Here's a bunch of helpful (free) guides and tools online experts

Just want to kick things off by saying that I am not an expert on Internet Marketing, nor will I ever call myself one, just doing this to help out the community with some free helpful guides and tools on building and growing an online business (with focus on building blogs and websites). Enjoy!

I'm not here to promote myself, I'm doing this for 2 reasons:

A) I have too much time on my hands right now.
B) I just want to help out people struggling, 'cause there is a LOT of free advice out there that's actually very good.

I'm hoping to turn this into a recurring thing here if you find it helpful, so I'll start with the "getting started phase" of online marketing, focusing on websites and blogs.

Alright, enough rambling, here's some guides that I've found very helpful throughout my own journey, and some I truly wish I'd known about from the beginning.

Getting Started:

How to find a profitable niche: I don't know if many people know about Niche Hacks, been following Stuart for some time now, but there is a lot of great content published there. This is basically a roundup post of guides on the topic of finding a profitable niche.

Smart Passive Income's Start Here Page: Okay, this isn't a guide, it's a page on one of the most popular passive income blogs today. On this page, Pat gives you a handful of starter tips, links to podcast episodes and blog posts. Honestly, you can get by and create your first online business solely based on the content found on this page. But there are also other blogs out there, which we'll get to.

How to start/create a website: A detailed guide on creating a website, with screenshots and steps along the way. This developer, Robert, has helped a ton of people and I wish that I had found this guide and site before I launched my first site, would've saved me a headache (that's a story for another day).

How to start a blog in 7 simple steps
: From the same site and developer, this post focuses more on creating a blog and making it look good and setting it up for success. Same story here, wish I'd found this one before my first site, super-helpful and easy to follow.

Review of several web hosting companies: Whether or not you're going to create a blog, magazine, store or whatever, you will need a web host to kick things off (most likely). And finding the right one for you can be a real pain in the you know what. Here's some reviews of the most popular ones (yes, they are real reviews). My advice? If you're just starting out, just pick the one with the most benefits for the price tag.

How to set up an email list and newsletter: Another link to Smart Passive Income, but indeed super-helpful. No matter who you talk to about online marketing, the most common advice would be "build and email list" or "the money is in the list". And they would be right. Even though it's not necessary for launching a website, it's a must if you want to grow your business online.

And I think that would about wrap it up this time around.

We've covered the basics for getting started:

1. Finding a profitable niche/market for your business.
2. Starter tips from one of the most established entrepreneurs today.
3. How to start a website and blog with practical tips and steps.
4. What web hosts you should consider when first starting out.
5. How to build an email list, or at the very least getting started with this one.

Anymore than this and we might cross into "information-overload-land". Anyway, have a look at these sites and guides, practice what's preached and I'm sure you'll be well on your way.

So, feedback? Was it too much? Disoriented? Helpful?

Let me know, I'm all ears

Regards,

Karl