Sunday, February 27th, 2011
12 Comments

Online Business Then and Now (1997-2011)

I stood in the lobby of a conference where I spoke recently when an attendee walked up and asked me a seemingly innocent question. “With all the competition online, do you think it’s easier or harder to start an online business now, or back when you got started?” The person asking the question seemed to feel as though they’d waited too long to add digital marketing to their business and had fallen too far behind their competitors. But when I broke it down for them in the following manner, they realized it’s never too late to start getting business online.

Web Hosting & Domain Names
In 1997, I paid $125 per month for 10MB of web space and shelled out $100 per year to register 1 domain. In 2011, you can get unlimited hosting space for $6.99 per month and pay $12 for 1 domain for a year. ** Winner**: 2011

Website Design
I bought FrontPage ’98 back in 1997 and spent about 200 hours learning how to make a good, basic website. That learning curve was not for the faint of heart. In 2011, with the FREE WordPress software and numerous free themes (templates) I can have a website up literally with 2 to 5 clicks of a mouse. ** Winner**: 2011
Website Traffic
No website can survive without targeted website traffic. Back in 1997, your only options were Yahoo! (Google who?), banner ads, and search engine optimization voo-doo. The going was slow, expensive, and very confusing. In 2011, you have about 30+ legitimate strategies for getting real traffic to your website, including Google, Bing, Yahoo!, blogs, social media, and more. ** Winner**: 2011
Consumer Acceptance
In 1997, half the battle in selling online was explaining to people it was safe to buy online. Every other media story you saw was about an online world fraught with danger and peril the instant you entered your credit card details. Fast-forward to 2011 and people spend more online than the Gross National Product of some countries! Bottom line: when my mom buys stuff online, you know we’ve crossed a threshold of acceptance! ** Winner**: 2011

Taking Payments

Ask anyone who sold online back in 1997 how difficult it was to take online payments. You needed an act of Congress to get a merchant account that allowed you to process online payments, while the fees, holdback, and threat of frozen accounts were insane. Now, in 2011, anyone can legitimately process virtually unlimited amounts of transactions using PayPal with no credit check or holdback. Also, many credit card processors now chomp at the bit to get a piece of the online pie and make it very easy to get a merchant account to hook up to your website. ** Winner**: 2011

Easy Tools & Technology

Back in 1997, you had three things you could use to build your online presence: text, graphics, and html. That was it! You could put text and pictures on a page, and you were dang happy to do that without staying up until 2 o’clock in the morning to get it done!

Now, the tools to do insanely cool stuff online get taken for granted! Mobile media, website audio and video, social media, blogging, and more get done with a few clicks of a mouse. The first full-motion video I ever put online took me almost 20 hours of work to figure out how to get it done and posted. Now, with a $40 Kodak “Mini” and YouTube, you can get a video recorded, posted, and playing on your website in less than 15 minutes! ** Winner**: 2011

Bottom line: It’s easier now to get started than ever before in the history of the Web. It’s easier to get a website up and running. It’s simpler and cheaper to get targeted traffic. And, you don’t have to explain to every other person who buys from you that it’s safe to shop online. With a great idea and the right skills and tools, it’s faster and easier to succeed online than ever before!

“What if you had to begin again or start over from scratch?”
==> New Webinar Shows You Step By Step Exactly What I Would Do!


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12 Responses

February 27, 2011
Dave Nicholson

Hi Jim, I do agree the game sure has changed so many options and software to make life so much easier and of course a lot more captivating results. The only somewhat of a down side I can see is it has become almost too easy which of course creates a lot more competition but also more of a market for informational products so in the end 2011 Wins again :)

Thanks for the great post :)

Sincerely
Dave


February 27, 2011
Michele

Hi Jim,

I tried back in 1996-7 to get online just to see how it worked. It was a nightmare trying to find things out and I gave up after a few attempts as I had a full time job that was always going over time.

Life got in the way and it was not until two to three years ago that I took it up again and this time, it made a lot more sense and was much more affordable. There was still lots to learn, not only online but also about yourself, but it has been very interesting.

I have made a little money online but it is getting a system in place that’s going to make the real money and that is the part I am trying to master. Doing it all alone is not the answer either but like all things in life, you are always apprehensive, and when you do eventually try, you wonder what all the fuss was about and why the hell you did not do it earlier.

Anyway, it’s never too late for anything – and it’s never to late for trying something new. Tell my mum that who has taken up Bollywood dancing in her 70s!


February 27, 2011
Annie Desantis

Oh boy, I totally agree with everything in your article, although I think now the sheer volume of information is overwhelming.

I tried in 1997 to put up an eco website, I sure wish I had stuck with it, it would be doing very well now! But it just was too hard, too much to learn and very few people were buying online, certainly NOT Moms – which is now my target market.

Thanks for all you do to make it simpler, Jim, I learn so much from you, even tho I am not going the wordpress way.

All the best,
Annie D


February 27, 2011
Vin Czepiel

Jim, you are so right! I started building websites around the same time you did (that’s how long I’ve been following you!), and it’s so much easier now. I hand coded everything. And all we had was dial up. Remember when 56k modems were a big deal? If you wanted to download software, you started it before you went to bed and let it run all night.

The technology today is a lot easier, and certainly less expensive, but there’s so much more to learn. Fortunately, we have guys like you who make it easy.

Thanks!


February 28, 2011
Bruce Markham

You forgot to mention that half the people now carry around a smart phone that allows you to get an email, read an offer and purchase online, while they wait in line at the store to check out. Now if i could only get old geiser’s like you to install the free plugin for wordpress that automatically converts your wordpress blog into a mobile blog ONLY for those viewing from a mobile phone, while keeping your website looking the same as how you originally set it up for those viewing from a computer, we’d “actually” be able to READ what it is that you are sending out :) sent from my iPhone.


February 28, 2011
Chris Langguth

A good article, Jim. The only complaint would be you don’t me a reason to wait any longer. Thank you.


February 28, 2011
Lynda Hammitt

I love your straightforward style and the clarity of your message. It is indeed much easier to go online in 2011 than it would have been back in the “dark ages” of the late 1990′s. Thank you for putting this into perspective. **Winner**: Jim Edwards!


February 28, 2011
Praslin Seychelles

Jim
What you say is absolutely correct. It is much easier now, but it still takes a lot of effort to do business online. But what you left out is the greater competition now. But it’s still doable. I look forward to the seminar. Thanks

Praslin


February 28, 2011
BigJim

Hi Guys,

Glad you enjoyed the article :-)

I agree that mobile is big… just ran out of space for the article (have to keep around 600 words)

Maybe a follow up?

Also, re: competition

I don’t believe in competition online… I believe in innovation and unique product angles. I’ve been ripped off countless times, but I live by the phrase “Often imitated, never duplicated!”

I still believe with a good idea, the right tools, and hard, smart work anyone can still make it.

Jim


February 28, 2011
BigJim

PS – I do have a smart phone now :-)


February 28, 2011
The Happypreneur

Well, I don’t have a smart phone (yet), but I do agree that it gets simpler as time goes by. I really appreciate the benefits now vs. when you started Jim. Glad you pointed them out.

Thanks!
Celene Harrelson


February 28, 2011
Kevin Ho

Hi Jim,

I have to tell ya, love your work and the way that you bring it across! Yes, a lot of things have definitely changed since then. A lot of changes just in the few years since I started back in 2007. However, I still think there is a learning curve for many newcomers, especially if they have no prior experience with online marketing or any business background. One good example is the number of searches per month for website builders or website design, that’s a lot of people who still need help in getting their sites off the ground. Of course, that’s also good news for people who are actively involved in that market. And speaking of mobile, when I got my 3g phone I didn’t even finish programming all my information into it and there was a commercial for the new 4g. Everything is moving at a fast pace now, yes, times are changing and fast!

Thanks

Kevin