INTERNET INVESTORS
Internet serves as an excellent tool for investors, allowing them to research investment opportunities inexpensively and easily.
Internet serves as an excellent tool for investors, allowing them to research investment opportunities inexpensively and easily. The Internet has given investors unprecedented access to investment opportunities. It has also exposed internet investors to an unprecedented number of scams and rip-offs. The Internet is both opportunity and financial pitfall. It can help make one rich or broke.
By no means are institutional investors omniscient, but because they control large amounts of investment capital and have an assumed knowledge of the markets, they can provide a gauge on where your business can invest its capital. In essence, if you follow the institutional investment patterns, your business can collect mirrored returns of these investments. However, if the institutional investor makes incorrect investments your company could suffer. There is also the possibility of hiring an institutional investor to manage business retirement funds.
If you, as an internet investor are going to invest your money over the internet, then there are some very important things you must consider
- Decide what kind of investment you want. Most internet investors put their money in certificates of deposit, money market accounts, mutual funds or individual stocks. These can be purchased through online banks, mutual fund companies and online brokers.
- Do your banking over the Internet. Online banks often offer better interest rates on certificates of deposit and money market accounts. Most ‘brick and mortar’ banks have online banking sites. They sometimes offer incentives to bank online since it lowers their expenses. If the bank is in solid financial shape overall, then their online banking should also be dependable. There are also strictly online banks. Internet investors should research these more carefully before investing with them. If you have a problem, there is no branch you can go to and complain.
- Choose an online broker if you are an independent internet investor. As an internet investor you need to find an online broker if you want to buy individual stocks over the internet. Fees tend to be low since just about everything is automated.
- Seek out a well-known mutual fund company. The most popular ones are no-load, which means they don't charge you a fee to buy or sell their products. All of them sell a wide variety of mutual funds and will advise you on which may be best for you. They fully disclose which mutual funds are higher- and lower-risk investments. You can view all their products online at their websites.
- An Internet investor needs to locate a virtual equity exchange if they want to practice share trading over the internet. These are fantasy share trading games that you play online. They use real gains and losses from real stocks.
If you are new or existing business and wish to grow and expand your business then you can seek investors on the internet and use the power of social media:
- Become visible with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) in your industry and in your local area. You need to be ‘found’ by and be visible to investors on the internet and anyone interested in your business, products and services. It will be useful to have a solid presence online, so that investors through internet who are interested in investing in your industry can find you as easily as XYZ.
- Use your website/internet to pitch to investors. You can create a section on your website called ‘Growth Investment Opportunity’ or something similar. Optimize the pages effectively. Potential investors on the internet would search you using optimized and specific keywords. There are many other useful keywords that you can use to attract investors through internet. This section can have videos, PowerPoint presentations and one or two page fact-sheet and other information. You can give out non confidential information there and for more information, you can have an ‘opt-in’ section and interested investors on the internet can get more information or make a contact.
- You can use Pay-Per-Click Marketing to help you find easily on the internet for potential investors. There are many investors on the internet who are looking to invest, so you need to get found by any means possible. It does take to rank high in search engines, so to start with a Pay-per-click marketing campaign would be a good idea as well to find potential investors on the internet.
- Find groups on the internet where you can get a tonnes of investors looking for opportunities. There are hundreds of groups out there on the internet where you can find willing investors.
- You can personally connect with investors on the internet. Search for them on popular business networking sites. Go to ‘People Search’, put in the keyword, select the location on the internet where you want your investor to be from and search for them. Once you find the kind of investor you are looking for on the internet, you can connect with them and send messages.
- Get yourself noticed with Online Press-Releases. There are paid press releases sites and there are free ones as well. You can use both these sites on the internet to seek an investor. This creates your online profile. You can use them to highlight achievements and initiatives of your business. When investors on the internet are looking for opportunities, your well established online profile will help you through. This will also help you to - get found by potential customers and investors on the internet.
- Pitch to angel investors through the internet, world wide and Venture Capital Firms using videos as well on popular video upload sites. You may or may not be aware but some smart businesses today use video upload websites to pitch to investors already on the internet.
At times you may not get appointment or time easily with many venture capital firms or angel investors but the probability of you finding these investors on the internet on business networking websites or sending them a the link of your video uploaded on a video sharing site is still higher then meeting them in person. Investor marketing through internet is rapidly evolving. It is already being used by intelligent businesses to attract investors. The power of internet has grown multi folds. It is a question now whether you are tapping the power of internet for finding investors for yourself or not.