Tutorial: How to start your own online business

Starting your own online business can be challenging, especially when you’ve never done anything of the sort before (including the grueling task of mastering SEO New York). Aside from getting your head around domain names and hosting plans, how to use the likes of Wordpress and ecommerce plugins so that people can purchase your product, there are also other details that you need to know. In this brief four-step tutorial, we will cover the basics of setting up a small online business.

 

Step 1: Find a niche, and then fill the need. 

Do thorough market research into what is in over abundance, what is selling, and what you think could be a good product or service that you can supply. How? Browse online forums to see what kinds of questions people are asking and what solution they need / are seeking / don’t realize they need for their problems. 

Once you’ve identified a problem and/or solution, search the internet to see how many results the solution to their problem gets. If there are few hits, then there’s a market for that! 

Your next step is to do keyword research using tools such as Google’s keyword planner. It will tell you how many people are searching a certain term as well as the competition for that term. If competition is low but search volume is high, you’re in luck, my friend. 

If you can identify any competitors for your keywords, then check out their sites and see what they’re up to. How are they filling the demand? What’s their style? How can you make yours better?

 

Step 2: Create great content 

Content is not just about being interesting, creative, and original. It’s about knowing how to sell your product or service. Yes, there’s a formula for that. It goes a little something like this:

•  You first need to pike visitors’ interest with a persuasive headline.
• Then you must discuss in not too much detail (this is a homepage, after all) the problem that your product will help them solve.
• Provide real testimonials from people (they can be your friends to begin with, sure) who have used your product and seen great results. 
•  Explain how your product benefits the user (and is the best solution to their problem; not just a solution). 
•  Make an offer.
• Make a strong guarantee.
• Create urgency.
• Ask for the sale.

 

Step 3: It’s design time! Now let’s have some fun building your website

Ever heard the maxim “keep it simple”? Well, this holds true for website design and navigation too. It is crucial that you have an easily readable and navigable homepage and website in order to retain the interest of your visitors. You have less than 10 seconds to get their attention, so every little detail matters. Here are some foolproof tips to get you thinking about how your website should look and function:

• Choose one or two plain fonts on an inoffensive (i.e. plain) background. Nothing too dramatic or busy.
• Make your navigation clear and simple, and the same on every page.
• Use images and video to tell them your message in a way that means they don’t have to read a lot of text (yeah, people’s attention spans’ leave a lot to be desired these days).
•  I cannot stress this point enough: make it easy to buy (i.e. there shouldn’t be more than two clicks between a potential customer and the checkout).

 

Step 4: Three not-so-simple words: Search engine optimization (SEO)

SEO is an essential part in driving your online business. This is how your potential customers find you. You can do it yourself (there are great how-to-guides everywhere), or you can solicit the services of a professional online marketing company such as Jubliant Web. They are SEO experts and know how to get your website ranking on the first page of Google’s search results. Their SEO New York service is competitive, so you’d better be in quick before they agree to work with your competition before you. 

Check out their SEO New York services now.