International Trade Blog

What do I mean with this? It is advertising. Sometimes it my drive you mad, but sometimes it might be quite helpful. Every enterprise needs some sort of advertisement; it just has to be in a healthy amount otherwise it may turn to the dreaded spam advertising.

Today we see advertisements everywhere; on the street, on TV, in newspapers and the internet. I believe that as soon as someone discovers the necessary technology advertisements will be infused also in our dreams. While I sometimes almost have a nervous breakdown because of the advertisements during my favorite TV show, I do understand that the advertisements pay for my show. Yeah, the entrepreneurs need to advertise their product, but I do not think that massive advertising campaigns are necessary the right way to achieve profit. Actually how many times after watching an advertisement you have gone to your local supermarket and bought the advertised item? The more frequently advertised the more I hate the item, but that is just me. I really do not think that TV ads are the most effective means of advertising.

I view internet and newspaper ads somehow different. In a good way I might add. These advertisements have one significant difference from TV ads; they provide the opportunity to ignore them. Of course I am speaking only about the legitimate internet advertisements and not about the pop-up ads, that’s just spam, but I think that I already have covered them in a previous post. All the advertising banners and offers do not bother me, but if I see something that provokes an interest in me I often click them just to see the offer and then on occasion I even buy the product. The same applies to newspapers because sometimes I read the ads sections just for fun, but actually find something interesting and valuable. And I do not care how many advertisements are there because I simply can chose not to read them.

Advertisements are a necessary tool in business, there is no denying that, but be smart sometimes less is more. You will not be able to force people to buy your product with insane amount of advertisements. All you can do is provide an option and hope for the best.

Global trade today is as ordinary as buying a carton of milk in your local supermarket. People are not only selling goods and services; information can be a valuable asset. Not only a valuable item, but also potentially quite profitable.

Well when we think about trade we usually think about the exchange of real hands on goods, but the implementation of Internet has created a totally new type of commodity – information. You do not need large warehouses and elaborate transportation means to trade with it. In fact in most cases information exists only electronically. By the term information we must understand everything starting from books and newspapers up to various manuals and ‘’How to’s’’. I think we all understand that selling books online is a very profitable deal, but we must think farther. What will the future bring? Sooner or latter the physical paper book will become obsolete and some technologies will be developed to enjoy reading an electronic book the same as the real deal. Meaning there probably will be huge online libraries and stores providing a large amount of information while earning decent money. The other thing is costs. It is possible to create your own information product with virtually no costs at all , apart from your time. You can quite safely store it on your personal computer and make as much copies as you like or need without any additional costs.

Sounds incredibly easy and profitable, but in fact it is far more difficult than it seems. Creating your own information business sounds easy in theory, but real life it can be a tough job. First of all not all of us are natural born writers. I guess that is why not every one of us can write a bestseller. Another important thing is to find the correct target audience. Information is not a vitally needed product and for people to buy it it must be very good and really valuable. You cannot sell junk. No I better rephrase this; you can sell junk, but not very much of it and not for a long time. You always must take in account the long term profitability of a project. Any project or else you are just wasting your resources.

The trade of information can be a profitable thing you just have to show serious attitude towards it. Sooner or latter information will be more valuable than gold.

Internet has opened new possibilities to conduct various forms of business and earn money even from your own living room. You can actually get rich with the help of internet, but remember one thing, it may sound easy, but a certain level of investment is required to succeed, and by investment I do not mean only the money,

First of all you must be willing to invest a certain amount of time in every project you are involved in. Only very seldom people get rich without any effort. Think lottery. But that is just blind luck and wining a lottery is not actually a very sound business plan. Time generates experience and experience generates income. Try not to rush thing. Actually a well organized plan is an excellent tool to keep you on the right track, but remember to make it realistic because probably you won’t struck gold in a month (unless you are really digging for gold). Every profitable business operation is a long term project.

Secondly to make money you have to invest money. Nothing grows from nothing, that you can ask every successful businessman. It does not mean that every time you have to invest huge amounts of money. Sometimes all you need are a few bucks to buy a manual which can help you to increase your knowledge level. Basically you have to be willing to learn if needed sometimes also from your own mistakes. It does not matter if you are conducting international trade or just selling your stuff online. No one is born with absolute knowledge. You have to train and improve your skills because the skills you posses are the keys to success. Wow this sound cheesy, but no matter how you look at this it is true.

Lastly remember this; theoretical knowledge is only a base, real experience is gained by trial and error. As one of my friends said: ‘’you learn better while you do it.’’ I completely agree. Even if you might fail with your first project you will sill have gained valuable experience which will help you with your next project what ever it might be? The market of today provides you with unlimited possibilities. You can import and sell Chinese toys or sell handbooks on ‘’ How to pass your Math exam’’. It’s up to you.

Set yourself a long term goal and follow your dream. Remember if you do not get rich with your first project it does not give you justifiable cause to jump of the bridge. Just keep on trying, eventually you get there.

Internet – the final frontier where no man has gone before. Actually this line is bullshit and should be used only in science fiction movies. Internet has become a part of our everyday life, a simple and ordinary thing. But is it really?

The internet its victory march in 1990’ties and today is used by billions of people worldwide. It made the world grow smaller as it seemingly eliminated the distances between countries. In general term – internet is a large sandbox and everyone is invited to play. All in all a great idea as it vastly improved communication of the whole world. The internet acts also as an unlimited library and you can find anything there. If you can not find something that means it does not exist. Internet also provides an excellent platform for conducting business may it be from a large office building or from your dining room. Still you must remember one rule your parents thought you when you were small – do not speak to strangers. At a certain degree it also applies to the internet.

The internet provides a certain level of anonymity, but a keyword here is ‘’certain’’. Nothing is really anonymous. When communicating with other people on the internet you must be very careful because if you do not know the person in real life how can you be sure of anything he or she tells you. A clever person can find out a lot about another person, starting from the address and finishing personal passwords. Believe me there are some people out there who see the internet as a means to conduct their schemes and scams. So be very careful what kind of information you share because it can hurt you more than it benefits. Let’s not forget about all the pages who offer the possibility to upload personal photos and information. Personally I cannot stand all these homepages (I won’t mention which ones, but you probably can guess), but that’s just my opinion. Dos this mean that I deem the entire internet as evil? Hell no, I just think very carefully what information I divulge.

So what should we do? Well it is sure as hell that I won’t be the one to tell you what you have to do. Only thing I will do is give you this advice – think twice before you speak or in this case write. Not everything out there is all nice and peachy. Act responsibly and everything should be okay.

Today you can buy everything on the internet, may it be a box of matches or a modern fighter jet. Everything is for sale. Only 15 years ago it seemed that something like this would be possible in the far future. Today buying a TV set on the internet is not much different than buying a carton of milk in your nearest supermarket.

So is this a good or bad thing. Well it probably depends from which side you are looking at it. In general items bought online have a lower price which is due to the fact that it is sold directly out of the warehouse and there is no need for a retailer so no extra costs like salary for a sales clerk or lease for a shopping area. The quantity from which you can choose is not comparable from a retail shop. Quantity means the possibility to find the necessary quality for an acceptable price. On the other hand the customer looses the possibility to see and touch the item in real life. For a lot of people online shopping still feels like buying ‘’cat in a sack’’ so a number of people view online shopping as shady process and in general are very afraid of being scammed. Actually to some degree they have a valid point because the whole sales process is very anonymous and as such it is prone to scam. But on the other hand anonymous shopping can have its benefits. But we must face the fact that there is no actual anonymity on the internet. We all have IP addresses which can be used to locate the terminal we are using and as soon as we submit our credit card number we identify ourselves. If you want total anonymity then throw away your mobile phone and go on to live in the deepest woods. I don’t see that happening for me.

So if online shopping exists it probably best to try to use it to its full potential. In my opinion online shopping is still in its baby steps and we will experience dramatic developments in the near future. Sure today it is very easy to buy electronics, books, clothes and other stuff online, but why stop there? Need a bottle of milk or a pack of cigarettes, why just not order them online. All that is needed are a few clicks on your computer and the closest supermarket could deliver the requested items directly to your home. Oh and wait till someone discovers teleportation…
The most important thing is to be open to every new possibility and, in my opinion, online shopping and online business in general is the way of future. If we are willing to give it a try the rewards could be very satisfying.