Thinking of Starting an Online Business? Here's what to do:

1. Establish Your Credibility by Getting Your Own Domain Name

On the Internet free sites abound, but you need YOUR OWN DOT COM to survive. It's relatively painless to register your own domain name. Many companies such as Registrars will guide you step by step through the process. You can visit Registrars by going to and clicking on "Register your Domain Name" (4th bullet from top But having your own domain is just the beginning. It's extremely important to.....

2. Increase Profitability by Reaching Your Target Customers

On the Internet, sales are made the same as they are offline.
Effective sales techniques are even more important on the Web because your site is the only contact you will have with the visitor in most cases. Be as personal and direct as possible.
Your visitor can't see you face to face.

Hint: Use hot buttons to sell benefits and .....

3. Design a Simple Site That Sells

You may be tempted to hire a fancy graphics designer to design your site and make the site look "pretty or fancy" but, believe me, it's the text that sells.

In GVU's 9th WWW User Survey, the number one reason visitors gave for leaving a site was slow loading time. Having large,
fancy graphics causes your site to load slow and also distracts your visitors, costing you customers and profits.

What matters on the Internet is not how "good" or "fancy" your site looks, but what you have to offer to your target customers.
So, you can see why you need to.....

4. Make the Most of Your Site by Creating a Niche in Your Market
- Become the Expert in Your Field

You'll get results by targeting your site. You can create a niche (small unique market) on the Internet and still reach a large number of people. As a matter of fact, most companies that are making money on the Internet focus on one simple product and specialize.

Remember, you can always introduce other products later. Your main concern right now is to get the customer, right? It's much easier to design, promote, and support one item than to dissipate your time with twenty different products.

Now that you have your niche, it's time to.....

5. Promote Your Site and Reap the Benefits

Okay. You've created a targeted site that appeals to your customer. Now it's time to promote. Promotion is the key phase of building your business online. You've got to go out and get your customers.

The most successful proven methods of building a business on the Internet are:

- search engine positioning
- online targeted advertising
- making your site known to your current offline customers
- press releases
- newsgroup postings
- link trades
- publishing a targeted ezine

I could give you detail about how to implement each but space in this article does not permit it.

One resource I've found very helpful in implementation of all these suggestions is a new book called Make Your Site Sell by Dr. Ken Evoy. It has everything you need to know from start to finish about creating a successful online business.

A final note. Remember, nothing works until you use it. Re-read this article, do one or two of the steps at a time, and you'll start to see results from your web site.

About the Author

Candice Pardue is the Webmaster and co-creator of Online Success for Internet Business - Developing cutting edge marketing techniques for emerging and established Internet businesses. Lots of free articles, tools, and resources for building Web traffic. Visit Online Success at: