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How many people here own businesses that are not blogs/forums/affiliate?

Discussion in 'General Business' started by XooX, Feb 4, 2014.

  1. #1
    I have been interviewing a few online businesses and now I am curious how many people here on DP own online businesses? I am looking at real businesses and not blogs, forums, affiliate marketing, etc. Some questions:

    1. How did you do the development?
    2. How did you get the initial traction?
    3. How do you manage the sales and marketing functions?
     
    XooX, Feb 4, 2014 IP
  2. faizzsheikh

    faizzsheikh Active Member

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    #2
    I am providing data scraping service... I have been doing pretty good with it so far!
     
    faizzsheikh, Feb 4, 2014 IP
  3. XooX

    XooX Well-Known Member

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    #3
    I am talking about scalable businesses - like an ecommerce store, or a SaaS service, etc. - business that websites like TechCrunch cover.
     
    XooX, Feb 4, 2014 IP
  4. FWH1

    FWH1 Peon

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    #4
    In my case it is Web Hosting, and I am a programmer as well.
     
    FWH1, Feb 5, 2014 IP
  5. mokah

    mokah Active Member

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    #5
    I am a freelance web developer in the midst of starting my own web design/development company.

    1. How did you do the development?

    Build a website for the business and start marketing it. Most of my marketing is word of mouth and local to where I live.

    2. How did you get the initial traction?

    Friends! 5-6 of my friends have referred clients to me.

    3. How do you manage the sales and marketing functions?

    It's not very hard really. I use freely and widely available boilerplate contracts and most of my marketing is pretty local so I'm good.
     
    mokah, Feb 5, 2014 IP
  6. MikeLugar

    MikeLugar Well-Known Member

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    #6
    1. How did you do the development?
    Had been freelancing since I was 15 in high school through college. After college I bought office space and had an existing client base built up from my freelance work so that gave me enough to get month-to-month then built it up from there. When you spend 40-60 hours a week devoted to your business you can get a lot done..well not always!

    2. How did you get the initial traction?
    Started small, cold calls, direct mailing, etc.

    3. How do you manage the sales and marketing functions?
    I would be lost without Quickbooks, Asana Project Management, and Evernote.

    A word of advice do everything yourself in the beginning, but when you can afford to start paying people to do the not-so-important easy stuff, do it. This will allow you more focus on what really matters and growing your business.

    Also, I strongly recommend you read the book "E-Myth" this is the bible for many business owners
     
    MikeLugar, Feb 5, 2014 IP
  7. Gaiacom_LC

    Gaiacom_LC Member

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    #7
    Sure, my company is involved in providing IT services including infrastructure hosting and web hosting.

    1. How did you do the development?
    Hard work!

    2. How did you get the initial traction?
    Hard work!

    3. How do you manage the sales and marketing functions?
    Mainly with a well-developed SEO strategy resulting from years of practice.
     
    Gaiacom_LC, Feb 5, 2014 IP
  8. DatingExpert

    DatingExpert Active Member

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    #8
    Hi, Yes I have business.
    I have a network of more than dating sites.
     
    DatingExpert, Feb 6, 2014 IP
  9. BoostSoftware

    BoostSoftware Active Member

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    #9
    Even though the company I work for does have an affiliate program, I myself am the public relationship director. It's my job to go out into the community representing the brand for whom I work. When you get involved within a community other than just online, you increase your sales. Face-to-face interaction is necessary.
     
    BoostSoftware, Feb 6, 2014 IP
  10. nshadab

    nshadab Well-Known Member

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    #10
    hey, me too want my name on this list.... :D

    i started as freelancer in 2007; but now own a pure online business and established companies.
    1) Magicsolv.com: Web development company
    2) Wingnity.com an eLearning Company offering quality latest technologies training, such as Android, iOS, Python, Java, Hadoop and many others

    Though i enjoyed every span of my professional life, but i still remember my initial freelance days.
     
    nshadab, Feb 13, 2014 IP
  11. WebsitePlex

    WebsitePlex Well-Known Member

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    #11
    WebsitePlex, Feb 14, 2014 IP
  12. Annea

    Annea Well-Known Member

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    #12
    Blogging and marketing are real businesses, too. For people who make their living at it, at least. Also scalable and a ton of work. Although your original post said otherwise, I assume you didn't mean to imply that they aren't worthy of being called a business. Only that you were looking for other types of businesses?
     
    Annea, Feb 14, 2014 IP
  13. XooX

    XooX Well-Known Member

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    #13
    Annea, yes I don't intend to belittle anyone who does blogs or forums - I have quite a few of them myself. I am basically looking at web ideas that are capable of growing into funded businesses that a website like TechCrunch or Mashable will write about. As you know, these websites don't cover blogs and affiliate businesses mostly.
     
    XooX, Feb 14, 2014 IP
    Annea likes this.
  14. Tabish Naeem

    Tabish Naeem Greenhorn

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    #14
    Hello,

    I own 5 companies. We are into Power Generation, Logistics, Construction, Defence Procurement and Offshore Software Development.

    1. How did you do the development?

    We do it in-house by having developers on Payroll.

    2. How did you get the initial traction?

    We started with doing work for our own sister concerns and that helped us a lot in streamlining the business process.

    3. How do you manage the sales and marketing functions?

    We have employees. The top management sets targets, the bean crunchers authorise and allocate funds, the marketing guys make music out of noise and the sales minions are expected to meet the targets OR ELSE.:mad:
     
    Tabish Naeem, Feb 14, 2014 IP
  15. dscurlock

    dscurlock Prominent Member

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    #15
    that is true, affiliate marketing does not count, as
    affiliate marketing, you dont own anything, and it is not
    yours to own, you are just helping someone bigger then
    you are obtain a better lifestyle then what you have, most likely...

     
    dscurlock, Feb 14, 2014 IP
  16. Tabish Naeem

    Tabish Naeem Greenhorn

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    #16
    We developed 3 websites that went viral. Here's how the clients went about marketing their product: (Mind you the product/service has to provide some kind of a utility to the visitors - this one's a long discussion)

    1. PPC - Yes that's what created initial awareness and brought in initial traffic.
    2. Email Marketing - This brought in the second wave. After the first month they were doing 80% email marketing and 30% Adwords.
    3. Facebook - The E-Commerce store selling luxury goods and accessories started from PPC at Facebook and ran a very strong SMM campaign.
     
    Tabish Naeem, Feb 14, 2014 IP
  17. Wen Von

    Wen Von Banned

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    #17
    I owns gaming website but loosing money in this.
     
    Wen Von, Feb 17, 2014 IP
  18. Sarah Davis

    Sarah Davis Active Member

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    #18
    I have managed many membership sites in the past which have been successful. I just use aMember most of the time which is really good, or pick another plug-in from Wordpress. They can be very profitable business models if you have unique content.
     
    Sarah Davis, Feb 17, 2014 IP
  19. Southpaw41

    Southpaw41 Greenhorn

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    #19
    I run a small e-commerce site. Sales were around $30k last year

    1. How did you do the development?
    Hard work!

    2. How did you get the initial traction?
    Took 2 months to get my first order.

    3. How do you manage the sales and marketing functions?
    Google Adwords, Facebook, Newsletters and Word of Mouth
     
    Southpaw41, Feb 25, 2014 IP
  20. SteveDarcy

    SteveDarcy Active Member

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    #20
    I own a business which gives people ideas, help and advice as to how to build an online empire.
     
    SteveDarcy, Feb 26, 2014 IP