How to participate, contribute and prosper in an online network

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Business is moving online. However, the vast majority of business is conducted offline in the real world. The real world is becoming virtual very quickly. Financial markets are likely to be one of the first industries to be completely transformed. This reflects the fact that it is a valuable industry, competition is fierce and their are few barriers to entry. The nature of competitive advantage has changed significantly. Large organisations have few basis for sustainable competitive advantage. Online networks will have an impact over the next decade. However, you should not carefully consider your unique circumstances before jumping into the online world. You may choose to jump in, ride the wave and encourage change. You may choose to wait for the wave to arrive and the backwash to return to sea before reviewing the landscape. It is an exciting, but perilous time for all participants in financial markets.

This article is written primarily for those that have the persistence of hackers and have the courage to ride the wave of change.

The following sections will provide an overview of the how to participate, prosper and contribute. This article assumes the future is based on generating a high volume of traffic with low conversion rates, rather than possessing relationships with a high probability of conversion. The intention is to provide a list of key points to implement and let the hackers amongst you figure it out. These items may be implemented alongside your existing offline business strategies, or replace them.

Participate

• Forums: scan forums
• Reply to posts in blogs

These may generate some traffic, but probably not enough to live off.

Contribute
Contribution will require some extra infrastructure. I recommend you get your own web server. They are not expensive and easy to manage. Most web servers come with Plesk or CPanel and have tools to implement most of the software below (See Open letter: Please automate the installation of enterprise grade open source business software for the benefit of the community ). Alternatively, you can use hosting companies that will charge you a monthly fee for hosting the software. You will still need to manage and configure it.

• register your own name as a domain name: In financial markets, it is individuals that deliver services. It is the individual that customers are loyal to, rather than a corporate. The brand of the individual is of far greater importance in an online world. This domain name can point all request from a users browser to your server. Alternatively, you can direct email, or different types of web traffic to your hosting providers.
• focus and develop your chosen expertise: you can only expect customers if you possess a specific expertise. Choose an expertise that is in demand. Use the internet to acquire knowledge.
• publish articles on topics that interest your target audience: there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Apply an “open source” and “free software” approach to article writing. If you have something substantial to say, write it in a blog article.
• make your content searchable: There is no point developing content if no-one can find it. Make sure your hosting provider allows the major search engines to index your site, or has other means to allow customers to find you. Register your blog with technorati and make sure.
• Distribute your content to your customers: Finding customers or customers finding you is impossible. Entire industries are based upon this one problem. New structures will emerge as a result of
• Publish your resume and availability online: Publish your resume, activities and aspirations, availability and contact details online. By allowing your potential customers to understand your skill sets. If you reduce the time and cost of finding a customer, you can avoid needing to take on a project that may not interest you, or for which you are not perfectly suited.
• The way you present yourself online is increasingly important: You will be judged by your online appearance.
• Publish free stuff to attract traffic and a potential need for your services: The “open source” community provides free versions of software that everyone works on. Occasionally, a “paid” version offers extra functionality not available in the free software. In the case of an individual, the “free” could be templates and the “paid” could be your services. The customer may need you, and only you, if they have invested significant time in your “free” offering or they like your work. For example, I offer templates on my blog. They are useful for third parties, but do not deliver a solution. Potential customers may overlook their “template” nature and engage my services.
• Use Skype (or equivalents) for meetings: Established relationships rarely require face to face meetings. For new relationships, it is critical. However, Skype can be used to qualify potential customers and ensure there are prospects for work. This saves time for other endeavours. This may recapture valuable time spent traveling, or time spent on meetings that did not produce outcomes. This time can be devoted to producing more content, more work or leisure time.

Prosper
Prosper means different things to different people. It may mean more income, peer recogntion, more time with family or a sense of satisfaction in making a contribution. The ability to prosper in an online network has one common attribute – the ability to generate traffic. Traffic will reflect your participation and contribution to online networks. It will, ofcourse, also reflect the value of your service offering and demand by customers.
Note: The choice to join online networks may be made alongside other decisions. You may also choose to work from home, or freelance. Please understand that “open source” and “free software” are not actually free. Time is required to learn about and get things going. Hackers can get “free software” working, If you are not a hacker, then I recommend paying for proprietary software. The cost of proprietary software for an individual desktop is not signficant, relative to potential training costs and lost time and income. If you have the potential of being a hacker, then I recommend you read “Hackers shall inherit the earth” and other articles which highlight how open source can empower the individual.