As I sit on my imaginary bench on a cold wintery day, I ponder on the lessons I have learned in the first two weeks of my Web Business Design class. The first thing is, this is not a class just on creating a website, but a class on building a web based business. I have to think of a product or service to sell on line, develop a business model and learn how to promote my website that it will be more prominant on the internet. The cold air is needed to clear my head. I need to think of 20 business ideas! I search the web, I ask my friends, I think of what I am good at or enjoy. Here is a list of my top 10 ideas so far.
Portrait Photography
Meals-to-Go
Teach English
Pintrest Parties
Cup Cake Bakery
Card Making
Make and Sell Wreaths
Social Media Management
Detective Agency (my husband would be the detective)
Freelance Photography
Because I am so new to the online digital way of making money, I am drawn to the Merchant Model of business, because it is what I know. I create something, I sell it. What I do not yet understand are the many ways you can make money from a web business with out even creating a single thing. If you blog, you can make money through the Advertising Model. You can also use the Subscription Model to get people to pay periodically to hear what you have to say on a certain subject. You can provide information to help consumers understand a certain market in the Infomediary Model and you can assist consumers to buy and sell to each other in the Brokerage Model.
My Web Business will ultimately be my photography. It is what I am passionate about and what I can excell in. I have been reading Seth Godin’s book, “The Purple Cow” in it he teaches that you “must be remarkable” just like a purple cow is different from all the brown cows out there. You must find a way to make your product or service remarkable. How do I take the best photographs? How do I make them different from all the other photographers in town? How do I make my business that much better, so that people will want me to take their pictures above anyone else in town? These are the questions I will be asking myself and trying to figure out as I work through my web design business.
It has been a little over whelming and I feel I am in over my head, yet the process of learning how to establish a business on line, enable it to accept payments and promote it, so that more people will see it, will be invaluable to my initial purpose of building a website for Sarah-Jayne Photography.
Simply Sarah-Jayne 