How to Start Your Web Based Business Part 2

Ok...yesterday we went through the initial thought process and some of the things that I have learned along the way like researching, calculating risk, committing time, etc...

Today I'm going to deal with the next step. I have to assume that you have looked at some different opportunities and that you have weighed the cost with the potential payout and the effort necessary and you have some idea of what you might like to start your web based offering with. This product that you are considering doesn't have to be perfect and it is not set in concrete, it just has to be something to start with that you think you like and can market. You can add other products or opportunities later. In order to make money on the web with any opportunity you need to get people to your site. How do you do this?

There are a vast number of sites and e-books that deal with this topic. Most of the information has been written by someone who has been down this road and has put together a guide that describes the process that they took to becoming successful. First I recommend that you look at some of the sites that offer these guides and see what they have to say and how it might relate to what you want to be doing. Here's a small list of the types of marketing that you can look at...

Pay-per-click AdWords
Free Ad sites
Paid Ad sites
Banner Advertising
Purchased leads
Audio and Video marketing
Blog and other social sites like YouTube
Swapped link ads where you and another opportunity advertise on each others site.
Direct mail
E-Zines
text ads
e-mail campaigns

Now the question is what medium to start with and how to make it work for your opportunity. If you joined an opportunity with a website or personal URL you can start right away. If you did not, then you need a domain name, a website or link site to send people to, and you may have to write your own web page ad copy to stoke peoples interest in your opportunity. There are a bunch of places to purchase domain names. I use Go Daddy and cheapdomainnames123. Whever you decide to go you should be able to register a domain name for $8.95 for 1 year. If you already have a website you don't need anything else. If you do not have a website then you will need webhosting service to post your pages with your opportunity. Go Daddy has many different hosting plans ranging from very inexpensive (3.39 per month) to really expensive ($299.00 per month). Usually you don't need a real high end hosting product, just a place to direct your traffic to. I always go with the cheeper option to start. You can upgrade anytime you like without a penalty.

Now the question is, what do you purchase for a domain name? Do you think someone is going to want to click on bobsoffering.com? Probably not. Your domain name is every bit as much a part of your marketing as anything else. Usually you purchase a cool sounding domain name, you get a hosting plan or site , you write some copy and put up your page. Then you realise that your domain name sounds like dirt! Or you realise that it really does not make sense for your business. So you go and purchase another one. Most of the people I know in this business have at least 2 or 3 different domain names. Some have 20! I have posted a link to the best tool I have ever used for selecting a domain name and a website strategy. It is under business tools and is titled "Easy to Follow Web Business Tool". Check out the site. They walk you through the entire process and give you tools to research domain names, web pages like the one you want to create, business strategy and advice that anyone can follow. This type of tool will save you boatloads of up-front money and time. It will give you a significant advantage over just trying to come up with something that works on your own. Most people (97%) that get started in this kind of home based web business fail because they didn't know how to get started and they wasted time and money trying, and finally ran out of both before becoming intelligent enough to be successful.

If you use this tool, even if you know nothing about this business, you will insure that you have a very good chance of being successful. I use it every day and I have three separate businesses going and they are all generating traffic and sales. But I still need to research web sites and web page ratings, and keywords, and site design. It's part of the business. If you don't like the technical part of a web business, you either need a partner who does, or you need to select an opportunity that allows you to bypass this step. You can jump into an mlm without having to use the web for traffic. But if you commit to learning this technology and using it regularly you will be likely to join the next generation of web business millionaires.


Once you have a domain name and a website or web hosting plan to send your traffic to, you need to figure out how to get people there and what to do with them when you get them there. I'll cover generating web traffic tomorrow. Go check out some more sites and tools and begin to develop your plan of attack. You need to know where you want to go before you can determine how to get there.