by Dr.Liew

Created on: October 26, 2008

The financial crisis is getting worse day by day causing all kinds of problems for everyone, the rising cost of living is forcing many people to trim their monthly budget and change their lifestyle to a lack lustre one. However, you still can maintain the same lifestyle if you have a substantial side income. You might argue that part time jobs or businesses are difficult to come by too at this juncture of time, this maybe true but I am not talking about the brick and mortar business, I am referring to the online business.

Some might also argue that even online business is affected nowadays as companies are cutting cost on online advertising. Yes, this reasoning is true to a certain extend in the macro level but at the micro level one can still find a global niche market to generate enough part-time income to pull through the financial crisis.

I believe that online business is sustainable compare to the brick and mortar business during recession because of the following reasons or factors:
(i) The Internet particularly the world wide web has become part and parcel of human society. Most people are depending on it to perform everyday activities such as emailing, shopping, socializing, studying, watching video, listening to music, managing business, campaigning, raising funds, seeking medical info and advices and so on. Therefore, online business will continue to prosper by selling products and services to fulfill people's needs and wants.
(ii) The world wide web is a huge global market therefore online business can achieve economy of scale even if it is a niche market. For example, I am providing a free online tutorial about Visual Basic and I am able to attract more than 4 million visitors since I started my website about ten years ago . This website also brings me a monthly income of about $1000 through Google's Adsense program.
(iii) The world wide web will become more popular because people will try to save cost by traveling less and shop online thereby creating more opportunities for online entrepreneurs to create online businesses.

In a nutshell, I truly believe that online businesses will continue to bloom and this might be the only way to overcome the financial crisis faced by everyone, at least at the micro level. It is very difficult to depend on the banks or the government to pull us through the crisis so we better do something for ourself, and what better than starting an online business. Starting an online business might not be easy but a little bit of creativity and reading may help. For example, I have read that people now are interested in seeking info about how to overcome financial crisis and those websites are receiving much more hits than usual, that means more clicks and more earnings! In this way you can cope with the rising cost of living easily.

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