Click here to get a free design quote

Posts Tagged ‘start a business’

An Unique Business Name. Its About Brand Awareness

Being in my position, I am constantly being pitched new business ideas and concepts. One question I always ask is what will be the name of your business or this particular project? Most of the time I receive some boring same-old name.

Take a second to think about this…

At some point of your business lifespan, you can change everything… except the company name. You can always change the product, logo, rebrand, and so on, but you can never change your company’s name. If anything, you have to create something else under another identity if you want to ditch your name.

For the most part people understand this, but because of that they are scared to be creative when choosing a name, rather they are looking for what I call a descriptive name (i.e. Bob’s Dry Cleaner, The Electronic Shack, etc).

(more…)

When To Spend Money On Your Site

With tools like WordPress and extremely cheap hosting, getting your site up and running really requires no money; however, when do you know it is time to spend more money?

The allure of starting something like a blog is enticing to most because they can make money without have to expense really any of their own. While you can relatively build and grow your site without have to spend to much extra, how do you know when and what to spend money on?

We need to first look at the essentials that we have to spend money on: Hosting and domain. These are annual payments and combined can cost you somewhere between $80-$100. Not bad especially when you consider of starting an actual brick-and-mortar store. Check out a bunch of cheap hosting companies that offer free domains with web hosting plans.

(more…)

Learn How To Run A Successful Website Through Case Studies

When I was a kid in school I always wondered what was the point of taking a history class. It is in the past, it is ancient, and it is old, so why waste our time, right? As I grew older, I didn’t necessarily find the actual stuff we learned in history useful, but rather the importace of utilizing history in business.

By looking at our past history, we can see what businesses have done to be successful and what leads to failure. With this rather invaluable information, it should jump start our own venture because we have already had people make the mistakes we can avoid.

See what successful sites are doing.

(more…)

How To Form Your Own LLC

Several blogs start and die everyday. Due to the very low barrier of entry, often times people don’t treat their online entity as a real business, end up not making money, and eventually let the entity die a slow painful death.

It is one thing to treat your online work has a real business, but it is another one to actually make it a legal one. Obviously, I am talking about incorporating your business, with the most popular and probably easiest form being a Limited Liability Company (LLC).

There are many various reasons why somebody would want to incorporate their business. A few include…

  • Protect your personal assets. Setting up your business as a separate entity will protect creditors, lenders, or anybody who would want to come after you (legally).
  • Continuity. If you have multiple partners or state powers in your will, a corporation can continue to go on with business.
  • Access to money. Everybody already knows incorporating your business will help you look more legit, but it will also help you should you decide to find investors and other type of investment into your business. You also can’t get an your Employee Identification Number (business version of social security number) banks need to open business accounts and get business loans.
  • Tax benefits. There are many tax benefits and loopholes available to small businesses, and incorporating allows you to take advantage of them.

(more…)

5 Steps to Dominate Your Niche

We have already covered 8 steps to start your online venture; however, the odds are high that you won’t be the first and last to enter that particular niche. In order to really start making money and create some sort of authority, we need to figure out:

  1. Who’s the competition?
  2. Major players?
  3. What communities exist?
  4. Affiliate programs available?
  5. Any multimedia targeted to the niche?

Competition?

By far the most important step is figuring out who your competition is. What are these people doing, how are they trying to make money, and does it seem like they have a good following? You can do this by performing a Google search. See why you think they rank high for certain keywords.

It is important to remember that just because they are competition does not mean that they can’t benefit you? Feel free to ask them some questions. Most people online like to feed their ego, and asking them questions on how you can be successful is definitely stroking their ego.

Who are the Big Dogs?

Who are the top players in your niche? While these people may be a little bit more preoccupied, it does not hurt to try and shoot them an email. It would be best to constantly track the content they put out. The best method to do this is through an RSS reader, such as Google Reader.

What Communities Exist?

Probably the best and somewhat easiest way to gain authority and notoriety is by actively being involved in message boards and forums. You will usually find that most of these community members are the real fanatics of the particular niche. If you can make a name for yourself with them, then it will go long ways to gaining traffic and authority to your site.

What Type of Affiliate Programs are There?

There are so many different type of affiliate programs out there (AM Certified Affiliates), and you are almost doing yourself a disservice if you don’t sign up with them. Your affiliate manager has tons of experience with gaining exposure, and they are dying to help you out. After all the more money your bring in, the more money they make as well.

What Multimedia Options Are There?

The internet is definitely moving from text to other multimedia outlets, such as podcast and videos. Scour services like YouTube and iTunes to see what is already available. Depending on your niche, you may be the first to break into this class of your niche.

Bottom Line: So we have covered the basis of trying to figure out how we should go about trying to overtake others already in the niche

« Older Entries