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Building An Internet"Octopus" By Cliff Ennico www.creators.com #147;Your recent column on 'The Changing World of eBay' got me thinking alot about building an e-commerce presence for my small business. Do youhave any thoughts on the right way to do that in a rapidly changingonline environment?" Consider the octopus. The octopus basically has two parts: a combination head and digestivesystem, and a bunch of tentacles that spread out from the head into thesurrounding water, enabling the octopus to swim and catch prey (okay,okay, I've been watching too many nature documentaries on cable TV, butyou get the general idea . . . ). The tentacles of the octopus contain numerous "suckers", which catchprey in the open water and then "feed" the prey to the mouth of theoctopus, which then digests the prey. That system of operation is exactly what you should strive to buildwhen you create an e-commerce empire on the Internet. The "head" of your online octopus is . . . your business Website. Five years ago, I would have conceded that there are at least some verysmall, local businesses that don't need a Website to be successful. Notanymore. These days, every small business, whether it does businessprimarily online or offline, needs to have its own Website. Why? For two reasons. First, people these days expect that you have one if you are inbusiness. When someone hands me a business card at a speakingengagement or networking event, the first thing I look for is a Webaddress so that I can find out more about the person (assuming ofcourse that I want to). If I don't see a Web address, or if it's written by hand on the back ofthe business card (never do this, by the way - it sends the signal thatyou're too cheap to send the right marketing message to yourcustomers), the person instantly loses credibility in my eyes. Second, and more importantly, there is one place . . . and only one . .. on the entire Internet where you can sell merchandise and keep 100%of the proceeds of each sale. That place is your Website. Whenever you list merchandise for sale on a platform other than yourown Website (such as eBay, Yahoo! or Amazon), you have to pay fees forthe privilege - either a listing fee, a "success" fee (a percentage ofthe sale amount or winning bid), or some combination of the two. When you sell stuff from your Website, you don't have to pay nothing tonobody. So, here's a "pop quiz" question: when selling merchandiseonline, where do you want the bulk of your sales to come from? Why,your Website, of course! The "head" of the octopus is your Website, but you need "tentacles" aswell. Your merchandise listings on eBay, Yahoo!, Amazon, or Craigslist,your online "blogs" and your profile pages on the major Web 2.0networking sites (MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo and Squidoo) areall examples of the "tentacles" you will put out in the e-commerceocean once you've established your own Website. What exactly do tentacles do? Well, at least according to the naturedocumentaries I see on TV (my experience with real "octopi" doesn't gomuch further than fried calamari), the tentacles on an octopus servetwo basic functions: they use their sticky #147;suction cups#148; (or whatever they#146;re called)to trap and ensnare prey that may be swimming by; and once having caught prey, the tentacles use their #147;suckers#148; topass the prey backwards towards the mouth of the octopus, located inthe head, where the prey is consumed and digested. Your e-commerce "tentacles" serve much the same goal. Your presence oneBay, Yahoo!, Amazon and other high-traffic e-commerce sites serves toattract customers surfing the Web who would otherwise not find you in amillion years. People are searching for things on the Web every day,but only rarely will people be searching specifically for your Website,at least until you are so well established that your business is a"household word" (and I hope that happens someday). Once customers buy a few things from one of your "tentacles" and become"hooked" on your merchandise or services (or "sucked in," since we'retalking octopus), they will want more. That's when your "tentacles"should be feeding them to the "mouth" of your e-commerce empire: YourWebsite. Where you can sell lots of stuff to these customers and keep100% of what you make. Now, sometimes it won't be easy for you to build an Internet octopusfor your business. Some online platforms, particularly eBay, have rulesrestricting your ability to post your Website URL on your listings orotherwise drive traffic off of their site. But with a littlecreativity, some online research and professional advice, you can findeffective ways to assemble your Internet octopus so that the maximumWeb traffic occurs in the places where it really impacts your bottomline the most. Cliff Ennico ( cennico@legalcareer.com )is a syndicated columnist, author and former host of the PBS televisionseries 'Money Hunt'. This column is no substitute for legal, tax orfinancial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualifiedprofessional licensed in your state. To find out more about CliffEnnico and other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit ourWeb page at www.creators.com .COPYRIGHT 2008 CLIFFORD R. ENNICO. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE,INC. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.