Why Setting Up Business For Free Online is A Huge Lie! How to do it right - Part 1.

How do you start a business to generate a second income online? Or a third? Or plan for retirement? Or even quit your job to work on your own online? The first lie that you should never believe is that you can set up a successful business for free online. No, it will never work. Well, we also believed that we can set up business for free online, till we actually did.


                                                                            



1. Before anything, do a complete research, as extensive as possible, on the products that you are about to offer. Read blogs, watch videos, check out every part of the Net. Pick up some skills. Research, research and research. Check out what people are searching on (keywords) Google. Tryout this site:

https://keywordseverywhere.com/credits.html

It will come as an add-on to your Chrome and every time you search something it will show the traffic per month and Cost per Click (CPC). The higher the CPC, the higher the competition.


2. We also found out that good website hosting sites offer 14 days' trial, after which you have to select a plan. Are there sites which offer free basic plans? Yes, of course they exist. If you do not mind their adverts popping out on your pages and if you are contented with very basic features, yeah, why not. Trust me, no one's going to be impressed enough to buy from you, save some friends who purchase out of pity. Ask yourself, would you buy anything from a website that looks like those people are not serious about their business? Yeap, that's the answer.


We also realised that the better the plan that you purchased, the greater the features were. So, be prepared to invest in a good subscription plan, ideally one that you pay annually. Two reasons why you should do this - one, because it will be way cheaper, second, because it would take the hassle off paying monthly. Then again, if you are on a financial constrain, it is alright to go for monthly subscription.


2. People buy online based on a few criteria. The look and feel of a website to begin with. So, you have a great idea, you have collected all your materials, have identified a superb site to host your website, next stop being stingy and spend some money hiring a competent web designer. Can you design a website yourself? After all, all web hosting sites have tools that you can use to design your site yourself. Yeah, man, you can. But who is going to be impressed with a site that looks like an elementary school project, what more buy from that site? 


We did the same mistake with our first online store. But ours started as a school project so the website was designed and built by my daughter. Then when we tried to sell things through that website, sales never happened. Almost nil. Then in 2018, we decided to move to another site, hired a web designer and our business took off. 


I generally work with freelancers from Workana. https://www.workana.com/en/freelancers/malaysia   So far my experience has been good. These freelancers get their projects from the ratings that they secure from their clients, so you can check out their ratings and choose who you would like to work with. You can choose the budget that you can afford for a particular project and choose from the freelancers who bid for the project.


3. Unless you are a dropshipper, the products or services that you would be selling would be yours and would need good photographs. Initially, we just used friends who were good at photography. Again, though our designs were really different from that others offered, out photos sucked. No sale. So, in 2018, when we re did our website, we hired a semi-professional photographer and models. It worked, we did decent sale. 


Of course, if you are naturally talented in photography, you should pick up some skills like using day light or good artificial lighting for your photos. One of the things that we decided at that time was to use outdoors for our photo shoots, which actually worked in our favour. But outdoors meant ensuring it was not a rainy day. Our first photoshoot was done at Tamarind Square in Cyberjaya. The second collection was photographed at Astaka Morocco.


Check out this site for some tips: https://improvephotography.com/35020/how-to-make-a-photo-look-professional/ 


4. Next, how do you market your products/website? Remember, no one buys a product. People buy benefits, style, solution to a problem and such. So, if you are just a dropshipper, you can showcase your products and if people buy, good. Else, no loss because dropshippers do not own, produce or ship the products that they sell. They just market.


But if you have your own products, stop shoving them down your friends' throats! People may buy first few times out of pity, then, they may block you on Whatsapp, FB, Instagram and everywhere you are their friend.


So, how do you market your products online?


Well, folks, that's gonna be another blog post. In the meantime, if you need some free advice, or want to start your own online business, feel free to leave a comment. We can talk offline. No fee, believe me, it is not my core business ☺.


Note: none of the websites I have mentioned above pay me anything for referring them, so you need not feel obligated to click on the link. I had said before and I am saying again - I did not monetize my blog, not any part of it. So, enjoy reading peacefully and have a great weekend!



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