Starting an online company

So you want to start an online business. What kind of online business?

Web hosting? Affiliate marketing? Creating WSO?

I started in web hosting and domaining. Started a hosting company in 2005 then sold it. Then Domaining gave me my first real break at making $10k+/month.

Then I went into affiliate marketing, became a super affiliate.
I am Still doing affiliate marketing as well as creating my own products.

Biggest hurdle? Everything has its ups and downs. Back then, I would go months without making zero dollars. Just don't give up.

Advice? Don't focus all of your time and energy working online. There's more to Life than making money. Spend quality time and do other fun things too.

Getting started online can be difficult and you may suffer from information overload. My suggestion to you is to search the forums, or if you find somebody helpful follow them and see if they offer anything of value that helps you take your learning to the next level. Be weary of joining "business opportunities" that promise you the moon but never deliver. Find a niche you are passionate about and that is also profitable and learn how to market to them. When I first got started online, I didn't know what I was doing one of the things I suffered from was information overload. Information is great but if you don't do anything with it you'll never get anywhere. So they key here is to be actionable and make mistakes and keep moving forward each and every day. Be consistent and stay focused and pursue it like a business and eventually you will learn the in's and out of online marketing. Many people get in this business for the wrong reasons and because they think they can make a quick buck just because it is online. But what one must realize is that in order to see results you must go through lots of trial and error, before you start to even get close to making money. Never give up.

Good luck

My advice: Don't keep feeding yourself with too much information. Take real ACTION and learn from your mistakes. Trust me thats the shortest route to success. And don't spend a million on "get rich quick info products" and become a broke. Spend on good themes, content, plugins and mailing services.

I too am getting started online .I just finished my first blog last week.I think starting a blog is a great start.I am progressing weekly through the QSC program.There are many avenues people take.I think getting a good mentor is an advantage if you can afford one.

Hey Michael,

First i'd like to say Good Luck for your online business, now let's jump over your questions.

i think every person here, having a different experience but yet i'd like to showcase mine.

I started my online business with Article Writing in WSO section and yes it was a turning mode in my Life. I made big bucks first time at WF...

Biggest hurdle was to handle fraud clients, who first paid but after their work, took complete refund via Paypal.

My advice would be to learn by practicals, you can't learn everything in school & colleges.

i hope this would be helpful to you !!

Thanks

Best Regards

Nuke

Back in 2002 I found a small niche to develop software in. The niche was too small for companies with offices and employees. But it was a good niche for somebody working from home on their kitchen table.

If you want business ideas, YOUR DAY JOB is the first starting point.

Start building a list.

I don't know about an online marketplace, there are a lot of them and they mostly don't get used much.

Find a good affiliate product, set up a squeeze page and start driving traffic to it.

• Our now 9-year old global ICT company started out by providing telecommuting services for the online content, traffic / lead generation and SERP (Search Engine Rank Placement) improvement needs of our clients. We now cater to both the online and offline needs of our clients and have also expanded to other services, such as multi-lingual tech content development, multi-lingual sales / customer support / tech support / remote PC technician call center services, custom software and Web technology development services, strategic business development planning consultancy, offline / online advertising / marketing campaign planning / implementation / management services and so on. So, if that qualifies our company as an "online business", then here are the steps that we did to get started:

*** We identified urgent problems and immediate needs of overseas corporations, companies, businesses and start-ups that we can help solve and satisfy with our knowledge, skills, expertise and other relevant resources;

*** We formulated service packages that can provide prospect clients with benefits that can't be found elsewhere;

*** We created a team of four work at home moms and dads (my wife and I included) that can provide these services;

*** We pinpointed a prospect that wouldn't most likely turn down our service offers;

*** We formulated custom service packages for this prospect;

*** We contacted this prospect and signed them up for a trial contract;

*** After a few months -- They wanted to renew to a larger, longer term contract that required us to grow our small team to a company with 140 employees and subcontractors combined;

*** We improved our back end and front end systems by hiring the right people, implementing the right processes and integrating the right technologies; and

*** This was in 2005. Now -- We've been getting referrals, contacting other prospects, signing up these prospects, growing our company and expanding to other profitable areas since then...

• Our biggest hurdle was when we were starting out in 2005 and had to register a company and grow our manpower resources to at least 140 employees and subcontractors combined -- We did not have significant financial resources. We just had a small room in our house as an office, a couple of computers with residential DSL connection as our office equipment and lots of free time in our hands because we were focusing on this contract. And:

*** I was already totally blind then after being gunned down twice in November 2003. Found below's a video documentary of yours truly that was created by the Asia Pacific Development Center of the United Nations a year after I was awarded by our government as the 2008 Most Inspiring Entrepreneur of the Philippines. This video was uploaded to Youtube by Thomas Ng, a good friend and former Asia Pacific CEO of Asea Brown Boveri, the world's largest power engineering firm...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cPAYvg17D0

• My advice? It's your play. It's your choice. You decide...

The first thing is to get started and not to over think everything! I don't know what your skills are and in what direction you wanna go but try to keep it simple.

I didn't do it from the start but if I had it to do again I would start with

1. building my blog to offer solutions for problems people have in my niche
2. build a brand around my name
3. build a squezze page
4. find a good high ticket offer
5. start driving traffic through SEO, Video Marketing, Solo Ads, Forum Marketing to the squeeze page
6. providing real value to my list to build trust and a relationship

Everything else can wait at this point or you can learn it along the way!

How did you get started?

I started doing business right after college. Started offline then created my online company during that year with my friend. I started a content writing company here in our country then opened a group buying site (top 5 in our country) soon after we sold our writing company.

What was your biggest hurdle?

- Keeping the revenues up all the time and scaling our business. Also, It takes a lot of practice not to get too emotional when things get rough.

- Managing your staff takes a lot of time and patience as well

What is some advice you would give to others?

- Have a clear vision of what you want to achieve
- never follow the money
- always give value
- Create a team, you can never do it alone
- Learn how to delegate your tasks
- Think like a CEO and lead your team to your vision
- Stop micro managing
- Create relationships with your staff and clients
- Always grow your business
- Always get new clients
- Always market your business
- Always innovate
- Be resilient
- If you fail, move forward and never look back
- It's never easy
- Have fun!

Cheers

How I got started: worked for a company that had about a 5-6 month busy season while in college. Then it was brutally boring for 6-7 months with 8-10 hours a day that we didn't really do a whole lot but wait on customers (assuming any came in). I was also in college at the time and spent a lot of time bored in class just playing around on the internet. So, as they say "work while you work". Just used that spare time to start trying different methods I read about.

I tried affiliate marketing (without a list), then list building, I bought an ebook, improved it, and sold it online, I owned a t-shirt company in college, I've had a few blogs (mostly for fun), recently I had quite a few drop shipping sites, the list goes on.. I've had some success (positive cash flow) with all. But, spent a lot of time spinning my wheels and wasn't a big fan of any in particular. That said, collectively I learned a lot which is helping me succeed now.

Now I look for, or create tangible products with a point of difference. I got into it because I couldn't find a product I wanted. There are a lot of products in my niche, but 99.9% of them are made completely wrong because it's cheaper. I found one (now) competitor that made what I was looking for. I purchased the product and it fell apart within 3 months. The design was what I wanted but it failed to execute by using cheap materials, etc. I looked at the feedback of the product and the same few suggestions kept popping up: better materials, better manufacturing, more colors. I began contacting companies overseas and it took about 2 months to perfect the prototype. I've run it by family and friends and the general consensus is "why doesn't everyone make it like this?" Now we manufacture in bulk and it's growing into an actual business.

The biggest hurdle for me what find exactly what I wanted to do. I kind of dreaded affiliate marketing. My ebook was in the gambling niche (wasn't a fan of), dropshipping only earned me around 25% commissions and took a lot of time to manage a lot of products. Product creation excites me because I can look at something and clearly see/say "this is the benefit" of my product when lined up next to others.

Advice I'd give to others: be patient. If you're desperate, I'd urge you to go out and get a job. Don't believe the hype that you can make money online without any effort and that everyone can so it in a day or two. It takes time. In my case, it took time finding the right method for me. Work on your online business in your down time. It'll save you a lot of stress.

Hi Michael,
As you stated here that you are looking to start an online business.Can you please explain what type of business you are going to start?
You can start your online business with by following step by step process:
1.One of the biggest factor while setting up an online business is to find out the if there is any target audience for your business plan.
2. Then you can raise you fund through different sources.
3. Build your website
4. Marketing your business among your target audience.
5. Patience an important factor you need because your internet venture will take time to grow.

Biggest Hurdle you will face while starting an online business is :
1. Staying Competitive
2. Get Customers to recommend you
3. Stay focused.
My advice is to make clear idea about the decisions you make and the actions you take each and every day – that'll get you where you want to go.

If you need any help then let me know.Our expert will help you.

Find a niche or subject you are passionate about, maybe even a hobby and think about ways you could monetize that. If you are enthusiastic enough about a subject, you are likely to do better with it, on a blog or other medium than if you just choose that subject because others have done so or you think it will earn more money for you. Once you have this initial step taken care of, then you can decide where your online home will be, such as a blog or forum. There after, you would start to build your fan base and these will be the people that purchase your products.

Stop learning from others, start learning from your mistakes, share your experience with others, fail. Repeat indefinitely until you screw up the failure part.

In the beginning I was all over the place, but it wasn't until I focused on one business model that I began to make a consistent income.

I recommend you figure out what you want to do (product creation, list building, affiliate marketing, selling services, to name a few).

Then write out some goals and write out a plan of action that will get you where you want to go.

Once you have your plan of action written out, you just need to take consistent daily action until you reach your goals. Have faith and don't give up if things don't fall into place right away.

the first step i took was to decide if i wanted to provide a product or a service.in any business, you are either selling a product or providing a service. and since i didnt have a product at that time or didnt know the importance i start off my internet business by providing a service. Example article writing, business plan writing etc

in selling a product, you will need a website, and build a list.
My biggest hurdle was that most online opportunities out there where offering paypal as the only medium of receiving payment or not accepting registration from my country.

My advice to others is that take out time to research; find solution to your challenges, get information on how to do it easier and keep updating your knowledge.

I am so thankful to all of you for your responses! I have taken huge steps in building my online business and have partnered with some great people to make this dream come true!

Thank you all again!

Try something simple.. just sell something on eBay. I know it sounds silly but thats the first step. From there.. get yourself a mentor.. a real mentor.. someone successful at this that really does care about ya and enjoys your friendship.

Contact with best warriors who are running their business online they will guide you better

Just make sure not to buy anything they are selling, haha.

Good to hear that you are interested to start an online business. First you should decide what type of business you want to start.Then you should learn the basics of that business and after learning you start your desired business.

The first step to create an online business is to create a website for interacting with your users. Most of your success depends on it. Your site should be compatible with users need. They can easily find the products on your site that they want to purchase. If your site is effective and user friendly, then people will like it and also spend their time on it.

Hi Michael,

The biggest challenge is just getting started. I spent a lot of time jumping from one technique to the next. I am not going to lie, I do still buy WSOs to learn new skills. But not like before.

My advise to others would be instead of trying to do what the gurus say, actually look at what they are doing. Then replicate that and scale up.

For example I started to do well building mini sites and was intrigued by some of the big name courses out there. Then started noticing that there was a massive market in teaching people my own successes like they were doing, and that worked for me.

Obviously everyone is different, so you will find your own area for success.

Wish you all the best.