My situation may not be as complex as I think

Dominec!

Absolutely fascinating.

I have an interest in these subjects that stems from being an author. Part of what I do for a living involves online work; the other part sees me writing novels and screenplays. Some of the subjects you discuss above have featured in the books and scripts and, whilst I'm not even remotely an expert in those areas, researching and writing about them has done wonders to increase my interest in them. This is why your thread drew me in; a case of having to learn more to satisfy curiosity.

Onto business. You obviously have a very solid offline business. The trick now - as you know yourself - is to take it online. I'm going to offer you some broad suggestions to consider this morning, and perhaps you can use them as a springboard to take further action. What I'll do is offer a Phase 1 outline. Whenever I setup one of my own online businesses, I like to operate according to a series of phases; where Phase 1 is a relatively simple affair, and each further phase evolves my business closer to what I envision for the end result. (Of course, an online business truly never finishes evolving, so the final phase is simply a stage of evolution before I figure out what happens next.) When you evolve a business in this manner, you'll find it much easier to accomplish the desired results, and it gets you in business (online business) much quicker.

So let's look at the broad outline. With you being new to online marketing, I'm going to keep this relatively simple and decidedly broad; which is really all you need at this stage.

Audience.


1. Market Survey. Absorb competing online properties.
2. Problems. Figure out what your audience wants.
3. Solutions. Work out the most efficient way to solve those problems.

Before you setup an online business - know your audience. Know what they want, how they talk and think, where they go online - literally everything. The better you understand them? The better you can help them and help yourself. You'll know which problems they need solving, including how they prefer them being solved; you'll know how to find them online (the groups, the communities, the subreddits, and so forth); you'll understand how best to communicate with them (language, modes of communication, etc). In a nutshell: learn everything; it's all useful.

Competition.


You then need to begin digesting the competition. The trick here is to absorb literally everything, but pay close attention to a few more pertinent areas. In this initial stage, you want to take note of 11 different areas.

1. Overall website design.
2. Sections of their websites (pages).
3. Obvious problems they aim to solve.
4. Services (free and paid) they use to solve problems.
5. How they monetize (own products, affiliate offers, etc).
6. Which social networks they use.
7. Examine the content they use on socials.
8. Examine their video content on YouTube.
9. Run websites through similarweb.com (look for traffic sources).
10. Take note of obvious keywords (plus use Similar Web).
11. When you see good ideas, make a note of them.

That will give you a fairly decent (and quick) understanding not only of the competition but how you should be setting up your own business. Theory goes like so: Competitor A may have been in business for 20 years. You learn a lot in 20 years. By digesting Competitor A (like you would a textbook) you're effectively absorbing 20 years of education. All of which, you can employ in your own business. This gives you an immediate advantage when you launch a new venture, since you're not intellectually starting from scratch; you're using 20 years of knowledge (in our example) as the foundation of your new business. The idea is not to copy the competition. The idea, in Phase 1, is to emulate what they appear to be doing right. In future phases? Your duty is to expand beyond the competition and offer more to your audiences. This basic form of reverse-engineering helps to steer the new venture and, as it evolves, it gives you insights into how you can better the competition.

Side Note.

I can appreciate that a lot of the above is entirely new to you and probably a great deal more than you really want to learn at this stage. It's a huge subject (setting up a new online business) and I'm just giving you some of the highlights. I think your best approach to the highlights is to use them as a springboard for further learning. You can use Warrior Forum (the search function) to dig deeper into anything I talk about here, and you'll gradually get a decent picture of how to setup, manage, and grow the venture.

Basics.

A business like your own can solve local and global problems. You may not wish to work with a global audience, though, so it's just a possibility at this stage. You'll get more ideas when you assess your competition. Quite likely, you'll find them selling books on Kindle, offering phone and email help, along with other activities. What we'll do now, though, is assume that your Phase 1 plan is to target local, offline audiences.

This - in brief - is what you need.

1. Professional website.
2. Strong copywriter.

For both 1 and 2, take a look at the WF marketplace.

3. Facebook Page.
4. Google-Plus Profile.
5. Twitter Account.
6. Instagram Account.
7. YouTube Channel.

In terms of testimonials, never pay for them.

The best type of testimonials (as you know) come in the form of video. Ask present and future clients if they would mind helping your business by offering them. Add them to your YouTube channel and embed the videos in your website testimonials page.

Income.

You need 2 things to make income online (general terms).

1. A platform to earn money.
2. Traffic sent to that platform.

The usual impulse is to purchase traffic. This is not a bad route at all, but you have no real need to do so. If you purchase anything, then you may just want to buy Facebook Boosts; but even that is not remotely a necessity.

Learn to operate and grow these platforms:

1. YouTube Channel.
2. Instagram Account.
3. Twitter Account.
4. Google-Plus Profile.
5. Facebook Page.

Collection.

Your business (any business) can benefit from repeat business. Furthermore, it can benefit from people spreading the word about your business, and therefore exposing your business to new potential clients.

The trick is to collect your audience.

1. YouTube Subscribers.
2. Social Followers.
3. Email Subscribers.

You need to integrate audience collection (strongly) into your business. 1 and 2 above will help to spread the word (viral marketing); 3 will help you to grow a ready list of audience members who want to hear from you and may be willing to take action on your services immediately and into the future.

Hope it Helps.

Those are the broad strokes, Dominec. Aside from understanding the above - and adding to it through research - your duty is to present your business (brand) and then grow traffic and collect your audience. Make use of all your available resources, free and paid. Avoid purchasing products to help, since most of them will do nothing but drain your bank account. Much of what you need can be learned and carried out at no expense. In terms of basic startup costs, you'll need a premium Wordpress theme (about $60), an email list management client like aWeber (free for the first month), a copywriter (prices vary, but pay for a good one). No other expenses are truly necessary, unless you need to purchase a camera for video testimonials (and you can always use your smartphone for now).

I hope some of the above helps. As I say, you have a truly fascinating business and I enjoyed reading through your website this morning.

Cheers,

Tom