In order to understand the business of platforms, networks and two sided markets you need to understand what a platform is. You can think of it as an online application that allows you to manage your business online. A market is a virtual group of people who can be considered for buyers or sellers. Platforms therefore allow you to set up two sided transactions to happen online.

How can platforms, networks and two side markets take my examination for me? For the most part these systems can be viewed as internet applications that are managed by the platform itself. The way in which this works is that you can use the application to make transactions without actually being present in the internet marketplace. So how does this apply to this course?

Let’s say you want to join a multi-level marketing (MLM) business. To do so you will have to enroll in a program or pay for a seminar or buy some training products and get up to speed on how the business works. Once you’ve done this you then head over to the website of the company you’re interested in and sign up for their signup page. You’re then taken through a series of steps such as entering your personal information, creating your business details and other standard information required by the platform’s network and the company.

Once you’re done with these things, the system will give you a code number which you log into your commerce account. This code is your login ID and password. Your account is then given access to all the products that person is able to sell to you. If you don’t have a merchant account activated yet the system will give you the ability to set one up for free.

After you’re given access to your commerce platform merchant account the system will tell you what product(s) to sell. You then set up a shopping cart where you can list out all the items you wish to sell. It’s then time to post an ad for the product(s) you’re selling. The system will use the keyword(s) you enter in the ad to determine how the ad should look. (eg: if it says: Designer Sunglasses in the red frame, it should say Designer Sunglasses in the red frame.)

At this point it is time to start posting your ads. You will see the words on the top right hand corner. These are known as the ‘topics’ of your commerce ad campaign. This is the part of the ad, where you will list out the two sides of your topic. (eg: How to Design Great Websites.) This is where two sided markets come into play, because now you have another side to advertise on, and you will need traffic to your site to sell those products to.

You will need traffic to your website to make money. How? You go to Google and type in a search for your topic and add some keywords in there. Like this: How to Design Great Websites. Google will search the whole world and bring you back a bunch of websites that have nothing to do with your topic. That’s okay though, because now you have another side to market on.

The good news is that those websites you came across are legit, and they are going to give you the traffic you need to get a stream of sales coming in to your site. What’s important is that you don’t let them know that you’re a scammer. In this way the two sites can work together to work for your commerce. Remember the question from above, it is called commerce because it’s an online market.