20 Things You Should Know Before Starting an Internet Business - Starting an Online Business - Online Businesses

20 Things You Should Know Before Starting an Internet Business - Starting an Online Business - Online Businesses - Money Making Internet Business

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WANT TO START A BUSINESS CAREER ONLINE? 20 ESSENTIAL THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU START A MONEY MAKING INTERNET BUSINESS

Starting an online business is very easy nowadays. All you really have to do is purchase a domain name to make a fast website and you are very set to go. Although things might get a little more difficult than that, so before you jump in, it is very important that you know what to consider.

Here are some things you have to consider before you start an online business:

1...Write your business plan

You don’t need a detailed and in depth business plan for an online business unless you want to add your online business with maybe a traditional business because for many online business start-ups, you won’t need the detail which is involved in planning a traditional business. But, it would still be very good to you if you are able to cover most of the topics, even if it is just little. Having a strategy that is written in front of you will assist you to keep your focus on some very important aspects of the business.

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2..Need basic computer / PC skills

There are several ways to start making money online, all you will need is a computer, and then have some basic computer skills and an internet provider. The internet provides an opportunity for a long distance association with various people all over the world which normally includes contractors, small retail merchants, bosses and business men and women. These people always need labor force to make their businesses and companies continue to run very well. With this, different works normally arise for quick completion ranging from article writing, record taking, content writing, form filling, email marketing and lots more. These tasks usually force some company head to hire and give duties at the smallest market price available.

For you to start making money online, you need to have at least some basic computer skills because most online tasks will require you to have complete computer knowledge and a big familiarity with the internet. There are a lot of ways to make money online but earnings tend to vary depending on your computer skills, working hours and choice of organization.

You will have access to different job providing boards with some basic computer skills and with the help of an internet. You can apply for various posted tasks and you will need to know how to use Microsoft word and Microsoft excel.

3...Register your domain name

It's very necessary that you know the right way to register your domain name for full control of your Internet marketing business and also for profit. You have to know that a domain name is the same as a website name and registering it is very easy to do. This normally makes it very simple for people to see you - just like your unique home address.

You can register your domain name with GoDaddy.com or Hover.com, because they have customer service which can easily help you during the process should you need some assistance.

Some top domain extensions are: .net, .com, and .org and prices are normally based on demand for that domain name and extension. I will run through the process of setting up your domain name so that you can easily get started with your online business in a few moments.

Now let's register our domain using GoDaddy.com as an example

· Start by visiting GoDaddy and then use the Search Tool

· Next you will have to select domain by clicking "Add" button

· Just click "Continue to Registration"

· Then click "No Thanks" button to bypass upsells

· Just Login or Create Account Info

· You can simply select "1 yr" (although you can also upgrade later)

· Now you will have to review Order and then click "Continue to Checkout" Button

· Simply complete checkout info and click "Place Order Now"

That's just it! Also know that the steps above will be very unique to your choice of service and that any good domain name registrar will definitely provide customer service to help you.

4...Need a website or Blog

You will need to have some sort of website, be it a complete blog site or a splash page that you can host to get leads and then easily convert those leads into associates and sales.

Now what exactly are the various types of websites or blogs which you may have some interest in?

Mentioned already are two various types of websites, which are normally a personal blog and email capture page also know as splash page.

These are 2 different types of sites and when it comes to marketing and promoting your business opportunity using these sites, they also need two types of approaches which are different.

Now a blog is a site which you are going to create blog posts or articles to promote a business or so many businesses. Blogs are normally better for some reasons, but the most important reason is due to the fact that Google prefer blogs and will easily rank them very fast when you start to post on them consistently.

Another thing which most people prefer about a blog is that there are lots of platforms out there which are very inexpensive for you to get started with and some like blogger.com or wordpress.com are even free.

What most people recommend is that you buy a unique domain name and sign up for a blog at WordPress.org, because a WordPress blog is a very good platform for blogging due to the simplicity of use as well as the flexibility that it gives. There are a lot of plugins which normally gives a WordPress blog the capacity to serve just about anybody who promotes anything online.

5...Identifying Your Niche Market

The internet is a very large place but the truth is it is still not big enough to accommodate everybody who wishes to be a part of the general internet mainstream. For example, if you decide to set up an online services, you will definitely be in competition with so many other sites. You can also find this saturation in other internet market sectors.

If you decide to compete with businesses that are already established in your industry, then it will be seen as beating your head against a very strong wall; this won’t yield any results. So instead of you to try and go head-to-head unsuccessfully with the bigger boys in this sector, why not try and be the big boy in your own field? Just find your niche market easily and stand out.

A niche market is a little or particular aspect of a mainstream market. For example, an online casino dedicated to blackjack is a niche in the mainstream of online casinos. A site that offers only Texas Hold, is a niche in the mainstream of online poker, a dating service for the Chinese and people who want to meet Chinese dates is an example of a niche in the mainstream of online dating. And in the mainstream of online book sales an online bookstore which specialize in the classics is a niche.

So you have to find your niche market in order to easily avoid being overshadowed eternally by your competitors. By just placing your sales efforts and sales marketing to just one market sector and by defining your services or products very narrowly, you can easily create an identity which will definitely set you apart from any other business or service providers in your industry.

An intricate method of defining the big market which you have wish to join and then easily knowing a service which mainstream service providers do not give is a very good way to find your niche market. So if you are not able to see such an unfulfilled market need or an opportunity, you can easily create your own need through some brilliant maneuvers in marketing. Always make sure you define your business in terms of your products and services clearly and also be very sure to stress what exactly sets you apart from others in your bigger market sector.

6...Do a thorough market research

A strong market research is very important to all new business for some reasons. If you refuse to do one, you will just end up closing the doors to your business in a couple of months, because for some different reasons you won’t make any money.

A very good reason that will make your business not to be successful is that there may not be a good enough demand for the products or service which you render. So by doing a very thorough market research you can easily find out the actual thing which people have interest in and what they will definitely buy. You can also use this medium of research to find out the number of people who are looking for a particular service or products.

Now if you do a thorough market research and you find out that there is no big enough demand, but you are still very much determined that you want to easily go ahead with your business plan anyway, maybe because you have a strong passion for it, then you will have to easily do another market research by finding complimentary products which you will sell along with your main products.

7...Internet security

Nowadays there is a lot of WordPress security plug-ins which are available to keep your WordPress sites much secured and also free from the attack of hackers. All these plug-ins gives good techniques and features to help your websites stay safe from most cyber criminal’s attention who are always searching for attractive and very vulnerable websites that create lots of traffic and good income.

The Secure WordPress plugin is actually one of the best WP security plug-ins which you can easily use. It normally bolsters your WP site security by removing the error information which shows on your login pages, also adding index.html to your plugin directories and hiding WP version in your back-end dashboard for the users which are non-admin, it also removes Windows Live Writer, as well as blocking any bad queries which can easily be harmful to your website.

8...Keep up to date on ecommerce

Maybe your online store is performing very well now, but you have to know that eCommerce moves very fast. If you refuse to keep up to date with the modern developments you might risk losing out on some new customers, or even losing your existing customers.

You will have to dedicate lots of time immersing yourself in the world of eCommerce. Just go out and have a word with some fellow merchants, follow some influential figures and put your finger on the pulse.

Letting a big new feature pass you by or missing a big change to browsing habits isn’t an option if you want to continue running a very successful eCommerce store.

9...How to Choose a Reliable Website Hosting Company

Choosing a very reliable website hosting company is actually one of the most important aspects of starting your online business or improving your existing business. This is actually true if you have decided to make use of shared server web hosting because out of the big name web hosts just a few will actually pack so many website on a single server. So if you are on this server and you are trying to create a website that will be popular, then you are going to have a very difficult time making it because your site will be very slow to load.

Shared hosting is the most common type of website hosting which is used on the internet. Shared hosting is actually where so many websites will have to use the same web server and ip address. When you are thinking about a website host for a shared server, you have to be very sure of joining a company that is reliable to make sure they won't extremely load the servers. Most times, a host normally place lots of website domain names on just a single server to make their bottom line increase. Whenever you complain about slow speed, the company will just tell you that you need to upgrade your hosting account because your site gets too much traffic.

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10...Driving traffic to boost sales

Now the truth is you will need internet traffic and sales which is targeted for you to survive in your online business. Let’s say your website is now ready and it is there while you wait for people to visit your site, check your products, and then hopefully order something! But, it has been months now and you are already getting frustrated because your products are not selling and you are simply losing money. What you actually need now is some internet traffic and internet traffic doesn't just come to your site without you working very well on the advertising and marketing side of your internet business because if you keep on waiting for traffic, your website will just end up easily buried by the website of your competitor.

Always try and generate targeted market traffic because it is your ultimate goal. You are aiming to gain the interest of your target consumers by driving them to your website.

11...Write Rich, unique and original content and search engines will love you

If you're an article writer, an SEO strategist or a blogger, you must be very well familiar with the term, original content. It is one of the major players that determine your worth on the web. But not exactly what the name suggests because unique content is not necessarily original. The truth is it's actually very hard and very impossible to come up with an idea that has not already been thought of before, so the major idea which is behind original article or content is to easily arrange or frame an idea in such a method that it has never been before.

Now it sometimes happen that some aspect of your write-up may be exactly with that of some other journals or articles etc maybe as a result of pure coincidence. Let’s quote Google's definition of original content. Now as said by Google, if over 80% of your content is unique, it definitely qualifies as an original content. This way you easily stand a good chance of making it to the very top of the search results because the search engines are all looking for unique thoughts which are written as blog posts or articles.

So one cannot stress enough on the very importance of quality of writing when it actually comes to writing unique and original content. You have to know that a borrowed idea that is well written is better than an original one which is poorly written. The truth remains that, it is very possible to come up with a very good version of your own write-up over a topic that has already been discussed. The main key is to expand the topic but keep it relevant so that it is more amazing, very informative and also elaborating.

It is also important to know that there is no fixed formula when writing original content. It is just exactly what it says it is. The sure way to come up with original write-up is to be an expert in the subject you want to write about and also to be very well aware of what exactly the users are searching for, In short, write unique content, which are rich in both, detail and meaning.

12...SEO - Search engine optimization

One of the most important ways to get your website noticed is SEO or Search engine optimization. It can be very tricky when you start out newly, but there are a lot of guide out there for getting started with SEO training that will assist you in figuring out some of the ins and outs of SEO to easily take some of the mystery out of it for you.

The first thing you are expected to do is to think about the exact key words you would like to "target". It is better if you are able to come up with about 8-16 keywords that are very strong which you can use to target for each page of your website. It will be better if you don't use so many because you actually want to stay focused on only one key word and just use various variations of that key word so that you can get the most out of your SEO efforts. Google keyword Tool is highly recommended.

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Google keyword Tool is very good for optimizing your site and creating good keywords. The best part is that it’s free, and it always shows how many times in the past month a keyword had been searched. Now not only that but it also shows you various variations of the keyword that you have searched so you can get different good ideas from using this tool.

Another very important thing when you are writing your keywords is for you not to repeat the same keywords over and over again. You have to ensure that you are making use of different variations of keyword so that the search engines won’t simply flag your site for spam. For instance if you want to target SEO, you will have to make use of SEO, SEO quides, search engine submission, SEO marketing, search engine optimizer, search engine optimization, SEO tools etc.

Your title is the most important place to put your keywords, so be sure to always limit your title to just 15 words or less including your top keywords.

13...Web marketing

The problems of business competition and the strong survival conditions in the Internet jungle normally make so many owners of business hire professional web marketing services. The main objectives any web developer think about when they start to work online is the return of customers, online reputation, solid profit and good future prospects. The value of quality marketing services is always obvious in the harder tasks rather than in the basic ones. If we think about improvement of traffic and also the increase of sales, then an average web marketing services would simply include web analytics, website design, advertising, usability evaluation, SEO (search engine optimization), statistics and monitoring.

Web page functionality and ranking usually increase following online marketing services applications. However, the implementation of different models of advertising will also need professional assistance, and it also include pay per click advertising service which would easily be of some great assist for so many web investors. Now by some means of quality web marketing services you can easily develop a very good online presence and the possibility of extending your business by just using behavior analysis of web guest. There are a lot of many companies which gives free evaluation of a company's web performance as an assist for the possible web marketing services necessary.

Branding and sales planning normally depend on the extended use of online marketing services. The true proof that this is a formula which is successful is that companies normally organize real web marketing departments to create the right premises for development on the electronic market. Search engine marketing or SEM usually plays the best and most important role of every online web marketing services no matter where it is provided from. So the business evolution and specificity will easily accelerate given the required help and consultancy options. Now the need for web marketing services may become very desperate when a big decline if not actually fall is registered in business evolution.

You'll reduce the very risk of bad evolution and financial loss if you invest in online marketing solutions when you first start to plan strategies and business development online. The truth is, a lot of important tasks would be simply carried out professionally, such as web design, which is very hard to correct when they are ready in the final format. However, you can also save some money if you rely on methods, techniques, and concepts that have since be verified and validated by some extensive experience in a domain.

14...Analyze your competition and compete to win

Given today's economy, competition is very fierce nowadays. If you actually do not have something very important over your competition, you won’t make sales. That’s just the simple truth. Now maybe you have already seen your competition having better access to consumers and simply selling more to them than you do. Or maybe now you are finally ready to put yourself in just their position, giving yourself the most important thing which is advantage over your competition - so that you can easily go one step over them.

In every sector or organization, some sales people normally stand out. Is it that they have a lot of energy which they use to do so many things like generating so many leads, making so many appointments, and also closing deals consistently?

This might make you wonder, doesn't it? Are they smarter? Better? And more appealing than you? The truth is they are not; they are actually not smarter, better or more appealing than you are! But, they're doing the right thing which they have to!

Now what exactly are they doing that you are not? Maybe you will like to know.

There is a very big chance that these people who make top sales have actually figured out some very good skills and practices and they have actually practiced until they finally mastered these techniques and skills to find the right prospects and close the sale.

They have figured out that there is need to actually know your enemy and also find out WHO exactly is your competition! What is their important Selling Proposition (ISP) and what makes this very different from yours? If you know their weaknesses and strengths, you can easily change your ISP to simply stand out from theirs. Now ask yourself: How can I present my product to my prospective customers so that they will easily choose my service over the competitions? Why is my product or services better at solving my client's problem or need?

How consistently you make sales over your competitor normally determines your profitability levels. The truth is, your competitor also determines largely your survival in the Land of Sales and also your rate of growth! Always ensure that everything you do, maybe presenting an offer must be done simply from the customer’s point of view, and how they also relate to you and your competitor.

You will start by determining what your customer buying motive is. Immediately you are able to find that out, then find the actual reason why they are not buying from you but your competitor. Now your question should be what exact value does my competitor normally provide which is always above and beyond that of mine? This will definitely give you good insight to the reason they are buying from your competitor, instead of you.

15...Choose software to make your tasks easy

Investing in the right software solutions is one of the best decisions any small business can make. The truth is, technology is a major asset for any-sized business; and day-to-day operations are usually dependent on it. In the competitive business landscape of nowadays, it has become very important for small businesses to easily leverage on technology such as software solutions - to simply maximize productivity and also keep operational expenses very low. Before businesses can take advantage of technology, they must first buy or acquire the right software solutions so that they can meet the demands of their business.

16...Build credibility online

In recent years internet marketing has become much more competitive; and as a result, the confidence of consumers has lowered. The trust factor has been lost by so many people going through the Internet, and it is very hard to build up a very good reputation than it has ever been.

17...Here are a few things you can do to help show your customers that you are there for them all the way.

· Always be accountable

· Show Your Results

· Stand Behind Everything You Offer.

18...Be social

It does not really matter what exactly you sell on the Internet today - be it eBooks or the products which you have to mail out for services that you normally provide yourself - you will have to find customers.

This is very certain, but it normally depends on how creative you are at finding those customers most especially when those methods won’t need you to spend more money.

And this is why it is very important that you become very familiar with social networking sites to use as a method to gain more business.

Yes, there are a lot of customers to be found on these sites such as facebook, twitter, pinterest etc. Although they are mainly intended for only social purposes, they can also be used for business purposes too. All you need is learn how to do it.

And the truth is, the people who are already doing it are reaping lots of rewards. There are a lot of people who are internet users and are members of at least one social networking site which you have been ignoring a large number of potential customers if you don't at least try it. Facebook alone has over 2 billion users as of the middle of 2017, so I believe you can easily see just how big an opportunity this can be. And the truth is, once you have tried marketing to your audience in this way, you won't want to stop.

19...Start up forum

With Facebook and Twitter always getting the most of our attention among all social networks, now it’s like every other tools of internet communication have gradually lost their magic. In fact, the truth is, anybody who has been on Twitter or Facebook can simply confirm that most of the audience consists of people from age 20 to 40 who are technology savvy and who also want to make a very good statement about their lives. But another thing is that most of our lives are neither so eventful nor exciting that we want the whole world to know about it every 15 minutes.

Now almost all the people living normal lives are actually the members of different blogs, forums, or discussion groups. Most of us have our best topics which we are very passionate about and can even have a good reputation as a resident expert. Forum marketing can easily make your online business get noticed all over the world. Contrary to the famous opinion that users of forums are confused people which seek answers to the problems of life, research has found out that forum users are by and large tech and net-savvy and most of them like trying out new products and buying things online. The truth is, some forum members are also paid to provide advice to others as they are often see as authorities in the topics brought up for discussion in the forum.

You can easily make a good impression in front of a knowledgeable and influential audience when you use a forum for SEO marketing and if your product or service is very good, then it will also become famous in a very short time.

20...Make it legal

There are two things you must have in order to make your business legal.

The very first thing you will have to do is file your business name with your state. This is described as doing Business as (DBA) or maybe Fictitious Name, it actually depends on the state you reside. It is just as easy as going down to register your business name at your local County Office building. You will be charged a small fee. Just find out the cost of the money in your county. You will also have to file a corporation with your state and all states have a website which gives details about this, you can even do this online most times. A corporation will actually give more protection to your business but it is also very expensive.

The next thing you will have to do is get a Tax ID number because most states need you to have one. In many states it is called a Sales Tax and Use Certificate. In other states it is mostly called a Seller's Permit. Now what is the exact purpose of this number? It easily allows you to collect sales tax on product you sell within your own state. You will have to use this to file and also pay taxes on the products which you sell. You can easily get a Tax ID number by paying a visit to your local State Tax office. You will simply complete the process and have your Tax ID number in a few minutes for a little fee. If you purchase products from a wholesaler, you will just give them a copy of your Seller's Permit. This will just prove to the IRS that they are not needed to charge you tax on items which they sell to you for wholesale prices.

Now here you have it! These are just the two things you will need to do in order to make your business very legal. This is not too painful or scary, I hope. It is actually very easy and also cheaper than you thought, right?