Starting an Online Business

How to (Realistically) Start an Online Ecommerce Business That Actually Grows

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Your choice will depend on your niche and how you want to set up your business. WordPress makes it easy to design and manage your own website while also providing tools for Ecommerce SEO , readability testing, content management, and various plugins. These range from from the cheap and easy options like Shopify through to the more advanced like Magento.

Before deciding on a website service, consider things like how many pages you need or what merchant services provider you want to use. Start with your audience. Where do they spend time online? What content resonates with them as consumers? What online communities are they active in? Next, evaluate your business offering. What social media format best fits the content you want to share? For example, a blog may thrive with text on Twitter, whereas a fashion retailer may have better luck sharing photography on Pinterest or Instagram. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. From there, if you think you can provide valuable content and can connect with your audience, go ahead and create profiles on Pinterest and YouTube.

We will talk about Instagram later. Finally, evaluate your niche. There may be social networks that cater specifically to businesses and consumers in your industry. For example, a fashion ecommerce business with plenty of product images would surely do well on Instagram.

For a business that offers professional resume-writing services, it would be worth creating a profile and sharing content on LinkedIn. A freelance designer would benefit from a profile on Behance or Dribbble , as those networks cater to graphic designers and artists. These databases provide the widest range of options for suppliers and manufacturers. There are a few different order fulfillment options , including drop-shopping, direct fulfillment, and 3PL. Do your research before moving forward with any manufacturing or fulfillment decisions.

In a previous chapter, we discussed affiliate marketing as a niche-evaluation strategy. Affiliate marketing is also a way to earn extra income by promoting other products and services. With decent traffic, high-quality content, and a defined niche, your online business could make a good amount of passive income with affiliate marketing. Tracking and measuring activity and traffic of your online business is actually pretty easy, thanks to a wealth of services available, many for free, on the internet. Your assigned Tracking ID will help you keep an eye on everything from real-time site activity to audience behavior to acquisition sources.

This is one of the most important steps to starting an online business, as your analytics and audience will give you insight into marketing, design, copy, and ecommerce strategy. Getting your first few hundred sales will be far from easy.

How To Start An Online Business

Before you even pick up a pencil to start building your marketing plan, ask yourself: The answer to this question will determine whether or not your resources for marketing your online business will be well-spent or wasted. Defining your target audience will determine almost all of the business, product, and marketing decisions you make. Start here, then dig deeper:. Next, take this information and apply it to your business decisions to ensure that your marketing is as impactful as possible.

Every marketing strategy should hinge upon your audience to maximize your resources and ultimately get your first sale. Social media is a great place to come face-to-face with consumers and boost your brand awareness. But simply creating profiles is not enough. Consistently sharing high-value content and engaging on social media is a surefire way to become known among your audience and convert your social media followers to real leads.

Ready To Start An Online Business?

At its core, your social media profiles should tell a story — about your brand, your product, your team, or your mission. If you want to learn and apply the exact strategies Foundr used to amass over one million followers on Instagram, check out our Instagram Domination course. The key to engaging your social media community is consistency. An active and engaged brand will be much more successful than one who hardly posts on social media. And as an online business, your social media will act as an extension of your customer service and care. Your networks can help you build loyalty as you build your brand.

Social media is also an excellent place to experiment with and invest in paid advertising. Facebook makes it incredibly simple to advertise on both their platform and Instagram — two networks on which your business should be active. For a small budget, you can get a piece of sponsored content in front of thousands. This small investment can expose your brand to new audiences and help you gain you new likes, followers, and customers. Despite the rise of social media marketing, email is not obsolete. Email marketing will very likely help you get your first sale.

You can leverage email to market your online business in a few ways. Start with building your list. Building a quality email list happens slowly, so be patient as you create content and work your funnels. What email marketing platform should you use? This depends on your technical know-how and budget. For a new online business, we suggest MailChimp, which is free for under 2, subscribers. As you grow your email list, stay in touch with your subscribers.

Beyond the requested content offers and introductory email, be sure to announce new product or service updates, share exciting sales or events, and release a routine email newsletter. Converting your email list leads into customers will only happen with consistent, useful content. Content marketing and inbound marketing have skyrocketed in effectiveness and popularity among online businesses. Creating exceptional content tells your audience that you want to educate, inform, and equip them as much or more than you want to sell to them.

It also tells your story and draws in organic traffic. To dive into the world of content, just start a blog for your online business.

How to Start an Online Business for $127 or Less

This will give you a platform to share articles and announcements that resonate with your audience. This will inspire ideas for evergreen content, guides, infographics, and videos. Show that there are real people behind your brand. Creating content around your brand also helps populate your social media feeds and entice email opt-ins.

Drumming up ideas for social media posts and lead offers can be tough. Even creating a few exceptional content resources can inspire many social media posts and serve to collect hundreds of emails. These are just a few ideas to market your online business and get your first sale, on your own and on a bootstrapped budget. These tactics take time, but ultimately pay off literally and support each other. For example, an active social media account is a great way to promote a content offer that encourages email opt in … and so on, and so forth. There are countless other ways to market your business, and our Ultimate Marketing Startup Strategy Guide offers some more great marketing advice.

Welcome to the end of the line—well, really just the end of this guide, but more importantly, the beginning of your journey toward building a successful online business.

You made it through the entire guide, for starters. You might even be on the cover of Foundr Magazine! So many things in life and business are beyond your control.

One thing you have some influence over, though, is your mindset. As you work to build a successful online business, one fact is absolutely certain: What you can control, at least to some extent, is the mindset you adopt in response to that reality. Enter Carol Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford University. Ideally, though, you want to shift your thinking toward growth:. As a result, you fear failure because it says something negative about you and your capacities.

Understanding that you can develop your skills, and reach success, by working hard, working smart, and taking feedback. A growth mindset is the only way to deal effectively, and healthily, with the inevitable hurdles of starting an online business. But actually embracing it, like, for real?

Still, you can read about misconceptions surrounding the growth mindset and ways to actually adopt the approach. A growth mindset can put you on the path to profit. But you never have to sacrifice your health, physical or mental. Productivity expert Chris Bailey put it well in a interview with Foundr: Like exercising, like eating well, like meditating. Successful online businesses are made of so many moving parts, and making sure that everything aligns just perfectly to pull in some profit takes time. Add up all the time you spend mindlessly scrolling through your phone.

Sure, some of that is fine. Your brain does need to take breaks. Web browsing gone off the rails? SelfControl is great for Mac, and Windows has some good options too. Everyone trying to start an online business should seek out a mentor or two. They can help you avoid mistakes, set goals, and stay inspired. You might find mentors within your existing network, through friends, at networking events, or on social media. But successful entrepreneurs are busy. To get at that, you have to ask where profit comes from.

To profit, you must serve your customers. Foundr is in your corner. We exist because new entrepreneurs like you deserve resources that really help, advice that actually sticks. We do what we do because we know that you can succeed. Some people will face more barriers than others. Everyone will fumble and bumble and stumble along the way. You can always read up on new strategies. You can always pivot your product. You can always try a new idea.

You can always take a break for your mental health and then get back to it. Whatever it takes, however long it takes, just remember to focus on what matters: Do something you love. Bear hug that growth mindset. Learn constantly, think critically, and keep on going and going and going. F Go to Foundr. Introduction Are you ready to become an entrepreneur and gain financial freedom by starting your own online business?

In three months, this is how her income exploded: Is This Guide for You? You also may have no idea where to start. The three core components of critical thinking are: Here are some big questions to think about—with some answers to ponder too. How likely is my success? Can I do this while working full-time? Will I need investors? Want to save this guide and read it later? Download a PDF version here. Download my PDF now. Physical Products Set up your own ecommerce store selling real, live, physical products.

You can sell physical goods from a digital storefront, offering convenience and selection to customers while avoiding the big barriers that stand between you and a brick-and-mortar storefront. The cost of entry for ecommerce varies. You will need to start an online store, and depending on which you choose, it could run you anywhere from a few dollars a month to a few hundred. We reviewed and compared some common ecommerce platforms here.

If you house inventory, you will also need to factor in those costs as well. For more information on how to set up an online store, register for our free masterclass: Digital Products Not all products are physical.

Who is this guide for?

Digital offerings, including online courses and ebooks, can be big sellers. Membership websites, in which users pay on a recurring usually monthly basis to access a range of members-only content, are an excellent source of revenue if done right. Billing members on a recurring basis means a sustained revenue source, as long as customers find ongoing value in your site. Selling digital products works best when you also offer free content—on a company blog, for example—to establish your authority and demonstrate your value to readers before they buy.

Software as a Service Software is a huge industry. But instead of selling one-off packages, the software as a service SaaS model aims to capture the same kind of ongoing revenue as the recurring billing of membership sites. With SaaS, you host a software application on your server, generally charging a monthly fee for access.

Charge an hourly or per-session rate that makes sense for you. The cost of entry for coaching services would include any services you need to run your business, such as a website and scheduling apps. Services Do you have a skill that people are willing to pay money for?

Attention If you want to learn how to start and scale a consulting, freelance or coaching business any service-based business , check out our course: Here are four popular methods of monetization. Advertising Ad networks like Google Adsense offer a simple deal: The challenge in advertising is volume. Making real money with ads typically requires tons of traffic on your site. Affiliate Marketing Through affiliate networks like Amazon Associates , you market products and receive a commission when your readers make a purchase.

Drop Shipping Drop shipping is like a cross between affiliate marketing and selling your own products. You know you have the right product, who your customer is, and how to set up your business. Get firsthand accounts from successful entrepreneurs who have grown their home based business into online behemoths. Sign up for our weekly newsletter. She launched her career in ecommerce with Y-Combinator backed Shoptiques. Table of Contents Chapter 1 What to Sell in It is one in how to design a happy life. Show Up Every Day.

Be patient, use the tools provided and never give up. Each day I contribute something to make my business better. Want more insights like this? Chapter 1 What to Sell in View all posts by Tracey Wallace. Let us future-proof your backend. You focus on building your brand. Start Your Free Trial. Your email list is going to be your most direct form of contact with your audience.

People on your email list are not only more likely to be customers, but you can use the power of email to help nurture a lead by regularly sending them quality content through something like a newsletter. For someone just starting out, however, there are several tools out there that you can use to get your email marketing into shape and even create automated email campaigns.

Even then, they also offer a generous day free trial, more than enough time to get your business up and running. Besides the two listed, there are dozens of great services out there that you can use to start building your email list for cheap or even for free! A lead magnet is basically a piece of content that you give away for for free to potential customers, in order to capture their attention and convince them to hand over their contact information.

Armed with nothing but these tools, you can easily create a well-designed eBook lead magnet. No matter how much free information there is out there in the world, nothing really beats learning directly from the experts themselves. Now that might not seem like a lot, but when used wisely it can help you meet face-to-face with world-famous entrepreneurs like James Altucher, Seth Godin, and Tim Ferriss.

But every event brings you one step closer to learning directly from an expert. Being in the same room with them will make it that much easier to develop a rapport and establish a relationship. If you happen to have a bit more free time, then reach out to the event organizers and see if you can volunteer or help in any way. Come up with a great business idea. Validate your business idea. Total cost so far: Get a library card.

The Ultimate Guide on How to Start an Online Business

Create some buzz with social media. Set up a website for your business. Setting up your first landing page is quick, easy, and most importantly, cheap. Cultivate leads with email marketing software. Take advantage of the free trials and inexpensive plans on offer so you can get started.

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