It goes without saying that everyone who starts up an online
business wants to be successful. Having an online business means
you can "retire" and work online. With your own successful
online business you quit your day job. No more commuting. No more
boss. No more 9-to-5 drudgery.
But how do you set up an online business if you don't know where
to start?
There is a secret to setting up a successful online business that
no one ever wants to talk about. The so-called internet "gurus"
don't talk about it because they want to sell you their product
that they claim will make you instantly rich. Some of them will
even offer to give you a free money-making web site. But why
would anyone give away a web site that makes lots of money?
Because these sites are designed to make them rich; not you.
There are lots of money-making scams on the internet and they are
easy to spot because they are full of hype and promises that you
can "get-rich-quick!"
None of this is true. Any logical person knows that it's
impossible to go to bed poor and wake up rich (unless you win the
lotto while you're asleep).
The real secret to a successful online business is just four
small letters. W-O-R-K. And that really is all there is to it.
But because the word "work" conjures up mental images of toil
and sweat, no one wants to talk about it. But it's worth doing
if your goal is to have financial freedom and the luxury of
working from home.
The way to create your own online business is to first build a
web site from scratch and work your way up. This means knowing
how to write HTML code which is the cornerstone of all web sites.
HTML code isn't difficult to understand once you know what
you're doing. Even if you only understand basic HTML, you'll
have a firm foundation to grow your business from. Web designers
will try and tell you that building web sites is difficult and is
best left the professionals (meaning them). But they only say
that to serve their own interests because if you build your own
web site, they're out of a job.
Understanding how to write HTML code is also handy if you do hire
a professional web designer in the future because you'll
understand their jargon and know if they're trying to
over-charge you.
But ultimately being able to write HTML code and build all your
own web sites gives you the freedom to design your sites exactly
as you want them and it puts you more in control of your online
business.
But before you build your first web site you need to know what
niche you want to work in.You can have a web site in any niche
(subject) you want but it needs to be something that you're
really interested in so that you can stay enthusiastic about your
site. If you can't get enthusiastic about your niche topic, it
will show in your web site and ultimately your income will
suffer.
Once you know what you want to make your web site about then you
should start small with just a simple site that has only a few
pages. A site that's too big too soon will quickly become too
much.
You can place a few PPC (Pay Per Click) advertisements on your
site by simply copying and pasting a small script onto your web
pages. Ads are then displayed automatically and whenever a
visitor clicks on an ad, you earn money. These ads vary in
payment from only a few cents per click, up to several dollars.
So you can imagine how quickly that adds up day after day.
Next you need to find a few affiliate products to sell. There are
plenty of companies on the internet that use affiliate programs
to boost sales. There are also quite a few giant affiliate
directories where you can find hundreds of products from lots of
different companies. You just join an affiliate program for free,
place ads for the products on your web site, and whenever someone
clicks on one of your ads and makes a purchase, you earn a
commission. And some of the commissions pay as high as 75%.
Affiliate sales are a great way to generate income if you don't
have a product of your own to sell. Some people earn their whole
online income this way with some affilaites earning in excess of
$200,000 a year. And it's easy to see how.
Say you have a web site that advertises exercise equipment and
someone clicks through one of your links and buys a treadmill.
You could earn over $600 from a sale like that by doing nothing
more than placing a small advertisement on your site. Of course
not all commissions are that high. But even if you're only
making $20 a time from selling e-books, you only need to make a
few sales every day to earn a full-time income.
Eventually you may even consider selling your own products
online. Most people start by selling small information products
such as e-books because there's no expensive production required
and no shipping costs.
Of course, just because you have a web site doesn't mean that
you'll get a lot of visitors. So you also need to do some online
marketing to drive visitors (called "traffic") to your site.
Marketing can be done for free. You can market by writing
articles and uploading them to the online article directories.
You can give away free things such as short reports. Or you can
market your site using free videos and audio pod casts.
But whichever method you use to drive traffic to your web site,
you have to make sure that once your visitors get there, your web
page content is appealing, informative and compelling enough to
make them want to stay awhile and click on your PPC ads or make a
purchase through one of your affiliate links.
Of course, these are not the only ways to build a profitable web
site. But they are a great way to start. And once you know what
works for your site and what doesn't, you can add more pages and
make it as big as you want, or you can build more sites and
create what is known as VRE (Virtual Real-Estate). And as you can
probably imagine, more sites, means more sales and more PPC ads
which all adds up to more money.
So although building your own successful online business might
seem like W-O-R-K in the beginning, the quicker you can grow your
site the quicker you will profit from it. So working 8 hours a
day on your web site will build it quicker than working only 1-2
hours.
Just start with the basics; learn HTML code, learn how to write
compelling web page content and learn the simplest ways to start
making money online. Doing it this way will give you complete
control over your online business.
And you'll find that running your own online business is not
only interesting and fun but it's also extremely profitable.
And if that's what you really want, then you need to stop
dreaming about it and get to work right now.
As the old saying goes; be a doer, not a gunner.
Ruth Barringham: Imagine how great it would be if
you could live the life you've always desired by working from
home running your own online business. If this is something
you've always dreamed of doing, don't put if off any longer.
Find out how how simple it is to start your own online business
at: http://www.newonlinecourse.net/.
