KaChing: How to Run an Online Business that Pays and Pays Read Free Page A

continue to come in and I could continue to produce my little games magazine without breaking too much of a sweat. The small readership, however, was a problem.
     
    That problem was solved by the Internet. When the Web really took off, I was ready. Playing with computers made me aware of its growth—and its potential—so I took all of the game-related content I had collected and put it on a new web site called WorldVillage. com. I also invited other writers to come in and submit content on any subject that interested them.
     
    Today, WorldVillage is still going strong and continues to enjoy hundreds of thousands of visitors each month.
     
    That’s one Internet success story. As you’ll see, it’s not without its stumbling blocks—no business story ever is—but it has two key components that are essential for understanding (and duplicating) online success. They sum up the opportunity that the Web has brought to anyone with even a hint of entrepreneurial spirit.
     
    The first is that online business success is open to anyone. I am a shining example of this. I’m not an expert. I still can’t program. I still hire out the writing on many of my sites as well as their management to people who can do these things better than I can. I’ve always been interested in computers, but I’m not what you’d call a professional computer person.
     
    The point is you don’t need to complete a course in advanced programming. You don’t have to know what HTML is, what a server looks like, or that Ruby on Rails isn’t the name of a grunge band. Knowing those things might help—at least on the technical side. But you don’t need to know them. I’ve met plenty of Internet millionaires who think that style sheets are programs handed out at fashion shows. It hasn’t stopped them from creating successful site after successful site.
     
    The second key component to the story of my first online success is that I still play computer games. They’re fun. I might play them less now than I used to, but I still sit with my family sometimes in front of the screen as we battle monsters together. I am pleased to say that I am a Level 80 Warrior in World of Warcraft.
     
    The reason the Dallcas Fort Worth Software Review and then WorldVillage succeeded was that I was doing something I loved. I didn’t set out to make money. I set out with the idea of doing something that I enjoyed. Because I enjoyed it, I was willing to put time and effort into doing it well. And because I put time and effort into doing it well, other people enjoyed it, too.
     
    When that happens, there’s always an opportunity to make money, especially on the Internet.
     
    That’s what this book is all about.
     
    It’s about what happens when you take a passion, place it on a platform that’s open to anyone who wants to climb on to it, and then plug in the pipes that bring in the cash.
     
    The result sounds a lot like KaChing.
     

So, Just How Easy Is It to Begin Building a Web Site?
     
    To someone whose only experience on the Internet is reading the news, checking the sports scores, or perhaps answering e-mail, the online world can look pretty daunting.
     
    Telling an Internet user that there’s a fortune to be made online is a bit like telling a moviegoer that there are millions to be made in movies. Of course there are ... if you know how to handle a camera, write a script, find the production money, hire actors, edit the footage, and distribute the film. If you know how to do all that—and can make movies that people actually want to see—then, sure, you can make millions.
     
    But creating successful web sites is not like shooting successful movies. Creating movie blockbusters is complicated. Creating Internet content is very, very simple. It was always meant to be simple, and today it’s easier than it’s ever been.
     
    You can now be online with a new web site in less time than it takes to read this page.
     
    And you can do it for free.
     
    You