Every now and again, a big deal will go through, and people who have never seriously considered an internet business, start thinking about their own online business.

The Google - YouTube deal is just one such deal.

Chad Hurley and Steve Chen started YouTube in their garage likely in their living room office but a garage start-up sounds so cool. Hurley and Chen started their website only 20 months before Google bought it for $1.65 billion. That is $825 million each for 20 months work, or $41.25 million dollars each for every month they were in operation!

All of us dream the big dream, but then reality sets in. Few of us can look forward to earning $40 million per month. While you can probably count the people who have on two hands, there are still thousands more people who have managed to turn their online business into a million dollar a year business.

Most people who start an online business might dream of making one million per year, but most would be happy just to earn enough to leave their day job behind them. Some would even be happy to earn just enough to pay their car payment or to save for their kid's college tuition fees. All are worthy goals, and the good news is that all are within the reach of most people who strive to reach them.

Learning How To Play The Game

As with any great endeavor in life, there is a process one must follow in order to be successful.

The first step is learning how to play the game.

The beauty of starting an online business is that the internet is driven by information. If you have a desire to learn about something, then you will find someone on the internet who is willing to teach you about the topic you wish to learn. You can literally find information available on any topic, some of it free and some of it available for a small fee.

Online Business Structures

There are four primary business structures on the internet:

1. Product Sales

2. Service Sales

3. Membership Websites

4. Advertising Platforms

Product sales include both hard goods and digital items. Examples of hard goods include food, clothing, car parts, books and music. Examples of digital items include electronic books and software.

Within these four primary platforms, there are several ways to accomplish each business process. For example, with a Product Sales driven website, you can opt to use: a direct sales website, an online auction system, or an affiliate sales format. With Service sales, you can use the direct sales website or the affiliate sales format.

Affiliate sales systems are akin to Reseller sales systems. There really is one difference between an affiliate sales system and a reseller program.

With an affiliate program, you will direct the buyer to the seller's real website through a special tracking URL that is only available to you to make their actual purchase, and you as the affiliate will be paid on a monthly schedule for the sales that you have generated.

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