Create and Run a Successful Online Business

This Picture is me and how I felt starting my new class.

That’s not really me, this is me -> Eating ice cream that resembles a potato at an Idaho Fair (where else?).

But the first picture still illustrates how I felt with all the information of this online business class. The course purpose states “This course is designed for any student interested in building a web-based business. Students will go through the necessary steps to build and launch a web-based business that is capable of accepting online payments.”

I’ve put thousands of dollars into my education each semester. But here you’ll get the cream of the potato ice cream. I’ll give you the highlights of everything I’m learning in this class for FREE on this blog, which I started for FREE.

Here’s what we are going to learn

-Choosing a Business

-Building a site

-The Legal and Tax stuff (so you won’t go to jail)

-All about Adwords

-SEO

And other awesome… uh… stuff.

If you already know everything there is to know about this… “stuff.” Then comment on my “stuff” and we’ll create better “stuff” for for other people to do their “stuff!”

I’m stuffed with these jokes.

Site Design Guidelines

Site Design Guidelines and scan SEOMOZ’s Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization – 91 Point Checklist and Infographic.
Color Scheme Designer: This helps you determine which colors work well with each other when designing a website. Why Marketers Choose Certain Colors, and Generic Privacy Policy

00:00:00 – 1. Introduction
00:12:03 – 2. Domain Name & Hosting
00:23:59 – 3. Install WordPress
00:30:05 – 4. Login To WordPress
00:33:33 – 5. Change Your Password
00:34:45 – 6. Update WordPress
00:35:49 – 7. Delete Plugins
00:37:05 – 8. Theme Overview & Installation
00:41:58 – 9. Delete Pages
00:43:19 – 10. Add Pages
00:56:04 – 11. Rearrange Menu
00:59:50 – 12. Site Title & Tagline
01:03:14 – 13. Create a Logo
01:10:47 – 14. Edit Header
01:15:18 – 15. Edit Footer
01:18:24 – 16. Change Background
01:19:28 – 17. Understanding Plugins
01:22:16 – 18. Install Beaver Builder
01:25:00 – 19. Create Home Page
01:52:46 – 20. Create About Page
02:18:13 – 21. Create Services Page
02:35:11 – 22. Create Contact Page

You might use Divi Theme instead. It seems to make WordPress drag and drop like Wix.

Go to How to Make a WordPress Website 2016 page for each of these videos.

I’ll share with you what I learned through this whole process and some tips.

1. Don’t be a perfectionist.

2.Building a site takes time. I remember starting with big dreams and lots of products. But before you go through all the hassle of getting everything you want on there in one night, only to give up in tears. Break it down. Which is our next point…

3. Make it functional. What is necessary for the site to function? Can you start smaller and get bigger?

Extra: Don’t forget to not stress the small stuff at this point. Perfecting a site takes time. Get it built, then perfect it later.

Guest Speaker on Digital Marketing

He drew a store.

“Let’s assume,” he said “This is walmart.”

How is it layed out?

Flowers, and fresh fruits at the front doors.

Bread about halfway up.

Milk & electronics in the back.

Or something like this

layout

He went on to explain that websites also have a strategy layout. You want your site to bring in people feeling something “fresh and new” like they do walking into a store. Have the breads or good content into the store, but still easy to find.

He went on to talk about click funnels being far more effective ways to market and sale to people

Check out this site.

https://www.clickfunnels.com/

Installing Google Analytics and Work day for AdWords Campaign

Introduction, Get Started, Set Up Tracking Overview, Set Up the Tracking Code.

How to Install Google Analytics in WordPress and Weebly, How to Install Google Analytics in Wix

Google Analytics is really neat because it can show you a lot of relevant information on the people who come to your site.

One of the most powerful features is the A/B testing. This allows you to create multiple versions of the same pages on your site and send people to different pages. “A/B testing (sometimes called split testing) is comparing two versions of a web page to see which one performs better.” https://vwo.com/ab-testing/

See this video for a good overview A/B Testing

There are other features for Analytics, like finding your pages bounce rate. There’s a saying some people say when they want to leave. “Let’s Bounce.” Likewise, those who come to your site and say “Let’s bounce,” is calculated into the bounce rate. It calculates how many people come to the site and jump right back out of it. Don’t get so caught up on how exactly they figure the numbers. Rather, use them to compare different site pages and a/b testing. For example, If a site has 60% bounce rate, is that a good bounce rate? Well, that’s better than a 70% percent bounce rate. I know that’s a no-brainer answer. But it’s one of the best ways to measure your success is to compare it with the past.

Demographics are another feature shown in Analytics as well as tracking your conversions.

Choosing a Business

: Business Models on the Web & BizThoughts Brainstorming Business Ideas Russell Brunson and his Secret Magic Box, Internet Business Models, The Ultimate Master List of Revenue Models Used by Web and Mobile Companies

How to Use the New Keyword Planner

Entrepreneur.com 3 pointers for Choosing an Business to Start & Opportunity Recognition & Choosing a Product or Service to Sell & Creative Brainstorming Techniques & How to Use Google Keyword Planner with Setting Up an Account

Sourcing the Product–Broker, Manufacturers, and Wholesalers

How to Find a Wholesale Distributor How to Quantify and Compare.

Alibaba.com, globalsources.com, SmallVolume.com, gowholesale.com

How you do determine what business should you do? What I learned is you need a way to rank all the ideas you have.

Here’s a spreadsheet we used to help us make the decision.

Webbusinessdecisionmatrix10Pollard

Here are some of my takeaways from this project.

Brainstorm around 20 ideas
Find a some quantifiable variables that you can compare. For example, we used Keyword planner and compared a number of searches for each type of business model as well as the cost per click. But you can quantify anything such as “10” being the best and “1” being the worst, for things that are subjunctive. Questions like “Are you passionate about the business? How time-consuming is it? How easy is it to start?
Weight each of these criteria you use to measure each business idea. See this video on how to make weighted factors excel chart.

Here’s another spreadsheet I made when determining what kind of product to sell.

Case Study, Choosing a prodcut