Transcripts
1. 1 Introduction: I guys, I'm James and welcome to my course on how to start your own online business from scratch. So throughout my life, I've started multiple different online businesses, from selling on eBay to Amazon. I'm a co founder of Lingo Online, which is an app that allows you to instantly connect with native speakers from anywhere in the world. Unpracticed any language that you like. So over the past few years, I've tried and experimented on how to start up my own online business on this course is all about how to start your own online based business from scratch. And it all starts with finding a gap in the market, which you think that you can felt. So if you try to find certain things online and you haven't been able to, that is an ideal opportunity for you to start a business online based around that product. So you might even already have your own business idea, which either is something you enjoy doing. Or you found a gap in the market, which you'd like to fill, in which case this course is ideal for you, because I'm going to show you exactly how to start it and every step of the way on how to build a maintain your customer base. So I hope you enjoy this course. And if you have any questions or ideas, please let me know and I'll give my best feedback to you have you out.
2. 2 Find a demand in the market to fill: it's the first step in creating your online business should be to find a demand in the market to fill. So this could either be a something that you're passionate about naturally, or you found a gap in the market to safer gun. What? You've been searching for something online and you can't find it. That is your idea of situation because it means you're competitive. Haven't already covered that section of the market. This product or service could be a niche in the market, or it could be quite broad. For example, if it's clothing or accessories, that's quite broad, because a lot of people will be searching for them. However, a niche product could be something like a fishing accessory, where only people who are interested in fishing would search for those items is up to you how you want to approach it realistic that as soon as you are able to market according to who your audience to obey, then it shouldn't be too much of an issue as to how needs your product or service. So if it's a niche product or service, for example, fishing accessories, then as long as you can market your business on Facebook or INSTAGRAM on Twitter towards people who have any interest in fishing on the marketing side shouldn't be difficult is also important. If you're able to find a gap in market, do you enjoy doing even when time get tough, you'll have the motivation to continue on as a secret behind being successful and unsuccessful in business overall.
3. 3 Decide on your platforms: the next step in starting your own online based business is deciding on what platform you would like to use for your business. So this depends whether you're selling a product or service of its service based. You may consider having your own website where you can advertise your service and prices on one page. If you're selling products, however, you may be buying inboard from a wholesaler and selling them on e commerce Web sites such as eBay or Amazon. No, he turned to the market inside for this. If you're studying on each of most website, and you don't have to worry about social media marketing because the platforms them salves will allow you to market your products. So e commerce websites tend to show listings atop that have a high conversion rate, which means that the information is relevant to the people who are looking for them. So if there's someone looking for bike accessories on the clicking on number on, most people or many people tend to go ahead and buy after looking at live, then that will rank higher. So ideally, you want to include the relevant keywords within the titles and descriptions off your adverts. If you're something on eBay or Amazon in order to mark your business better by taking advantage on how their platforms work. If you're building a standalone website for your services or maybe even your products, maybe it's your own e commerce website. In that case, search engine optimization on pay per clicks on Google advertising have to be considered as well, so you'll find there's a lot more costs in anti from your own website compared to using over the existing Web sites such as eBay and Amazon Online. However, the good news is that seller fees won't come into consideration. No non either or Amazon. You need to pay a flat fee based on the type of item you're selling on how much itself or with your own website. You can avoid this. You maybe see payments to customers via PayPal whereby pay protector small percentage. But overall, you're avoiding the seller fees from eBay and Amazon. By doing this, you will have to buy your own hosting and domain name, however, if you have your own website, so take that into consideration. If you're stunning on other e commerce websites to find that your customers are able to leave the views on your product, and that's a very, very effective method of marketing, so you can take that to advantage using needs. Where on your website it's a lot more difficult because on your website people are less tempted to write feedback because I don't think it will get acknowledge by everyone else.
4. 4 Plan your marketing strategy: the next step is to plan your marketing strategy, so this is an important aspect of any business without any marking. You won't be able to attract your relevant type audience to your business, and therefore you won't have a business, especially if you have a standalone website for your product or services whereby people don't even know your website exists until you let them know by social media on Google. So this could be split up into two different Terry's. The first section is when you sell on e commerce websites, which is even Amazon you don't need. So run regular posts across your social media channels for this. A good idea, however, would be to advertise your business to your friends and family by your personal social media platforms because they'll have a personal connection with you, and there'll be more attempted to buy from you because they trust you in the first place. Another hat The marketing strategy for this type of business on e commerce isn't is tricky , because the algorithms behind eBay and Amazon and or the e commerce websites favor those listings that sell better and have a higher conversion rate offer more value for the customer. If the customer finds a product on eBay on their like and they go ahead and buy the not listing shows toe have a lot of value because it's relevant to what they're looking for. Most websites were therefore right that higher on the listing, so that more people going onto that listing and buy from them. So ideally, you want to place your products listings. Wonder that algorithm so that your products get listed higher. The trick behind that is to use many keywords for the title of your description. So when people are searching it in the book slightly different variants, for example, USB drive or USB stick, your product will still show up. I'd recommend having at least five or six different keywords if you're listing on eBay or Amazon or any other e commerce website. So for the second side of this part, if you have your own website advertising your own products or services, then it's completely different. Marking approach. Your website won't get noticed by your target audience if you don't mark that yourself. So this involves different methods of marketing. This could include search engine optimization, otherwise known as s e O. It could include paperclip marketing, which is part of Google AdWords. You're targeting certain keywords that people type into Google to pay for your advert to appear every time there's Cuba has shown on. Then people will click onto your website after searching them on obviously 1/3 type. It's social media marketing. So with a website, you can attract new customers to that website by using social media. So that includes posting across Facebook, Twitter and instagram regularly to engage your audience on point them in the direction of your website. It is important to bear in mind. However, your website should only focus on one topic that come in each coming abroad. So in terms of the actual marketing strategy that you used for your website, this should include a mix of all three. So I mix of social media pay per click on search engine optimization
5. 5 Choose your business name: So now that you know what you and sell, you're going to appeal to on your plan how to market your business, the next step is to pick a business name, so this should be very relevant to what you sell. If, for example, you sell online consulting services, then you should call yourself some ex wives had consultants or something with the word consulting in that title. Not only is this good for your audience to see what type of services you offer, but it's also good for search engine optimization as well to rank higher on Google. This isn't too much of an issue on e commerce websites, because the most important thing without private business is the quality of products that you offer rather than what you call yourself a business. If someone's searching on on eBay fuel product and they stumble across your listing, if the title under description on the images much what they're looking for on this positive reviews, they won't care about what you call your shop name as long as it matches what they're looking for. Obviously, the price has to be right as well, but if your title description and image is also the solution. Then the price is down to you based on what you competitive are selling the same product for as well. If you have your own business website, then this is slightly different. Do you need to pick a domain name and choose up to be relevant to the products or services that you offer on your website? So if you're selling fishing accessories, your domain name, maybe fishing accessories dot com or anything along those words when you include the key words are your business in the domain name?
6. 6 Build your online store: The next step is to build your own line store, whether it's a website just offering services or website to suffering products or even you're still on e commerce websites, your store has to be catching bold and to the point is a good idea to start by focusing on one product or service and then making sure that's Oprah running, then expanding toe others. Otherwise, you tell your audience may be confused as to what to expect as soon as they land on your website or e commerce store. So if you're starting a new Amazon or eBay business, all you need is ah, logo to start with. If you're good at using photo shop or any other graphic design software, then you can make your own logo instantly. It doesn't matter too much what your logo looks like as long as it's simple, a memorable. If you struggle, you can always go to freelance Web site or ask a family or friend to design a logo for you . If you have a website, you'll most likely be really good at graphics. Or maybe you have a friend or family member or a freelancer who you're paying to build your website for you. In that case, you may be able to ask them to design your logo as well. However, make sure the logo has a consistent color, theme and style to the rest of your website. This is where consistency is key with marketing. If you have an e commerce store or website, the overall color theme has to remain consistent and your logo should be present in all of your social media posts. On If you have a paperclip campaign within your bugle AdWords that should also include your business logo, too.
7. 7 Market your business: so the next section to cover is how to market your business earlier on in this course, record it how the plan, your marketing strategy to know You know what marketing channels you should use on which methods of marketing will be more effective for your business time. Whether you have aneka most or or website, the marketing is slightly different. This section will show you how to actually mark your business. I make sure that your marketing is consistent over a period of weeks and months and even years. So if you're selling your products on e commerce websites, then social media marketing will be irrelevant to you. What you'll need to focus on as mentioned previously, it may control. The key. Words are correct in the title and description off your listings if you have your own website. However, paperclip marketing on Google AdWords is a brilliant way of getting your initial customers to visual website. Once the ball is rolling the nose, customers are likely to recommend their friends and family as well. The long term strategy of marketing your business, however, should be the search engine optimization whereby your website showing higher when people search for the keywords relevant to your business on Google. This could obviously take time, which wants a long term strategy. You won't see any results within the first month or two. However, once three or four months have passed, you notice you're not paying anything on. People are still approaching your business. I'm giving you calls and messages asking about your products and services. So this is realistically where the magic happened. So every so you make by a visitor who's just searching on Google on your website has naturally come up on the first page off that key word that is a free sale for you that haven't cost you anything. Apart from obviously ruling the search engine optimization services. Realistically, the amount of revenue you're going to bring in from no searches are going too far. Exceed the amount of money you've spent. Optimizing your website to show high on Google even at the start assumes you've launched your website. If you're running a Google AdWords campaign with paperclip marketing, the return on investment will be baby high anyway because it's directly from Google. It's as soon as someone searches for a product or service on Google, your driver will appear on their screens and now click you on. If it's relevant to what they're looking for, their buy your products or services. So if you pay, say, between 10 p and a pound for them to look at your website and then they convert into a paying customer, the value of them could be several hundreds of pounds or even thousands of pounds, depending on the type of service you're offering all the types of products that you sell.
8. 8 Build your audience: So you've learned your business. Whether it's an e commerce website or your own website, you've already started on the marketing side of it. The next step is to keep building your audience. Marketing is an ongoing basis requires a lot of changes and tweaks along the way, However, there are certain things you can do to help you build your or in one of these things are blog's. So blocks appear on Google as soon as people search how to or search for help on different topics. Blocks can often come in the form of three tips or five tips on how to improve ex wives. That or how to improve you on this. So if you could make a block around your business topic that's relevant and useful to your audience, that will drive extra traffic to a website or e commerce sites. Remember, the more people who read your blawg, the more it shows up on Google on, the more popular it becomes. So if it's a lot of really popular information and it gets thousands of views, then those people will also see your website or your e commerce business on that as well what you could also do. If you have a website which offers your service such a consulting services, you could also do video blog's on Eugene. If you set up your own YouTube channel initially, you may not get that money views. However, over a period of months, this will build up and you build a personal brand where people can trust you. Trust your services. So building up your YouTube channel on offering valuable information to your audience about your services could be really useful in terms of marketing. Getting a high return on investment because it's free to publish video on you. Shoot under have YouTube account. All it takes is your time. But if you're interested in the topic anyway and you can offer value to people, then that doesn't matter because you're willing to do that anyway, with everything paid. The bonus comes in a couple of months time whereby people start noticing you on Eugene. They start following you and showing your videos with their friends. If one of your videos about your service goes viral, then imagine how many people would see that video and also see the link to your website where you offer that service for them. They'll be able to see you as a trusted advisor for them. Their trust you in paying for your services.
9. 9 Adjust and experiment: So you followed all of these previous steps as to how to create your own business to make sure it's in the correct industry that you're looking for and also has a market your business on an ongoing basis. The next step is to test and unjust regularly, so this is a loop of experimentation. As with anything with business or marketing, it's all about experimenting and finding out what works for you and what doesn't. So if you plan to introduce a new product or service, test this on your website or e commerce website. So if you plan to induce a new product or service, test this on your website and see what works. If people are reacting positively to this new products or service than invest more money into that to take a cut of the revenue that you receive from your sales buck into marketing in order to grow your business, you need to reinvest a small amount back into it. I'd recommend it reinvesting around 20 or 30% of the prophet that you get for your business back into the marketing. This will I use your business to grow. It will also allow you to attract a bigger audience so that you can gain more business. Overall, one aspect to mark thing is called a B testing, which means that you have two different scenarios on your testing them both at the same time. So it may be a paid out on Google or even on Facebook or instagram. This is relevant if you have a standalone website where you're selling your products and services. It contest which adverts have the most impact on which ones can bring the most revenue based on your type audience. The best way to find out what your audience reacts to around your business is to test it if they react positively, didn't spend more resource is at a time or money on that. If it doesn't work, then stop it. I didn't say OK that didn't work because Off X and then move on is a good idea to constantly think of new approaches you could have for the marking inside. It's all one big creative, ongoing process you need to think about, and it's based on what's happening around you as well as the reaction you get from every action that you do in your business, so keep on adjusting your business regularly, whether it's on eBay I Amazon site, whether you're constantly changing and adapting the keyword when you're listing. Or maybe you're addressing the type of images that you show on your eBay or Amazon listing , it's all about keeping up today in keeping everything fresh and relevant. If you don't updated regularly, then what's likely to happen is all the competitors will do, and then they'll get the advantage over you because they'll update their listings on their products and services according to the new demand.
10. 10 Track your finances: Okay, so the final aspect of running your own online business from scratch his house keep an eye on your finances. So bottom line is, you want to make sure your income exceeds your expenses. So from the start of creating your business is essential to make sure that you're keeping the costs are lowest possible. If you have a website only pay for the hosting that you need because most likely if you're expensive too high, your business won't bring in the first place to keep your cough low to start with, I don't you thank yourself later on. In terms of your income, you may have multiple different sources. It could either be different types of products or services divided down into sub products or different types that service the offer. But make sure you're keeping track of where your income is coming from, because then you can expand on that and obviously spend more marketing budget on the services or products are bringing you the most money. Therefore, you'll get a higher return on investment because you know that there is a demand for services, so invest more morning to that to attract more customers and therefore bottom line is, you can make more income overall. Another note that I have found personally is you need to keep behind of profit margin to make sure that you're ready and prepared for any unexpected costs. So this could be anything from import costs if you have a product that you're selling on eBay or Amazon or even on your own website, if you're importing items from China or from anywhere else abroad, then you may have to pay extra charges to see the light and due to tax. So if your profit margins are just high enough to cover what you need, But then you get bombarded with regular bills for more payments than that can take a massive toll on your business. Overall, it's always the unexpected expenses that capture out when you're running a business, everything run smoothly until there's one additional cost on that can mess a lot of your finances up. So make sure you are making enough profit margin to cover any unwanted expensive within your business.