Starting a basic online business is probably the easiest way to build a future of financial freedom for yourself. This may sound like the cliché Backdoorwin32cybot.B Removal Instructions: To remove Backdoorwin32cybot.B from 1000 Internet Marketers, but it is essentially true. Now, obviously I’m not talking about starting the next Yahoo or Facebook or Google (at least not yet), but I’m talking about a primarily digital revenue stream that is portable and on a basic level gives you a source of income. that’s enough to live on. Cliché or not, these essential conditions really aren’t much to look forward to, if you put in a little effort and a bit of innovation; just a little, no genius required.
Step 1: Criteria, passions and abilities.
First of all comes this. Some people like to recommend choosing a niche first; others say you must have a site up and running before anything else. I mean, what good is it if you don’t even know what kind of business you’d like to have? So, first get busy finding out your criteria: How much would you like to earn as a stable referral amount? In how long would you like to be doing this? (I know the answer is probably now, but be optimistic and realistic) How much work would you feel comfortable doing on a daily basis?
Once you’ve answered these questions with at least some satisfaction, get busy figuring out what your skills and passions are, and how you can make money from them. Based on these skills and how much time you would be comfortable devoting to your business, you can move on to step two, choose a business model!
What’s that? No defined skills, no passions? No problem! Not all of us are focused artistic types, and not all of us have a specialization (eg accounting, computer science) that we can leverage to achieve success with a snap of our fingers.
The lack of a specialization or passion that you could practically turn into a business is as big an obstacle as your imagination and work ethic will allow. Because, no matter how much you lack these, you can always build a field of interest from scratch. Something you would at least be comfortable doing, especially considering the financial freedom and mobility you would gain in the deal by taking it online. Brainstorm ways you could creatively help people, think of a specialization you can learn quickly enough to start selling, and learn as you go. Think of unique information that you could sell that no one is offering yet; Remember, libraries are full of books, how much of that is useful information? How much of it has made it to the internet? Do you understand me here? Creativity is the keyword.
Step 2: Your business model.
Having figured out the above, now you need to choose for yourself a practical business model. I could classify an online business into two general types. They are self-employment, and a scalable business system.
What the hell am I talking about, you ask? Well, simply that you are a self-directed wage slave while working IN your business, or you are someone who is actually building a business as a freelancer; working IN your business instead of in it.
For example, a freelance writer, who has their own website, constant advertising, and a steady stream of clients, can be successful and earn a good monthly income, but still have a daily workload and their earnings are directly proportional to that. On the other hand, someone whose online business consists of selling photos of a stock nature has to produce the photos and handle the weekly administration on her website, but the amount he earns is scalable. If they can advertise well and get a lot of buyers, their profits could double, triple, quadruple, or whatever, and the work they have to do would be about the same.
Think of it this way when it comes to your business model. Think about which one is best for you or most convenient, choose which one you would like to go with and let’s move on to step 3.
Step 3: Your product or service
Putting together a product or thinking about a service to offer is something so varied and individualistic that I really can’t tell you what to choose. You need to keep in mind what I said at the end of step 1 and be creative in what you can bring to the market.
However, there are two basic things to keep in mind about your product or service: the first is that it must be unique in some way. Not quite, but there has to be something about what you offer that makes it stand out from the boredom, or at least seem so. The second and most important thing is that your product or service does not have to be perfect. So please don’t worry about every complete detail! Just get the complete basics, at the lowest possible cost without sacrificing quality, and grab what you’re offering to see how it sells. If it doesn’t, tweak and experiment until you do.
Step 4: Your website.
We are almost there, taking concrete steps and getting things done. Once you get to this step, you better be excited, because you’re almost out the door! You absolutely need a website. Whether or not you end up selling your product or service through eBay, Craigslist, or any other big-market website, you need to have an Internet home that’s all your own and in your own style; a way to start with your own brand.
Just like everything else here, getting your website up and running should be simple and straightforward; you can always add to it or completely renew it later. Make a site that: tells your audience about you, lists your products or services, provides a means to contact you, and (especially if you’re selling products) has a payment processing page. For the basics, this is it. If you are selling a service, you can also start a blog that is connected to your site and post regular articles demonstrating your expertise in your field.
You don’t need your site to be fancy, you absolutely don’t need flash pages, nor does it need to be full of complex graphics and other useless junk; simple, presentable and to the point is what you want.
The two easiest and fastest ways to get a site that meets the above criteria is through hosting providers like Godaddy or 1&1 Hosting, both of which have very easy to use site building programs with hundreds of templates available. Also, you can use WordPress themes (usually intended for blogs) to create great, simple and cheap sites. None of these would cost more than a couple hundred dollars tops. I repeat once again: keep your site simple: what you sell, who you are, what it is worth paying for and how to buy your product/service. Then upload it to the web.
Step 5: Advertising and Marketing.
This step scares and confuses a lot of people. There are thousands of Internet marketers, all pulling his attention in different directions, trying to convince him that THEIR CUTTING-EDGE STRATEGIES (insert 300 exclamation points) are the best way to find customers. We’ll keep things simple and down-to-earth, ignore all that bullshit, and focus on the really important basics.
Your advertising strategy can be summed up in this essential objective: to make the most people to whom your offer applies to buy better. The key concepts here are targeting and buying. Advertising will cost you time or money, probably both; You don’t want to waste time in the wrong market. Make sure you know who your customers are and only target them. Do this by making a solid list of all the websites, magazines, forums, and other online locations where these customers are likely to show up. Also, make a list of all the keywords and phrases (related to your niche), especially the obscure ones, that you think your customers are likely to use when searching a search engine for what you are offering. Now that you have your lists, use whatever medium is available (Google AdWords, Yahoo, etc.) to create ads and target those keywords and websites. Remember how I referred to obscure keywords and phrases? Well, you will want to use them because they will be much cheaper than very common keywords. You will get more for your money. Use Wordtracker.com for keyword list building. Take a look at the site and see for yourself. They clearly explain how they allow you to do this.
Now let’s move on to free advertising. First of all, don’t underestimate all the free classified sites. Craigslist, kijiji, etc., prepare ads for all of them and post them. Keep posting them as they get older and less visible. Just like with Google, keep keywords in mind when writing your ad, they will help with your search visibility.
Beyond these, start getting the word out that you have something to sell! Regularly visit at least several sites and forums relevant to your service or product. Comment often and provide quality advice, but when you do, link back to your site and what you’re offering. People will start to notice after a while, especially if you speak well and are helpful. Find article sites (like this one and others) Join as a member and build reputation and recognition through the articles you write on topics related to your services or products. These will help you, especially if you know what you are talking about. Try to write at least one article a week and make sure they all contain a link to your site.
The above are the basics to start with, and will do for now, if you have something worth selling. Remember the key ingredients to target your audience as closely as possible and get as many of these people as possible to buy. These are essential.
Recommendations.
Now that you know the five basic steps, get to work! I know we haven’t covered almost everything here, but we’ve covered enough to get you up and running with your online business. At the very least you have an adventure to look forward to, chances are you have the ingredients for financial freedom and peace of mind on the horizon. The bottom line is to get moving! Have something ready to sell, a site to sell it from, and basic advertising up and running. Take these steps before you get bogged down in paralysis through analysis, and thus overwhelmed and dragged into Sunday in a dozen ways by too much advice.