Ever wanted to start your own online business?
This blog post should help you a great deal.
Scroll down if you’d like the free PDF ebook of this post.
Many people are looking for personal, financial freedom by way of an internet business.
I’m often contacted by friends AFTER they have invested a few thousand dollars (not just a couple hundred dollars) in either a web developer or a program, that promises the world. Please don’t do that again! Several programs out there are truly excellent, HOWEVER…
…many internet business training programs were NEVER designed for people who are completely NEW to ‘business on the internet’, let alone new to ‘business’ or for people who are completely new to the ‘internet’!
I also know one person who bought a very expensive program which did not teach her how to set up a web site (and she did not know the meaning of “URL”, for example) – there was precious little support once she was in the program. By the time she really understood the program’s content, and woke up to the “what was what” inside the member site, it was also too late for a refund.
This blog post is for you, if you are in a place of considering an internet presence for yourself and have NO IDEA WHERE BEST TO START!
Below, I have added a video with step by step instructions for setting up a self hosted WordPress blog. You can change the theme later if the one shown does not suit.
I have also added links to the top tools used in my own business and my favorite affiliate programs.
Do not panic if you have no idea what all those are about as yet.
Simply view the two videos below, then explore the links I have added in this blog post.
Once you’ve done that, your creative thoughts will begin flowing and you’ll have a ton of questions!
Write down all your questions and send them here to my contact form
If your questions will help others who arrive here, I’ll answer them in this blog post. If your questions are more personal to you, I’ll answer them in a reply to you. Either way, I will reply to your email sent to my contact form.
Why am I offering this for free? It’s simply my way of giving back, as I too had help when I began (way back in 2002).
Be sure to ask before spending money and copious amounts of time on anything, and I’ll let you now if you’re wasting your time & dollars or if an alternative route might be better.
Hang onto the following links too. You WILL need them, sooner than later
I use (ad) A2 Hosting for my own website hosting services and I register all my website domains at (ad) NameCheap. The customer service at both these is fantastic. Trust me, that there are many good reasons to register your domains at one place and host them at another.
You will also need a service that collects your subscribers and emails your content to them at regular intervals. For that I use the (ad) Aweber autoresponder service for building your own email following.
You will then need a few tools or resources for creating your own free or paid offer, to entice subscribers for receiving your regular emails.
I have a collection of my favorite online and business building tools. I recommend exploring each of those, for the kinds of resources that will help you create your own offers.
If you do not yet have your own product to sell, or want to augment your own collection, then I have a list of some of my favorite affiliate programs here.
In addition, I think you will very much enjoy exploring this great list: (ad) How Much Do the Top Bloggers Make? Creating that list has taken hours of research and features all the latest numbers as well as new bloggers that are earning big money. It’s great for showing you just what is possible.
As “they” say…
SUCCESS comes before WORK only in the dictionary! Click To TweetSo get moving!
Send me your questions so I can fill this blog post with the very best advice.
If I do not know an answer, then I have plenty of great online friends who will know. Plus if you are looking for someone to do it all for you, I recommend a good friend here for any web services, plus (ad) I definitely recommend this book by Rob Cubbon also. Well worth reading.
(ad) Click ebook image & download a free ebook of this post
Below, is where I will answer your questions.
The more simple and basic your questions, the better.
Many absolute beginners will visit this page and I want to make it relevant to beginners.
Other visitors will have the same kinds of questions as you.
Your name will remain private.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS:
Q: What domain name should I choose for my site?
A: Incorporate your business name into your web domain or, use your business name as your web domain. Make sure your name is easy to spell and say. Keep it short (you’ll be typing it many times over). Although .com is desired and preferred, there is nothing wrong with a .net or other. Avoid numbers, letters, abbreviations, strange spellings and anything else that might confuse. If you’re able, buy all forms of the domain name, for example, if your domain is google, buy google.net, google.org, google.info etc. As your business grows, many will want to ride your coat tails. They may publish not so desirable content on those sites and visitors may mistake them as being authored by you. Also, buy all forms of your own name e.g. theawestra.com etc. to avoid others using your success to create a totally unrelated web site.
Place a simple opt in gift at those pages when they’re found. I also recommend choosing the privacy option that a hosting service offers when you buy your domain name(s). Costs a little extra, however it is worth doing.
Q: Could you offer me any advice on how to get more traffic to my site?
A: A few quick ideas to begin with… Do you have an email list and can you send them your latest article for sharing with their friends, each time you publish a new piece? Could you create a give-away gift to encourage the signing up of new subscribers? E.g. I have this give-away at top-right of my blog. Inside your PDF gift can be a link back to your blog, and/or the free gift’s opt-in page. Create lots of short PDFs and insert a link to your blog, then publish then at Scribd and SlideShare. A cool tool that I’m beginning to use for that purpose is (ad) Designrr. Have more obvious Social Share buttons at your blog e.g. use AddThis or similar service. Create articles (ad) like this or (ad) this article by asking other blog owners to contribute, then ask them to share the article. Create viral images using something like my favorite Stencil tool which have your blog URL in them & that get shared around social sites, particularly Facebook. For example, see all these images that are a part of my collection. Create a product and ask friends & colleagues to be an affiliate. A cool, simple program for that is Zaxaa. Once you have a good, free gift page, write email copy for it and ask colleagues to share it with their subscribers, in exchange you’ll do the same for them & their free offering. That helps you both get new subscribers.
If you’re not already using it, definitely use the Yoast SEO plugin at your blog. Subscribing to their newsletter is worthwhile too. Don’t waste any opportunity for adding opt in forms, for example (ad) at my Facebook page you can see the blue sign up button near top-right, and I use Better Click To Tweet at my Twitter account. You might also like Social Warfare for helping visitors share your content. I hope those tips have helped somewhat. You can see how some of the ideas listed will feed each other, and create their own cycles, thereby building on each other, creating a bit of a viral effect.
Q: I just wanted to know what’s the process like in running an affiliate program. I have always been hesitant of running my own products, but I guess I will have to do it soon! Appreciate any thoughts, tips or guides on this.
A: I use Thrivecart for my own Forward Steps affiliate program. Was thinking of (ad) going with Zaxaa, also an awesome system. My preferred was to be (ad) iDevAffiliate which I see is also used by many colleagues. Some “biggish” people with whom I’m an affiliate have used it for a long. long time & they never seem to wander away from it. Plus as an affiliate, I enjoy the experience of easily finding what I want. I also like how really easy it is in there for affiliates to create their own links from any page of the web owner. I’ve had the thought of moving to (ad) iDevAffiliate for ages & ages before Thrivecart came along. Another avenue I’d also recommend is getting your product/ebook onto ClickBank and it’s all managed by them too plus affiliates can create their personal link at a place like this. Lastly, you could publish Kindle ebooks and paperbacks for free at Kindle Direct Publishing and affiliates can (ad) sign up here then promote your book e.g. I have (ad) aone of mine there. For Clickbank there’s (ad) this affiliate tools page plugin. Though in (ad) iDevAffiliate it is included, so you don’t need to set up your own.
(ad) eBook is created with Designrr
PLUS check out these free gifts from friends…CHECK out the following great resources as well…Forward Steps Personal Development »
Hi, I'm Thea Westra at Forward Steps (forwardstepsblog.com)
Join me at my social profiles using the icons below. THEN...CLICK HERE to Start Your Forward Steps Journey and Trigger Your 'Aha' Light Bulb Moments!
