If your not willing to put in the hours then this post is probably not going to be of much interest to you.
If however you are willing to put in the work then here are just a few things that I've found useful. Keeping in mind I've only been operating a site for the past few weeks, its safe to say I am not an expert and I'm sure there's somethings I'm doing that are a big waste of time. But so far I've had more traffic than I thought i would in such a short space of time so for what its worth here are my tips on the subject of starting your own online business.
- First of all as I said at the start, you need to put in the hours on this. If you already have a fulltime job then its going to mean even longer hours than most, but its time well spent.
- Get your name out there. Whatever else you do, nobody is going to come to your site if they don't know it exists. I'm not going to pretend to know all the in's and out's of things like SEO's and meta tags but what I can say for sure is that a google search can do wonders for a starting point for getting you known. Try googling referral sites, link exchanges, promoting my website. All these sorts of things will come up with a wealth of information that will point you in the right direction.
- When it comes to referral sites, some people swear by submitting your website to every referral site that's out there . Admittedly that's going to get your website address on alot of referral sites books, but you need to keep in mind if someone is looking to hire a van and your selling carpets, then your submission isn't going to be helping you much. The lesson to learn is put your efforts into the right places. Choose referral sites that cater for your needs.
- You also need to make sure that any description you put into referral sites gives you the best chance of standing out. You're competing with alot of different people in a crowded market depending on what it is your selling or promoting, so you need to give people a reason to come to you.
- Free Advertising. There are so many places to put free ad's that it makes sense to use both international, national and local classifieds to get yourself out there to the masses. It doesn't matter if its the Friday-Ad or Craigslist, classifieds are an easy and free way to get some advertising for your website.
- Don't scrimp on style. You may think its a great idea to fill your site with ad's but you'll soon become just another place that its hard to determine what your selling and whats an ad for someone else.
- Get yourself a landline number for your website. It took me a while to figure this one out but not having a phone number that people can call you on is a big turn off to customers. Some people are fine with just being able to contact you by email but most people want to know that your contactable if there's a problem that needs resolving. There are alot of options out there to get a second number that has a business look such as 0844, 0843, 0845 etc and again google is a good place to start. Ideally you want a company that will give you a free number and provide a free forwarding service so that when customers call your number it goes through to your home phone or mobile. This way people can always get hold of you or leave a message. People may never call, but it gives buyers a alot more confidence seeing a number to call on a website.
- If you can afford it, get a domain name. Domain names are so cheap these days you really don't have to break the bank to get one. a search for domain names will give lots of companies that are willing to provide you with a domain name for the price of a packet of biscuits. It gives a more professional look to have a website called www.jacquib.biz than a website called www.jacquib.hostname.com. There's nothing wrong with free domain names, but people will take your site more seriously if you pay a few pounds to drop the hosts name.
Thanks for reading
Jacquib
www.jacquib.biz
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