If you’re dragging your feet and can’t seem to get your online business started, sometimes just thinking and doing simple things in bite size chunks can get the ball rolling…

1.  Be determined to create a business, then start building your confidence.
2.  Commit to being a self starter.
3.  Don’t stress about money.  This will only keep you from getting started.
4. Set up a workstation, this could be your kitchen table or an extra bedroom, but set up a working area that you can be comfortable in.
5. Have a coffee pot or your favorite beverage close at hand.
6.  Make sure you have a comfortable chair.
7.  Get at least a two drawer file cabinet and set up your filing system.
8.  Clear off a book shelf for only YOUR business books and guides
9.  Buy a timer and keep it on your desk for those times you need to get a job done.
10. Go shopping for notebooks, pencils, highlighters, printer paper or any office supplies you need.  I love shopping for supplies, I think it’s exciting, but I’m just weird that way
11.  No business ideas yet?  Take a walk and think about a topic that interests you.  This could be a hobby, obsession, sport, enjoyment or interest that you have that you’d like to share with the world.
12.  Think some more about how you can take that interest and make money with it online.
13.  Go to the library or book store and read as much as you can on your topic. Take notes, all the time thinking about how you can use your topic to change someone’s life.
14. Think about what you know, then think about what you don’t know.
15. Think about your voice.  How do you want to present yourself.  Are you funny, sincere, a little crazy?  What persona will you take on as a business owner and writer?   Hint: don’t try to be someone you’re not.  Capitalize on who you are and work that into your business.
16. Spend time researching people that you respect and like, then follow them, subscribe to their RSS feed, newsletter, etc.  Just don’t bombard yourself with too many people and too much information.
17. Know what potential distractions you’ll have and work to either eliminate them or get them under control.
18.  Use this simple template and create an easy business plan, here’s how:  http://www.sba.gov/content/templates-writing-business-plan
19.  Get a tax id number, here’s how:   http://www.sba.gov/content/getting-tax-identification-number
20.  Get a business bank account
21.  Get some business cards made.  They’ll help get you motivated.
22.  Sign up for NAMS and listen to their weekly getting started webinars, they’re awesome. .
23.  Get involved with an accountability group.  NAMS has one!
24.  Choose 3 colors or a color scheme for your business.  These will be the colors for your website or blog.
25.  Get a domain name for your business
26.  Create a free blog.  Not sure if you should create a blog or website?  This may help.
27.  Write one pillar post or article for your website or blog.
28.  Set up a Facebook account
29.  Set up a Twitter account
30.  Set up a free account on ezinearticles.com.
31.  Repurpose or rewrite the post or article from your website and send it to ezinearticles.com
32.  Create a YouTube account
33.  Get a business phone number.  If you have a cell phone this may be a good number to use to start.
34.  Find affiliate products you can promote on your website or blog
35.  Sign up for a Google account
36.  Talk with someone who has an online business about how to get your online business started. It can be a big motivator talking with others about their successes.
37.  Get started online by reading my candid 15 page getting started guide.  You’ll be glad you did

Have you started your online business yet?

With the end of the year just around the corner, this is the perfect time to create a new beginning.  I’m referring to starting your online business.

Just think, if you could get your online business kicked off  today or within a few days from now, then this time next year you could be celebrating your first year in business.

By then you could be bringing in additional income or even running your online business full time.

All you need to do is to put aside a few hours of your time, and follow these steps to starting your online business.

1.  Have an Idea

If you have an idea for an online business,  perfect. If you’re still struggling to come up with ideas, my free internet home business guide can help.

If you’re completely new to doing business online, here’s a quick 10 step tutorial that will give you a basic overview of getting started, including tools you’ll need, legal considerations and more.

2. Create Your Domain Name and Subscribe to a Hosting Service

Once you have your online business idea, you’ll need a domain name which is the URL address of your website and a website hosting account which is where your website will reside.

Finding hosting can be a daunting task, so if you’re open to recommendations, I’ve been using Hostgator for years and personally recommend their service.   Here’s an explanation of the Hostgator pricing, service and my recommendation for what plan to get for those just stating out.

http://www.homenotion.com/blog/hostgator-confused-on-pricing/

Next, you’ll need to purchase a domain name.  This will be the unique address of your website, for example, www.yoursite.com.  ‘Yoursite’ being the URL address.   Getting your domain name is easy if you use a domain registrar like Godaddy, the hard part is deciding on what your domain name will be.

Choosing a keyword rich domain name is the popular choice but if you’re trying to build a brand, using your business name might be the better choice as it would provide you with a more memorable, branded name.  Does it really matter?  Here’s some ideas on that they may help you:

http://www.homenotion.com/blog/are-keyword-domain-names-really-better/

3.  Create your Website

Your online business starts with creating a presence which will be your website or blog.   If you’re not clear about which platform to use to create your site, here’s some help on creating a blog verses a website that may help you decide.

My best suggestion is to create your website using WordPress.  Most people think of WordPress as a blogging platform, and it is, but WordPress can also be set up as a non blogging platform as well.  I like WordPress just for that reason, it’s so versatile.

WordPress is easy to set up if you’re using a hosting service like Hostgator that uses CPanel.   In fact here’s how to create your WordPress blog step by step, including what you need to know to sync up your domain name.

If you’d rather create a traditional website using a website creation software, the choices can be overwhelming.  I personally use Xsitepro for many of my non-Worpress sites and prefer it because of  it’s easy to use features, wizards and powerful tools.  In fact Xsitepro has been referred to as a competitive alternative to Dreamweaver.  As the creator of 5 Xsitepro websites myself, I have to say it IS the better alternative

4. Create Your Content. Once your site is on the air, start populating it with content. This will be your products, articles and information.

If you’ve created a WordPress blog to publish useful information, start writing great blog posts that will interest your readers.  Use those posts to link to affiliate products or programs you promote, write product reviews and/or publish ads.

If  you’re creating an ecommerce site with WordPress, this is a helpful tutorial on how to get set up with products and your shopping cart:

http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/tutorials/create-e-commerce-websites-wordpress/

5.  Start Promoting

The only way you’ll get visitors to your site is to promote it.  That’s one of the best things about the web, there are lots of ways to promote your website that won’t cost you anything but your time.

Here’s a quick checklist. It’s by no means exhaustive, but it is a good start for getting traffic quickly:

• Write articles using good article marketing strategies
• Create Facebook and Twitter accounts and connect with friends and followers.
• Find guest blogging opportunities where  you can guest post on other high traffic blogs.
• Syndicate your content by setting up an RSS Feed

No doubt you’ll have questions along the way.  Don’t let that discourage you, if you need help getting started just drop me a line here.

Guest Post By Thomas Benjamin of Inetzeal.com

More and more these days people are starting to bring their businesses online. This includes small businesses, individual entrepreneurs, and even large companies.

Producing an online business is easier than you may think, and the benefits you can receive may even surprise you.

For small businesses or companies, having an online presence is essential to create legitimacy, and reach a wide user base. For individuals it’s a little bit different.

Commonly you can see sites made by stay at home moms, industry professionals, or someone who has an inside knowledge of a topic. Of course successful online businesses are not limited to these three groups, but every individual shares a little something in common. They are passionate about their topics, and they have a little bit of free time.

Another group of people who share this common theme is college students.

College students are often some of the most outspoken people on the internet, and they certainly have a lot of free time, don’t let them fool you.  One thing that most college students have in common is that they are struggling for money. Competition for campus jobs is fierce. Fortunately for college students, they are receiving a high level of education, they are young, they are fresh with ideas, and whether they know it or not they have everything it takes to start a successful online business.

A college atmosphere is the perfect place to work online. You have internet access almost everywhere, coffee shops with WIFI walking distance, free advertising via bulletin boards, and an endless amount of free information at your fingertips. A prefect example of this is the creation of Facebook, but lets not get ahead of ourselves.

Before an idea for an online business can be brought to life, one must consider how they are going to get a website. Not everyone can code a website from scratch, but hey if you are going to learn, college is the perfect place to start. You have access to an endless library including books on HTML, CSS, and Javascript – the building blocks of the web.

If coding is a little bit to far out of your range, the applications of technology have built many different platforms to create professionally designed websites with ease. One of the most prominent, is WordPress. Whatever your idea is for an online business, there is a WordPress theme for  that.

Now that you have a necessary business tool of a website, lets talk about the kind of things you could do online.  Just to be clear, you do NOT need a website to work online.  A website is simply the most common way to have an online presence. There are a number of things that you can do.

A very common theme is to create a gossip, or news blog about campus related events. This is a great way to get other students involved and have a loyal following of fellow classmates. This is just one example. The thing that is really important about creating a website is to solve a problem, perhaps a problem a campus may have.

For example, maybe a shuttle schedule. Maybe fair testimonials about campus housing or the best places to eat, the best deals that a particular bar might have on a certain night, the list of possibilities goes on.

If you can solve a problem, or create something that is contextual value, then after you build traffic you can monetize your site in a number of ways. However, like I said before, you do not need a website to make money online while in college.

The one thing that is true about the internet is that it is growing, at an alarming rate. With all of this growth, websites are going to need content. As a college student, you have access to limitless amounts of knowledge, and writing content is what you do best. Being a freelance writer can be a great way to earn some extra cash in college. It can be a little hard to find work, if you do not  have an online website, or a preexisting online presence.

However, there are a few places that you can look. The first place to look is textbroker.com. Here you can sign up as a writer, and depending on the quality that you provide, you could earn anywhere between $20-30 for around 800 words. You could even contact various websites offering your services, and provide examples.

Doing this can really be hit or miss, but if you can prove yourself as a quality writer, you will eventually find work. Content may also be delivered as high quality articles designed specifically for a link building service, which can help you when working for an SEO Company. Quality content is what drives the web, and that will always be a service that will be needed.

Today people are trying to make a few extra dollars, especially in this economy. Working online has become very popular because of real possibilities for making money.

An important thing to note is that working online doesn’t come over night. You need to have talents, and you must have the time to succeed. College students have both. They are educated, and they have a massive amount of free time. College students are motivated, and have the necessary means to create a website of value that can have a whole campus following.

Making money online is a real possibility. If you are clever, and can produce quality content, you can produce value for own website or for other websites – making money in the process.

Even creating content for a business’s social media sites has become a necessarily skill that college students are more than capable of producing. College students have all of the tools to create an online business, its just about using them in the right place.

Article written by Thomas Benjamin. Thomas blogs about many various topics working on the internet including the best website development service for SEO.

I got a great question from Sharon who said:

Hi Liz,

I’m a stay at home mom that has more free time now that my kids are back in school and I’m considering using the internet as a way to make money online but I’m not sure how to get started or what I should do.

I don’t really have any talents and my skills are pretty basic.  I’m not a great writer but I think I can learn.  What would be your best suggestion for making money online for someone like me?

Thanks, Sharon

Great question Sharon,  it’s definitely a popular one

There are several ways to make money online.  Things like selling your own products, promoting other people’s products, creating information or digital products, blogging, mentoring and many others, but the real success for anyone trying to make money online is to provide useful content  in an area of interest.

But before even getting started making money you’ll need to think carefully about an area of interest you’d like to create an internet business around.

This can be something as generic as cooking, gardening, playing tennis, walking, jogging, whatever it is, think about a topic of interest that you enjoy.

Once you narrow down a topic of interest, narrow that topic down even further if you can.  For instance, you may love walking.  But walking is a fairly broad topic, so instead of trying to capture the broader ‘walking’  market,  a niche like  ‘walking for women over 50′ or ‘walking for weight loss’ will be a smaller niche of the market which eliminates much of the broader competition.

To help you find out if your niche topic of choice will be profitable online, simply check it out by using the Google Keyword tool to get an idea of what people search for.  There’s no magic number of searches  to look for but if you see at least 500-1000 searches a day on your topic of choice, that’s a good indication the topic has interest.

Your research will also tell you what people want to know about your topic of interest.  Doing a search on saving money tips for example, tells me there’s interest in saving money on travel, groceries, energy, water, college, cars, clothes, etc.   These would be all great niche ideas.

See how to find profitable niche ideas

The next step will be choosing an internet business model.  Your business model is precisely how you will  make money with your  niche.

Ideally you’ll want to choose a business model that you can easily start, fits within your budget and fits your lifestyle and preferences.

How To Make Money Online for Newbies

From my experience, an ideal way to begin making money online is with Affiliate Marketing.  It’s a favorite of mine simply because I don’t need a product to sell and it’s a way to earn money online passively.

In other words it’s a business you don’t have to actively work at every day in order to generate income on a consistent basis, that’s perfect for a stay at home mom

But it gets better.  You can create an affiliate Marketing website in a matter of a few hours and get your internet business started today.  That’s exactly what my husband did at the NAMS live event last month in Atlanta.    In fact he was so impressed that he could get a site build so quickly and he’s motivated to keep the momentum going.

What did he do?  Here’s the process:

• Find an area of  interest or niche idea
• Register a Domain Name
• Create a blog or a website

Truly, that’s all it takes to get started, and you can have it all done by the end of today.

Once you’ve got your website or blog created it’s just a matter of populating it with great content, optimizing that content and getting traffic to the site.

Here are the steps that come next:

• Begin Writing great content
• Use these 4 steps for optimizing your content
• Start getting traffic with Social media by getting set up on Twitter and Facebook
• Find the best affiliate marketing programs that will complement your site
• Start building one way links with natural link building strategies

Getting started is probably the hardest part, but once you decide to take action the rest is just a matter of staying focused until each step of the process is completed.

Thanks  Sharon for that great question!

How many online business ideas do you have?

Whether you have lots of ideas or just a few, choosing the best online business idea can be a frustrating task.

After all how do you know if you’re making the right decision?

Here are some things that might help you decide…

The Best Online Business Ideas Stem from True Passion and Interest

Be honest with yourself on how passionate and interested you are with an idea.  In other words, what is your real interest in the business idea you have?  Be honest.

Don’t look at choosing a business idea with dollar sign eyes. Just because it sounds like a money making idea doesn’t mean it will be profitable for you.  Stop and think about how you might view the idea in 2 or 5 years from now.

A case in point was a gentleman I encountered a few years ago. He jumped on the energy bandwagon and created a business around energy efficient fuel thinking it would be a big money maker for him.  After just 2 years he gave up because he actually got tired of the politics and the controversy over the topic.

The Best Online Business Ideas Come From Looking at the Market Demand

How much demand really exists for your business idea?  The only way to really find this out is to use a reliable keyword tool.

As an example, let’s say selling designer handbags might be a business idea you really like.  Let’s go to Google’s keyword tool and simply type in ‘designer handbags’.

The results show us that the term itself gets over 400,000 searches a month.   That’s substantial, so there’s potential, but because there are so many searches a month, the idea is popular, meaning you can be fairly sure that the competition is high as well.

For this reason, you will want to drill your idea down so that you can reach more of a ‘niche’ market.  So ask yourself  ‘what about designer handbags’?   If you go back to your keyword research tool you can qualify your idea.

For example, you can drill down your idea with any one of the following:

• Italian designer handbags
• Used designer handbags
• Authentic designer handbags
• Rent designer handbags
• Vintage designer handbags
• French designer handbags

These are smaller niche areas  but they will capture a more focused area of the larger market.  The farther down you can drill in your niche, the more focused your audience will be and the more sales you will make

That’s because the less you can confuse your audience by offering them things they aren’t specifically interested in, the better you will be able to deliver precisely what they want.

Who are Your Competitors?

To make your life easier, and your business more successful, you’ll need to begin analyzing the competition. That means knowing who your competitors are.

But don’t let the competition discourage you. As you move forward with your online business you’ll learn that competition is a good thing and you’ll be able to actually use them to your advantage

For now, simply use your keywords and your keyword tool for keyword competition analysis.  This is how you will evaluate who your competition is and how well they are doing.

Consider Time Verses Money

In the end it really comes down to time verses money, meaning you’ll have to seriously consider how long it will take you to reach your financial goals.

Take a long hard look at how much money it will take you to start and grow your business and realistically how long can you wait before you become profitable.

Do you have money on hand or will you need to find a way to raise the funds? Consider your budget and how you’re going to live until you become profitable with your business.

On average, if done right, an online business website can begin to make money as early as a few months.  For others it could take a year or more.

The Best Online Business Ideas Are Realistic?

Finally, think about how this business will conform to your lifestyle.

For instance, how much time can you devote to a business?  What will the demands of your business be?

A mom of 3 young children may have more free time with a passive income business model such as affiliate marketing as opposed to a more active model of an ecommerce website.  So choosing an internet business model that suits  your lifestyle will be key.

As someone that craves having their own online business, you’re bound to have lots of business ideas.  You may have great ideas but not all of them will be suited for you.

Using the above tips will help you determine how to choose the best online business for you and can help you take that bold step of faith towards making the best decision for your family and future.

What things concern you about your online business ideas?  Are you ready to get started or are you dragging your feet?

Are you a mom that wants to find internet business opportunities without investing an arm and a leg?

Here are my favorite internet business opportunities that will cost you less than $300 to get started and are the most doable.

==> Freelance and Data Entry Online Jobs

If  you’re not interested in building a website or selling products online, freelancing your time and talents may be perfect for you.

There are many ways to freelance on the web, from writing to graphic design to data entry online jobs.  There are actually lots of opportunities.

To get started quickly, you can simply sign up with sites like oDesk,com,  Elance.com, Guru.com or you can find data entry jobs through a legitimate service that trains and connects you directly with jobs that meet your skills.

Either way, freelancing is a quick way to bring your skills to the thousands of businesses that need your help.

==> SEO Affiliate Marketer

Affiliate marketing allows  you to generate income by promoting other people’s products.

It happens to be one of my favorite business models primarily because it’s a passive income model meaning my web pages, if optimized correctly, are earning for me 7/24,  even while I sleep

But in order to get my web pages to actually bring me sales, they need to not only rank well in the search engines, they need to be optimized for my readers so someone reading my page is compelled to buy.

Your costs as an SEO affiliate marketer come from creating a website or blog ( blogging software is free) a domain name (roughly $10) and a hosting service (roughly $5 a month).  Learning to write effective SEO copy will be how you optimize for both the search engines and your readers.  This is additional training but very key to generating steady income checks with less active participation from you on a daily basis.

==> Tutoring

If you’re good in Math,  English, science, reading or other academic subjects, or you have other marketable skills like playing the piano, test taking skills or the like, why not make some money at it by tutoring others in your skill?

Browse Craigslist to see what other tutors are charging for similar services. Then, set up your own ad with a bit of detail about you and your background.

Set a rate that’s at or slightly below market rate. For most skills, you should be able to earn $20 to $40 an hour tutoring.

==> Wholesale Dropshipping

The Wholesale Dropshipping business model allows you to create a store on eBay, or an all-inclusive service like a Yahoo! Store and ship products all without having to hold any inventory yourself.

You can launch a full-fledged ecommerce business at an affordable start up cost.  Your primary expenses will come from incorporating your business into an LLC and getting a Federal Tax ID number in order to sell on the web. Most ecommerce sites offer all the tools you need to run your business such as payment processing, email, hosting service, etc.

The hardest part will be deciding what you want to sell and finding wholesale drop shippers that will have the products you want and ship them to your customers for you.  However the process should cost you less than about %300 if you do it on your own.

What Internet Business Opportunities are you interested in?

These are four  small business opportunities that you can launch from your home with your computer for less than $300.

Some will see an immediately revenue quickly (tutoring, freelancing) while others have higher earning potential but may take longer to generate substantial income  such as with dropshipping and SEO affiliate marketing.

Either way you go, if you can get started now it’s an investment in your future and an awesome opportunity to work from home

I generally try to slip in a few good inspirational and motivational books now to help keep me inspired and motivated. 

This month I found a few pretty good ones that I wanted to share with you.

Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh

Have you ever ordered shoes from Zappos?  I have.  I love that store, but what I really love is their customer service.  That’s a big deal to me, as a business owner and as a customer.

When Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO, came out with this book I couldn’t resist reading it.  Having been in the service business myself before starting my own internet business I really wanted to read what he had to say.

Tony stresses delivering happiness.  But not just for your customers, it’s important to keep your employees happy too.  It’s a brilliant philosophy and one that works.   If you’ve ever had a bad customer service experience, and who hasn’t, think about the person directly helping you, they probably weren’t happy, in fact more often than not, they hated their job.

Tony’s basic secrets to success that he discusses in depth are delivering superior service, embracing change, continued education and creating a family environment.  He also believes in keeping things fun and interesting by being a little weird now and then.  Can’t be too serious all the time

I’m thinking that since Zappos gets about 75% repeat business, his methods are working.

Whether you own a business or you’re just thinking about it, you’ll get some pretty good  insight into how corporate culture can influence the success of a business,  and that’s true for the major corporations all the way down to the small work at home businesses.

Crush It! By Gary Vaynerchuk

I’ve gotta say, I loved this book the most.   It’s been one of the most inspriational and motivating books I’ve ever read, that’s no lie!

Gary wants all of us to become millionaires and he thinks we are all capable, but sometimes we’re probably our own worst enemies.

Gary asks you to look outside of what other people say you should be or do in the name of earning a paycheck and instead really look at your passion, or as Gary puts it, what’s in your DNA.

He drives home the argument that if you learn to live your passion, things like skills, money to start a business and time are all incidentals, in other words, none of them should ever stand in your way.   Which I think is true, how many times we use excuses like I don’t have to time, money or skills to do something?  Where there’s a will, there’s a way

There are four basic elements that Gary stresses for success:

1. Really find your passion - That’s certainly not a new concept, but it’s key.

I’ve always been a little on the fence with the whole ‘passion’ thing but Gary says it’s everything.  Anyone that has a passion and a skill set they can wrap around it can be wildly successful.   Don’t believe it?   Read the book, you will.  Talk about motivating.

2. Know who you are and be that person. Don’t try to be someone you’re not.  Not everyone will like you, so don’t even try. But those that do like you will love you.   Tell your story.  Stories Be who you are first, do what you do best and the rest will come naturally.

3. Be willing to Hustle. Gary did whatever it took to get ahead and preaches that you can’t be afraid to do that yourself.   Never look for reasons NOT to do something, focus on the reasons TO do something.

4. Build a following. This is sort of a ‘don’t try so hard’ kind of concept.   If you’re doing something you love then you’re probably doing it well and if you do it well people will be coming to you without even trying.

Get inspired with Gary. If you’re on the fence about starting an internet business or if you just need a boost of enthusiasm, get inspired with Gary.   This book just might change your life.

Words That Sell By Richard Bayan

I actually bought this book last year but I’ve been wanting to mention it because it’s a great reference guide that has come to my rescue more times than I can count.

This is a 133 page book that contains all the words that sell, more than 6000 of them to be exact.   The book is full of words and phrases that will tease, grab, appeal and persuade your readers.

But you don’t just get a book full of words, you’ll find examples and phrases of :

• Headings and slogans
• Opening questions
• Statements and challenges
• Snappy transitions
• Flattering your reader
• Selling yourself
• Follow throughs
• Calls to action
• Decision makers
• All purpose grabbers
• …and so much more

Using this guide is almost a little like cheating it’s that good

Earning online credibility in your web business not only builds your brand, it’s a pretty significant buying trigger.

After all we listen to and ultimately buy from people we trust or consider an expert in their field.

But what if your online business is new?  How do you build online credibility then?

It starts with putting yourself out there and getting noticed. 

1. Publish Online

The web makes it super easy to publish information online so why not take advantage of that?

Publishing quality information helps you  prove yourself a credible expert. But the key concept here is quality.  No one can be credible by writing poor quality information.

So what signifies quality information?

Quality can be subjective but typically a good piece of information is accurate, believable and keeps the reader interested so they read to the end of your content and not just a few paragraphs.

The easiest and most effective way to do that is by using a writing style that is candid and connects with readers in a relaxed, conversational style.

Writing conversationally means writing as though you were talking to a friend.  Would you talk to a friend in ‘text speak’?  Probably not, so don’t do it when you write online either.

A conversational voice makes your reader feel that you are speaking directly to them, readers like that. Add in a little humor, some  interesting or personal facts and your readers will enjoy reading what you have to say.

Start by choosing a topic to write about.  Jot down the ideas you are familiar with and combine that will credible research.  Connect it all  logically using good grammar and of course correct spelling.  Read it over about five times before going live with it.

I’d recommend getting started started by writing informative articles, then move up to writing small reports and as you gain momentum, move on to ebooks.

Here’s some great help with how to write a good article, and when you’re ready to step up your writing, use these 6 easy steps for writing an ebook that will get you published quickly.

2. Teach Us Something

We all love to learn something new and if I can learn something from you that I didn’t know before, you’ve just made a few points with me in the credibility department.

A couple of great ways you can teach others online might be to host a recording which isn’t as hard as it sounds.  Simply create a recording on a topic.  Audacity.com has free recording software that will help you easily create your seminar.

You can do the recording yourself or have others join you.  It’s an excellent way to give your readers some inside knowledge and it goes a long way for earning credibility within your niche

Secondly, create a membership website or even an online forum.   You can create these sites with free membership or charge a modest fee, either way once people in your niche get wind of the information you are publishing, the word will travel fast and you’ll be building credibility as someone in the know.

3. Let Yourself Be interviewed

This might be a tough one because some of us are shy, myself included   But scoring an interview with someone prominent in your niche can raise your credibility substantially.  I’ve done a few simple text interviews in the past and while they can boost your credibility, they are also great traffic boosters as well.

Here’s how to get something started.

Find out who the key players are in your niche and comment frequently on their blogs, contribute guest posts if they accept them.

Next, ask them if they might consider swapping interviews with. You can then publish the interviews or make them available on your website.

4. Start Networking

I use to hate the saying “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”, but it’s true, even online, so don’t try and fight it.  Networking isn’t hard and with all the social marketing tools available to us, it’s easier than ever.

Even simple strategies like commenting on a credible blog in your niche or linking to a blog post you find interesting can do wonders for getting your name out there.

A great place to get started is by commenting on a well known blog in your niche, but don’t just comment once or twice, subscribe to their RSS feed and every time you are notified of a new blog post, make a comment.  Do that consistently and pretty soon the blog owner and their followers will recognize and appreciate your work.

It’s always good to network with industry gurus but don’t ignore other people in your field.  Be respectful, offer plenty of ideas and knowledge and you’ll see your credibility rise.

5.  Value Your Customers & Treat them with Respect

Your professionalism and loyalty to your customers is huge in the credibility department.  Just make enemies of a customer and see what happens

Credibility is earned through consistency, transparency, clear communication and building customer loyalty on the web.

It starts with presenting professionalism on your website. That means  clearly communicating your policies and procedures and having a clear and effective customer service policy.

Remember, the customer may not always be right, but they should always think they are

Finally…

Anyone can earn online credibility in their web business, but bringing attention to your credibility can be done with publishing something, teaching us something we didn’t already know, scoring an interview, networking with others and treating your customers like gold.