In Part 1 of this 2 Part series we looked at the basics of setting up an online business. In Part 2 were going to examine some of the more detailed tasks that youre going to need to accomplish before you can open your online business and start making a living (or at least some extra income) online.
As with Part 1 most of these Tasks can be accomplished using online service providers that already have the templates and tools that youre going to need to get started.
Online Payments need to be set up so that, obviously, you can sell your products and collect the revenue from those sales. When you set up your website most service providers already have a template for setting up your virtual cash register and shopping cart so the only task you have is to connect that page to an online cash / payment service company. One of the biggest in the world is PayPal and there is also Google Checkout, both of which will do just fine.
Both of these will allow you to start small and then increase and expand as your business grows, keeping overhead to a minimum while youre still small and getting a foothold online.
One of the most important aspects of selling online is building traffic to your site. Lets face it, without people coming to see what you have to offer youre not going to make very many sales. Building traffic means setting up SEO, using keywords, buying ads and making sure that you rank high with the major search engines.
Honestly there is so much that is included in creating Traffic to your website that it cant be covered in depth here. A good suggestion would be to use an online service provider at first until you have a better idea of how to create traffic on your own.
Once you have people coming to visit your website youre going to need a method to deliver your product. There are quite a few of these service providers online and, of course, if you make the product yourself theres always the USPS and companies like FedEx and UPS.
Creating an email customer list is essential for targeting repeat customers and essential for your growth. Using landing pages and giving away great information is a great way to do this. As with all of the other tasks there are service providers online that can help you with this task but suffice to say that its one of the more important that you have.
Finally theres tracking your growth and offering what your customers want. If you track what is going on well you will begin to see subtle changes and be able to react to them and be ready with the products and services your customers want when they want them.
Good luck in your online endeavors and remember to always keep abreast of the ever changing internet and the even more ever changing needs of the consumers who you wish to sell to. In no time youll be a seasoned vet whos writing about how to do these things also.