Re: Starting an internet business In Australia
 

In addition to IP Australia (enter as 'guest' to perform the search), make sure you check the ASIC register (be sure to select 'all names'). If someone is already trading under a name you intend to use they can still claim prior use under trademarks legislation. There is loads of information about business names and trademarks on the IP Australia and ASIC website in addition to your own state's Department of Fair Trading.

As for Australian domain names, I've used a company called SmartyHost for about nine years now. From my understanding you can't move your .com.au outside of Australia (I recently tried) but you can point your Australian domain name to another host. If someone knows otherwise please let me know.

Good luck with your new venture!

Re: Starting an internet business In Australia
 

...Ozzie?

Re: Starting an internet business In Australia
 

In SEO terms would it not be better to host where the business is going to be transacted?

http://www.amazon.com/Get-Top-Google...4395940&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-T...4395973&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Search-Engine-...4396013&sr=1-1

These three are bibles IMO.

Are you using a CMS?

Good luck with it - keep us updated, will be interesting to see the highs and the lows.

Re: Starting an internet business In Australia
 

Thanks. You're probably right about the .com.au hosting in Australia requirement because that seems consistent with so many other rules over here.

The IP part can be quite costly. I was looking yesterday at registering the trademark in 6 countries. The price being quoted to me for all 6 was $12000

Re: Starting an internet business In Australia
 

They look like good books, thanks :thumbup:

Hosting over here is beginning to look like the only way to go. I'm completely new to forming an internet business - or any business for that matter so the learning curve is very steep! :eek: And progress is slow because of the need to bounce all of the ideas around until the best solutions become obvious. Exciting and scary at the same time but with an incredible sense that this crossroads that life has presented could be a "not to be missed" "once in a lifetime" opportunity. :eek:

I'm looking at programming the web site myself using ASP .net. My rationale being if all else fails then at least I'll have gained the extra skills to get a normal daytime job. Things are a bit strange lately though with a couple of good potential job opportunities been coming my way this last couple of days

Re: Starting an internet business In Australia
 

Its a great idea, if I didn't work 60+hrs per week I'd consider a web business myself (that and I need the right idea for a business).

My understanding is that the location of your hosting has an impact on your SEO - i.e. hosting in the US would be a negative for your Aus SEO.

I've read all three books (well, the last one is more of a reference) and they were excellent.

I'd consider using a CMS like Joomla or Drupal etc - far quicker and easier to manage and you can program extra bits if you so desire. I have used Umbraco CMS at work in the past and once you have set up the template you can bolt-on add-ins quite readily (my IT staff did that, not me). After that the content is VERY easily and quickly added by a person with 2-3 hrs training - one of the key advantages is the future scalability. A competent Joomla developer is a very useful & saleable work skill.

Re: Starting an internet business In Australia
 

Actually, today, its not anywhere near so clear cut. SEO is a moving target.

From a Google perspective there were two factors that determine where it thinks the site is 'local' to: the hosting location and the domain. If neither are local it didn't think the site is local and pushed it down results for local searches (eg where it thinks the user is in Oz). If the domain is .com.au then it will think the site is in Oz. If the site is .com and the hosting is in Oz, it will probably still think the site is local. Otherwise US, unless.....more later.

From a latency perspective, hosting it close to the users helps to cut the round trip time, therefore making it 'snappier', and less of a trial for users.

However the hot stuff in hosting is cloud based solutions like Amazon Web Services. Here you buy a certain amount of capacity and Amazon deal with keeping the thing available. The main advantage is you can scale the capacity quickly, going to a million user capacity in a short time if usage spikes. There are quite a few other benefits if you think you are going to get big, or indeed remain small, and many well known sites use such solutions.

However, where the site is hosted is then debatable. Even Amazon's Far East cluster isn't going to be in Oz, so geolocation by Google isn't going to turn up Australia as the local market. However from a latency standpoint, a server on AWS may well have a LOWER latency than a local host, since they are one the backbones whilst a local host will be at the end of some tiny pipes.

Finally, as far as geographic location is concerned in Google, there is a better way. In Google webmaster tools you can TELL Google EXACTLY where you are, down to the address level. You then appear in the local searches, and probably even in the Google Maps results for local firms.

http://www.googletutor.com/setting-a...bmaster-tools/

So, in general, I'd tend to suggest people host in the cloud nowadays, somewhere like Amazon, and make sure they tell Google properly, using the tools, where it is (as well as other factors). An Oz domain is a nice to have, and may make some people feel happier, however the hoops they make you jump through makes me inclined to add the .com.au after the site is up and running, via a redirect/alias.

As far as making a snappy site, the focus is much more about how you structure things to avoid multiple roundtrips - user>server>user. Focus on these above worrying about where the server box is. CSS image sprites should be in your vocabulary, as should other CSS2/3 developments. Obviously you should work well with mobile browsing on smartphones/tablets.

Overall, be aware that many of the pointers as to how to 'do it' are out of date. Things change, and as a rule of thumb if you are thinking "this business needs a website" rather than "online is integral to how the business model operates" you are probably behind the curve.

Re: Starting an internet business In Australia
 

Ozzie Eagle, only person on here I can think of who has any connection to MK.:D

Re: Starting an internet business In Australia
 

For some reason I thought you were from MK :unsure:

Re: Starting an internet business In Australia
 

Panthur hosting is pretty good :)

Re: Starting an internet business In Australia
 

Just to add to this, there are mutterings that Amazon Web Services have bought, or are buying datacentre space in Aus to deliver services out of - which if true, and when it happens might help with you the geolocation conundrum.

Re: Starting an internet business In Australia
 

Anyone interested in starting an internet business should check their eligibility to apply for Microsoft's BizSpark. I'm eligible and have recently signed up for it and was approved. Worth doing IMO, I now have access to an Aladins cave of top dollar MS software as well as help, business mentoring and training vids. :cool: All for free :thumbsup:

Re: Starting an internet business In Australia
 

That's great! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all this works out for you :fingerscrossed:

I think I might write an international bestseller. I'll start it tomorrow morning, maybe have it done by lunchtime :rofl:

Re: Starting an internet business In Australia
 

Good stuff. :thumbup:

Do you know what the number one reason is for internet failures Paul?

Re: Starting an internet business In Australia
 

Thanks :)

Wouldn't it be great to begin raking in money like yesterday? :D

The MS library that's been made available to me on a "help yourself" basis contains software that before now I could have only dreamed of owning. I feel like a kid in his very own sweetshop! :rofl:

So now everything is here - All that remains is to exercise the old grey matter. :rolleyes:

Ta muchly :thumbup:

Is your question a trick one? :sneaky: