My guess is you’ve taken the leap and finally decided to start an online business, you know, the one that has been playing around in your thoughts for a while, and now you feel ready to give it a real try. 

Of course this bold decision makes you feel excited about how it’s going to be the success that you’ve been dreaming of, (hey, you’re about to start a small business, this is a huge step, congratulations!). But somehow you also feel anxious wondering “how do I even start and make an online business work?”

What if I told you to give it a go? Stop overthinking and just dive in deep. Start the online business, master digital marketing strategies, and build an online community of loyal clients. Give it a go and watch it boom into success. 

Melanie started Canva from her mom’s living room. Ben started Gymshark with a simple store on Shopify while still working as a pizza delivery driver. Conna Walker started her online fashion business on eBay and now it’s the House of CB , and Move With Nicole Pilates started recording workout videos in her apartment. 

I have lots of these incredible examples that I can mention to get you started and throw the fear out the window but I prefer saving them for my next post. 

What I’ll do today is share 5 basic tips that they used to market their small businesses into multi million empires. 

Step 1: Decide The Niche, What You Will Offer and Business Name.

What’s your niche? Are you into art, candle making, coaching, design, health, pottery, wellness, writing  or everything e-commerce (dropshipping maybe)? 

“Are you offering a service or product?” 

“How are you really going to solve the needs of your clients?” 

“What gap are you covering in the current market?” 

Once you answer these questions, dig deeper to find out if people are actually buying what you are offering. 

Are you confident that it’s a profitable market? If there’s competition, then you are in the right business. 

I know…I know…so many questions, but trust me, that’s the blueprint that you need to start on a solid ground.

My best friend has always advised me to never start an online business just because I’m passionate about the idea and niche. After being in business for a few years now, I agree with her words. 

Always do some research to see if your idea is actually valuable, dig deep to find out how many people need it and what are your competitors doing. 

Step 2: Find The Target Audience Before Starting The Online Business 

Funny thing, or lemme just refer to it as the crazy part about starting an online business is that you have to do all the boring stuff to make it successful! There are no shortcuts!

And to me, doing the research on my target audience and all that it entails fell into the boring stuff basket. It might be the same for you, not sure. 

Some of the questions that I added in my framework to help understand my target audience included: 

“Who are they?” 

“Why do they need you?”

“What is their current situation like?” 

“Are they frustrated and why?” 

“What do they do?” 

“How will you serve them?” 

“How will you differentiate yourself from competitors?” 

With a clear answer to all these questions you can’t go wrong with the foundation part of your small business. 

Step 3: Purchase Website domain and host/builder. 

Time for the good stuff that you can actually see the progress visibly, the website and domain. 

A domain is basically your business’online address, the link that people type to find your website.

GoDaddy, IONOS, Hostinger, Domain.com and Namecheap are just a few of the places where you can buy the domain to start an online business. 

I bought my domain from Bluehost as it hosts my WordPress website and was beginner friendly when I was starting my digital marketing career. 

I actually found it cheaper. And since I’m a lover of doing things in one place to save time and stress, getting the domain, website, hosting and technical support all in one place? Killer move!!

If you’d like to get the same discount as mine ( I like recommending stuff that actually worked for me), here’s a link to the Bluehost subscription. I think you’ll get a website, hosting and free domain for $2.95 for the first year. 

A website is an online space that you create to share information about your business, products or services.

If you’re a beginner, I would probably recommend website builders like Shopify, Squarespace, ShowIt or Wix. Although this depends on what you’re offering, budget and preference. 

I personally prefer WordPress as it gives its clients full ownership control, unlimited customization that allows you to play around with designs, is SEO friendly and has a large community of supporters and lots of free resources to learn from. 

Step 4: Do Keyword Research and Write Copy 

I would be gatekeeping success if I didn’t mention that SEO is exactly what you need to start an online business and find visibility. Or how else are your ideal clients supposed to find you? 

Especially if you’re starting an online business with no money, you need to dig and find the right keywords to bring in organic traffic to your website. 

Ubersuggest, Google keyword planner, Ahrefs and Semrush offer free limited keyword research or even free premium trials that you can use to find the right SEO for your digital marketing space. 

While searching for keywords, I tend to adopt an intent based strategy. This is basically targeting Informational keywords for my blogposts, Commercial keywords for my sales and services pages and question based keywords for my frequently asked questions section to win a chance of appearing on the Google featured snippets. 

Once I learnt how to properly group my keywords I can say I finally started attracting the right traffic to my website. 

What’s next after keyword research? Definitely writing the website copy, basically your brand messaging. 

When you’re just getting started with websites or the whole digital marketing thing, I think it’s best to write copy for the 5 main pages, that is the Home, Services, About, Blog and Contact Page first. 

I have a few resources that can help you get into writing your own brand message, and if you have a budget and can’t really bring yourself into writing, reach out to me for my copywriting services, I would love to help. Contact Me!

And of course this will make you complete your website building journey faster and efficiently, since I’ll guide you on all the steps as an expert. ( a little bragging I know, but I’m confident my words will bring in your dream clients. I’ve been doing this for years and learnt the psychology and strategy behind effective marketing) 

Step 5: Double Check For Errors 

• Proofread:

Something I really insist on? Proofread your work and website copy please! 

Having a fabulous website with spelling errors lowers your credibility. 

And having low credibility makes people doubt your business and efficiency. 

When people doubt your efficiency, you lose business. I can’t make it more clear.

The good thing though is all this is avoidable. Have a friend or two to proofread it for you for free (the more the merrier), no need to pay an editor to do it and charge you unwanted costs.  

• Check Image Sizes and Site Loading Time: 

Minimizing image sizes while still ensuring high quality resolution helps to make your website load faster. 

Website visitors don’t like when sites take time to load or images take a century to be seen. 

I use Canva to resize my images and download them under kbs storage size. 

• Search For Broken Links:

Broken links hurt your website, and sometimes with so many CTA buttons and links you might not notice that there’s a broken link somewhere. 

Tools like Semrush, Ahrefs and Moz to analyze your backlinks. 

• Make Sure You Have Written All Meta Descriptions:

Google loves Meta descriptions, and once you master writing the meta descriptions with the correct SEO keywords, Google definitely sends out your content and website out there to those that need it. 

And in case you’re thinking “Why meta descriptions are important for SEO?” Picture the moment you type something on Google, there’s always snippets and summaries of what the article says.

Am sure you read through the summary text to decide if you actually want to open that article or move to the next.

So yes, a meta description that uses the right SEO brings you to the first page of Google, and then if you’ve written an enticing description, people definitely click on it and land on your website. 

 Step 6: Connect Website To Social Media Platforms 

Now that you have a beautiful website and ready to share it to the world, I say let’s connect it to the other social media platforms to gain more traffic. 

Pinterest is great for blogs. So many people search stuff either for inspiration or to learn. With your website connected to your Pinterest pins there’s a great chance to be discovered. The search engine on Pinterest also tells you what people are searching for and it can be helpful when writing board descriptions. Let your links lead to your blogposts, website, service pages and the favorite, freebie! That’s the lead magnet to make people sign up for your email newsletter.

Email marketing is a thing, and it can boost sales by up to 50%. To know more about email marketing, I have written several articles on it, make sure to go through them. I also have a freebie on email marketing that could be of use. 

Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and X Twitter are some of the other social media platforms that you could connect your website to. 

And I’ll Say You’re Now Ready To Start An Online Business With No Money

Or probably with just a little money if we’re being honest.

For a business to really work, there has to be a budget to start. But again with all the free resources online, one can manage just about anything to build a successful online business, it might just take a little bit more time. 

Looking for a copywriter to help with your brand messaging, email marketing or website building? 

Fill out my Inquiry form and I’ll get back to you within 48 hours. 

In the meantime, let me dive back to my novel and fantasize about life in the 18^th Century.