The internet has made it possible to run a business that is 100% online.
Some benefits of an online business include:

• Flexibility of working hours and location
• Minimal overheads
• No need to travel to work / work from home

Some online business models:

• Sell digital products
• Sell services
• Provide valuable information
• Provide a market for advertisers. Can you write or collate information that attracts a particular market? If so then other businesses may pay to advertise on your website.
• Affiliate – become a channel for third party products or services.

As with any business, it’s best to start with a plan, and it will take a significant investment of time, at least initially.

Domain names. If you’ve got a website, then you need them. Your domain name is your address on the internet, so it’s very important if you want people to be able to find you.

You never own a domain name, you register it in your name for a period of time, allowing you exclusive use, and first option to renew at the end of the term of registration.

.com

The most popular domain names end in .com, they are popular and relatively inexpensive, so if your preferred name is available in .com you should probably register it. .com domain names can be registered for 1 year at a time, or up to 10 years.

All 3, 4 and 5 letter combinations are long gone, as well as most dictionary words, so you’ll usually have a combination of words or your business name.

.com.au

For Australian businesses, it’s vital to have a .com.au domain name. These are available to register only for 2 years at a time, and you must have an ABN and a closely matching business name in order to register one. .com.au domain names are regulated by AUDA (.au Domain Administration).

Pricing

Pricing varies greatly. One of the most popular registrars in Australia is Melbourne IT, and they are just about the most expensive, at around $75 per year. Go Daddy is one of the least expensive domain registrars, with .com’s available at $11 per year, which is very close to wholesale price. Most are in between these extremes.

Your website designer will often have a domain name registration service. They will probably charge their wholesale rate, plus a mark-up to cover their time administering the name on your behalf. If you are not confident managing your own domain names, this is probably your best option.

Ownership

However, make sure that you are entered as the registrant of the domain name. You can check this by using a ‘whois’ service, such as InterNIC for most domain names, and Ausregistry Whois Lookup for .com.au domain names.

Go For It

You can browse for domain names available, and register them on this website.

It’s a good idea to write regular articles, or blog, on your website if you want to increase traffic (and who doesn’t!).

If you do this, you can automatically send notification to your Facebook , Twitter and other social media accounts.

This way, everything you write gets sent out to your network, and links back to your website.

There are a number of ways to set up a system like this, for example, you can add the RSS feed from your blog to third party website Twitterfeed, which will then post updates to your Twitter account.

As more people spend more time in social networks, that is where you should be sending your content.

If you have an accommodation website, you want people to make a booking online, or at least make an enquiry, so you can follow up.

It’s amazing how many sites make potential customers hunt for ways to make contact! Here are some tips to maximise your enquiry rate:

• Put your phone number on every page of your website, in large text, in a prominent position such as top right. It’s best to use a 1300 number, but a landline is acceptable, including area code.
• While you’re there, include your email address. Make it something generic like sales@yourbusiness.com, rather than using a personal email like yourname@gmail.com.
• Then, somewhere on every page, include an enquiry form that will allow someone to easily submit an enquiry.

By implementing these tips on your website, you’re sure to increase the enquiry rate to your business, and therefore increase overall business.

A browser is the software used to view websites on the internet.

Here is a list of the most popular browsers. They are all free, and can be downloaded and installed from their respective website. Internet Explorer only runs on Microsoft Windows, the others run on both Windows and Apple Mac.

Use these links to download the browser software:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Mozilla Firefox
• Apple Safari
• Google Chrome

There used to be big differences in browser features and how they displayed websites, but these days all browsers display websites well, and have similar features.

Give them a try, you’ll need to use each one for a few days to really get a feel for it, and you will start to see subtle differences in the way websites display in each browser.

Well, the title may be an overstatement, as there are worse fonts out there. But none seem to be so abused as Comic Sans. Once you get to know it’s signature lines and curves, you see it absolutely everywhere.

That in itself should be reason enough not to use it. If you want your message to stand out from the crowd, try using a font that’s different to what everyone else uses.

It’s harder to read than most other common fonts, and from a design perspective, it’s bad news unless you’re under 12 year of age.