What's the average cost to start a small e-business?

[natasha85]

Hey people,

Just wondering, with the booming market of information product on the Internet, what's the average amount needed to start a small e-business selling information product.

Or if I wanna start a bigger one, like a dating site, what's it gonna cost me?

Are there funds available to borrow from to start a business online?

Where can I find more information, who should I talk to regarding financial help?

I've got like $1 grand only, is this amount enough?
Where do I get started or find out more?

[cloud9925]

I must say do some market research...go online as the creators of other sites and see what they have to say. I know there are countless individuals out there stating that they have a sure fire way to start your online business for only 19.95...well I am not buying that brand and I hope that you don't either.

But market research there are companies out there that will allow you to find those questions out but often they cost a pretty penny...I am not sure what that penny is but I am sure it is more than I got...which isn't saying much.

But often asking around to companies that are similar to the one that you want to start and see what they started or finding a talented programmer to build the site for a percentage or something that would be an idea too...again see www.freelance.com or guru.com to get a professional to help you out.

hope that helps

[hilliebillie]

If you're a newbie,
like me,

going for low cost definitely seems more rational,
coz we never know how it's gonna turn up to be, we can always start slow and small, rather than start big and risk the failure, we're newbies anyway, not the experienced ones, we don't know what works and what don't

so, for something that newbies like us can start, I think 1 grand is more than enough, it usually takes a mere few dollars to register a domain, and plus the hosting and all, say u take a one year package, it'll still be very much below 200-300 bucks only, then, perhaps you wanna invest in some educational stuff, or something, or do more research to learn it free,

basically, for a small scale web-biz, you should be able to be up and running with a very minimal budget,

these are the things I've found out after intensive research on the Internet for the last few months lol

for your dating site, hey I think i read a thread somewhere talking about it, this guy was talking about starting a dating site by through other people's site, under your own brand, checkout www.datingsoft.com and see if you can find anything,

according to him, it's a true opportunity which requires no cost from you, except for your own domain name, then, once everything is set up, you share their services, database of members, support and billing issues and stuff, everything, and still, they don't charge you a penny,it is when you make money from your site, that they will share your profits, sounds like a fair deal to me, if I wanna start a dating site, I'd do it with them definitely!

hope this helps you natasha!

[wizozz]

One of the sure things we all do while trying to cut costs in the beginning - is to try to reduce the neccessary overhead expenses involved.NEVER DO THAT.For example,a well equipped computer with a solid network,will help far more than the momenatry drain on your resources - if you are in the online business.

[deankinton]

if you are searous about it then it is cheeper to have better equipment now than to buy cheep and then have to contunaly upgrade

[athmane]

It does not cost a lot of money to get started selling information products on the Internet.
If you are a talented writer, then you can write the copy yourself and cut down on costs. Otherwise, you'll need to hire a ghost writer to do the work for you, and a sales copywriter to craft a good sales copy for your product. These will probably cost a few hundred dollars, but no more than a grand (unless you're really into something voluminous!)

Check freelance and outsourcing websites such as GetAfreelancer.com and RentACoder.com to get a better idea of e-book and sales copywriting costs.

The next step is to take orders over the Internet for your product. You can either use your own merchant account or a third-party payment processing provider. If you're just starting, it's better to go down the third-party route to cut down on costs and associated risk.

Domain name registration and hosting fees are getting cheaper. You can get your website up and running in a matter of minutes for no more than $30 per month max.

All in all, selling information products over the Internet shouldn't cost you more than 2 grand in upfront costs. Getting such a small loan from a bank shouldn't pose much of a problem.

[deankinton]

but there must be a cheaper way isnt there?

[athmane]

Errr, there is always a cheaper way Dean :lol:

As I said, you could write your own information product. For a payment processor, you could go for the cheapest around (Paypal is one of the cheapest, they only charge 3.5% of all your billings). Domain registration goes for a mere $8 per year with GoDaddy, and you could cut down on hosting fees by going for a reseller account (they cost around $15-$30 with a quality host).

My only reservation is writing the copy yourself. Unless you're talented and have a way with words, it's better to seek professional writing talent. It's not dirt cheap, but it remains very affordable for most people. I've seen e-books of 100 pages written for $500 at RAC and GetAFreelancer. It's a sound investment if you ask me, bearing in mind you you could get multiple revisions at a fraction of the cost.

[deankinton]

:lol: that was such a silly question

[wizozz]

Ditto to Athmane.

There are websites that give you free domain names and web hosting too.Though as always there are some catches.They will give you a sub-domain or a domain with other words in them.

According to me ,the money should be spent trying to make your website more visible on on atleast the first pages of the search engines.

[montee51]

It is certainly best not to cut corners too much for initial set up costs. You need to be visible in the SEs at the outset so invest in intermediary equipment not 2nd hand cheapos and make sure yr content and web layout is quality. Employ the services of a competent SEO writer - use the freelance sites for sourcing.

[maggots]

Employ the services of a competent SEO writer

so, what's a competent SEO writer, any recommendations? so many out there it's hard to choose

[mini_0]

There can never be one cost to start any e-business , it will depend on your niche and market and also the size of your venture . Like a website can be small or big in the same niche too . So , for a website you need to decide its size too firstly . Plus , you can get a loan to finance .Business loan is easier to get when you are a fledgling or at a verge of starting a new business. Business loan is offered with flexible interest rate and flexible repayment term. This loan can be taken providing some security or apply yourself as a co-signer.