To start any website you need a name or URL, you need to host your website somewhere, you need the ability to design and edit web pages with software, and you need a shopping cart and merchant account.
To go with these products and services, you also needed to know html programming. Not to mention, all the other stuff that goes with a website, like marketing and advertising, etc…
What is all this going to cost? A name costs around $10/year, hosting costs around $120/year, programming software can cost upwards of $400, and shopping carts and merchant accounts can cost $500 or more.
As you can see, a standard website when you add in marketing and advertising, can run you into the thousands.
After the nuts and bolts, what else does every online business need?
First, if you want to make money online, you need a laser tight niche. A specific market where you solve a problem or find a need and fill it.
Then second, you need to be able to edit and update the content on a simple website.
Third, you need to have an email list service. You can sell them things later! First, you need to build a relationship, then, when you try to sell them something, they will be responsive. Research shows that most sales are made after 5 - 10 contacts, not on the first one. You need to get people to come back and a list is the best way. Most online businesses will tell you the money is in the list.
The fourth thing you need is to make money. Money is made two ways online, either through advertising or selling.
Fifth, no matter what you do online you need content or niche information. People are not going online to buy things, they go online looking to solve problems and/or find information. Let me say that again… People surfing the web are looking for INFORMATION!
Finally, you need lots of niche traffic. You can’t build relationships if people do not know you exist.
When starting a website, there is always unforeseen challenges. That is ok.
Business always has new obstacles, that is what makes it exciting. The key is to figure them out never give up.
Those that succeed in an online business do not allow anything to get in their way. Like Cortez in history, they burn their ships and just keep going forward. Each day you will gain momentum and those obstacles will become easier. Not because it actually is easier, but because you will have changed and become better.