An online shop is also called an e-web-store, internet shop, web store, or virtual store. It is a website or app where buyers can see a catalog of products or services and make purchases electronically. This article explains why and how you can start a profitable online store. Some of the reasons why you should consider starting an online business include: While creating an online shop is a wise decision, especially with the growing demand for online shopping globally, you need to get some things right to avoid failure. That’s why you should follow the 11 steps discussed herein to ensure you’re doing the right thing at the right time. How to Start a Profitable Online Store An online store gives your customers convenience, as they can buy your products and services in the comfort of their homes through the digital space. With your website operating 24/7, you can fetch shoppers from all over the globe and fulfill their orders while working from home. If you’re selling physical products, like handmade items, you can have your customers pick them up from a local store or deliver them to their doorstep at a fee. And there’s no better time to start an online store for your business than now. Follow these steps to get started right away. Step 1: Find a Promising Business Idea One advantage of online business is that it gives you much flexibility – you can sell anything. If you’re an artist, you can sell handmade items and offer delivery to your clients. Or even sell your knowledge through consultations or courses if you’re an expert in a particular field. The sky is the limit when it comes to finding ideas for your business. So, find something you can sell online, whether digital or physical products or in-person or virtual services. Then evaluate whether your idea has potential in the market and whether it’s scalable in the future. Read More: 49 Promising Online Business Ideas You Can Actualize Now Step 2: Choose an Ecommerce Platform As of July 2022, WooCommerce, a plugin that transforms your WordPress site into an e-commerce site, was the leading e-commerce software with a global market share of 36.68%. Still, other reliable platforms include Squarespace, Shopify, and WixStores. An ecommerce software or website allows you to manage all your online store processes. Including adding or removing inventory and products, accepting online payments, and fulfilling orders. Depending on the type of business you’re starting, your budget, and your target audience, check out these 11 ecommerce platforms and find the most suitable for your store. An e-commerce website builder like Weebly helps you create a responsive, user-friendly, and professional store from scratch, even if you’re a complete beginner with no coding skills. Step 3: Decide on a Target Audience One of the reasons small businesses fail online is their failure to understand their target audience. Or focusing on products or services that do not have a market. Avoid such mistakes by conducting an in-depth analysis of your audience, including who they are and their interests. If you don’t have enough data, you can start with assumptions. For instance, you can define your target audience based on age, gender, location, and needs. But the data you need largely depends on whether you’re a business-to-business or business-to-customer enterprise. You need to identify what problems your audience is facing and the existing market gaps. For instance, a digital agency can target businesses struggling with getting traffic to their website or sales or freelancers who need to create a portfolio for their services and promote it online. You can target both businesses and end-users if you have a much higher start-up budget. Step 4: Choose your Products (Services) By now, you already know your target customers, their location, and the main pains they are experiencing. So you must carefully select the best products or services that meet their needs – offers solutions. Your products can either be physical (clothes) or digital (like ebooks). Here are some of the ways you can find products to sell online: You can as well conduct market research to understand what your target audience is lacking in the market. Always focus on understanding your target audience as much as possible. That way, you can know their interests, needs, and budget and create products they will consume. Step 5: Learn from your Competitors To start and grow a sustainable online business, you just keep learning. And in addition to studying your customers, you should monitor your competitors and know the following: Why is it important to learn from your competitors? Competitive analysis helps you understand what factors have made your rivals successful (or fail). It also gives you ideas on the gaps in the market that existing businesses have not exhausted yet. So, the analysis enables you to improve the existing products and services in the market and create a competitive advantage. Step 6: Choose a Business Structure Before you start running your online store, decide whether your business will operate as a sole proprietorship, partnership, or limited liability company (public or private). The choice of your business structure will depend on your preference, and the type of business you’re starting. Then after settling on a particular structure, make sure your online shop is legally registered. You should deal with legal issues like trademarks, licensing, and confidentiality. That way, you’ll avoid being on the wrong side of the law, and comply with the relevant legal provisions. Step 7: Design your Site After picking a domain name and identifying the types of products to sell, it’s time to start organizing your online store. You can use a reliable site builder like Weebly that has drag-and-drop features to help showcase your products and add product descriptions with slideshows. Basically, designing your online shop involves: If you have a slightly higher start-up budget, hire a professional designer to create a shop for you. That way, you can have more flexibility in terms of your store features, payment gateways, and

Starting an internet business is easy, but that doesn’t mean no costs or challenges are involved. While coming up with an idea can be easy, planning how to start an online business and turn it into a sustainable source of income can be hectic. Not to mention the mistakes you get to do along the way. But that won’t be the case if you follow the ten steps and tips discussed herein. Research shows that 90% of e-commerce businesses fail within the first 120 days. And there are many reasons behind this high failure rate. For instance, some online entrepreneurs fail to understand how the business works and their target audience and rarely use digital marketing strategies. Then others chose unfavorable niches or ignore the importance of SEO. For the 10% that succeed, success doesn’t come by chance. They go a step further to understand how marketing works and research what their target audience wants, including the problems they face and their preference. This article will teach you how (what you need) to start a profitable online business. Including why, how, where, and when to market it online. 10 Steps to Start an Online Business Bringing your business online will help target a larger audience, lower operation costs, and enjoy higher sales. But you need to plan right. Before starting your business, you need to understand basics like idea generation, marketing, and lead generation. Here’s what to do: Step 1: Come up with a Great Idea Regardless of how much capital you have to start your business or the experience you or your team have, your idea must be well thought out for your online business to succeed. This stage largely depends on you – the products or services you can offer online and your interests. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What skills can you turn into a business? Check these 21 profitable skills, select one to learn through courses or guides, and offer services online. I even compiled a list of 49 online business ideas you can turn into sustainable businesses. Pick ones like an SEO agency, online tutoring, dropshipping, content writing, blogging, and the like. The bottom line: a business idea should be interesting to you and has the potential to earn you income. Finding the idea isn’t enough. You still need to follow the next 9 steps to evaluate the idea and plan how you’ll actualize it. And even plan on your sources of income and timelines. Step 2: Define your Market and Niche Now that you have a business idea, it’s time to research and establish its suitability. Precisely, you need to evaluate your ideas, explore the barriers to entry into your target industry, analyze competition and profile your potential customers, including their needs and age. The best way is to find a problem you or your potential customers face. Then tune your business to solve that problem (s). For instance, as a freelancer with digital marketing skills, you can offer SEO services if you find it’s the area most website owners struggle with. You can focus on seeking local clients first, build a reputable brand, and expand your reach over time. Don’t be scared by the competition. You need to narrow down your niche as much as possible, answer your audience’s questions, advance your pitching skills, and increase your organic reach. With time, your business will become one of the leaders in the industry. Step 3: Select Products (Services) to Offer What you’ll realize after extensive market research is that your target audience may be facing different unrelated problems. And you can’t meet all of them, especially when you’re getting started. Hence, carefully select the most suitable products and services to offer online. The choice of your products or services will depend on various factors, including; Choosing the right products and services for your business is crucial whether you’re an online retailer or service provider. In addition to having high sales potential and a high-profit margin, a good product or service can act as a lead magnet, attracting customers to your business. Therefore, take time to pick the right packages for your audience and establish how much your competitors are charging for the same. And how much your customers are willing to pay. Step 4: Know your Competitors Whether you want to start a small, medium, or large online business, you must conduct a competitive analysis. It helps you estimate whether your potential customers will find your business appealing based on the performance of other similar products in the marketplace. You need to learn who your competitors are, their competitive advantage, and how they attract and retain customers. Then use this information to make informed decisions regarding product packaging, promotion, and internet marketing. Take time to assess your competitors, know their reach, financial capacity, strengths, and weaknesses, and establish a strategy to gain a competitive advantage. The key here is to create a competitive advantage, which BDC defines as “anything that gives a company an edge over its competitors, helping it attract more customers and grow its market share.” Step 5: Plan to Start your Online Business Benjamin Franklin said that failing to plan is planning to fail. And this seems true because one of the reasons 90% of small businesses fail online is poor planning. Some do not plan their internet marketing the right way, while others offer products with little to no market. Luckily, you can avoid such mistakes by preparing a business plan, outlining key goals and objectives, financial forecasts and feasibility, human resource needs, and other factors. Not to mention that you need to create a budget for your business and make a growth plan. Most importantly, you should have a plan of what you want to be done by when to make the right decision. It assists you in accomplishing goals in an organized manner, meaning you can focus on the most important ones first and avoid procrastination that can kill your idea. You can also make realizable

The demand for internet marketing companies, and marketers, have been on the rise in the 21st century. Businesses are looking for more interactive and creative ways to interact with clients digitally. Thus, with the scope of digital marketing growing too fast, you can start an advertising agency and turn it into a sustainable business. This guide has everything you need. Gartner’s annual CMO Spend and Strategy Survey showed that the average marketing spending increased from 6.4% in 2021 to 9.5% of company revenue across almost all industries in 2022. The most important channels include social media, writing content, SEO, and videos. What does a digital marketing agency do? Well, it is an enterprise that clients hire to outsource their marketing functions instead of handling them in-house. The agency offers different digital solutions, helping clients promote their products and services, meet marketing goals and grow their businesses. It is a promising online business idea for 2022. You can build a digital agency focusing more on marketing strategy and execution. Alternatively, you may create a creative agency that focuses on brand design, logo design, content strategy and writing, and everything that revolves around building a brand image. This article presents to you some of the digital marketing businesses you can start, how to promote your agency online, and how to continuously improve it for more earnings. Types of Digital Marketing Agencies Digital marketing businesses are broadly categorized into three types: So, which of the three types of business is the most suitable for you? If you have fewer resources or want to start a digital marketing agency with no money, I suggest you settle with a single-channel agency. And focus on a specific type of digital marketing like PPC. But if you have a higher budget and can afford to hire staff, you may settle for a full-service digital marketing or multi-channel agency. And help client increase reach through online and offline means. Either way, follow these 13 steps to start your agency. Start A Digital Marketing Agency in 13 Steps Starting a digital agency, whether full-service, single-channel, or multi-channel, isn’t that complicated. Follow these 13 simple steps and eventually be a leader in the industry. Step 1: Acquire Digital Marketing Skills To start a successful digital agency, you must master basic marketing skills unless you want to offer half-baked services. Some top skills you’ll need to become an expert in this field include SEO, communication skills, social media, blogging, and data analysis. Some of the strategies you can adopt to learn these and more digital skills include: Is digital marketing easy or hard to learn? Most experts agree that learning foundational marketing skills isn’t that hard. However, mastering the skills and putting them into practice can be challenging. So you can make work easier by focusing on a particular type like SEM or SEO and then creating a practical strategy to advance your marketing skills with time. Step 2: Select the Services to Offer There’re different types of digital services your agency can offer online. The most profitable ones include SEO, social media, content marketing, PPC, and affiliate marketing services. You can select any of these services or email and phone marketing to build a single-channel marketing agency. But if you intend to create a full-service or multiple-channel marketing agency, research and select the most appropriate ones for your business. The choice of services depends on many factors. For instance, if you’re creating a business on your own, it would depend on your skills and interests. But if you’re to form a team from the start, the choice of services can rely on the level of competition and opportunity gap in the market. So, conducting extensive market research before making decisions is fundamental. Be sure to identify what type of agency you want to create, the problems or challenges your target audience may be experiencing, their budget, and where to find them. Doing so will enable you to make informed decisions across all aspects and create a digital company. Step 3: Plan Business Processes & Set Goals If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. These words were arguably said by Benjamin Franklin and have maintained relevance since the 1790s. The quote implies that you must be ready and plan for all possibilities, positive or negative. If not, you’ll fail terribly. Therefore, you must set clear business goals and objectives to start and grow a sustainable digital marketing agency. What do you intend to achieve? Who is your target audience, and how will you find and retain them? How will you gain a competitive advantage? These are some things you need to get right before starting your advertising business. This is a critical stage where you evaluate your business, create a plan, and develop tactics to help your business idea succeed. You also need to create a calendar and make data-based decisions. And even decide on the channels to use and how to evaluate and execute your plan. Step 4: Deal with Legal Issues By this stage, you already know what type of digital marketing agency you want to start, the capital sources, and where your business will be located. Now, decide the legal status of your entity; is it a sole proprietorship, partnership, private or public company, and register it. At this stage, you sort all, or the majority, legal issues like licensing, trademark, health and safety approval, confidentiality, and even terms and policies. Step 5: Get Your Business Website Ready You can hire a freelance web designer to design and manage your website and integrate even the payment model. Or do it yourself if you’re familiar with the skills. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to start a successful website for your online business: Important: Work on your website structure, and write quality, original and SEO-optimized articles for your website. And target long-tail keywords as they are less competitive and more specific. They tend to drive more targeted traffic to your site, attracting higher conversion rates.

Starting a vlog and sharing quality videos can help push your brand online. Not to mention that you can turn it into a business idea. For instance, by applying for monetization or selling your digital products. This guide shows you how to start a successful YouTube channel. But first, why use YouTube? Well, it’s the second-largest search engine next to Google, which allows you to communicate with a wide range of audiences seeking the information you’re sharing. So, you should create videos centered around a specific audience and their needs. And the good thing is that you don’t need a huge budget or fancy equipment. I’ve seen creators use their phones, especially since the company introduced YouTube Shorts. This article aims to help beginners start their vlogging journey, customize their channel, and get content ideas. Disclosure: This content is reader supported, which means if you click on some of our links, we may earn a commission, but the price on your end remains the same. How to Start a Successful YouTube Channel Creating a new YouTube channel, whether you’re a beginner in video creation, is not complicated. But you need to follow a specific procedure and best practices. To get started on this amazing leading video-sharing platform, this is what I want you to do: 1. Select a Niche and Channel Name Before you start a new YouTube channel, I’d recommend you settle on a specific niche. For instance, since our major is Online Business, we opted to share videos on how to start an online business (including ideas and steps to follow), how to market it, and how to earn from it. However, if you want to start a vlog (sharing your day-to-day activities), you probably wouldn’t need a specific niche. But let people identify you for something – like a travel vlogger. Then find a unique name so that your audience can hardly confuse you for someone else. And you can either use a personal brand or a business brand name. For our case, we use the business brand Edifid Digital, and so far, no other channel on YouTube has this exact brand name. That way, telling people to find our channel on YouTube is a bit easier. You can take any of these approaches while naming your brand, depending on your interests. 2. Create a YouTube Channel Now that you have your unique name and know your area of interest (niche), it’s time to create a brand new YouTube channel. So, this is what I want you to do: You can create a personal brand channel or a business brand account. The difference is that a personal brand is attached to your name or nickname. However, a business brand channel is distant from your name, and you can also add managers or marketers to promote it. If you want to sell your brand in the future or at least bring more people into the picture, I suggest you start a business brand YouTube channel. 3. Customize your New Channel Your channel is ready, and you can now create and upload videos. But before I show you how to find keyword (content) ideas to create videos on, there are a few things we need to set up. First, create a logo (profile picture) and channel banner image using Canva or any other website or mobile app. And then upload and publish them: Then add a YouTube channel description – make it brief. Check out mine: And then, add some links such as links to the Facebook page, website, subscription link, Instagram page, and the likes. Not forgetting that you can include your location, like Kenya. Then set a custom Url once you have reached 100 YouTube subscribers. And choose your YouTube handles – a unique identifier that helps people easily find and tag your channel. 4. Set YouTube Channel Upload Defaults Did you know that you can set upload defaults for your YouTube channel? For instance, set the title and video visibility (public or private) and include social media or affiliate links in your video description section. Click settings on YouTube Studio, and head to upload defaults. On the advanced settings tab, you can set the video language and caption language to enable YouTube to detect your video captions automatically. Captions are very important for Youtube SEO as they help the search engine understand the content and context of your videos. You can select a standard youtube license or creative commons attribution. And enable or disable automatic chapters or hide how many people have liked your videos. Or opt to hold potentially inappropriate comments for review. And select the default video category. You don’t have to repeat such settings per upload, just set the defaults, and save time. 5. Get Trending YouTube Video Ideas Now that your channel is ready, you must find content ideas based on your preferred niche. So, you must first understand your audience by researching and monitoring your competitors. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to conduct YouTube keyword research. For your YouTube channel to grow, you must share content your audience loves. But how do you know which content ideas to select? That shouldn’t be a problem. In addition to the ideas outlined in the article above, you find insightful ideas through any of the following three ways: YouTube Search Autocomplete Key in a keyword on YouTube search, and check the suggested ideas people search for on the platform. For instance, after searching for “how to create,” I can create videos on how to create or start a YouTube channel, a website, a PayPal account, or a Gmail account. Use the same approach to find content ideas in your niche. But only select the most appropriate searches or ideas for your audience. Remember to try and understand the search intent, meaning, and goal the audience seeks to accomplish. Google Search Autocomplete Google Search autocomplete functions the same way as YouTube search. So, find a keyword on which you’d love to share content,