Everybody can start an online business in this generation. Even if you don’t have an existing business, there are a lot of opportunities for success on the internet.
Online business is very popular today because it’s easier to build than a physical one. It doesn’t require you to be an expert in the industry. There are a lot of resources available too to learn from it. Tools are available at cheap prices. And most importantly, people rely on the internet for almost everything, from learning how to cook to buying a multi-functional digital air fryer. Internet is everything in this generation.
There are a lot of opportunities on the internet because people are here almost every time. If that’s it then let’s take advantage of it.
I know you already have the idea of starting your own online business. But I also sense that you don’t know how to do it yet. Don’t worry because we are here to give you a guide on your online business journey.
Guides to Start an Online Business
Here are the things you will do to start an online business:
Brainstorm a niche for your business
Every business has its own niche. Just like Nike who’s one of the biggest sports brands in the world. Their niche is in sports products and targets people who are in sports and fans.
So, what niche could be the best for you when you start an online business? It will depend on you. The best niche could be in the health industry but it might not be best for you unless you have experience in the health profession.
In choosing your niche, try to consider these three factors:
- Your knowledge and experience
- Your interest and passion
- The market demand
Compared to those niches in that you have no knowledge and experience, it will be hard for you to sell. It’s because people will always ask questions about the product or service that you offer and if you can’t answer them, they will surely move to your competitor.
On the other hand, if you choose a niche based on your interest and passion, it will be easy for you to sell because you can talk about it all day. You are knowledgeable enough and people can feel your sincerity. Just like when passionate sellers offer their products, people can feel it and would likely buy from them.
The last factor is the market demand. It’s useless to have a unique product but there is no market demand for it. Make sure that the niche you choose has a lot of potential customers.
Decide what type of business model you want to build
There are much possible business models you can do with the niche you have chosen. You may produce and market your own goods. This can be made by creating your own online store. If your niche is sharing your knowledge such as courses, you can create eBooks and tutorial videos and then sell them on your website or blog.
You can also build an affiliate marketing business. In this type of business model, you don’t need to create your own products but you need to promote other people’s products and services. You can earn in affiliate marketing by promoting products of an existing company. Once a person made a purchase from the unique link provided by the company you will earn a commission.
Another popular platform you can use in your business is blogging. You can earn by blogging in different ways, and that includes affiliate marketing. If affiliate marketing isn’t your type, there are a lot of options to make money in your blogs. Ads are one of the popular ways for bloggers to make a profit with their blogs. You don’t need to promote anything, and you can still make money from it. Just let it display on your page. Some ads will pay you by the number of views of the ads on your page. Some pay you if a visitor clicks on it and makes a purchase or does any action after clicking the ad.
For more options, you can check out our list of online business ideas for beginners to help you out.
Research your target market
When you already have your niche, it’s time to know who your target is. Just like what I am saying lately. Nike’s target market is the people who are in sports and people who are sports fans. In that case, Nike always shows up in every sports tournament. They know who their target is and how to find them.
By knowing your target, you can provide for all of their needs too. You can create content, product, or services that they might possibly need in the future.
It’s important to know what are the groups of people you’re going to offer your products or services to before you start an online business. You can’t offer a bass guitar to groups of people who are soccer fans. There might be a soccer fan who plays bass but only a few of them.
To research your target market, you can make use of the internet and create a buyer persona. A semi-fictional portrayal of your target market is called a buyer persona. You can base it on real data such as their age, gender, location, interests, and more.
Do keyword research
A keyword is one of the important things you need to consider when you start an online business. It’s a word or phrase that best describes your content. People use keywords in search engines when they look for something on the internet.
For example, I am looking for a “content writing guide” because I want to improve my skills in writing content. So, I opened up my search engine and type in “content writing guide.” The results that came out are all the pages that have something to do with my keyword.
As a content creator, it is your job to make sure that your content can be seen by your target market. You must conduct keyword research for this reason.
There are a lot of keyword research tools you can use online. It also helps you to analyze if there are enough amount of people searching for your niche. If there are no people searching on your niche, what’s the point of talking about it? Look for related keywords that have enough searches and apply them to your website page.
Aside from analyzing the number of people searching your niche, the number of your competitors also is important. You can find a niche that has many people searching for it. But many websites already are competing on it. Some of it already established its authority on that keyword.
Find a keyword that has a good balance of search volume and competition. In this way, you have a big chance of getting discovered easily by your target audience.
Build your website
Having an online business also needs its own permanent home – a website. A website is like your online store or office where people can visit and learn more about your company.
A website is great because you can put an online store, add blogs about your business and the things you offer, and a lot more to provide what your potential customers need.
So, to start an online business with a website, you need to have a domain first. An example of a domain is .com, .net, and .org. When you purchase a domain, you can now create your website URL. Just like mybusiness.com. Then you’ll need to purchase web hosting services. A web host is a company that offers server space available for your website. This will allow your website to be viewed by people all over the world 24/7.
Visualize URL as your home address. It’s the place where people can find you online. A domain is like your house while a website is like your home. Web hosting is like the land where your home is built. It’s where you store all of your website files.
Now you have your location, land, and home, you need to have a website builder which is your architect and interior designer. A website builder will help you build your website without the need to learn to code.
There are many website builders out there but if you want an easy-to-use and beginner-friendly platform, I recommend WordPress. It’s one of the most popular site builders with a lot of features, plugins, and themes. You can create any type of website you want whether it’s for a blog, online store, portfolio, or business website.
You can check our list of best website builders to see some of the options you can use.
Create killer copies on your site
Copywriting or the art of writing effective content is important when building a website. This is one of your marketing strategies to attract potential customers and make them buy your product or avail of your services.
Your title, meta descriptions, product descriptions, and blog posts are some examples of where copywriting is used on a website. You need to have an attractive title that will make people want to click on your website. You need to also have an effective meta description so search engines will put your site on top of the list.
Your product descriptions should be able to convince potential customers to purchase what you’re selling. And lastly, your blog post should provide value and help people with their problems.
You can learn more about copywriting on the internet and start practicing it. The more you practice, the better you become at writing effective copies.
Do search engine optimization on your website
Search engine optimization or SEO is the process of optimizing your website to make it rank higher on search engines. This is important when you start an online business because the higher your website ranks, the more people will see it. And if more people see it, there’s a big chance that you’ll get more customers.
There are several methods for performing SEO. But the most common and basic way to do it is by using keywords.
You need to find relevant keywords that you can use on your website. Then, use it on your title, meta descriptions, product descriptions, blog posts, and even on your website’s URL.
You can use keyword research tools to help you find the right keywords to use. Some of the popular keyword research tools are Google Keyword Planner and Semrush.
Another thing you need to do is to make sure that your website is mobile-friendly. This is because more and more people are using their mobile phones to search for things on the internet.
You can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to see if your website is mobile-friendly or not. If it’s not, then you need to make some changes to your website so it will be mobile-friendly. Ensure that your page loads quickly as well. People are impatient and they will leave your site if it takes too long to load.
Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to test the performance of your website. If it’s slow, then you need to do something about it. Some of the things you can do to make your website load faster are to optimize your images, minify your code, and use a caching plugin.
Strategize your marketing plan
After you’ve done all the technical stuff as you start an online business, it’s now time to market your business. There are a lot of ways to market your online business. But you need to strategize first which marketing methods you’ll use so you can have an effective marketing campaign.
Some popular marketing methods are social media marketing, email marketing, and content marketing. You can use all of these methods or just focus on one or two. It all depends on your preference and what you think will work best for your business.
But before you start with your marketing campaign, you need to have a plan. This plan will help you determine your goals, target market, budget, and timeline. This will also make your marketing campaign more organized and effective.
Conclusion
Now that you have an idea of how to start an online business, it’s now up to you to take action. Just remember that starting an online business is not easy. It will take a lot of perseverance, commitment, and hard work.
Following a very well-laid plan to start an online business will help you achieve your goals and become successful in this industry.
Still don’t know what kind of business you want to start? We made a list of low cost but profitable online business every beginners can do.