5 Essentials You Need to Start an Online Business

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In starting an online business I have found there are 5 absolute essentials you need to get your online business going.

The only 5 things you need to start an online business is a burning desire to succeed, a website/blog, a product or service to offer on your website, traffic to your website, and lastly an email opt in with an autoresponder.

In this article I will discuss each one more in depth:

Absolute Essential 1) - A BURNING DESIRE

This is the number one essential you need to start your online business.  Why? Because without  a burning desire you can read everything you get your hands on and learn everything you can about starting an online business, but if you don't have that burning desire to change your current situation you will never get started.

I have known about how simple (I didn't say easy) it is to create an online business for quite some time.  I even went to college and got a degree for web design so I could work from home, have my own business, be free and make better money.

But even though I went on to get my degree I still searched out employers to rely on.  Employers that I would sell for and make small commissions, and always struggle to survive while I watched them prosper and grow.  

In the back of my mind I knew what I should be doing.  But that burning desire just wasn't there.  I guess I wasn't broke enough, or I was ok just making enough to get by.

It wasn't until I lost my job of roughly 15 years that I finally realized what I must do.  As I thought more and more about how this company let me go after 15 years of making them a lot of money, as I got angrier, and as my financial situation grew worse my desire to never work for anyone again grew to a burning desire.  My desire to take control of not only my life, and income, but my time as well.

Without that burning desire you will just take my information and put it away in the back of your mind for another day.  If you are missing this element at this time I suggest you refrain from going any further and come back another time.

How do you get this burning desire you may ask.  Well some people are just born with it.  They have that burning desire to succeed from day one.  However some of us; maybe most of us something has to happen to spark that burning desire.  Sometimes it takes us losing a job and realizing that no matter how long you work for someone your never really secure.  Maybe some it's just being tired of living paycheck to paycheck and wanting more out of life.  Whatever the reason; without that burning desire to succeed you will fail.

Because it's that burning desire that gives us the confidence in knowing that no matter what.  We will not fail.  So if you have that burning desire to change your life, to succeed without failure, to change your life and make more money than you ever dreamed of, read on.

Absolute Essential 2) - A WEBSITE/BLOG

You need a website or a blog.  Without one you have no place to sell your product, or offer your service.  You have no place to direct people to your offer.  It is an absolute essential.

The nice thing is however, is the cost to set up a website is very minimal.  Hosting and domain names are super cheap.  There are also free blogs you can set up that cost you nothing.  So even if you don't have a few dollars to host a website on a hosting company like GoDaddy you can set up a free account on places like Blogger.

And websites are very easy to create.  Most are set up so anyone can create a simple website.  And if that still discourages you.  I'm a web designer.  I can always lend you a hand.

Absolute Essential 3) - A PRODUCT AND/OR SERVICE TO OFFER ON YOUR SITE

I offer a service and products, but if you have no marketable skills or service you can offer on your site affiliate products may be the way you want to go.  There are hundreds if not thousands of products you can offer that pay nice commissions.  Some are even recurring where you can get paid every month as long as someone keeps their subscription going.

This can add up to huge sums of money.  There are affiliate programs everywhere where companies or creators are willing to pay 50 -100% commission if someone purchases a product from your site.  And the beauty of this model is your store front is open 24/7 to virtually everyone in the world.  

I used to sell to one person at a time.  The power of the Internet allows us to reach thousands, tens of thousands of people.  The potential amounts of money you can make are staggering. 

Absolute Essential 4) - CUSTOMERS (TRAFFIC)

Customers referred on the Internet as traffic.  It is the life blood of your business.  No traffic no sales.  Entire books have been written just on how to get traffic.  Remember when I said earlier that this was simple?  The process is simple.  It's inexpensive to start, and simple to get things in place.  But it does require work and patience.  This is where the burning desire to succeed steps in.  Because if you don't have that burning desire you will get frustrated an quit before you ever gave your business a chance.

In today's society we want everything now.  And there are plenty of YouTube videos telling you how to make $200, $300, $500 a day.  And they make it sound like you're going to do it tomorrow.  Some will even say that.  We'll I'm here to tell you it doesn't work like that.

Your not just going to put a link on your new site and think people are just going to flock to your offer.  You must get traffic.  Now you're probably wondering "how do I get traffic to my new site".  Well my friend there are lots of ways to get traffic to your site that I will not go into in this article.  But I will be doing future posts and videos on just how to get that traffic so get on my mailing list and get notified when I post new content or videos on my YouTube.

Absolute Essential 5) - EMAIL OPT IN AND AUTO RESPONDER

So just like a regular brick and motor business.  Not everyone is going to buy the first time you introduce them to your product or service.  You need a way to reach them if they leave without buying.  So having your visitors fill out an opt-in form is essential to your business.  Sometimes it take people time to think it over.  And if you have the ability to email them through auto responders it gives you another chance to offer your service or product and create a relationship with your customer.

Email marketing customers is one of the best investments you can make in your new business.  I use GetResponse.  They offer nice landing pages and opt in forms that are easy to create and get up and running.  You may have heard this before but the money truly is in your list.  And the larger you can make your list the more customers you have to promote your offers too.

In conclusion; the Internet works exponentially.  You set up a website, promote a product and/or service, and drive traffic to it.  The more traffic you can drive to your offers the better your chances of success.

And what makes this simple is you can put in just a few hours a day, and over time with your efforts of fine tuning your site, adding more products, creating content, driving more traffic your income will grow exponentially and there is no ceiling to how much you can make because your reaching potentially thousands of people twenty-four hours a day, 7 days a week.  Like I said; it's simple, not easy. 

If your not where you want to be financially in your life I strongly recommend you take action.  It doesn't cost a lot to get started and your ROI is better than anything you will ever do.  And the best part... You are no longer trading time (time you can never get back) for money. 

I hope you got value out of this article. If so post a comment below.  I'd love to hear from you.

And if your looking for a product to promote and more training on how to make money online?  You can get my #1 recommendation for getting started making money online HERE.