How to Start a Business In a Week: Day 1

Posted on Mar 03, 2010

0 Comments

Tweet This Post!

If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur and you want to start a business, some of the biggest challenges you’ll face are: 1) knowing what to do; and 2) keeping your momentum.

This month, we’re outlining a program that lets you start a business in just one week! By just taking a few hours each day (in an evening if you’re currently working), it is possible to start a successful business in just one week. We’ll show you exactly what to do and by doing it in a week, you’ll easily maintain the momentum you need!

We’ll walk you step-by-step through the things you need to do each day and we’ll wrap up the month with some additional advice and pointers to show you how to make your business successful and to turn it into an empire!

START A BUSINESS IN A WEEK: DAY 1

Step 1: Figure out what you want to sell: Obviously a week is too short to set up a factory and start producing products, but in one week you can create a business that can sell some products or services and we’ll give you some ideas below.

The best place to start thinking about your business is with this piece of advice: “figure out what you love to do and then figure out how to make money from it.” To do this, take a piece of paper and fold it in half, listing in one column all of the things you’re interested in or can do well. It could include:

  • Hobbies
  • Interests
  • Passions
  • Activities you like to do
  • A work-related skill
  • Industry certifications you possess
  • A trick you’ve discovered or a technique you’ve developed

Once you have a big list, then move to the other column and list these products or services:

  • Ebooks
  • Coaching
  • Consulting
  • Ad-revenue
  • Outsourcing
  • Subscription-based information
  • Training
  • Help desk

These items are 8 popular and effective ways to monetize products or services.

And now, just mix and match! Perhaps you have a hobby that you can write an ebook about. Maybe you have an industry certification that you can offer pay-per-call help desk services for. Maybe you have a skill that you can train others in.

And that’s just the starting point. There’s no reason why you can’t select more than one monetization method. But at least you have some direction. You may need to narrow it down. If there are several that interest you, choose one and run with it (but keep the others in a safe place because you might want to repeat this process later).

Step 2: Do some research: Now it’s time to see what the marketplace is like.

  1. Go to Google and search for similar products or services. Take note of who is selling what, what the details of the product or service are, and how much they are charging. Record this in a big chart.
  2. Go to the Google Keyword Tool and type in some of the keywords related to your subject matter and industry. You’ll find new ways to search for competitors (so go back to Google and search again and add to your chart). You’ll also see what the comparative global search volume is for the subject (that gives you an approximate number of people who are looking for your product or service) and you’ll see how competitive advertisers are (which tells you how popular your product or service is based on how much advertisers are marketing those keywords). Take note of these keywords because they will play an important role in a few days.
  3. Go to Google Trends and type in some of your keywords to see what search trends are like on the topic. You might find that it is seasonal, or tied to the economy, or getting more popular, or getting less popular. Sometimes Google tags news items in the trend line, so read the news to see what is happening and how it’s affecting the trends. Your research here might prompt you to make adjustments to your product or service
  4. Do some reading, both in the subject matter of your product or service (that is, your hobby or your interest) and on the topic of your monetization method. Google these and see what people are writing about them. Just an hour or so of reading will give you a clearer picture of what’s going on online in these topics.

That’s enough for one day. Check back later to read what to do on day 2!

[photo credit: Joe Lanman]

Understanding the pieces of the website puzzle

Posted on Feb 23, 2010

0 Comments

Tweet This Post!

From time to time people ask us about how they can “put a website online”. For us, it’s a piece of cake because we’ve done it a million times. But for someone who has never created a website before and put it online, it can be confusing. What does it mean to “put a website online” anyway?

Consider this to be a primer on moving a site online. Sort of a “website basics for Dummies” kind of blog post.

You basically need 3 things:
•    Hosting
•    Code
•    A URL (or “domain name” or “website address”)

Think of it like a neighborhood: Hosting is the property that you will build your house on and the code is the house itself. But how do you get people to find you? You get an address from the post office and you put your address near your front door or on the mailbox so people can see it.
In a really basic way, it’s the same for websites. You buy hosting, which is basically a big empty piece of virtual land that you can do something with. Then you add files of code (html, php, css, etc.), very much like the framework of a house. And, you buy a URL from a domain seller. Then, you put them all together.

Usually you’ll get the domain and point it to the hosting (how you do that is for another lesson). Then, you gather the code (how you build that code is for another lesson, too) and you upload it to the hosting.

The result? When someone types your domain into their browser, their browser takes them to your host and it interprets your code and shows them your website. Easy!

Of course, if this were a real life example, they’d just be looking at an empty house. Once you have those hosting/code/URL elements in place, you need to add content (text, graphics, video, etc.) to your website so that people have something to look at when they get there.

And how does WordPress and WordPressInASecond fit in?

WordPress itself is the code you can upload to some hosting. Add a domain and voila, you have a website!

And WordPressInASecond shows you how to get the hosting, WordPress code, and domain name all working together really, really fast. (Oh, and we even have some hosting solutions to make it even more convenient for you!)

Why WordPress is perfect for… Coaches

Posted on Feb 10, 2010

0 Comments

Tweet This Post!

We’re running a series of blogs this month called “Why WordPress is perfect for…” and we’ll be looking at various professions or business models and talking about how WordPress solves challenges and enhances opportunities for that group.

Today’s highlighted business model: Coaches

While some coaching services can be sold online, a majority of a coach’s work is based on the time they spend with their client. That could be over the phone, it could be in person, it could be one-on-one, it could be in groups. The bottom line is, most coaching is person-to-person.

So what’s their website for? A coaches’ website needs to start out as a place to demonstrate their skill-set in order to show potential clients their thought leadership and how they might help them. An organizational coach might want to blog about organizational tips; a productivity coach might want to blog about how to improve efficiency; a career coach might want to blog about how to get that next promotion.

From this blog, new clients will call coaches and book appointments and a coach’s schedule will fill up.

And that will work for many coaches as the primary way to earn their living. But there will come a point in many coaches’ careers when they realize that they are only working for the short-term and every client brings in a temporary cash flow but doesn’t do much for the long term health of the business.

At this point, the coach then looks at their site and how they might be able to develop more sales out of it. And two distinct ways they can do that include:

  • Selling information
    Offering a password-protected “membership” site

Offering these necessitates some basic rearranging of the coach’s site, perhaps bringing in a home page (instead of using the blog as a home page). Perhaps adding more resources and making their site a destination site.

These changes require flexibility. And a coach who buys a website that is designed and maintained by a web developer is at the mercy of the high priced web developer to transform the site and turn it from a blog into a website.

This is why WordPress is ideal: The coach whose practice is growing no longer has to rely on a web development team to do the job. The coach can do it themselves in an evening! With just some simple clicks on an easy-to-navigate dashboard, the coach can go from “small time” to “big time”!

Series: Why WordPress is perfect for… Freelancers

Posted on Feb 02, 2010

0 Comments

Tweet This Post!

We’re starting a series of blogs this month called “Why WordPress is perfect for…” and we’ll be looking at various professions or business models and talking about how WordPress solves challenges and enhances opportunities for that group.

Today’s highlighted business model: Freelancers

Freelancing is a great business model because it often costs relatively little to get into business and the longer you’re in business, the better. (Compare this to a manufacturer who has a high up-front cost to build a factory and prototypes and then has to continually innovate in order to stay competitive). As well, all you need to get started is usually the right software and a double-serving of talent. (Some courage and sales ability don’t hurt, either).

Freelancers don’t need a lot to get started, but the do need some kind of web presence. And, depending on their business, they may need a blog or a more conventional website, or both. And likely, they need to start with one and grow. One common way for freelancers to become more successful is to start with a blog, expand into a website, and then slowly grow passive income with the addition of products or commoditized services. This could take months. This could take years. This could be just one additional product. This could be hundreds of additional products.

While a flexible web presence is important, freelancers need to keep costs down; and since so much of freelancing is time-dependent, they also need to keep their non-revenue-generating time

For this continual scaling up of a web presence, WordPress is the perfect solution. It offers freelancers the opportunity to build whatever kind of web presence they need to start effectively, and then it gives them the ability to add to their web presence as their business grows.

And WordPress is fast. You can get a site online in no time and make changes as often as necessary with just a few clicks and absolutely no coding.

Not only that, but the variety of WordPress themes and plug-ins give freelancers an automatic credibility-building look with plenty of automated business-building tools. If you’re looking at getting into freelancing, or if you’re thinking about improving your web presence, WordPress is a choice to consider.

One entrepreneur’s story on switching to Wordpress

Posted on Jan 21, 2010

0 Comments

Tweet This Post!

This is my story: When I started my freelance writing/consulting business years ago, I started with a fairly traditional html-based website. Over time, the site became bloated and unwieldy and I sometimes had a hard time making sure links were live and went to the right place. (This was before any really good content management systems were invented; heck, I was hand-coding my site in Notepad!)

Then Blogger came onto the scene and I bought into blogging big time. I loved the idea of posting regularly. It was a great way for me to build my online presence but it also looked good and the links were fairly easy to manage. On the other hand, I gave up the ability to create website-style content (which was appropriate for selling ebooks and such). Still, I stuck with Blogger for a while. Then my site stopped being indexed. I’m not sure why, and with all due respect to the good folks at Blogger, I think it was because they changed a template and it just fell apart. I ran some diagnostics and got back HUNDREDS of errors. Yikes! A few attempts at making hand-coding repairs failed miserably. I loved a blog but couldn’t have a site that didn’t index!

Then I switched to a hosted solution — and back to static html. It was an admittedly temporary fix until I could figure out what to do with my blog. Once again, I found the same problems to those that I had encountered the first time: Dead links, constant updating to make changes on every page, etc. The need for a content management system — which I had temporarily forgotten while using Blogger — became a reality again.

Then I decided enough was enough. I had to fix the problem! So I listed my needs:

  • I preferred to blog as my primary content model
  • I wanted some conventional “page-based” website functionality
  • I wanted some control over SEO
  • I wanted a content management system.

Once I knew my primary needs (and there were a few secondary ones, too), I went out in search of a solution. I was willing to pay and, because it was my business, I was willing to pay thousands.

However, the solution I found cost nothing. And it provided me with a solution to the needs I had outlined… plus a lot more:

  • Once set up, Wordpress is extremely easy to use
  • I can choose page-based sites, blogs, or a combination
  • There is a HUGE universe of talented people who create themes, plug-ins, and support for Wordpress

I jumped on the Wordpress bandwagon and haven’t looked back!

Website owner’s manifesto

Posted on Jan 14, 2010

0 Comments

Tweet This Post!

You want an awesome website. Here’s what you need to do:

Pick a look and feel that reflects who you are and what you do. Don’t try to be something you’re not. Embrace your identity and make sure it’s reflected on your site.

Make your website work easy on yourself. Find a tool or system that works for you so you can engage your audience and spend less time on the technical side of your site. (That’s why we work with Wordpress but this is true for anyone, even if you choose another content management system).

Produce content. And then produce more content. Search engine love content. So do people. If that combination doesn’t alert you to the importance of content, I don’t know what will. Just create stuff that will engage your readers.

Stop it with the SEO “trickery”. Keyword stuffing, buying back links, it’s all nonsense. The real value of a website is in how much it sells for your business. By focusing on value first and SEO second (and avoiding SEO “tricks” altogether), you’ll decrease your overall readership but you’ll increase the value of the people who get to your site. Decreasing readership might seem counterintuitive but it is very important.

Freely add value. Add value for your audience. Freely give that value away and people will clamor to you for paid service. (Oh, and search engines love it, too).

Be consistent. If you blog. Blog regularly. If you have a page-based website, add content (or pages) frequently. Make sure all of your content reads the same and looks the same. If you refer to yourself as “I” on one page, don’t refer to yourself in the third person on another.

Don’t be afraid to link out. Some website owners don’t want to link out to other blogs because they are afraid someone will click away and not come back. Wake up call: If they click away, fine. If they don’t come back, your content wasn’t compelling enough. You are diminishing your value by not linking out. There’s a reason it’s called the “web”.

Engage your audience. Your website should engage people. It should make people want to come back again and again. It should stop people in their tracks. It should make them want to bookmark your site. Your audience should love to read what you have to say and should go back again and again to read more. They should forward it to their friends and relatives. They should talk about it on their websites. When you engage your audience, you will be rewarded.

How will this change your idea of running a website in 2010?

6 Reasons Why WordPress is Perfect for Businesses

Posted on Jan 12, 2010

0 Comments

Tweet This Post!

1. Keep costs down. The platform itself is free, available for http://wordpress.org. You’ll save money by NOT having to work with a designer to create a great looking website. The only thing you’ll need to pay for is hosting, which is usually pretty cheap. (You can set up hosting yourself through a site like GoDaddy.com or contact us for hosting packages).

2. Forget the details. WordPress is designed to give website owners easy-to-use interfaces without having to know any complex code. You can forget the details (or not even bother learning them at all) because WordPress takes care of everything.

3. Get your site up quickly. There’s a reason why we’re called “WordPress IN A SECOND.” WordPress is blazingly fast to get set up. You can start a business in an evening with WordPress!

4. Stay flexible. Smart businesses don’t put all of their eggs in one basket because they know that their business might change because of the economy, the industry, or the evolving needs of the market. WordPress allows business owners to be flexible – they can create a blog on week, they can turn it into a website the week after, they can completely change everything the week after that!

5. Scalable. You might start out as a one person operation but you probably want to grow your business. WordPress scales with you so your tiny business can be served by the same system that serves your future multinational corporation!

6. Extensible. WordPress also has a HUGE amount of easy-to-use plug-ins so that you can grow your website and your business the way you need to. Need to add a shopping cart? Need to integrate Twitter? Whatever you need, there’s probably a plug-in for it.

Why you’ll want a blog and a conventional website for your business

Posted on Dec 07, 2009

0 Comments

Tweet This Post!

Should your business have a blog? Or a website? That can be a tough choice but you don’t have to make the choice. You can have both! In this blog, we’ll look at why you would want to use a blog and a conventional website.

A blog and a website give you the best of both worlds!

By combining both together you’ll create a clean, professional site that meshes with your sales funnel, but also has a component where your audience can interact with you and read your fresh content.

WordPress makes it extremely simple to build both a blog and a conventionally designed website. Using WordPress’ pages and posts functions, it’s quick to do on your own. And with WordPressInASecond, it’s even easier to build it quickly and make it an integral part of your business… even if you have absolutely no design or technical skill!!

Why you’ll want a conventional website for your business

Posted on Dec 04, 2009

0 Comments

Tweet This Post!

So you’re trying to decide between a traditional website and a blog. Good question! There are valid reasons to have one or the other or both. In this blog, we’ll look at why you would want to use a more conventionally structured website.

  • A website is easy to manage. Build it once and it’s done
  • A website has an obvious organization
  • A website can be configured to work as part of your sales funnel
  • A website is away to create and refine your message to achieve a level of professionalism you’d like to portray

The great thing about WordPress is that it’s so easy to build one or the other or both. You can do it in moments and make changes as often as you’d like. WordPress does it all for you! And with WordPressInASecond, it’s even easier!

Why you’ll want a blog for your business

Posted on Dec 02, 2009

0 Comments

Tweet This Post!

So you’re trying to decide between a traditional website and a blog. Good question! There are valid reasons to have one or the other or both. In this blog, we’ll look at why you would want to use a blog.

  • Blogs sometimes feel a little more relational than a website
  • Blogs are fresh content, which search engines really like
  • Blogs are a way for your audience to interact with you (i.e. through comments, etc.)
  • Blogs offer your audience a way to share your thoughts with their friends

The great thing about WordPress is that it’s so easy to build one or the other or both. You can do it in moments and make changes as often as you’d like. WordPress does it all for you! And with WordPressInASecond, it’s even easier!

Powered by: WordpressInASecond