How to Start Your  Own On-line Business 

Starting your own on-line business isn't as hard as you might think. To make it even easier, I've outlined the basic steps... like how to get a no or low-cost web site, getting a merchant account, and registering your site with the search engines. And I've included lots of links and other resources to help even more.

So let's get started...

Step 1: Decide what you want to sell

If you don't know what you want to sell on-line here are some questions to help you decide:

• Do you want to provide a service? Examples of service businesses include consulting, proof reading, bookkeeping, coaching, dog walking, music lessons, party planning, teaching teleclasses, writing personal biographies, writing resumes, or being a professional copywriter, etc.

• Do you want to sell a product? Examples of products include gift baskets, an eBook, custom golf clubs, clothing, your famous cheesecake or salsa, and so on.

• If you want to sell a product... will you create and sell your own product or products or will you re-sell other people's products on a wholesale, drop-ship, or affiliate basis? (Click here to learn more about how you can make money as an affiliate.)

• Do you want to do what I do and provide both a service and offer products created by yourself as well as others?

What if you still don’t have a clue about what you'd love to be doing? You could start by:

• Learning more about creative alternatives to having a job

Step 2: Get your own domain name

Once you have your business idea – even if you don’t plan to launch your website right away – one of your first steps is to come up with a name for your website and grab a domain name/URL.

There are lots of domain name registration sites. For your convenience, use the box below to check to see if the name you want is available. If it is, you can register your own unique URL in less than 5 minutes.

Other domain registration sites:

• GoDaddy

• Network Solutions

• Backorder Domain Names

• NetNames

• Domain Maniac

• Dotster

Step 3: Find a provider to host your site

There are thousands of website hosting companies. Search the web or check out:

• Dot Inc Solutions (This is the one I use.)

• PowWeb

• 5 Dollar Hosting

• Apollo Hosting

• InMotion Hosting

• NetFirms - Hosting for Small Business
  

Step 4: Design your site

Unless you’re a graphic designer, I highly recommend that you not create your own homemade site. I know you're trying to save money but remember, your website is your store or office front. You may have great products or services inside but if the place looks well, amateurish, a lot of people (myself included) will just keep moving. Stick with what it is you do best and leave the web design to a professional designer. 

Don't have a lot of money? Don't worry. Here are 3 ideas for how to get a professionally designed website that will fit any budget. Whichever way you go, do your  homework by 1) finding sites that have the kind of look and feel you're going for and 2) what you want on each page.

 
Get Your Website Designed for Free!  If you're starting your web business on a shoe string budget, do what I did with my first site – get students to design it for free. Lots of community colleges offer web design courses and the students are desperate for projects they can include in their portfolios. Click here to search a directory of community colleges in the US, Canada, and a dozen other countries including Australia, Iceland, Belgium, and China. 

Once you find a school near you, search their site for web design courses. Then contact the professor to see how to go about having your site chosen as a student project. The students who worked on mine were both 40-something career changers who did a fantastic job all for free! The best times to contact schools are early September, January, or June.

Another option is to barter with a website designer. If you don't know any you can almost always find the designer's name and a link at the bottom of a website you like.

Get a professional website template for as low as $15 Don't have to let a lack of funds or tech savvy keep you from having a professional looking website. Check out these high quality website templates for Front Page, Dream Weaver, Golive, and Swish. You can't beat the quality or the price.

Go to a full-service pro  I've used a small company called Dot Inc Solutions to design two sites and have been extremely happy with the price which was very reasonable, the quality (they do top notch work) and the service which, in a word is outstanding! Decide for yourself. Visit Dot Inc Group. If you like what you see, contact my "web guy" Peter Gelinas for a complimentary quote and be sure to tell him you want the 15% Changing Course discount! Peter also knows all about registering your site with the search engines, setting up your shopping cart, and much more.

Don't forget a logo  Not all web designers are skilled at coming up with a logo that will capture the image you want your new business to project. Two good solutions are:

Gotlogos.com You can get a professional looking logo for the amazingly low price of $25.

1800MyLogo.com This is the group that designed my logo. They’re a more full service shop offering logos, slogans, jingles, stationary or total company identity packages. You pay more but you also get to pick from many custom options designed just for you and then work with designers who will continue to tweak it until it is just the way you want it.

Step 5: Hire a professional to write your web copy and watch the sales come in

I’ve seen too many great business ideas flounder because otherwise smart people rely on mediocre copywriters... or worse, attempt to write their own promotional copy. Before I really understood that there's a real science to writing effective sales copy I would have said I was a pretty good copywriter... and I spent seven years in corporate marketing.

Little did I know that the difference between an amateur (me) and a professional copywriter can be literally thousands of dollars.

As you start looking for a really good copywriter be forewarned that, like me, everybody and their sister says they’re a copywriter. Don't believe me? Go to eLance, All In One, or another freelance site and you'll have no trouble finding someone who says they're a copywriter and will only charge you about 50 or 100 bucks to write your copy. And, that’s probably about how much that copy will generate for you in sales. Bottom line... you get what you pay for.

On the other hand, few of us can afford the very top copywriters in the field... some of which charge their corporate clients as much as $10,000 for single page of copy! I know that's way out of my range. But I can tell you that I have paid as much as $2500 for eight pages and easily received 20 times that investment in sales.

If that's still too much of a stretch starting out, find someone who's received professional training in the direct marketing field BUT who's also just launching their copywriting career. Why? Because newly trained copywriters are often willing to charge less early on in their career because they're looking to build their portfolio.

So where do you find an affordable yet well trained copywriter? I’ve been so impressed with the freelance writers I’ve worked with – all graduates of the AWAI and Michael Masterson's Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting Program –  that I've asked the AWAI to set up a special Copywriter Matching Program just for visitors to Changing Course. (To read my review of the AWAI's copywriting course click here.)

To be matched with a skilled writer, just send an email to Louis Hart detailing:

1) What exactly you’re looking for. Is it, for example, copy for your website, a four-panel brochure or sales letter, promotional copy for eBook or other product or service?

2) As much information as possible about your business, your product or service, your target audience, and what you want the copy to accomplish (get prospects to contact you for more information, hit the buy button, etc.)

3) Your budget for this project.

4) Your contact information (an email address is sufficient).

The AWAI will put your request out to students enrolled in their Advanced Mentor Program (these are course graduates who signed on to work one-on-one with a highly-experienced and successful senior copywriter). Interested students will email you a sample headline and the copy lead. Then it's up to you to pick the writer who best captures your message. 

Learn How to Write Your Own Winning Marketing Copy Let's face it, the secrets of how master marketers and copywriters conjure up promotions to bring in millions of dollars could hold critical answers for you in your own career. When it comes to copywriting, nothing matters more than your ability to be a seller. Each month, Monthly Copywriting Genius uncovers the secrets behind the strongest direct-response promotions in the mail, in space advertising, and on the Internet today. Now you can learn directly from the masters, as they give you a rare, first-hand look at one of their most successful controls and break it down for you element by element. But Monthly Copywriting Genius doesn't stop there. Along with theses interviews, you'll get a PDF copy of the winning promotion. Line by line, you'll get a critique of the format, headlines, subheads, product positioning... every element that goes into a package.

Step 6: Get set up to accept credit cards and get a shopping cart

1Shoppingcart.com This the one I use. Not only can you apply for a credit card merchant account right there (you don’t even have to be from the United States), you can also set up your own affiliate program, auto-responders, ad trackers, and more. Not only have I not lost a single sale due to technical problems, whenever I have a question, a knowledgeable customer service rep actually replies within 24 hours. My last cart was a nightmare on both fronts.

PayPal If you aren't quite ready for a full shopping cart, check the new merchant services available through PayPal.

Step 7: Register your site with the search engines

Just because you have a website doesn't mean your prospective customers or clients will be able to find you. Bottom line is you need to submit your site to the top search engines. How?

Rather than trying to explain meta tags or the constantly changing tricks and trends in the search engine submission game, I suggest you go to a small business-oriented site like Entrepreneur, do a search on "search engines" and follow the advice of the experts.

Or, if you have your site designed by a company like Dot Inc Solutions, they'll handle this for you.

Step 8: Establish Yourself as an Expert

Other Resources

Tax Savings Every Freelancer Should Take As an independent contractor, you're your own boss. You call your own shots. But with that freedom come responsibilities -- quarterly taxes among them. Find out where you can save... what the IRS really needs to know... how to make the most of those deductions for travel, meals, entertainment, home office, and more... To get answers to hundreds of tax questions along with practical worksheets you can use to make sure you're paying as little as possible to Uncle Sam, click here.

Get into your home or office PC from anywhere in the world. If your dream is to tele-commute, hit the road on a cross-country speaking tour, spend a month in the south of France, or any number of other portable occupations, read on... This handy service allows you to actually log into and use your very own home or office computer from hotels, airports, satellite offices, Internet cafes – anywhere with Web access. I use this service myself when I'm on the speaking circuit and it's been a lifesaver when I need to get a file or an email I left on my home PC. A definite Val's Pick!

Open Your Own On-Line Bookstore  Say you have a website for your doggie day care. When you join the affiliate/partner programs at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Powell or AbeBooks (they specialize in rare and out-of-print books), visitors click on the dog-related books featured on your site which take them to one of these online book stores. The bookstore ships the order and pays you a small referral fee. You won't get rich this way but you'll be offering a valuable service to your customers and earning a little extra money at the same time.