4 Steps to Start an Online Business
There is such an overload of information on making money and how to start an online business it's easy to get lost in all of the knowledge.
One of the more profitable ways is to create your own product.
Start with these four steps to get you on your way.
1.
Find your niche Take an inventory of your own interests.
Do you have a hobby that you love.
Do people come to you for advice on a certain topic.
Are there special skills that you use in your offline work? Can't think of anything? Do you know someone that has specialized knowledge that others might want.
Could you interview them with basic who, what, why, where, and how questions? If so you've got the makings of a great informational product that people might be willing to buy.
2.
Is there a market Next you need to make sure that there is a market for your knowledge or information.
The best bet is a free tool at SEO Book http://tools.
seobook.
com/keyword-tools/seobook/index.
php Just type in a keyword phrase that goes with what you are currently researching.
Look at the total of daily searches.
The more the better and more likely your product will succeed.
Some people skip this step but it could be the most important.
That step is finding out exactly what your market wants.
You can go about this a couple of different ways.
The cheapest way is to find forums about your prospective niche.
Look and find questions related to your knowledge.
Can what you are thinking of producing be an answer to their needs? Are there questions being asked that aren't being answered adequately? Alternately you can use pay per click search engines such as Google or Yahoo search.
Send traffic to a site that asks a couple a questions about what they are looking for and how hard has it been to find.
The more responses, the better the chances of success.
3.
Create your product Next is to create your product.
Look at what others are creating and selling.
Perhaps it is all ebooks and courses.
Maybe you could offer a demonstration video or power point slide show instead.
Take your knowledge that you've acquired and put it into a format that can be resold electronically (ebook, video, how to course, etc.
).
For your first product you'll want to keep it simple and charge a small fee for it ($10-$20).
You aren't looking for a home run here, just a little extra cash to learn some basics before you start to move on to larger projects.
Take some of the features that your product has and write them as benefits.
Take these and turn them into a simple sales page to promote your product.
Don't hype it up, just something simple that explains why your prospect might need what you are offering.
4.
Market to your audience OK, so you've got your product and you're certain that there is a hungry market out there.
Now what? Time to start selling your creation.
If you gathered your information from forums you could make non-sales posts and have a link to your product in you signature.
If you drove traffic through pay per click, have the traffic going to your sales page instead of your question page.
There are at least a hundred different ways to drive traffic.
Blogging, article marketing, joint ventures, and on, and on, and on.
Learn one or two very well and get good at them before adding other sources of traffic.
Although this is a simplified overview of how to start an online business it is doable.
There are other ways to go about starting one as well, but I think you will find creating your own product the most rewarding.
One of the more profitable ways is to create your own product.
Start with these four steps to get you on your way.
1.
Find your niche Take an inventory of your own interests.
Do you have a hobby that you love.
Do people come to you for advice on a certain topic.
Are there special skills that you use in your offline work? Can't think of anything? Do you know someone that has specialized knowledge that others might want.
Could you interview them with basic who, what, why, where, and how questions? If so you've got the makings of a great informational product that people might be willing to buy.
2.
Is there a market Next you need to make sure that there is a market for your knowledge or information.
The best bet is a free tool at SEO Book http://tools.
seobook.
com/keyword-tools/seobook/index.
php Just type in a keyword phrase that goes with what you are currently researching.
Look at the total of daily searches.
The more the better and more likely your product will succeed.
Some people skip this step but it could be the most important.
That step is finding out exactly what your market wants.
You can go about this a couple of different ways.
The cheapest way is to find forums about your prospective niche.
Look and find questions related to your knowledge.
Can what you are thinking of producing be an answer to their needs? Are there questions being asked that aren't being answered adequately? Alternately you can use pay per click search engines such as Google or Yahoo search.
Send traffic to a site that asks a couple a questions about what they are looking for and how hard has it been to find.
The more responses, the better the chances of success.
3.
Create your product Next is to create your product.
Look at what others are creating and selling.
Perhaps it is all ebooks and courses.
Maybe you could offer a demonstration video or power point slide show instead.
Take your knowledge that you've acquired and put it into a format that can be resold electronically (ebook, video, how to course, etc.
).
For your first product you'll want to keep it simple and charge a small fee for it ($10-$20).
You aren't looking for a home run here, just a little extra cash to learn some basics before you start to move on to larger projects.
Take some of the features that your product has and write them as benefits.
Take these and turn them into a simple sales page to promote your product.
Don't hype it up, just something simple that explains why your prospect might need what you are offering.
4.
Market to your audience OK, so you've got your product and you're certain that there is a hungry market out there.
Now what? Time to start selling your creation.
If you gathered your information from forums you could make non-sales posts and have a link to your product in you signature.
If you drove traffic through pay per click, have the traffic going to your sales page instead of your question page.
There are at least a hundred different ways to drive traffic.
Blogging, article marketing, joint ventures, and on, and on, and on.
Learn one or two very well and get good at them before adding other sources of traffic.
Although this is a simplified overview of how to start an online business it is doable.
There are other ways to go about starting one as well, but I think you will find creating your own product the most rewarding.
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