People of all ages and from all walks of life spend a large amount of time and money on online games, which makes it a billion dollar industry. Looking into the Business Model adopted by this billion dollar industry.

MMO Games (Massively Multiplayer Online Games):

Over the last few years, MMO games have taken the world by storm, success stories of games like WOW have inspired literates to write books and take surveys explaining the phenomenon. These games are played by millions and are bandwidth eaters, which do not bite cost but gulp it. MMO games are high expenditure ventures and need a lot of funding to continue with game development and server maintenance.

Critics argue that the state of art business model is still in a divergent state. Every author is elaborating different proposals. However, the current scenario supports the following business model.

1. Initial Game Title sales: This revenue ensures to keep the development momentum going and helps pay for the initial development cost.

2. Time Based Subscription Model: The revenue model is based on a simple fee, which gives unlimited access to the game during a certain period of time, usually a month, but with other subscription rates for three, four, six or twelve months.

3. Virtual Currency Model: Revenue model is based on selling currency for use in a virtual in-game economy.

4. Virtual Real Estate Ownership Model: Second Life® came with a new concept of MMOG. Their producers, Linden Labs, provide the infrastructure that is the open virtual word. Their expected revenue will come from subscription fees, in US dollars, and land taxes, in Linden dollars (the in-game currency). These Linden dollars (L$) that can be traded for real money, at a variable rate, depending on the law of supply and demand.

Interesting News ( a fact on the value adding within the Game itself – which eventually adds to the capital of the game producers – taxes paid on the property worth) : http://www.gamespot.com/news/6162315.html

5. Brand merchandising: MMO’s are also involved in selling branded products to fans and user alike for a profit consideration.

6. Paid sponsorship for product promotion: Companies are using the MMO platform to promote their products for a consideration of promoting their products within the MMO community.(growing in millions) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1175367493081978705

7. Expansion: Expansion is added to make money on user up gradation and also ensure a continued interest in the games.

Casual Online Games:

Casual online games are a little lighter in the resources and are a little less intense on the game play and graphics but equally addictive. The business model adopted by casual online games is molded a little different that the MMO with some similarity in brand merchandising and sponsorship. Casual Online Games like GoPets focus on building game loyalties by offering free accounts and free game downloads for enjoying the game.

Establishing your own online business is not as easy as it used to be. There are thousands of competing websites that are all too eager to get a significant helping of your market. Every technique and system you can discover to help increase your sales would be extremely useful.

We really need to accept that most of us are in it for the money. We are not going to fritter away our time just for the fun of it. A high percentage of Internet Marketers would not hang around for months and years until hell freezes over just waiting to see a profit. While there are a minority few who take life lightly most definitely want to see profit pretty soon.

There is not anyone I know that sets up an online business that doesn't envisage making a profit. We all have start-up expenditure that needs to be regained. With a regular stream of traffic, we at least have a very good chance to accomplish that expectation. Monetizing your traffic would increase your likelihood of making the best out of it.

An internet business is no different to a retail park store or High Street business, in that it needs customers. A high street shop or retail store needs traffic in order to get people looking in their window so they can entice them in, the main difference online is the volume of traffic that can be achieved. Remember an internet business means that you have the potential to sell to anyone anywhere in the world that is if you choose the correct product or service.

Increasing Revenue out of your Traffic

The best and most proven system of increasing revenue from your traffic is to advertise. The internet generates hundreds of thousands of users daily. The vast majority of them are probing for information about something. Although a few are simply searching for basic information there is also a fair share that are actually eager to buy something, something that they really need.

The internet has made the world a smaller place; you can advertise a product from Istanbul and still find a buyer from the outskirts of Philadelphia.

Generating traffic is not a simple job. You need to outwit a tremendous number of similar websites to achieve a satisfactory flow of traffic. But if carried out properly this may well unlock a massive flow of opportunities, one of the advantages is monetizing your website traffic.

So the bottom line is the more traffic you attract the more liable you are to succeed but only if you know how to get the best out of that traffic. Targeted traffic is what you must strive for, no point in attracting traffic that is not related to your niche unless of course you are one of the few that could sell snow to the Eskimos or sand to the Arabs.

Advertising is the one of the best ways to create revenue; with a clever marketing plan you can use your traffic flow to give you a head start.

Now that you have a healthy flow of traffic you should now be experiencing a fair amount of interested customers, customers that are content to put money into your bank account. Additionally, these customers are also traffic that can be redirected to sponsored links that are eager to pay you for a largish slice of the traffic that you already have generated.

Day Job Killer was launched on Tuesday 6th February 2007. Day Job Killer actually takes a direct approach to help average affiliate marketers make much more money online. You can also call it “Affiliate Project X Part 2″.

For a quick background on Day Job Killer, you must first know about the author Chris, and his famous “affiliate project x”. Affiliate Project X was probably the best information product I purchased during 2006, he packed so much information into an ebook with less than 60 pages, and all marketing strategies was used by himself. He proved you don’t need 400 pages to teach people how to make extra money.

Day Job Killer will most likely be another huge success, and I have purchased it right after it launched, and here are the 10 benefits of Day Job Killer which will help kill your day job:

1) The Day Job Killer is authored by the same guy who wrote Adwords Miracle and Affiliate Project X, which broke the Clickbank record for sales when it was released last October (selling over 6,000 copies in just 1 week). The reason for the massive success is simple: people who bought it and used his methods made money, so the success spread and went viral all over the internet! So, you can clearly see that the Day Job Killer is going to be THE number One money-making affiliate guide for 2007! You know you're playing with a winner who understands affiliate marketing inside out.

2) The ebook is less than 100 pages and is extremely easy to read. It has no fluff, no hype, no outdated textbook information that doesn't work in the real world. The techniques are being used right now by a few savvy affiliates who are making a killing online.

3) The techniques are "stolen" from real internet marketers and gurus who have been using it against the average affiliate. Learning these techniques means beating the gurus at their own game. So, not only do you make easy, day job killing cash, you also get to p*^s off the gurus who have been holding you back...and you get to rob them blind while you laugh all the way to the bank.

4) The techniques are very easy to learn. You don't have to be a computer genius or learn any special new skills to use them to make big money in affiliate marketing.

5) The Day Job Killer methods have been "field-tested" on 12 test subjects just to prove that the techniques will work for any affiliate, regardless of level of experience (it works for newbie and advanced affiliates). Remember that these are techniques secretly being used by successful affiliates and internet marketing gurus right now at the expense of the average affiliate. Those 12 test subjects are now making money (the most successful of them now makes over $500 a day and the least successful is making $150 a day).

6) The ebook contains original and unique information and techniques: Most "make-money" ebooks are just a re-hash of the same techniques found in all the others. This is why those techniques hardly ever work in the real world. These are not techniques that you will find in a hundred other ebooks or guides. The information contained in Day Job Killer doesn't exist in any other ebook so you know you're getting hard-core, cutting edge ways of making money.

If you expect to make any profit as a reseller or e-Commerce seller online, you have to be able to accept credit card payments online. The potential for generating business any other way is too remote to consider. People are simply not willing to order online and then have to wait until you receive payment and assure that their check clears the bank before you ship the merchandise. People who order online are looking for quick and efficient service, and that means having a credit card merchant account.

When the idea of e-Commerce first became popular in the end of the 20th century, it was usually through partnerships that your internet provider had, and what you purchased was billed to the same credit card that you used to pay your internet service. As eCommerce grew and merchants and resellers set up their own websites, it was no longer the internet service provider who handled payments, so the concept of eCommerce credit card processing was introduced. Of course, now we have expanded beyond that to shopping cart software and credit card merchant accounts that have the ability to process both e-Checks and debit card transactions.

With so much emphasis on a credit card merchant account, the typical e-Commerce seller can be frustrated when trying to decide who is the best choice as a solution to your dilemma of accepting a credit card payment online. With so many different choices, the only way to narrow it is to make a list of things that pertain to your individual situation such as:

• Average dollar amount per transaction
• Sales volume per month
• Typical credit card (MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover
• Projected sales volume for the next six months to a year

By listing your needs, you will better be able to select the right credit card merchant account. You don't want to jeopardize your profits by taking more or less services than you need because many credit card processing companies charge by the volume and type of cards you accept. Of course, if you are a new e-Commerce seller, you will not know any of those things, so you may want to use the figures in your business plan and make adjustments later if necessary. You also may want to stay with just the two major credit cards until you determine what your needs are. If you find that you are caught in the middle and need to accept debit cards, but the cost appears prohibitive with your credit card merchant account, you may choose to offer PayPal to your customers as another option. It isn't advisable to use this as your only option since it requires an email address, and some of your customers may be borrowing a computer to place an order and don't have access to an email account on a regular basis.

The important thing is that you have to remember is that the future of your e-Commerce business depends upon you being able to accept credit card payments online. The profitability of your website is contingent about having the lowest possible rates, so you have to research before you make a decision. Take the time to do your homework, and you will have a profitable e-Commerce website that earns money for you even when you are sleeping or on vacation.

Let's start with this one cold hard fact: creating a successful Internet home business is not an easy task. It takes hard work and a whole lot of strategic planning. Anyone who tells you otherwise is probably trying to sell you something!

Building any solid business takes hard work and planning. Why should creating a successful business on the Internet be any different? Just because you're dealing with computers and a world wide marketplace doesn't mean it will be easy to construct and build a successful enterprise. It will take some work and effort on your part.

However, knowing what tools to use and some vital marketing knowledge will make your task much easier and much quicker. The Internet does have its own unique tools and methods which you should be familiar with before you start any web business. Complete knowledge of these marketing tools and information will greatly increase your chances of creating a successful Internet business.

1. Domain Name/Website

You must start with a Domain Name - most marketers either make their domain something catchy and short that visitors will quickly remember such as Digg.com, BestBuy.com, Yahoo!.com or they will directly tie in their main product or service in the domain such as Hotels.com, YouTube.com, Carloans.com and so on.

Your domain must be attached to a well designed and easy to navigate website. Preferably one that is professionally designed and equipped with all the commercial tools you need like a shopping cart and payment system. Like any business, you must try to accept all the major credit cards and display all the proper trust building icons such as 'Better Business Bureau'...

Most professional online marketers keep graphics to a minimum and highlight their main benefit or product in a headline at the top of your webpage. You only have a few seconds to impress your prospective customer so summarize your whole site in one short benefit-loaded phrase or slogan. Be precise and direct in your presentation.

2. Keywords/SEO Strategy

Keywords, what surfers type into search engines to find what they're seeking on the web, are the real cornerstones of any online website or business. You must find out the exact phrases and words people are using to find your product or service and target these keywords with your online site. Create pages and content on your site to draw in this targeted traffic. As a general rule, the more targeted your traffic/visitors are, the greater your conversion rate, i.e. the more sales you will make.

Professional online marketers do keyword research and a whole lot of testing to find the right high converting keywords that virtually guarantees sales. These marketers find the buyers at the right stage in the buying process, where customers already have their minds made up and are ready to buy. For example, someone searching for 'cars' is not as targeted as someone searching for '2007 Ford Mustang with Shelby GT exterior design'.