Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Choosing Just the Right Business

After you decide to start your own online business, you have to take a look at the different categories of online businesses from which you can choose, which we conveniently provide in this section.

Not all online businesses will explode like Amazon, eBay, or Facebook. But even if your business never grows into a megabrand, you need to plan for the long haul. You want your business to succeed and survive. Also, selecting the right type of online business is just as important. Losing interest or lacking an understanding of your chosen business area can hinder the growth of your new online business. Putting some thought into the type of online business you want to pursue pays off.

Creating online businesses for today and tomorrow

The secret to e-commerce success is to create a business that will stand the test of time. Sure, some people take advantage of relatively short-lived trends and make a mint (the Pet Rock and Beanie Babies, for example). The odds are small, however, that you can create the same magnitude of buying hysteria with a product or service. Instead, hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs are quietly and steadily making a respectable living by using the Internet, and their ideas will find a market for many years. They're not making millions of dollars a month, but they're paying their bills and making a profit.

The widely used term ...