You have a limited budget, but you still want to start an online business. How can you begin selling your product or services with less than US $6? Here's a simple five-step tutorial to get you in business on a shoestring budget.
Select a Product
Selecting a product to sell may be the most difficult part of the business. How do you know if a product can sell well? Simply stated, you need to identify your customers' problem and be a solution provider. If you could help your customers to make money, save money, live longer or look younger, you're on the right track. Think of your product and how it can help solve their problems.
What if you don't have a product? There are many products in the market that you could sell through an affiliate program such as Commission Junction, Buy, or ClickBank. Here you act as a middleman between the merchant and the customer and earn a commission for the sale of the merchant's product.
Get a Domain Name
After you have selected a product for your business, it's time to get a domain name for your website. Domain name is like the address to your storefront. Choose your domain name wisely. Visit Name to get the cheapest domain name available at US $5.99 per year. This will be the only purchase you will make, everything else will be free. Type in the name you want and check to see if it's available. If it's taken up, try another name until you get one that is available. Then proceed to select, checkout and make payment with your credit card. They will prompt you to sign up for an account.
Signing up for a domain name here has an added advantage. It allows you to utilize a Google software called Google Apps which contains a web-creation tool for free.
Activate the Google Apps Program
Once you have followed the instructions after signing up for your domain name, it's time to customize some items at your Google Apps dashboard. Click on Web Pages and then click on Change URL. Here you can change your Google Pages URL to your domain name so it won't look like you are riding on a free server. After that you could proceed to the next step after clicking Edit Web Pages.
Create Your Website
First you need to select a suitable layout for your website by clicking on Change Layout at the top right corner. You can also change the background by clicking on Change Look. After that, you can start on the contents.
We'll start with the homepage. Do a simple write-up which includes identifying your customers' problem, highlighting a solution for them, presenting your offers and recommendation for your product.
Create a second product page to sell your product. This page should just focus on the product information. Then link the two pages together by highlighting a word or phrase or picture in the homepage, then click the link button on the icon bar. Then click on the page (product page) you want to link to. Now the two pages are linked. Click on Publish to view your website online. When you have more time, you can add more pages to your website such as a Contact Us page, an About Us page or Free Articles section.
You'd probably would like to improve the look of your website with pictures, but where can you get free pictures legally? Visit stock xchng to get access to millions of free stock photos. Sign up for an account. Browse for photos using keywords. Read the terms and conditions for your chosen photo before downloading them. Some photographers would like to be notified and credited for the use of their photo in your website. Some are available for free use as long as you don't sell them.
Modify the pictures using Paint program available in most computers. Reduce the size of the photo and insert them into your website. Now your website looks better!
Activate Your Paypal Business Account
After you have created your website, go to PayPal and activate a business account. Once completed and verified with an e-mail notification, proceed to Merchant Services tab. On the right-hand column, click on the "Buy Now" button. Select a button to be placed on your website. The best ones would be those which have the Visa or Mastercard logos below the button as this tells customers that they could pay online using their credit cards. Copy the html code to your website.
You're now in business! Believe it or not, in just 5 easy steps, you have created an online store. What you need to do next would be to drive traffic to your website and start counting the money from your sales.
