Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs: How Australia's Online Mavericks, Innovators and Disruptors Built Their Businesses ... And How You Can Too

PREFACE

Being an ‘online entrepreneur' means different things to different people but for me, the definition that sums it up in its purest sense is ‘one who identifies a need, any need, and fills it using the internet as the main means of promotion'.

Creating an online business that sells to a global marketplace 24/7 can be intoxicating and when those first few sales arrive, it becomes quite addictive. I can still vividly recall that moment when I launched my online business. It was June 2006 and my online entrepreneurial journey had just begun.

How to make money in your pyjamas

Date: June 2006 Time: 9:17 am

The baby's napping. I'm in bed, eating Vegemite toast and drinking coffee. I fire up the laptop and check my email. My new website's been up for two days and overnight two people have bought my home-study copywriting course. One thousand, six hundred dollars went into my bank account while I slept. I forward the email receipts to my virtual assistant and she dispatches the packages to their new owners, triggering the auto-responders that will take care of all client communication for the next few months. Automation heaven! I sweep the crumbs out of the bed, put my mug aside and snuggle down to catch up on the sleep I lost tending to a newborn the night before.

I had hoped my new website would work, but really — seriously — would anyone buy my home-study course sight unseen, without even knowing me, without even so much as sending an email to check that I was real? Would ...