Get an online business going in just eight steps

By WILLIAM LEE,
Managing director, OrangUtan Marketing

ONLINE businesses are becoming more and more popular as a source of side income, and some entrepreneurs are also able to live completely off their online earnings alone. For some, however, it can be a daunting task to get a web business up and running.

But it doesn't have to be, with these eight simple steps.

1. Buy a domain name that is related to your online business. If you are selling gardening tools online, a good domain name would be www.cheap-gardening-equipment.com, rather than www.gardntoolz.com. You can purchase a cheap domain name at www.namecheap.com or www.godaddy.com.

2. Get yourself a web hosting account to store your website on. Google web hosting providers' and you will have a large selection to choose from. I would suggest a cPanel-based hosting account (just ask your web host to show you which packages are cPanel-based).

3. Install a website on your hosting. My suggestion would be to install Wordpress onto your website, as it is the most commonly used open source website available online and it's free too! Again, ask your web host to give you a tutorial on how to do this; they'll probably even have videos or a step-by-step guide for you to follow.

4. Install a free theme for your website. Go to http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ and take your pick. Installing a theme can be done in one click.

5. Find something to sell online. You can either source for or create your own products, but selling other peoples' products as an “affiliate” would be a faster way to start. Commissions are typically 50% to 70% for electronic products and 4% to15% for physical products. You can try www.clickbank.com or https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ to find products to sell online.

6. Go to paypal.com and register an account so that you can start receiving money if you are selling your own products or services online.

7. Drive traffic to your website by telling friends on Facebook and Twitter, by writing articles on your website to generate search engine traffic, participating in discussions in related forums or blogs and even give Google and Facebook advertising a try. Track your web traffic by using www.google.com/analytics to see where your marketing dollars are going.

8. Repeat step 7 and don't give up!