1. Finding the best domain to follow
Let’s start the discussion with the beginning. First question that comes in mind is : “from what can I make money online?” but I believe it’s wrong said. The best question you can ask yourself is “what I like?”
Maybe it sounds strange but pleasure is the key of success. As you probably know already there are hundreds of ideas about making an income working online and all of them are tried or used by many types of people around the world even as you read this. Some of them are interactive games, some are stable websites (money making machines), and some are simple blog posts or paid ads. What the idea is it doesn’t matter as long you can’t come up with a new original concept, which is not the case because you would be probably already rich by now so didn’t had to read this. What matters in fact is how passionate you are about what you do.
This big diversity of options is the friend and the enemy of starting entrepreneurs. From one point of view it’s a positive thing because you can choose whatever you like, you can be whoever you want and do what you do best and make money. On the other hand, having so many possibilities can be sometimes also very hard to choose one (this was my case also).
So ask yourself what you would like to do and even what you good at. You probably should know that by now, as this came from everyday routines. Think about the fact that it will require a lot of work, a lot of patience and you need something to keep you constantly motivated ( for example I like so much to write about this that even if it’s 1:44 am now and my eyes are dripping I still have the energy and good mood to write about it). Money isn’t a good enough reason simply because you can make money out of anything.
2. Learning about it and checking the competition
Once you noticed what your business would be about and what you will do start doing some research about what you going to do. There are a lot of people that already tried what you do and have some experience about it that they share and it’s useful. There is an old saying I know: “Learn from other people’s mistakes. You don’t have time to make them all!”
Online network is the easiest to access information center and also the biggest one. Use that into your advantage and do all the possible research about your domain.
Also it’s something that you should take in consideration. Even if you know what you like it’s better to chose just a small niche of your picked domain. When you try to beat big domains like for example “mmorpg games” it’s like fighting giants with a toothpick. The most common niches that I call “big domains” are already ruled by companies that invested maybe even a million dollars into it to be in top. You don’t stand a chance in a one-on-one fight.
You must think smart about it. There are so many possible niches, some of them maybe even not created yet, that you can explore and use. All you have to do is to find a subcategory of what you like to do. As in the example before you can go for “fantasy mmorpg online games” and I you will probably stand much taller here if you know how to properly explore it.
A good way to test the niche you chose is to Google it and see if you have any paid advertise for it. If there are two or more that means it’s a niche that some companies pay big buck to stay in top. With a single ad or none it’s much a clearer path to your success.
Than start and check the first 5 sites from your niche, those are the one with who you’ll compete. Check out their websites and take close attention to details, observe how much work they invested in it, find out small mistakes or tricks that you can say or do more about it, note everything that will help you overtop them. In top 5 sites listed for your niche, there you want to be.
3. Think about possible traffic and how you will attract it
How can visitors find your site? What words will they use in searching engine to get to you? What they are looking for in fact? What kind of people will be interested about your niche?
Try to put yourself in visitor’s skin. Find out what they might think, who they might be and how they might get to you. Where they might live and what jobs they might have?
If you know everything about your possible visitors you know how to get in contact with them.
That is the best way to get traffic: keeping the touch. Even after you have daily visitors that always check your content don't be satisfied only with this. Try to get in touch with your audience, give them the possibility to say their opinions. What they like about your site? What they don’t like about it?
Create a community and listen all the opinions, even the bad ones. Try to improve as much as you can your site and satisfy all the viewers’ requirements. Respect their opinion and try to make them happy as much as you can.
4. Create the suitable content
The main purpose of your business is giving to readers what they asked for. That is your goal and that you must fulfill in order to attract and also keep your visitors.
For example let’s say you follow a “red sports car” niche. Than that will be the only thing in your site and nothing more. Maybe you can attract visitors with other content but they will be disappointed because searched for something that wasn’t there. It’s better to focus on “red sports car” and give all the possible content that can be found about it. Starting from reviews articles to pictures or video galleries of red sport cars, your business must offer almost anything that comes in your head when you think about those words.
It makes sense that you must display the right content for you niche and nothing else. The content must be clear, very useful and easy to access. Don’t keep your visitors bored or annoyed by ads because you will lose them. Respect them and they will respect you back.
Lure traffic, make your site attractive and make sure that all your visitors will be pleased about what they found and that I will sure bring them back. Create a community; give them the possibility to get in touch with you, read their opinions and try to satisfy any feedback you receive about your business. You are the “cooker” so make sure you make the best pie ever.
5. Write and administrate regular
Even if it’s not shown the dates of content, it’s very easy to tell which website is regularly checked by the admin and which not. It’s not the spider webs that give away the poorly maintained website, but it’s content being always the same, with no updates and improvements. Nobody wants to see again and again the same things.
Readers need to be kept linked into content and surprised with new stuff. You need to keep the excitement up and even raise it in time as the visitors keeps coming back to your website just to find the new excitement things that might be today.
Also if you sell something or offer paid services, it’s not a bad idea to give discounts and promotions from time to time. Even prize contest are highly attractive and can be a major boost up into your business.
Make sure your content becomes better day by day and always fresh. Make visitors feel special and they will be coming back asap.
6. Promote your business
No matter what your domain is, everything needs promotion, needs to be heard. There are several methods to do this:
- A good free promotion method is to find communities gathered around the internet with a common interest as you. Get in touch with this kind of communities and make your website read by the people in it. It requires a lot of crawling around the internet but it creates fluent stream of visitors if they are constantly updated communities.
- You can check also the free advertising sites from your area of interest. Those websites are usually visited by a lot of people and your website ad can be in the right time at the right spot for the right people.
- Exchanging links is another common method of getting free traffic by sharing traffic with those from your niche or close one. As a free method can be a good one.
- Leaving comments on other blogs and by this I don’t mean leaving spam comments all over the place. That won’t get you to anything and it’s a disrespect for the owner of the blog. But still you can give comments on blogs with your name and url attached and that can give you some traffic.
- Social networks are a good method for getting free traffic also. There is the place where you can find any type of clients you could wish for and in any niche. These communities are formed by people gathering to socialize and have no age, nationality or ideas boundaries.
- Getting a video uploaded on youtube.com to explain what your business might offer. With some low movie creating skills and one effort to make and upload the video online could result in free easy-to-get traffic.
- Write about your business in article submitting sites and besides a short description / why would be good to visit your site remember to give the possibility of linking right at you.
7. Don’t work in a bad mood
I think this is a golden rule. Its the most important thing from what I talked about in this article, that’s why I discuss it in the end.
As I was saying earlier the key of success is pleasure. But that’s not that simple as you read it. Even if you like the niche and what you do, still could be a lot of reasons why would you be in a bad mental shape while working at your business.
Some of the reasons are away from topic and doesn’t have any link to your business. Could be a fight in your family, something that disappointed you, stress, a bad day or just a simple bad mental shape. In these moments I recommend you take a break, think about why you feel this way and try to fix it. Being in a bad mood will lead to bad decisions and a clear misdirection regarding your business. It’s not a bad thing if you take a break, you can recuperate it later when you feel better. But rather than do something while you feel bad it’s better to do nothing at all and just try to relax and recover.
If the feeling it’s related to your business and something at it bothers you, don’t let it unchanged. Any slight detail that you don’t like must be changed and accorded to your tastes. More than visitors that must be pleased by your business; you’re the one that must love it. Even if you let go of something that visitors asks, if you can’t make them and you like it in the same time drop it and make it your way.
As good as you feel working, more successful you will be.
