Make money on the Internet, maybe
December 25th, 2007 by moniesThe conventional wisdom about the Internet is that its hype has exceeded its hope and help.
The demise of the online magazine Web Review was characterized by Newsweek as “the latest road kill on the Infobahn.” Another article: “So far, few retail sites on the Web have made back their start-up costs.” A recent Doonesbury cartoon strip about Vietnam’s economic potential had one character saying, “It’s too soon to tell, really,” to which another replied “Vibnam sounds a lot like the Web.”
But checking with Vermont Internet providers and users found that the World Wide Web, whose astonishing growth in the past two years has made the Internet a byword, is only one aspect of the Internet’s usefulness. E-mail is rapidly becoming a standard way to communicate, discussion groups can offer the kind of business advice that conferences traditionally provide, and the amount of information available in databases continues to amaze even those who know how to navigate and find what they need.
As for the Web, its proliferation of homemade and low-budget sites has created the equivalent of traffic congestion on the Information Superhighway. But the slowdown comes only when browsers are uncertain where to go, and sites that establish themselves as interesting to visit can do very well.
Also, a market is opening up for those who can organize separate sites and make them easier for users to access. The travel and hospitality industry, where the Internet is increasingly being used by people planning vacations, excursions or just visits to restaurants, has developed some of the most advanced forums.
While computer users remain in the minority, a new generation that grew up with school, home and library computers is giving a strong demographic push toward business Internet use. If that trend is backed by a new generation of microchip devices, such as equipment that would link television sets with the Internet, and if the new deregulated marketplace brings them to the fore, the question for business owners wondering about going online might not be whether, but when.
“We’re increasingly living in an information society,” observed Timothy Palmer-Benson, publisher of the online magazine Scenes of Vermont. “Not to be part of it could be folly for some businesses.”
There are no exact figures on how many Vermont businesses have addresses on the Internet, of either the Web or e-mail kind, but various sources suggested that the number is significant and rapidly growing.
CRITICAL MASS, CAUTIOUS MASSES
At VTel, a Springfield-based branch of Vermont Telephone that provides Internet services, Internet manager Jonathan Babb said 30 to 40 percent of those accounts are businesses. The number is somewhere in the thousands, he said, and at the current rate of increase, it will take two to three years to reach 10,000.
“Probably half the businesses out there are doing it to find out what it is and how they might use it,” Babb said.
Sovernet, a Bellows Falls-based Internet services provider, was incorporated in February 1995 and now gives clients local telephone access to the Internet in all areas of the state except the St Johnsbury area, and across the border into New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York and Quebec. The one omission wasn’t for lack of interest, according to vice president Tony Elliott, but rather was “a cooperative kind of thing” to avoid a clash with a couple of local Internet businesses.
Sovernet has a little over 5,000 accounts, some of them multi-user, Elliott said. “I have a feeling it’s going to be very broad-based,” he said. “There are servers being connected all over the world every day, with gigabytes and terabytes of information.”
At Burlington-based Together Networks, marketing coordinator Jeff Gauthier said they started in November 1994 with 17 accounts, and now have several thousand.
“I’d say there are more private than business, but the number of business accounts is growing,” he said.
In college cities and towns, the numbers may be higher. In Middlebury, Frank Burkle, the owner of the store Computer Alternatives, said, “This is the year that it is happening.” He expects that in the next six months, the proportion of people on line in the communities near Middlebury College will go from 5-10 percent to perhaps 70 percent.
In Burlington, a city where coffeehouse customers browse the Internet as well as read papers and talk, there is even a business selling pizza via the Internet.
“A lot,” said Michael Kalin, the owner of Kalin’s Italian Gardens, thanks in part to the presence of the University of Vermont and several area colleges.
Author: Barna, Ed
Posted in Uncategorized |