How to Sell Your Ideas on the Internet
The Internet serves as a marketplace for a near infinite variety of products, services and ideas. Customers can buy nearly anything they would at a mall on the Internet. Selling your ideas on the Internet is not much different than selling in person, except that you have the opportunity to take advantage of the technological component: free websites like Facebook, Meetup.com and Twitter can plug you into a huge customer base. Follow a business plan modified for the Internet to sell your ideas in the virtual world.
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Instructions
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Monetize your idea. Decide on a way to make money from your idea, such as through membership fees, service charges, or a one-time fee for access to your idea. How you monetize your idea depends on the nature of your idea. For example, lynda.com monetized the idea of creating how-tos for graphic editing software by requiring users to buy account access; Dofus monetized the idea of an online role playing game by requiring players to pay through a subscription for the service of hosting the game maps; and Love Systems monetized the idea of dating advice by requiring readers, viewers, and listeners to pay a one-time fee for access to certain articles, podcasts, and videos.
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2
Set up a website to advertise certain parts of your idea that can interest potential customers but do not give the entire idea away. For example, if your idea is about plumbing, buy a domain name that is related to your idea and use basic HTML or a content management system (CMS) to present enough of your idea to persuade a visitor to pay money to see the rest of the idea. Love Systems, mentioned in Step 1, offers a free website with a forum and some free content to persuade visitors to buy premium content.
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Set up an online payment system to receive money in exchange for your idea. Use a content management system to create an e-commerce site that allows visitors to deposit money into a PayPal account you've set up in exchange for access to a protected page that has all the information on your idea.
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Advertise your website on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. Post to blogs related to your idea encouraging people to learn more about the idea by visiting your website.
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Tips & Warnings
Hire a Web designer to help present your idea in a professional and graphically-compelling way. Web designers can make a good-looking website to advertise your idea if you are not adept at computer programming languages or able to construct a website of your own.
Integrate your website with automatic posting to social networking sites using free and readily available plugins so that you can quickly and efficiently proliferate your advertisements about your idea around the internet.
Allow visitors to enter into an email list you keep in order to learn more about your ideas. Send quality email newsletters that offer value to potential customers so that they can see you have something to offer and will consider buying your ideas.
References
- Photo Credit Sell image by robootb from Fotolia.com
