This manual offers to show readers how to establish a successful business presence online and gives hints on how to make it successful. It discusses the fundamentals of creating a viable online business plan, along with examples of successful online businesses. It helps readers find space with an Internet service provider or build their own site; design and build a commerce site using a PC, Mac or UNIX; and explore various database options. Readers should discover how to give their online business competitive advantage, prompt customer service, enhanced security, functional animation, and effective promotions. Special icons and sidebars help readers to handle the offline concerns of starting any business, such as obtaining government permissions, building a business plan, and handling accounting concerns. The book also contains a special directory section of Dummies-approved sites that provide information on setting up online business, as well as examples of successful online business sites.
The accompanying CD-ROM includes Internet access software, hyperlinks to useful Web sites, and useful utilities such as Winzip, Paintshop Pro, Thunderbyte Antivirus, BBEdit HTML editor, CyberCash Wallet evaluation software, evaluation versions of server software, demos of software payment products, sample commerce enabled Web pages, sample business plans, and freeware and shareware utilities for tracking transactions.