Since it does not cost a fortune to create a shop on the Internet, marketing goods and services on the Internet is one of the most lucrative businesses anybody can start with low capital. In fact, you have been leaving money on the table if you have not started selling online.

What Can Be Sold On the Internet?
In the present day dot com, there is no product that can not be sold online. You can start with electronic or digital products, an example of such products are Information, software, domain etc. You can also sell you health products, electronic products like laptop or digital camera. If you are a professional, lawyer, accountant, consultant, you can also market your product on the Internet. Think of any product you wish to sell ever, Google it, you will find out that someone had been selling it, so you too can sell it, even locally.

Basics
In order to run a successful Online Business, you need to decide on the focus of your business, its product, its business plan, its marketing plan, financial decisions, its legal form, and then launch the business.

At first, your business may want to start spinning out of control, most especially if you are impatient.

Then you have to establish a system to manage your sales and delight your customers. You may also need to drop any of your products that are not performing very well and concentrate your energy on marketing of the products that are selling well and bringing good profits. You may also create new product to substitute the ones you have dropped.

You may also want to ask; should you not be able to relax and enjoy the rewards of your labour? Yes you can, however, remember that each day, others just like you are beginning to launch their businesses. And, they are coming after you. They want your customers, so it is pertinent to really assess your marketing efforts; what’s working? What’s not working? Do more of what’s working because one last choice remains. Are you going to renew your business or watch it slowly die?

Core things you need to put in place
Due to the nature of Internet marketing, there are some things you can borrow and use to successfully run your business on the Internet. Suffice to note, you must have some things and be identified with them. For example, you need a computer with Internet connection, you can use an Internet Café, and you also need information and skills to market successfully. Meanwhile, you can leverage on existing details on that matter. To run an Internet marketing business successfully, you will need a website, an eShop.

To get yourself a website, you can learn how to do it but in case you don’t have the time, you can make use of the service of web designers or engage an existing merchant website. We recommend that you use the one provided at www.naijamart.com

To be considered
Apart from having a good product to sell, a brilliant and working Internet selling strategy, running a successful online business is also about first making your customers  comfortable shopping on your site. Professionalism in layout, theme and content are key things to be sure of.

On this matter, the question that may arise is how many of the payment options should you provide? The broad answer is as many as you can.  However, the realistic one is to offer the options that 99 per cent of your customers would use.

In the case you want to sell your product worldwide, Paypal is the easiest and most obvious choice when it comes to third party payment services or when you are just starting out with your site.

If you are selling locally, for example in Nigeria, you may need to understand and consider the fact that most Nigerians carry debit cards, so with the integration of Interswitch or etranzact on your website, it will be easy to accept payment from your customers with debit cards.

However, if you consider it too expensive to buy the application provided by any of the third party merchant mentioned above, you can use a solution called Naijamart Pay, you can learn more about this service at www.naijamart.com

Lastly
Many Nigerians are new to the Internet and If you fall into this class, you will need a structured lesson on how to start Internet Marketing Business, hence we advise you get a copy of the Book; ‘Beginners Guide To eCommerce’.

Contributed by Olu Oludimu, 08051614052