Creating an online business is a great way to build residual income or even to make it your primary income provider. The problem most folks face is how to do it, where to start and to work at it consistently.
Content is King on the Internet so if you develop the ability to write articles consistently you will also be able to build your own online business.
Here are 7 steps for building an online business
1. Choose a niche you are interested in
Create a list of topics you feel passionate about then select the best one for building your business.
2. Research your market
Find out if your idea will be profitable by doing keyword research. Use the free word tracker tool to find out how many people searched on your main keyword phrase in one month. If there are only a small number of searches select another topic from the list you created above.
Visit forums and bogs in your niche to see if people are interested in your topic. Participate in the conversations. Some forums even allow you to run a poll or survey their readers.
Create a Google AdWords campaign by writing a few ads. You will soon be able to see if there's an interest in the topic you have chosen.
3. Create a web site
A web site is like an offline store that show cases your products or services. Create a customized web site so it reflects your business. Do not use a template that everyone else uses. You want to make your website unique so it stands out from millions of others on the Net.
4. Market your web site
You need to attract lots of visitors to your web site to generate sales. One of the best ways to do this is to write lots of articles related to your business then submit them to article directories, ezine publishers and social media sites. If you rewrite the article several times so each article is unique, it will be picked up by the search engines. This will boost your rankings and generate a continuous flow of traffic for years to come.
5. Re purpose your content
Create audio and video versions of your article then submit them to audio and video sharing directories. This helps attract traffic from many different locations.
6. Build long term relationships with your customers
More customers will buy from you more than once if you continue to interact with them. Create a newsletter sign up form on your web site and offer a free report for new subscribers. Send out the newsletter every 2 weeks by including informative articles, news updates and new offers.
You can also write a series of follow-up messages by offering a free e-course using autoresponders. If you write 52 messages that go go out every week for 1 year you will build a relationship with your clients that runs automatically. Your long term clients are more likely to purchase new products because you have worked on establishing trust with them.
7. Monitor your site statistics
Tracking the number of visitors to your web site will give you a clear idea if your traffic is growing. Work on increasing the number of unique visitors by increasing the volume of articles you write and publish.
Monitor your conversion rates by seeing how many visitors it takes to make a sale. If the conversion rate is low, improve the content on your web pages by editing and testing it until your sales increase.
Tip
If you practice writing articles on a consistent basis, you can quickly and easily generate content for your web site and marketing materials. This will save you lots money as you do not have to hire a professional copywriter.