BellaOnline Forums Career Business Owners 10 Tips To Start Your Online Business

People often ask us what is the secret formula to establishing a successful online presence. The truth is, there is no easy answer and definitely no "single secret formula" but rather a combination of factors that determine an online store's continued success.

Times are evolving and major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista and many others will keep on changing their search algorithms just when you think you have it all figured out.

More and more people are trying to jump on the bandwagon to make money online these days, and just as many are getting frustrated with their results. As the competition becomes more fierce, some categories more so than others, it becomes seemingly more important to stand out from the crowd and establish some type of brand awareness of your web site. Here are 10 useful tips that have helped us establish a successful online store:

1. Make your web site UNIQUE. Do not fall into the trap of copying your competitors. Establish your own online identity and stand out from the crowd. Take your time to plan and design your site either by yourself or with the help of a reliable web developer. Remember, the more time you spend on planning your web site, the less money and time you will have to spend later on making changes and corrections.

2. Load your web site with as much useful content as you possibly can. Content is KING with search engines. Do not overload your site with flash and slow loading graphics. Keep it simple and to the point. Your web site should not look cluttered. Give it a clean look but with a lot of helpful information and resources. The number one thing that people look for online is information.

3. Have your contact information listed on every single page of your site. List your toll-free number on all pages of your web site if you have one. Make every page of your site look consistent. You want your site to be easy to understand and navigate.

4. Never underestimate the power of good service. Make yourself available to your clients. Help answer questions and help your visitors navigate your web site when needed. Answer all email inquiries in a timely and courteous manner.

5. Make it very easy for people to order your products. The easier the order process, the more orders you will get. Make sure your payment pages are secured. If you accept payment online, it is advisable to get the HackerSafe seal on all your web site pages. Almost all major reputable online jewelry stores today will have the HackerSafe (McAfee) seal somewhere on their site.

6. Have a Privacy Policy, an About Us and a Legal Notices page. Having a Site Map is also favored by major search engines.

7. Have a good selection of products available online before marketing your site. Remember, first impressions count.

8. Never underestimate the power of linking. The more sites that link to your web site, the better your page rankings. Remember, the sites that link to yours should be quality sites. Do not link to web sites that have a lower page rank than yours or you are wasting your time. Link building is time consuming, frustrating, sometimes confusing, yet unavoidable. Because ultimately, it is still the trump card for higher rankings today and in the foreseeable future.

9. Submit your site to DMOZ and other directories that allow free submissions.

10. Keep on adding fresh content to your site on a regular basis.

Using these principles, Nirvana Treasures, a fine diamond jewelry company, has launched their online division with great success. Response has been overwhelming with a lot of web site visitor hits daily, not to mention a steady flow of online orders.

For more tips on starting a successful online business, visit:
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Great advice! This list is really a must do type of thing if you want to build a good website.

Getting started with internet marketing is quite achievable for people (especially web writers) who have basic mastery of the internet and of submitting articles to search engines.

Usually it's the 'marketing bit' rather than the 'writing bit' that holds them up - that's what I found anyway!

That's why I joined an internet marketing course. I learn well with programs that have a set schedule to work through, so that you can implement your website and new business as you go along, getting tips and advice along the way from the tutors and forum.

Those tips in the first post are so true, as I have now learnt - anyone else who's interested in the program I joined are welcome to come see

Excellent Tips, Thanks for you sharing.








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Great tips, thank you!

I would also like to add something about increasing traffic to your website. If you want to get free, so called organic traffic, there are a couple of steps you can take. The first is to make sure you really have good keywords on your site. The keywords should have a baring on the problems your products/services are solving for the customer. Putting your keyword on your site a numberous times, on your page title etc, will get your site higher rankings in the search engines.

As allready stated, search engines like updated content and linking. You can also get traffic from forums, blogs, social media sites etc, allways using your keyword. The more "visible" your keyword is, the higher ranking in search engines.

/Cornelia

I joined a program called The Niche Blogger which teaches you how to make money blogging.

Her program goes through choosing a niche, how to set up a wordpress self-hosted blog, including what widgets and plug ins you need to increase traffic, how to write good keyword articles and much, much more. It's written in blog form too so you can go day by day and do whatever it is that's being discussed that day.

It is a membership site and costs $13.95/mo but you can cancel once you get your blog going. She recommends doing mulitiple blogs and according to her, you can earn $3,000/mo with 12 blogs. I'm up to 4 blogs now using her system and have started earning with them.

If you'd like to start a money making blog but aren't sure how to do it, this program is great. I have my own health & wellness site but I was lost on the self-hosted WP details. This program was a life saver to me.

That's great joan, I too have started to see some revenue (adsense) from my blog, also my website. I have put some of my most useful products and services on them and am halfway through my web 2.0 version this week. Just need to polish it. Hope to see the revenue snowball now! My best tip is to choose a niche which is very specialised to reduce the competition.

Great tips - I decided to form mine into a Squidoo page (Steps that worked for me) after I decided I wanted to work at home marketing and writing.

All welcome to see what I did, products I bought, services I subscribed to, gurus who taught me etc. here .

PS (LOL, these Squidoo lenses are at the top!!)

Thanks for the link Joan. This looks interesting.

I'm in my 4th month with Niche Blogger now. You'd think once you set up your blog, with all the plug ins, content, etc, that you'd be done but each month Niche Blogger continues to give great information about affiliates, ads, content, getting traffic, etc.

It's really a great site and well worth the money.

It's great that we're all so happy with our writing programs 'going forward' into the New Year! I guess we're all renewing then lol? I know I am.

Now that we have launched our online business sites, we just have to decide what is the next set of priorities. I think I will concentrate on creating content and promoting for the next month of January - how about you?

That's pretty much my goal too. I've got my blog in place, with the affiliates, etc. Now I just need more content and more traffic to make it all fall into place.

Your niche sounds delicious lol ! Maybe it will be easier to write more content after the holidays when families get back to normal - one of my first goals is to implement a New Year routine.

A good tip is to identify a demand before we start our sites! - not try to monetize it after! My online writing site is slowly growing in content now.

Hi, I appreciate of your shared information. It really helps and have worth for those people that want to start online business.

Thanks a lot!



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We started an online business, we are writing articles, blogging, doing everything that we can think of and trying to do things that others are recommending. The question is how to you keep from spending more then your are making? You go to a recommended site and it's buy this, or buy that. The so called guru's only want your money. Go to help sites and it's a bunch of mumbo jumbo, with little actual content. Sign up for a few newsletter and there all the same. It gets crazy. I know that just starting out is difficult but this gets overwhelming at times. Another question, how do you get a privacy statement. Do we write it ourselve or have a lawyer do it? I have tried to research on the web but gotton no where quick. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi Marin - Google has a privacy template hidden away right down at the bottom of its adsense info! useful as a base for writing your own. Any questions like that I just ask my gurus in my website hosting forum.

Funnily enough, I just wrote about the gurus who helped me succeed!

This one is the one who helped me succeed online!

Still using it today! Good luck!

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Thank you for the information, - great tools to know with having an online business!

Joan - thank you to. First, I love your recipes. Second, I will look into Niche, as I do have a blog and wouldn't mind more!

Sandy

www.mygritsconfessions.com

Thank you for everyone's input on our first post. This list was put together by us after years of experience, and is really a MUST-DO for anyone who is serious about wanting a successful online entity.

With technology changing as fast as it does today, it can sometimes be hard to keep up with the competition. Being aware of the latest technology can often keep you ahead of the game. If anyone has any new tips on improving the page rank of an online business or blog, or simply any new tips, please share your ideas.

Thank you,
http://www.NirvanaTreasures.com/Pendants.html

It's always worth writing lots of articles about your website or blog to create some interest and add weight to page rank.

I have mentioned some of the article sites I use on my own

Freelance Writing Business Site

The age of your blog has an effect too - so just keep posting and keep it relevant!

I just put a Hire Me button on my online business site below!Blog area.

I figured 'why not?' If people can use a blogger/article writer - there is my work right in front of them and I have paypal, so as well as using the agents I list there - people can hire me direct! Maybe I can write copy for them cheaper too, in that way. I have had three enquiries so who knows? It's one way to start too!

I used to write keyword articles for about $30-$50 for a 500 word article but in the last couple years the pay has been more like $5 for each with so much competition out there.

Hope you have some luck with your advertising! You have to put yourself out there any way you can, I think.

Yes, to make money from starting an online business, you have actually sell something lol - even if that's your own skilled services,writing,editing,counselling or whatever your online business is based on.

So I figured, might as well put the Hire Me button there. Going to find a new location for it though. If people are interested in your business, they need to be able find that contact point very quickly. I want to make that contact me button clickable.

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Make sure you're earning from it because you may have the business but you need to maintain it, advertise and keep it running by paying for hosting and your domain name etc.