Here’s another in the question and answer series of Ask Laura regarding Getting Started. This gentleman wrote me because he wanted to start a side business online and return to a rural lifestyle away from the city. However, he couldn’t think of an idea for his online business! Although this email is quite old (2004) and has focus on info-products and ebay selling (two areas which are harder to make money at now), the premise still stands. You must have a passion and an interest in your business to really make it online. ‘Making it online’ could be making money, making a...

Making IT Online is not as easy as it was just a few years ago. When I first began, back in 1996, you could just slap up a website, throw some traffic at it and start making sales. Of course it was also a lot more expensive to get started back then as well. Domain names were $35/year and hosting costs were out of this world. Back then I traded my website designer hours in exchange for hosting fees. Today however you can start your online business for less than $13! An $8 domain name and a $5/month hosting account and you’re set to go, get some content up and start selling! But with the lower...

Some would tell you that online promotion and marketing is easy, common sense, or that a successful online business can be established overnight. Others will tell you to buy their ebook or home study course where in 2 days, 3 audio files and 40 pages you can begin raking in big fat world wide web checks. Learn to Market and Promote in 40 Pages or Less – Ask Laura (July 20/06) “Ha!,” I say! Internet marketing, website promotion, online business building is indeed very easy – to those that know the game or have already established a presence. But to the un-initiated, the un-taught,...

Clients, friends, subscribers and online readers are regularly sending me notices about new marketing products, tools, software, and automated website builders. Sometimes the creators or developers send me pre-launch products to assess as well. (If you’re a developer or programmer you can contact me for this service via the contact form.) This post in no way is meant to say these tools aren’t useful or helpful to your online business. Except when you are buying tools left and right, solutions and products in the hundreds of dollars monthly, and you haven’t made your first cent...

There will be quite a few of these question and answer series in the Ask Laura section of makemoneywithyourideas.com – I get a lot like the one that follows below. As you’ll see, there are many ways to build and promote a business online, even more ways to make money from your efforts. Your First Website – Ask Laura (August 24, 2005) Laura, I have been researching all the guru’s on the net trying to decide how I should go about starting a web project I have in mind. What bothers me is so many experts that give out different “solutions”. I guess in reality, there...