Whether you want a little extra pocket money or a full-time income, you can start a business on the internet for next to nothing. These 6 things are all you need to start your business.
Purchase a Domain Name
This is your address on the web. You can purchase a domain name for around $10 for a year. (It gets cheaper when you purchase for multiple years.) Go to your favorite search engine and type in “purchase domain name.” You will find lots of websites where you can search for a name and purchase it. Choosing a name that ends in “.com” gives you more credibility and looks more professional than a name that ends in “.us” or “.info.”
Get a Hosting Plan
The hosting plan lets you do things with your domain name, like adding pages to your website and setting up email addresses. There are lots of cheap, inexpensive hosting plans available. Expect to pay around $5/month to get everything you need.
There are many ways to build your website when you are ready.
Many hosting providers offer a simple package to help you design your site.
You can use software specifically written for creating and maintaining websites. Dreamweaver is a popular package. “” has similar software at a much lower cost.
Look at packages like WordPress, which is free and gives you blog software powerful enough to create a very professional website.
Pay someone to create your website for you. Many people find programmers who do a great job at low cost at sites like and
Find or Create a Product to Sell
Possible products are everywhere. You only have to open your eyes and your imagination. People have shown that you can make a fortune with:
Information products: Write an eBook, create an online class, interview experts and sell the recordings, or sell your own audio or video recordings.
Other peoples’ products: Become an affiliate marketer. You get paid a commission when you send people to another website where they buy a product.
Physical products: Today it’s easy to sell just about anything online. Create your own Yahoo! store or do your selling on eBay. Thousands of people are making full-time incomes doing just that.
Traffic
Regardless of what product you choose and how you decide to sell it, one of your biggest challenges will be getting traffic to your website. Nothing will happen until someone knows what you have to offer and comes looking for it. There are lots of ways to get traffic to your site. Here are a few:
Use keywords to get first-page placement in search engines. This one is tricky and can take a long time.
Pay for placement in search engines. Work with services like AdWords, where you can pay for ads with first-page placement on Google. It gives you visibility, which is your key to getting traffic.
Write articles that link back to your website. There are lots of sites where you can submit articles to get visibility for your site. Another strategy is to write articles or blog posts and give them to people who already have strong followings. Just ask for a link to your website in return for the free article.
Spread the word with social networking. Let people on Twitter know about your articles or other interesting tidbits that will draw them to your website. Join forums, set up Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, and then participate in discussions.
Capture interest and email addresses by offering a newsletter. Stay in touch with people who have visited your website. Keep them informed of what’s happening. Let them know about deals and give them useful information. They will keep coming back and some will develop into your best customers.
A Great Offer
You have a few seconds to capture the attention and interest of someone visiting your website. Here are some things to think about:
Create a great headline: Your headline does more than 50% of your selling. Work on your headline until you get it right. Take some time with it. Ask friends for feedback. Test different headlines.
Talk to problems, solutions, and benefits: People want to solve problems and they want to live their dreams. Show them how your product will help with one of these things and they are likely to buy.
Use testimonials: People always feel more comfortable, and more motivated, when they hear how much others love your product.
Make your offer irresistible: Add bonuses to make your product more attractive. For example, if you are selling some cookware, you might add an eBook with recipes as a bonus or a cooking gadget. The best bonuses are perceived as valuable by your buyer and don’t cost you a lot of money.
A “Can-Do, Stay Focused” Attitude
When you first start your internet business, it is easy to get overwhelmed with possibilities. It is also easy to be disheartened when things don’t happen quickly enough. Here are some ways to move your business along:
Do your homework: Lots of people have succeeded with internet businesses. Many of them are willing and wonderful teachers. Read books. Study what successful people are doing. Take a course with someone who has already succeeded.
Start small: You are going to make mistakes. It’s a fact of life. Start small and inexpensively. Learn your business while you try things out.
Work on one income stream at a time: Many online business turn into little cash machines that will keep working for you once they’re set up. Start with one. Figure out how to make it work. Test and experiment until you have the most possible income from this stream. Once that is done, you can turn to your next cash machine. Pick another product and start the process again. You’ll be much quicker this time because you will have learned so much with the first
Just do it! Everything happens more quickly on the internet. You will be far more successful if you get yourself 80% ready and go. Do not spend huge amounts of time looking for perfection or second-guessing yourself. Get out there and give it a try, then keep on tweaking until you make it work!