Online Business & Startup

網上創業篇－中小型電子商貿網站

2009-04-27T01:30:00.000-07:00

如果你不是家財萬貫，但很希望創業，我會見議你建立商貿網站主攻niche market，即針對某類市場。前陣子發現了一個提供設計和marketing服務為主的中小型電子商貿網站－ http://www.anyidea.hk/

該網站為市務從業員及客戶提供了一個交易平台。公司客戶可以發佈任務和酬勞，而設計師及市務人員則可以選擇有興趣的任務。網站本身釋演中介人的角色，收入來源以佣金為主。由於專注單一行業(vertical industry)，短短幾年間已站穩陣腳，還在廣州開設了辦事處。

專注單一市場的好處是較容易控制，形像也比較鮮明。其實在互聯網上主攻niche market的網站多不勝數，創業時應考慮市場競爭，自家優勢，和怎樣排衆而出。

今天談到這，遲些再為大家介紹其他商貿網站。

Startup a new website or an online business, promotion by SEM

2009-04-26T08:41:00.000-07:00

Starting up a new website with low traffic is the concern of many entrepreneurs. If budget is limited, what should I do? This is probably the question that many would ask. Unless your site give away freebies, cash or provides very unique and sought after content or photos, it is not easy to build up the traffic within a short period of time.

Search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) are the 2 hottest issues that many have heard of. While SEM is frequently used to drive up the traffic quickly, SEO helps you to improve your ranking on Google search results. Before you start your SEM campaign, you should think of as many relevant keywords as possible. And do not forget to apply 2 very useful tactics: add a RSS button onto your website and add a "tell your friend" hyperlink. These 2 methods can inform viewers to come back and refer more people to your site.

Handling SEM could be time-consuming and requires someone with good analytical skills. A bid on a hot keyword can be US$10 in the morning, and rises to US$50 in the afternoon of the same day. So if you are targeted to generate 500 clicks to your site in one single day, you better think of more suitable keywords and monitor the progress. To me, developing and executing a SEM campaign is fun although some people may find it painful. The cost-effective way to get the best out of Google Adwords is to buy highly relevant keywords. For example, if your site is about wireless earphones for mobile, it is unwise to bid on keyword such as "mobile phone" and "cell phone". It is because these 2 phrases are common keywords, the price would not be cheap, thus wasting your marketing budget. Even if you get a lot of clicks from "mobile phone" or "cell phone", those viewers may not be your targets; they can be consumers who are looking for new mobile phone models, but won't be potential buyers of wireless earphones. As Google Adwords enables advertisers to bid on keywords of many different criteria alike city and time to display the ad, a smart marketer would learn from the ongoing experience. Let's say a site owner notices that the online sales mainly come from 3 specific cities in night time, she should then refine her advertising strategy on Google Adwords to display more ads to these 3 cities after 8 pm. In short, one should analyze the traffic and sales result then refine the AdWords strategy periodically.

網上業務計劃書

2009-04-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

今天想和大家分享如何制作網上業務計劃書(online business plan)，對想找風險基金或創投基金(venture capital)合作的人會有用。

制作一份網上業務計劃書不僅是供尋找創投基金之用，也是你將來監察和改善業務的藍圖。首先我見議你做全面的網上市場調查(online market research)，看看你有幾多競爭對手，然後分析他們的瀏覽量，商業模式(business model)和收費。下一步是確定你自己的商業模式和收費，然後制作一份為期三至五年的網上業務計劃書。創投基金一般會有興趣知道你的競爭優勢(competitive advantage)，網上業務何時才收支平衡(break even)和他們可以怎樣獲利，亦即是離場策略(exit strategy)。如果你對制作網上業務計劃書和財務分析及評估並不熟悉，亦不認識創投基金和他們的運作，我見議你找一位顧問幫手。當然，我十分歡迎你找我磋商。 :)

假使你的網上業務計劃書贏得了創投基金的垂青，那恭喜你。但要注意並小心運用資金，因為基金公司會定期察看你的業務發展和收支情況。這時你要重新探討你的網上業務計劃書，看看有甚麼地方須要改善和。須知道互聯網的發展情況一日千里，有商機亦有風險。

Online Business is sustainable?

2009-04-24T09:09:00.000-07:00

As time goes by, there are many dot coms disappeared. However, we can see that more and more unique online business models emerge and some of them are proved very successful.

In 2007, I created a property search engine for a private equity and successfully drive its traffic to rank number 1 within a few months. Before I led the development of this website, I did research on all leading property portals around the globe, and I am happy to see that it helps many local people and overseas investors to find the right flat that they want to buy or rent. Move faster than competitors, unique market positioning, ever fine-tuning the features, and effective marketing are the keys to produce a popular portal, I suppose.

Nowadays, Internet is becoming a very crucial media where people interact and find what they want globally. When I look back now, there are many online media still look the same as 5 to 10 years ago. What I mean is that many of them are not upgrading their features, and I assume that not too long they will be threatened by direct and indirect competitors. Example includes job sites owned by leading publishing groups. If one only sees Internet as a supplementary to extend the reach of their print media, I wish them good luck. I strongly believe that in this era, online media and online business need to ever change or even create new business models that can only apply online.

Internet is such a powerful medium that enable much more in-depth communication than just any traditional media. Recently I have been sticking to social networking websites to quickly build more contacts and make friends with other business and marketing experts, and this is an example that no other medium can replace or compete with the Internet.

With an interest to evaluate the B2C market, I have been talking to eBayers and also using a few similar sites such as wigix.com and ioffer.com to look for gifts. I found that each site has its own unique features and is attractive to sellers and buyers in a different sense. While my friend, a seller, complains to me that eBay has a very harsh listing policy, the other 2 sites seems to be emerging, although cannot compete in traffic with eBay yet. The system of wigix.com is so cool, it works like the trading system of stock market, maybe that is why I like it. I am interested to see what will happen a few years later, will eBay crash? Or will wigix.com become a big player? Time will tell the difference.