Why have an online business?

For most people, having an Internet business, whether it is via Internet Marketing or another medium, is for one simple reason...more money.
That is great, who doesn't want more money?
But why use the Internet?
Actually, building an online business in your spare-time is very straight forward, it just needs commitment. If you want to increase your income, and you are willing to spend time building towards your future, then read on.
For many, Online Businesses have a tainted image in their minds. The dotcom bubble burst at the beginning of this century, and the net is awash with scams, get-rich-quick schemes (more scams) and SPAM. Yet there are some very appealing aspects to the Internet that make it THE place to be for businesses, especially those working in a niche.
What are they?
1.) Reach
It is simple economics. Imagine you are a record store owner, you can only fit 1,000 different CDs on your shelves, and you have to pay the rent. Are you going to choose the 1,000 top selling CDs, or are you going to choose some lesser known, but equally talented bands that might have 10 different fans in every city of the world? Probably, you would choose the 1,000 most popular, you don't want to dedicate shelf space to selling 10 CDs.
Take a look at the Internet in contrast, if that band went to itunes, they would be able to reach every fan in the world from one site, the limitations of location and sparsity of fans would not matter.
Another example: Bollywood. Bollywood is a massive industry, it churns out hundreds of movies every year and would rival Hollywood in America but for one thing. Most Hindi fans are located in small pockets in every town/region. If you own a cinema, are you going to pay thousands of dollars for a copy of a movie that maybe less than 100 people are going to watch? Probably not, that is why only around 10 Bollywood movies make it to American Cinemas every year.
Again, the Internet makes this problem go away. Bollywood does very well online.
2.) Overhead (expenses)
Something that made the Internet so popular in the 1990s and early 2000s was the lack of overhead. Businesses like Amazon were able to sell products at a reduced price and still make profit, and once Internet shopping became more trusted, customers flocked to the internet. It is still the case today that people will search online to buy anything they need first, and with sites like WA, hosting and owning an Internet business is even cheaper and the quality of training makes it so simple.
3.) Remote Access
If you have a laptop, or even a smart-phone or tablet, your office is everywhere. You can go to the beach and maintain your business, you can set-up automated e-mail responses, you can literally travel the world while earning income, you could even GROW your business while living off it in style.
4.) Passive Income
I saw a headline on a site the other day, probably trying to sell me something, it said "Earning money while you sleep is a lie, it is not possible" - I disagree. I strongly disagree, because I've done it. In my opinion there are several ways to have passive income.
Real Estate: You own a house and people pay you rent to live in it. (do you wanna go out and buy a house today?)
Business Owner: You own a business, such as McDonalds, and franchise it or have a string of employees doing the work for you (Technically McDonalds is still a real estate business anyway)
Franchise: You buy into a franchise and open your own branch (got a million dollars spare?)
Network Marketing: It can be a rough ride at the beginning, but there is gold at the end of the rainbow, I know people who are essentially retired yet earn a lot of money a month from passive income because of the hard work they put in over the years building a network marketing business.
Internet Business: Similar to Network Marketing, Internet Marketing won't pay you a lot of passive income at the beginning, you have to put the work in and build your business, you want to build strong foundations and make the walls high, you might be spending most of your free time building the business (or sites) up, but once everything is in place and is working well, you can receive the income from your sites and just keep them maintained, help them keep their rankings by updating them regularly (you could even outsource this process if you really wanted to *retire*) and let the money flow in.
5.) Learning For Free
With resources such as those available right here at Wealthy Affiliate, you can learn how to earn money online in your spare time, and it will cost you nothing. Why spend money going to get an MBA that will be out of date by the time you graduate? Learn here, where everything is up to date and much more accessible. Take your time, 1 hour a day is enough.
As you can see, Internet Marketing can offer a wide array of tools that can really help you. I am here because I want to be free from being told when to work. I don't want to exchange my time for money, my time is very important to me. By utilizing all of these tools and aspects of IM, anyone can free themselves from employee status and boost their income at the same time. Work less, earn more. Work when you want to, earn all the time. That is the end target. You could even get started right now, by signing up here at Wealthy Affiliate and beginning your training for free.
Don't start booking that round the world trip yet, just be satisfied knowing that you are in the right place to boost your earnings and free yourself from the 9-5.