Collis has a great series of posts over at North x East about what it takes to start a business online.
These articles also apply very directly to other online ventures such as blogs.
The posts so far have delineated time and focus as two essential attributes for starting an online business (which I would absolutely agree with).
If I can elaborate a bit on Collis’ points within his article, I think there is a model that all successful online businesses share.
An online business’ success often hinges on the ability to either establish or create a community (that could be cat lovers, cycling fans, whatever) that has something they wish to share (cat grooming tips, exchanging spare bike parts — use your imagination).
Anyone who has attempted to either build a community or get a community to start sharing something they previously kept to themselves knows its a challenging undertaking — once you have a community established, you’ve got the hard part out of the way.
Check out the introduction to the posts at North x East, as well as What It Takes to Start a Business Online — Part I — Time and What It Takes to Start a Business Online — Part II — Focus.
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February 17th, 2007 at 10:28 am
i have read your articals it so goodand if you want more message you may get related articals.
This articles, and other information on trading by John Forman,
who wrote The Essentials of Trading. John’s been in the markets for almost 20 years.
He publishes his thoughts about trading (mostly educational), provides reviews of books and
other trading related stuff, and posts information on his trading education work.
this site:-
http://www.theessentialsoftrading.com/Blog
February 17th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I never really thought about it but your right all these online successes have this model. Maybe i should go start a business now!!
February 17th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
You’re right the importance of community is cannot be denied, they really account for most online success. Its fascinating how online communities materialize some places and other places just fail at it. I suppose the same thing happens offline too, like why do so many people love macs or harleys and form sort of communities around them, but not around like dells or suzukis (at least not that i know of :-D).
I’m going to go read more about communities i think!! Thanks for the links Lucas!
February 19th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Good points, Collis. I think there are certainly aspects of elegantly effective niche branding that come into play when creating a community — both Harleys and Macs have a strong niche brand, whereas a Dell’s appeal is more to the general user (although I’m sure there’s a Suzuki community out there somewhere!).
February 19th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
hehe, you’re probably right! I’ll expect some flame emails from the suzuki-ites