Starting a Business on the Internet
By: Edward • Research Paper • 1,722 Words • December 5, 2009 • 1,341 Views
Essay title: Starting a Business on the Internet
The number one question to ask when starting a business,
whether on the Web or in a traditional setting, is why would
people want to buy the product or service. Somewhere in
the world, one can find people selling anything so why
would people come to you? Are you selling something
unique, do you make or market something that no one can
find anywhere else or would find it almost impossible to
find elsewhere? Do you sell your product at a lower price
then anyone else? Maybe your prices are competitive with
other businesses but you offer superior service. Perhaps
you have the ability to offer unique services that no one else
can or will duplicate. Do you have some other advantage
over other companies? The next thing to consider once you
have settled on a product or service to market is a name.
Names are very important especially when starting a
business on the Internet. The Web address or URL
(Universal Resource Locator) of a Web page is an
important part of becoming a popular place for surfers to
shop. There are two ways in which an URL for a business
Web page can de done: registering you own second level
domain or being listed under some one else's domain name.
A URL is made of several parts. First, there is the root
level domain: com, org, net, tm. The root level domain can
be many things; com, org, and net are the only root level
domain names not associated with a two-letter country
code. Any other domain name will be associated with a
country: us, United States; de, Germany; tm, Turkmenistan.
Some business names will lend themselves to easily
become a second level domain name, that is the name
before the root level domain name. Major brand names are
easy to do such as www.microsoft.com, www.ibm.com.
When people look on the Web for a certain company it is
easy to try www.companyname.com but what should one
type when the company name is Bob's House of Flowering
Plants? That is why one should choose easily remembered
or recognized Web addresses. Since thousands of second
level domains have already been taken, it may be easier to
find what names are available and then choose the name of
the business from the available choices. To find out if a
particular com, org, or net second level domain name has
been registered, go to Internic (www.internic.com ). If you
decide not to register your own domain name you can have
a listing under someone else's domain. This can happen in
one of three ways: as a third or higher level domain name,
as a subdirectory on a domain, or as a user account on a
domain name. Typically smaller business with less money to
spend on Web housing will opt for one of these three
choices. Many surfers will believe that a company that does
not have it's own domain name to be cheap and small time.
Examples of being listed under someone else's domain
name can look like this:
www.hostcompany.com/~yourcompany,
www.yourcompany.hostcompany.com, and
www.hostcompany.com/yourcompany. Now that you have
decided