The Steps To Creating Your Online Business Website

Having your own online business is an exciting venture and and you’re probably anxious to get started.

However the most significant part of starting any online business is creating your online business website.  Your website will the window to your online presence so it’s important that you review the steps and implement them carefully.

To help you get started, I’ve outlined the steps to creating your online business website below.  If you have questions, just ask in the comments box below.   Let’s get started…

Step 1.  Start With a Profitable Niche Idea

The most successful business websites are those that have focused niche products or information.   A focused niche is a sub-set of an already profitable larger niche market.

You may already have a niche idea for your online business website but if you’re still deciding I have an easy niche finder guide that you can grab for free that will help you find niche ideas that are not only popular but profitable.

http://www.homenotion.com/pdfs/nichefinder.pdf

How you intend to profit from you niche idea is what brings us to our next step.

Step 2.  What’s Your  Business Model?

The beauty of the internet is that it’s flexible. There are several ways to make money with your chosen niche, it simply depends on what internet business model suits you and your lifestyle.

Choosing the internet business model that suits you, think about your expertise, your interests and your income goals.

For example, if you’re a writer, your business model will probably lean towards content publishing, i.e e-books, Kindle Publishing etc. On the other hand if you’re a jewelry maker, an eCommerce website that sells your creations may be more what you prefer.

Step 3. Select and Purchase Your Domain Name and Subscribe to a Hosting Service

The next step is to think about creating your website.  But before you can do that you’ll need to choose a domain name or the URL address for your website.  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.  For me the hardest part is actually choosing a name.  Here are a few good tips.

You have basically two choices:

• Choose a brand domain name
• Choose a keyword rich domain name

If you’ll be selling bracelets for example, and have a catching store name, by all means go with that.  Branding can be a memorable, easier way to help identify your business.

Many websites prefer to choose keyword rich domain names. Does it really matter?  Here are some ideas that  may help you decide.

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

- Web Hosting 

Next you’ll need to subscribe to a website hosting account which is where your website will reside on the world wide web.

There are hundreds of web hosting services and it can be a challenge to find one you trust. For what it’s worth, I use Hostgator and have found them to be one of the best for reliability and service. If you need to know more here’s why they get my thumbs up.

http://www.homenotion.com/blog/looking-for-the-best-web-hosting-for-small-business-hostgator-gets-my-thumbs-up/

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/

3. Planning & Creating your Website

Now it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty of planning and creating your site.  Just a word to the wise. Don’t get so anxious that you skip planning  your website.  Good planning is at the heart of getting your site created right the first time.

Once your site is planned, you’ll want to decide on whether to create a traditional website or use a blogging platform. Again the choices are abundant.   If you choose a blogging platform I’d 100% recommend WordPress, it’s a free platform and highly customizable.  In fact here are the steps to set up your own self-hosted WordPress blog

If you’ve decided on creating a traditional website using a website obviously I haven’t tried every website creation software, but I’ve created enough websites to know that you need a site creator that is easy to use and flexible.  For me Xsitepro gave me what I needed and it was easy to use. Having used software like Dreamweaver in the past, which had a huge learning curve, Xsitepro was the ideal alternative to Dreamweaver.

If you’re not sure which platform will be the best for your online business, here’s some ideas on Creating a blog verses a website.

Here are the steps to set up your own self-hosted WordPress blog

4. Create Your Content

Once your website is created, it’s time to start populating it with content.

But don’t just start writing.  Your content has to be content  your readers are looking for.  It needs to be useful, informative and full of original thoughts and ideas.   If you’re simply going to populate your site with the same information everyone else has, there’s no point to your site.

- Identify, Define and Understand  your Target Market

- Next, create your site’s categories and subtopics

- Create an impressive ‘about me’ page.

- Create your site map

- Start with these  5 steps to writing online copy like a pro

If you’ve created a WordPress blog to publish useful information, here are a few tips to 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, here’s a tutorial I like for how to get set up with products and your shopping cart

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

5.  Start Promoting Your Online Business

Now it’s time to promote.  This is significant to the success of your online business website because it’s the only way you’ll get visitors and traffic.

There are lots of ways to promote that won’t cost you a thing. It’s by no means exhaustive, but it is a good start for getting traffic quickly.

• Boost traffic by writing good articles and submitting them to article directories like ezinearticles and goarticles.
• Create Facebook and Twitter accounts and get traffic with social media.
• Find guest blogging opportunities where  you can guest post on other high traffic blogs.
• Syndicate your content by setting up an RSS Feed

To recap…

• Have a profitable niche idea
• Choose Your online Business model
• Choose your domain name and website hosting service
• Plan and create your website or blog
• Develop your content
• Start Promoting

If you have questions along the way or need help, just ask in the comments below.

Blessings