Costa Rica Business – Can you live in Costa Rica by building an Internet business? Part Two.

What Will All this Cost?

My suggestion for the average person is: there are a lot of cheap web development companies out there but they don’t necessarily understand what web marketing is.

Remember a few very important things: search engines DO care how well your web pages are designed, and SEO plus promotion will make or break your site.

With these things in mind no one should even begin a very basic web project without a budget of at least $3,000 for the site and $3,000 for promotion. More exotic membership sites can cost as much as $5,000 or more for design depending on how many bells and whistles are involved.

Shopping carts and storefronts will run from basic hosted sites at $100 per month (plus a setup fee) to $1,000+ for cheap (not recommended) software you can buy up to many thousands.

There are good packages available for around $2,500 that are very stable and have very nice features. Never forget the promotion factor. It is best to discuss this with your web marketing group in advance so you know all the possible costs up front before you begin your site design.

Also, as with all types of software, personal preference has a lot to do with the selection of the package. What we always go for is reliability and ease of modification. We look at the quality of the underlying code in case we have to go in and make changes.

And where does the money come from?

I knew you were going to ask me that! The money tree! It’s called on line credit card billing. You make revenues from high traffic. The more people you convince to visit your web site the more money you make. How does this work?

First, let’s assume your site is about Bird Watching in Costa Rica. Let’s say you place on your web site something called Google Adwords. These are little ads from Google where you are paid every time someone clicks on that advertisement on your website.

Obviously you want as many page-views as possible so you have a chance that more people will click on those ad’s. So bird watchers from around the world must visit your site and enjoy the many fine photos you have of the Quetzal.

Let’s say you also place ads for Amazon.com books about subjects related to bird watching. People decide to buy these books and you make a commission.

Then you might offer banner ad space to tour companies specializing in bird watching tours to Monteverde National Park, Corcovado etc.. You charge them $100 per month to keep their ad on 5 pages, but your site has 100 pages. This means you can have 19 more ads like this for other tour companies. This could result in income of up to $2,000 per month for just banner ads provided you were able to convince enough companies.

Now you are beginning to see the possibilities. Obviously the amount you can charge for ads depends on the amount of traffic you have and other variables (such as competition).

And Finally…

Building your web site should be a labor of love, not a burden. Choose what you love to do and build the web site to support it. In this way you will be sure to enjoy every minute of what you are doing and be the best at it.

Your enthusiasm will be seen in the way you write, in the content of your site. This is essential in drawing in visitors and building an on line community.

Start enjoying the fun of building your own on line community by building a web site about what you love to do and don’t forget to promote. This is the key to having a successful web site anywhere in the world.

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Written by David McKenzie is the General Manager of Ticode SRL, (http://www.ticode.com) a web development company located in Heredia with International clients. He is an expert in Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization.

Personal note from Scott Oliver – Founder of WeLoveCostaRica.com: I have known Dave McKenzie and his lovely wife for over five years now and can vouch for their honesty and professionalism.

This part two of a two part series. You can see Costa Rica Business – Can you live in Costa Rica by building an Internet business? Part One here.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.