Copyright 2006 Monique Hawkins
Once a home based business owner has decided on a niche they will target for their business, the next step is to get it online as quickly as possible. The good news is, this does not have to be a time consuming process. However, before one starts, keep these few concepts in mind:
1. Don't worry about perfection. Testing and tweaking will have to be done so that your marketing campaign is done right. You want to make sure you test what works so that the same mistakes aren't constantly made. Testing has to be done if any online home-based business will see any kind of profit.
2. Don't spend tons of money on advertising until things start converting! Learn from small windfalls and use the profits to fund marketing.
3. Don't create another job for yourself. You want to be sure you get things set up correctly from the start in order to create multiple streams of income. This will allow you to leverage your time. Get things automated as much as possible as this helps tremendously with the time factor.
4. Invest in education. Keep updated on current events in the marketing world. Attend seminars, purchase ebooks, and listen to teleseminars. You don't have to spend thousands of dollars, but do allot some money for investing in your mind.
5. Don't have the get rich quick mentality. For any business, it takes time and effort to develop and be successful. This won't happen overnight!
Now, we are ready to start getting your business online quickly. Let's get going with Day 1.
Day 1: Register a domain name and get a hosting account. Make sure you have made a list of the keywords you want to target for your online home business. Remember to use tools such as Wordtracker, Good Keywords, Google's Sandbox Tool, or others to create a keyword list.
Once you have your list, it's time to register a domain name. Godaddy is good because its inexpensive, makes domain management easy, and offers free forwarding and domain parking. Of course, there are others for you to check out as well such as hostway.com and networksolutions.com. You can also go to Google and type in "domain registration" and many more options will come up. What you want to do is to search for available domains using the most profitable keywords.
After you have registered a domain name, you will need to find a good hosting account. Be aware that hosting can go from zero cost to hundreds of dollars per month. Here are a few important things to remember when host searching:
1. Make sure it is reasonably priced. You don't need to pay over $20 per month.
2. Make sure it allows you to have full FTP Access. This means you are able to transfer files from your computer to the server.
3. Make sure there is enough server space. This is the amount of space your web sites take up on the server. Most websites don't take up much and don't have more than a few MB's of space.
4. Email Accounts: The hosting company should allow for at least 5 POP email accounts. These are just a few things to consider when host hunting.
Day 2 and 3: Website Design and Content
The important point to remember for day 2 and 3 is to keep it simple! This is especially important if you are selling an ebook. You will need a good headline that will grab visitor's attention quickly. You will also need to connect with them and show them you have the best answers to their particular problem. It does not have to take pages and pages for this. A few pages are really all that is needed. If you feel writing sales copy is too overwhelming, you can always outsource the project and post it on a site such as elance.com.
Getting a niche home based business online does not have to difficult or time consuming. It can be done quickly and easily. Follow the above steps and get started today. |
