We’ve talked about whether you’re the right kind of person for an online business, and whether it’s the right kind of business for you. So today let’s talk about what resources you need to have if you want to start an internet business.
Is it as simple as having an internet connection and a desire to succeed?
(Watch this video…)
Main points:
(Note: for your convenience, there are links within the list below for things I recommend, some of which are my affiliate links)
What you need…
1) A computer
-Doesn’t need to be the latest and greatest
-Can’t be a total dinosaur
-Recommend Windows XP or newer
-Consider a laptop
-spend $200-$1000 for a desktop, $400-$1500 for a laptop
A few places to shop for a computer:
HP Shopping (where I bought my computer and my laptop)
Buy.com (I’ve bought a lot of stuff there including backup hard drives)
Amazon (A good place to compare prices and look for specials)
2) Internet connection (Broadband recommended). I used Qwest DSL (Now CenturyLink) for many years, and they were been good. I then used Comcast broadband for a few years, and loved it, as the speeds were much faster. Now I live out in the foothills, with no DSL or cable available, so I use Skybeam, which is a wireless Internet service. The speeds are not blazing, but it’s good enough for my business, and fast enough to stream Netflix too. If you live in an area not serviced by a major provider, you might want to look into something like Skybeam, or satellite broadband.
3) Antivirus program. I use AVG; their website is www.avg.co.uk.
UPDATE: I believe AVG is still good, however I think there are some better ones. On my main PC, I’ve switched over to Avast, which is also free:
http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download
And on my laptop I’ve switched to Microsoft’s free progam:
http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/
4) Email (free options available). For example: http://mail.google.com/mail/signup
5) Zip program (free options available). This is a good freeware: www.7-zip.org
6) Productivity software (free option available). Here’s a good free option: www.openoffice.org
7) Startup capital (highly recommended). I recommend having at least $200 available.
8] Credit card (highly recommended). If you’re afraid you’ll abuse it, you might want to consider a prepaid visa card.
9) Paypal account (highly recommended). You can get a free account at PayPal. If you live in a country that PayPal doesn’t allow, read this article for inspiration.
10) Business checking account (highly recommended).
11) Business registration (requirements vary – might be optional).
12) Business Entity such as an LLC (Optional). In general, you can probably start as a sole proprietor, and decide later if you want to form an LLC.
An LLC may help save you from paying self employment taxes. It also can protect your personal assets. Consult with an attorney or tax accountant.
If you want to avoid paying an attorney to help with the paperwork, you can often do it the cheapest directly through your state department. I’ve also found LegalZoom to be a helpful shortcut. I’ve used them to form three LLC’s, one non-profit, and two wills.
13) Accountant (Optional).
14) Lawyer (Optional).
15) Telephone (Optional). If you have broadband, you might want to consider Skype for your phone service.
16) Insurance (Optional).
17) Backup drive (Highly recommended). I added this one after making the video. A decent external hard drive can be purchased for $100 – $400. It’s not so important what kind of drive you get; what’s important is that you use it to backup all the files on your computer on a regular basis. I’ve bought several hard drives (including Maxtor, Lacie, and Western Digital) from Buy.com with good results.
There are a few other things that you’ll need which will be specifically covered in upcoming lessons, so don’t worry about them for now.
Action steps:
1) Go through the list, and make sure you have everything that is required. For the highly recommended ones, do as best you can to get them. For the optional ones, do some research and decide whether it’s something you need.
As I mentioned back in lesson 3, you don’t need to be a computer expert, but there are some things you’ll need to know. I’ll go through those basic computer skills in the next lesson.
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below.
Have a great day!
Hi Eric
Lots of good info so far, please keep it up as it is helping me tremendously, thank you
Sussan
Thanks,
That all what I want, in order I can success in business online
Hi Eric et al..
Your presentations are superb! A nice easy laid back approach that moves along so well, especially for someone like me!
To take ‘action’ is undoubtedly the number one item on any agenda and next I would place ‘discipline’ and this course is helping me to maintain mine! To look back can be helpful, but in the ‘internet’ sphere of my life when I look back I see a whole pile of emails and folders piled high with unused/useless downloads, a ‘my documents’ full to the brim of ‘the new’ this that and the other, many opened and many gathering ‘cyber’ dust. Yes, I learned many things that am sure with Eric’s help will be used to follow my new ‘enterprise’ but am equally sure that the recycle bin will over employed as the lessons progress.The need for real help has been answered here and a goal of obtaining my independence from hourly paid labour has been brought a step closer.
So Eric, I won’t give up on you, just don’t give up on me and ‘us’.. Thanks for a job well done,
Paul…and note..no links lol
Yea i will gear up!!!
Hi Eric
Thank you for this amazing information on lesson 8,some of the tips, like sofware programmes, is pretty informative. you are definately a Great Mentor, i will Recommend you any day to my friends and family and my mailing list.
Thank you Eric
and God bless you, keep up the good work
Many thanks
Eric, I am learning. Thanks. I have been doing this for a while but you are a very good teacher. At the moment I am having a lot of trouble with my computer. Can’t get my windows mail deleted. Had HP & ISP technicians on the phone for almost 5 hours today & still have the problem. I amy end up restoring my unit. God bless you. Mary
Dear Eric,
I anwserd my preovious e-mail from lesson 3. on how to get the furture lessons with out waiting on the e-mails. I like what you had to say and I have sales as well as computer experiance and I am willing to learn. I want to build this business and I believe it is a God sent. I would love to talk to you some time on your mission trip also. I have been on several and that is my passion. What concerns me is you said that what you will be teaching is information product. I am ok with that but English and writing skills are a weekness I have. Verbal on the other hand I am great at. I am hoping you will be able to show me a way to get around this handy cap. I purchased your 79 onetime internet offer to learn how to make money on internet believing that E-Bay would be the route I would take. I have already read your E-Bay for cash book you wrote. I do have the resale rights for the books I purchased from you. Will I be able to build and information business from these or will there be other I can buy to resell? The affilliate business I am also interested in. I believe the Lord is going to help me find the right product to market to provide the income I need to provide for my family and also for the passion in my life. Which is working for my KING JESUS. Your help in this area would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
And God Bless you
Doug
If you’re a sole proprietor, you can get a personal checking account and use it only for your business. If you’re an Inc or an LLC your bank will probably make you get a business account.
I’ll be covering free traffic methods later on in the lessons.
PayPal doesn’t charge any monthly fees that I know of. Maybe you signed up for something using your PayPal account, and what you are seeing is the subscription payment being deducted from your PayPal account each month?
The cost of starting an online business can definitely be less than $2000, especially if you skip the expensive options like getting a lawyer and accountant.
That’s a good point Grandpa Bill. I actually did an entire blog post about it one time:
That drive is outdated now though, so I should do an update. I think I’ll add it to the list above.
You do not need a lot of time to start an online business, but you do need a computer. But wait a minute… if you don’t have a computer, how did you post on this blog? With your cell phone?
Do the best you can. You may have to work harder than anyone else, but sheer will power and determination can get you through if you have a strong desire to succeed. You’ll have to come up with some money for your business expenses at some point, but if you’re determined you can cross that bridge when you get there.
That is strange, I don’t know. Maybe try clearing your cookies and internet cache. Make sure you’re using a current version of IE or firefox.
Your laptop is probably OK for now. As for what to get, its really a matter of personal preference. If you never use the laptop for mobility, then I would recommend a desktop. I tend to get more work done on my desktop because I can type faster and see everything better on a bigger monitor, and multi-task better using dual monitors. And I use my laptop when I travel.
I’m not an antivirus expert, but I would imagine it’s as good. The main reason I switched to Grisoft AVG is because it takes up less memory. Norton seemed to slow my computer down a bit.
In general, the business is based where you are based. So if you’re doing business out of your home in California your business is in California. Some businesses register in Nevada or Delaware because those states offer some tax advantages to encourage businesses to locate there. So there are a bunch of companies who will act as your “representative” in those states, which enables you to have a physical address there, and thus register your business there. I talked to my CPA about it, and he said it wouldn’t offer significant benefit for my business. So if you’re interested in going that route, I’d suggest talk to a savvy CPA, otherwise register in your home state.
Thanks Doug. As far as English writing skills, I will be teaching how to outsource the product creation, so that won’t be a problem.
Thank you so much for your great advice! I will probably go with the desktop option, in the future, since I already have a laptop.
Thanks.
Eric, one term missing in lesson 10, and one that baffles me – “long tail keywords.” What does that mean? Thanks, Richard
And you’re posting the question on Lesson 8 😉
Long tail keywords are like this…
Suppose you are creating a list of keywords. You would start with a primary keyword, such as “health insurance”. Within the list, that is the keyword with the most number of searches for it (and also the most competition). As you begin to go down the list, you may come up with keywords like “health insurance california” and “health insurance low premium”. Those are also highly searched terms, but not quite as many searches as the main keyword, and not quite as much competition. But as you move further down the list (down the long tail) you might come up with some slightly more obscure keywords like “health insurance disabled veterans new york” or “health insurance no medical examination”. Perhaps those keywords still have a lot of people searching for them, but not very much competition. The idea is to find the sweet spot of keywords with a high search volume to low competition ratio. Some marketers use the long tail concept to find hundreds or thousands of less competitive keywords, which can add up to big traffic.
There are definitely some conflicting theories currently in the PPC world as to what method is best. Personally I think there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
I agree with you 100% about the action steps Eric gives. I also think it’s important. It’s all about action!
Good luck on your ventures!
Melina
http://www.SeminarSwagBag.com
I find the checklist/actionsteps to be highly motivating. I’m more likely to accomplish my goals with a clear course of action. So, thank you Eric for doing this the way you do.
I’ve had SKYPE for a while and often use it to listen to teleseminars. However,when I make an actual phone call using it there is a problem with the clarity of the call on the other end. I haven’t been able to achieve getting my voice louder or to stop the breaking up of my voice on the other end of the call. Does anyone have a good tip for me?
Thanks,
Melina
http://www.SeminarSwagBag.com
Hey Eric,
your lessons are so great. I could not wait opening this lesson on have a step-by-step list of requirements. I had read the motivating story of Ladan Lashkari and it was so motivating as I find myself in a similar situation in Cameroon – Africa. Could you please through more light on that. Kindly advice on the steps I can take exactly as far as payment means are concerned. I have to start up my internet business as soon as I have a clear-cut solution to this. Thanks so much for all the inspiration. I can’t wait to get going and look forward to getting more advice from you and your helpful products.
Akonwi
Cameroon – Africa
Eric,
Once again you have me excited! I was going down the list going “check!” for almost every item. 200 startup capital? Dream come true for someone like me with limited capital! So what’s the “secret?” Can’t wait for your big reveal!
excellent lesson Eric. No one has ever given a figure as to what kind of start up capital should be on hand that I have heard. It helps to know what you can expect to need. External hard drive yes indeed I recently picked up a worm that caused me to have to reload my operating system and wipe my hard drive. I have an external drive plus I use several flash drives for back up purposes you can pick up 2 gig flash drives cheap enough now a days.
Thanks for the Paypal-add on…didn’t know it was important to have a business account with them…until lesson#9
Thanks Eric for the lesson 8.
Nilufer
Hi,
ERIC,
Do I need to get permit or lisence for online business from Illinois.
Thanks,
Nilufer
almost everything i have!
Hello Eric,
I read the list in lesson #8 and I do not use the Microsoft operating system because my computer is an IMAC. Do you see any problems with that?
Otherwise I really am getting an education from your teachings so thanks a big bunch.
Thanks for the tip, Eric. I have all of those in place. For the lawyer I use Prepaid Legal, which is a great option for business and personal use. I agree that an autoresponder is also important as well as a domain name and web hosting, but I’m guessing you are saving those for a little later when we start getting into the more technical stuff.
MY COMPUTOR REPAIRMAN TOLD ME TO USE INTEL PROCESSORS, AND SEAGATE HARD DRIVES. HE SAID THEY LAST LONGER, WITH FEWER CRASHES.
Eric,
I have been going through your lessons, but since I joined midway through them, thought I go back to the beginning. Boy am I glad I did. Although I haven’t made any money yet, I didn’t realize I should have a “business” set up at the beginning. Thanks so much!
This is an other great video. There is so much to learn about doing business online. They get better and better. Thank you so much.
Dan and Deanna “Marketing Unscrambled”
All of your “things” needed are right on. But as an iMac user I seem to be left out of the loop since you only talk about Windows and using Zip. Is this really a problem or can you advise alternatives for me.
Cheers, Don McCobb
Hi Eric, I love your lessons. I have a cuestion for you and maybe you can help me. I live in argentina and I don’t have acces to credit cards because of my bad finantial situation. What I can get here, is a Visa Electron debit card, but I really don’t know if the mayor websites and CPA networks I will need accept this kind of card, just like if it was a normal credit card. Can you help Eric?
Thanks for the good job shared with us!
Cristian.
i honestly don’t know, but if it’s a Visa I would think some of them would take it.
Hey Don McCobb …
As a Mac user, you are in the loop and the Wincrap users are out! Feel confident that you are set for the future.
I fired my boss in 2000 and have many affiliate buddies – all but 1 switched to Mac and he’s waiting for Apple’s new releases. When you need Wincrap software, Macs can run the apps with VMware or Parallels or you can boot up the native Windows OS. I could give you a long list of Super Affiliates who use Macs.
Comparing OSX to Windows is like putting a Bentley and Ford side by side – BUT when Apple releases their next OSX upgrade (Snow Leopard) next year – it’s game over for Windows as people would have to be paralyzed from the neck up to buy a PC – when Macs can run Windows better than a PC!
The speed, security and rock solid reliability of Snow Leopard will be *mind numbing* – “get your head around a personal computer with 16 Terabytes of RAM!”
Eric is a great marketer and will help you folks, but liberate yourself from the virus plagues and unreliability – and set your toolbox for the future.
PS You still have to pay the self employment tax (SS & Medicare) with a LLC.
Mac users are so passionate 😉
I have a Mac on my desk right next to my PC… I use it for all my video editing. So I do know about Mac’s advantages, and I agree you can be an internet marketer on a Mac.
But most of the IM-related programs I use are made for PC, and PC’s can get the job done.
Hi Eric
I enjoyed and appreciated your informative lesson. However, I am missing a couple from the past, namely lessons 1 & 2
have a good one!
Kind Regards
Terry
Surely,I am making progress with some of the tips just arrived in my mail box.
Nice tips!
Hi, there is a lot of good content on your site. And is great for some one starting out as you go through from the beginning step by step, which is the best way to go. All your videos will be a complete program for people to follow. Your tips are more than tips. All the best. Regards.
Hi Eric. What would be your suggestion of a workaround for paypal and credit cards for a person like me who comes from a country where i cannot get registered for either of these? We also do not have business checking accounts. What would you propose?
Thanks for the great tidbit for us. I have all of the things on the list and have begun to implement the plan almost like you have said. There is a great antivirus called AVG free you can google it if you want to find it. remember you don’t have to pay income taxes in a small business until you make over 600 dollars a year here in the US. Having a small business is a nice way to make a little extra income for yourself though…
Just keep on pounding away at the keyboard and you will succeed…
You could see if your country is able to use Clickbank.
Beyond that, you should do whatever you can to get a Paypal and/or merchant account. You may need to partner with someone in the US or Canada. Or obtain a US or Canada-based mailing address and start a business based in one of those countries.
Hello Eric,
I received your lesson 8 and than uploaded the adobe flash player but there is nothing happening with the video and i can’t see it, so what is the problem now?
I hope somebody can help mee because i can’t follow this lesson
Greetings
Rien Hiddink
try closing your browser, and clearing your cache. Then try again. Maybe even reboot. Also you could try a different browser, like Firefox.
Clickbank is not available here. And the other methods are not viable for me. Any other suggestions?