Are you looking how to start an online business? Whether you are looking at opportunities to start an online business or are looking at ways of taking your small business into the online world, this post will help you understand the steps need and also how you can get started with a platform that will help you get started online and scale your business ideas.
What Is Your Goal Online? Which Direction Are You Planning on Taking?
I appreciate your goal will be to earn money online, but there are different ways of achieving it with an online business. I have gone through 3 of the most common business types that are successful online.
Selling Your Own Products
If you have your own products or have a service to offer, then you already have the groundworks for an online business. Many people creating their own products, sell them on platforms like eBay or etsy – but having your own website allows you to target multiple markets with your own brand.
Drop Shipping
If you are unsure what drop shipping is, it is where you are the storefront for products from a wholesaler. You receive an order, you forward that order onto your supplier and they fulfil the order.
There are a few pros to this business model, but there are also a couple of cons.
Pros:
- Low Start-up Cost
- Low Cost of Inventory, as you are not storing the stock
- Low Order Fulfilment Cost
Cons:
- Less Control over fulfilment timescales, may not always be ideal
- Reliance on another people’s stock, if they run out you run out. Meaning you need to constantly stay up to date with their stock levels
- Less Profit, the profit margins are really low as you need to remain competitive.
- Poorer Customer Service. Anytime your supplier doesn’t deliver as expected, you will have to deal with the fallout from your customers.
Whilst there are many drop shipping opportunities out there, there is a lot of work that goes into it. Much more than any other business style. My preferred method is Affiliate Marketing.
Affiliate Marketing
The reason I prefer Affiliate Marketing is that you can start a business in something you are really interested in, it has a low start-up cost and you can achieve a full-time income with the right strategy. If you are unsure on what Affiliate Marketing is, I have written a full guide, check it out here.
But in short, Affiliate Marketing is where you promote products and services and receive a commission for introducing a customer to that product or service. It is the model I have been using for a couple of years and is the one that gives many people online the freedom to build an online business.
We all don’t have a day job that is something we really want to do, but an affiliate marketing business allows you to invest in a business that you really want to do.
With the right guidance and training, Affiliate Marketing is a great online business model.
Related Article: Wealthy Affiliate Review (How I Learned Affiliate Marketing).
Whichever route you decide, starting an online business starts with picking your niche.
Find a Niche
If you haven’t got your own product or service, you need to start with picking a niche. It needs to be based on something you have a real interest in. The reason I say this is, you will need to fully engage in the niche to build a successful online business that actually turns profitable.
Key steps to building an online business is being able to create content, but if you pick an area that you have no interest in or know nothing about – do you think you will be able to create content in it?
Affiliate Marketing allows you to build an online business in something that you are interested in, so why wouldn’t you take the opportunity.
Now, one of the key things people get wrong is by starting too broad. To get the best results, you need to target a niche – let’s clarify, a niche is a tiny segment of the market.
If you are interested in gaming, just targeting gaming is way too broad – what you need to consider is getting as narrow as you can, i.e. Xbox One Accessories would be a niche.
Create a Website – WordPress is the Right CMS
Once you have chosen your niche, you will want to create a website – this will be the foundation for your online business. I recommend WordPress, as it is an awesome Content Management System and is so easy to use and customise.
You will want to create a domain name (website address) that is relevant to your niche. Learning how to do keyword research will help you a lot in your online business.
Related Post: Keyword Research
You can choose a website name below and see if it is free…
Create Great Content that Helps!
One of the key things of any website is content. You will get nowhere if you do not create engaging content. No one logs
onto a website to learn about something or get help and is happy to see low quality content.
But one of the things many get wrong is they are trying to sell, rather than helping.
People are looking for help when they search online, you are looking for ways to start an online business, people need help.
Helping people converts a lot better than selling. We all hate people who oversell.
Learning how to create helpful content is going to be a great help to your journey on creating an online business.
Use Search Engines to Drive Traffic to your Website
You will need to learn how to create awesome content that is search engine friendly to drive traffic to it. Some will recommend Pay-per-click marketing, but this is a really expensive method if you get it wrong, it will become a complete waste of money.
You are much better off using the SEO method and ranking naturally. Whilst it might take longer to rank, it is free and with great content it is easier to rank for the right keywords at the top of the search engines.
Become an Authority in your Niche
You will also need to work on your authority in your niche. Being an authority in your niche is key to becoming a go-to website for people and it becoming a profitable online business.
Building up trust is an important step with this.
To become an authority, is actually easier than you might think, it comes from creating quality content that helps, it is content that gets engagement from people (comments are a good sign of this) and traffic.
The more content you create, the more engagement you will get, and this leads to traffic. This is the key to getting online sales.
How to Get Started Today!
Affiliate Marketing is an awesome business model and is one that can lead to a very profitable.
But I want to share with you an opportunity that will not only give you an online business but will also provide all the training and support you need to start an online business, with help and support from myself too.
Anyone can start an online business, but that doesn’t mean it will be successful. There is so much to learn and if you don’t get it right you will not fulfil your goals.
I started an online business a couple of years ago and without the training I recommend, I would not be earning anything from it.
The training is a step-by-step guide that will take you through building a website, creating content that converts, getting social engagement and scaling that business to a point where you are earning a full-time income through it.
Wealthy Affiliate is the platform I have been using, and they offer everything you need to get started with an online business, read my Wealthy Affiliate review for full details.
But without them, I would not be in a position where I am now.
They have training material on all aspects on an online business, they also have a community of Internet Entrepreneurs that you would be joining to bounce ideas off and get expert help and advice from them.
If you are serious about starting an online business but want to check if Wealthy Affiliate is right for you, they have a free starter membership that gives you the chance to experience it with no catch and no credit card required.
I am a Premium Member of Wealthy Affiliate, that is not a secret, but my online business would not be where it is now without Wealthy Affiliate.
Have you got any experience with starting an online business, is there anything else you might add to the list?
Have you got any questions you want to ask or anything you need to know about Wealthy Affiliate or Affiliate Marketing? Please leave them in the comments below and I promise to come back to you.
Thanks for checking out my post and good luck with your journey towards an online business.
