With an impressive $350,000 in sales during his first year, Qureshi’s business has grown exponentially, doubling its revenue every year and solidifying his place in the competitive e-commerce space. From finding the right products to learning the ins and outs of selling on Amazon, Qureshi’s journey from law school student to e-commerce success is a testament to the unexpected success that can arise from being willing to learn new things.

From Law School to E-Commerce

Qureshi’s shift from working in law to running a successful Amazon FBA business started with a crucial realization. Despite his academic achievements — a Doctor of Law from Hofstra University School of Law — Qureshi found himself questioning his future in law.

“After ruthlessly studying during my first year of law school, I did not meet my own expectations by attaining top-of-the-class grades,” he said. “This is all while I had to force myself to study topics I simply wasn’t interested in. I decided that my skills would be better elsewhere, maybe an online business.”

Qureshi had always enjoyed building things, from Legos and puzzles to assembling furniture from Ikea. This hands-on creativity led him to think outside the conventional career paths. “If I wasn’t going to be #1 in law school, then I wanted to be #1 elsewhere,” he noted.

In 2018, during his second year of law school, Qureshi began exploring the world of e-commerce. He dedicated six months to intensive research on Amazon FBA, reading over 20 books and listening to numerous podcasts. “My thought process was that if I can digest 20 pages of complex case opinions written by elite Yale lawyers, then I can understand anything,” he explained. By mid-2019, he had launched two brands: one in office supplies and another in tools and home improvement.

Today, Qureshi operates multiple private-label brands and is most passionate about his Amazon Performance Marketing Agency, Jungle Advisor. His journey from law school to e-commerce showcases a practical pivot to an industry where he could fully utilize his skills and interests.

The Appeal of Amazon FBA

Qureshi was drawn to the Amazon FBA model for its scalability. “I saw entrepreneurs scaling their companies very quickly to millions of dollars,” he recalled. The FBA model allowed him to focus on generating demand for his products where Amazon handled the storage, packaging, and shipping of items to customers. “As an Amazon FBA private label brand operator, you’re mainly focusing on generating demand for your products by focusing on marketing, price, and attributes your customers care about,” he explained.

Settling on the right niche was a critical decision for Qureshi. He ultimately opted for the office supply category, ditching his tools and home improvement venture, due to its lower competition and potential for quality differentiation. “Office supplies was an attractive category because I was able to develop our own products that cannot be copied,” he said.

The aggressive competition in other categories, particularly from international sellers, made office supplies a more viable option for building a sustainable brand. “Chinese competition was and is still very aggressive on Amazon because products can easily be copied and sold for way lower prices,” he noted. By focusing on quality rather than price, Qureshi positioned his products to stand out in the market.

The lower marketing costs associated with office products also played a significant role in his decision. “The cost to market office products was low, therefore we could spend larger budgets to acquire customers,” he added. This strategic choice allowed Qureshi to allocate more resources to customer acquisition, setting the foundation for his brand’s growth.

Related: How to Start a Dropshipping Business in 8 Simple Steps

Explosive Growth and Key Milestones

Qureshi’s Amazon FBA business saw remarkable growth right from its first year. “Our first year of business we did $350,000 in sales, and since then we’ve grown more than 100% in revenue every year,” he shared. Today, Qureshi’s business boasts a turnover exceeding $1 million annually.

A key factor in this growth was Qureshi’s focus on addressing a specific customer need with a particular product. “One thing that helped us capitalize on this growth was focusing on one particular customer and one particular product that solves the customer’s problem,” he explained.

By honing in on a single issue and perfecting a solution, Qureshi was able to build a loyal customer base. “Once we solved that unique problem for our customer, we were able to understand the customer really well. From there, it was easier to cross-sell the rest of our catalog of items.”

Qureshi emphasized the importance of focusing on solving a singular problem, a strategy that helped distinguish his brand in a crowded market. “I’m a big believer in focusing on solving a singular problem. This is what separates you from your competitors. If you can do one thing really well, you make a name in the market as your happy customers will tell others.” He observed that many entrepreneurs lose sight of what made their product successful initially and advised staying true to the core value proposition that appeals to customers.

Overcoming Challenges and Learning Resources

Starting an Amazon FBA business was not without its challenges for Qureshi. One of the biggest hurdles he faced was the need for consistent investment to maintain and grow inventory. “One obstacle as an Amazon seller is the consistent need to invest cash into ordering more inventory,” he explained. Although his brand became profitable early on, scaling required greater financial resources.

Fortunately, Qureshi was able to leverage support from his family. “I was very fortunate to have family members who are serial investors. I drafted a presentation to raise money and convinced one of my uncles to invest,” he said. This experience taught Qureshi the importance of being an elite salesperson to secure necessary resources. “In business, you need to be an elite salesperson to get far,” he noted.

In terms of learning resources, Qureshi turned to books, podcasts, and online courses to build his knowledge base. He started with Product Research 101 by Renae Clark and How to Sell on Amazon for Beginners by Money Maker Publishing.

“Recently, many books have been released surrounding Amazon FBA. But the best and most informative book I’ve ever read is Ride the Amazon Wave by Tomer Rabinovich,” Qureshi shared. Podcasts like The Private Labeler Show by Nick Landowski also provided valuable insights.

Qureshi recommended a hands-on approach to learning, emphasizing the dynamic nature of e-commerce. “A ton of content becomes obsolete as the e-commerce space is so dynamic. One really cool resource is Udemy.com. You can easily take beginner courses on Udemy.com surrounding Amazon FBA. But the best way to learn as always, is hands-on experience by getting started,” he advised.

For beginners, Qureshi suggested focusing on basic business principles from a digital retail standpoint, including finance, supply chain, and marketing. “You can easily take an inexpensive course on Udemy.com on the above topics,” he added.

Product Sourcing and Competition Strategies

Navigating the complexities of product sourcing and staying ahead of the competition are crucial aspects of running a successful Amazon FBA business. We asked Qureshi to share his strategies for finding and sourcing products, as well as how he manages competitive pressures in the market.

“The e-commerce space is extremely dynamic. There are always new solutions to solve a problem,” Qureshi said. Initially, his approach to sourcing involved contacting multiple manufacturers and ordering samples to find the best fit. “When I started my brand, we were using the traditional way to source. You would contact 5 to 10 manufacturers on Amazon, order a sample from 3 or 4, and see which one met your needs.” As his business grew, Qureshi began working with consultants and sourcing experts to identify reliable manufacturers. “These days, due to our capacity and needs, we have consultants and sourcing experts that identify worthy manufacturers.”

The key to successful product launches in 2024 goes beyond just finding a market gap. “Pre-2021, we would scrape data to find where there was a gap in the market and eventually fill that gap by launching a kick-ass product,” he explained. “In 2024, you still scrape data to find where there is a gap in the market. But it takes more than empirical data to have a successful product launch. You must also have amazing creative content, PR surrounding your brand or product, and more importantly, innovate your product enough to give the customer a 5-star experience.” With increasing customer acquisition costs, Qureshi emphasized that simply running a marketing campaign is no longer sufficient.

Handling competition, particularly in the office supply category, requires constant innovation and adaptation. “Competition in the office supply category increases every year due to new brands entering the market or brands lowering prices to get customers to purchase their products,” Qureshi noted. To stay ahead, his team focuses on leveraging new software solutions, innovating their product catalog, and exploring new markets or sales channels. This proactive approach helps them maintain a competitive edge in a crowded marketplace.

Related: 48 Small Scale Business Ideas for Beginner Entrepreneurs

Launching a New Product

Qureshi says he has developed a meticulous process for launching new products on Amazon FBA, combining market data with customer feedback to ensure success.

“Launching a new product on Amazon is a process in which you must connect market data, along with customer feedback,” Qureshi explained. This approach involves a detailed examination of market needs and customer preferences to create products that stand out. “This process is long and if you get it wrong, your first product might not be a success. But if you can get this process right, you might just have started a sustainable business.”

Qureshi recommended several essential software tools that aid in product research and listing optimization:

• Sellerboard: For financial reporting
• Keepa: To track sales rank in a timeline format
• SmartScout: For market and subcategory research
• Datarova: For keyword research
• JungleScout: For product research

“In order to get started, you need the right software,” he emphasized. These tools help Qureshi and his team identify market gaps, optimize listings, and monitor performance metrics, ensuring their products meet market demands and customer expectations.

Related: 19 Profitable Digital Product Ideas to Sell Online

Managing Logistics and Inventory

Ensuring that products are always in stock and ready to ship can make or break an e-commerce business, and Qureshi has developed a strategic approach to handle these challenges.

“Managing inventory on Amazon can either make or break your business. It’s the one part of the system where you need to be the most strategic as it holds the most capital,” Qureshi explained. To keep track of inventory levels and avoid stockouts, his team manually built spreadsheets that help monitor inventory closely. “We usually stay about 60 days in-stock at all times,” he noted.

Qureshi’s inventory management strategy involves placing the majority of their stock in Los Angeles, California, with some inventory held locally as well. This approach ensures that they can quickly replenish stock and meet customer demand efficiently. “The majority of our inventory sits in Los Angeles, California while some of it is locally held as well,” he added.

Maintaining optimal inventory levels and strategic placement has been crucial for Qureshi’s business growth, helping him avoid the pitfalls of overstocking or running out of popular items. His meticulous attention to logistics ensures that customers receive their orders promptly, which in turn, bolsters customer satisfaction and repeat business.

Related: How to Make Money on Amazon (14 Popular Methods)

Common Mistakes and Key Takeaways

For new Amazon FBA sellers, there are several common mistakes to watch out for, and Qureshi has some practical advice on how to avoid these pitfalls. “New and rambunctious Amazon FBA sellers enter the market looking forward to innovating and disrupting the category. But they forget that their product offer must be better than existing ones,” Qureshi warned.

Qureshi stressed the importance of making product listings stand out with compelling images and clear storytelling. “Find a way to make your images tell the story of your product more clearly,” he advised. He also cautioned against competing solely on price. “Don’t race to the bottom with price; you can always be premium.”

Effective digital marketing is another critical component for success. Qureshi recommended running strategic advertising campaigns and driving traffic from multiple sources. “Run strategic advertising and drive traffic from many sources,” he said.

Reflecting on his own journey, Qureshi identified key factors that contributed to his success and shared what he might have done differently. “Everyone has their own way to success as all of our challenges are different. But I think the most crucial factor in the success of my brand was that I was consistently learning new things about selling in the e-commerce space,” he explained. Qureshi worked seven days a week, often juggling law school and his burgeoning business. “I worked 7 days a week and can’t think of a day when I was not working. I still work 6 days a week and if I’m not in the office, I am working on my iPhone.”

Qureshi’s advice for aspiring Amazon FBA entrepreneurs emphasizes resilience and patience. “Another piece of advice for aspiring Amazon FBA sellers is the ability to overcome failures. Lastly, be patient and trust the process. Things don’t happen overnight, in a week, in a month, or maybe even 6 months. But stick to it, and take whatever you’re doing seriously,” he encouraged.

While Qureshi has no regrets about his journey, he did reflect on the challenges of balancing law school and his business. “If I could go back in time, I would have dropped out of law school and solely focused on building the business. I put my mind and body through a lot while juggling law school and building the business. I also neglected a ton of close family and friend relationships during the process.”

What the Future Holds

Qureshi’s entrepreneurial journey doesn’t stop with his Amazon FBA success. He is additionally channeling his passion into JungleAdvisor.com, his Amazon Performance Marketing Agency. “We help brands with performance marketing (PPC) and Amazon brand management,” he shared.

His agency has already made a significant impact, assisting even 9-figure sellers in growing their businesses on Amazon and optimizing their marketing efforts. “Our agency has helped many 7-9 figure sellers grow their business on Amazon and make their marketing more productive than ever.”

Related: 

• 16 Realistic Ways to Quickly Make $1,000
• 18 Legit Ways to Get Free Gift Cards (Apple, Visa, & More)

The post From Law School to $1 Million Amazon FBA Business appeared first on DollarSprout.

As much as I love being able to work from anywhere and create content for DollarSprout, I felt myself yearning for a new challenge. I’m an ADHDer, which means one of my biggest weaknesses (but sometimes also a strength) is that I easily get sucked down rabbit holes with new hobbies and interests. Every few months it happens, like clockwork. Past rabbit holes for me include poker, boxing, chess, surfing, card tricks, hydroponic plants, Rubik’s Cube, intermittent fasting, the list goes on. 

This time, it was going to be something completely new to me: candles. 

The Spark of an Idea

I’ve always wanted to try my hand at starting a business that sells physical products. For some reason, as a writer and online content creator, the idea of making something tangible that someone can hold in their hands and enjoy has always sounded like fun. Maybe it’s a classic case of “the grass isn’t always greener on the other side”, but, like most other things in life, I had to see it for myself. 

After reading a million articles across the web (including a few on our own website, like this list of business ideas), I realized I was spending too much time looking for the perfect idea. Deep down I knew I needed something simple. Something that a person like me with no manufacturing or product development background could pull off. 

This wasn’t the time to reinvent the wheel. After seeing candles pop up a few times across several articles on high-margin physical product direct-to-consumer businesses (say that tens times fast), my mind was made up. 

I was going to start a luxury candle line and sell online using Shopify. I love burning candles in my house year-round and figured that was enough passion for me to pursue the idea.

Enter: Market Research Phase

Right away I knew that I didn’t want to compete for razor-thin margins on a mass production scale, since my wife and I would be operating this business out of our dining room and garage. That meant creating candles that catered towards high-end clientele that value things like:

• Environmental and health-friendly ingredients
• Unique scents that you can’t find in Walmart for $8
• A luxury experience

Low volume, high margin. That was the general idea, at least. 

After some brainstorming with my wife, we settled on a name and filed for an LLC in Virginia. Our house number is 504, so we named the company Club 504 Candle Co. 

Getting the Branding Right

Between me and Ben (my friend who I started DollarSprout with), I’ve always been the more visual thinker. To me, the way a brand looks and feels matters just as much, if not more, than the words on the page. 

So, naturally, that was where I decided to pour my energy at first. 

But let’s be real. I’m not a professional graphic designer. I’ve never used Photoshop in my life, and, up until recently, I had exclusively used PowerPoint to create all of the graphics you see on DollarSprout. I eventually switched over to Canva since it’s much easier to use and has a massive library of assets that are ready to use. 

I settled on this logo because I felt like it conveyed what we wanted the brand to stand for:

• Luxurious and classy
• Elegant but not feminine
• Modern but with character

Along with the logo I also decided on brand colors that would match the vibe. Dark grey, light tan, and white. Simple and clean.

Rant: It seems to be “in” right now for entrepreneurship influencers to spout off about how you are spending too much time on your logo, but I couldn’t disagree more. Your logo is the first impression that your brand makes. It frames how people view you and your products and how they connect with your message. Remember that many of these influencers want to trivialize logo design so they can sell you a course on the “stuff that matters”. Spend time on your logo until you feel like it is absolutely perfect. It is time well spent, trust me. /rant.

Setting up an Online Storefront

This is about the point in time when my wife noticed the elephant in the room. I was doing everything except making candles. 

Like an athlete having to answer to the press after a lackluster performance, I quickly fired off a “we just have to trust the process.” 

Sure, I was starting with the stuff I was comfortable with, but I knew that eventually, we would have to actually start making candles. But we also needed a website. I was fine with the order I was doing things and I knew we would eventually get to the candle-making part of running a candle business. It’s a cliche but I guess you really do just have to trust the process. 

I’ve never run an e-commerce business, so I figured I would make my life easier and just use Shopify. They have a bunch of free templates so if you’ve never built a website before, you can easily get started. I started off with one of their free templates but then I found a theme I really fell in love with. That set me back $350, but it’s money well spent. Like I said, branding is everything. 

Once I figured out the general layout of the site and had some basic copywriting down (with the help of ChatGPT), it was time to start making candles. After all, there’s only so much you can do for an e-commerce site when you don’t have a product or photos yet.

Sourcing Vendors and Creating the Product

I can’t emphasize enough that I didn’t know the first thing about candles or candle making when I decided to start this business. I’m not a candle guy. Sure, I liked lighting a candle every now and then, but that was the extent of my knowledge. 

But, as rabbit holes go, I got totally immersed in candle content. I think I’ve watched every YouTube video that exists on candle making (not really, but it sure feels like it). 

After dozens of hours of research, I found a few vendors for supplies that seemed trustworthy and had positive reviews. I submitted our first order and within two weeks my dining room was transformed into a warehouse/candle lab. 

Since I didn’t know exactly how many different scents we wanted to start with, we ordered a bunch of tiny samples so we could pick and choose what we liked. I was a little bit self-conscious about using an off-the-shelf fragrance that wasn’t “proprietary”, so I decided to try blending fragrance oils together to create our own secret sauce. 

We eventually landed on six different scents. It seemed reasonable and we figured there would be something for everyone. Four felt like not enough variety and eight felt overwhelming for beginners like us. 

Labels and Packaging

Since I want this brand to compete in the luxury category, I needed more than just a candle that smells good. I needed to create an experience for the consumer that makes them feel like this is a special occasion. Think Apple, but for candles. That’s the experience and feel I want to create. 

For the design of the labels, I fired up Canva again and went to work. I made so many different designs and none of them felt right. After a while I realized that the problem wasn’t so much the designs themselves, but how they looked when they were printed on a sticker. Everything I made just looked…cheap. And tacky. 

So I did some research online and came across a label manufacturer that specializes in making high-end metal labels. The cost was expensive (around $1 per label), but once I saw a prototype of a label I designed, I knew that this was the only way to go. I submitted the order and eagerly waited for my labels to arrive from the other side of the world. 

The boxes were a similar process: I found a manufacturer that specializes in gift boxes. They had a box style that I liked, and after a couple of weeks of back and forth, we were finally able to bring my crude designs from Canva into a working prototype that fit the exact dimensions of our jars (or what people in the candle biz call “vessels”).

There was a bigger learning curve to this part than I had expected. I’ve never worked with a manufacturer before so I was constantly Googling things they were asking me so I didn’t look completely clueless (hopefully they couldn’t tell). That said, the people I worked with were extremely helpful in guiding me along. If you want to start an e-commerce brand, don’t be intimidated by this part.

Product Photography AKA the Bane of My Existence

Your Shopify store is pretty much dead on arrival if you don’t have high-quality product photos. The minute people sniff out that a business is being run out of a dining room with nothing but a wax melter and an iPhone, you’re in trouble. And since that’s exactly what I was doing, I was in trouble. 

It took me weeks to figure out how to take product photos with my iPhone that looked halfway decent. I watched so many tutorials and tried every lighting situation known to humankind. Also, trying to convey what something smells like through a screen is not exactly an easy task for a budding photographer like myself. 

In the end, I went with the route of less is more. Clean, white backgrounds. Even these were hard for me to pull off. 

Up Next: Social Media Marketing and Farmers Markets

Honestly, it was exhausting just getting the business to this point, but we are in too deep now to stop. The hard part is still to come: actually getting people to see these candles and buy them. 

I plan to focus most of my attention on a mix of paid and organic posting on Instagram and TikTok, even though I swore I would never join TikTok. Truth is, it’s a goldmine for brands that can figure out how to crack the code and totally blow up — which I hope to do. In fact, as I was working on this post I created my first-ever TikTok. If you want to watch a grown man embarrass himself and sling some candles online, go follow me

@club504candleco Productivity flows from your environment. Light a candle and pour into your work. #luxurycandles #candletok ♬ Die A Little Bit – Remix – Tinashe & ZHU

There is also a farmers market two blocks from our house every Saturday, so we are going to figure out how to get in on that. 

Don’t Be Afraid to Start!

It remains to be seen whether this new venture of ours will be a success or not, but I feel great about the progress we have made in the five months since filing our LLC. It’s been a fun project to work on in my spare time and maybe one day it can turn into a nice source of side income for us. 

Remember, just because you don’t think you have a passion for something doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pursue it. The idea of creating something new out of thin air was plenty to keep me interested and motivated to get this off the ground even though I don’t have any intrinsic passion for candles.

Don’t wait for the perfect idea. Just pick something and go with it!

And don’t forget to buy a Club 504 candle for everyone you know.

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Shopify offers a user-friendly and efficient platform for launching an e-commerce business. With its intuitive design and robust tools, it simplifies online store management, making it a practical choice for entrepreneurs starting their digital journey.

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But as Johnston Community College points out, over 90% of entrepreneurs lack any formal business education. Of course, there’s more to starting a business than just book-smarts, but you will need a plan if you want your business to thrive. Below, you’ll find a step-by-step guide for starting your own business.

Step 1: Coming Up with Your Idea

Many business owners simply take their existing hobby and turn it into a side hustle, then build it into a full-fledged career. Others find themselves starting from scratch.

In Simon Sinek’s bestselling book Start with Why he emphasizes the need for business owners to understand the motivations behind their business. “People don’t buy what you do,” he writes. “They buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.”

Finding your “why” might take some brainstorming. Need help getting started? Grab a sheet of paper or a whiteboard. Draw a line down the middle. In one column, focus on the needs of the world around you. Focus on questions like:

• What needs do I see in the world today?
• Are there any recent problems that need to be addressed?
• What businesses are currently trending — and why?

On the other side of your brainstorming sheet, write down things about yourself, such as:

• What am I passionate about?
• What unique knowledge base or skill set do I possess?
• How do I want to impact my community or world?

Write down as many ideas as you can. Ask for input from your social circle. Remember: there are no bad ideas, so don’t prejudge any response at this point.

Once you’ve filled both columns, draw connections between the “need” side and your “skill” side. What problem would you like to focus on? How are you uniquely equipped to meet that need? 

For instance, your community might be lacking in a certain type of construction contractor or a particular type of restaurant. If you can fill these needs, you have the potential for creating a successful business.

Step 2: Validate Your Idea

Finding your business idea is one of the most important steps in starting a business (here’s a list of business ideas if you need some inspiration). But before you run out and print your business cards, it’s important to validate your idea. Basically, you need to know if your business idea will work.

Understandably, you may not exactly have an extensive budget for market research. You can start by performing some simple research, like:

• Reading about the market or industry in online trade journals
• Researching customer demographics through the Small Business Administration
• Learning more about existing businesses in your industry
• Talking to prospective customers (or even your family) about your business plan
• Testing out your product or service with a small group of customers

Ideally, you’ll discover that your idea is not only feasible but that it meets the specific needs of your target audience.

Sometimes you’ll discover that even though you have a good idea, you’re facing stiff competition from other businesses. If so, you’ll need to refine your business idea still further. What makes your future business unique?

Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get a lot of buy-in from your prospective customer base. Return to step 1, and use input from others to zero in on a specific need that your business can fill.

Related: 20 Best Business Ideas for New Female Entrepreneurs

Step 3: Create a Business Plan

Next, you’ll want to write out your business plan. Don’t skip this step. A well-written business plan will help you stay focused on your specific business goals. 

You can also use it to communicate data about your business to external audiences. If you’re communicating to potential investors or simply trying to secure a small business loan, you’ll likely be asked to present your business plan.

A traditional business plan will include the following:

• An executive summary highlighting key points from the rest of the document
• A description of your business, including your mission statement
• A description of your products or services
• Market analysis that shows your company has a viable market
• A marketing plan explaining how you intend to reach your target audience
• Your funding needs to show how much you’ll need to launch your business
• Financial projections, including milestones for earnings potential and growth
• An appendix containing additional market and industry data

You can also utilize what’s known as the “lean startup option,” which will contain the following elements:

• Your company’s value proposition
• A list of your services
• Primary activities
• Primary resources
• Business channels
• Target customers and customer segments
• Financial needs and cost structure
• Revenue streams and financial projections

If you need some inspiration, head over to the Small Business Association website, where you can learn more details and download some sample business plans.

It also might help to look at business plans for specific industries, such as:

• Restaurants
• Construction
• Web design
• Real estate
• Banking and finance
• Landscaping

You’ll likely refine your business plan over time, but putting your ideas down on paper provides a useful starting point that you can work from for the future.

Step 4: Build an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) or Service Offering

Once you’ve created your business plan, your next priority should be creating a “minimum viable product,” or MVP.

Think of your MVP as a prototype, simply designed to evaluate how well your final product or service satisfies the need you identified in the preceding steps.

Obviously, this will look different depending on the nature of your business. Your main priority should be bringing something to market fast. Ask yourself, “what minimum features do my product or service need to offer my target market?” Ignore the details for now — you can always fine-tune your initial design later.

Once you’ve designed your MVP, it’s time to launch. Again, it doesn’t have to be “pretty,” just functional. Learn from your customers’ experience:

• Did your product or service meet your customers’ needs?
• How might you improve the user interface or client experience?
• Are there design flaws that need to be addressed?
• How does your MVP measure up against competing products or services?

If you’re feeling shaky about this step, you might want to check out a few resources, including:

• A web agency that offers a detailed guide for developing an MVP
• An online calculator to determine the costs of your MVP
• An article from a software developer cataloging MVPs from top companies

Developing an MVP is an exciting step, as it allows you to see your company begin to take shape. Plus, it provides another opportunity to learn and refine your business before your official launch.

Step 5: Legal Steps

In order to operate your business, you’ll need to comply with existing business regulations. Many of these requirements vary by state, so you’ll have to do some research to determine your exact needs.

Find Your State’s Requirements

The Small Business Administration website provides resources to help you determine your legal requirements by state. Some of these requirements will also depend on how your business is legally structured. The purpose of these requirements is to comply with industry and safety regulations and ensure you pay taxes correctly.

Common requirements include:

• Articles of incorporation or operating agreements
• Financial statements
• Payroll taxes, workers’ compensation insurance, etc.
• Licenses and permits (for specific industries)

If you operate a business in certain industries, such as alcohol or firearms, you’ll need to comply with requirements regarding licenses and permits. You can find more information on the SBA website, which organizes these requirements by industry and state.

Apply for an EIN/Federal Tax ID

An Employer Identification Number, or EIN, is a 9-digit number used to identify your business for tax reporting. It’s also known as your federal tax identification number and functions as a kind of Social Security number for your business. You can get one through the IRS website for free.

Don’t delay. An EIN is a common requirement when applying for small business loans, and you’ll need one if you decide to hire employees.

Step 6: Financial and Accounting Steps

You now have a series of decisions to make about how to manage your company’s finances. It might seem daunting at first, but tackling these steps from the start will make everything much smoother for you down the road.

Choose Your Tax Entity

First, you’ll need to decide what business structure fits your company’s needs. The five most common types of business structures include:

• Sole proprietorships
• Partnerships
• Limited liability companies (LLCs)
• Corporations
• S corporations

If these terms sound like a foreign language, head over to this helpful article from Indeed.com. The structure you choose will influence your day-to-day operations and mitigate the amount of risk you take on when starting your own business.

Separate Your Business and Personal Finances

It’s not uncommon for business owners to sink their own cash into their company, especially when first starting out. But mixing your business and personal assets can create confusion during tax season and can jeopardize your personal assets if your business fails or gets slapped with a lawsuit.

This overlap is why you need to open a business bank account immediately. There are plenty of comparisons sites out there like Nerdwallet or Bankrate that can help you narrow down your options when it comes to choosing a bank for your business account.

For instance, some financial institutions offer unique tools for eCommerce companies, while others offer tools that can help retailers.

Additionally, while it’s possible to use an online bank, some business owners may prefer the convenience of a local, brick-and-mortar bank, especially when they need to make frequent deposits.

Choose Your Accounting System

How do you plan on managing your books? You basically have three options:

• Handling your books yourself with accounting software
• Hiring an accountant or bookkeeper
• Outsourcing your bookkeeping to a third-party accounting firm

Each choice has its strengths and weaknesses. While handling your own books makes sense when your company is in its infancy, you might find these administrative needs distract you from focusing on growing your business. Third-party firms can sometimes be a cheaper alternative to hiring an actual bookkeeper or CPA.

Related: Beginner’s Guide to Accounting and Reporting Blog Income

Consider Finding Financing

To fund your business, you might consider a small business loan or a business line of credit (LOC). A line of credit is often helpful for ongoing needs, while a loan can be helpful for startup costs and purchasing inventory and equipment. 

Your bank may already have some options available and can likely help you navigate the requirements of an SBA loan program.

Step 7: Get Insured, if Necessary

Do you really need business insurance? If you have employees, your state may require you to carry business insurance. Also, if you’re renting retail space, it’s not uncommon for landlords to require you to carry insurance. 

Likewise, some equipment manufacturers may prefer selling to companies that have an insurance policy. Plus, business insurance protects your assets in the event of a natural disaster, vandalism, or a lawsuit.

There are six common types of business insurance:

• General liability
• Product liability
• Professional liability
• Commercial property insurance
• Home-based business insurance
• Business owner’s policy

For more detail, the SBA website provides an overview of the advantages of each type of policy. The main question is whether your business involves enough risk to warrant a policy. It’s best to buy a policy when:

• You’re hiring employees
• You have a retail space visited by customers
• You work in a high-risk industry (e.g., construction)
• You rely on equipment, inventory, or resources that are costly to replace

Like any type of insurance, you may discover that it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

Step 8: Explore HR Needs

Depending on your business, you might choose to hire an extra set of hands or even a whole staff. The SBA provides some excellent resources on hiring employees, as does the employment site Indeed.com.

If you are just starting out as a one-person operation, you probably won’t need to worry about the items here yet, but it’s good to have them on your radar for when your business starts to grow and you need to bring on more help.

Here are just some of the things to consider when handling your human resources (HR) needs:

Benefits Offerings and Administration

Unless your staff is solely part-time, you’ll need to provide some type of benefits package. At a minimum, this includes health insurance, though many companies also offer retirement benefits and other financial incentives to attract and maintain top talent.

Legal Notices

Labor laws are constantly evolving. One of the ways employers must stay in compliance is by displaying legal notices in their workplace. 

You can find more information about these notices and posters on the Department of Labor website. As the company owner, you’ll be responsible for staying abreast of changes in regulatory and compliance issues that impact your employees.

Tax Withholding

The Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) requires that employers withhold the following taxes from their employees’ gross pay:

• 6.2% Social Security tax
• 1.45% Medicare tax (the “regular” Medicare tax)
• 0.9% Medicare surtax when the employee earns over $200,000

FICA also requires you to pay the employee’s portion of the following:

• 6.2% Social Security tax
• 1.45% Medicare tax

Failing to comply with these requirements can result in legal complications and penalties.

SOPs and SOGs

Employers will also be responsible for generating standard operating procedures (SOPs) and standard operating guidelines (SOGs) pertaining to employee conduct, job requirements, and workplace safety.

Options for HR

Like your accounting needs, you have three basic options for handling HR:

• Handling HR yourself
• Hiring an HR manager
• Outsourcing to an HR firm

As your business grows, it often becomes difficult to stay on top of changing regulations, which might lead you to consider farming your needs to a third-party or hiring your own HR manager.

Step 9: Finding Your First Customers

That old Kevin Costner movie got it wrong: just because you build it, it doesn’t mean your customers will come. While some industries can benefit from direct mailers to local residents, you’ll likely need to establish a strong web presence to effectively market your business. Focus on the following:

A User-Friendly Website

Start by building a modern, user-friendly website. Make sure that it looks good on a desktop computer as well as handheld devices. 

You’ll want your site to contain basic information about your business, such as its location and the services/products you provide. E-commerce businesses will use their site to drive sales, while others might include contact forms to connect with potential clients.

Social Media Presence

Creating a profile or page on Facebook, Instagram, or other social channels can help you connect to a wider range of people. 

If you have a specific post that you want to garner more attention, like a grand opening announcement, you can spend money and turn that post into an ad. As your business grows, you may delegate these responsibilities to an employee who can manage your social media accounts.

Email Marketing

Finally, develop an email list of regular customers. You can send them additional information, coupons, and other special offers to increase their loyalty and promote your business. 

Related: 21 Inexpensive or Free Ways to Market Your Small Business

Bottom Line: Find Your Passions

If this sounds like a lot of work, it’s because it is. But few things are more rewarding than investing in an idea you’re truly passionate about. Your business venture, therefore, offers you something more than a paycheck. It gives you the opportunity to leave your mark on the world around you. 

The post How to Start a Business in 9 Simple Steps appeared first on DollarSprout.

And now I see two other trends starting to emerge:

1. People whose jobs became remote in 2020 and 2021 have tasted freedom, but now they want to take it a step further and ditch having a boss. Location freedom is only part of the puzzle. Freedom over time is the other. Starting an online business is a way to have both.
2. People with in-person jobs see how much happier their remote-working friends are now, and they want a piece of that. They are dying to find a way out of the get up, drive to work, work, drive home grind.

In either case, people are desperate for ideas. And now we as a society know that having a successful online business isn’t just a pipe dream anymore — millions of regular people are finding ways to make it happen.

Main Categories of Online Businesses

• Content business: The lifeblood of any content creator’s business is their audience. With an engaged audience that is big enough, there are many ways to capture value from the content you create for them.
• Service-based online business: This is all about working with clients one-on-one, completing projects, and using word-of-mouth as a main growth tool.
• E-commerce: Selling products online, usually via a virtual storefront.
• Software as a Service (SaaS) & other tech: Creating tools and products that people pay to use. Usually requires some background in tech development.

Content Business Ideas

1. Launch a blog

Startup costs: Less than $100

Maybe you have a passion for cooking, fashion, or personal finance. Or maybe you just have tons of great ideas that you know will help others. Starting a blog allows you to share your passion with the world and make money in the process.

How blogs can make money:

• Display ads (also called banner ads)
• Affiliate marketing; selling someone else’s product for a commission
• Sponsorships
• Selling an online course or ebook

Examples:

• DollarSprout.com – Side hustles and entrepreneurship
• ApartmentTherapy.com – Interior Design
• ThoughtfulParent.com – Parenting
• Kotaku.com – Gaming

What you need to get started:

• Domain name and hosting (we recommend Bluehost)
• A topic area you like and can devote yourself to
• Strong writing skills

It may sound daunting, but the learning curve isn’t as steep as you might imagine. Take it from these five millennials who started their blogs in the last 12 months and are all making over $1,000 per month. Their advice is pretty straightforward: do some pre-planning, be authentic, and don’t be afraid to fail. 

It’s not rocket science, and with a little persistence, you could be less than a year away from a significant online income. 

Related: How We Made $347,675 Blogging in 2 Months

2. Start a YouTube channel

Startup costs: $0 

You don’t need to be the next Logan Paul in order to find success as a YouTuber. Nowadays, you can find a YouTube channel on just about any topic, no matter how obscure. If you like the idea of creating content for a specific audience but hate the thought of writing, starting your own YouTube channel could be the ticket.

Most popular ways YouTubers make money:

• Ads (before, during, and/or after video)
• Sponsorships
• Affiliate marketing

Examples:

• The Lawn Care Nut (462k subscribers)
• Oscar Ramos (Cryptocurrency, 15.5k subscribers)
• Boho Beautiful Yoga (2.26M subscribers)

What you need to get started:

• Your smartphone camera

3. Sell online knowledge courses 

Between Google and YouTube, you can learn pretty much anything online. The firehose of information we all have at our fingertips is amazing but also overwhelming. That’s where course creators come in.

Instead of someone piecing together fragmented information from dozens of sources and trying to teach themselves a topic, it’s often easier (and smarter) to just buy a single course from a trusted instructor. It cuts down on time wasted and makes learning much more efficient.

As a course creator, you have the opportunity to build a course once and sell it hundreds or even thousands of times. There is high profit potential and very low cost to getting started.

You can make a course on anything. Examples of popular courses:

• Get Your Ex Back ($57.99) by Lee Wilson
• Watercolor Painting ($197) by Nicki Traikos
• Pest Control Training for Professionals ($324) by Pest Posse

In order to sell your course, you’ll need an audience. Most popular methods:

• Grow an audience via free content on social media
• Grow an audience via search engine traffic
• Running ads on sites like Facebook, Instagram, Google, etc.

4. Become an influencer

Influencers sometimes get a bad rap, but there’s no denying that tens of thousands of people are earning a full-time income. Turning a social media following into a reliable source of income is easier said than done, but it’s a viable business model. Like most other online businesses, the more specialized and narrow your area of focus is, the better. 

No matter how strange and obscure the topic is, there is almost certainly an influencer in that space that is crushing it. 

• @ImagineItDone, cleaning and organization influencer on TikTok
• @ClubProGuy, golf satire account on Instagram
• @EdLatimore, sobriety and addiction influencer on Twitter

Related: How This Couple Makes $1,000 a Month Cooking on TikTok

5. Flip digital real estate 

You’ve probably heard of flipping houses, where people buy a house that has potential but needs some work. They do the repairs or upgrades and then sell the house for a profit. Think of blog flipping as the digital version of real estate flipping.

This online business is best suited for someone that already has some blogging experience. If you have never operated a successful blog before, it’s a better idea to just start from scratch and get some experience under your belt. That will help you spot investment opportunities later on when you want to buy a blog with the intent of flipping it shortly thereafter for a profit. 

Some popular marketplaces for buying and selling blogs:

• Flippa, lots of listings, usually on the smaller side (<$50,000)
• Empire Flippers, typically for more established sites
• MotionInvest

Case studies:

• How I Made $16,800 Flipping a Blog with No Traffic (HerPaperRoute.com)
• Flipping an Affiliate Website for $136,000 in 16 months (EmpireFlippers.com)

6. Create an online newsletter 

Paid newsletters have been surging in popularity over the past couple of years as readers are putting more value on trusted sources of information. Chris Best, the guy who started Substack — a platform for hosting paid newsletters — noticed a problem unfolding in online media: publishers who operate under an advertising revenue business model are being driven to take extreme measures to garner attention (and clicks).

The result is often clickbait stories, lame listicles, and generally underwhelming – or deliberately polarizing, content. Substack offers an alternative business model for writers. In their own words, they are “building a future where writers can flourish by being paid directly by readers.”

There are over 500,000 paying subscribers on Substack, and it is reported that the top ten authors on the platform make over $20M per year combined. Clearly there is something here. There is a demand for non-ad-based media models. If you love to write, this is an opportunity worth checking out.

Resources for getting started:

• How to Create a Substack Newsletter
• a16z Podcast: Tips from Writers on Launching a Newsletter on Substack

Service-Based Online Businesses

7. Freelance writer

Busy online business owners need help with creating content. Instead of spending hours writing a blog post themselves, smart businesses will pay freelance writers to create that content for them. Learning how to become a freelance writer and land gigs like these is a great way to get income coming in ASAP.

Starting a freelance writing business online involves choosing a niche (or two), becoming an expert in that topic, and creating an online portfolio for future clients to see. Freelancers have to prove their worth before landing reliable and high-paying clients. One way to jump-start your freelance writing career without any clients is by establishing your own blog.

Once your online business website is complete with a well-rounded portfolio and you’re confident writing in your niche, you’re ready for your first writing client. It may take months of working for free or little money, but once you have trustworthy testimonials under your belt, landing new writing clients gets easier.

Resources for getting started:

• 4 Best Freelance Writing Courses (According to Experts)
• 12 Ways to Make More as a Freelance Writer
• Meet the Journalism Dropout Making Six Figures as a Freelance Writer

8. Facebook ads agency for local businesses

Think of the local businesses in your area like coffee shops, gyms, bookstores, law firms, etc. Chances are, most of them would love to get more clients or customers but don’t know how.

That’s where you can come in. You can work with them on Facebook ad campaigns to help increase their business.

Many local businesses know they need to advertise on Facebook but don’t know how and don’t have the time to learn. If you can learn how to effectively run Facebook ads, small business owners would gladly pay for your expertise.

You don’t need a fancy website or any professional marketing experience to do this.  You can run your Facebook ads business in as few as 2 to 3 hours a week. The barrier to entry is low; you only need to have a Facebook profile, email address, and PayPal account.

Bobby Hoyt, an avid digital marketer and blogger, started offering a Facebook ads management service to local businesses in his area and eventually turned that operation into a sizable income for himself. He and Mike Yanda launched their own FB Side Hustle Course that teaches others how to do the same.

9. Graphic design

No matter how amazing a product or service is that a business is selling, without great design around the brand, it will never reach its full potential. Business owners know this, but for most of them, design is not a strength. If you have an eye for design and can turn someone else’s vision into a reality, you’ve got a very lucrative skill. 

Resources for getting started:

• How to Become a Graphic Designer
• How to Get Graphic Design Clients
• Best Free and Paid Software Tools for Graphic Designers

10. Virtual assistant

One of the most popular home business ideas right now is becoming a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant supports business owners in a variety of ways. As a virtual assistant, you get to choose which services you offer based on your unique skillset and what you enjoy doing.

If you have a good eye and a knack for grammar, you may become a proofreader. If you know your way around social media, you could offer social media management for your favorite platforms. You could also support business owners with email management, writing blog posts, customer service, and much more. There are dozens of possibilities. It’s easy to get started as a virtual assistant, but if you want to fast-track your business, Gina Horkey’s VA Foundations course can help.

Virtual assistant success stories:

• How Betsy Skinner Makes $3,000 Per Month as a Virtual Assistant
• How Megan Baker Got Booked Out 6 Months After Launching her VA Biz

11. Online business coach

Hopefully, this goes without saying, but if you haven’t already built a successful online business yourself, you probably shouldn’t be coaching people on how to do it.

That being said, there are a lot of online business owners who pivoted at some point in their journey from “doing” to “teaching”. For example, if you are an expert at running Shopify stores, you might pivot into working one-on-one with new store owners that are just getting started.

As long as you know your stuff and you have a genuine interest in teaching others, anything is possible. 

Examples of practitioners-turned-coaches:

• Marie Wold – Fitness coach that is now teaching new coaches
• Claus Lauter – Shopify expert coaching others on how to use Shopify

12. Online health coach

Personal trainers and health coaches aren’t confined to just gyms anymore. Instagram and other social media platforms have given rise to a boon of online health coaches.

These are people who still work with clients one-on-one, but will likely never meet them in person (and yes, there is a serious demand for this). If you are qualified and enjoy writing workouts for people and helping them make better food choices, this is a great business idea worth diving into.

Examples of online health and fitness coaches: 

• @Paige_T1D_Fitness, an online health coach for diabetics (she is also my wife)
• @SueGainz

13. SEO consultant

For any business, whether they are 100% online or they are a brick and mortar business, they need to be able to be found online.

For example, let’s say someone owns a landscaping company in Virginia Beach. Whenever someone searches on Google for “lawn care in Virginia Beach” or “landscaping contractor near me”, the companies that are listed at the top of the search results are the ones that are most likely to land clients. SEO (search engine optimization) professionals are experts at getting websites listed near the top of search results for their targeted keywords — it doesn’t just happen by accident. 

SEO is a grind, and many business owners would be happy to outsource it to someone they trust. The work can be tedious, but if you can land a few clients a month for ongoing SEO work, you can have a stable business up and running fairly quickly. As with any other consulting business, your long-term success comes down to what kind of results you can achieve for your clients. 

These are the things you will need to know to get started:

• The Ultimate Guide to On-Page SEO
• The Definitive Guide to Off-Page SEO
• The Definitive Guide to Local SEO
• How to Start Your Own SEO Agency

E-commerce Business Ideas

14. Dropshipping

Dropshipping is the same as selling goods or products at a store but instead, you have an online storefront and manage no inventory. You simply create the product, which can be anything from mugs and T-shirts to coloring books, and offer it for sale on a platform like Amazon, BigCommerce, or Shopify.

When a customer purchases your item, rather than you having to ship or mail it to them from your home, a wholesaler will send it to them instead.

Although you’re not managing inventory, you still need to put in the effort to drive customers to your store. It’s not the simplest task, particularly if you’re opening a store in a competitive niche, but it’s possible. Paid advertising and finding products that actually sell well are going to be essential to your success with dropshipping.

If you’re willing to spend the time to learn about paid marketing and can manage to find physical or digital products to sell with great margins, you can make good money with this online business.

Popular dropshipping niches:

• Clothing
• Jewelry
• Health and beauty
• Office products
• Car accessories
• Phone accessories

Related: How One Recent Grad Started a $2,000 a Month Shopify Side Gig

15. Stock photography

If you enjoy photography, you might try selling online stock photos. Stock photos are used by companies for ads and websites.

Shutterstock and Adobe Stock are two of the most popular stock image sites. Both sites allow anyone to submit their photos and you get paid each time your photo is downloaded.

To really make money selling stock photos, make sure you’re posting the kinds of photos people actually need. Companies are usually looking for fairly generic images – pictures of nature scenes, food, people at work, or doing everyday tasks like cooking or watching TV. Pictures like this sell well and can make you good money.

Related: How One Photographer’s Side Hustle Became a $330K a Year Business

16. Subscription box service

Subscription-based businesses have blown up in popularity recently. From a business standpoint, having sustainable, recurring revenue each month is extremely attractive. Consistent revenue makes forecasting and planning much easier, but the real allure of having repeat customers on autopilot is that the lifetime customer value is typically much higher than with other business models. 

Examples of successful niche subscription box businesses:

• Short Par 4; golf apparel
• Winc; wine
• Barkbox; dog toys and treats

Resources for getting started:

• How to Start a Subscription Box Business in 8 Steps
• Shopify Guide to Starting a Subscription Company

17. Sell digital art as NFTs

If you aren’t familiar with NFTs (non-fungible-tokens), you aren’t alone. Here’s an explainer. In short, NFTs are unique digital assets that exist on a blockchain. Sounds boring, but right now there is a lot of hype around selling digital art with the technology.

Just like any other art, beauty (and value) is in the eye of the beholder. If you are an artist and want to experiment with the wild world of crypto and NFTs, there’s no shortage of speculative investing happening right now in that space — it could be your chance to cash in. 

Interesting NFT resources and inspiration:

• 10 Most Expensive NFTs Ever Sold (be ready to question your own life choices after seeing these)
• Teen Artists are Making Millions on NFTs. How Are They Doing It?
• How to Make and Sell NFTs

18. Create email newsletter templates

Every online entrepreneur needs a way to reach their audience. Many use regular email newsletters to keep customers or readers engaged. You can make good money designing and selling email or other media templates for business owners to use.

You need some knowledge of web design and some digital marketing skills. But once you create a few pre-designed templates, you can sell them to business and blog owners. Your designs can be compatible with a variety of newsletter services, or you can specialize in templates for just one provider.

Inspiration: 

• Best Selling Email Templates and Email Designs
• 50+ Modern Responsive Email Templates

SaaS and Tech Business Ideas

Business ideas in this area typically require a lot more technical knowledge than the other ideas in this article. While the barrier to entry is higher, the potential returns can be very worthwhile.

19. Buy an existing SaaS business

MicroAcquire is a marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of small online businesses. Starting a business from zero is a tough battle, which is why many people prefer to buy something that already has a little bit of a head start.

If the product is mostly built (or already built), a new owner can easily come in and work on growing the marketing efforts or add new features. This happens all the time in the SaaS (software-as-a-service) space — someone will create a neat tool but they don’t have the knowledge or energy to bring it to a large audience, so they sell the business to an investor who sees the potential. 

20. Design and sell website themes

Maybe you’re less business-savvy and more of a tech expert. With a little knowledge of web design, you can start an online business selling website themes. If you know how to code and have experience designing websites, it’s easy to come up with a few premade website themes you can sell to blog and business owners.

You can also branch out and make more money building custom websites. Businesses looking to establish an online presence need a professional-looking website and are willing to pay for one. Almost everyone these days needs a website, so you’re sure to have a steady stream of clients.

If your strengths land more on the side of graphic design than coding, you can start an online business as a graphic designer. From logos and Pinterest images to brochures and other marketing tools, businesses need someone to create visually appealing graphics. You can get started selling your services and designs on sites like Fiverr or 99designs.

How to get started:

• The Business of Selling WordPress Themes
• How and Where to Sell WordPress Themes and Plugins

How to Start Your Online Business

Once you have a general idea of what kind of business you want to start, it’s time to get to work. It’s easy to get overwhelmed in the beginning, though, and feel like you are being pulled in a million different directions. Here’s a general roadmap to keep you on track in the early days of launching your online business, along with curated resources for each step.

Step 1: Validate your idea

You may think your idea is amazing, but how will the market respond to what you put out there? This is such an important question to answer before you start putting in hundreds of hours of work. Make sure you are creating something that the people will want!

• 10 Ways to Rapidly Validate Your Startup Idea
• 5 Steps to Validate Your Business Idea in the Real World

Step 2: Develop your product or service

With the feedback from Step 1 in mind, it’s time to start creating. Depending on which idea you settled on, this step is going to look a little bit different for everyone. 

• Creating a Product Prototype
• How to Package, Price, and Promote Your Freelance Business

Step 3: Set up your LLC and business banking

New entrepreneurs always seem to put this one off, but the earlier you can separate business finances from personal finances, the better. Beyond getting all the administrative stuff set up, this is also the time to lay out a financial plan for the business: how much money will you invest?  What sales goals do you have?

• How to Start an LLC in 7 Steps
• Accounting 101: How to Set Up and Manage Your Accounting

Step 4: Get your website and tech set up

Regardless of what type of online business you are creating, you are going to need a great website. If you aren’t tech-savvy, that’s okay — there are lots of clean and modern design themes that you can buy for relatively cheap. Your website should reflect everything that your brand stands for. 

• How to Start a Content Site with HostGator
• How to Start a Dropshipping Site with Shopify

Step 5: Market

There are a million and one ways to market your startup in the early days, so we can’t cover them all here. And the good news is, you only need to find one way that works for you in the beginning.

• 10 Digital Marketing Skills You Won’t Effectively Learn in School
• Marketing Plan for Your Product Launch: 10 Strategies

The Internet is Overflowing with Ways to Make Money

Whether you want to sell your crafts on Etsy, use your technical skills to create website themes, or write social media posts, there are plenty of online business ideas to try.

The best online business for you will depend on your background, interests, and expertise. If you’ve spent the past decade working in marketing, you might consider social media management or becoming a brand strategist. If you’ve worked as an administrative assistant, you might want to branch out and start a virtual assistant business.

Use what you’ve learned in your career to build your new business.

On the other hand, maybe you have a hobby you want to pursue as a full- or part-time job. Maybe you love food, travel, or fashion. These kinds of interests make great content for a blog or YouTube channel.

Of course, it’s important to consider more than just what you know and like. You’ll also have to think about what can make you enough money to supplement or quit your day job. If you try to build a business in a niche that’s too small or specific, you might find that you can’t make any money.

Keep in mind that starting your online business is a lengthy process. You won’t start out making thousands of dollars each month. But if you put in the work to build a quality and reliable business and market yourself appropriately, you can make money online running your own business from home.

The post 20 Low Cost Online Business Ideas With High Profit appeared first on DollarSprout.

We earn more undergraduate and graduate degrees than our male peers, start an average of 1,821 businesses every day, and own 36% of all businesses in the U.S.

Yet our companies are smaller, employ fewer people, and we still earn only 80 cents to every dollar a man makes.

While we’ve made great strides in some areas, we still lack the social networks, experience, and confidence needed to close the entrepreneurial gap.

So how do we get over the hump and make business ideas for women more competitive?

By starting our own businesses, with whatever resources we have.

20 Low-Cost Small Business Ideas for Women

Very few things can compare to the feeling of pride that comes with earning income from a product you created or a service you personally fulfilled. But extensive research shows that women tend to raise less financial capital from outside investors and rely more heavily on their own savings for start-up costs.

Fortunately, there are many low-cost small business ideas for women that can help you take the leap into entrepreneurship without straining an already tight budget.

Online business ideas

All you need to earn money online is a computer and a desk. These resources and courses will help you build and scale a business that’ll give you the freedom and fulfillment you’ve been looking for.

1. Freelance writing

Every year, companies make quality content a higher priority, so the opportunities and jobs for freelance writers become easier to find and more lucrative.

Freelance writing takes more than grammar skills and AP formatting. You have to know where to find jobs, what to charge, and how to become more proficient to scale your work.

If you are serious about getting into freelance writing either part-time or as a career, it might be helpful to take a course on Udemy to learn the ropes from someone who has done it before. 

Related: Meet the Journalism Dropout Making Six Figures as a Freelance Writer

2. Proofreading

Court reporters, self-publishers, and marketers all need proofreaders to ensure their work is understandable and free from errors. If you have an eye for detail and are meticulously thorough, proofreading could be a great business for you to start.

Like freelance writing, it takes more than knowledge to build a business around your skills. To gain access to mentorship and opportunities within proofreading, Proofread Anywhere has several courses that will help you hone your skills and grow your business.

The first is General Proofreading: Theory and Practice. You’ll learn the detailed mechanics of proofreading and how to market your services to find clients. The second is Transcript Proofreading. This course focuses on how to proofread court reporter transcripts and build a business in that niche.

These courses, taught by long-time proofreader Caitlin Pyle, will give you the tools you need to start and grow a proofreading business.

Free Workshop: How to Turn Your Passion for Words into a Thriving Business

3. Virtual assistant

Virtual assisting, or being a VA, is a simple business for ladies who are reliable, organized, and good problem solvers. VAs do a range of tasks for business owners from social media and calendar management to personal tasks like booking hotels and restaurant reservations. The tasks themselves aren’t difficult and can be a great way to take the leap into self-employment.

The VA Foundations course, taught by Gina Horkey, will teach you what people are looking for in a virtual assistant and how to run a successful VA business. Lessons include onboarding clients, legally protecting yourself and your business, and creating systems for efficiency that will allow you to scale.

4. Graphic design

Some of the best business ideas for women include working as a graphic designer making websites, designing logos, and developing innovative products. Trying your hand at a variety of design techniques in different industries could give you the confidence you need to start your own design agency.

Design or creative agencies do all aspects of branding in-house, including campaign direction, design, public relations, and content creation. This is a great way to build a business that’s scalable and can create jobs for others.

 5. Tutoring

Teachers looking to be their own bosses can thrive with a tutoring business. Start by using an established service to hone your skills. For high school and college tutoring, Chegg offers 24/7 tutoring in a variety of subjects. If you’re more comfortable with younger ages, VIPKid is a tutoring service for Chinese students learning English.

Once you’re comfortable tutoring part time, you can grow and expand to your own full-time tutoring business by finding your own students and hiring other tutors that specialize in topics you’re not proficient in.

Related: The Best Places to Find Online Tutoring Jobs

6. Reselling high-end fashion

Buying secondhand clothes and reselling them on Poshmark, Mercari, or eBay can be a lucrative job for stay-at-home moms or anyone with a passion for fashion. High-end luxury brands are best for building a business around because of their high resale value. If you live in or near an affluent neighborhood, you can find high-end clothing in local thrift stores.

Then expand your business by offering free closet cleanout services and offering to purchase pieces clients no longer want. You can also sell items for clients and take a portion of the sale.

Related: The Best Apps for Selling Things Locally and Online

Traditional business ideas for women

These business ideas for women may sound traditional, but there are plenty of ways female entrepreneurs can innovate and set themselves apart to build a thriving business.

7. Wedding planner

About 29% of couples hire a professional wedding planner to help pull off their special day. Whether it’s full-service planning or day-of coordinating, there are a number of business ideas for women in the wedding planning industry.

Couples splurge on details that make their wedding personalized and meaningful. If you can niche down and become the go-to expert in a particular category such as destination weddings, Jewish weddings, or luxury weddings, then you’ll be able to market yourself to prospective clients more easily.

8. Catering

As a small caterer, you may not have the equipment to feed a 100-person wedding. But you can easily serve bridal showers, baby showers, and small holiday parties, providing a personalized menu and an experience they couldn’t get from a large company.

And catering doesn’t just include food. You can start a traveling bar offering custom cocktails for weddings and parties. Be sure to check your county and state health departments and abide by all food and beverage permitting and licensing laws.

9. Selling crafts

Are you exceptionally talented at crocheting, painting, or throwing pottery? You can sell your crafts and create a decent business. While selling goods on Etsy or your local craft fair may earn you some profit, commissioned work can be more lucrative.

Creating custom art for interior design firms, sewing stuffed animals for baby showers, and designing high-end jewelry for clients are some of the ways you can make your passion a viable business.

Related: How One Woman Makes $2,500/Month Selling Pet ID Tags on Etsy

10. In-home daycare

In 33 states, the cost of infant daycare is more expensive than college. There’s a need for more licensed in-home daycares to keep those costs lower for struggling families.

While in-home daycare can be more affordable than traditional options, daycare business owners keep their profits instead of paying a franchise fee or being paid as an employee.

This type of business isn’t as flexible as others, but it’s great for moms that have a child at home already. Check your state’s licensing requirements to find out what licenses you need and how to maintain them.

11. Dog grooming and boarding

Americans love their pets. Collectively, pet owners in the U.S. spend over $6 billion annually on grooming, boarding, training, walking, and other pet services. If you love furry babies more than human ones, a mobile dog grooming business, pet boarding, or pet exercise service could be a great business to start.

Start by signing up for Rover and seeing what breeds and activities you like. Then you can advertise your business on social media by targeting people in your area who like dogs.

12. Laundry service

If you put it off long enough, doing laundry can be an all-day event. Many busy parents and professionals don’t have the time to do all the family’s laundry. As a mobile laundry service, you pick up, wash, fold, and drop off clothing for clients. Depending on the garments and number of items, you could earn $30 to $50 per load of laundry.

This is one of the best business ideas for housewives. Many laundromats offer this service. To set yourself apart and build a client base, start by signing up with a service like Laundry Care that takes care of some of the marketing for you.

Start-up supplies cost $95 and include laundry bags, processing bags, garment covers, business cards, brochures, and anything else you use to market your services. The company then adds you to their directory of service providers and starts marketing your business for you.

13. Sewing and alterations

A sewing and alterations business is one of the best business ideas for women at home who are proficient in sewing and knowledgeable about fabrics. Start by specializing in a specific type of alterations and become the go-to seamstress for those jobs. You can start small by hemming pants and work your way up to items like wedding dresses.

Make relationships with vintage clothing store owners in your area so they can refer customers to you. You can also offer beginner sewing classes to earn more and get the word out about your services.

14. Photography

Photography can be a competitive industry to get into. But if you diversify your offerings and develop a unique style, you can attract customers that want something different. Another option is to specialize in a specific niche, like only offering newborn shoots or specializing in weddings.

There are several ways to get paid to take pictures. You can do family and event portraits or headshots for businesses. You can also sell your photography as art or stock photos on the web.

If you want to do weddings, reach out to popular wedding photographers in your area and request to be their second shooter. Eventually, the relationships and trust built through assisting them will turn into referrals.

Related: How One Photographer’s Side Hustle Became a $330K a Year Business

15. Interior design/decorating

The competition for luxury home decorating and commercial space designing can be fierce. But there are a variety of ways you can build an interiors business from scratch.

Some examples are a minimalist design package with decluttering service or wedding designer with a reception liaison add-on. By getting creative with what you design, how you do it, and where you’ll work, you can build a successful business.

You can even design spaces from home. If you know where to find the best prices on home decor, you can help homeowners design their spaces on a budget with just a picture of the space, a few dimensions, and style preferences.

Home-based business ideas for women

Online business and traditional business ideas for women aren’t the only ways to make money. Women entrepreneurs can make money at home in plenty of unique ways.

16. Teach music lessons

Musicians don’t have to be starving artists, and you don’t have to pass out demo tapes to build a music business. Instead, you can teach music lessons anywhere in the world.

Traditionally, music lessons had to be taught in person and one on one. Musicians can now utilize YouTube and online course platforms such as Thinkific and Teachable to build an audience, teach basics, and charge for advanced virtual lessons. This can expand your client base and make it more affordable to start.

Related: How One Lawyer Made $10,000 Selling Stock Music

17. Personal trainer

If you love running, playing sports, or working out, you can use your passion or hobby to make money.

Your extra room or garage can become a boot camp for busy moms or personal training space for clients. You can even rent it out to other personal trainers who don’t have enough space to see clients.

By being open at times other gyms may be closed or operating in a community that may be far from the gym, you can build a health and wellness business without leaving your home.

18. Marketing and public relations

Small business owners find social media intimidating. If you have a background in marketing or you’re comfortable with social media, you can build and scale a great business in this space.

The demand for these services is so great you don’t have to stop at offering marketing and public relations services, you can start your own marketing agency from your kitchen table.

Marketing mogul Tai Lopez recommends to start by marketing yourself on social media. By building your own brand and social media following, clients can see what you can do for them. Then scale by hiring people to do the heavy lifting for you.

19. Bookkeeping & accounting

Some business ideas for women who are great with numbers are digital bookkeeping and accounting. Bookkeepers are responsible for keeping track of a business’s transactions, expenses, and income. They also produce reports for business owners to show them their financial trajectory.

You can find free online bookkeeping lessons, but it helps to become certified by a professional bookkeeper organization. Specializing in a specific industry will also help you grow your business and  reduce the time it takes to learn the finances involved with multiple industries.

20. App development

If you’re a tech lover, creating an app is a great alternative to starting a website. The app market is exploding and you can build a profitable app if you have an idea. And if you don’t, you can start a firm developing apps for other companies.

If you’re unsure where to start or don’t love writing code, you can still build a business around an app or suite of apps. Work on the things you can and hire out the rest. Take advantage of Upwork to find affordable designers and coders for your project.

Remember to Deduct Business Expenses

When you start a business, your business-related expenses are deductible on your taxes. If you make $10,000 and have $2,000 in tax-deductible business expenses, you only pay taxes on $8,000 of your income.

There are dozens of fully deductible expenses and even more that are partially deductible. Keep track of these 10 popular deductions when starting your business.

Home office: If you do work-from-home jobs, you can deduct a portion of your home’s utility bills, mortgage interest, property taxes, and home insurance from your taxes.

Advertising: Any promotional materials, website hosting, email marketing costs, Facebook ads, and more are 100% tax-deductible.

Office supplies and tools: Cleaning supplies, stamps, pens, and any tools you use in your business are deductible.

Salaries and wages: If you bring on a VA or hire out some tasks, you can deduct those expenses from your taxes. You can also deduct payroll taxes when you hire employees.

Meals: Save your receipts because if you purchase a meal or coffee while working, you can generally deduct 50% of the expense.

Business use of your car: Anytime you use your car for business purposes, you can deduct the cost of the trip. There are two ways your car expenses are deducted: mileage driven and actual expenses such as gas, oil, repairs, etc.

Depreciation: When you buy something for your business, like a laptop, the depreciation of it is tax-deductible. Typically you have to spread out this depreciation over a few years, but there are several ways to take the entire deduction in one year such as the de minimis safe harbor election.

Education: Any courses or continuing education related to your business are 100% tax-deductible.

Telephone & Internet: If you’re using your phone or home internet to do business, you can deduct a portion of your bill.

Child Care: Business owners can claim the Child and Dependent Care Credit for children in daycare, which is 20% to 35% of the expense.

Starting Your Own Business Is Hard, But It’s Worth It

Starting any business often requires unpaid startup work and late hours. But being your own boss and choosing the work you do is worth the sacrifice. There are more than just 20 business ideas for women. Take what you’re good at, certified in, or passionate about and explore ways you can build a business around those.

When you start your business with a growth mindset, you have the opportunity to do more than offer services. You can build a company that serves you and invests in your community, so think big and keep pushing.

The post 20 Business Ideas for Women Entrepreneurs appeared first on DollarSprout.

But as I researched best practices, I learned that it’s better to pick a single niche and cover every possible angle within that niche. Armed with that knowledge, I started exploring how to brainstorm blog topic ideas quickly so you don’t have to constantly come up with new topics.

Now that I know how to find them, I have more topics to write about than I can cover in a year.

As you strive to fill your publishing schedule with content that your audience will love, tailor your blog post ideas to your niche and learn the strategies that will help you find an endless supply of new content that’s certain to rapidly bring in new website visitors. 

40 Blog Post Ideas for Maximizing Website Visibility 

If you’re not sure where to start, start with something basic. You can select the topics that make the most sense for your audience and turn them into the perfect blog post.

Not all of these ideas will work for every niche, but you can find at least one that will.

1. The reason you started your blog
2. How your readers can start a blog like yours
3. A list of goals you’ve accomplished
4. A list of goals you plan to achieve
5. The top ten problems that your readers face (and the solutions)
6. A past failure you’ve overcome
7. A book review
8. A movie review
9. A roundup of the top ten influencers in your niche
10. An Interview with a professional in your niche
11. An embarrassing story or event that taught you a lesson
12. Five strategies that didn’t work for you
13. Five strategies that worked for you
14. Compare and contrast two similar topics (products, services, strategies, etc.)
15. A review of the last product or service you purchased for your blog
16. A list of products or services that solve a problem among your readers
17. The steps to do a popular activity
18. A secret about yourself
19. A list of tips or hacks that make an activity easier
20. A gift guide
21. A roundup of your favorite resources
22. The top ten challenges you face (and a plan to overcome them)
23. A list of inspirational quotes and how they apply to your journey
24. The history of your niche
25. A captivating story that taught you a lesson
26. A rant about a topic you’re passionate about
27. The top ten pieces of advice that helped you succeed
28. The competitors in your niche and what you do differently
29. The steps that led to your current success
30. The top ten hobbies that help you decompress
31. The people who inspire you
32. A detailed overview of your daily schedule
33. A roundup of your top blog posts
34. A description of where you see yourself in 5, 10, or 15 years
35. The top ten tips that help you maximize productivity
36. Your opinion on a controversial topic
37. The top ten things you love
38. A 10-step method you’ve personally used to solve a problem in your niche
39. A checklist of actionable items that solves a problem
40. A roundup of expert opinions on a topic in your niche

Related: These 5 Millennials Started Blogging 12 Months Ago. Now They Make $1,000+/Month

How to Find Blog Post Ideas for Yourself

Even if you’re an expert in your niche, you might find yourself running out of familiar topics to write about. To make sure you always have content ideas, it’s essential to learn where to find blog post ideas that will resonate with your current readers and lure in new traffic. 

Check your Google Search Console for keyword ideas.

No matter how new you are to blogging, it’s vital to set up your Google Search Console (GSC). It’s a free tool that lets you discover the analytics of your blog like visitor clicks from Google’s search results, search position, and keywords.

The most prominent section in GSC is the Performance tab. On this tab, you can view a list of the keywords your blog posts rank for, the number of clicks they’ve received, and their average position in the search results (from #1 to #100). You can sort through the keywords to find new blog post ideas.

Finding keywords does two things at once —  it gives you topics to write about and it helps you attract Google traffic to your blog.

If you want more information, you can learn how to do this step by step in this free 6-day SEO Boot Camp.

Research your competitors.

You can get inspiration for new blog posts by reading through the content of other blogs in your niche. Take the competitor’s URL and search it on Ubersuggest.com to find which articles are bringing the most traffic to their site.

Don’t regurgitate the same information that your competitor shares. Instead, use the content to outline an even better article and then write a new piece from your unique perspective.

Ask your readers/followers/subscribers.

Ask your audience what they need help with the most. You can set up a poll on Facebook, email a brief questionnaire to your subscribers, or prompt readers to leave a comment at the end of your articles. 

You can turn the relevant responses into a new blog post or series of posts.

Use a blog idea generator.

A blog idea generator like the one by iMPACT populates fill-in-the-blank titles that work for any niche. Using the generator, you can turn a single word like “traveling” into a full post idea like “7 Major Packing Mistakes You’re Making Right Now.” 

With just one suggested title, you can find several different blog post ideas.

Review products/services in your niche.

Honest reviews can help guide your readers to make an informed decision on a future purchase. They can also be a great way to generate revenue for your blog if you review affiliate products and earn a commission from your referrals.

Don’t inflate your reviews with positive feedback unless it’s true. You wouldn’t want to encourage someone to buy a product or service based on your recommendation unless you believe it’s worth the cost.

Spin off of your existing content.

Choose the most popular article on your blog and read through it to find supporting content ideas. For example, if you have a list of 20 of the best parks to visit in your area, choose a single park from the list to write a detailed blog post about. As you publish each new article, you can link to it from the original list and give readers the option to read more about each park.

Read through niche forums.

Reddit is a popular platform where people discuss various topics and interests. Search the site for your niche and read through threads to get inspiration for new blog posts.

Quora is another platform you can use to generate blog post ideas. Follow specific topics to see what people are asking every day, and then answer those questions in a post.

Search Google for other forums that relate to your niche. You can use the content to inspire ideas and to help you write blog posts that solve the problem.

Check Google Trends.

Get a list of daily topics on Google Trends and address the subjects that relate to your audience. When you write a timely article, share it with your social media followers, and send the link to your email list requesting shares and opinions.

Note questions in Facebook groups.

Join Facebook groups where your audience hangs out. There are thousands of options from Mom groups to Disney fans to health and wellness support.

You can join the groups and interact or simply lurk. When a member asks a question that relates to your niche, you can turn your answer into a new blog post.

Stay up to date with current events.

Current events that affect your niche can turn into popular blog posts. Follow news sites and watch the news for ideas. When you find something relevant to your niche, write an article about it, and help readers navigate any struggles they might be having as a result. 

Round up your popular posts.

Choose three to ten of your most popular blog posts and tie them together into individual lists. Make sure the topics have a common theme, whether it’s a list of craft tutorials, travel hacks, or popular recipes.

Start a series.

A series of blog posts can last for one week to a month to a year or more. Once you decide on a topic, you choose the details of how you’ll develop the series.

Some examples of a series include monthly book reviews, different ways to accomplish a single goal (like make money), or similar projects that relate to your niche. Create a single landing page that lists all of the individual articles in the series to help your readers navigate the options.

Interview professionals in your niche.

Asking professionals to share tips can help build your blog’s reputation and authority. You can draft a questionnaire, email it to professionals in your niche, and publish each response as a separate blog post. 

You can do an interview series, or use the interviews to create a helpful roundup where readers can see the best tips in one place.

Click through Google’s related searches.

When you search a general topic on Google, you can read and click through the related searches at the bottom of your screen. Start by searching for your niche on Google like “health and wellness” and continue to click the related searches until you find one that inspires a new blog post.

The more times you click through the results, the more specific the suggestions will be.

You can click through as many times as it takes to find inspiration for your next blog post.

Pay attention to the comment section on blogs.

Visit the comment section on your blog and other blogs in your niche and take note of questions and comments. Use those ideas as opportunities to create content that will solve that problem or answer that question for other readers. 

Pay attention to what friends are posting on social media.

You can gather blog post ideas based on the interests of your friends. Watch the questions they are asking and the posts they are sharing on social media to find topics that might resonate with your readers.

Read for 10 minutes a day.

Spend a few minutes each day reading news articles, books, or posts in your niche. Look for content gaps, unanswered questions, and inspiration for new blog posts. 

Make sure to keep a notebook, sticky note, or Google or Word document open so you can keep track of the ideas.

Respond to other bloggers’ articles.

If you have a different opinion on a topic that another blogger published, write a new article in response. You can address the previous blog post or keep it in the back of your mind to guide your writing.

Follow the top influencers in your niche on social media.

Social media is a powerful tool for bloggers to find new blog post ideas. You can easily follow popular influencers and spin-off new topics based on the posts they share. You can also read through the comments on popular social media accounts and posts to get more ideas.

Use Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” feature.

Type in any search term on Google and select the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. Read the article or page that Google chooses for an easy way to get inspiration for your next article. 

Don’t analyze the results too carefully; instead, turn the idea into your own and write a new blog post on the topic from scratch.

It’s (Almost) Impossible to Run Out of Blog Post Ideas

Unless you have thousands of articles published on your blog, it’s nearly impossible to run out of relevant topics. And if you’ve covered all there is to know about your niche in just a few hundred posts, then consider broadening your target audience or expanding into a different niche.

You don’t have to come up with ideas on your own. In fact, it’s good to research what to blog about. That means you’re searching for blog post ideas that your readers will appreciate and connect with. When your audience is happy, it keeps you motivated to provide helpful content that also makes money for your blog.

The post 40 Blog Post Ideas for Rapid Traffic Growth appeared first on DollarSprout.

Tell that to Jenny Weg, who makes $2,000 a month with her mom blog. Or Stacy Caprio, a millennial blogger who makes $2,700+ a month with her online deal site. Or even me, as someone who makes over $75,000+ per month via affiliate programs.

With figures like that, it’s pretty clear that these successful affiliate marketers are still in high demand.

But what makes some affiliate marketing businesses pop while others flop?

It all comes down to acute marketing strategies. If you can target your audience, keywords, and SEO strategies correctly, you can still make a significant monthly income with affiliate marketing.

Why Do Successful Affiliate Marketers Need to Be Strategic?

Some successful affiliate marketers earn millions, while the poor performers make a pittance.

What’s the difference?

Your affiliate marketing strategy.

While it’s certainly possible to make money online right now, you’ve got stiff competition.

Consider top affiliate networks, Awin and ClickBank. Between these two platforms alone, you’re competing with 311K affiliates.

That’s before you even begin to consider every other affiliate program, like Rakuten, ShareaSale, Amazon Associates, and so on.

You need to be strategic about the affiliate products you pick, the ways you market them, and the audience you target. Otherwise, you’ll be chasing the same dollars (and keywords) as your competition.

Don’t try to go head to head with legacy brands ranking for keywords that are ultra-competitive.

Affiliate marketing works best when you niche down. Devise clear sales and growth marketing tactics that distinguish you from your competition and create a brand story.

Affiliate marketing is more of an SEO game than a simple monetization strategy.

Find a profitable affiliate niche that you can own and be known for. Then hustle, build your domain expertise, and develop your content and SEO strategy with affiliate revenue at the top of the list.

Remember, this is a numbers game; you’ll need a lot of impressions (or views) to generate high sales.

On average, it takes 352 impressions to get one sale. In this respect, you’ll need to supercharge visibility to drive organic traffic and clicks.

To achieve this, focus on search engine optimization (SEO), link building, and high-quality, affiliate-keyword-optimized blog posts.

8 Best Affiliate Marketing Strategies to Drive Massive Sales

If you’re looking to create more passive income from your online business, here are 8 tried-and-tested affiliate marketing strategies to up your game.

1. Pick a high-performing affiliate niche.

Not all affiliate and e-commerce product niches are created equally. Just because you have an interest in vintage Pez dispensers doesn’t mean there’s a market for massive affiliate sales.

Luckily, you don’t have to fly blind when it comes to finding a profitable affiliate niche. Start by joining a reputable affiliate network and analyze which niches are most profitable.

Remember, the goal is to drive repeat purchases so your PayPal notifications roll in 24-7, even as you sleep.

Use an affiliate network to search for high-paying affiliate marketing programs based on two main factors: commission rates and cookie duration. The commission rate is the percentage (or cut) you make from each sale. Cookie duration is the length of time after a user clicks one of your affiliate links that you get credit for that sale. For example, if your cookie duration is 24 hours, then you can earn a commission as long as someone makes a purchase within 24 hours of clicking your link.

Additionally, if the company you’re promoting offers a monthly subscription (like a subscription box or SaaS company), then after you generate a sale, your affiliate commissions can be recurring. In this case, you get paid every month for as long as they remain a customer.

Let’s look at one of the top affiliate networks, ClickBank, for example.

To find profitable niches, you head to the advanced search section of the Affiliate Marketplace.

The best affiliate niches on this affiliate platform have the highest Gravity score and the highest average profit per conversion.

Note: On ClickBank, the Gravity score refers to how many sales a product has had over a 12-week period. One sale equals a score of ‘1’, so a Gravity score of 70 would mean at least 70 affiliates have made a sale with this product over the last 12 weeks. If no sales are made, the score reduces to zero over an 8-week timeslot. The maximum score you should promote is 100.

As you can see, the health and fitness niche comes up with strong numbers.

Remember, though, that competition can be killer. Rather than trying to battle your way to the top of a very popular and broad niche, you would drill down into the health and fitness sector.

Look at how The Good Men Project promotes profitable ClickBank health products.

The Good Men Project has chosen the niche of ‘enlightened masculinity’, not health.

However, the blogging site still includes affiliate products from this lucrative niche to increase affiliate income.

Incorporating a health blog post into its content campaign, The Good Men Project drives traffic to the second-most profitable product on ClickBank — Resurge.

This is considered a product review post, one of the four main content types when it comes to affiliate marketing.

When you start your keyword research and content planning, make sure to incorporate these four types of affiliate-revenue-generating articles:

• How-to guides (i.e. how to build an email list)
• Listicles (i.e. best email marketing software)
• Product comparison (i.e. Mailchimp vs. Constant Contact)
• Product reviews (i.e. HubSpot review)

As you can see above, with the topic of email marketing, there are plenty of ways to capture traffic with different Google searches.

Related: 40 Blog Post Ideas and How to Generate Unlimited Blog Topics

2. Optimize your landing pages and blog posts.

Your landing pages are often the first impression that visitors get of your affiliate marketing business.

When building your website, be sure to optimize each landing page to encourage visitors to stay on your site and convert to a sale.

First off, let’s settle the age-old argument. What’s better, long or short copy?

The answer is neither. While, in many cases, longer blog posts are rewarded with better search rankings, you need to ensure your affiliate links are high up on the page.

For example, in my post on the best website builders, I include over 13 different options and make sure that each brand has at least three affiliate links in each section:

To analyze which elements are most effective on your website, you can also test out heatmaps and run A/B tests on various blog posts. Add and remove different elements to see how this affects overall conversions.

Firstly, notice that at the end of each company’s review in my post, all CTA links are shaped like buttons. This can increase conversion by 230%.

Secondly, some of the brands include discounts.

That’s because landing pages offering discounts of lower than 50% have average conversion rates of 10%. Once discounts reach 50% or higher, conversion rates start to climb. In fact, a 70% discount can lead to conversion rates of over 40%.

Next, find out which landing page elements get the most activity and how far visitors scroll by using a heat map tool.

And remember, slow-loading landing pages lose traffic. Make sure your landing page loads in under five seconds. One second longer and your bounce rate increases by 16%.

Finally, you can use a WordPress plugin like ThirstyAffiliates to track all of your affiliate links in one place, view reports, and track your clicks and earnings.

Related: How to Make Money Blogging

3. Develop a comprehensive SEO-driven keyword strategy.

To drive organic traffic, you need to appear at the top of Google’s search rankings as 50% of all traffic goes to the top Google search result.

Your keyword strategy is a strong influencing factor on how high you’ll appear up Google’s search rankings. If you want to drive high organic traffic to your affiliate site, your keyword strategy needs to be on point.

You’ll need to insert relevant search terms into your website content so Google can rank your pages for these keywords.

Affiliate bloggers should find it pretty easy to reach optimum keyword density. Add relevant keywords into high-quality content that’s relevant to your target audience. Then, run it through a keyword optimization tool like Marketmuse to add semantic keywords.

Overall, each blog post needs to focus on one target keyword, which should be included in:

• The title (or H1) of the post.
• The URL string (or slug).
• Within H2 headings.
• Throughout the content and in one of the first few paragraphs.

However, you need to be strategic about the keywords that you choose.

Ninety-two percent of keywords get less than ten searches a month. These key search terms won’t drive high traffic to your site. That said, you don’t want to pick keywords that have too much competition as you’ll struggle to beat top performers to the coveted number one spot.

Perform a keyword audit of your website to identify popular search terms to shape your keyword strategy.

Look for search terms with strong monthly search volume and low competition.

You can also use a tool like Ahrefs to view your competition and the current top 10 ranking sites for a particular keyword. Based on this data, check each site’s Domain Rating (DR) and URL Rating (UR) to see how authoritative their high-ranking pages are. If you notice that, for a given keyword, every site in the top 10 results has a 75+ DR and hundreds of links, it will be very hard to compete.

Alternatively, the hidden gems are the keywords that have at least one low DR site (under 60) ranking in the top 10 results. That means that with high-quality content and a few links, you might be able to start ranking for that keyword relatively quickly.

Also, don’t overlook long-tail keywords. If you find that your relevant short keywords are super competitive, try looking for search terms with multiple word variants. Over half of all keywords with between 1,000 and 10,000 monthly searches have three to five words.

Believe me when I say it pays off to become an expert in SEO, and the results will pay off in a big way in the months and years ahead.

Each piece of content is like an investment — and if you make smart investments in your content strategy, you can earn affiliate income for years to come. But content isn’t enough, you also need links.

4. Work on link building.

Internal links and backlinks show Google that you have authority in your niche topic, pushing you further up search rankings. In fact, 71% of online marketing specialists agree that Google relies heavily on your website’s link graph to rank your pages.

Content marketing is the top way to generate links, with 75% of marketers using this technique today.

There is a direct correlation between high-quality backlinks and a site’s ability to rank on search engines. If you look at my blog’s Ahrefs profile, you can see that organic traffic has increased substantially. This is a result of high-quality content and the large increase in referring domains and backlinks to my blog:

The more backlinks you have, the more traffic you’re likely to get, as there are more referring sources leading to your affiliate site.

Links are like the currency of the Internet and prove your authority in Google’s eyes. After all, wouldn’t the best content be linked to the most?

There are many different approaches and strategies one can take to link building, such as link building outreach, guest blogging, and creating link partnerships. Ultimately, it comes down to building real relationships with other sites in your niche.

Affiliates are also in the driver’s seat to build great links from the brands they promote. It’s all about leverage. If you can start generating big sales for a particular brand (or even just added them to a high-ranking post of yours), reach out to them and ask for a link or guest post. By providing value to them in the form of sales, they can provide value to you in the form of a link, which increases your Domain Authority (DA) and traffic.

5. Harness social proof.

Social proof refers to the strategies you use to show your buyers that you and your products are trustworthy.

Since 92% of consumers read product reviews before purchasing, this is one of the most important methods of social proof. Customers expect to see how well your products perform before they consider buying.

What’s more, as product reviews are user-generated, they’re a super cost-effective online marketing tactic. Try asking for product reviews from niche influencers in your field to boost your social standing.

Trust badges are another popular form of social proof that can push conversions by 32%. Pin awards, certifications, recognizable client logos, and other indicators of success to your product and landing pages.

Look at how Ardent Growth uses trust badges to capture attention above the fold.

By placing recognizable client logos above the fold, Ardent Growth immediately shows prospective customers how trustworthy its services are. It’s like saying “If SEMrush trusts us to produce SEO results, so should you.”

6. Use pop-ups for lead generation.

When a prospective customer hits your affiliate website, you need to move them down the sales funnel toward a conversion.

Top of the funnel (TOFU) marketing tactics bring customers to your website — think quality content, social media posts, and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Once there, you need to convert these customers before they leave.

If you have no way to collect customer data, you only have one shot to move these customers through the funnel before they click off your website.

Lead generation pop-ups capture customer data for future digital marketing campaigns. That way, if a customer doesn’t convert the first time, you can move them through the sales funnel later with sales calls and email campaigns.

To encourage more people to submit their data:

• Include images on your pop-ups
• Set pop-ups to trigger when customers have scrolled 35% of the page
• Add a countdown timer
• Use a multi-step sign-up process
• Optimize pop-ups for mobile

While on-page email opt-in forms can work too, exit-intent pop-ups are where it’s at. With exit-intent, you’re showing your pop-up to every single visitor before they leave. They don’t have to search your site to find your opt-in form; it appears at the time of your choosing. My blog gets over 90% of its email list growth from well-timed exit-intent pop-ups with a strong lead magnet.

7. Create personalized campaigns for each segmented email list.

Once a user opts into your email list, they should be filtered to the correct email sequence and provided with an automated welcome email series.

Ask questions at the lead generation stage to direct leads to the right email list. Use email marketing tools to send personalized emails that reflect these choices.

Half of online marketing experts personalize product recommendations to different audience segments, as 91% of customers are more likely to purchase when they’re offered relevant recommendations.

If you’re sending remarketing emails, best practice dictates that if a customer leaves without purchasing, you should send three remarketing emails — one within the hour, one within 24 hours, and one a week later. Try recommending similar products or offering a promotion to encourage conversions.

Your email funnel should ultimately sell a high-ticket product, but until then, your emails are another great place to add affiliate links. Some ideas for affiliate emails include:

• Product of the month
• How-to guides (with a product needed to complete the task)
• Special discounts and promos

A well-engaged email list can increase your affiliate sales in a big way. Don’t forget to include an affiliate disclaimer in your emails so that your readers know your relationship with the brands you’re promoting.

8. Offer targeted discounts and promotions.

Promotional marketing can boost conversion rates by 522%. And this is true in the affiliate world, too.

Since more than three-quarters of shoppers consider discounts to be a deal clincher, it’s a wise idea to have strategic promotional marketing in place.

Think beyond basic money-off promotions to target offers to your different audience segments.

Fifty-three percent of shoppers say they want relevant offers based on their purchasing habits. Try to work out what sells well with which demographic, and target them accordingly.

After you sign up for an affiliate program, reach out to the program’s affiliate manager and see if they can send you a custom coupon for your audience. If you can get your readers 10, 20 or even 30% off, use that incentive to increase your affiliate conversion rates.

Affiliate Marketing Strategies Fit Into Four Stages

With these tried-and-true affiliate marketing strategies under your belt, you’ll begin to see an uplift in clicks, conversions, and commissions.

Driving affiliate revenue is a four-act play:

• Improve your visibility on Google with creative SEO techniques.
• Optimize your web pages to encourage on-page conversions.
• Capture data for ongoing digital marketing.
• Analyze your affiliate marketing campaigns to see which work the best.

All of these tactics must work in unison. Your keyword and SEO strategy needs to plan for future monetization. Your content needs to be both high-quality and optimized for affiliate links. And you need to build strong partnerships (and links) with other blogs in your niche and the brands you promote.

It’s a hard-earned mix of well-written content, relationship building, hard work, know-how, and a hustle mindset. If you get it right, you just might be able to ditch the 9-to-5 and become a full-time affiliate marketer.

The post 8 Affiliate Marketing Strategies for Explosive Income Growth appeared first on DollarSprout.

I’ve tried many small business marketing ideas and learned from countless mistakes. And what I’ve found is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to have a successful marketing strategy.

There are many free and inexpensive ways to market your small business. The key is trying a variety to see what works best for you.

Ways to Market Your Small Business Online

When you think of digital marketing, you might immediately think of running paid ads on Google or Facebook. But when you shift your mindset about online advertising, you’ll find there are countless ways to sell your services online that don’t cost nearly as much as paid ads.

As Digital Marketer puts it, online marketing is simply a Customer Value Journey that aims to strategically build relationships with new prospects and convert them into loyal, repeat customers. That means that digital marketing is simply finding ways to genuinely connect with and help people online.

Fortunately, there are some pretty effective ways to do that.

1. Publish helpful content on your website and learn SEO.

One of the best ways to help people is by answering their questions, and nowhere do people ask more questions than on Google.

Think about what you sell and consider what questions your ideal customer would have when seeking your product. You can start a blog and write articles to solve these problems while gaining the respect and trust of the reader.

As with any free marketing tool, there are tons of people trying to execute this strategy. So you’ll need to learn some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies to stand out amongst the search results.

SEO isn’t as scary as it sounds. It’s simply looking at the question you’re answering, getting inside the head of who’s asking it, and including as much helpful information as possible to answer the question.

2. Use social media strategically.

The key to building trust on social media is to offer authentic content and show up consistently. If your content is only promotional or if you only post when you’re having a sale, not only will potential customers not trust or follow you, the platform algorithm may hide your content. This can prevent you from reaching even your current followers.

Instead, choose one social media platform to invest your time in and post content that’s educational, aspirational, or entertaining in addition to the content that’s promotional. It’s important to know where your potential customers spend their time as well.

For instance, Instagram and Facebook are currently the most trafficked platforms in the U.S. and Instagram has more users under 30 while Facebook users have higher average incomes._[1]

Some small business marketing ideas for social media include posting product comparisons to show how your product is unique, inspirational quotes that your ideal customer might like, or sharing a meme that makes light of the problem your product is trying to solve. You can also use direct messages to connect with your followers like Mary Gui, Founder and CEO of Sock Candy.

“When I get a new follower on the @sockcandyofficial IG account, I send them a DM thanking them for following Sock Candy and offer a Welcome discount code on their first order. This has worked quite well for me and led to multiple conversions,” Gui said.

You can be as creative as you want with your social media content. Remember that the more creative you are, the more engaged your audience will become. And that can lead to higher profits for you.

3. Start a YouTube channel.

Ninety-four percent of American users 18 to 44 years old access YouTube at least once a month, making it a great place to connect with potential customers._[2] YouTube is owned by Google, so you can take many of the SEO principles you use for written content and apply them to your videos.

If your ideal customer has questions that are more easily answered through demonstration or another visual, YouTube is the best platform to do that. You can even reuse YouTube videos on your favorite social media platform and embed them in blog posts.

Don’t stop at posting your video. Be sure to include links in the video description or notes to your products or services. You can also link to your other YouTube videos to continue building your relationship with viewers. And once you build a following on the platform, you can make money on YouTube through ads and sponsorships.

4. Publish an eBook.

Self-publishing a book on Amazon is a great way to establish authority in your field and get in front of people who are ready to make a purchase to help solve their problem.

Writing and publishing a professional-looking eBook is extremely affordable with minimum costs. Be sure to use the book as a way to teach the solution to the problem and wait until the end to mention your business as a way to achieve the solution more efficiently.

5. Answer questions on forums or in groups.

The best low-cost marketing ideas for small business owners are those that allow them to connect directly with potential customers. Answering questions on forums and in Facebook groups does just that.

When answering a question in a forum or group, always aim to be helpful first and serve your business as a solution second. If you have an online course and encounter a question you teach the answer to, don’t answer it with a link to your course. Answer questions as you would in your course. Then, after you’ve engaged with the person who asked the question, offer that you have a course that covers this more in-depth.

This helps build trust and credibility within the group, and as a result, makes people more likely to buy your products.

6. Collect email addresses so you can stay in touch.

An email list is the backbone of many successful online businesses. While every other platform controls your access to its users, you always have your email list and can take it anywhere you go, even if you change your business name or set up a new website.

One of the easiest ways to collect email addresses is to give away a free digital product like a cheat sheet, PDF guide, template, etc. You can use your blog, social media account, eBook, or a simple landing page to offer your digital product and send it to their email address using a service like Constant Contact or ConvertKit.

Once you collect their email address, stay in touch at least every other week with valuable and relevant resources to build trust.

7. Build a community.

Facebook groups are a great place to build a community of people with similar interests or problems they need solved. Creating your own group can bring potential customers to you and position you as an expert in whatever the group is about.

Jacob Bouvier runs a boudoir photography studio. His Facebook group has brought in more clients than any other channel. He says it’s because they get to know him as a person before ever deciding to become a client.

“Nine-tenths of what I post in there relates to my mission of body acceptance, self-love, and being your authentic self, but doesn’t directly relate to my photography. About 1/10 of the content has to do with my photography,” Bouvier said.

It’ll take time to build a group but you can speed the process up by posting relevant questions and opportunities for engagement every day thanks to Facebook’s post scheduling feature and responding to every member. This will help to make them feel like they’re part of the community and that you genuinely care about them.

8. Teach a free online class or workshop.

One of the most popular and effective small business marketing strategies for online businesses is to teach a free online class or workshop. Brainstorm a problem your ideal client is struggling with that you can help them solve in an hour or less. It can be as simple as turning a blog post or video into slides and presenting it and then answering questions at the end.

You can easily do this for free by going live on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube. If you want something more private, Zoom lets you host classes of up to 100 people for 45 minutes at a time at no cost.

9. Host an online challenge.

Challenges are a great way to take your offline business online. A personal trainer can host a fitness challenge, a cleaning service can host a 7-day declutter challenge, or a pet groomer can host a “sit, stay” challenge for people with hyperactive dogs. Anything that will take a potential customer from awareness of a problem to aware that they need help to solve it.

Host your challenge via Facebook group or email. You can have it last anywhere from 5 to 30 days and use hashtags on social media to spread the word. Provide valuable training throughout the challenge and at the end, present your service or offer as a solution for people who need more help or want the solution to the next step.

10. Publish a digital magazine.

A monthly or quarterly digital magazine could be a great way to market your business without much effort.

You can source articles and pictures from other creators who can help your ideal client but aren’t direct competitors. When you include other creators in your magazine, ask them to promote it on their website or social media. This will allow your services or products to reach a new audience who might be ready for what you have to offer.

11. Record a podcast.

A podcast is one of the quickest ways to build trust with potential customers. People can easily get distracted when reading a blog post or watching a video, but people tend to give longer and more active attention to podcasts._[3]

When you’re with someone every week as they drive to work or clean their house, you can build a relationship with them and become their go-to expert on your niche topic.

Also consider being a guest on podcasts your ideal customer is listening to. These shows will already have a trusting fan base and if the host trusts you enough to bring you onto their show, you’ll have an advantage when trying to build a relationship with their audience.

Ways to Market Your Small Business Locally

Once you have some foundational digital marketing set up, you can get creative with small business marketing ideas. Every business, even fully online ones, should practice some offline and local marketing to capitalize on its unique advantages.

12. Develop a referral program.

If you rely on referrals for your business, then developing a referral program could bring you even more clients or customers. First, you should decide on your goals. For instance, do you want more traffic, longer subscription retention, higher customer value, or something else? Then figure out how much you can afford to reward your referrers.

A few marketing tips for small businesses that want to run a referral program: Non-cash incentives are more cost-effective and boost performance better than cash incentives._[4] Consider offering store credit or premium features to referrers. And make sharing your referral program as easy as possible.

Provide options to instantly share via email, social media, or text with short links and pre-written messages.

13. Attend local networking events.

In-person and virtual networking events are great ways to find new customers and broaden your network of referrers. Head into them with a clear goal of who you want to meet so they can be more strategic and less overwhelming. You can use sites like Meetup, Eventbrite, and Facebook to find groups meeting in your area and online.

You can also try hosting your own networking event. This helps you control the size, industries represented, location, and, as the host, people will be approaching you to connect instead of the other way around.

If you really want your company to make a splash, then do something creative to stand out like Lori Cheek, CEO of the dating app Cheek’d, did at a web summit featuring over 800 startups.

“I decided to stand out by wearing angel wings throughout the conference,” Cheek said. “When I was checking out of my hotel, I looked down at Judy Dench on the cover of the Irish Times and there I was right next to her, me on my laptop with my Angel Wings [and] inside there was another 1/4 page picture mentioning my business.”

If angel wings aren’t your thing, start by putting your brand on something unique like a blazer or create business cards that double as magnets.

14. Survey your clientele.

Inexpensive marketing ideas for small businesses can be hard to find if you don’t know much about your ideal customer. You can avoid wasted time and money on failed marketing strategies while opening your company up for wider marketing reach with a market survey.

Create a survey on a site like SurveyMonkey and get at least 1,000 people in your target demographic to complete it by sharing on social media, email, etc. Not only will you gain valuable insight into their lives and preferences that might help you improve your product or services, but you’ll also have data you can share with news outlets that can get your business’s name out to more people.

15. Create a Google My Business account.

Whether you’re a brick-and-mortar business or an online service provider, if you want more visibility across Google Search and Maps, you’ll want to create a free Google Business Profile.

You can post photos, the best ways to contact you, and special offers or sales that people can easily see in their search. It also gives people a place to review your business. And considering that 91% of consumers 18-34 trust online reviews as much as a referral from a friend, having easy-to-find reviews is extremely important._[5]

Be sure to ask for reviews from customers and respond to both good and bad ones on your profile.

16. Text your customers.

Having an email list is essential, but it may not be the most effective way to reach out to customers. “Every small business owner does email, but only 20% get opened,” said Alfredo Salkeld, marketing manager for SimpleTexting. “On the other hand, 98% of text messages get read.”_[6]

You can text your existing customers on several things, including sales or updates when things are restocked. One of their clients, a fashion boutique, texts customers to alert them about new inventory.

“Their message has a 38% click-through rate. The average email click-through rate for retail stores is under 3%,” Salkeld said.

If you’re going to text your customers, make sure you don’t overdo it. Try to keep your texts exclusive and relevant to promotions, sales, or events.

17. Partner with other professionals.

Find professionals in adjacent industries who could be mutually beneficial to partner with and recommend each other’s businesses when appropriate. For example, realtors often partner with mortgage brokers, wedding photographers with event planners, and accountants with financial advisors.

One of the more underrated ways to grow a small business is through partnerships. If you can form relationships with businesses that operate in a similar space, a referral partnership can really boost your growth.

Filip Duz, owner of Giraffe Window Cleaners has found partnerships to be an easy way to get new clients for his small business. “We partner with cleaning companies in our area. If the cleaning company has clients that need window cleaning, they send them over to us, and they receive a commission,” Duz said. “It’s a win-win for both parties!”

The best partnerships show that small business marketing ideas don’t have to feel sleazy or salesy. They can be a natural way to help clients and customers get the help they need from an already-trusted source.

18. Ask clients to leave you a review.

Reviews and testimonials are a crucial part of any small business marketing plan. Google reviews are most important for local businesses while restaurants should take the extra step to also build up Yelp reviews. Then there are other review platforms that businesses should consider based on their industry including Facebook, Healthgrades, and Angie’s List.

Choose one or two to focus on at first and explicitly ask clients to give you a review there. Wait to ask until you’re done working with the client or you’ve achieved an agreed-upon milestone and make sure the client is happy before asking.

19. Ask for the referral.

You don’t need to set up a referral program to ask for referrals. When you have a happy client, ask if they have anyone in their network who might also benefit from your services.

When asking for referrals, be specific about the type of client or customer you want. If you can be specific, you’re more likely to trigger someone specific in your client’s brain vs. giving them no direction at all. Instead of asking, “Is there anyone else you know I can help?” try asking, “Is there anyone else you know in your industry that I might be able to help?”

20. Clean the street.

Looking for out-of-the-box small business advertising ideas? Consider trying clean graffiti.

Clean graffiti is the process of putting down a stencil and cleaning over it to create art or advertising through the contrast of clean and dirty sections.

You can create a stencil in metal or plastic with your logo or a fun message that relates to your brand. Then you can use either a pressure washer or clean cloth to clean the stencil onto pavement or wall. These ads typically last seven to ten days with normal foot traffic, making them great to advertise an event or limited-time offer._[7]

21. Host a giveaway.

Connect with other businesses or creators to host a giveaway that multiple brands can promote to their audiences. To determine the entry requirements, consider what your current business goals are. If you’re trying to grow a social media platform, ask people to like or follow you. If you’re trying to get more traffic to your website, ask people to click a link to your site.

In addition to asking your audience to share the giveaway, make sure to follow the rules of whatever platform you’re promoting your giveaway on. Violating their terms and conditions is a surefire way to have your giveaway banned from the platform and could cause other problems for you and your business as well.

There’s No One Right Way to Market Your Small Business

Remember that not all marketing strategies work for every person or small business. Just because someone is having success with a marketing strategy doesn’t mean you will or that you even have to try it. The great thing about using affordable small business marketing ideas is that you can experiment with different strategies until you find the ones that work best for you.

The most important thing in marketing is to keep nurturing existing customer relationships and building new ones. Then you can listen to your fans as they tell you where they want you to show up and where to go next in your business.

The post 21 Low-Cost or Free Small Business Marketing Ideas appeared first on DollarSprout.

DollarSprout turns 5 years old next month. Sometimes I can’t believe we’ve made it this far.

They say that over half of all new businesses don’t live long enough to see their 5th birthday. Most fail long before then.

It hit me this morning that I’ve never shared the story on how DollarSprout got started on this site. I’ve mentioned it in interviews on other blogs and podcasts, but never here with our own readers.

I guess I’ve always thought to myself, “Our readers don’t care about that. Just keep publishing the content you already know they like.”

A big part of entrepreneurship, though, is the struggle. The setbacks. The grind.

And that’s what I want to talk about today.

To celebrate DollarSprout’s 5th birthday, I’m going to take a quick pause from our regularly scheduled programming and talk about how this website — and business — came to be. I also want to share some of the personal struggles I’ve faced along the way in hopes that maybe hearing my story can help others.

For anyone starting a business or thinking about diving in, I hope you can find something in here that helps.

Background: What is DollarSprout?

In the beginning, Ben and I tried to create a paid membership site for stock market tips and analysis. It ended up being a total flop.

Here’s what it looked like during my first week of being self-employed:

As it exists today, DollarSprout is a personal finance site that helps readers maximize their earning potential, whether that’s through finding a side hustle, moving up in their career, building passive income streams, or anything else.

DollarSprout makes money through advertising. We routinely promote apps, products, and services that help our readers get a leg up on their finances.

We get to create content every day to help people with their money, and everyone on the team has the opportunity to earn a decent living. You can’t ask for much more than that.

The Reality Behind Building a Startup

It’s easy to look at the end result and think, “Wow, sure must be nice.”

But the “success” is only one side of the story. This is what the other side has looked like for me:

• I had a 2.53 GPA in college. And it took me 5 years.
• I have ADHD. It’s a blessing and a curse, but mostly a curse.
• I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety for most of my life. 
• My first “real” job after school started at $8/hr.
• I stayed there for two-and-a-half years and I hated every minute of it.
• I lost my entire life savings on our first attempt at DollarSprout.
• I worked in a psychiatric ward for almost a year after that to make ends meet.
• In 2017, I left that job to try full-time entrepreneurship again.
• Even when business is good, the mental health stuff stays with me.

Everyone deals with their own unique set of circumstances and adversity in life, and these were some of mine. 

5 Lessons I’ve Learned Since Starting DollarSprout

I know a lot of people out there that are frustrated with where they are in their career or their life. Here’s what I want them to know.

1. Having a miserable job can be the best thing that ever happens to you.

As a kid, and even in college, I had no desire to become an entrepreneur. I thought I wanted to either be a doctor or an engineer. Both are respectable and well-paying careers, so I thought that’s what I wanted. Starting a business was never something I thought about doing.

That all changed shortly after I got my first job after college.

I got an office job at a financial planning firm, and that experience is what set me on the path towards entrepreneurship. Since it was my first job, I had no way of knowing if it was just this job that was terrible, or if all jobs were this bad. 

Looking back, I now know my experience wasn’t all that unique. A lot of people hate their job. I think I just hated mine more than most.

I think one of the best things to ever happen to me was having that awful experience right out of school. If that job didn’t make me so jaded to the corporate world, DollarSprout would have never happened.

Related: How to Make Your First $1,000 as a New Blogger

2. Don’t be afraid of the worst-case scenario.

Before I left my full-time job in 2015 to start the business, I did my best to weigh the pros and cons. There was a whole range of possible outcomes:

• Outcome 1: Business booms right away, and I make more money than I know what to do with.
• Outcome 2: It takes 3-6 months to start getting traction.
• Outcome 3: It takes longer than 6-12 months to make any money, and I have to go back and get a job. I lose everything.

No one likes to think about Outcome 3. It’s a Doomsday Scenario. 

Outcome 3 is exactly what happened.

I had saved up about a year’s worth of expenses to give this thing a fair shot, and I ran out of money after only 9 months. At the time, our website was bringing in virtually zero revenue. By all accounts, it was a failure.

For some reason that I will still never quite understand — maybe it was pure denial — Ben and I kept grinding on the business even after I went back to working full time (he was also working full time). We were living through the worst-case scenario that every entrepreneur has nightmares about, and it still ended up being okay. 

About 10 months later, the site was making enough money that I could give it another try and leave my job. I was scared as can be, but I did it. Shortly thereafter, Ben left his job too. Neither of us have gone back since.

The literal worst case scenario happened, and it wasn’t as bad as we thought.

Related: 16 Online Business Ideas You Can Start at Little to No Cost

3. It’s hard to beat the person who never gives up.

Plenty of people out there are more talented writers, better designers, better managers, better salespeople, etc., than me and Ben. 

The hardest thing for people to replicate, though, is the determination to just keep grinding. Things take time to come together — usually much longer than you think. 

After burning through my life savings on our first attempt, I don’t think anyone could have blamed us for moving on. That would have been the rational thing to do, especially considering our total lack of progress. 

I’m not the most productive guy in the world (far from it, actually), and I’m honestly not the hardest worker either. But I can stick with something longer than most people, and that has made all the difference. 

Be the person that doesn’t give up.

4. Your 2.53 GPA, lack of business experience, mental health struggles, etc. don’t matter as much as you think. You only have to get it right once.

To me, that is the coolest thing ever.

Mark Cuban once wrote, “It doesn’t matter how many times you strike out. To be a success, you only have to be right once. One single time and you are set for life.”

As an entrepreneur, if you can build something people value, you’ll make it. I am a mess in so many ways, and I still found a way to escape the 9-to-5 world that was killing my soul one day at a time. Like I said, it’s hard to beat the guy that never gives up. 

Chances are you won’t get it right the first time (we sure didn’t), but the exciting thing about entrepreneurship is you only have to be right one time. That wipes away all the past failures. Once Ben and I finally found something that worked for us, we were set. 

Related: $14,000 in Under 3 Months: Here’s How We Grew Our Online Business

5. Be nice to people.

The world needs more of it, especially now.

I think a lot of entrepreneurs get this idea in their head that they need to be a cut-throat competitor with ice flowing through their veins in order to be successful. In reality, the more you help people — even your competitors — the more opportunities will open up for you.

There’s plenty of room for everyone at the table. Be a good person to sit with.

Don’t Underestimate What Can Happen in 5 Years

If you would have told me five years ago that I would be running a business with my best friend and earning a better income than I could have ever made at a normal job, I don’t know if I would have believed you.

At the start of any new endeavor, everything feels so insurmountable. There is so much to learn, so much to do, and so much time you have to put in.

But if you start now and keep at it, you may just look up in 5 years and see that you are living the life you never thought was possible. 

Take risks. Push hard. Make it happen. And most importantly, never give up!

The post DollarSprout Is 5 Years Old. Here’s What I’ve Learned So Far. appeared first on DollarSprout.

Little did I know there are more moving parts to blogging than just writing content.

It took me more than a year to see any significant income from that blog. But once I purchased my first blogging course and hired some help, I realized that my investments would directly drive my blog’s success.

If you’re unwilling or can’t afford to invest time or money into your blog, it can be difficult to turn it into a money-making business. Fortunately, there are plenty of free and affordable blogging resources that can help you start a successful blog.

Resources for Setting Up Your Blog

NameMesh (free): Domain name generator to help you choose the perfect name for your blog. Gives hundreds of available suggestions based on the words you search.

NameCheap (free, pay for domains): Website that sells domain names for as little as $8.88/year. Since domains with common words can be costly, NameCheap suggests alternatives using similar phrases and ideas.

WordPress.org (free): The best platform you can use to build your blog for free. WordPress.org and WordPress.com are two different things. The .org version gives you more control over your website.

HostGator (paid): An affordable website hosting company. You’ll need hosting to get your WordPress.org website up and running. You can use our step-by-step tutorial to start a blog using HostGator.

ManageWP Worker (free): Security plugin that protects your blog from hackers and allows you to save site backups to your Google Drive.

How to Blog Legally (article): Teaches the proper way to protect your blog with the right legal language and pages like privacy policy, terms and conditions, and legal disclaimers and disclosures.

Resources for Designing Your Blog

StudioPress (paid): Premium WordPress themes. These themes aren’t free, but they’re search engine optimized, mobile-friendly, and look professional.

Elementor (paid): User-friendly page builder that allows you to design your blog to your taste. Free version includes the drag-and-drop mobile-responsive editor with basic templates and widgets. There’s also a personal plan that offers additional widgets, templates, builder options, and more.

Elementor Astra Theme (paid): One of the most popular themes to use with Elementor. You can use this guide to get the Astra theme set up.

Canva (free option): Online design software for pins, Instagram posts, printables, etc. Premium option comes with a library of free icons and stock photos.

Pexel/Unsplash/Pixabay (free): Commercial-use image websites to enhance the visual design of your blog. Photo credit or payment is not required.

PowerPoint (or Keynote/Google Slides) (free): Alternative to Canva for creating visuals like pins and blog graphics.

Related: Blogging on Instagram: 6 Tips to Grow Your Blog and Get More Traffic

Blog Monetization Resources

How to Make Money Blogging (article): Teaches beginners how to monetize a blog at any stage using advertising, affiliate marketing, digital products, or services.

Best Affiliate Marketing Networks (article): Teaches bloggers how to earn a commission by recommending other companies’ products and services. Also includes networks you can sign up for to start promoting products on your blog today.

Google AdSense (they pay you): Google’s advertising network that approves new bloggers. It’s easy to set up and start earning cash by following the company’s step-by-step guide. Note, though, that payout can be low and you need to earn at least $100 before receiving a payment.

Mediavine (they pay you): Advertising network that accepts bloggers with at least 50,000 monthly user interactions, known as sessions, as recorded by Google Analytics. The company pays more per ad click than Google AdSense.

Pro Blogger Bundle (paid course): A discounted set of three blogging courses: Launch Your Blog Biz, Pinterest Traffic Avalanche, and Six-Figure Blogger. The course creators, Alex and Lauren from Create and Go, teach everything new bloggers need to know, from starting a blog to growing traffic using Pinterest to turning a profit.

Resources for Marketing Your Blog and Increasing Traffic

Google Analytics (free): Provides visitor insights from your blog, like number of page views and sessions, how long readers stay on a page, and how often they click to additional pages. The analytics can help you track and improve your traffic.

ConvertKit (free option): User-friendly email marketing tool starting your email list and emailing subscribers. Free plan supports a limited number of features and subscribers. If you exceed the subscriber limit, you’ll need to start paying for a monthly plan. Premium plans also come with the ability to create automatic sequences, sales funnels, unlimited reports, and more.

How to Use Pinterest for Business (article): Tips for how to set up and use a Pinterest Business account. Pinterest is a valuable source of traffic for many websites and can help you grow your readership quickly as a new blogger.

How to Get Traffic with Pinterest (YouTube video below): Alex and Lauren share their best tips on how to get traffic to your blog using Pinterest. They give all the details of their strategies in the course, Pinterest Traffic Avalanche.

Tailwind (paid): Post scheduler for Pinterest and Instagram that allows you to schedule content in advance. You can take advantage of the free trial to test their services before spending any money.

Grow by Mediavine (previously Social Pug) (free option): WordPress plugin that embeds social media share buttons above, below, or beside your blog content. This makes it easy for your readers to share your content with others and can help bring in new readers.

Google Keyword Planner (free): Generates lists of keywords based on simple topic searches. Shows the monthly search volume for each keyword.

KWFinder (paid): Search engine optimization (SEO) tool to find keyword ideas based on location and language. Each search shows lists of keywords with search volume and how difficult a keyword is to rank for on a scale of 1 to 100.

Yoast SEO (free option): WordPress plugin that evaluates blog posts’ on-page SEO. The basic version is free and tracks one main keyword per article, and the paid version tracks up to five keywords per article.

8-Step SEO Strategy (video): A 17-minute video that walks you through the most important SEO strategies to rank your blog posts on page one of Google.

Get Your Keywords Together (paid): A $47 step-by-step strategy to find keywords that can drive traffic to your blog using only free SEO tools.

Stupid Simple SEO: The SEO Starter Pack (free): Free 6-day video SEO training that walks bloggers through the basics of SEO.

How to Speed Up Your Blog (article): Five easy things you can do to increase the speed of your blog without hiring a web developer.

Facebook Blogging Groups (article): Joining free groups can be invaluable. You’ll make connections in your niche and can learn from fellow bloggers’ wins and mistakes.

Related: 20 of the Best Blogging Courses for Beginner to Advanced Bloggers

Tools for Writing and Creating Content

CoSchedule Headline Analyzer (free): Analyzes blog post titles based on elements like character count and choice of words to help you choose more click-worthy headlines.

Grammarly (free): Google Chrome extension that tracks grammar and spelling errors in your browser. Premium version offers more intense edit suggestions.

4 Essential Elements to Writing a Great Blog Post (article): Free guide from Jeff Goins, professional blogger and author, on how to write blog posts that capture your audience, starting with the title and ending with a compelling call to action.

Hit Publish (paid): Online course that teaches the details of writing great content in less time. Learn to write to your niche better than the competition, and engage your audience with a well-structured post.

Resources for Managing and Organizing Your Blog

Asana (free): Free project management software for up to 15 teammates to schedule the steps required to complete each blogging task from start to finish. Premium option provides additional features like a timeline view of projects and private projects. Even if you’re doing everything yourself right now, a tool like Asana can help keep you organized and hold you accountable with deadlines.

Slack: Chat platform to easily communicate with the people on your team (once you have one).

Toggl (free): Time-tracking software with the ability to switch on and off between different tasks. Helps keep you focused and productive. You can also track contractors’ times for hourly billing or time management purposes. 

Google Drive (free): Offers 15GB of free cloud storage for documents that can be shared in real time. Log into your Google account to access your documents anywhere.

Google Calendar (free): Create schedules for personal or team use. You can share each calendar with different teammates to organize responsibilities and project timelines.

Fiverr (pay for services): Platform to find and hire affordable graphic designers, content creators, tech support, etc. to grow your blog. Some services start as low as $5.

Dead Link Checker (free): Check your blog posts for broken links to remove or fix. Broken links can hurt user experience, which is a core driver of a blog’s SEO.

Blog Taxes for Beginners (article): Teaches you how to track your income and expenses from day one to make filing year-end taxes easy. You can also offset taxable income with legitimate blogging expenses (including any blogging resource you purchase).

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