The Beginner's Guide to Starting an online Business: A Path to Success Without Costly Mistakes

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER 1 - MY STORY

CHAPTER 2 - WHY START AN ONLINE BUSINESS

CHAPTER 3 - CHOOSE THE RIGHT ONLINE BUSINESS NICHE AND MODEL

CHAPTER 4 - SETTING UP YOUR 6-FIGURE ONLINE BUSINESS

CHAPTER 5 - SETTING GOALS FOR YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS

CHAPTER 6 - PROCESSES INVOLVED IN MAKING YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS PROFITABLE

CHAPTER 7 - 7 MISTAKES TO AVOID IF YOU WANT TO SUCCEED AT YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS

CHAPTER 9 - CONCLUSION

MY STORY

Hello billionaire. My name is Racheal. When it comes to business, years ago I started looking for something to do online. For someone who's interested in a variety of hobbies,It took me time and money to figure out how to start an online business, with so many mistakes.

I was able to attend online classes(free and paid), webinars, zoom meetings, and paid courses.

I had this zeal for it because I believe starting up an online business will give me the freedom, security, and complexity I crave for in life with the right niche in mind because it was really difficult for me finding my place in the world.

After reading this e-book, my phone contact and WhatsApp link will be dropped for you to ask me questions to get more of the results you want.

Have fun reading, billionaire.

WHY START AN ONLINE BUSINESS

So you may be wondering, why should I start an online business and not a brick-and-mortar business?

A brick-and-mortar business is one where business is done face-to-face at a physical location.

So, I’m going to give you 10 reasons why you should start an online business.

1. It is cheaper to start an online business.

2. You do not need to hire any staff so you can save on costs.

3. You can also outsource different tasks to freelancers if the money is available.

4. You can work from home. You do not need to rent an office.

5. You can start your online business right now, at this very moment.

6. All you need is a smartphone or laptop with access to an internet connection.

7. You can work from anywhere, shout amen lol.

8. You can set up your hours, remember you are the boss.

9. The world has become a global village, so your audience is online.

10. You do not need any technical skills.

But there are some DISCLAIMERS I must make.

1. Having an online business doesn’t mean you should quit your 9-5 job. You can find a way to balance both.

2. Having an online business doesn’t mean money will jump into your account instantly. You have to do the work.

Unfortunately, a lot of people that start online businesses fail. I don’t want you to be a lot of people and that’s why I took my time to write this e-book.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT ONLINE BUSINESS NICHE AND MODEL

When you want to start an online business, do not only consider your PASSION or what you are GOOD AT. Ask yourself these 2 questions instead:

1. Is there a big demand?

2. Is there money in the niche?

The top 3 evergreen niches I recommend are:

1. Wealth creation niche or making money niche

2. Health and fitness niche eg weight loss

3. Personal development niche eg relationship, self-improvement, spirituality, the law of attraction, etc

There are other niches but these 3 niches have been tested and tried.

So now, let’s talk about online business models. I’ll be discussing 9 of them. Some you may have heard of before now and others maybe not.

They are:

1. Affiliate marketing

2. CPA marketing

3. Creating your product or service

4. E-commerce

5. Dropshipping

6. Drop servicing

7. Freelance services

8. Amazon FBA

9. Self-publishing

Let’s explain these, shall we?

AFFILIATE MARKETING

If you are not familiar with affiliate marketing the concept is pretty simple.

There are many vendors of products and services out there that will happily pay you a commission for bringing them, new customers.

Your only job as an affiliate marketer is to promote the products and services of other vendors. You do not have to concern yourself with product delivery or customer service.

All you have to do is drive targeted traffic to the affiliate offers. You can promote physical products or digital products or both.

Amazon has an affiliate program where you can make commissions by recommending physical products that they offer. The problem with this is that the commissions are low in the 3% to 5% range.

If you choose the wrong products to promote you will only make pennies on each sale. Digital products tend to offer much higher commissions.

Typically a digital product will offer a 50% commission and this can go as high as 100%. The reason for this is that once a digital product is

created it costs next to nothing to deliver it. So the vendors can pass on higher commission rates to you.

Some affiliate marketers promote both physical and digital products. Let’s say that you had a website providing health tips. There are so many products that you could offer to your visitors.

You could promote exercise equipment or supplements as physical products, and guides and training for losing weight and getting healthy for digital products.

CPA MARKETING

CPA stands for “cost per action”. Several CPA networks have clients who will pay you for promoting their offers.

The difference between CPA marketing and affiliate marketing is that you do not need to make a sale to earn commissions with CPA marketing.

Some CPA offers only require the visitor to provide their email address or phone number for example.

Other CPA offers are based on free trials of products. This is all lead generation for the businesses that are behind the CPA offers.

The biggest problem with CPA offers is that most of them pay low commissions.

This means that you have to drive a great deal of traffic to the offers to make good money. But you are not relying on a sale so the conversion rates are a lot higher than they are with affiliate marketing.

CREATING YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE

Creating the right products and services in your niche that answer the questions that the target market has is a great way to build a 6 figure business online.

It does take time, effort, and usually money to create your products and services. But the advantage that you have over affiliate marketing is that you own the customer.

Do you have an idea for a great product or service? Maybe you have expertise in a specific niche and you know what people in this niche are looking for. Your product will fix the pain that they have.

Your product can be physical or digital. What is most important is that there will be demand for it. You do not want to spend time and money developing a product that nobody wants.

There are online businesses that make millions of dollars each year by providing products and services that people need and will gladly pay for.

E-COMMERCE

Do you like the idea of selling physical products from your online store? Amazon makes gazillions doing this each year so why not you?

As you are unlikely to have the same level of resources as Amazon, gazillions will be out of the question. But you can certainly create a 6 figure online business with e-commerce.

Setting up your e-commerce store is now easier than it has ever been. There are solutions that you can use where you pay a monthly subscription such as Shopify. There are also themes and plugins for the WordPress blog platform that you can use which we will discuss in a later section.

Making your e-commerce store successful depends on being in the right niche and selling the right products. You will need to get the marketing right as well as there is a lot of competition these days.

E-commerce is not for the faint-hearted. You have to deal with customer service, returns, sourcing products, stockouts, and more.

DROPSHIPPING

The difference between drop-shipping and a conventional e-commerce store is that you do not need to acquire any stock with drop-shipping.

There are drop-shipping websites that will provide the product range and take care of the delivery to the customer as well.

Sounds perfect right? Well, it can be good but you need to check the commission levels first.

Most drop-shipping websites are not too generous with their commissions so you will need to shift a high level of stock to make a good income.

DROPSERVICING

This is a relatively new term in online business but the concept has been around for a long time. You can make a great deal of money from this if you do it right.

The old term for this was “service arbitrage”.

The concept of drop servicing is that you find the customers and charge them a high price for a service that they need and then you get a freelancer with the skills to provide the service at a lower cost.

Let’s look at logo design for example. If a business went to a fancy agency to have a logo design it would probably cost hundreds of dollars.

You can sell them a logo design service for $200 and then get someone on Fiverr.com to design the logo for your customer for around $20.

If everything goes well (which it should) then you make $180 on the deal. The good thing is that the customer pays you upfront for the service and then you pay the freelancer. So your only cost is to find the customers and take care of them.

You can use PPC ads or social media ads to find customers. With such a good markup you can afford to spend money on advertising. The customer is yours so you can promote more services to them and make even more money.

To be successful at drop servicing you must choose the right services to promote and find reliable freelancers that will do a great job for your customers. Here are some ideas for services you can promote:

• Design services – logos, website headers, etc

• Writing services – SEO-optimized posts and articles

• Copywriting services – sales pages, sales video scripts, email sequences, etc

• Web development

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• Programming

• App development

FREELANCE SERVICES

Do you have a skill that is in demand? Are you a good content writer or copywriter? Are you an SEO expert that can rank websites and videos on YouTube? Do you have programming skills that are in demand?

There are lots of people providing freelance services to customers and creating 6 figure online

businesses out of this. If you do not have any specific skills then you can either develop these or just go for drop servicing.

You can use several different techniques to market your services. There are freelancer websites

such as Upwork.com and Freelancer.com where you can set up a profile and bid for jobs or projects that they have in their system.

There are also gig-based sites such as Fiverr.com and PeoplePerHour.com where you can post gigs related to your skills and then customers can purchase them. Some freelancers make thousands a month from Fiverr.

AMAZON FBA

You can use the power of Amazon to sell physical products. They have an FBA (fulfilled by Amazon) service where you can list products on their sites and they will fulfill the customer orders and deal with any customer service issues.

You will have to pay a fee per product sold to do this but this model does have the potential to make you a lot of money.

Amazon receives a huge amount of traffic every month. If you can provide a product or products that people want then you can be very successful with the FBA model. It is down to you to source the products and deliver them to Amazon warehouses for shipping to customers.

A lot of people involved in FBA turn to China for low-priced products that they can sell at a higher price in the United States, the United Kingdom, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and so on.

The Amazon FBA model does require you to invest in product acquisition. Unlike other

online business models, you will need to spend a few thousand on products before you can start to see a return.

But if your products are popular on Amazon they will sell fast and it will not be long before

you start to see a return on your investment.

There are several pitfalls with Amazon FBA. If you don’t know what you are doing then you can lose a lot of money. Amazon has a lot of rules and regulations that you have to comply with for example. But if you get it right you can easily create a 6 figure online business.

SELF PUBLISHING

Are you a good writer? Do you have the next best-selling fiction book whirring around in your head? Or maybe you are good at writing nonfiction books about business, personal development, and other niches.

These days you can write a book and publish it yourself on Amazon Kindle and a lot of other self-publishing websites.

You do not need the websites to approve your book other than check that it does not violate their terms and conditions (they will have a list of book subjects that you cannot publish for example).

Once you have your book on Amazon Kindle or wherever it is all about marketing. You need to get as many people to check out your book as you can. If you get self-publishing right then you can make 6 figures a year online and more.

We have covered the main online business models here and you need to decide which of these is right for you.

The easiest one to get started with is probably affiliate marketing.

In the next chapter, we will talk about getting your 6 figure online business setup…

SETTING UP YOUR 6 FIGURE ONLINE BUSINESS

Once you earn more than 100,000 in any currency let’s say $100,000 but do not exceed more than $999,999, you are a six-figure business. The digits are 6 in total if you count them.

When it comes to setting up your online business, it is recommended that you have your website. The simple reason is for credibility. People expect businesses to have their websites these days.

To do this, you’ll be needing six things.

1. DOMAIN NAME - I recommend using “.com” eg www.Rachydigital.com. Others are “.co”, “.net”, “.org”, etc. These days you can get a cheap and good domain name. You can use the name of your company, what your company does, or your name attached to .com, .org, etc. Totally up to you. Namecheap and Godaddy are good domain registrars.

2. WEB HOSTING - You need web hosting for your website to be live on the internet. You also want fast servers so your website loads on time. People are impatient. If all these confuse you, pay an experienced professional to create a web for you.

3. WordPress - There are many ways to create a website but WordPress is the most popular. You don’t need so many technical skills. Also, there are lots of plugins to make your life easier. WordPress is a content management system.

4. LOGO - You should know that every business in this day and age has a logo. Do not be the exception. Use Canva or outsource it but you must have one.

5. PAYMENT PROCESSOR - You will need the means to collect your money from customers online, especially if foreigners are going to be part of your target market. An example of a payment processor is PAYPAL, but do your research to find the best option for you.

6. EMAIL AUTORESPONDER - Email marketing is super powerful. It’s a way of communicating with your customers or potential customers to establish a relationship with them. Email marketing is costly though you can start free. Aweber and GetResponse are popular ones.

SETTING GOALS FOR YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS

If you want your online business to fail, then skip this chapter. It sounds harsh but it is true.

Ask yourself how much you want to generate in the first year of your business. You should think about this.

Use the ACRONYM to analyze your goals. Let your goal be SMART:

S - Specific eg $50,000 in 12 months

M - Measurable - you can measure what you earn each month to see how well you are doing

A - Achievable - You will most likely not make a billion dollars overnight

R - Realistic - Is it realistic to make $50,000 a year? Your answer is what matters

T - Timed - You have set the goal for 12 months which is lovely. A goal without time attached is a wish.

Visualize how your goal makes you feel. Also, ask yourself why you want to achieve your goal. Add feelings to your goal. Then bring everything down to your daily routine.

If you don’t know what to do daily to achieve your goals, you are still wishing.

PROCESSES INVOLVED IN MAKING YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS PROFITABLE

There are 4 processes involved.

1. Traffic generation

2. Marketing your online business

3. Your 30-day plan

4. Scaling your online business

1. TRAFFIC GENERATION - This is the most important thing if you want to survive your online business. You can have a poor offer but if you send enough visitors, you will make sales.

If you have the very best offer in the world and nobody is looking at it, you won’t make a cent.

To generate traffic, there are free methods and paid methods. Free methods take longer. There is also broad traffic - advertising to everyone and targeted traffic- advertising to specific people.

Whatever you choose, generate traffic. You can generate traffic through content on social media and running adverts online.

2. MARKETING YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS - You can do this through content marketing, video marketing, podcasts, search engine optimization (SEO), social media, email marketing, guest blogging, pay-per-click (PPC), social media ads, YouTube ads, native ads, etc.

Make sure you have a marketing plan for your business. You can consult me about this.

3. YOUR 30-DAY PLAN - If you fail to plan then you plan to fail. The first 30 days of your online business are critical as they define the way that you will approach things that you can repeat in the months ahead. Here are our ideas for the first 30 days of your new 6 figure online business:

1. Decide on your Niche: You need to do this on day one. Choosing the right niche is critical to your success.

2. Keyword Research: On day two we recommend that you perform keyword research for your chosen niche. Identifying the right keywords to target with your website and your promotional efforts are critical.

3. Create your Goal and WHY statement: Decide on your goal for your online business and write this down. Create a corresponding WHY statement to provide you with the motivation to work on your business each day. Do this early say day 2.

4. Choose your Domain Name

On day 3 you need to choose your domain name and register it.

5. Choose a Good Web Host

This is another activity for day 3. Find a web host that will give you the best deal on a shared hosting package.

6. Install WordPress

This can be a day 3 or 4 activity depending on the amount of time you have available.

7. Customize your WordPress site

Again this can be day 3 or 4. Choose a theme for your new website that you like. Add the necessary plugins to enhance your website. Learn how to add content to your new WordPress site.

8. Add your Initial Pages

We will assume that you do this on day 5. You will need the following pages on your new website:

• Home page – this is the first page that your visitors will see so make it enticing.

• About Us page – this is very important as people want to know who you are and what you stand for

• Contact Us page – you need a way for your visitors to contact you and there are plenty of free

plugins available to create a good contact page

• Terms and Conditions page – again you can find a free plugin to create this

1. Privacy page – use a free plugin to create this

9. Add Posts

This is where you add niche-related content to your website. You can use text, videos, and images here.

10. Create your Marketing Plan

From day 7 onwards just focus your effort on promoting your online business. Decide on your marketing plan and follow it. Add tracking to all of your promotional efforts to see what is working and what isn’t.

SCALING YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS

Once you have got your online business to a certain level you will want to scale it up so that you can drive more traffic and make more money. If you are working on your online business on your own then you need to get help from others to scale it.

MISTAKES TO AVOID IF YOU WANT TO SUCCEED AT YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS

1. NOT TREATING YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS AS A PROPER BUSINESS

Most people that start an online business do it out of curiosity. They have seen many wild claims about how they can make a fortune with just a few clicks of their mouse so they get themselves a domain name and some hosting and play around.

To create a successful online business you need to work on it every day. Forget all the nonsense about miracle software. You need to learn to do the right things and get the word out about your online business all of the time.

2. NOT HAVING A PLAN

How many people that start an online business take the time to create a plan for their business? The answer is very few. Nobody knows how many online businesses fail every year but it will be a lot. Most new online business owners do not set goals or create any kind of plan. They are then surprised when it all fails.

3. NOT CHOOSING THE RIGHT NICHE

You need to carefully consider the niche that you choose for your online business. If you get this wrong then you can spend a great deal of time, effort, and money and not get much in return.

4. NOT CHOOSING THE RIGHT ONLINE BUSINESS MODEL

There are several different online business models that you can choose from. We’ve discussed them in a previous chapter. Be sure to choose carefully.

5. THE SHINY OBJECT SYNDROME

The grass is always greener over there. You have probably heard this term before. It means that there are better opportunities for your online business success elsewhere. We call this the “shiny object syndrome”.

When you choose an online business model there will be people who tell you that you made the wrong choice and that you should switch to another program and purchase their training to show you how to make a fortune from it.

A lot of people that choose the wealth creation niche (make money online) are constantly bombarded with new shiny objects to distract them. There are new courses and programs released every single day in this niche.

All of them will tell you that you need to stop what you are doing now and follow their lead.

I strongly advise that you resist the shiny object syndrome no matter how tempting another offer sounds.

6. NOT GETTING ENOUGH TRAFFIC

If you had to guess why the majority of online businesses fail what would be the main reason in your opinion? Would it be a lack of interest? Lack of resources? Not having the best Internet connection?

In my opinion, it would not be any of these things. The answer is not enough traffic!

If you do not get targeted visitors to your offers then you are not going to make any money online. Traffic is the lifeblood of any business.

7. NOT TESTING AND ANALYZING RESULTS

One of the major advantages that an online business has over a conventional brick-and-mortar business is that you can measure just about everything in real time.

But a lot of online business owners ignore this or don’t use it enough.

If you want to know how many visitors you got to your website last week you can use a program like Google Analytics to tell you this.

You can also find out where your visitors came from and which pages of your website they visited.

It is also useful to know how long they spent on your website. This is known as the “bounce rate” and you want your visitors to stay as long as possible.

It is possible to track everything and you should do this. This is especially important if you are spending money on paid traffic.

Most social media platforms have comprehensive analytics features these days. You can use these to see which of your posts are performing well and which are not.

Do more of what is working and less of what isn’t.

You cannot manage what you cannot measure. This information is golden so be sure to use it.

CONCLUSION

I hope this ebook was helpful. Reach me on this number for a consultation call to help you with the areas you struggle with. Here’s my phone number

+23468944726 and my WhatsApp link

https://bit.ly/3D6U0Pz