“Websites promote you 24/7: No employee will do that.” – Paul Cookson
Key Points in Step 3:
- To establish your web presence you need a domain name, hosting and a website management system.
- Finding the right domain name ($15/year) is not an easy quest since all the good names are already taken.
- Eventually, you will pinpoint a decent domain name using you creativity (or help).
- As website management system, our suggestion is to use WordPress (besides some other options) since it is easy to use, free, reliable, flexible, most widely used and can meet all your needs for a website.
- Acquiring a reliable hosting for your website won’t cost you much (>$5/month) but is one of the key investments in you online business.
- Start your initial website fast (initial settings, some content and social media profiles), afterwards build your online business gradually (Step 5).
Contents:
3.1. Naming Your Online Business and Registering a Domain Name
3.2. Website Management System and Hosting plan
3.3. Initial Website Build and First Outreach
(Download Step 3 in PDF [PDF – Desktop] – [PDF – Mobile])
Now that you have selected your best online business idea and you have outlined the business concept, it is time to dive into the (not so) deep waters of the web business environment. The first two steps of the guide were meant to prepare you for the definite start of you online venture in this step. In Step 3 you will actually begin to see the first outcomes of your effort. You may go a long way until you fully implement your business concept online, but establishing your initial web presence is the first tangible step toward that goal.
To establish web presence, or to start the website for your business, you will fist need to register a domain name and get/install a website management system together with a hosting plan. This is actually much simpler than it may sound for a rooky. You (yes you in particular) can put your site up and running for 30 minutes or less*.
To complete your initial web presence, after providing the above mentioned essentials (domain + hosting + web system), you will need to make some basic adjustments on the site, add some initial content like simple homepage, description, about page, contact information etc., and to set your social media profiles.
There are several reasons why would you like to start your initial web site fast, but first of all, it will give you the filling of creating something of value and you will prove yourself that starting a business online is a no-brainer. All of that will highly motivate you to go further and carry out the steps that follow.
Having an online business doesn’t always imply that you must have a website and a domain. You can simply sell products on eBay or Amazon. You can sell your handicrafts at Etsy, or you can sell your arts and designs on sites such Fine Art America, Cafepress or Zazzle. You can also offer your services on freelancing sites like Fiverr, Freelancer or Upwork or you can place your e-books or apps on App Store or Play Store. Anyhow, regardless of these online earning opportunities, it is always a good idea to start building your own e-brand with a nice website and an appealing domain name.
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Downloadables: