What You Need To Start A Website
Ok, the nuts and bolts you need to start a website; you needed your own domain name (i.e. www.yourname.com), a quality web hosting service (i.e. the people who store your websites contents on their servers), web programming software to make web pages for content, and if you are going to sell something online, you will need to have a shopping cart and merchant account.
To go with these products and services, you also needed to know html programming. Not to mention, all the other stuff that goes with a website, like marketing and advertising, etc…
What is all this going to cost? A name costs around $10/year, hosting costs around $120/year, programming software can cost upwards of $400, and shopping carts and merchant accounts can cost $500 or more.
So, you are looking at anywhere from $500 and up, and that is still not figuring in advertising and marketing, graphics, etc You need to be able to market your website or no one will know you are there. As you can see a traditional website could run you into the $1000s.
After the nuts and bolts, what else does every online business need?
Well first, you need to have your own niche. It doesn’t matter what the domain name is but you need to have one in a specific niche to start making money online.
Then second, you need to be able to edit and update the content on a simple website.
Third, you need to have an email list service. You can sell them things later! First, you need to build a relationship, then, when you try to sell them something, they will be responsive. Research shows that most sales are made after 5 – 10 contacts, not on the first one. You need to get people to come back and a list is the best way. Most online businesses will tell you the money is in the list.
Fourth, you need to know how to monetize your site. Money is really only made two ways online, one is through advertising and the other is through selling products. Either you develop a content site that sells advertising, or you develop a content site that sells products, or both. Just remember that Content is King! People arent looking to be sold, they are looking for INFORMATION.
Fifth, no matter what you do online you need content or niche information. People are not going online to buy things, they go online looking to solve problems and/or find information. Let me say that again… People surfing the web are looking for INFORMATION!
Finally, you need lots of niche traffic. You can’t build relationships if people do not know you exist.
When starting a website, there is always unforeseen challenges. That is ok.
Most days you are going to come up against obstacles, the key is that you do not give up, just figure it out and make those course corrections. That is just business… the road is not always easy, but that is what makes it exciting, right?
Like Cortez in history, burn your ships and just keep going forward. Success comes to those who don’t quit. Eventually you will figure out how to overcome those unforeseen obstacles, just keep trying.
