So you now have a few business ideas? How do you now go about making money from them online?
Well one of the things you need to decide is how you are going to actually make the money. What I mean is, are you going to 'sell' a product, a service, a membership subscription or are you going to make money from selling advertising or indeed a combination of all!
First things first - You will need a name for your online business.
STOP! - Be Careful! Speed reading this part could cost you a lot of missed sales! I would recommend that you read ALL of our lessons BEFORE actually taking any action! You can always revisit each one once you know how it all fits together!
So, what is in a name? - Well lot's actually. You need to make sure that your name relates to your product or service and contains your most targeted 'keywords' - WHY? because you want your site to be as high up the search engine listings when somebody enters these keywords. Whilst search engines use many criteria to decide ranking, one of the most important relevance and your website/blog name suggests relevance! So, using the example of our Golf site, a good name may be www.bestukgolfcourses.com/ if your desired keywords are 'Best' 'UK' 'Golf' 'Courses' or what about www.cheapjuniorgolfclubs.com/ etc. But don't go overboard. Too many keywords can make your site name look ugly and clumsy.
So how do you find out if your name has already been taken? Easy, type it into your internet browser. I would also suggest that you type your name (as keywords ''Best' 'UK' 'Golf' 'Courses' etc) into Google and click 'search' this will not only show up similar names but can also provide you with an idication of your competition and a great insight into what they are selling!
To see if your desired name (lets call it your Domain Name) is available, visit one of these Domain registration companies :- Go Daddy (USA) or 123-Reg (UK) and perform a search. They will also let you know how much it will cost to buy your name and how long for etc.
WARNING - Please read this BEFORE you spend any money! You do not have to buy a Domain to get your site up and running! Later, I will be explaining how to set up your site and there are options. If you opt for a FREE Blog site, you can simply select a name within the free blogs URL (ie http://www.bestgolfcourses.blogspot.com/) or if you subscribe to some of the many website design/hosting packages, you may be offered a FREE Domain name as part of the subscription. Please read on before you decide. I would ALWAYS recommend that you buy a Domain because it suggests professionalism and longevity.
Is your domain name available? Check it out here:-
(You can also get a free domain if you are going to set up a website with Do Your Own Site)
Right, so hopefully by now you have your business name, your Domain and plenty of keywords to use.
Now all you need to do is actually set up your site. Which type of website is best for you and your business. If you are setting up an online shop in order to sell products, make sure you choose a website facility and hosting which offers this facility. If you have access to website creating software like WebPlusx2 from Amazon you will simply need a good hosting package like Fasthost (UK) or GoDaddy (USA).
If you have no or very limited HTML & PHP programming language experience, then go for a DIY package (Do Your Own Site). If you don't need a shop facility, why not consider using a blog site (like this one). A blog site acts very much like a normal website if you set it up like one, with the added advantage that search engines focus on 'good quality information' rather than online shops and websites with little content. So they seem to prefer blogs and can rank them quite highly in the search engine results, so a blog site could be the right vehicle for your online business - oh, and by the way, many of them are absolutely FREE to set up! Bonus!
Why not take a look at Wordpress or follow our lead by using Blogger from Google. No programming experience is required and a great professional site can be up and running in a matter of minutes.
So now you have your idea, your keywords, your site name and Domain and hopefully the right site for your business. Next we look at content, revenue streams and marketing......
Keep reading & believing!
David Moore
