So, you’re ready to get your business online, well…
Congratulations!!!
It’s about time!
There are going to be a few things you’re going to need before getting started.
First, you are going to need a domain name and hosting. I highly recommend Reliable, Affordable Business Hosting from Bluehost.com.
There are also a few other popular hosts I would suggest looking at for more specific needs:
- BigCommerce makes it easy to sell online. Click here to try it free!
- Start, grow & manage your business with the help of Network Solutions® today!
- 100% Eco Friendly Web Hosting Service — iPage Web Hosting
Yes, you can get a free website, but that’s cheap and not my style so rest assured, you’re going to have to spend money to make money.
When you initially get your domain and hosting account there are going to be a few important things to write down and keep handy…
- Your Hosting Account Number, Username & Password
- FTP Login Credentials: FTP Hostname, Username & Password
- Any website admin user/pass combinations like WordPress, Drupal, Magento, OSCommerce…etc.
Second, you should already have a bank account for your business and for that matter the following business accounts if they apply to your business:
- Bank Account
- Merchant Account and/or PayPal Account
- USPS/UPS/FedEx Business Accounts
- Business Phone Number (Google Voice is FREE)
There is an enormous variety of things you will want to have in place before taking your business online… since this is a blog post, not a book, I won’t be going over all those today.
Once you have the things listed above however, you will be able to get started on designing and developing your new website for your business.
With the internet growing at the pace it has been, there are more options now than ever before to get your business online…
- Hire a Web Designer
- Hire a Web Development Firm
- Ask a Friend to Build You a Site
- Learn and Build Your Own Site
- You can always hire Rob, here.
- Find Web Developers on oDesk
- Find a world of talent online at Elance. Post your job today.
- There are also a ton of advertising firms that can help you in getting a website up and running.
Want to learn how to build your own website?
As many options as there are to hire, there’s an exponential amount of knowledge you could learn yourself and never have to pay for code to be written or corrected.
Here are a few places to get you going in the right direction:
- W3Schools.com
- Learn.wordpress.com
- Learn Web Dev on YouTube
- How-to-build-websites.com
- Scriptinwithajax.com
- The 4 Step Roadmap
- CSS-tricks.com
I hope this post has helped you get your online business published to the web. Unfortunately, the internet is not a “build it and they will come” environment.
Marketing, advertising, and bringing awareness, visitors, and sales are all arts of their own to master yourself or hire out.
Either way, if you made it this far, CONGRATS!
You’ve already taken the first BIG step!
