Can anyone share some advice on how to start an ecommerce business or point me to a book or website that will teach me:

1.) How to set up your website
2.) How to market your website
3.) How to make your business legal or registered to the government
4.) How to calculate your profits and properly pay your taxes
5.) How to protect your business

My goal is to create a site that teaches stuff for a fee.

Thanks.

-TheOwl

 You should add which country you want to run it from. The rules and laws differs a LOT.

and all this while standing on one foot?...;)
That's a tall order. There's probably a book (or two hundred) on each subject line.

1 - plenty of sites out there for this; though a good many are likely scams.
2- see #1 (granted, there's loads of companies that will do this...for a nominal fee. If you're in the US, you can check them through the Better Busines Bureau, Hoover.com, which costs money, etc.)
3 and 4 depend on where you live; I'm sure that's covered on government  web sites.
5 - I'd see a legal expert about it.

1. In the USA contact your State Tax Department about Sales Tax and business registration.

2. It may be worth talking with a tax accountant about the allowable deductions and what records are needed to support a deduction. If you work from home and have a designated office space you may claim some of the home heating and power bills as business expenses. Also software, books etc.  Income - deductions = taxable income.  If you employ people you need a Federal Employers Number and need to do the tax forms and withholdings for Social security.

3. Marketing. Depending on what you are teaching and how , you may be able to put an item for sale on websites like renderosity, or promote your site on any user forums you can.

4. Website setup is too broad. Theres lots of hosting companies but actual design will depend on just what you need to do, like streaming video, credit card transactions etc.  There is a web forum that you might ask at. 

Quote -  You should add which country you want to run it from. The rules and laws differs a LOT.

I am from CALIFORNIA

Currently the tax laws in the united states for doing business over the internet are practically nonexistant. every year state and federal governments try to pass laws requiring the collection of sales tax from internet businesses. the only one so far that has stuck is for businesses which have brick and morter locations in a state, those businesses are requred to collect tax from customers from their own state who purchase goods from them but not from other states. California is one that rabidly enforces that law.

I just saw an ad in a silicon valley newspaper about how to make millions creating iphone apps.
I dunno if it would work, but whenever I look around me, there are dozens of bozos fondling
at their iphones all day.  there wouldn't be much chance of underestimating their intelligence
in terms of spending their cash on useless apps

Quote - I just saw an ad in a silicon valley newspaper about how to make millions creating iphone apps.
I dunno if it would work, but whenever I look around me, there are dozens of bozos fondling
at their iphones all day.  there wouldn't be much chance of underestimating their intelligence
in terms of spending their cash on useless apps

Yeah and you can make money stuffing envelopes too I have heard. the thing is that there are something like 60.000 iphone apps already. so getting an app even noticed is like winning the lottery. I have a friend who is a programmer who purchased several manuals on building apps for the iphone, and started creating and selling his own apps thinking he would make it big. so far he has yet to recoup the cost of the manuals.

A good source for starting entrepreneurs in general. It's geared toward internet product sales, but also gives away a lot of good, free advice that can be applied to almost any kind of biz.

Laurie

1.  Look at several websites you like, take notes about what you like and don't like about them and then set something up similar to that.  Note that you'll need to have someone who can host a business site and you'll probably want to back it up.

If you are selling things from your website, you need to set up a way for payment (paypal and credit cards) as well as having a professional company to make sure it is secured.

2.  Word of mouth for beginners.  Depending on what you are teaching you might be able to advertise (with permission or payment) on some sites that have a lot of type of people you are looking for.  You can hire an advertising firm to help if you can afford it.  Register your site with the major search engines.

3.  You'll need to contact your state's business commerce dept (can't think of the right name) and file and pay fees to become a business.  If possible, you can use something like legalzoom or a lawyer to help you write things up easier.  Look into it first and compare the alternatives.

4.  Get a real tax accountant who's been registered by your state, they'll be able to inform you of all that.  Since you live in CA, expect to be screwed over on taxes.

5.  Secure your website and have backups.  Have a lawyer.  Don't let friends do everything.  Have a second accountant to look over things everyone once in a while in case the first one is screwing you over (like charging you money for depriciation). 

Why is this in the POSER forum ? does it not belong in community Forum ?

Quote -
My goal is to create a site that teaches stuff for a fee.

Thanks.

-TheOwl

HI if you are planning on a CG//3D site you need to be aware that THIS
is the standard that people come to expect
when $$Paying$$ for online training.

Cheers