Since my original blog post, I've been involved with a number of projects, and the new ecommerce system has been put on hold.

One of the things I've realized in all this is that there may be something else I can do, which will be quicker to set up, will help a great many people, and give me greater insight into my intended audience.

Pre-built websites.

I've talked to a number of folks who like the idea of having their own website, but do not already have a product or service to sell.  These folks, when questioned about the type of website they want to have, typically respond with something like, "I don't know.  Something that makes money."

Because of my 9 years of experience online, I know the types of websites that make money, and what it takes to build them.  (This is the reason I decided to offer a service to build websites for folks.)

It seems I need to go a step further, and build websites complete with a set of products to sell, and the basic pages of content needed to sell them.

These pre-built websites will be offered as "digital franchises", much like McDonald's, 7-Eleven, Ace Hardware, Meineke Car Care, and many others in the offline world.

There are many products that are offered online with what are known as "resale rights", giving the license holder the right to resale the product to others. What I'm planning is made easier by the existence of "resale rights clubs" where MANY products are offered with resale rights, and in many cases "master resale rights", which gives the club member the ability to offer resale rights to others.

One of the key differences between this type of "digital franchise" and those in the offline world is that in this case, the franchise holder will have the option to alter their own product offerings.  This means they can add new products to their store as they see fit, remove others they don't like, even change the name and the look as much as they want -- completely changing the nature of the store if they want to.

Either way, the store as delivered to the franchise holder will be completely operational, and capable of producing a profit for the owner.

I have already started setting up the first franchise at www.DigitalGoldMines.com.  This will be where the franchise stores will be sold.