By: John Elder
Market-Tek Enterprises, Inc.

Hello,

Last week instead of an article, I gave you a copy of my new eBook "Google Secrets". In case you didn't get around to downloading it, you can still get it here.

I was shooting hoops down at the park this morning trying to think of something useful to write about for this week's article when it dawned on me. I always talk about growing an online business...but I don't think I've ever talked about starting an online business.

So that's what I'm going to talk about today. Now, I'm not a lawyer so I'm not going to discuss the legalities of forming a corporation, an LLC, or a sole proprietorship...no, I'm going to talk about the basics of starting an online business.

First of all, you're going to need a web site...and that means a web host. I recommend Host Gator. For around $24 per month you can host unlimited web sites. They're a solid, reliable hosting company that I've used in the past myself.

Next, you'll need a web site. Most people won't create their own site unless they're already skilled in that sort of thing. Instead, I recommend hiring someone to do it for you.

You can often have a decent web site designed for around $300 or less at eLance.com or rentacoder.com

These places allow people to bid on your job. Often, the person or company is from another country like India. This allows you to get a high quality web site designed very cheaply.

Next, you'll need an autoresponder so that you can collect the email address of the people that visit your site and follow-up with them on an ongoing basis.

I recommend GetResponse as a good, cheap, basic autoresponder. As your list grows into the 10,000 and 20,000 range, you might have to upgrade to a more powerful list management software, but GetResponse is a good basic start.

Next you will need a way to accept payments from your customers. Unless you already have a "merchant account" with a bank, or want to go to the trouble and expense to get one...I recommend using Paypal to accept credit cards.

A merchant account with a bank might be something for you to look into after your sales hit a certain level and the extra expense of a merchant account are worth it, but to start out I recommend Paypal.

Next, you need a quick and easy way to get your new web site listed on the major search engines so people will know you exist and actually come to your web site. Of course, I recommend our own Submission-Spider. It has everything you need and we priced it less than nearly all other submitters out there...and people love it :-)

Basically, those are the five main things you'll need to get started online.

• Web Host (Host Gator)

• Web Site (Elance or RentaCoder)

• Autoresponder (GetResponse)

• Way To Accept Credit Cards (PayPal)

• Search Engine Submission Software (Submission-Spider)

  
  

Search Engine Submission By Example
By: John Alexander

Hi,

Since it takes 4-8 weeks to get listed at the search engines, we're still waiting.

In the mean time, we should be working on our link popularity... ie working on getting other people to link to us.

Now there are basically two ways to go about doing this.

1. Search for other sites that are similar to ours and email the owner and ask to exchange links.

2. Find web sites that are similar to ours that have Guestbooks and message boards that you can sign, and leave a link to your own site.

Both have their place, but It's easier to focus on number 2....so that's what we'll do.

Head over to Google and type in:

"Vegetable Gardening" + "Message Board"

Now if this were your site, instead of Vegetable Gardening you would type in whatever your site is about.

From that simple search we have a near endless list of sites about vegetable gardening that have message boards.

We can literally spend weeks posting our link on these boards. The more you do the better.

The beauty of this system, is that these boards are already listed at Google. That means, every 4 weeks, Google is going to go back and spider the boards and will thus see your link.

Now I need to talk for a second on etiquette. Don't just post your link like you're advertising your site. Spend some time reading the message board. Post a message that relates to whatever conversation is occurring on the board.

Then at the bottom of your message, put your name and a link to your web site.

Do NOT just post: "Hi, my name is John, everyone come look at my new web site www.VegetableGardening.com"

Instead become a member of their little "community". Talk to the people posting messages there. Become involved....and in the process leave your link in every message you post.

More to come next week...stay tuned.

John Alexander
FlatplanetMarketing.com