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CAREERS
2000 - Get Net Savvy
Becoming a
web entrepreneur and start your own website. Daunting? It is complicated,
but you don't have to get entangled in the technology aspect. "Technology
is just the enabler. You need to have the idea," says Priti U. Mehta, director,
Inter Continental Computer Systems, who started www.infoindia.net, a site
devoted to travel and tourism. There is talent available - writers, programmers,
designers, and marketers - to make your site a reality. If you don't have
the money to pay large sums to get the site together, rope in enthusiastic
journalism students to work as site editors and download free software
from the net. But get started. Remember there are no glass ceilings in
cyber space, and there is tremendous opportunity - you could become an
information provider or start your own virtual community like Nirali Sanghi
did with www.indiaparenting.com, a "one-stop-shop for parenting." Stripped
to the basics, there are four stages between the conception of your idea
and the final site on the Net. Firstly, you need to register your site
(registration fee is US $70 for two years), next you rent memory space
on a server either in India or abroad, design and put your site on the
Net, then register with a search engine like Yahoo or Khoj (proper linkages
make it easier for surfers to find the site), and then advertise it. "Designing
the site is 1 per cent of the job, 99 per cent is marketing it," says Sanghi.
It could be a high-investment game, (running into lakhs) and the breakeven
period could be anything between three years to 10 years. Your revenue
comes from advertisements on your site, and any e-commerce you do.
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