Starting a Low Cost Online Business

If I had $100 to start an online business, this is what I would do…

Starting a Low Cost Online Business

If I had $100 to spend starting my online business, I would save all the money and use as many free resources as possible until I realize the need for extra money to push forward.
All types of online businesses require some form of investment and it can be problematic if you spend your limited funds on something that doesn’t help.

Once you finally realize your needs, you will have to suspend the progress of your business as you look for more funds.

Every Internet business starts with a website and fortunately there are plenty of free and affordable solutions right now.

Sticking with free solutions is highly recommended if you are still on the testing phase. There are several free web hosting solutions that are surprisingly rich in features.

You could get a shared web hosting account with FTP access and MySQL and PHP support. This kind of support is enough to allow all kinds of web applications from blog platforms to ecommerce systems.

Some of the best web apps cost money so I wouldn’t touch that $100 just yet. Don’t forget about all the nice open-source solutions available. Think WordPress and Joomla which both have extensive ecosystems when it comes to free templates and add-ons.

One potentially smart move would be to set aside some of the money for a domain name. The .com, .net and .org domains cost about a fraction of your budget but could help generate awareness of your site.
But if the budget is still very tight and you want to avoid risks, you can either settle for a free subdomain if the web provider offers or temporary go for an inexpensive .info domain name.

While there are lots of free designs and templates you can use for the design of your Internet business website, people visiting your website may not take your business so seriously. People will appreciate it if you have attention to detail such as the logo of your business and overall colour theme.

Getting a professional web designer to do the job can help beautify your online business website but it could cost you well more than $100. So instead, look for online tools that can help you design a logo and other graphical elements to make your site look a bit more unique. Once again, free online and offline tools are available to try out.

Supplying content to your website can be a challenge if you are not so into writing articles. Writing articles for your website can help keep the website of your online business relevant so viewers stay interested. This is why copywriters, ghost-writers and freelance writers strive to find potential clients that need their skills.

Fortunately, you can buy content for your site on a per article basis so it might not hurt to set aside some money for that. But if you really want to save, observe how other Internet business websites keep their visitors engaged.

Once your website is all set up, marketing is really your main concern and you can actually concentrate your remaining budget on advertising if you are really confident with your website. But once again, there are tons of free advertising methods that I would definitely try out first.

Social media marketing, guest blogging and online video sharing are just some of things you can do. Hang on to your money as long as possible and evaluate all the potential ways to market your business.

Once you have gotten a head start with free marketing, you can better figure out how to manage your advertising budget while your Internet business already has potential to earn money back.