All You Need To Start An Online Business
Today I would like to talk to you about, all you need to start an online business. I think too many people overcomplicate the idea of having an online business. It doesn’t need to be complicated as I will explain in this blog post or you can watch the embedded video that I created earlier.
One of the reasons I have created this video is to help people not make the mistakes that I made. I started researching Internet marketing back in 2004, but it took me until 2007 before I had my first website up and running. This was because I was working blind, I really didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know if what I was researching, what was true or not and I didn’t know if the products that I was purchasing were genuine. In fact, most of the products that I purchased were not genuine, although a few were, thankfully!
You Can’t Run An Online Business With A Smart Phone
There are lots of people who say that you can start an online business with a smartphone, personally, I don’t think you can. Maybe if you are promoting your business through YouTube and you are making lots of videos it may work, but in normal terms, you need a PC or Apple Mac. I admit smartphones can be very useful, however, I still find smartphones very fiddly, maybe that’s because I’ve got large fingers. I avoid trying to do any work from a smartphone as it is far too time-consuming.
The only time I really use my mobile phone for work is if I am tweeting something or making a video. I also have some software called Dragon Anywhere my phone. This is speech software that enables me to speak into the phone and Dragon actually types for me! Now, this is a very useful piece of software, I also have Dragon NaturallySpeaking on my PC, more about this later.
You Need A Laptop Or PC
Personally, I like Dell computers, in fact, they are the only manufacturer of computers that I have used. As I have been satisfied with Dell products over the years, I have continued to use their products. I’m currently using a Dell Latitude E6540 laptop which is nearly 6 years old and has been a great laptop and still is. It has got a decent spec as I feel time is very important when you have an online business. I’m often multitasking say you want a machine that works quickly and promptly and doesn’t hold you back. The Dell latitude does this for me.
I would recommend having a laptop or desktop with an Intel i5 processor and above and a minimum of 8 GB of RAM, 16+ would be better. I appreciate that most of us need to stick to a budget, but I believe that it is much better to purchase something with a higher spec rather than a lower spec. There’s nothing more frustrating than waiting for pages to load, we are almost in 2020 and this type of issue should be something of the past.
Dell Outlet Website
As the video shows, you can go directly to the Dell website and purchase a new laptop or desktop. The other alternative and several of my friends have done this is to go to the Dell Outlet website. These are generally products that may have a scratch or dent, or have been sent back as an unwanted product. I have been told that all these laptops are thoroughly checked before they are sent out to the public. You could say that they are double-checked as they are checked in the factory and then checked in the workshop. According to my friends, they have saved several hundred pounds by purchasing from the Dell refurbished website. This is something that I would look at if I could find the right model laptop or desktop.
Review Before You Buy
When I purchase a product, I always like to select carefully and to carry out thorough research and check the reviews. I virtually use my laptop every day, so, I really want to know it’s capabilities are and what its components are. Thankfully the Internet has made research very simple, we can check out the specs, look at the reviews and then buy with confidence.
I’m about to purchase a Dell XPS 8930, this model comes with an Intel i7 processor and 16 GB of RAM I will upgrade this RAM to the maximum of 64 gigabytes. It also has many other great features. I must admit I spent some time researching which desktop to buy and finally came to this conclusion. I feel it’s worth the effort as this PC will have a lot of use and I want something that is going to work efficiently.
You Need To Be Trained
The problem that I had when I first started researching “working online” back in 2004 was that I was working blind. I literally didn’t have a clue what I was doing, however, I could see the power of the Internet. To cut a long story short I spent literally thousands on poor quality products, and it took me three years to start making money online.
Thankfully the Internet has come a long way over the past few years and my top recommendation for anyone starting out online is to get trained properly. There is no fun in working blind, but there is fun in learning and making progress.
The Wealthy Affiliate platform is a great way to learn how to create an online business. This is not a get rich scheme it is a genuine opportunity to learn how to create an online business. Unfortunately, as I found out there are many scam products that promise everything, but do not produce anything at all.
There is no quick way to start any business whether it be online or offline, it takes time and hard work. Please avoid any headlines that tell you it is quick to make money online, you need to be dedicated and take action on a regular basis.
The fact is and these figures are only average, it takes between six months and two years to create an online business. This may sound like a long time, but as we all know the time goes quickly! If you act on a regular basis which many people have achieved on this platform, you will be successful.
You Don’t Get Fit In The Gym In One Day!
I heard this example the other day regarding starting an online business, which I thought was a good example. When you start going to the gym you normally sign up for several months. Normally you would set aside time to go to the gym several times a week. After one week you would not expect to be in peak fitness or even after one month. However, if you carried on this regime for six months to a year you would be very fit in normal terms.
This is the same principle for an online business, it is not possible to start and expect results after the first week or even the first month. But if you keep plugging away, after six months you will start to see results. And after a year and more your results will increase even more. All the successful Internet marketers that I know have one thing in common, that is consistency and a willingness to keep going when you don’t see results immediately.
Create A Free Account
One of the many great things about the Wealthy Affiliate Platform is that you can create a free account, no credit card is necessary. The free account allows you to use the live help for seven days. It also gives you website backups, beginner training course, personal affiliate blog, the first phase of the affiliate boot camp training, there are seven phases in all.
The great thing about creating a free account is that it gives you enough information to get started and to test out the platform. I actually went to premium immediately, but then I had been working online already for several years. I could instantly see the benefits of being a premium member. However, I don’t want you to take my word for this, I want you to try the free account first and see what you think.
I will leave a comparison chart below this paragraph which will show you the difference between premium and free membership.
A Friendly And Helpful Platform
One of the best things I like about the wealthy affiliate platform is the helpfulness and friendliness of the people. When I originally started out online I was working totally alone, I had no one to ask for help. What the Wealthy Affiliate platform enables me to do is to ask a question, help others and share my knowledge and much more.
You Can Share Your Knowledge
Wealthy Affiliate gives you the ability to write blog posts, I have written over 100 blog posts and asked 207 questions. By writing blog posts, we can share our knowledge and getting the conversation with like-minded people. I cannot tell you how helpful and beneficial this can be. Also, by asking a question it can often answer someone else’s question and help other people to learn.
Why not start a free account today?
A Couple More Things
Now don’t want to overcomplicate having an online business, however, there are two more tools that I find extremely useful. You do not need these tools yet, the main thing is that you have a functional computer and a training guide.
The two products that I use a lot is called Dragon NaturallySpeaking and Camtasia.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a speech recognition software assert other words you speak your words out. I can’t type particularly fast so Dragon NaturallySpeaking actually saves me a lot of time. It is not 100% accurate, but it is still far quicker than me typing.
I believe there are other speech recognition software options, personally, I find Dragon naturally speaking to be the best. This is paid software, once you have purchased the software, there are no other costs apart from the occasional update which isn’t a huge amount of money. In fact, I don’t think there has been a paid update for three or four years.
I believe that Google has speech recognition software within Google Docs, I haven’t tried Google’s speech recognition software as I already have speech software which I’m happy with. I have been told that it does work reasonably well so this may well be worth a try.
The other software I use is something called Camtasia which is made by Techsmith. This gives you the ability to record your screen so for example the video that is embedded in this blog post was created using Camtasia. There is also a more basic version of this software which is called SnagIt, I’m told this is more than adequate for most people.
If I was starting out again, I would probably just purchase SnagIt as it is cheaper than Camtasia and probably has enough functionality for most people.
To conclude
One of the reasons most people fail in business is because they do not understand how to create an online business. If you have the correct training, you can soon have your own online business up and running, however, you do have to work.
There are many people who give up far too soon and they really don’t realise what they are giving up. You need to be consistent and patient with your online business. It takes time and it may seem like you are getting nowhere, however, if you follow the training, take action on a regular basis you will be successful.
Please feel free to comment below this blog post.