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How To Start An Online Business

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Starting an online business is not rocket science, but it's very easy to fail if you are not careful either. Below I will try to outline some of the steps you can to increase your chances of success.

Decide what you want to do. it is very important that you do someting you enjoy doing. I suggest evaluating your interests first.

Carry out keyword research.

Register a domain.

Create your web site.

Market it.

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Starting an online business is not rocket science, but it's very easy to fail if you are not careful either. Below I will try to outline some of the steps you can to increase your chances of success.

Decide what you want to do. it is very important that you do someting you enjoy doing. I suggest evaluating your interests first.

Carry out keyword research.

Register a domain.

Create your web site.

Market it.


For steps 3 & 4, Xisto can fulfil it but as for steps 2 and 5, can you explain in details like the tools or sites involved?

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one thing that is missing from your web business...What are you selling??? What can you provide that no one else has done, or can you do it better than your competition.My aim with my (real world) business is to provide cut price Computer services for those who can't afford it.And for those who can afford it, IT support when they need it.Who are your target groups???? (who do you want to sell your product to)

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Starting an online business is not rocket science, but it's very easy to fail if you are not careful either. Below I will try to outline some of the steps you can to increase your chances of success.

Decide what you want to do. it is very important that you do someting you enjoy doing. I suggest evaluating your interests first.

Carry out keyword research.

Register a domain.

Create your web site.

Market it.


there is so much that goes in to internet marketing, it can be VERY confusing to a person just starting to learn this outline. it's a good general outline, but within that, there literally 100's of things you can do within this outline.

 

#1 on the list is self explainatory. basically your website will reveolve around a hobby or an interest you have vast knowledge about AND something you enjoy(even if internet marketing isn't something you enjoy:))

 

#2 some would disagree that this should be #2 and creating your website should come next. since this is internet marketing and making money or driving traffic to your website, i think finding good keywords to employ should be #2. overture or wordtracker are great tools to find many targeted keywords for your website. you want to try to find the keywords that everyone ISN'T using compared to how many people search for those keywords. EXAMPLE would be that you would want to target a keyword that was googled 1000 times that month with only 1000 web pages(other websites) incorporating that same keyword.....RATHER THAN targetting a keyword that gets googled 100,000 times that month with 1,000,000 webpages incoroprating that same keyword. with this strategy, your competition is less, and your chances of getting to the 1st page of any search engine is much greater which means your rewards will be greater. DONT be general with your keywords. use 2-4 words as your targeted keyword phrase. i like using 3 words for a key word phrase. also, only target 2-3 keywords(key word PHRASES) on each page of your website. do NOT use the same keywords for the different pages on your website! this will allow you to market each page seperate and each page will have a GREATER chance of being on the first page of a search result. if your website's main subject is fish, don't use a keyword "fish". use something more specific such as "tropical fish" which is still too general but better than just fish. or use a keyword phrase even more specific like "fresh water tropical fish". this is only on the top of my head without researching through wordtracker which i recomend HIGHLY!

 

#3 is to register your domain, but i would personally create a website first before thinking of a domain name and registering it. why? because you can view your finished product first and the name of your domain will come to you easier and it will be able to fit in with the content of your website better. also, there is a marketing strategy in choosing your domain name. some search engines like one of your main keywords written within your domain name. also, you want a domain name that is easy to remember and easy to type. successfull websites have built their business around this marketing strategy. "ebay" or "amazon". both these domains are easy to remember and easy to type. in fact, amazon is a word everyone has heard of before so that worked GREAT for them as a marketing strategy.

 

#4 which i would put at #3 is building your website. you really need to do research on SEO or search engine optimization because there is just way to much to list in building your webpages in order for them to be marketable....especially in the search engines. you have to deal with your title and description meta tags, your keyword tags and your keyword density within your webpage, your img alt attributes, your headlines, your outbound and same site text and urls, first paragraph of your body text, what inbound links you want from other websites(very important now), and much more to consider in preparing your website properly in order to market it properlyand get some good quality traffic to it. also, leave room on each of your pages for new fresh content so you can update your page monthly...but weekly is better! the search engines LOVE fresh new content on your web pages! not alot of people update their webpages and find their sites quickly dropping in webpages. the more you update, the better chance you will gain better ranks than those who don't update regularly!

 

#5 is to market it. again, this is another area which you need to research the different areas. but i will quickly go through the main ingredients to market it. first, you need to submit your site to all search engines and directories. key thing about this is to MANUALLY submit your site to the top ten search engines and directories. there is one exception. DO NOT screw with submitting your site to google. let the google spider find YOU. you do this by posting on Xisto or other high profile forums on the net. google should pick ya up within a week so don't sweat google. google would much rather find your site than you submitting your site manually or automatically. google has always been about relevency and if the spider has found your site, then google will think your site is more relevent than those who just submitted their site manually or automatically. make sense? i hope so. after you spend a day submitting your site and each individual relevant web page, then write and article and a press release about your site and what it has to offer(hopefully if you created it right, you are offering something that other similar contect websites do NOT offer, and you have set yourself apart from the crowd by doing that). go find some forums to post in. stay within the topic of your website, use your keywords within your post, and ALWAYS use your website url as your signiture to your site and incorporate some keywords within your signature as well. you have now started your one way incoming links that are very relevant to your website. google LOVES these! post in these forums at least once a week. now enter one of your main keywords in google and do a search. copy and past the top 50 urls in to wordpad, and save it. start with the top url and visit that page. find the webmaster or owners email address and write to them. tell them that your site can compliment theirs and ask them if they can put your link on their site somewhere . go down the list and keep writing those letters. this is marketing. it's tedious. check out relevant newsgroups and post in them using the same techniques as i mentioned in your forums postings. create a blog and post to it EVERY DAY and incorporate your web pages within your blogging. RESEARCH internet marketing and seo WEEKLY since internet marketing is like buying a computer. once you do it, some of it gets outdated a month later. keep up to date! and spend at least 1/2 hour a day in these basic marketing techniques. keep killing the pipline so there is always a fresh flow of marketing going out so new visitors can see your site and come in. allow 6 months before seeing any results compared to the first day you published your website on the internet. it's a slow proccess. if you FAIL to fill the pipeline by not spending 1/2 hour a day to market your site and update your site, then the pipline will slow down which wont allow people to see your site to enter it. do not for ANY REASON think that once you have the traffic you need, you can stop what you were doing before. this will slow down your pipeline and you'll wonder where all your visitors went. if you want traffic, you need to spend at least 1/2 hour a day FOREVER trying to market it and updating your website with fresh content.

 

anyway, there is a ton of things you can do. i just went over the basics. even though what i refer to as basics, don't fool yourself. these basics lay a foundation to what can become something big if you continue to put effort in to it. these basics alone can put some of your web pages on the #1 page of a search result based on your keyword phrase and can easily draw in 1000 visitors a day after 6 months of persistance. want a little extra money? put adsense ads on your website. research the proper way to do this by blending the back ground color, using vertical ads on the left side of your page, horizontal on the bottom, and a couple blended in within the body of your site. don't put crap on top or on the left. there is a psychology to google adsense and how to place the ads and even the colors you use for them but that's more advanced marketing, sorry. what are you going to do with the extra money earned through adsense? ADWORDS! your adsense can literally pay for your adwards account if done right....but don't be too quick to use adwords unless you have the money up front to pay for a campaign.

 

that's about it boys and girls. if you have any questions, write 'm to me here or pm me. i'm always happy to answer any questions. there are more advanced areas of marketing, but this is a good overview and a good start for anyone who had the question "how can i start an online business and how can i market in on the internet?". there are many ways. this is just one way.

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Wow thats a great guide Anwii! I think the domain name is extremely important. Invest in a .com preferably. Keep it short, and not to complicated. The domain is the first thing the customer will see, and first impressions are extremely important. The domain may be the thing which the customer will decide on between you and a competitor.Good luck in your business!

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Hmm, well, free hosting is alright. But you'll have to be experienced in this expertise seriously. It's a very big commitment, so think twice as you will have to dedicate your time to issues on support. Brain-storming is one of the requirement for #1, i guess as you will have to see where your idea can excel into and produce a unique identity in the industry alone, fighting against the many free hosts out there.

Secondly, keyword research seems to come from either this or this.

Anyway, this topic, either that or guide seems to be a little extract from a book i have. By the way, for marketing, i suggest a grassroots marketing campaign if you have no budget.

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free hosting is ok. but not for internet marketing. if you go with free hosting, your url will rarely make sense, the url will be longer and more comlicated to remember or type, and it's harder to get ranked high with sub domains and directories that are linked to a domain that isn't relevant. also, if the domain goes down, so does your website and all the hard work you did to market it.so for the beginner internet marketer just getting their feet wet and are on a limited budget, go for free hosting. i can recomend a couple great places for free hosting with no ads and no posting requirements if there is an interest. but after your website is up and running, consider paid hosting asap because when you do decide to transfer over to a paid top level domain name, you have to start your internet marketing campaign all over again. that would really suck! you can use a redirect, but i am not a big fan in redirecting ANYTHING.hosting is $5 a month, and if you pay for a full year, some places will give you a free domain for a year. christmas is coming up. all those that are SERIOUS and wont quit on themselves, ask for it for a present or something. there is always a way to get what you want if the WILL and DETERMINATION is there.never bother with anything other than a top level domain(.com, .org, .info, .biz, etc...) .com is the best since it is in peoples automatic thinking already but the disadvantage is that most all the good short names are taken. if you decide to go with anything other than a dot com.....like a dot info, then you risk having someone type in .com as the extention instead of yours.domain names are only $10 a year....VERY easily affordable.....more so than hosting but i wouldn't get your domain until your website is built UNLESS you have that PERFECT name that you KNOW will incorporate your main keyword and it's available.trp 17 really is the perfect place for ANYONE who wants to start an online business. they offer free hosting. they require you to post at least one time a day to keep your hosting running, but SO WHAT! remember one of the marketing strategies for one way links and search engines that need to find you like google? you will have to post somewhere anyway. you're killing two birds with one stone with trap 17, you will also belong to a long term community with good resources at your fingertips. trap 17 will also give you a domain for a year once you have 300 credits. a beginner in internet marketing can't go wrong with trap 17. trap 17 should consider lowering the qualifications for a domain name to half the credits required, but for now it's in beta to see the demand. we'll see what happens. when you get your domain name here, then concentrate FULLY on marketing. then, when you go for paid hosting, you will still have your top level domain and wont have to repeat all the work you did with a sub domain! trap 17 will get paid for paid hosting eventually and everyone's happy. it's a win win for everyone.why i will ALWAYS recomend Xisto! but if someone is still not wanting the posting requirements, there are great hosts out there without the ads and any requirements. i used to host my website on Xisto until i had to move 4 times in one year. i had to let go of my site since i couldn't post. oh well. i had all my work saved. so there are downfalls to any decision you make but the good outweighs the bad for the beginner. trap 17 offers a great service.remember. when you want to start a business online, it can either be a full time commitment or a part time one. either way....if you spend at least 1/2 hour a day after your website is created, you will be doing good 1 year down the road. you will have to wait for the reward at the end because you will be doing it for the long run, not the short run. some people get burnt out because they dont see results right away. DONT!!! "if you build it, they will come". it's true to a certain extent if you have built a basic marketing campaign with your website.so DONT get burnt out which is easy to do online. a year from now you can either be in the same position you are in now.....or, you can own a succesfull website. something you can be proud of a year from now and something you can show off to other people. and if these other people ask you how you did it, you can tell them and help them just what my intention is by posting what i am.if you have a limited budget or no budget, you can still create a great online business. don't be fooled by people saying you need even 1 penny! BUT! it will be easier and less time consuming if you had the money for hosting, a domain name, a couple programs that do things for you automatically, and some money for a google adwords campaign.again, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. i am not a guru or an expert, but i am very knowledgable since i spent hours and hours of researching this topic. i've heard it all and i have experiments with most every option. any questions i can't answer, maybe someone else here cangood luck to all! also, if you want more than the basics, let me know. i only touched base so a foundation can be made with the basics. there are advanced ways of starting a business online....but those advanced ways are dependant on what type of business you plan to start.

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Hmm, well, free hosting is alright. But you'll have to be experienced in this expertise seriously. It's a very big commitment, so think twice as you will have to dedicate your time to issues on support. Brain-storming is one of the requirement for #1, i guess as you will have to see where your idea can excel into and produce a unique identity in the industry alone, fighting against the many free hosts out there.
Secondly, keyword research seems to come from either this or this.

Anyway, this topic, either that or guide seems to be a little extract from a book i have. By the way, for marketing, i suggest a grassroots marketing campaign if you have no budget.


Are you sure?

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If you intend to register a trademark, there are some things to consider first.Suppose your name is "Driving eMotions".You can conduct your own search on the internet using various services.This is called common law search because you don't need to be registeredto start doing business and using a logo/slogan etc. so you end upwith someone years down the road for example... who decides theyare going to start an organization to help women in minority groupsto be more independant, they decide to pay for TM search for the name they want to use "Driving eMotions". Since you are already doing businessusing this name they will likely find you on the internet or whereverand so they will not be allowed to register. If by some accident, theyare successful in getting registered with that name then you wouldwin any court cases regarding ownership of the trademark even thoughyou are not registered simply based on "common law" that you were"actively using" the name first. Same goes for any images used suchas your logo. Copyright on the other hand comes into effect as soonas you create something so your logo should be custom designed bya trusted designer to avoid copyright infringement cases. (alternately you can try to get written permission to use the"likeness" of any published image you like and if they say no thenhave your designer start with modifications to yiour desired designuntil you are in the safe zone and have made enough modificationsto allow you to safely display the logo without the possibility ofgetting dragged into court. Although the likelyhood of getting suedfor copyright infringement is slim you don't want to be taking any chances so do the right thing there for sure.)There are plenty of things to worry about so you had better getsome kind of business plan software to help you along the way.The local bank is a good place to start or just find something online, surely there are loads of freeware out there.Complete your plan quickly like a test That is to say fill outeverything that is really hot on your mind just to get it down.Then you can start filling in the blanks as things pop into your head.Really simple version of my steps to any online business iseasier than selling lemonade on the sidewalk. Whatever youwant to do online, any subject whatsoever, you offer enoughservices or goods etc. to get loads of users coming to your site.Once you begin to have a user body reaching critical mass youcan either continue expanding free offerings and increasing usersor you may specialize and start charging user fees. Underlying rulein my mind is always have as many revenue streams as possibleand you can't go wrong. For example you may be selling videoson DVD to a subscriber base interested in yoga or healing arts andyou are so busy flogging discs you haven't explored the possibilityof somehow funneling traffic to an affiliate program with or withoutany kind of arrangement. Or, your a photographer with a nice websiteshowing cool pics and contact info. to book a gig. This is a brick and mortarbusiness using the website as a 24/7 permanent business card.What someone like that ought to be doing is studying the types ofimages designers like to use in developing graphics for websitesand with that in mind post these images in some image gallery thathas a commision type system. Market yourself all the while as theopportunity arises to paste your links or create usernames thatare the same as your website name. Little tricks like that can add upand the next thing you know you have such a massive user basethat you can start earning some ad space bucks from things like google ad space.Maybe you're a dog trainer with a nice website you got for a reallygood deal by the local website guru guy. Pretty, online businesscard. Become the authority on instructional materials, write articles, create blogs, publish newsletters... go nuts and give as much as youcan for free and build it large and they will come big time trust me.By the time I'm done, you won't be actually training the dogs butshowing people how with instructional website tutorials and peoplecan order videos so they can see you it's done instead of just reading about it.You can offer an affiliate program to entice even your competitionto promote your products. Arrange the production and drop shipmentof the goods all automated runs while you eat, sleep and ... well youget the picture right!ciao

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