About This Book

Much has changed since we wrote the first edition of this book in 2006 — but much has stayed the same. Our goal — to cover the many ways you can start or expand a business by using the Internet — is still the same. Likewise, many of the basic principles for starting your online business are still tried-and-true methods. For this third edition, we took great care to update all the key information that has remained valid in the past few years. We also searched out many of the new opportunities that have evolved since then. Among the many changes is the use of social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, as a way to both promote your business and make money. To illustrate the rise of social networking sites, consider this: In the few months that we spent working on the update to this book, we have seen the social networking site LinkedIn, with a base of more than 100 million members, go public. The stock price on the day of the IPO reached more than $122 per share, and has a current market valuation of approximately $7.5 billion. Facebook, the king of all social networking sites, is still rumored to be toying with the idea of going public. Until then, investment firms are valuing the company at nearly $50 billion! In addition to the fervor over social networking, mobile commerce and blogging continue to gain momentum as legitimate revenue makers. All these changes are captured in this newest edition of our book.

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