Better or worse for online business?

Listening to the dire news from around the world about crashing stockmarkets I wondered what effect this is going to have on those of us who make their living via the Internet.

I came up with two possible and completely opposing answers.

One is that it will be very good for us all. If conventional businesses close their doors and people can't get another job, they may well turn to the net for earning opportunities. And, what is more it is up to all of us to see they get ethically treated and led into honest and real opportunities with real products and not scams. That is one of my 'missions'.

The other side is that as people tighten their budgets they may decide that they cannot afford the cost of the monthly subscription to a particular online business, however small.

So, what I think we have to do is to review what businesses we are promoting and see how appropriate they are to the economic conditions.

I will be keeping all three of mine. GDI is such a tiny outlay per month when you consider what you get and if folks are looking to do business our way, they will want domains and hosting and also to look to those of us who can do it, to create websites for them and explain the art and science of promoting, advertising and monetising.

Plus, I will be continuing to sell on ebay (despite their fee hikes) and to promote and extend my web design skills.

I still get some disbelief from UK friends when I tell them that Sendoutcards is cheaper than going to Clintons or similar card shops even though the cards are posted in the USA. But it's true!

And even in the deepest recession, you'll still want to send cards for occasions and holidays. So why not save yourself the trip to the shops (fuel, parking) and possibly another one to the post office by doing the whole job from your PC.

There will always be those people who manage to find a way to make money even in these desperate times. Those people will want to spend some of their lolly on travel and holidays, hence why I am keeping Travelencia in my portfolio.

I would love to hear my readers' opinions on how we shall do over the coming months, and how we can recession-proof our businesses, so come on - get your commenting fingers out.