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by Marsha Maung

Times are tough….businesses are shutting down….jobs are cut….salaries slashed….holidays cancelled. The slowing-down of the economy have sent many people searching for an open door and frankly speaking, there’s no other door opened bigger than the internet. While history is repeating itself, kids have to be fed, sent to school and we still have bills to pay.

We’re not going to crumble unless we’re sitting there on our laurels waiting for the guillotine to fall and one thing we can do to wrangle ourselves out of this situation is to look at open opportunities on the internet.

One of it would be to purchase businesses or assets if we have the cash for it. In view of the fact that I’ve just lost my domain name should teach me a lesson – a painful but very useful one, I should even be writing about it in such an optimistic tone of voice. But I think that it’s something people are looking to do now to make a buck or two (quite a lot of bucks to be made, actually). Some domain names and businesses or websites are still there on cyberspace despite the fact that the companies have stopped doing business (unlike me). If the domain name ranks high in a particular keyword and is up for sale, you have an opportunity to make some money there.

I know some people don’t like companies that do this – personally, I don’t quite like the idea a whole lot considering the fact that I am a victim here but let’s look at it from a business point of view, shall we? It’s a profitable and legal way to make some money!

It’s really not at all different from headhunting. By headhunting, I mean stealing off from your competitor by snatching their valued staff from under them. Or maybe this particular staff is already out of work – if the competitor is willing to let this person go and if you think this person is of value to you, your competitor is taking a huge risk here. When faced with a financial crisis, suffice to say that they would have no other choice but to let this valued staff go, anyway. So, it’s their loss and your gain.

Another money growing endeavor would be to explore better branding exercise and cheaper advertising. In times like this, advertising rates are dropping like flies. If you’ve never considered internet marketing, social media marketing or search engine optimization before, perhaps it’s time to explore it. It’s also a good time to negotiate for better advertising pricing for banner ad spaces or print advertisements.

I read that many long-running magazines have already thrown in their towel because of declining sales. In the US, the statistics are shocking. Not only are magazines calling it quits, advertisers are dying or sick these days.

This makes the internet a wonderful playground for those of you who’s got a little bit of backup cash too because you’ll be in a princely position to negotiate a bend that not many companies can negotiate these days.

Banner placement companies, PPC advertising companies, Google strategists, etc see ‘opportunity’ everywhere they turn. The one thing that they’re looking for is people who are willing to explore open options or….well, thread the path less traveled. If you’re one of them, then there’s really money to be made.