-businesses" that require no start-up capital * strategies for making money from home and turning hobbies into businesses * marketing and product tips * legal and financial advice * a list of recommended vendors * years of expertise and experience in one easy-to-use book Internet Riches also features an action plan for brainstorming new business ideas, and exercises to help readers determine the best moves for their particular situations. Filled with practical pointers and inspiring interviews, it's the most powerful book ever on starting and enjoying a million-dollar online business!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 84 more reviews...
 Not As Bad As I Feared August 14, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Absolute beginners who know nothing about the Internet and/or business will probably find this book useful, though not necessarily more useful than many free online resources. Fox clearly doesn't know much about the technical aspects of the Internet, but nothing he says is so terribly wrong that it will make a difference. Likewise, the general business information is cursory, and adds nothing to free information available online from the SBA and other groups, but it's accurate as far as it goes.
Fox makes a few points that are quite sound: you don't have to know a lot about technology or business to get started selling stuff online; it's better to get started quickly and learn as you go than to develop a perfect business plan that never gets executed; and overspending at the beginning is a bigger danger than being undercapitalized.
It doesn't take an entire book to reveal these "secrets"; nor is Fox a particularly compelling writer. But not being horribly wrong is actually better than average for a "get rich on the Internet" book. I also appreciated that he didn't advocate spamming or deceptive SEO practices, though he could have done his readers (and, thereby, the rest of the world) a service by covering these issues in more detail. His discussion of copyright could also be both improved and expanded.
While I don't necessarily recommend this book, I don't know of a better one to recommend for an absolute beginner who thinks they might want to get rich online. For general background on starting a small business, I would recommend the classic Small Time Business Operator, 10th Edition: How to Start Your Own Business, Keep Your Books, Pay Your Taxes & Stay Out of Trouble (Small Time Operator).
 At last I have found what I needed July 25, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
At last I found what I needed to learn. Clear structure of all the actions you have to undertake to get started and build your own e-business.
A great crash course June 24, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Scott Fox covers everything in this how-to book on starting your own internet business. Parts 1 and 2 start with brainstorming business ideas and researching them to be sure they're viable and moves on to explain different business models and how these relate to the ideas you've just brainstormed.
In Part 3, Fox explains the technologies behind the website(s) you are about to build and makes recommendations for how to do it cost effectively. He shows you how to choose a domain name, build a website, and develop "content" (all of the written material on your site).
Part 4 is the best section in my opinion. It's all about marketing and driving business to your site whether you have no budget, a small budget, or a real budget. And what good is having a fabulous site if no one knows about it, right?
Part 5 covers legal stuff and, as expected, is a bit drier than the rest of the book. But it covers important ground and Fox does it in a straightforward and easy to understand way.
One other thing about the whole "millionaire" thing in the title that others have commented on: Fox's point is that even if you're not making millions in your new e-commerce business, you can still live like a millionaire. How? By living on your terms and working when and how you want. And maybe you only make $500k or even only $250k so you're not actually a millionaire. But you know what? The average person isn't making that working 40, 50, 60, or 70 hour weeks working for someone else.
I'd absolutely recommend this book to anyone who needs the kick in the butt necessary to start their own thing. Fox's style is simple and easy to understand, but at the same time encouraging and motivating as hell.
Good basic information on making money online June 18, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I'd never heard of Scott Fox before, but from what I read in the book, he's been quite successful at making money online. He's worked with some big names so it appears he knows what he's talking about.
The book spends most of the time covering the nuts and bolts of choosing a subject area (niche), determining its feasibility to make money, creating a web site and making the big bucks. He uses lots of case studies of people who are currently making money online, which is very useful.
I finished the book optimistic, but still a bit vague on the next action step. I'm in a bit of analysis paralysis, which he actually discusses briefly in the book. It's where you spend so much time planning and preparing to make money and learning to avoid all the pitfalls that you never take action. The book has given me some more ideas on how to make money, and I plan to refer back to it in the future as I take action.
If you're unfamiliar with how people make money online, it's a great book to help you learn. If you already know about the general methods of making money like drop shipping, selling on eBay, product development, affiliate marketing, digital information products (aka eBooks), then you probably won't find anything new.
how to start your own on line business June 1, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I think Scott Fox has compiled some very good quality info on why and how to start your own online business. If you follow his suggestions I believe there are great opportunities available.
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