Most people still have the feeling that making good money online is for big businesses and brands. However the Internet makes it easier than ever to start your own business with almost nothing to invest.

Big companies are often moving slow and if you hit the right market those big companies’ only solution is to buy your innovative fast growing online business.

Here are some tips to get you started.

• Most people think of selling things. When you have indeed a product to sell. You can just start by creating an online shop with for example Amazon Webstore or sites like eBay and start right away. I know someone who is just selling Ikea stuff on eBay. Some people just don’t know how cheap Ikea is and she makes a profit.
• If you don’t have a product to sell. You can either sell a service like cleaning, consultancy etc. Or you can start buying cheap products from China on alibaba.com.
• Best of all is just to start selling product of others. Become a publishers for an affiliate network like Tradedoubler.com and start selling. You get a commission for each sale you make. You may need a website which you create with free online tools. You can also use advertising like Google Adwords and redirect your clicks to get the commission. (read the affiliate program regulations)
• If you think affiliate marketing is too complicated just get started with sites like Friendhunter.nl. On friendhunter you can become a headhunter in one minute. You just register on the site. Then you start to contact all your friends asking if they are interested in this wonderful new job you saw.
• Talking about friends. It is good to have a lot a friends online. If you have a lot of online contacts or friends in for example social networks. People are also willing to pay for just sending these friends a message.
• More like a creative one. Act like a Brand. Be creative. Do what you love most. Because then you have never ending energy and ideas. When you have a brought idea/concept. Give it a name and logo. Start spreading this idea, keep moving. You will become an online identity which people trust, like, hate. Big Brands will want to be associated with you.

Good luck! End keep me updated.

Following my post on Saatchi2.0 I would like to talk more about the subject of agency2.0.

What does a future advertising agency look like? What is its role, its structure? What can we learn from pure digital agencies and other online businesses in general? What can a traditional agency do to stay alive and revive?

In the Businessweek interview I mentioned earlier, I read that Saatchi & Saatchi has tried to buy a digital agency Blast Radius. It didn’t work out since Blast Radius merged with Wunderman, a large direct marketer. What is the real reason behind this? Was it a cultural difference or a pure strategical decision?

After some short research (I will come back to this subject). I found some well known insights digital agencies come up with:

• stop annoying customers, start engaging
• stop delivering ads for clients, start delivering strategies on advertising
• get insights through data, customerinfo and testing

I my opinion the field of advertising is only getting more interesting since agencies must and can focus on their core business “ideas”. And they get more means to generate and spread these ideas.

Looking at how this could look like in practice. I did check the Nitro website. What do they do for a living? As they say, they deliver:

• Innovation
• Communications
• Digital

some links on the subject:

The agency of the future
The agency of the future 2
The agency of the future 3
The agency of the future 4

Technorati Profile

April 18th there was the Innovative advertising awards 2008 gala in New York City. Formerly known as the Interactive and New Media Awards.

In their own worlds:

New York Festivals was the first to create an international competition recognizing the importance and marketing value of innovative media.

Some of the categories in this competition include: Advergames and Viral Advertising for products or services; Online Advertising, including integrated campaigns that include online elements; a wide selection of categories for Guerrilla Marketing and Alternative Media, such as ambient, event and mobile marketing, blogs, short message systems, and street teams; and CD-ROM applications.

To be honest the New York Festivals website is a bit user unfriendly with all the winners info in pdf-format. But I understand that Stella Artois is the big winner.

There where three Swiss winners. DRAFTFCB got a Silver Worldmedal for their viral campaign (see picture above).