Are you thinking about starting an online home based business from scratch but don't really know how to get going? Well, then this article is for you! I have outlined seven steps to get your online home based business up and running in a matter of days, or even hours.
Here you go...
1) Defining Your Reasoning - The first thing you need to do is answer this question for yourself... why do you want to start an online home based business? Write down all the reasons for why you want to start an online business. Here are a few of the more common reasons: financial freedom, luxury vacations, more time with family, new car, new house, money for college, etc...
Once you have written down as many things as you can think of for why you want to start your own online home based business then pick the best one that applies most to you. This is what you will use as your "reason" from now on. Now write this one reason on a separate piece of paper and post it everywhere you can, so you will see it many times per day. This will keep you driven and focused on your dreams.
2) Domain Name - Since you are starting an online home based business it is obviously very important that you create an online presence for yourself and your business. So a website is an absolute must have. The first thing you need to do before you start building your website is to register a domain name. One of the best places for doing this is godaddy.com
So what should your domain name be? Well, I can't entirely answer that for you but I can tell you that you want to make sure that your domain name reflects what your business is. Too many people use their names, some "cute" name, or some other irrelevant domain... do not do that unless it actually is reflective of your home based business!
3) Choosing a Web Host - If you don't have a way to host your domain/website, you won't be able to proceed with your online home based business. Yes, this is a very important step!
Here are a few things to look for when choosing a web host:
Speed
It is important to your business success to make sure visitors can see your site quickly. Part of this has to do with how fast your web-hosts servers are. Although there are a few other factors, server speeds are pretty darn important.
Customer Support
Web hosts should offer a variety of customer support options. These are typically toll free phone numbers, email support, frequently asked questions pages, live support, and help forums. Obviously the more support your host offers, the better it is for you if you ever need*it.
Reliability
Checking out the reliability of a service is also very important to your website and ultimately your online business success. Hosts usually have several backup systems in case something goes wrong with the main servers. They also can promise less "down time" by backup power systems. I wouldn't use a web host unless it has at least a 97% uptime guarantee.
4) Building Your Site - This will most likely be an ongoing task for as long as you have your home based business. However, just to get something up and going at first here are some pointers...
* Keep your text relevant to what you are offering.
* Do not stuff keywords in to your text.
* Do not put banners on your home page.
* Always have a catchy headline.
* Keep the site clean looking and easy to read.
* Dark text on light background is always best.
* Let your visitors know what you can do for them.
* Make navigation very simple for visitors.
There are many more rules of website design but those are some of the basic ones that you need to worry about for now. This step is something you will always be keeping up on. Make sure you continue to learn, tweak, test, and build your site.
5) Uploading files to your site - So you have built a few pages for your new site, now what do you do? Well, you have to upload them to your web host. Typically this will be done using "FTP". Now you are probably thinking, "What the heck is that?" Well, don't worry about all the technical stuff. In simple terms it is a way to get the files, or pages, that you just built onto your website and "live" to the world.
You can just ask your web host for your FTP information or do some searching around the frequently asked questions in your control panel and you should be able to find this out fairly easily. Once you do it is simply a matter of putting in the information into an FTP client and watching it upload to your web site.
6) Putting your business on autopilot - This is big step in creating a successful online home based business because it keeps you from being completely consumed by it and actually allows you to enjoy your new found freedom.
One of the recipes to creating a successful online home based business is to automate as many things as possible. This will save yourself time to do things you do best and actually enjoy your business.
One of the best ways to do this is with an autoresponder. An autoresponder pretty much defines itself. It will automatically send out your emails at intervals that you set.
A great way to utilize autoresponders is to write up an e-course and/or a weekly newsletter, and then copy/paste those messages into your autoresponder, set the days you want your prospects to receive them, and voila... it's on autopilot. You will want to have a form on your website for your visitors to subscribe to it. They will put in their name and email address and you will have a prospect to email to over and over again.
I have used many different autoresponders since I started my home based business and I can tell you without a doubt that my favorhte is Aweber. I use them to this day and highly recommend them. You can find them at aweber.com
7) Automating the sales process - The last thing you need to do to get your online home based business up and going is to setup your ordering process, so visitors to your website can buy whatever product you are selling.
The very first, and most common way people sell digital products, like ebooks and software, from their sites, is to use a 3rd party merchant called clickbank. You can find them at ClickBank.com
Setting up an account with them is pretty darn easy to do and is quite a bit cheaper than getting a merchant account for your self. Just follow their instructions. They are well known and respected so you should feel safe with them.
Alrighty, that's all there is to it. Seven steps to getting your new online home based business set up and going strong. I will admit that for the complete beginner it may not be as easy as it sounds but it is not rocket science either. You could honestly have all this done in just a day or two. Do some reading, learning, a little bit of guessing, and jump right in. Your online home based business will take be up and running before you know it.
