I teach hundreds of students this information everyday, and I always see the same questions over and over. So I thought I would put this article here so everyone knows the steps on how to start an online business. I cant go into too much details here as I am limited on space, so if you want the details you will have to go to my website.
But here is the basic steps:
- find products to sell online
- Find who is selling this product so you can affiliate with
them or find who will drop ship for you. - If you are doing affiliate website you can go to irs.gov and get an EIN FREE you can also just use your SSN.
- If you are doing drop shipping you may want to get a business license, every state has their differences.
- I am not a tax advisor so ask around, but I do my own taxes, which there isn't much anyways.
- Next is getting a website up and running with your product on it or your affiliate links
- Now time to advertise your website, there are hundreds of different ways to advertise you site, social, submit articles, forums, bookmarking, pay per click, search engine optimization, email listings (DO NOT SPAM), and tons more. Most of these are FREE as well!
- tweak your site, update it, if no one is buying this product trash it, start over. If there is a certain product on your site not making you any money, but others are, toss that product out and try another. Could eve be as much as changing the image, or wording for that specific one!
- After that takes off and all works well, start another website with a different product or niche
- sit back and watch the money roll in (make sure you keep doing this because sooner or later, that specific product or that webpage will die.
Do I need a business license to run an affiliate website?
NO, you don't even need an EIN, you can use your SSN.
Do I have to pay taxes on the money I make?
YES, the United States government is greedy and is the largest scam around, they make money by you making and spending money! Isn't that a joke? Anyways, the amount of taxes paid is not very much at all in affiliate marketing. You should receive a 1099 form from the affiliate program if you have made over $600 from them in that year.
Do I need to know HTML to build a website?
NO, but you at least want to look at a few sample codes and such just so you know what it looks like. But the most you will be doing is copying and pasting HTML code to place ads on your website or blog.
Can I use free websites?
YES, but depends on the terms of service set by the provider. Whether they allow ads or not, what kind of content you can have, etc.
Can I start a blog instead of a website? YES, there are many of my students using a blog instead of a website, one thing great about this is easy to use and very search engine friendly. If you use a free blog some of them restrict what you can and cant do as far as ads, code types, etc.
How much money can I make?
There is no set amounts, this is no guarantee you will make these amounts, but I have seen numbers anywhere from $1000/mo. - $8,000/mo. There are claims of people making more and more, but those are the extremes, someone that found he perfect product, advertising, etc. You can follow their EXACT steps and not make those amounts, so I keep it reasonable and easy to make.
How long does it take before I start making money online?
This depends as well. You can make money in the first day you launch your website, and it could take months as well. This all depends on how easy it is do find your website. How much advertising you have done. I've seen them vary all the time, the average is about a week or 2 if you are doing something very specific, which I recommend, if you are doing something more broad, if will take longer.
Can you give us an example?
YES, I can give you a short example here, but I can't make a website here, so you can check out my website and I have a bunch of examples there.
example:
Make a website on "how to make a toga" give step by step instructions on how to make a toga, affiliate with companies that sell products you will need to use, sheets, scissors, maybe rope, etc. Also give them options to buy a book on this if you can find one. Place some other ads they maybe interested in that are still relevant, most likely your viewers are going to attend a toga party or host a toga party right? So give them some products for this, products that will help them host a toga party and also maybe some ideas on how to run their party. Also run some pay per click ads on this site maybe from google or yahoo and have them automatically generate ads on your website that are relevant. Now advertise this website on article sites, other blogs about parties, forums on parties, groups on parties, maybe make a video on how to make this toga and place it on youtube. Then if those few free ways don't work, toss an ad on google or yahoo yourself advertising your site, bid LOW, maybe $0.05-$0.20 to start with. and see what kind o profits you make before you start bidding higher. You spend $50/mo on advertising and make more than that great keep going, if you spend $50/mo on advertising and make less, lower you advertising and do ome more free techniques, still no good, trash the idea and move on.
Can I use the Toga idea?
YES, go for it, let me know if it works out for you, I know there is people searching for it.
You said you KNOW people are searching for it, are there ways we can find this information?
YES, there are many free ways and paid for ways to find this information, I like to use the free ways, but others like the paid ways.
What's the difference in the paid vs. free ways to see if someone is searching for this?
PAID = expensive and accurate and all in one website or program.
FREE = FREE and not as accurate, may have to go to 4 different websites to make your decision.
Do you charge on your website for the DETAILS?
NO, my website has all the details and is 100% FREE to use.
Brandon Stimmel
247-coach.com
How to Start a Business Online
