Question — Have you had enough of the daily 9 to 5 grind for little money and wondered how easy it would be to start an online business?

Answer — Very easy, you can be up and running in very little time.

In this article I am going to give you the 7 steps you need to start your own online business from home. By following this proven method, you will create your own successful online business and be in control of your life.

Follow these easy steps to get started and then scale as much as you like. Or even rinse and repeat, why just have one online business?

Let’s get started.

1. Find a problem and solve it. (The need).

2. Create your sales copy.

3. Time to build your website (with zero cost)

4. Find your customers, drive traffic to your product.

5. Build a good reputation.

6. How to turn visitors into buyers.

7. Increase your income from your customer base.

Whether you are a newbie or an online expert, you can benefit by following these 7 steps.

Step 1: Find a Problem and Solve it. (The need).

The internet is a place where millions of people are looking for the solutions to problems.

Your first objective is to find a problem that you can solve, you need to find your marketplace first. Once you have found your marketplace you now find the product to solve it.

The biggest mistake people make starting out online is finding a product first and then finding the marketplace for the product, only to find that it’s a limited market.

So how do you find your market or "niche" as it is often referred to online?

What is needed here is keyword research. There are many available tools for doing keyword research, both paid and free. So, let’s use one of the best free tools. Google is your friend and Google has a keyword research tool called "Google Trends"

Often a good niche to get started with or create your business with is something that you are interested in. A hobby or something that you are passionate about.

Maybe you have a few ideas, now it’s time to research them. Enter your search term into Google Trends, for example, dog training or how to lose weight. Google trends will provide a ton of information about the search term that you entered. The main result you need to look at is the number of people who have searched for your keyword or phrase.

If you enter "how to lose weight" you will find the result will be massive, this means that it is a very competitive market and it will be difficult to conquer.

What you could do is narrow your market by searching "how to lose weight without exercising". Alternatively, you could look for a smaller less competitive niche. However, you do need to have people searching to solve problems within your niche as these will be your customers. Ideally a keyword search with a search result of 1000 plus would be ideal.

Take time researching, you will be more successful with a niche that you are comfortable with. You can read more about niche markets HERE.

Once you have decided upon your niche, you now need to solve the problem people have. This is far easier than you might think. You can look at your competitors and see what they are offering as solutions.

Now you can create a product for a market that already exists and make your product better than the competition or offer more value for the same money.

Now you have the basis for your online business.

Step 2: Create Your Sales Copy

Many people are daunted by this, "I’m not a salesperson", "I don’t know what sales copy is", I don’t know how to write sales copy"

There is no need to panic it really is easy. Sales copy is simple text telling your prospective customer what problem your product solves, how it will benefit them, how it has benefit others and what a great offer you have for them.

Follow this simple process and you will have created great sales copy in no time:

1. Grab interest with a compelling headline.

2. Introduce your product and the problem it solves.

3. Establish credibility.

4. If you have sold before ask for testimonials from existing customers and include them.

5. Make a great offer (price).

6. Offer a guarantee.

7. Ask the prospect to buy.

As you are creating your copy, put yourself in the customers shoes and the problem they are trying to solve and think "what’s in it for me".

Step 3: Time to build your website (with zero cost)

In today’s world websites are easy to build and there are many ways to create your website. True you can pay an expert to build an amazing multi-page, muti-functional interactive website for you, or even just a basic one.

On a budget, you could use a website like Fivrr and get someone to build one for you for less than $50.

For the type of online business, we are creating here, the fact is you DO NOT NEED an extensive website. You need easy and simple. One page which holds your sales copy and a button to click to buy. It can be that simple.

You can achieve this for zero cost by using one of the many free website creation software’s such as Wix or GoDaddy. Search website creator free and you will find many.

It’s website DIY and it is simple as simple can be. A child can create a website for your online business.

Step 4: Find your customers, drive traffic to your website.

This is the life blood of your online business, you need traffic to make sales, it sounds obvious of course but it is vital.

In a nutshell there are two ways to get traffic.

1. Sit back and wait for organic traffic, by that I mean potential customers sent to you by search engines. Or should I say putting your website in front of potential customers and hoping they click through to it and not one of your competitors.

2. Drive customers to your website! This is by far the best way to go. Unfortunately, this is where you need to invest some money, but if you have got your product and sales copy right you will get it back and make a healthy profit.

The good news is you can start off with a low budget and re-invest after sales.

To drive traffic, you need to run ads to send targeted traffic to your website. Targeted customers who are ready to buy.

You can run these ads everywhere, search engines, social media, YouTube etc.

I would recommend you start with Google, why? because you can get some free ad credit to give you an initial boost. Google offers incentives to new customers. Usually something along the lines of — spend $25 on Google Ads and get $100 free.

A fabulous way to boost your initial sales. Pay for targeted ads and get four times as many free.

This targeted traffic is known as Pay Per Click advertising or PPC.

It is far too big a subject to go into here but there are many excellent guides free online that can help you with your ad campaigns.

Investing a little money into PPC is really the best option for a new website because you get instant traffic as these ads show up on search engines immediately.

Step 5: Build A Good Reputation

This is all about getting yourself known. Once you are recognised as an expert in your niche or market, you have cracked it, your sales will go through the roof.

So how do you become an expert. You need to spread yourself about, for want of a better phrase. People use the internet to search for information. Give that information away for free to other sites you will get better search rankings.

Always include a link to your site in any info you give away.

Social media is king but not the be all and end all. Article sites and directories are also very valuable. Create a free report in your market to give away with your links in it. Post it on social media, in forums, online directories, article websites.

Think of it this way, your name is Bill Jones and you own a house, a piece of real estate. a few people might know you as Bill Jones who owns number 42 Park Drive. Now if you, Mr Bill Jones owned 20 pieces of real estate in your town it is inevitable that more people will know you.

The internet is the same, think of it as real estate, the more you own the more well-known you will be, and your reputation will rise to an expert level.

The more real estate online you own the more links you have, and the more customers will come to you and your profits rise.

Step 6: How To Turn Visitors Into Buyers

This is probably the most powerful area of your online business.

"The money is in the list"

You may have heard the phrase above before, it is very true and can make you seriously wealthy.

Capture your potential customers. Even if they do not buy, they will in the future. If a visitor comes to your website and they don’t buy your product, it’s not the end of the world. They are targeted visitors, so they are in your marketplace for something, maybe just not your product.

Offer all your visitors something for free, a report or even better offer them a monthly newsletter if they subscribe. You will need again to spend a little money here to capture your visitors name and email but its gold dust that you are capturing.

The more your business grows the more solutions you will have for different problems in your niche. This means you have more offers for your potential customers and especially those on your email list, they are ready made buyers who you have built a relationship with.

Email marketing is highly effective because it’s targeted.

Again, email marketing is too big a subject to go into here, however, again there is a ton of free stuff to help you online.

To collect visitors details you will need an email autoresponder. There will be a free initial period followed by a small monthly fee and there are many to choose from.

Step 7: Increase Your Income From Your Customer Base

It’s a known fact that around 36% of people who buy from you will buy again.

It’s time to upsell. The first sale is the hardest that you will ever make to a first-time customer. Once you have the customer offer them more products or services and it is highly likely they will buy. They will be lifetime customers if you build a relationship with them.

Offer products that complement their initial purchase. Give them discount coupons for loyalty.

Follow these steps and you can easily build a fantastic online business or two.