Starting an Online Business

[Vickysiu]

[angienewton]

Welcome to SSWT, Vicky! Glad to have you here.

Sorry to hear about your job loss. As far as products about making money online there are a lot of different views. I personally choose to follow what Lynn (the owner of this forum) teaches.

The best thing for you to do is read Lynn's blog post about . This will give you a lot of help on getting started.

As far as starting a website, it depends. You might be able to just use a blog (wordpress.org) which you'll be able to do once you sign up for hosting that has a cpanel. Lynn recommends Host Gator and has a link in the post above to sign up.

As far as promoting several different products, if they are in different niches like one is health and one is stuff for dogs then yes, you would need to different domains and make those totally separate sites. BUT it is recommended that you choose one niche to work through until 'completion', that is until it's making the $ you are looking for and then move on to add another niche.

We'll be happy to help you through the process. And your English was just fine

[lindastacy]

Ditto what Angie said, particularly the part about starting with one niche and working it until it's up and running smoothly and successfully before starting another.

Many of us make the mistake in the beginning of trying to be all things to all people thinking we'll have a better chance of making a profit that way. The reality is that if you find a specific market and meet one need for that market you'll do much better.

[tknoppe]

Welcome! I have to echo the others, pick one niche - get that one going & producing profit; then move on to another one.

The beauty about HostGator, is that with their hosting package, you can host unlimited domain names under the same hosting package for $9.95 per month! So very affordable!

I have free video tutorials on my web site showing you including registering a domain name, setting up hosting with HostGator and installing a WordPress blog.

Post here in the forum if you have any questions and we'll be glad to help.

[lisamariemary]

[jonjenkins]

[terrapin719]

[Vickysiu]

[tknoppe]

Hi Vicky
If you go to my site I have to show you how to register a domain name, how to setup hosting with HostGator and how to then setup WordPress through cpanel. That's the exact order you need to do the steps, the videos explain it all.

WordPress can be used as both a blog and/or a web site. So that's my recommendation for you: WordPress. For the cost of registering a domain name ($10.19) and hosting (.01 for the first month if you click on Lynn's banner here in the forum - then $9.95 per month thereafter) you can get a web site online. My videos to help you do all that: free.

[angienewton]

Vicky,
Yes, you would get a domain name, then buy hosting and then set up a website. BUT it's not recommended to get the domain and hosting at the same place so make sure you don't do that. Also, make sure the hosting company has cpanel.

As for websites and blogs, either or both is fine but I'll tell you it's much easier to use Wordpress than going out and buying web design software. I do use a great program for our websites called XSitePro and can give you a link to that if you're interested but it's a hefty investment although a good one.

If you go with a website, you'll still need to come up with content so I would say start with the blog so you can get started faster. I'm not that great at writing either but once you get started, it starts to come together. I think things will happen much quicker with a blog over a website because it's fresh content on a regular basis whereas a website is not.

Definitely get on Traci's blog and watch her videos. Her training will get you started.

Hope this helps!

[grahamg4]

Welcome Vicky

Angie is 100% correct - NEVER register and host with the same company. Register with one then point the DNS to the hosting company (they'll tell you when and where).

Watch Traci's videos and I'd recommend WordPress. If your hosting company has CPanel they will have WordPress ready for you to install.

WordPress is very flexible and easy to use. Also, free with CPanel hosting and lots of free templates & plugins are out there.

The best advice for a newbie is to follow the advice you're given. Everything above is correct. A lot of the mistakes have already been made by others so, no need for you to make them for yourself.

One last thought, this is true of Hostgator and possibly other hosting companies that allow multiple website hosting for the same low price. That is the first domain name you choose when opening your hosting account will be the parent domain name. This means you can't drop it without dropping the entire acct.

That is how Hostgator explained it to me if, the tech was wrong someone will correct me and please do.

Al

[angienewton]

[AlexNewell]

[tknoppe]

Pretty smart thinking - but even if you already have a domain & hosting, setting up a Squidoo lens is still smart. It's multiple streams of exposure.

[mellymom3]

Vicky,

If you are not really a techie, you can always setup a website at . They have a great sitebuilder that walks you through each step. There are tons of widget extras you can add such as paypal buttons, forums, blogs, photo galleries, and more.

You can join for free, pay $4.33 a month, or $8.66 a month for more space and bandwidth if needed. Although I have progressed to a techie status now over the last 5 years, I still recommend this site to non techies, new beginners, and broke marketers.

You can also post to Facebook right from your control panel, start and control a mailing list, and connect with others in the community.

There are lots of templates to choose from, you can change your header, upload a logo, or totally manage your files uploaded just as you would be able to with a file manager on a hosting account like hostgator.

In this way, you can essentially have both a website and add a blog! You can also change the nameservers(DNS) for your domain here too.