HOW TO START AN ONLINE BUSINESS + 5 VALUABLE TIPS FOR BEGINNERS

“Oh, you are a blogger, that must be fun!” Many of you, our fellow bloggers, have probably heard similar disparaging comments when people ask you what you do for a living. They imagine us being dressed up in cute outfits with flawless makeup and hair done, spending all day on a sunny beach, in the background a table full of endless Mimosas accompanied with a massive bowl of colorful exotic fruits and an obscene amount of fresh french pastries while someone snaps our perfect pictures, just as the waves hit the rocks we stand on…so we can post the idyllic picture on our Instagram page. First of all, let’s be honest, when you post pics like that, everyone knows the only thing you eat is the kale salad you brought with you in your own plastic container.

Starting your own online business or blog site is not an easy undertaking, especially when you want to create meaningful content and run a serious business through your web page. When we decided to start DoubleTake, which grew into much more than just a lifestyle blog, (we widened our services to include personal coaching and website management, see a list of our Services here), we had to learn along the way through our own mistakes. I am the “techie” one of the duo, but even for me to build a site from scratch was a tall order. Hence, we decided to go with a hosting site, but of course our first pick did not turn out as user friendly as we imagined. So we switched to SQUARESPACE, our current host. After about a year, we hired a web designer specialist to fix some issues on our site to make it look more professional and easier to navigate for our visitors. At that point we had enough content and it was time to take our business to a higher level. Talking about content, writing seems to be the easy part, even though sometimes we hit a wall with writers block, but taking the perfect pictures is not that simple either. As we post lots of recipes, it was a definite learning curve to figure out the best lighting, perfect angle, or just something as simple as how to make a plate of food look delicious in the photo. We took zillions of pictures, and consequently we had to up our data storage as well, as I am super bad at deleting unwanted content from my devices. Anyhow, there is so much to figure out before you jump into the world of blogging or setting up your website. So we have created a list of 5 tips to guide you through creating your own web presence.

1. Create your goal, find your purpose

What is your goal? Do you want to set up a website to sell products? Are you a baker who wants to share your creations and recipes with the public? Do you offer professional services to people across the globe? Or do you just want to share your life experience with others for the sheer fun of it, document your travels and your dinner dishes? In general, it is a good idea to have a clear vision on what it is you want to achieve. If you are a blogger, it is best to pick something that is unique or new. You do not want to be the millionth travel nomad who posts the same pics of your Thailand vacation, but then again, if you think you can offer a new perspective to an old idea, why not? The most important thing is that you pick a niche and make sure you can create continuous, interesting content for your followers. Whether you are selling products, or blogging about your gardening skills, do it with passion. If you don’t feel passionate about your idea, your audience will not be engaged and it will be extremely hard to build an audience.

2. Come up with the perfect name, secure your domain

Now that you know what you want your blog or website to be about, it is time to choose your name. Your name should be descriptive and catchy so your readers instantly can tell what your page is about. If your business is very broad then a personal name, such as “TheDeBoltGirls” can be used as well. If you already have some ideas, run it by your family and friends, see how interesting it sounds to them. Be flexible as when you register your domain name, you might have to make some changes if the particular word or name is already in use by someone else. If you plan on hosting your own website, you can register your domain name on sites such as Domain.com or GoDaddy.com for free or for a small cost and can transfer your domain to your own site. If you plan on using a host site, for example Wix, or Squarespace, then you can directly buy your domain from them and in some cases it is free with your website hosting package. Look around, make notes and choose what fits your needs best.

3. Decide on your platform: Self hosting versus web hosting site

Be honest with yourself. How tech savvy are you? Are you willing to learn a lot of new skills in web design or do you want to concentrate on your content instead? When we started setting up our site, we immediately knew we will not be using a self hosting site such as WorldPress because our blog was going to be rather large and complicated with numerous linked pages. If you are starting out slow and have smaller content, it might be a good idea to try to create you own web page but in all honesty, you need some basic web design knowledge to execute it by yourself. Our goal was to concentrate on our content rather than spend time on figuring out complicated issues; how to link our pages, how to make sure our landing page pictures nicely flow through our other pages and such. We chose SQUARESPACE after a frustrating attempt on GoDaddy.com even though we purchased our Domain name on it, we moved our site over later. It is simply a personal preference, so try to sign up for a free trial or the free version of a web-hosting site to be able to test it out to see if it is for you or not. Especially if you are trying to sell products, most web-hosting sites have built in systems for all your commercial needs. It is always a good idea to start out free or choose the cheapest option and as you grow or see your needs, you can always upgrade for more comprehensive hosting services. Another route is to hire a web designer but this is definitely not always the cheapest option. Luckily most web designers are experienced with hosting sites as well, some even specialize in a specific site like Squarespace. We found a super nice gal who helped us update our site later on. We also worked with another designer who specializes in Wix sites for our client, highly recommend both, references included below.

4. Decide on and set up your Social Media platforms

Promoting your website from the very beginning is super important for capturing and drawing in the right audience. But also you should avoid managing too many platforms at the same time. As we run our site together, we split up our tasks, I mostly manage Facebook, Diana is managing Instagram & Pinterest. If you run too many platforms you might get overwhelmed by managing them all, responding to comments, liking other sites and bloggers. Getting lost in reading their articles or even too much internet shopping lol. Our suggestion is to start out with a couple of the most important ones, in our opinion Facebook & Instagram are still the best. They are both great social media sites to easily post and promote your content. You should always link them in case you would like to cross promote or make it easier for your followers to find your articles or products. Be consistent with your postings. Setting up specific days for each site is always helpful as your audience will know when to expect a new article and look for your posts at the same time. #manimondays #thirstythursdays

5. Engage with your audience

Make sure you have a “contact us” page on your site from the beginning. Create an email list, so you can let your readers know of any new posts on your blog or upcoming special sales in your store. Have a comments section for your customers to reach out to you and try to respond as quickly as you can. Same goes for Social Media platforms - make sure you engage with your followers, thank them for their support, respond to their questions in a timely fashion. Facebook is still pretty much the best platform for promoting your business, but on Instagram, besides promoting your business, you can go a little more personal as well (with stories and such). People love to know who is really behind a brand or business. Don’t be shy, but only post personal stuff you do not mind to have on the world wide web for the rest of your life.

Ready to grab your pen & paper, or rather your laptop, and dive into your brand new online business? Hopefully, our guide helped answer your initial questions about setting up your site. Of course, there are plenty of other issues to tackle while running your online business and as always, we are here to help you. Let us know if you have any questions on this topic, or any other, or would like 1-1 coaching sessions, please reach out to us here or at doubletake.lifestyle@yahoo.com.

References:

Natz Soberanes - Squarespace Developer/Graphic Desinger - natz.sb@gmail.com

Mariedyth Gayas - Wix Developer/Graphic Desinger - mariedyth.gayas@gmail.com