How many of you have an online business and what inspired you?

**thebusinessman** · 01-13-2009 11:07 AM

The title says it all

And for those of you that wish to indulge, do you have a marketing budget and if so is it in the several hundreds/month, thousands/month, tens of thousands/month so on. Which method do you go with, SEO enhancement or just general marketing?

**RLorenzen** · 01-13-2009 11:12 AM

I don't understand why you wouldn't have a marketing budget...planning how much money you're going to spend and where is very important whether your business is online or offline.

**TheBigIdea** · 01-13-2009 12:59 PM

if you're good, you don't need any budget. u can go through for eg - social networking groups to source your customers.

i think the key here is time AND attention. if you get both from the people you advertise to, and manage them well, no marketing budget can beat that.

**ronnie11** · 01-14-2009 01:02 AM

I am learning the ropes and I find it interesting so I am into this!

**Loren** · 01-14-2009 01:12 AM

I have an online business. Well, it's a clothing company, but at first I'll be selling exclusively online.

I do not have a marketing budget at the moment, but I am doing marketing to the extent that I feel necessary. I've done a little bit of SEO myself, and I've had stickers/business cards/flyers printed up. Other than that, all of my marketing has been through blogs, word-of-mouth, and online communities like this one.

**andymayhem** · 01-14-2009 06:31 AM

i make sites, i also design sites in return for % of a company kinda venture designist.. im also building a network of sites around the same core niche however all the micro niche will link into it...

what inspired me? i didnt have enough money to start a buisiness with actuall stuff..

**Nordstrom** · 01-14-2009 06:56 AM

I used to run my current online business as an offline business, but running an offline business is seriously not "up-to-date". The only benefit of an offline business is to play on old businessowners ol' fashioned work-ways. A lot of them for no reason WANT the "working part" to be present in their building.

For an online business, you can get more than adequate advertising for free.