Can You Still Make Money on the Internet?

A common question I am asked when talking about starting an e-commerce business is Didnt the Internet bubble burst years ago, and didnt that prove that it really isnt possible to make money with an Internet only business? Well, its true that building a business on the Internet isnt what it used to be. Not long ago, the first person with an idea could build a web page and own the market. If you sold a widget, you registered the domain widgets.com and anyone who wanted a widget knew where to get one. Marketing was easy. A few posts in an online discussion group, an ad in the right magazines, maybe a TV ad if the venture capitalists had given you a bunch of money, and your fortune was made. The most difficult challenges during this period were technical. Entire teams were hired to design and build web sites. Another team was hired to integrate the shopping cart. This method made many millionaires and it was so easy that people forgot it was supposed to be a business. It became the playground for anyone with a neat idea. Eventually the dot-com bubble burst and fortunes were lost.

Immediately after the dot crash, the situation quickly reversed. It became more affordable to build a web site, but because dozens or hundreds of people were selling the same widget, marketing became important. Most of the technical problems had been solved so instead of hiring teams to do the work, sites could be built on contract for just a few thousand dollars.

We are now entering the next phase of e-commerce. While there are still plenty of people making money as web designers and programmers, a single person can do most of the work in an evening and have the entire web site running in a weekend. With modern web development tools, it is possible to build a functional web site with no knowledge of html, the language most Internet pages are written in.

Many web-hosting companies are offering point-and-click web site development. Usually these sites are based on templates designed by experts and can be customized to suit your needs and preferences. With these tools, you can build an entire e-commerce solution with shopping cart in a weekend. With services such as PayPal and Google Checkout, it is possible for anyone to accept credit cards over the Internet without a merchant account.

There are several ways to make money online. The most obvious is to open an online store. I suggest you pick a small market and target it instead of selling a wide variety of merchandise. By using a drop shipper, you can open a store without even carrying any inventory.

You can also make money using Googles Adsense program. You may have seen ads on some web pages that say Ads by Google under them. Every time someone clicks on one of those ads, the website owner makes money. If you can get enough visitors to your site, you can make a lot of money this way.

If you are eager to start an e-commerce business or want to incorporate e-commerce functions into your existing business, there has never been a better time to do it. Prices are lower than they have ever been and the technology makes it easier than most people believe.

Jason Conley is an e-commerce professional in Texas. His current projects include http://highlandknifehosting.com and the sister site http://sellknives.com

Just Play Beach Soccer

One friend of mine asked me recently why all men are crazy about playing football or what is known in United States as soccer. I am sick of explaining things that you can only understand based on personal experience. But although I managed to provide her with a luminous answer, she came back stating yet another question. "Is it different to play soccer on the grass than to play it on the beach?" That was a good one. "Of course it is different," I replied. Beach soccer, as you can tell by its name, is a sport played on the beaches; preferably during spring or summer time. Although it has been played informally for decades, it was given its official name and rules only recently and specifically in 1992. Since then it managed to become a rather popular sport and I believe that if you really want to learn something about soccer you should better start playing it on the beach.

Playing soccer on the beach is considered by many fans as the paradise of the apprentice. The soft-sand playing surface can correct some usual mistakes for a beginner, as the ball often stacks on it. Actually, the element of sand does only facilitate the efforts of new players, but it is considered a heavy obstacle even for those experienced ones that wish to show off their abilities. Plus the compact pitch -measuring 28 x 37 meters if there is an official beach soccer facility- is by far smaller than the grass field and makes scoring easier, even for players who decide to try it for the first time.

A great advantage of beach soccer is the fact that one needs no special equipment to play it. An adequate size ball and the sand of the beach are more than enough for one to begin exploring this game's unique character. Even when no organized facility on the beach exists, those interested to play beach soccer need only two canes to symbolize the area of a goalpost. Canes or just a pile of clothes are preferable in comparison to heavy stones or even huge blocks of rocks, which can be very dangerous for feet injuries, as shoes are not allowed in this game. Thus, if you are on a sandy beach, it is a sunny day, and you have nine friends willing to join you, you can start playing beach soccer. When you do experience it, let me know if you liked it. Most importantly, let your girlfriend know!

When I finished my lecture about beach soccer my friend seemed excited. "I will play it every single weekend," she said. But before you ask yourselves how much time should you invest in practicing this sport, before you can consider yourselves good soccer players, try playing it for awhile. Since you cannot play beach soccer all year around, unless you move to California or Florida every time you have a beach soccer need, you have to exercise your soccer playing abilities on the actual lawn ground. Believe me when I tell you that it is not that easy there too!

Kadence Buchanan writes articles for http://outdoorstalk.net/ - In addition, Kadence also writes articles for http://recreationandmore.com/ and http://fitnessandourworld.com/