Everyone has heard of the Nile, the Amazon, or the Mississippi. They are among the mightiest and longest rivers in the world. But what we don’t really give much thought to is how many tributaries there are who feed into the strength of those robust and dynamic rivers. As a matter of fact many of these tributaries are quite impressive in their own right.

In a correlative fashion the world of business has followed a similar pattern. Yes whenever you have a business concept, you can bet there are off shoots and complimentary business feeding into or as a result of the primary industry. In this case we could draw on another beauty of nature: the illustrious tree. Yes what would a tree be without branches?

With that picture in mind let’s apply this to our Internet business models. We will narrow our focus onto the E-tail or e-commerce business.

Whether you are aware of it or not the explosion of the Internet has changed the landscape of the retail business. Whether you are a retail giant like Wal-Mart or a little old lady selling her doilies it is practically mandatory that you maintain an Internet presence or make your products available on-line. It appears to me that some of the retail stores offer extra incentives to shop and/or purchase on line.

This has created job opportunities and opened the door for other Internet businesses and services. Let’s take a look at one and see where perhaps you can cash in.

Ever heard of EFT? Yes you have, you probably even use it. It is Electronic Funds Transfer. And oh boy the branches this one has developed from the e-commerce world. As you already know these are computer designed programs that allow the transfer of funds to be performed over the Internet. This has branched out into a making jobs available and services to be rendered through independent on-line businesses. For example?

• Credit card payments – credit card companies love the EFT! But it also means that personnel needs to monitor and manage the transactions. Additionally, computer programmers, web managers, web designers, technical supporters, virtual assistants, and computer techs need to be hired. It also has led to the development of independent contractors to make any of these services available.
• Direct deposit – much like the credit card companies banks, credit unions and financial institutions also have the demand for many of the same positions or will utilize many of the same independent contractors.
• Billing – More and more companies are hiring independent contractors to do their billing for them and seeing the transactions through to the end. Meaning they collect and apply payment. In fact they use the direct withdraw and deposit tools available through EFT. For example: A gym has a monthly member fee they collect. Instead of collecting the money at the gym they usually hire an independent billing company to care for that. Whether it be a virtual assistant or a virtual service. The contracted billing service handles the collection and the deposit of the gym’s monthly membership dues. The gym pays this service a tax deductible payment for their services. Thus the gym gets their money without having to have an in house employee and the costs that go with that. Nor do they need worry about it. And this is just one example of EFT billing and its branches.
• Payroll – Similar to the billing application, many companies hire an outside contractor to take care of the payroll for their employees. This includes the direct deposit or mailing of checks, taking care of all the taxes related to each employee receiving a check, and so on. All the employer needs to do is make the schedule for their employees and at times send the hours accumulated to the payroll service. Although more and more payroll services have set up computer programs where the employee can clock in and out of work directly onto a computer. Then the employer simply needs to check it and approve it.
• Related items – mixed in with all of this is other on line banking services like money transfers. Many stores provide their own credit that will need to be billed and collected.
• Related services – another branch shooting off of e-commerce is the creation of on line money transaction services. The most famous one being Pay Pal. Instead of giving credit card and/or bank account info to every on line store or e-tailor, you provide a service like Pay Pal with that information and the act as a financial mediator for you. You therefore can apply on line payments/purchases through this type of on line service. You can also receive payments or credit through the same service. You also can directly transfer monies from your “Pay Pal” or like account in and out of you bank/credit card account.

Quite a list ‘ey? You bet it is. And let us again emphasize that all of these branches open the door for more jobs to be had and the more independent services that can be offers. Either of which can be filled by you.

Go over this list again and contemplate if there is any place you see yourself fitting in. With computer and Internet training you could qualify for any of these opportunities in no time.

Hey people the Internet is not only all about blogs and emails anymore, it has grown some serious branches. So why not go out on a limb?

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