Hi Everyone,

Quick survery here if anyone wants to put their 2 cents:

Recently I've been asked by one of my clients, "Why do many online businesses fail? And what resources do "brick-n-mortar" businesses have that an online business would need?"

Statistics show a substantial growth for ecommerce transactions, and with the holiday season coming, we're going to see a hugh spike on online buying. But why is it that some are "riding" the wave and pocketing the heavy coins, while others are losing and closing up shop?

That is a good question.

I imagine it depends on what your selling.

What image your site projects.
Security
Trust
Value-Informative
Easy of use
Easy of ordering

I don't buy much on the internet except I did win a car bid on e-bay auction.
Seemed like a good deal at the time. The seller was well rated. The pictures looked good and were plenty. I am selling it know as I bought a Van...well 2000 Chysler Cirrus loaded...LOL.

I look for information about products and price but like to see the product ya know feel touch etc..I hate returning things thru the mail. It might be intersesting to see what people buy-like a list--they could get long.

Car e-bay
Some clothing - e-bay
Instructional Information medical from England- Doctor-good service for frozen shoulder
Dog stuff- private company------ yes for my dog
Some business supplies- wood refinishing various private companies.
Cell phone used -e- bay just ok
Prescribtion Drugs- Canada cheaper.

How to summarize without underemphasizing or sounding trite?...

You need to be different and stake out your territory.

Why would anyone come to your site? How would they find it? Why would they come back?

There are a lot of players, and new, novel sites are becoming scarce - "it's been done".

I installed the Alexa.com toolbar so I can see the alexa ranking for all the sites I visit. There are some surprises. If you can get below a ranking of 100,000 or so (the lower the number the better) you are doing ok. Below 10,000 pretty good, Below 1000 and you are somebody. Unfortunately, you can't do a reverse lookup to reveal the site with an arbitrary rating.

In web parlance, a site is really a "property", or its owners are "publishers". After you get the broad introductory scoop from a myriad of free and fee-based sources; your creativity, hard work, and investment will make or break you.

I am in the affiliate advertising field and for every affiliate network that is earnest and putting together a healthy network, there are 4 or 5 that are languishing, dying from inattentiveness. Lot's of tire kickers give up early. Lots of people don't manage to the important questions. Traffic is not guaranteed.

Again - Why would anyone come to your site? How would they find it? Why would they come back?

Hello here...
Looking for powerful affiliate program!
Please, write for me some sites or links... or docs for working with PPC and affiliate programs.

Also, I'm need for any info about Google AdSence and Google AdWords.

Thank ya!

Now hold on a second I think if you're going to look at statistics you should ask a few more questions... Comparatively, how many brick and morter shops are having to close? I'd like to see if their rates match. Keep in mind, i'm sure there are far more online stores than brick and morter shops but you get my point. Why do any businesses close? Bad service, higher prices, technical difficulties..etc. I'm willing to bet that there's a difference in survival rate for those who mix online and offline business. For instance, people who don't know enough about marketing to make their business work won't think to advertise in other offline places. I think the goal of any business, but especially online business is to find the best ways to get your name out there. Tell people that you are there and they will come knocking on your door. Maybe not ALL of them, but the ones who need you.

Anyways... I'm done rambling

You have to reckon that it's easier/cheaper to start an online business than a "brick-n-mortar" one. In my opinion, the online businesses that fail do so because their owners are unealistic. The easier something can be done, the more people will try it.

As a webdesigner, I can't count the number of people who approached me telling me : "I want to start a dating site" or "I want to start an auction site" just because they saw the success of ebay and meetic. Part from that, they had strictly no clue.

None if you online business has no equivalent in the real world.
But it's true that having a real office is something that make the older generation of clients feel more comfortable. I believe it's only a question of generation. I've lost clients because they were in the other side of the country and wanted to come to my place.

BTW, what I like the most with the internet is the fact that you can have as many storefronts as you want for a same business. Just make different designs/domains/content and you've got multiple stores ready to welcome new clients. With "brick-n-mortar" business, it's possible only if you're rich.

There is definitely something to be said for owning both. We have a storefront (brick and morter) and we have our online presence. I'd say 90% of the time our clients come from the net but it's those rare 10% that really do make a difference in profit. And they base their trust in my company on the fact that we do have a storefront.
We're actually in the middle of expanding - about to open up a new site similar to elance or ifreelance. The nice thing about opening up or adding on to a business when it's online is that the risk of what I could lose should that expansion not be successful is little to nothing compared to a brick and morter shop. People are more willing to risk taking a business online because it's so cheap to get started. Or at least it can be.

Starting an online business is no different than starting a b&m business. Too many people fall for the scams that claim "buy this package and you'll have your own online business in 10 minutes". Regardless of which type of business you decide to start you need to go through all the steps including research and writing a business plan with financials.