It would be nice to be one of those Internet gurus. To know everything about doing business online. To be able to slap down page after page of HTML without breaking a sweat. Create a new web site in fifteen minutes any time you want. Get three ezine articles, four pay-per-click campaigns and six joint ventures set up before lunch. Ah, yes. But there are two major problems with waiting until you've acquired that level of skill before actually going into business. First, you'll never get there. Nobody knows everything. If you wait until you do, you'll be waiting for hell to freeze over as that flock of pigs goes flying by. Which is to say, you'll never do it. Second, trying to learn everything first is a 'Catch 22.' You have to get in there and do it to learn it, so if you wait until you learn it, you'll never do it. Real sandcastles can never be built in the mind. But they can really be built. Okay, then. Am I saying you can just roll up your sleeves and open a business online when all you know about computers is how to turn one on? Well, not exactly. Then again -- almost. Sure, you should get as comfortable as possible with the computer in general, and with the Internet in particular. But it is possible to get started with not a whole lot more than the surf-and-send-an-email basics. So let's take a look at what might be holding you back. Could it be that you don't have enough money to hire someone to create a website for you, and the idea of doing it all by yourself is just too intimidating? Well, did you know that there is something called WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) software that will actually allow you to build a site with nothing more than the ability to type up some text in Word (or whatever wordprocessor you're familiar with), then copy and paste it onto a pre-decorated web page called a template? That's it. Really. And getting it up on the web may sound intimidating when you're told you need to know FTP. But that's nothing more than the old 'drag and drop' that you've been using on your computer desktop to put your files (letters, pictures of your kids -- or your grandkids) into folders. And if even that doesn't convince you, you can get your feet wet in the online business wading pool without any website at all. There are drawbacks (for example, you can't begin to build a mailing list if you have no website where potential customers can sign in). Even so, it will at least get you going. And, obviously, you can't get where you want to go if you dont start, right? But, you say, I hear that to do business on the Internet, I have to know about marketing. Well, indeed you do. But that's true of any business, online or off. And it's a lot easier -- and a whole lot cheaper -- to reach potential customers online than off. And even if, right now, you have no idea about how to do it, the Web has a virtual overload of information on the subject. In fact, with all the free tutorials that are offered online, you can learn the basics -- and more -- without paying a penny. So what's stopping you? Do you think the Internet is for someone else - - like techies and gurus and people under thirty? Well, think again. We may have separate churches for Protestants and Catholics, Muslims and Jews . . . even separate countries for Americans and Iranians, and Indians and Mexicans and . . . well, you know what I mean. There's a lot of separation on this old planet. But not on the Internet: that, my friend, is for everyone. Max Ehrman once wrote, in his Desiderata, "You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here." This can also be said of the Internet. So come on in, Child of the Universe: it's your Internet, too. |
