Starting an online business is the first step for us to become financially independent and have more flexibility in our life. Nowadays, with the sufficient online information and improving technology including a lot of excellent free tools, almost everyone can start an online business under one hundred dollars. Low Start-up Costs is one of the most attractive motivators to start an online business. Where to start? Here are 10 steps that help you get started with the cost under 100 dollars.
1. Make a list about yourself
Think and write down what you are interested in, and what you are good at. You also think about and write down what problems you have, and what problems people around you have. In addition, you think there are any areas where you can share your valuable expertise that may be interesting to others.
2. Research market
Starting an online business just like starting any business, before you start it, you need to decide what products or services you will offer. While you may not be selling products and services directly at the first stage of your online business, you need to consider what information you will provide, and what kind people may interested in it. Do the market research and find out what the hot markets are.
3. Find a market you want to target
To match your interests with what is in demand is very important, because the more you love what you do, the more you will enjoy learning and doing the work necessary to make your online business successful.
4. Research related search engine keywords for your online business
After you identifying topics that are hot with the general public or a group of people, the next step is to do some keyword research. You may change what you thinking a little bit or more after you done your keyword research. Remain a bit flexible so you can combine what is popular in the market with your personal interests and skills to make a good start on your online business.
Determining if there is sufficient potential traffic to bring business to your website is a key before you start an online business. You will want to generate as much traffic as you can. Use a free keyword research tool like Good Adwords to help you with this step in setting up your online business.
5. Find a web host
A Web host is the company that essentially will “rent” you space on their servers to host your website. These companies usually offer domain registration as well. When choosing your Web host, consider some web host features such as storage capacity, uptime percentage, domain based email and server security. In addition, evaluate whether the web host provides easy to use platform such as Word Press, response forms, marketing tools and tools for e-commerce.
We recommend BlueHost for four reasons.
(1) Dependable hosting with excellent customer service
(2) Easy to use, one-click WordPress installation
(our suggested platform for creating and managing your website and content)
(3) Plenty of hosting storage space and bandwidth for file transfer
(4) Competitive pricing, highly recommended for your first website.
We currently host a number of our sites with them.
6. Register your domain
Choose a right domain is crucial, because your domain is your unique address on the Internet just like your piece of intellectual property or a trademark. It is also related to Search Engine Optimization, which helps your website ranking in Google search and generate traffic for your website and online business. You can purchase your domain from numerous domain registrars (companies that register domains) online. Be sure to confirm that the domain is registered in your name, otherwise if you want to switch to another hosting company without losing your domain, may be difficult.
We buy our domains through our hosting service BlueHost for ease and convenience.
7. Create your website
This is not as difficult as it sounds. Because there are free and powerful tools available. Many hosting companies offer free site building tools.
WordPress is so far the most popular free tool for both websites and stand-alone blogs. It is very easy to install and use. Many hosting companies have install tools just for WordPress. For example, BlueHost has One-click WordPress installation with dependable hosting with good support and competitive pricing.
8. Develop your content for your site
Create good content for your website. Content may consist of text, audio files, video files or feeds from other sites. Content is the king. Providing original good content is the key for online business to succeed. The more content you create the better.
9. Create income streams
The next step in starting online businesses is to create one or more income streams. Google AdSense is free to join and use, it can result in an income for your online business from your website.
(1) Set up Google AdSense for your site
Google AdSense is Google’s online advertising program in which advertisers agree to have their ads placed on websites that contain content that’s relevant to the advertiser’s business. You can open and set up a Google AdSense account, WordPress has a free plugin, which can be an excellent choice for integrating AdSense nicely with your site.
(2) Add other income streams to your website
Besides Google AdSense you might consider adding affiliate programs to add more income streams to your online businesses.
10. Build site traffic to promote your website and your online business
Like any business, marketing is a key. You need as many people as possible to know your website and your business. For online business, even you have the best web design and amazing content or product, if you do not drive traffic to your site, you site will be buried under millions of other websites. There are many internet marketing techniques you can use to promote your website and business. Among them, e-mail marketing is the first one you need to do in order to succeed in your online business.
The idea of email marketing is to collect prospect email and then keep the conversation with your prospects and later they may become your customers. In order to collect, maintain and manage the e-mail list for your business, you need to use Email List Management software. It is critical to use the right service to manage it, because your email list is one of your most important assets for running a profitable internet business.
Aweber is the internet’s most powerful email opt-in service and email marketing tool.
The best part of keeping your costs as low as possible when you are starting an online business is that you have nothing to lose except your time. Also keep in mind that you are starting your online business that will not make you get rich quick. It needs hard work and patience. Learning and taking action constantly along the way will improve your online business savvy leading to your success.
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