Every other day we come across a success story of a young person. All of us enjoy reading such stories and forget them soon. We don't believe that we too can be a success story.
So, I was not surprised when Pratap, a teenager, asked me the question that I have heard many times before. "Even though I want to do some online business and make money, my circumstances make it difficult to do anything meaningful. I don't have money making skills and I don't have enough time. Can you please help me?"
"Money making skills can be acquired no matter what your circumstances are. If you understand how you spend your time generally, you will find time to do every useful thing that you want to do. Neither time nor circumstance is a problem. You and your attitudes are the real problem in your life! Can you please think aloud on how you spend your time?" I asked him.
After some mental calculation, Pratap replied," School - 8 hours, Sleep - 8 hours, home study - 2 hours, Friends - 1 hour, Television - 2 hours, the Internet games- 2 hours, others - 1 hour. On weekends I spend my time fully on Television and the Internet." I said, "I don't say you must give up Television and other entertainment. If you reduce the time you spend on such activities you will gain 2 hours a day and on weekends 4 hours. If you organize your time and mind, you can do wonders."
He said, "Recently you wrote an article on how a school boy made money through online games website and bought a iPod. I was inspired by that article. I am an expert in the Internet games. I too want to do something like it. My father said to me that he would lend me Rs.5,000 for such a venture and I must return it within a year."
"Does he want the money back with interest or without interest?" I asked him with a smile. He laughed and said, "He would consider himself lucky if he gets the principal back!"
I said, "As the focus of that article you read was on the problem of a father, I did not give much information on the how-to aspect. The top common activities of the Internet users are related to email, chat and games. Children and young adults are the active users of the game websites though people of all ages love to play games. But most game sites are either confusing or loaded with bad games and questionable content not suited for young audience." Pratap responded, "Yes, I too have felt so several times in the past."
"If you provide a safe environment and intelligent games, even parents will encourage children to visit your website. This means to make money you will have to play online games first and pick the best and safest games. Hundreds of leading game developers allow other website owners to embed their sample arcade and flash games for free. There are many professional quality game scripts with hundreds of prepackaged games. So, it is very easy to build an arcade type website in a matter of few minutes," I told him.
"Why do you suggest good old Arcade games when cutting edge technology games are the current trend?" he asked.
"Such games require hours and days to complete each level. Arcade games are short and last only a few minutes. Modern games require powerful hardware to run on. In our country most people buy entry level computers. Arcade games run well on them. You can find further technical details on the web," I told him and continued, "Once your website is ready, request all your friends to join and offer goodies to existing members who bring in new members."
"Now I understand the concept," he said.
Pratap has bought a domain name for $9, signed up for a hosting account for $70 and bought an online game software program for $30. He has launched a professional arcade game website for $109, that is for Rs.4,000. He has asked his schoolmates and friends to become members of website and the website is active now. He setup his website in 3 hours!
He is already running a few affiliate programs on his website and hopes to repay the debt to his father within 2 months.
Pratap says, "The actual amount I earn may be small. But now I have acquired the knowledge of a business process through running a game website and I am confident that overtime I will be able to apply this knowledge to other online business ventures."