Almost every website on the Internet has one goal in mind: how to make money, at the lowest cost possible.

The purpose of this article is to share with budding webmasters and those intending to make their presence felt on the world wide web, the lessons learned from the early successes of Amazon.com - the online store founded by Jeff Bezos - one of the business leaders in today's Information age.

Here are the lessons learned from Jeff Bezos' early successes with Amazon.com - which I hope will be of valuable help to you.

Lesson One: Have a Goal
You must have a goal. From the moment Jeff Bezos envisioned to make his presence felt on the Internet, he spared nothing to attain his goal.

Lay down and make known in clear fashion your goal to every stake holder of your Internet business. These include your spouse, your web designer, and your assistants, if any.

When Amazon was struggling to make a profit for the first time, only its founder Jeff Bezos believed that his business goal could be achieved. Everybody was astounded when Jeff Bezos achieved his goal after one year from pronouncing his goal.

You can write your goal on a piece of paper and post this on the wall beside your desk. Save this goal in your hard disk. If possible make your goal the start up page when your computer boots up. Convert your goal into a screensaver. Read your goal to yourself every day as you go about your business.

Lesson Two: Motivate Yourself
You should motivate yourself every day and pass this motivation on to every one who's involved in your business. Jeff Bezos did not lack motivation when he was struggling in his business.

To paraphrase Wallace D. Wattles who wrote the 1910 best selling book, The Science of Getting Rich, envision yourself right now as having a very successful business and do every legal and ethical way to actualize your vision.

Lesson Three: Adapt to Change
It is said that change is the one single permanent thing on this planet (i.e., next to taxes). Amazon changed the way it does business through the years. First it was an online book seller. Next it expanded into selling music and videos.

An an Internet entrepreneur you must also learn how to adapt to change. Change comes and goes. For example, in the early years of the Internet, people were wary of using credit cards in their online transactions.

Nowadays, the use of credit card is is like coffee in the morning. You can't do without it.

Then there is the growing realization that blogs are not just for personal records. Blogs are here to stay - to help your business grow.

Lesson Four: Have a Business Model
Since we are on the topic of Amazon, you could use Amazon as your model. You could run your own business like Amazon during its early years.

You could be selling your single information product now. Two weeks from today you will have added another back end product. Next month you will have introduced into your product line the inventory of the affiliate programs you have joined in.   

Lesson Five: Add Content to your Website
If your web site is content based, you should be adding new content every day. Casual visitors to your web site will become your regular guests when they see new content every time they come to your site. These visitors will in the end become your regular customers. 

Lesson Six: Be a Generalist
A generalist is one who does a multitude of things. In computer language this is known as multi-tasking. This has been the culture at Amazon. You as the single person in your own business must be a generalist, too. This means doing and knowing everything that goes in and out of your enterprise.

You don't know any HTML coding? This is tolerable. You must strive however to understand at least the basic formatting that goes into you site code. This way you can make small insertions into your web pages when your web designer is nursing a cold or is out of town. Or you can learn a thing or two on scripting.


Lesson Seven: Let Your Work Ethic Shows
Jeff Bezos was the company CEO and he and his wife were the first workers at Amazon. Their work ethic was marked with hard work and consistency, among others. These traits were handed down to their employees through the years.

To succeed and last long in your Internet business, you should work hard to put your business online in the fastest and frugal manner possible. The important thing to consider is to start up and put your small business online early and rapidly. If you have to wake up at two in the morning to do your Internet work, by all means stick to this routine.