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HOW TO START AN ONLINE BUSINESS
by Jean Sutherland
Are you are finally ready to join the elite group of people
making money on the net? Great! It’s easier than you
think and I’m
here to help you learn as you go.
This ebook will provide you with information and articles that will help you learn from beginning basics on up. I will give you resources for free software that will help make your online business easier to learn, implement and run, from beginning to end.
You will also have access to numerous articles that will help you to make informed decisions the whole way through. This ebook will take you step by step through every process. It’s worked for me and it can work for you also.
I have been on the internet since 1994 and I have been working online since 1998. I have been making money online ever since.
I lived in Mexico for 3 years and my online income gave me that freedom and I also realized I can live anywhere in the world if I am working online.
Having your own online business gives you a wonderful sense of freedom. For some it will simply be that added extra income to supplement what they earn from their full time job. For others, you may be a stay at home mom or maybe you are unemployed...no matter, there is a place for any of you online, if you choose.
WHERE TO START
The first thing you need to decide is what type of website business you want to put online.
On the internet, knowledge and information are key! Provide people with information or help them to find what they are looking for and your site will be king.
I would suggest starting with something that you already have knowledge of and an interest in. Be it hobbies or things you like to do online. If you have knowledge of it then you already have a place to start.
RESEARCH
You are going to want to research your idea and find out who the competition are and how they are doing. This is the who, what, where, why and how of other sites so that you will have some good basics of what to put on your site.
Your first step will be the search engines. Hop on over to Yahoo and Google and start researching your topic. Think of keywords that you would use yourself if you were researching this subject. Look for how many sites you will be competing with and view their websites to get an idea of what their content looks like.
Key things to look for are whether or not they have a newsletter or a way of making customers come back to their site often.
Do they have information that changes constantly? Do they have a BLOG? (a diary that is usually updated daily).
Study their websites carefully and make notes of what you liked and did not like at each site. Try to identify what are their strongest features, things that make people return and how they are making their money.
Researching other sites is not something to be rushed. This takes time, and should, because in the end you will benefit by choosing the right topic for your site and the right modules to make it work.
Just as in the real world, you would not open a business with out doing a lot of research, the same holds true for the virtual world of the internet.
Once you think you have your site topic, it's time to do a bit more research.
GOOD KEY WORDS
You now need a program that will show you good keywords related to your site and how they fair on the search engines.
Http://www.emailpromotions.net/download/bidreporter.exe
Keywords are critical to your success on the internet. If you make the wrong choices nothing else is going to work.
Learning about and understand keywords is the key to your success on the internet. When you go to a search engine looking for something, you try to think of a phrase or words that will help the search engine to find what you are looking for. These are keywords.
Trying to find out and understand what people are typing in, in order to find your product is going to be the key to your product being successful.
The better your keywords the more visitors you will receive. The search engines will send them to your site in droves. The better your keywords the higher you will be in the search engines and that translates into traffic to your site.
The competition view in this program allows you to quickly obtain a list of all your main competitors for a keyword and how much they are paying on search engines to have their keywords listed. This enables you to find out who you are competing with and what their listing titles are.
It is also going to give you an idea of what the competition is like out there, and how expensive it is for you or others to use those keywords.
Now I am not saying that you want to pay to put your site in a search engine, but it is an option. Let’s just get you started with basics before we go into paid search engine placement.
Play with this program for awhile as you do your research. It can be a very valuable tool once you really understand how to use it. Don’t expect to know it all at once. Take your time and explore it’s power.
For instance:
If you are going to sell garden gadgets, you should know how your customers and website visitors use the search engines. For example, if you are a graphic designer it will be very useful to know what searches your potential target audience is doing.
This will allow you to find the best combination of keywords for your website and at the same time be part of your research into what you would like to do on the net.
This keyword software is a utility that will give you clues about the popular searches being made and you use it while you are connected to the internet so it can give you real time results.
In this software one of the most useful tools for a beginner is "The LinkPop" tab that allows you to find the link popularity of various web sites. Type in a URL and click 'Go'. The link popularity is checked using Altavista, Lycos, MSN and Google.
Site Popularity Meter is another useful tool in this software. If you have ever wondered how much traffic your competitor's websites get then try this part of the program?
WHAT KEY WORDS ARE MOST POPULAR?
Another great free program “Keyword Live” also deals with keywords.
http://www.emailpromotions.net/download/keywordlive.exe
Let's face it, the world is pretty big, and the Internet really just represents a small portion of it - but even though it's small in comparison, the sheer number of websites is staggering!
In order to help users find your site, you need an edge - you need to know how they go about finding sites; what they type into search engines, in order to improve your position.
Of course, the only way to do this was to buy reports that detailed what keywords are commonly used, until now... this great free program shows you the top 100 keywords and phrases being used on several popular search engines on the web - in real time!
Forget getting last months, or even last weeks numbers; with this program, you see what's happening RIGHT NOW, no middleman, no hassle. This one-of-a-kind tool is an absolute MUST for any person about to start an online business, or even for just a casual user who wants to know what's hot right now.
I will often run this tool starting in the early morning and let it run all day so that I get a good idea of what people are searching for every day.
FREE KEYWORD REPORT
This site offers you free keyword reports sent to you weekly.
http://our.affiliatetracking.net/wordtracker/a/12022
Every week they will send you the top 500 frequently searched words on the Internet, completely FREE of charge.
These are taken from various metacrawlers across the internet and stored in a database of over 350 million search terms.
Use the words they send to help you:
• Position yourself in the market place
• Enhance your meta tags, title and document body to increase your visibility
• Spot surges of interest on the internet
• Take advantage of other people's spelling mistakes to increase your web site traffic
DOMAIN NAME ANALYZER
This is a great tool for those who will be using Google AdWords to get more income from their site and for those who will be interested in using paid advertising.
This program will search for keywords AND their related Google AdWords and Overture campaigns using ONE single software program... Ad Word Analyzer! This is a very easy to use program and can pay for itself with the information it gives you.
With a click of your mouse, Ad Word Analyzer will automatically return the following results:
• A comprehensive list of all RELATED keyword phrases!
• The number of searches that were conducted throughout the previous month for each keyword phrase!
• The number of advertising campaigns that currently exist for both Google AdWords AND Overture!
With one click you will have determined how to best market your product.
You will see if an idea is popular based on the number of searches, how much competition exists based on the number of ad campaigns under way now and the exact keywords you can use to bid cheap to lock in the maximum profits!
Ad Word Analyzer ALSO displays the number of websites that are associated with each keyword. Then, it takes that number and divides it by the amount of searches that have been conducted, giving you the exact search to results ratio! So what does that mean to you?
Armed with the results/search ratio for any given keyword, you can immediately gauge the actual supply and demand. The lower the R/S Ratio, the better the odds of you making money in that particular product or service niche!
This is not a free program but one that you will get tremendous value from. It’s something to consider buying in making your decision on what focus your site should have.
http://www.xybercode.com/ezGaffurl.php?offer=ashley3471&pid=1
So, that's a simple start for you. Take your time, do your research, use the free programs available, read the articles and lets get started.
Resource Articles
Look Before You Leap ... Is A Home-Based Business REALLY For You?
http://www.emailpromotions.net/TheEbook/articles/article-1.htm
Why Newbies Are Afraid To Build A Website
http://www.emailpromotions.net/TheEbook/articles/article-2.htm
Why Most Internet Businesses Fail!
http://www.emailpromotions.net/TheEbook/articles/article-3.htm
DOMAIN NAME
PICKING YOUR DOMAIN NAME
Choosing a domain name is the next most critical decision you will have to make. Take your time and again, research it thoroughly. Consider these things:
• Your domain name MUST relate to your product or service that your website will be providing. Avoid names that do not represent your company or your product.
• Your domain name should be as short as possible and very easy to remember.
The easier it is to remember the more likely people will just type in your domain name from memory. Do not use unusual spelling or hyphens. These tend to confuse people.
Keep the domain name as simple as possible. Do not pick a name that might be difficult to spell or have different ways to spell the word. Select words or phrases that are very common and very easy to pronounce. If your business is aimed toward the public you need the easiest names possible in order to help them get to your site.
Your domain name should always be a .com name. Avoid .net .tv .info .biz etc. Not only do they cost more to register, most people on the net do not even know they are available and are not likely to remember them as easily as a .com.
It’s important for your credibility on the internet to have your own domain name and also have your email address associated with it.
Credibility is everything when you are on the net. There are so many schemes and outright illegal sites out there. Having a credible site will mean more business for you.
Who would you trust more?
An email from the_wizard@hotmail.com or
an email from webmaster@yourdomain.com?
DOMAIN NAME ANALYZER
This free program can be very beneficial in helping you to choose a domain name.
This program gives you the ability to perform high speed searches to see if a domain name you would like is available. If not available it will show you who owns it and when it is due to expire.
This free software also gives you the ability to quickly check a large list of domain names to see if any of them are available.
Download the program for free here:
http://www.emailpromotions.net/download/dna.exe
NAMEBOY
NameBoy is the only online naming tool that makes use of all four aspects of natural language variation, Phonology, Morphology, Syntax and Semantics. NameBoy creates name variations from the sound and meaning of the keyword, builds new words with an extensive affix set, and builds grammatical meaningful phrases based on up-to-the-minute trends in word usage.
Use this site to help pick your domain name.
PICKING A GOOD DOMAIN NAME FOR
BETTER SEARCH ENGINE PLACEMENT
The closer your domain name is to a search term can mean you will also get higher placement in a search engine. For example:
If I own the domain name gardentools.com and someone is looking for "garden tools" they are more like to type in "garden
tools" in the search engine and since I own the dowmain name gardentools.com and that was their exact criteria then my site is far more likely to be in the top 10 than other sites.
Picking the correct domain name for a website is a good first step and can help a lot in how near the top of the search engine rankings your site shows up when someone searches for your key words. It certainly won't hurt to have a great domain name that exactly describes your website.
DOMAIN NAME EXTENSIONS EXPLAINED
Although I do not recommend extensions other than .com you may feel that this is a route you want to explore.
These are the most common top-level domains and their explanations.
.com
Designed for commercial entities, it is the domain extension used by most businesses.
.net
Designed for organizations directly involved in Internet operations, such as a network access provider.
.org
Designed for miscellaneous organizations, including non-profit organizations.
.edu
Designed for educational institutions, such as colleges and universities. Applications for the .edu top-level domain will be screened.
.info
Designed for miscellaneous organizations, considered to be an Informational type website..
.us
Designed for use by US Citizen, Business and Corporations, it is the domain extension used by most businesses.
.biz
Designed for Businesses entities, it is the domain extension used by most businesses.
.name
Designed for Name entity usage.
Resource Articles
Importance Of Having Your Own Domain Name
http://www.emailpromotions.net/TheEbook/articles/article-4.htm
The Domain Name To Fame
http://www.emailpromotions.net/TheEbook/articles/article-5.htm
Domain Name Dilemma: Do Dashes or Underscores Goose Google Rankings More?
http://www.emailpromotions.net/TheEbook/articles/article-6.htm
BUYING YOUR DOMAIN NAME
This is simple and easy. One of the best places I have found to buy your domain name and manage it is GoDaddy.
It is the least expensive and one of the most comprehensive sites for help with domain names. Make sure you check out their
Frequently Asked Questions.
An excellent free program for future use is Domain Status Analyzer. When you start to have quite a few domain names, this software will help you manage them so you know when they expire, where they are registered and your information for each one.
You can download it here:
http://www.emailpromotions.net/download/domainstatus.exe
WHAT ABOUT FREE DOMAIN NAMES?
You can use a web address that your internet server provides you or one of the free domain sites, but a domain of your own is far more professional. Besides, what if your Internet provider goes out of business? You lose your domain, email address and all the customers and search engines that knew where to find you. The same holds true for the free sites.
It does not cost that much and it is a good investment to register your own domain and pay to have it professionally hosted.
You will also receive email addresses that contain your domain name; this looks very professional and is a great
advertisement for your site. It also build more confidence in you and your product if people see a professional site.
Note: As tempting as it is to start out using a free hosting service, I advise against doing so. Free hosting is supported by advertising that you will have no control over. Additionally, those ads are often delivered via annoying pop-ups. Free hosting does not give you the professional appearance you need to succeed online. The monthly cost of hosting is very affordable and well worth the investment.
HOSTING YOUR DOMAIN
There are millions of places out there that will host your site. I suggest starting off with a basic hosting service that is reasonable and then researching other places. I use a number of different places for my sites depending on what my needs are.
The one site I would recommend for someone new is http://www.highspeedweb.net
They charge a very reasonable fee (currently $50 for one year) for a basic site, provide excellent support and should you decide you like them, they offer other more extensive packages as your site grows.
It’s important to choose a reliable web hosting company that allows business sites and offers a variety of packages so that you can upgrade as you grow. You will need to choose a package based on disk space, bandwidth or file transfer limits, email accounts, and additional services such as databases and included software.
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT WHEN PICKING A WEB HOSTING SERVICE
Disk space
Disk space refers to how much space your will need for all the files you will be hosting on the site. – the total megabyte
(MB) of all your pages, graphics, and so on. You will probably want 25-50MB of space to begin. Most sites are under 100K
(kilobytes) in size (unless you have a large number of graphics) so a 25 page website will require well under the 25-50MB of disk space. 50MB of disk space should give you plenty of room to grow, but be sure that you can increase your space should you need to.
Choosing a Web Host Consideration: Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the amount of activity on your site so the more visitors you have, the more bandwidth you need. Many packages provide unlimited bandwidth, but 2 GB should be more than enough to start. Again, make sure you can upgrade if needed.
Choosing a Web Host Consideration: Email Accounts
You’ll probably want at least one pop3 email account associated with your site, but having at least several can help you organize your incoming email.
Choosing a Web Host Consideration: Reliability
One of the most important factors to consider in selecting your web host is reliability. It’s probably also one of the more difficult factors to evaluate.
Most companies will ave “guaranteed up time,” but what does that really mean? It’s really no consolation to have your monthly fee refunded if your site has been down for days. Look for a site that provides a history of their uptime. All sites will have some downtime for maintenance and other issues can occur, but you want your site to be available consistently.
Other factors to consider:
Is customer support available 24/7?
How often are back-ups performed? If data is lost, the backup system will help you recover your site. You should also be performing your own backup on a regular basis.
What other software do you need? Examples include message boards, FrontPage Extensions (more about that in the building your website section), shopping cart, web design service or templates, sub domains, mailing lists, databases, etc.
You’ll want website statistics so you can see how many visitors you receive and from where.
If you are going to collect personal information from your visitors such as home addresses or credit card information you will want a server that supports encryption.
You may also want to ask for recommendations from friends or other WAHMs by posting on the message board. If you are going to have someone design your site, they will likely have suggestions too.
So there is your start...I will be writing more about starting your own online business in the future so stay tuned.
Jean Sutherland has successfully run her
own ezine for over 5 years now and has a subscriber base of
35,000. Her ezine revolves around people doing business online
and beside offering free software, it also provides traffic
marketing tips, informative business articles, free ebooks
and computer tips for those trying to work online. http://www.emailpromotions.net
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