In this article we will show you how to start an online business step by step. Ready? Good.
You’ve probably been searching around the web for quite some time now, trying to learn as much as you can about how to start and grow your business. Or maybe you’ve even tried to grow your business using social media, but it didn’t turn out as well as you hoped.
You see, others do it. And it seems like everyone makes it look so easy. But for some reason, success keeps eluding you.
Indeed, if you’re like many people who are just starting a business, especially during this pandemic period, and you probably thinking of the necessary steps to get your business on the World Wide Web.
Don’t despair because this time, you’re going to be equipped with the same tips, tricks, and secrets that successful brands and businesses know, and you can successfully start an online business at the face of coronavirus.
Did I hear you say Ridiculous! It is not because Downturns or challenging times are seen as good times to start a business for two reasons. One is, there is less competition for resources. The second reason is that whatever changes we face, positive or negative, bring up new customer needs. And customer needs are at the core of any business.
You have seen or heard of sites grow to thousands of members or subscribers within months of launching. Actually, it is becoming more and more common.
You have heard your potential competitor’s stories of how they experienced exponential growth in their businesses. Web-based businesses that are merely one to three years old are growing and generating millions in revenue, and you ever wonder how these domain websites experience such growth? Then you’re reading the right article to guide you.
In this guide, we will show in detail how launching an online business can be made easy.
Step 1: Find a business idea.
Every business starts with an idea. A good business idea should provide a solution to a significant problem and serve a particular market.
It is advisable to turn something that you are good at into a business. For example, if you’re a prolific writer and love dogs, particularly small breeds, perhaps the world could learn a lot from you about taking care of these little dogs via your dog-centric blog. Sometimes a good untapped niche is all you need to get that rush of traffic to your website.
Step 2: Name your business.
Once you have a business idea, you need to come up with a business name. Some successful companies have separate brand names from their corporate name.
Discuss with your friends or family and select the most appropriate name. The name should be unique and distinctive to avoid conflicts with other companies.
Remember to also do a trademark search at your country’s intellectual property office. Avoid using potentially offensive words or phrases in your business name and slogan. Make sure that it is easy to pronounce and spell even when talking on the phone. Think four syllables or less.
Step 3: Register your business.
If you find this step necessary, you may consider registering your online business as an official business entity. The type of corporation that you choose when registering your business is important.
If you decided to go for an unlimited liability such as sole proprietorship or general partnership, you or all the partners in your business would be equally responsible for all liability (debts) of the company.
But it’s much easier to register these entities and a lot cheaper. However, for a limited liability corporation, you are not personally liable, but the cost of registering one is higher than the former. If you’re just starting alone, you could just run your online business without registering a corporate entity as long as it is within the law, but please ensure you perform your tax obligations.
Step 4: Get your domain name.
Your domain name should be similar to your business name to avoid confusion. Many domain registrars offer an array for domain name prices, but some are (notably nicedomain.com). They help you with your website online with a cPanel that’s easy, fast, and reliable. They are also notable for building domain with email — use your domain for your email address at a reasonable price. When choosing a domain name, you should select .com extension as your first choice. If .com is taken, the next popular extension is .net and .co. If you need a fast and easy way to check domain name availability, place your contact with nicedomain.com. I advise you to buy your newly discovered domain name there.
Step 5: Get your web hosting server.
In 2010, Marketing research conducted found that online shoppers expect pages to load in two seconds or less. At three seconds, a large number of them abandon the site.
Choose a web hosting service that is reliable and with a sufficiently fast connection, and nicedomain is the ideal web hosting service with authentic customers’ reviews. They also throw in a free domain if you choose their hosting plans.
Remember not to look at the price of hosting since most cheaper hosting companies limit the amount of traffic that you get per month or provide lesser resources (CPU, RAM) to each website that they host.
Others have unreliable servers, and this can cause your website to be temporarily unavailable when their servers crash. Nicedomain guarantees value for money and are affordable to start with.
Having cPanel, web hosting management software is crucial since it is a lot easier to manage your files, emails, and databases – this you don’t have a problem because nicedomain will offer 24/7 customer support since your website is open for business 24 hours per day. It’s best to choose nicedomain today.
Step 6: Build your website or product.
The type of products or services that you provide will determine the workload for this step. If you want to minimize the cost, use free Content Management Software (CMS) such as WordPress or Joomla to quickly design a website without any programming at all – you will definitely get help and support from nicedomain.com. They come with literally thousands of design templates and plugins. They help with customizing Free eCommerce tools such as WooCommerce, Magento or Prestashop into a fully functional online store. Open-source software or clone script is also available. However, if your business idea is more customized, you could team up with nicedomain software developer to build it from scratch or outsource the work. It will take some time, but your product should reflect upon its unique selling proposition with the necessary features that you desire. You should start with the most critical features then add more functions as you go along. Don’t focus too much on quantity than quality. Also, ensure that your online product is user-friendly with an intuitive user interface to reduce customer bounce rates.
Step 7: Write a genuine business website press
Media coverage for a press release is essential as it serves as a form of marketing strategy. It is crucial to understand the necessary skills required to write a valid website launch press releases. Questions like how long do press releases last? What information should you include? To answer these questions, you should know what is a website launch press release? A business website press release is an official (written or recorded) publication that an organization releases to the media and other platforms, announcing to the public information relating to the organization or business.
Several years ago, people enjoyed reading information through the newspaper or television. Most of your customers and potential customers browse headlines on social media, linking them directly to the latest happenings. People now control where, when, and how they consume information. As a result, the press release is no longer reduced to a traditional news cycle. It’s about providing relevant content when, where, and how your customers, influencers, and customers consume them.
Therefore, to write and publicize a business website press release, you should utilize all necessary platforms to ensure the information gets to your customers and potential customers when, where, and how they can receive them.
Your business website press release must include the following:
- Interesting title
- The name of the company launching the new website
- Website focus and variety of content
- Target group
- The function of the target group and the value of your website to them
- Company logo or other related images (mandatory)
- All other exciting information about the values offered by the website/company
- A quote from the user/customer or someone related to the business website press release
- Website Address
- Dateline
- Boiler Plates – includes information about the company such as; Communication information (contact person, organization, address, telephone)
Here are the following ways to maintain your customers’ interest and potential customers in your business website press release:
Write an exciting title.
An exciting title gives you more chances to get your press release read by a journalist. It is a good idea to tag press release emails with the expression “press release.” However, a good topic is also essential. Don’t attempt to be smart about the headline; most reporters only spend a few seconds determining whether a press release looks fascinating. If your information is difficult to understand, it might be dropped.
Your story is about starting a new business website, therefore make sure your headline is attention-grabbing and relatable to whoever will take a glance at the press release.
Make sure your story is informative.
Before you also attempt to write a press release, reflect on the information that you enjoy reading, seeing, and hearing in the media. Most of us are usually interested in things we have never heard before that help solve our problems. Before you prepare a press release, you must ask the following questions:
1. Does my website have something exciting to offer?
2. Will people be interested in my business?
3. Will everyone care about my business website?
The last question sounds challenging, and one of the most vital things: the business website launch may be pleasing to you and your team, but will the customers and potential care? Will they be able to relate to what your new launch? If the answer is no, keep this press release and tune the information till you are sure of how the public will relate with the launch. Press releases must also include a statement that the public can understand with inspiring quotes. The ideal length of a press release is around 300 to 400 words. This brief is about three or four short paragraphs and a few quotes. If the press release is lengthy, you might want to proofread and remove any fluffy words.
In your introduction, don’t try to include the necessary information about your company. This, as well as further information, will be better on the second page towards the end of the release.
With the use of subheadings and bullets, the audience can correctly understand the information, especially if you provide numbers or statistics.
However, the use of quotes from representatives in your company proves useful for journalists (and is often used word for word in regional or commercial media outlets). Quotes must be used to deliver insights, ideas, and opinions that relate to or support your business website launch. You certainly don’t have to be full of methodological languages but relatable statements.
Finally, social media is full of reporters complaining about press releases or places, which do not clearly explain what the company is doing or the value of the business or message. Instead of being a joke, make your publication very easy to be used as a reference.
Explain in clear and straightforward English what value your business website launch will add to customers and potential customers. Include a link to your company homepage at the beginning and make the boilerplate precise and clear. When quoting data, add a reference link to the data source and make sure that each name in the publication has a related title and company.
Focus on creating a fascinating business website press release. The traditional form of press releases can still be precious if appropriately executed. Therefore, modernize your messages to make them more useful for your marketing.
Think about how you use input methods to change your marketing strategy to be more personal, accessible, and build relationships. The same principle applies to your press release strategy: create the content by developing your own story and use tactical information to introduce reporters and analysts to your brand.
Step 8: Promote or sell your product or website
Many startups find it difficult to promote their product or website in the first few months, especially when they have insufficient marketing budgets. Social media marketing could also be useful during the early stages of your business. Well, at least it’s free to start with. Create a free Facebook page, Twitter, and Instagram account for your business and post tutorials, offers, promos, discounts, and more. Search engine optimization (SEO) is very important to any online business. Ensure your site is SEO friendly so that it ranks visibly well on organic search results. Using guest posting service is also a key strategy that every business owner should use to build their online presence. If you have money to spend on marketing, utilize Facebook Ads or Google Adwords and other ads networks to generate more traffic on your website.
So you see, starting an online business requires a lot of cash. What it really needs is your brain and energy to make it work. Ultimately, each business will require some investments to make it grow. When that happens, you should be able to find enough funds to scale.
