How to Start a Free Online Business

How do you start a free online business? What is holding you back from becoming an web entrepreneur? Do you think there is a secret online business system that will make you tons of money only if you have access to it? Let me tell you the truth once and for all - there is no secret formula. But, you need the knowledge, may be a step by step guide, some hand holding, etc. but there is no secret. Believe me, I have seen hundreds of ebooks, courses, coaching, and what not for a so called secret system. But I don’t regret buying them. I still buy those stuff because I consider the expense as learning investment for online business success.

So how do make money online? If you are still hoping to generate online income, you need to start an online business. Online business is not internet marketing, though internet marketing is the major component of any online business. You need to market your website, just like any other offline businesses need to drive customers to their stores by means of marketing.

Here is my 7 step secret (not really!) online business system

1. Find a niche. You can use a variety of techniques to find niches that are in hot demand. You need to find what people are looking for. What solutions they are searching for to tackle their day-to-day problems. It may be as mundane as taking care of their lawn to as abstract as making their love life exciting.

Read my post about 5 Steps to Finding a Niche For Making Money Online. I will post more articles on how to find niches and possibly release a free ebook. Sign up for my newsletter and I will inform you about the availability of this free ebook as soon I release it. Sign up and get a Free eBook on 101 Traffic Techniques.

2. Keyword Research. Once you have identified your niche, you need to do keyword research. People use search engines like Google to find information, products and services online. You have to know exactly what keywords or key phrases they are using in a search engine. Keyword research will tell you exactly that. You start with a keyword in your niche and find a broad and deep list of keywords in that niche.

You can also use keyword research to find a niche and a domain name. Check out my three posts about how to use keyword research to find niches, domain names, and free tools that you can use for your keyword research. All successful online marketers have mastered the art of keyword research. If you want to be successful, you have to get the mastery over this area and it is not really difficult. It only takes knowledge and time.

3. Get a domain. A domain is your online address. If you are serious about starting an online business, you must have a domain for your niche. If others are peddling ebooks and telling you that you don’t need a domain to start making money using their secret online business system, then they are full of crap. Can you imagine an offline business without an address? Domain is also you business trademark they will stay with you forever as long as you keep paying the yearly domain fee - a meager $10 per year.

Read this post about how to find an available domain using a free domain tool. I use the tool extensively and I was fortunate enough to get some good two-word domain names using the tool. Two-word domains are almost extinct and recently I found that even three-word domains are rapidly becoming extinct. Earlier I could find a good three-word domain name in ten minutes of research. Now it takes me almost an hour because people are snatching domains as if the whole world is coming to an end. Always get a .com domain.

4. Sign up for a web hosting. Once you have a domain, you need a web hosting company to host your domain. The web hosting company will also provide you with web servers and bandwidth to host your web sites. It is like renting a space for your offline business.

There are thousands of web hosting companies I am sure most of them are good. However, I would recommend HostGator. Why? Because I have used them before. I had a reseller web hosting account for $25/month with HostGator. I could host unlimited websites. Now I lease two dedicated servers.

But you don’t have to get the reseller account. You can get their Business account for $12.95 a month. If $12.95 a month is too much for you, go for their Baby account for $7.95 a month. You can create unlimited web sites in any plan.

If you are cash strap, you can sign up for one of those Ad Free Web Hosts. Read my post before you sign up with any one of those free host.

5. Drive traffic to your website using thousands of techniques. There are thousands of different techniques to drive traffic to your website. In your web business, you will be spending most of your time doing this. This is also called internet marketing. Now that you have a web site, you can market it. There is also lots of learning involved. If you can master internet marketing, I guarantee that you will be successful in your online business. Start with my free report on 101 Traffic Techniques by signing up for my newsletter.

6. Monetize your web sites using advertisement, direct selling to your customers, affiliate marketing, or membership subscription. This where the real money comes to your pocket. You make money by putting ads on your site from ad networks like Google’s AdSense, or affiliate products from Clickbank, Commission Junction, etc. You can also sell your own products.

If you are using ClickBank, you should check out my post on How to Evaluate Web Affiliate Programs from ClickBank.

7. Repeat step 1 to 6. The first time you go through step 1-6, it may take you anywhere from a few weeks to up to 12 months, depending on the time you spend, knowledge you acquire, and your commitment to your business. But once you understand how this online business system works, you can repeat step 1 to 6, working part time, almost every month with a new niche.

You must be wondering if the title of this post is some what misleading because, after all, online business is really not 100% free. You need to pay for your domain, web hosting, sometimes for advertising, buying ebooks for learning purposes, etc. So why I am calling it free? It is free because your investment is so low, sometimes less than a cup of coffee a day, that it is almost like free. No other business on earth you can start with such a low investment.