Saturday, September 27, 2014

Getting Started With Web Businesses

I had been thinking about starting a business on the web for a while but I really had no idea how to do it. I started trying to sell books through Facebook and looking for affiliates. I even bought advertising in Facebook in order to target a specific kind of customer without a lot of success.
This semester I have the opportunity of taking a class about creating web businesses. I'm in the second week of the class and it has been great! I was terrified at first because I actually need to create a real business during the class and I didn't think I would be able to do it, but the things that I have learned so far have helped me feel empowered and confident that I can actually succeed at this!
I have a lot of ideas in a list that I'm making and I'm doing a study in order to decide which idea to use for the business. One of them is what my wife and I have been planning to do for a while: A website that shares the best places and tips for tourists visiting central Mexico. I also want to create a business that I could manage with my dad. He just lost his job today and he tries to keep a calm expression but I can see that he is really sad. He is a computer engineer and has some projects he's been talking about for a while; now that he lost his job he wants to try them and I want to be able to help him with what I learn during this class.
One of the things that amazed me the most this week was how easy is it to use the tools from Google Adwords like the Keyword Planner. I will share a video of how it works!

Monday, September 22, 2014

Web Businesses

It's been a couple months since I wrote on this journal. Life has been hectic and I haven't been able to accomplish some of my goals on time but I'm getting there slowly.

I'm taking a web-business creation class in college right now. It is very challenging because... I actually need to create a web business during the class! This is the first week and I'm learning the basic business models on the web and getting some ideas of what I might do.

I found some very interesting material that applies not only to online businesses but to any person who wants to be an entrepreneur. First of all, this website that gave me ideas of how I can brainstorm business ideas! now I'm carrying my notebook and writing about every problem or difficulty I see in front of me.

http://bizthoughts.mikelee.org/brainstorming-business-ideas.html

Next, there's this video I watched as a part of the class that teaches an interesting concept: the magic box that generates money:


I'm not a great fan of those websites that sell information of how to make money online doing exactly what they are doing, but the concepts in the video are interesting and valid for any kind of business.


The last thing I wanted to record in this journal for today:

Last week I met with a High School friend. We are planning on starting a business on our free time. We are refining the idea and getting the plans ready so I won't share a lot of details since we want to be the first ones in our city to offer our product. I have some many things that I want to try that I don't know how I'm gonna fit them all in my schedule but it makes me feel very excited!