The Ultimate Guide to Turning Your Online Business into Success

You’ve been thinking about starting an online business for a while, but you want to make sure it’s going to be successful. The internet can seem like a big and scary place for beginners. But don’t worry! It doesn't have to be this way. You can create a successful online business with just a few simple steps. Here, is how to do it:

1 Decide what you want to sell

The first thing you need to do is figure out what you want to sell. If you're a graphic designer, you might be able to sell your work on Instagram or by having it featured on specialised websites. If you're a new entrepreneur, you may not be quite so sure. You might be more interested in selling products of other people on Facebook as an affiliate. If you love making recipes, then you might want to make a YouTube channel about cooking so you can share your recipes with other people. A skilled consultant will want to use LinkedIn for his professional services. If you already have a local physical shop, you may want to turn part of your business into an online shop.

When you figure this out, you'll know what types of products and services you're interested in. But with so many ways to run an online business, it's hard to figure out what the best way is.

2 Choose a business model

There are so many different variations of online businesses. For example, you can be a business coach or a copywriter. Choosing a business model will decide what you will be charging people for, which in turn will determine how much time and effort you’ll need to put in.

The most known business models are:

Selling digital products (training, eBooks), softwares, or software as a service (SAAS) by sharing your knowledge and experience.
Selling of physical products (classic e-commerce, dropshipping, Amazon FBA).
Affiliate marketing by selling another brand’s products and earning a commission from each sale.
Advertising or podcast sponsorship using for example niche Blogs.
Creating membership site where customers pay subscription fees to access useful resources (tutorials, videos, posts, and any other form of content).
Coaching and consulting.

Pick the right type of business to start from the get-go, as you will probably find that you make more money if you target your audience a little more specifically. Think about your perfect client; then work out why and how much they’d pay for your services. Now it's time to welcome customers.

3 Create a website for your business

You will need a website for your online business. That’s what makes it successful. And that’s what your potential customers will find first. You need to own a website that showcases your expertise in your field. Be sure to include some information about yourself or your business. This will help the customers you attract know who you are and what you can do for them. Try to include plenty of pictures and have a lot of links. This will help your customers find the information they want more easily. You’ll also want to be sure that your website is available in as many different languages as possible. Some of the most successful businesses on the internet today have multiple language versions.

4 Choose the right online platform to get traffic

Common popular websites

You need to choose a platform that will grow your online business quickly. You will be able to sell on Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and the like. This will be where you will be able to reach your customers in the world’s most populated countries.

Your own website

You will also be able to sell direct to your customers via your own storefront on your website. This is what is known as “offering your product or service on various platforms to make it more accessible to your target customer”. And because the customers will have multiple options, they will most likely choose the one that suits them the best. Once your website is up and running, it is strongly recommended to build a successful blog that attracts readers.

Small business web developement outsourcing

Small businesses are normally concentrated in their core activities. The best approach is therefore to entrust their web development to other small, specialised small businesses, and to do so at a lower cost. It is no longer necessary to spend a lot of money to have an opening on the Internet with a website, a blog, or an online shop.

5 Gain traffic on the potential sales

Most people are familiar with the basics when it comes to how to start an online business, get visitors and sales. You put up an ad, and you get traffic and incomes. There are so many more aspects to it than that though, and you need to know everything about it if you want to create a successful business. It's a lot of work, but you don't have to do it all at once nor alone by yourselves.

From a singular point of view, there are essentially two sources of traffic: free traffic and paid traffic.

What is Paid Traffic, Major Pro and Cons

Paid traffic is when you pay to receive visitors to your website. This includes advertisements that you have paid to be displayed by advertising agencies (TV, radio, etc.) or in social networks.

3 Major Pros of Paid Traffic

You can get a lot of traffic very quickly.
You can test offers quickly to see if they will convert before spending too much time on them.
You can often be more targeted by bidding on terms or sites that you could not organically rank for.

3 Major Cons of Paid Traffic

You must spend money to make money.
It's easy to get limited by cash-flow.
You often must wait for pay-outs to run more traffic.

What is Free Traffic, Major Pro and Cons

Free traffic is when you get visitors to your website without having to pay anyone. For this you need to use search engine optimisation (SEO), publish regular quality content in social networks (YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Quora, etc.), write relevant articles in blogs aimed at your targeted prospects.

3 Major Pros of Free Traffic

It's free. You don't have to worry about ad spend, budget, etc.
You feel better about leaving campaigns alone for a few days.
Traffic can continue to come for a long time after you stop working.

3 Major Cons of Free traffic

It can take a while to get a significant amount of traffic.
It's often not as easy to scale.
If you are testing a new offer or niche, you could spend a lot of time before discovering it was a dud.

6 Increase your contact list and your business reputation

First, you need to have many contacts. If you're a new online business owner, you may not have a lot of experience or many contacts. Therefore, it's important to make sure that you don't skip over this step.

Having the right contacts is crucial if you want to make the most out of your online business:
You can start by making an extensive list of all the contacts you have on Facebook, Twitter and other social network or forums.
You can also look at your previous professional websites.
You can also ask your current clients if they know any new contacts that could be useful to you.
It may seem obvious, but you need to build up your social media presence.

All these things can help you to build up a reputation and build contacts for a sustainable profitable business.