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Showing posts with label Online. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Online. Show all posts

Quick Start Guide to Online Biz

Posted by Irma14 0 comments

With literally hundreds of options for hosting, marketing and design of your new Web site, it can be overwhelming to decide where to start. Here is your 9 Step Quick Start Guide to Getting Online.

If you are still brainstorming your ideas, consider this set of 27 free e-books. Just click and view material from some of today’s best business minds, including Seth Godin, Jim Kukral and Guy Kawasaki.

To be in business online, you’re going to need a Web host and domain registrar. Bluehost is one of the top hosts and can give you everything in one place. It is a mid-priced service and offers unlimited everything - hosting space, email accounts, domains - the works. If you are interested to consider some others, check out the cheapest Web hosts.

Setup Your Web Hosting:

If you are just getting started, you’ll likely need the basic package. You’ll be able to host a number of websites on this one package, including a number of blogs (or WordPress installations).

Setup Your Domain Registration:

Chose private registration: Although it costs more, you’ll be happy you did. It will prevent huge amounts of spam from burying you in the months to come. Consider registering for 5 years: Search engines recognize long term registrations, and reward you with higher rankings. If you are willing to register far into the future, the search engines view your company as more legitimate and solid.

As with all Web hosts, Bluehost offers many options when registering your domain. Aside from private registration and length of your registration the other options are personal preference – but not likely needed. If you want to see other options, check out the cheapest domain name registrars.

For ease of getting started and maintaining your site, a WordPress installation is recommended. Originally just for blogs, WordPress is now a fully functional site design and management tool. Wordpress is the engine for your website. It manages your content, and allows you to easily modify the appearance of your site – with virtually no technical experience. And it's free.

The theme is what gives your WordPress installation both its function and its design. It’s good to choose carefully, because it can be a hassle to swap themes after you have lots of content. Many of the themes available allow you to disable or remove the blog component if you don’t need it. You can create your page with the “Pages” option.

Depending on your requirements, a free theme may work well. Check out our set of 42 free WordPress themes.

If the free ones don’t fit your needs, check out Pagelines PlatformPro theme. It is the easiest theme to use - and the most customizable. It is a true drag-and-drop WordPress theme. Check out a recent review of Pagelines PlatformPro. Or for a lower cost option, check out the Thematic Themes site. They have themes ranging from magazine styled blogs, to stores, classified and travel guides. This premium theme company will likely have a design to fit your needs. Remember, the colors, logos and layout can most often be completely adjusted within the dashboard of WordPress.

Upload into WordPress and click “Activate”. You can now customize the theme and add content. Note: When you upload the theme to your WordPress installation keep it as a zip file – just as you downloaded it.

You’re going to need a Twitter account for your business. It is valuable for promoting your content, and for interacting with clients and suppliers.

With Hootsuite you can automate the promotion of your new posts. Just five steps will automatically promote your blog through Twitter and other social networks.

Now that you’ve got a Twitter account, you should take a few minutes to learn how to get the most out of it.

First of all, you’re going to need followers. And how will you manage all those direct messages? Visit TweetAdder and try the trial version. This software will build your following of like-minded people and will manage your direct messages as well.

Learn more about the Top Twitter Tools for Business.

Email marketing is an important component of your online business. With an opt-in email list you’ll have a group of people eager to listen to what you’re saying. With a regular email newsletter, your visitors won’t have to remember to come back - you can keep in touch directly. Aweber has a great set of templates to easily create newsletters. Aweber also allows you to manage multiple email lists and websites with one account. Learn about email marketing options in the Email Marketing Service Review.

It’s important to track your progress and see the results of your marketing efforts. Here are two great options:

SEOmoz: Is a combination of free and pay tools that allow you to get the true pulse of your Web site. These can be used in combination with Google Analytics. The pay services are available on a monthly subscription fee. Google Analytics: This is a free option, and surprisingly complex. Simple to use, it’s a quick install into your WordPress installation, and you can immediately begin to track traffic. This includes top keywords, location of visitors, referral sites and popular pages.

Once you have accomplished the first eight steps, it’s time to move on to setting up your other social networks:

The six primary accounts you should have are:


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Start an Online Business

Posted by Irma14 0 comments

Eager to launch your online business, but not sure where to start? With improving technology, including excellent online tools and lower costs, there has never been an easier time to put your business online. These 10 steps will get you online in no time.

Or for an even faster start, follow this 9 Step Quick Start Guide.

What is your experience with the Internet? Do you still think "MySpace" is your little office under the stairs? Do you raise an eyebrow when your daughter talks about "tweeting"?

Success online requires spending significant time:

Researching competitorsUnderstanding how Web tools work (Twitter, RSS Feeds, etc.)Becoming familiar with the culture of the Internet

Your domain is your unique address on the Internet. It is your piece of intellectual property, just like a patent or a trademark. There are numerous registrars (companies that register domains) online where you can purchase your domain.

Some registrars even offer "free" domains with a hosting package or another purchase. While many of these are legitimate, be sure to confirm that the domain is registered in your name. If the domain is registered in the registrars name it may be difficult, if not impossible, to switch to another hosting company without losing your domain.

Domain registrars:

A Web host is the company that essentially will "rent" you space on their servers to host your website. These companies usually offer domain registration and it’s often easier to have both with the same company.

Web host features such as storage capacity, uptime percentage, domain based email and server security should be evaluated. Also, the ability to host a blog, provide response forms, marketing tools and tools for e-commerce are important criteria to consider when choosing your Web host.

Web Hosting Providers:

This isn’t as difficult as it sounds. You have two options for site creation:

Create the site yourself, orHire a designer to create it for you.

There are at least three options for creating your own site.

Many hosting companies offer free site building tools. WordPress is a popular free tool – both for websites and stand-alone blogs. It is a very simple install, with many hosting companies having install tools just for WordPress. You won’t need years of study and thick manuals to use this software. The other option is to use a high-end program like Dreamweaver by Adobe (Visit Adobe's Website) which will do everything you need, but has a pretty steep learning curve. One of the training manuals for Dreamweaver is an overwhelming 1000 pages thick.

Hiring a professional designer may be a simpler option. This isn’t necessarily expensive. By using services like Craig’s List or Elance.com you can find designers eager for your work. Expect to pay from $50 to $100 to have a designer assist in the install of your free WordPress software on your hosting space. In addition to the visual design work, you'll need to give significant thought to your site content.

The days of printing and faxing an order form, or mailing a check are long gone. Online payment acceptance is the foundation of an online business. This allows clients to act on an impulse.

Accepting Online Payments:

Shopping Carts:

Be sure to check for required features and their terms. Minimum monthly fees can affect a start-up business. Its best to choose a capable service provider that allows growth, so you can start with basic services and low cost and upgrade as your volume increases.

Determine Product Delivery Methods

Depending on your product type, your delivery methods can range from very simple (downloadable information product or an online service) to more complex (shipping of goods via courier, using a fulfillment company). For downloadable products consider an electronic fulfillment company like E-junkie.com.

Fulfillment Companies, for shipping of physical goods:

Even the most cutting edge design and amazing new product is worthless if it’s buried under millions of other websites. Consider these basic methods of promoting your new site:

Register with the three major search engines (Google, Bing and Yahoo)List your blog in the major blog directoriesContent marketing, video and audio podcastOnline Advertising: Google and Facebook ads.Direct mailing (print, not email)Offline marketing (billboards, company vehicles, stationary, print ads, promotional products)

Collection of client and prospect email (and other contact information) is critical to the growth of every online business. However, a large and growing list is only valuable when useful and relevant information is sent on a regular basis to these individuals. The goal of an email list is to turn prospects into clients and clients into ambassadors for your company/product.

Some popular options include:

For more options, check out the Email Marketing Review

Easy (and free) tools are available that allow you to see who clicked where and when. Many Web hosting companies offer traffic analyzing tools.

Google Analytics is a free tool – which tracks, among other things:

Popular pages Traffic sourcesPopular keywordsLocation of clicks

These reports can be customized with a plethora of variables including date range, page views, and length of time on site.

While visitor traffic provides an interesting gauge, what you are really looking for is transactions. Whether you are selling a product or a service, success is measured in sales.

In addition to the specific online considerations, you’ll need to consider:

TaxationBankingLicensing and trademarksLegal business structureBusiness locationProduct warehousingProduct creationAccountingLegal matters, among other things

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