Running an Online Business Without a Website
© 2001 Elena Fawkner

A common question I get from website visitors and ezine subscribers is "do I have to have a website to run an online business?". The answer is a resounding "no ... but it's easier if you do". 

If you're absolutely aghast at the idea of creating and running your own website, not to worry. Here's how you can create, run and market an online business using nothing but your email program and ISP!

YOUR PRODUCT

The first thing you need is a product that can be promoted and/or distributed online in a text-based environment, i.e. email. Don't have a product of your own? Then start out by promoting affiliate programs. If you're new to online marketing and don't know what affiliate programs are, read this article: http://www.ahbbo.com/affiliate.html. To find good affiliate programs visit http://www.associateprograms.com . This is an excellent resource. If you want to see what affiliate programs are working for me, visit my site at http://www.ahbbo.com  . Virtually all of the banners you see throughout the site are the affiliate programs I'm a member of.

Many affiliate programs will include a free website that you can promote without having to do anything to create it or maintain it. All you do is sign up for the affiliate program(s) of your choice and direct your prospects to your affiliate website which then does the selling for you. Other programs just have you direct prospects to the product owner's website using a website address that includes special coding so that prospect is identified as having been referred by you and  you get the commission on the sale.

Of course, there's nothing to stop you creating a product of your own. Information products are huge sellers on the 'net. Create your own e-Book, write your own software. Make sure it's something that can be adequately described and communicated in email, though. It's no good starting out wanting to promote something exclusively via email when you really need a website so people can "see" what you're talking about.

Of course, if you're selling your own product, you need to get set up to receive payment. Being able to accept payment by credit card is a must. Don't rush off and spend mega-bucks on your own merchant account just yet though. Wait until your business is turning a profit before going to that sort of expense. Start out using a third party credit card processing service. I use Clickbank. The service is excellent, they just take a small commission from the payments made by your customers and send you a check every two weeks like clockwork. You can check out Clickbank for yourself at http://www.clickbank.com  . There are other third party credit card processors out there too but I haven't used them so I don't know whether they're good, bad or indifferent.

As for online checks, I am yet to find a reliable merchant. The one that I was using went belly-up a few months ago leaving me unpaid. Finding the right online check merchant seems to be a case of figuring out which is the best of a bad lot. Frankly, I don't think it's worth the risk. The number of people wanting to pay by online check is minuscule in my experience and they're usually just as happy to send you a paper check if, for some reason, they're opposed to using a credit card.

OK, so let's assume you have something you're ready to promote online. Let's look at how you can use email to run your business and get those sales.

DEVELOP YOUR OWN "LIST"

The very first thing you need to do is to get set up to build a list of your email contacts. This is kind of like pulling yourself up by your bootstraps when you're first starting out since how do you build a list when you don't have any email addresses to add to it yet? The answer, by the way, is NOT to send unsolicited email to every email address you can find. Not only is that a colossal waste of time, your ISP will soon start receiving complaints and you'll find your fledgling online business is grounded before it even has the chance to leave the nest.

By implementing the techniques described below, you'll soon start generating interest in your product/service. When you start receiving email from people asking for more information, add their address to your list of email contacts. NO-ONE should be added to your list who hasn't first made contact with you. Anyone who later asks to be removed from your list must be removed immediately and without question.

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