best internet business

1. Internet Marketing: Is It worth Your While?

As of March 2007, 16.9% of the world's 6.5 billion population was using the internet which roughly translates into 1.2 billion people! Asia boasts more than 50% of the world's population and of that Asian populous only 10.7% is currently online as compared to almost 70% of the North American population!

Pros: The internet is one vast marketing arena that grows bigger and bigger every year. Put another way, in the year of 2006, online advertising racked up revenue in excess of $16.7 billion dollars and is expected to reach $45 billion in the next five years.

Cons: That many people online means that the competition is bound to be fierce; but the opposite holds true as well. That many people online means there should be enough market share to go around.

Bottom Line: An internet business is a great way to generate a second income or a primary money generating system that once set up is completely automated. However if you are starting out now be aware that you have millions of already established internet marketing businesses to compete with.

2. Do Your Research First

Before deciding on what your internet business is going to be make sure that there is a large enough target audience to make it worth your while. There's no point marketing something that nobody is interested in.

Pros: Countless opportunities abound online and also there're several websites such as digitalpoint.com which offer excellent free marketing research tools.

Cons: Excellent as a lot of these free tools are, they cannot compete with some fee-based tools as far as in-depth analytics go.

Bottom Line: Plenty of novice internet marketers doom themselves right from the get-go because they don't bother doing any prior research which is tantamount to firing first before readying yourself, aiming then finally firing!

3. Getting Your Web Presence

The internet has come of age. A few years back getting a credible web presence usually translated into having to shell out exorbitant hosting fees. That has since changed!

These days you can get luxury-level, premium loaded web hosting for less than $4/month. Even better yet you can conduct an online business without ever having to pay web hosting fees. All you have to do is use a blog!

Pros: Starting an online business today need not cost you a single cent upfront!

Cons: Just starting out means that you've got your work cut out to distinguish your internet business from the rest of the crowd; a very big crowd!

Bottom Line: You really no longer have an excuse for not getting a web presence. The old oh-I-cannot-afford-hosting-fees excuse no longer cuts it! As previously mentioned it is now possible to conduct internet marketing without putting down a single cent. And as for not knowing HTML (web coding language)! That excuse too is dead and buried.; knowing html or other web coding language is a thing of the past, these days you can make do quite nicely without.

4. What Is The Fastest/Easiest Way To Make Money Online?

Hands down the cheapest, easiest and quickest way to make money online is through affiliate marketing.

And what is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is simply a partnership between an affiliate (you) and a merchant (the merchant being the owner of the product). Affiliate marketing may also be referred to as affiliate programs, referral programs and associate programs.

Here's how affiliate marketing works--You (the affiliate) promote or advertise a product on your site that belongs to somebody else (the merchant).

Basically, the merchant supplies you with a variety of text links, banners or graphics embedded with your own affiliate code. You then strategically insert any number of those coded links or graphics onto your website (or blog) with the purpose of referring your visitors to the merchant's site.

When one of your site's visitors clicks on any one of those code-imbedded links they are transferred to the merchant's site. If that visitor then purchases something from that merchant you get paid. It's as simple as that.

Pros: You don't have to spend a cent to be an affiliate marketer. The best affiliate programs furnish you with all the necessary tools to conduct a successful promotional campaign of their products. Best of all, there are more than enough well-established and trustworthy affiliate program directories from which you can choose almost any product to promote!

Cons: You need to make sure that the products that you promote actually achieve what the claim to do (which in some cases entails trying them out beforehand). Also you are going to be faced with the issue of being just another affiliate marketer promoting the same products as thousands of other internet marketers.

Bottom Line: Affiliate marketing is the cheapest way to start out. However bear in mind that the internet marketers who make the big bucks do so through selling their own products. So in essence you should promote other people's stuff up until you've become internet marketing savvy enough to sell your own product, be it digital goods (downloadable stuff) or whatever.

5. Internet Traffic: The Pot Of Gold At The End Of Every Internet Marketing Rainbow

In the online world once you've got lots of internet traffic you're made, without it, you're dead! Internet traffic is the true engine that drives any successful internet business. Those websites or blogs that are raking it in do so for one reason and one reason alone; they get tons of online traffic!

So how do you get traffic? There're a variety of ways to get traffic, some of them free and others not so.

A. Use Web 2.0 techniques: Web 2.0 is the newest phase or 2nd generation of web based services which include social networking sites such as myspace.com and youtube.com to name but a few. A well organized and interesting blog is a good platform with which to gain web 2.0 based internet traffic.

B. Write Articles: Cheap and highly effective method to attract quick relevant traffic to your website or blog. It does require a certain amount of effort on your part (in other words conveying useful information) to make sure that your article attracts a ton of visitors to your site. The best bit about article writing is that you have literally thousands of article directories where you can submit your articles to.

C. Posting In Forums: Most people trawl forums to find answers that resolve their problems. You can capitalize on this by checking out forums relevant to your market and posting replies to current or recent questions to which you know the answers. If you post a genuinely useful and helpful reply you could end up with several grateful customers.

How?

Well, it's very probable those people whose problem you just solved will click on your signature link to see what further useful information they can get from your site. Most forums enable you to promote your site by allowing you to paste a link pointing to your site at the end of your posting (different forums have different guidelines so it's good to read them up).

D. Pay-Per-Click Advertising of which perhaps the most famous (or infamous depending on your perspective) is Google Adwords. Paying to get internet traffic through advertising is what is commonly known as PPC or pay-per-click. At its most basic, pay per-click marketing involves you composing an ad and bidding for a relevant searched-for keyword. Your ad will then be listed on the relevant search engine index pages for that same keyword you bid.

E. Internet Traffic From The Search Engines: This is the best traffic to draw to your website because it is the most qualified and targeted type of online traffic. What do I mean when I say the most qualified type of internet traffic?

I am talking about people who actively typed in a search term/phrase (keyword) into any search engine online. Such a person is more likely to purchase, subscribe or do whatever you most desire your visitors to do when they get to your site.

Getting this kind of traffic requires search engine optimization (seo) of your website or blog.

Pros: There're multiple avenues to draw internet traffic to your website/blog these days, all of which involve a certain amount of effort, some more so than others. A well written article costs you no more than the whirring of your brain and the tip tap of your fingers on the keyboard, yet the traffic generated from that one article could quite easily tanslate into big sales.

Cons: Online traffic is what everybody with a web presence desires, only problem is that it happens to be rather challenging to get a significant amount of it unless your website has been around for quite a while.

Bottom Line: Internet traffic is the lifeblood of any online business and if you intend to be an internet marketer then you cannot do without it.

6. Play Not Follow The Leader!

Masura Ibuka, a co-founder of Sony once said "You never succeed in technology, business or anything else by following others!" That quote is equally applicable today in the internet marketing arena as it was when he said it. If you insist on playing follow-the-leader, then by proxy you'll always be playing catch-up which is not the best marketing strategy.

Pros: Being the leader in whatever marketing endeavor you pursue automatically makes your brand instantly recognizable to the public which translates into more profit because people will always think of you first for that particular niche market. After all don't forget your ultimate internet marketing goal should be selling your own products.

Cons: Being in the forefront by its very nature means that you're going to have to put in a little more time and effort at the beginning to attain that lead than if you were just joining the ranks of followers.

7. Avoid The Minefield Of Online Scams.

I'm sure you don't need to be told that the internet is awash with scams. A good rule of thumb to abide by is: If it seems too good to be true then it is precisely that! Most people get scammed because they are looking for the easiest path to riches and hence ignore that little squeaky voice in their head that is telling them "there's no such thing as an overnight success!"

Pros: A lot of internet marketers who had been operating smoothly behind a facade of respectability have since been exposed together with their scams. Still the onus is on you to keep your wits and common sense and not get duped!

Cons: It is easy to be swept off your senses by good copywriting and visions of all that money you're apparently going to make overnight!

If you ever do start getting that giddy feeling ascribed to gonna-be-rich-overnight syndrome, remember what world-famous hairstylist Vidal Sassoon had to say about success: "The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary!"

Internet Marketing Online

Ba Kiwanuka is the webmaster of http://www.internetbusinessmart.com

Facts (you've seen historical copies of pay vouchers of online business owners) demonstrate that people are making Financial Freedom type of money in network marketing. Moreover they are successful by making use of online tools, rather than by prospecting over the telephone.

Note: To be clear, I am not writing here about making money if you don't provide excellent customer service that may involve making telephone call's to answer questions and provide facts. That's another important subject for another time.

It only makes sense that if you have the inclination to make prospecting telephone calls then you are at least initially going to find a greater success rate than those who choose to rely solely on online tools and methods.

However, there are people, myself included that simply will not make prospecting calls that want to know if they can be successful online without making prospecting calls. The short answer is, yes. So just how is one going to make it online expressly using online tools?

Here are keys to online success making use of online tools:

1. Join a plan that is set up with a friendly automated system that gives you the tools consistent with online marketing. These tools include, a free marketing splash page or website, well written follow up e-mail letters that can be sent out automatically when someone shows interest, and well built interesting methods (video's audio scripts, etc.) to show and tell about the plan.

Friendly automated systems are easy to spot. Example: You are online and are being prospected by online methods. Well then, trust your feelings and if you like the methods being used by a certain company then it's a clue to you that they will be friendly to others that you prospect online.

Since marketing and making people feel like they know and like you is a key to making online systems work, then you must either know how to market and instill trust or you must insure that the opportunity you chosen to join provides mentoring which will show you the proper methods to prospect online.

2. Realizing there are other business out there on the Internet that you can find success with I use the example of my primary business Passport to Wealth (PPTW) and Mentors 4 u. They and any business you're going to find success with using online tools, have a group of independent representatives called mentors who will work with you to make you a successful marketer.

This mentoring is the key to success because they know how to make money online and will give you all the methods you need to duplicate their success. The mentors marketing training must reach all the corners of the marketing arena like PPTW's and our mentoring team does.

The mentoring includes, a website you can refer to and copy material from. It includes telephone numbers to representatives who will actually pick up the phone to answer your questions. It must include another official way of giving you training such as a consistent members only training telephone call.

In conclusion, it's not difficult to find a successful online business whose success doesn't require you to make prospecting telephone calls. However, having found all the attributes of an excellent opportunity, you still can make money online as I've indicated above. However, you still must do what the mentors teach you and believe me a lot of people do not. It's critical to do what you learn from mentoring and then stick with your plan so that you can get the word out to enough people and in time your business opportunity will begin to bring you success.

I'm Richard Crandall and am very fortunate indeed to live the dream of making money from home, online. I have a wonderful wife and two children and now have the time to spend with them rather than playing the corporate politics that have been the frustration of many an honest and well meaning person. I find my career in online marketing refreshing and interesting.

I thrive on doing what I learned in my previous corporate career as a Human Resources professional to help as many people as I can with excellent customer services to find satisfaction in their marketing and online businesses.

I've graduated from college, have had a very successful career, and none of that qualified me for internet work. But I have found mentors who have shown me how to be successful online and I am very interested in sharing that with anyone with earnest desire and positive intentions.

You may get further information by visiting http://www.your1smartbusiness.com

Many believe that if you have to pay to make money online, then it is probably a scam. I agree with this completely. Most internet programs are scams, and in order to distinguish the difference between a scam and a legitimate opportunity, one would have to research different businesses. That is how I came across the Profit Lance Course.

What you have to ask yourself, is what are you really getting with the Profit lance course. It is what it is, an online wealth course. I can understand not wanting to pay for a program that is promising extreme wealth overnight. It is too good to be true, right. That is not what this course is about. What this course does is provide ordinary people with the information, tools, and resources to be profitable by way of the internet. People do make money online, and just because somebody will make money if you purchase this course does not make it a scam.

What needs to be realized is that people pay for information all the time. That is why people go to college, to learn certain skills so that they can get a decent job, or start their own business. There are actually people that believe that Profit Lance should be a college course. I agree, I believe that I got a one heck of a bargain! If you truly have an entrepreneurial spirit, I believe that this course is just what you need. You can click on the link below for more information on this course.

http://mcmcal.thebizreview.net

In Part 1 I provided an overview of the current online marketing landscape as well as some of the criteria I use to choose which businesses to join. In Part 2 I dive into an age old method of evaluating a potential business - the two-filter test.

Keep in mind I only have a handful of businesses so I am describing here my own unique experiences and the steps I take to evaluate a business but I have found the average unsuccessful online marketer today has usually tried between 10-15 different small online businesses within 12-18 months in their search for the right one (core businesses, affiliate relationships, referral programs, etc...). In Part 2 of this article, I cover more specific questions you should ask when evaluating any business but particularly when considering an online marketing business.

TIP: With the wide selection available and depending on your budget and available start up capital, it is important to determine if you want to invest in top tier programs such as those that pay high commissions of more than $1000 per sale or low to mid tier programs that pay considerably less. This will further define the list of available businesses out there for you to consider but remember that you cannot keep the right type of person out of the right business so keep an open mind.

To start, there are two filters and three dimensions or test areas you should use to determine what business to invest your money in. The filters are Common Sense and Proof and the test areas are Company, Product and Compensation.

If these three areas can pass the two-filter test then the odds are extremely high that you have found a business worth your effort and attention and you should seriously considering investing your money in this business.

Company

How long has the company been in business?

Have the owners ever been sued, been to jail or shut down?

Can you contact the owners?

Does the company have a headquarters?

How many offices do they have?

Is the company financially stable?

What kind of support does the company provide?

It is amazing how many startups are being run out of a basement or a garage with some down line software and a white label product...ask the right questions and you will get the right answers. It is equally amazing how many company owners have records of convictions in their past.

Product

How much competition is there?

Is it the 25th new product of its kind this month?

How long have they manufactured the product/provided the service?

Do they have any proof or credentials for the product or service?

Do they make their own product or is it made for them and hundreds of other companies like them?

How big is the target market?

How many people actually need or want your product?

Ask yourself why you want to start an online business in the first place? Is it for financial freedom, more time for you or your family, do you like the product, something fun you like to do? Why don't we have all of this with most companies?

Compensation

How long does it take to explain the compensation plan?

Do you have to read a 30 page manual or attend a two hour comp plan training session?

Do you need an accountant, a lawyer or an actuary to understand the business?

Do you get knocked out of your position in the company if you don't maintain your monthly quota?

Do you need to understand PV, BV, CV and dozens of other cryptic acronyms?

Many companies make the compensation plans difficult to understand because if you actually knew how little you made, you would never join in the first place.

Hopefully you have found the criteria I use to be useful and helpful in stopping the insanity in your search to find the right business for you.

Best of luck in your search!

One of the businesses I recently discovered that meets my criteria is Kangen Water - Change Your Water....Change Your Life! It easily passes the two-filter test for all three test areas and I invite you to give this company serious consideration. For questions specific to Kangen Water please feel free to email me.

Eddie Perea has spent 20 years as a sales and marketing professional who has worked for firms such as Pepsi, Gallo, Motorola and EarthLink. He now spends his time teaching people the secrets, tips and tricks they need to build a successful internet marketing business.

Contact Eddie via email at:
Eddie@IncredibleKangenWater.com

You don't need to sell anything in this business, you only need a few hundred dollars to get started. You don't need to be clever to make money fast - you just need a few hundred dollars and a willingness to learn and your all set...

The business is becoming a currency trader from home and before you say - I can't do that or it's to complicated, its not and it gives you all the advantages below:

- You can start with just a few hundred dollars

- Whatever amount you start with you can leverage by 200:1

- You only need a computer and an internet connection

- There are constant opportunities for profit as one currency rises another must fall

- There are opportunities everyday

- You need just 30 minutes a day or less

- You can take breaks when you wish

- You don't need to sell anything or look for buyers

- You don't need a college education

- You don't need any staff or stock

Now that's a whole load of great advantages - but what sets this business apart from other home businesses, is the ability to leverage your money.

Put down just $500 and you can leverage it 200:1 so put down $500 and you can trade $100,000! That's a lot of profit potential on your invested money.

Of course leverage is a double edged sword and where there are big gains to be made, there is big risk - but if you run your profits and cut your losses, you can use leverage to your advantage and make money fast.

How do you do it and what education do you need?

A Simple Way to Seek Profits

If you look at any chart of a currency, you will see that it they trend for weeks, months or years up or down and by looking at a chart and learning how to read repetitive chart patterns, you can trade these trends for profit.

This is a learned skill and anyone with a willingness to learn can do it.

All the information you need is online and you can practice your skills in a demo account, before risking real money.

Making money is not just a "walk in the park" though and you wouldn't expect it to be, with the rewards on offer in global FX trading. However, you can create a lucrative second or full time income, with the right education and mindset.

The key to making money in forex trading is money management.

You must be prepared to take your losses and keep them small and run your profits.

You have to take losses but simply consider them your overhead, all businesses have them and this one has them to - but if you take your losses quickly and lock into and hold the big trends, you will be well rewarded for your efforts.

Global FX trading is the perfect business for those who want a simple, learned business which allows big long term profit potential.

If you want a challenge and the potential to make money fast, this is the online business for you.

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For free 2 x trading Pdf's, with 50 of pages of essential info and a Forex Trading Course visit our website at: http://www.learncurrencytradingonline.com

These days, autoresponders are a must for any online business! Without using autoresponders, an online business is not maximizing its profits for one simple reason - it is not following up with its visitors and potential customers. And that's a big folly.

Here are some reasons why you might be 'killing' your online business by not using autoresponders in your marketing:

1. You might be wasting your traffic. Think of it like this - if only 2% (the average sales conversion rate online) buy your product the first time they visit your site, that means that 98% of your visitors are leaving your site without buying! And if you do not capture their details for further contact, most will never return again. Although some may even bookmark your site for reference, most will forget about it (think about the distractions of modern life these days!)

2. Having a means of repeat contact and exposure and increases your sales. Let's say an average subscriber stays on your list for an average of 3 years. That means that during the 3 years, you would have sent him tons of emails reminding about your offers, and to add to that, you are also sending other relevant recommend offers to him! Do you think he will buy even at least once during the 3 years he is on your list? Most would! Instead of having a visitor exposed to your business for a few minutes (if you don't build a list!) you now have a subscriber that you can expose to your business for 3 years! It's powerful when you just think about it.

3. Having a list is a powerful tool of leverage in joint venture negotiations. When you have a list, joint venture partners know you have a subscriber base that could be mutually beneficial to them. More joint venture partners will be willing to work with you if you have a powerful negotiation tool such as a responsive mailing list.

Fabian Tan is a well-known Internet Marketing expert and the author of the popular 51-page Report:

"Murder Your Job: How To Build Cash Sucking Autopilot Businesses In 30 Days Or Less!"

Head over to http://www.MurderYourJob.com to get your FREE copy now before it's gone!

So you want to start a business? Let's see, you will need to rent, lease or buy a storefront and then purchase display racks. You will need to heat and cool the display area for customer comfort. There will be insurance to cover liability and loss and you'll need to ensure plenty of parking so customers can get to the store easily. Oh, don't forget any potential landscaping and snow removal you might need to take care of seasonally.

On the other hand I suppose you forget most of those issues and make your business platform an electronic one.

With an online store you don't have to worry about parking spaces or checkout lines. You don't have to worry about snow removal or expensive climate control. Maybe the best part is that your store can be open even when you sleep. You never have to close and shoplifting is 'virtually' non-existent.

As gas prices went beyond four dollars a gallon in the summer of 2008 it became clearer every day that an online store had become a consumer's best friend. It is possible that the savings in fuel can offset any additional expenses in shipping. In many cases items can be purchased for much less in an online environment simply because ecommerce generally has much less overhead expenses.

Yes, it is possible that hackers can break into your cyber store, but they can't take any tangible products. If you manage your security well you may not have a problem with hackers. If this is the most difficult challenge you face in cyber store ownership then you should have it pretty easy.

There remains a role for standard brick and mortar stores, but the role of online business is becoming not only more accepted it is becoming a desired part of the shopping experience.

When a customer takes his or her business online they can find locations where they can compare costs as well as similar products they may need. They can read about the product and find ways to use the product to their advantage.

If you work to optimize your site with potent knowledge-based content you will generally find that consumers reward your information with trust. That trust often translates into a purchase - even if that purchase is not made on their first visit.

When you begin to acknowledge that the startup costs for an online store are significantly less than a brick and mortar alternative and then couple that with the automation available to make your store available around the clock (including all holidays) it just makes sense to consider a new avenue of commerce.

It is true that there is a mature generation that hasn't completely embraced online purchases, but children are learning at a much younger age how to navigate the web and they understand the value of shopping online. Someday they could be your customers - their parents may be willing to buy from you now.

The dynamics of commerce are changing and the online environment provides so many pluses that traditional and nontraditional businesses alike are finding the online world a very good place to meet shoppers.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. Make A Website in minutes with HighPowerSites.com. Sell Ebooks at BooksWealth.com.

In simple terms, E-business (doing business on the Internet) can enable small scale businesses in emerging markets gain greater bargaining power in the global economic exchange despite their limited capital, and mobility. The world economy is moving online. Today people are meeting online and eventually getting married, people who do not have the capital to establish physical stores are getting rich maintaining only online shops, small musicians who find it difficult getting producers are uploading their tracks on Napster to be downloaded by millions of people around the world, even politicians are using video-sharing tools like Youtube to reach potential voters, etc. Therefore, the action or inaction of African businesses to take advantage of e-business will determine how much they grow in the coming years.

E-readiness Ranking

Every year Economist come up with a table of e-readiness ranking from a selected number of countries. It is not surprising that African countries often rank lowest in most e-readiness reports. That is not very promising considering that most investors today will be interested not only on the investment climate and infrastructure in a country but also on e-readiness indices such as national connectivity, e-leadership, information security, human capital, and e-business climate.

Interpreting E-readiness Indices
There are many indices used to measure e-readiness. The most common ones are:

Connectivity: Addresses the ability to exchange information, goods and services with the rest of the world.

E-leadership: Addresses the commitment of a national government to partner with industry leaders to create conditions favorable to electronic transactions.

Information security: Addresses issues concerning the protection of personal data, intellectual property, and effective privacy laws.

Human Capital: Emphasis on developing competent manpower including IT managers who can manage complex technology tasks, policy analysts who can make informed inputs on government policies and regulations that are capable of stifling technology growth; local content creators who can either customize or adapt global technologies to the specific business needs in the country, software and hardware engineers.

Beyond the indices, e-business also requires a larger population of end-users or consumers who dont have to understand how the technology works, but can use the technology.

How Small Businesses In Africa Can Benefit From E-business:

Individual Action:

Even in challenging environments such as Africa, small businesses can still benefit from e-business. Simple information websites with product and contact information, as a first step can open new doors for small businesses locally and internationally. Hospitality industries stand to gain more exposure and market through e-business. Tourists and people in the Diaspora are excellent target customers for hotel and tourism information for online reservations.

Group Action:

Business associations, Chambers Of Commerce, Cooperative societies, and NGOs in Africa can bridge the economy of scale on the technology required for e-business by setting up online malls showcasing a pool of their members sites, products and services. Through the online mall people in the Diaspora may order local goods for friends or family. These associations can also help to guarantee the quality of products advertised on the site, as well as the credibility of its members to ensure fraudulent people do not seize the opportunity. Only certified members and certified products will make it on the site. Ghana Mall, for instance, sells goods made by Ghanaian artisans internationally. It also rakes in some $500 million a year in goods and cash that are sent to the country from abroad. Funds to develop such malls can be sort as grants from multilateral agencies as the World Bank Groups Small and Medium Enterprise Department.

Payment:

No doubt, credit card acceptance is the heart of e-commerce, but technological hindrances and doing business in local currency can drive up transaction costs. There are rules and protocols to gain access to international card association systems, which currently do not favor African countries. The amounts of online transactions originating from most African countries hardly meet the rules required by the international card associations. So there must be a way around it. Therefore, banks in Africa need to establish special Merchant Accounts for small businesses to enable them accept secured payments in foreign currencies processed in the same way as credit cards. Online payments will still have to go through SWIFT, encryptions, or other secured sites, as PayPal to ensure adequate security.

Shipping:

Most national and international courier services are currently equipped to handle shipping to any location in the world. Business organizations can enter into partnership agreements with these postal and shipping agencies to either enjoy special shipping rates or develop more efficient shipping methods that can guarantee delivery. In addition, the Customs department should make available list of prohibited items, duties and fees to the business organizations. One workable model is to post their personnel at the post offices to facilitate the inspection of goods.

Governments Role

As a private-sector crusader, I dislike prescribing any solution that will depend on governments. But E-commerce requires vendor credibility. Apart from technology, the greatest impediment African businesses face in embracing e-business is fraud. This is where the governments should play important role. Law-makers should strengthen existing laws to stem out corruption in their countries. People who thrive on advance fee fraud should be put out of business. It is possible! Anything that works through technology can be stopped through technology. Its simply a digital war amongst programmers (its like the virus and anti-virus battle among programmers). Moreover, the world wants to see trials, prosecutions and convictions to believe that African countries are serious in their war against corruption.

How This Will Work

For this to work it must exist as one bundle. A customer does not want to be bothered by the backend technology and how it works. They want an easy-to-use, time-saving, front-end screen. As for now, cross-continental partnerships will play a major role in helping businesses in Africa cross the e-commerce threshold, as African businesses will still need international partnerships to help complete orders. PeopLink offers such a partnership. They have developed free, downloadable tools to help small businesses build virtual product catalogs, which they then upload to a searchable catalog on their database, thereby offering small businesses the opportunity to benefit from collective marketing power.

One Stop Tech Support Centers:

Technology investors should also consider going into one-stop tech support centers. For instance, in Ghana BusyInternet is such a one-stop IT center with a cyber caf, call booths, video conferencing services, document services, web hosting, space rental and other tech support for e-businesses.

Exploring E-business will help small businesses in Africa increase their market share in the global marketplace? There should be a concerted effort to make this happen. The World Bank developed a collection of free tools called SMEToolkit to help small business develop such potentials.

Mr. Godwin C. Nwaogwugwu is a former World Bank Analyst/Consultant. He is a senior key resource person on Information Sytems, E-business Development, Youth Programs, and Africa Initiatives for many international agencies, and governments. He is the author of three best-selling publications, and currently the Group Chairman of ExposureWorld Communications Services (http://www.exposureworld.net).

You can read more articles by this writer at: http://www.imoonline.org, or http://www.exposureworld.net