How to Start an Online Business – 5 Great Ways to Launch Your Business Today
Most people these days are tired, bored, and frustrated with their 9 to 5 job. You don’t feel satisfied with your work, you don’t feel like you have enough time for yourself, and you’re tired of working for “the man”. More and more, we are freeing ourselves from the shackles of big corporations and seeking work alternatives. A great way to have more free time and make more money is to start an online business. There are a number of ways to go about it, and I’ll give you five great ideas you can choose from, from most simple to more advanced. Marketing physical products. In this case, all you have to do to start an online business is create webpages that talk a little bit about a product of your choice, and include a link to a merchant that sells that product (e.g. Amazon). When the visitor buys a product after clicking on your link, you get a certain percentage of the money from that sale. This is called affiliate marketing. Of course, you have lots and lots of webpages that bring you lots of sales every day (which means lots of commission for you).
Create a blog. This involves writing about a topic that you’re passionate about on an regular basis. You find dedicated readers by seeking them out in forums and connecting with people online. To start an online business in blogging successfully, you need to write quality posts that will gain trust from your readers. Then, when you recommend products (either your own or through an affiliate link), you’ll have a greater chance that your readers will buy from you since you have built a trusting relationship.
Article marketing. This is a little bit like blogging but with a twist. To start an online business in article marketing, you’ll be writing articles and submitting them to various article directories. These articles rank high in Google, and you include a link to your website at the end. After providing valuable information in the article, you entice readers to click to your website. Once on your website, you provide more information on the subject and then include a link to the merchant, where you’ll hopefully get a sale.
Run a Pay-per-click campaign Unlike the previous three methods, PPC campaigns are not free. In this method, you pay for advertising space on your search engine of choice that drive targeted traffic to your site. The advantage if you start an online business this way is that PPC campaigns tend to be more sustainable and often make much more money. But you need to know what you’re doing here because it’s easy to lose lots of money if you don’t do it right!
Sell a product. The first four methods were affiliate marketing methods. But if you feel like you’re ready to step it up a notch, you can start an online business by selling your own product. This can be an digital product (e.g. an e-book) or a physical product. The advantage of selling digital products is that there are no manufacturing costs and no inventory. E-books are usually very simple to make, too. And once you have your own product to sell, you can have other affiliate marketers selling your product too!
