Starting an online business is more accessible with all these new tools floating around the internet. Want to be a freelancer? Want to start your own digital product business? It’s all right in front of you.

But you have to know the basics of marketing to get your business set up in way that’s professional. A way that sets you apart from your competition.

Because you won’t be the first person to decide to start an online business. But you can be the first person to do it YOUR WAY.

With the right guidance and a little grit, you could turn opportunities into your new reality.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know to Start an Online Business. Including how to choose the type of business you want.

We’ll cover a few things to think through before you pick a business type. Like the lifestyle you want to lead. We’ll talk about what type of skills you have. And what skills you’ll need to learn. And we’ll figure out how much time you’ll need to devote to this new business venture.

Let’s get started.

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Table of Contents

• 1. Understanding the Basics of Online Business
  • Types of Online Businesses
  • Pros and Cons of Starting an Online Business
  • Assessing Your Skills and Interests
• 2. Creating a Marketing Strategy
  • Defining Your Target Market
  • Analyzing Competitors
  • Setting Goals and Objectives
  • Developing a Content Marketing Strategy
• 3. Choosing the Right Business Model
  • UGC: User Generated Content
  • Affiliate Marketing for Moms
  • Online Membership Sites
  • Online Education Business
  • Can Blogging Be a Career?
• Online Business for Stay at Home Moms

1. Understanding the Basics of Online Business

Starting an online business can be an exciting. It can even be lucrative. But it’s important to understand the basics before diving in. Online businesses come in many different shapes and sizes, each with their own unique advantages and challenges. Just like with anything, there are pros and cons to trying to make money online.

Types of Online Businesses

Before you dive in, it’s important to understand the different types of online businesses that exist. Some common types include:

• Create UGC Content or videos for businesses
• Affiliate marketing for moms where you promote other companies’ products and earn a commission on sales (There’s an ethical way to do affiliate marketing that isn’t like what you see on TikTok.)
• Online membership sites offer ongoing goods or services to customers for a fee
• Online courses and coaching businesses that teach customers new skills or provide personal development services
• Blogging as a lifestyle content creator (or blogging for traffic to your business)

Each type of online business has its own unique advantages and challenges. For example, e-commerce businesses may require more upfront investment for inventory, while dropshipping businesses may have lower overhead costs but require more marketing efforts to attract customers.

Blogging has a seemingly low entry barrier, but it can be hard to get your blog noticed if you don’t know about SEO and marketing.

And online coaching 1:1 requires much more of a time commitment than group coaching of 1:many. Affiliate marketing can offer passive income, but you’re getting a portion of what someone else is making. There are pros and cons to each. It really comes down to what you want to do, what lifestyle you currently have, and what lifestyle you want to design.

And online courses? Seems like everyone has a course to sell these days. But if you set up your business to fit your lifestyle, your personality, and your ideal buyers, it won’t matter how much competition you have. You’ll still sell and be successful online.

If you have children and you’re in the phase of life that requires flexibility in your work schedule for sick kids, doctors appointments, games, and more, then you don’t want something that’ll take a very structured schedule and a huge time commitment. Make sure to think about these things as you decide how to get started.

Related Article: How to Financially Be a Stay at Home Mom

Pros and Cons of Starting an Online Business

Like any business, online businesses have their own advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages include:

• Low start-up costs compared to traditional brick-and-mortar businesses
• Flexible working hours and the ability to work from anywhere
• Access to a global market of customers
• The ability to make sales 24:7 with no closing hours

However, some potential disadvantages to consider include:

• The need for strong self-discipline and time management skills
• The potential for a crowded online marketplace (competition isn’t always bad, more on that below)
• The reliance on technology and potential for technical difficulties

It’s important to carefully consider these pros and cons before starting an online business. While the low start-up costs and flexible working hours can be attractive, it’s important to have a realistic understanding of the challenges you may face.

It isn’t as some micro-influencers would have you think. You won’t be sitting on the beach sipping Mai Tais and earning 10K per month within your first three months of starting your business.

Assessing Your Skills and Interests

Starting an online business requires a combination of technical savvy, marketing skills, and business acumen. Before diving in, it’s important to assess your strengths and interests to determine the best fit for your skills. Consider your past work experience.

What areas do you feel you excel at? What are you constantly asked to help with from others, both at work and personally?

Additionally, consider your personal interests and passions. Starting a business based on something you love can increase your motivation and drive for success.

For example, if you have a passion for health and wellness, starting an online coaching business focused on fitness and nutrition may be a good fit. Alternatively, if you have experience in website design and development, starting an e-commerce business selling website template designs may be a better fit.

Ultimately, the key to success in starting an online business is to find a balance between your skills and interests, while also considering the market demand and potential profitability of your business idea.

And don’t be afraid of competition. If others are selling what you want to sell or create a business around, it means there’s a demand or a need in the marketplace. That’s a good sign.

Related Article: Leaving Your 9-5: What to Consider Before Starting Your Mompreneur Journey

2. Creating a Marketing Strategy

When it comes to building a thriving online business, a key move is creating a killer marketing strategy. My approach involves putting together a smart marketing plan that pinpoints my target audience, fully dissects my competition, and maps out goals for my business.

This is essentially my roadmap and guide for my entire marketing game. It’s all about how I shape the bigger picture of promoting and showcasing my business. It’s how I connect with the right people to help them succeed, which in turn is how I make money myself.

Defining Your Target Market

Identifying your target market is a crucial first step for your online business. Your target market is the group of people who are most likely to be interested in your product or service. Within your target market is an even smaller subset of people that are your ideal buyers. They want everything you create.

This smaller subset of people, your ideal buyers, are who you speak to with each piece of content you create. When you understand your ideal buyers’ demographics, interests, and pain points, you’ll be able to create content that’s tailored to their needs.

You can even create better products that are designed specifically for them. Those products will easily meet their needs and sell well.

At the end of the day, market research is THE most important part of starting your online business. This can involve gathering data on your potential customers, such as their age, gender, income, and location. You can also gain insights into their purchasing behaviors by analyzing their online activity, such as their search history and social media interactions. You can do this with current customers and with your competitions’ customers. So whether you have an audience or not, this step is for you.

Analyzing Competitors

Knowing your competition is important in any business, but it’s especially crucial in the online world where businesses can easily reach anyone, anywhere in the world. Researching your competitors’ offerings, marketing strategies, and customer reviews can help you identify gaps in the market and opportunities for differentiation.

Take the time to analyze your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. This can help you identify areas where you can improve your own business and stand out by offering things they aren’t.

Find those gaps in the market and fill them with your own offers.

For example, if your competitors are all offering similar products, you may want to focus on where they’re all falling short. Is there something that keeps coming up in reviews or Facebook groups that people are having trouble with?

Maybe you help you help people start canning. And everywhere you look, people are asking about pressure canning instead of water bath canning. Pressure canning could be your thing. Find your unique selling proposition in the complaints you see online. What’s missing? Learn more about How to craft a Unique Selling Proposition for your new business.

Setting Goals and Objectives

Creating clear goals and objectives is key to measuring and tracking your business’s success. Establishing SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals can help you stay focused and motivated in achieving your business objectives.

When setting goals and objectives, it’s important to be realistic and specific. For example, instead of setting a goal to “increase sales,” you may want to set a goal to “increase sales by 10% within the next 6 months.” This gives you a clear target to work towards and a specific timeline for achieving it.

Developing a Content Marketing Strategy

A strong content marketing strategy helps your business stand out and get noticed.

When you develop a content plan, you’ll think about which online channels you’ll use. Such as social media or email marketing. You’ll also need to think about things specific to online businesses like search engine optimization and design software.

This is your content strategy for creating content online that attracts your ideal buyers and makes sales for you. The kind of content that deposits money into your bank account and time into your schedule.

Because that’s what you’re after, right? Making money online, while also getting more time to spend with your family.

But what content should you create to attract your ideal buyers? What content will help sell your paid offers (paid services or digital products)?

Consider your target market and their preferred channels of communication. Where do they like to hang out online? Follow them.

Then think about how you can create content quickly and efficiently without feeling like you’re wasting time with your efforts or burning yourself out? All of this can be accomplished simply by creating a content strategy and overall marketing strategy as a first step.

But how can you create a content strategy? Start by using my 6-step Content Framework: As Easy As ABC.

Related Article: Rise of the Mompreneur – How to Balance Motherhood and Entrepreneurship

3. Choosing the Right Business Model

There are several options to consider, each with its own unique advantages and challenges. Here are some of the most popular business models for moms staying home with their kids and running a business:

UGC: User Generated Content

User Generated Content (UGC) involves creating a platform where your audience contributes content. This can be in the form of reviews, testimonials, or even creative submissions. Leveraging UGC can build a sense of community around your brand, fostering engagement and trust. Ensure you have mechanisms in place to moderate and curate the content to maintain a positive online environment.

Affiliate Marketing for Moms

Affiliate marketing is a powerful model for moms seeking flexible income streams. Select products aligned with your brand and audience. Ethical promotion is crucial; focus on products you genuinely endorse. Avoid the pitfalls of spammy practices and ensure transparency with your audience. Disclose your affiliate relationships openly to build trust. Not to mention, you want to stay compliant with FTC Guidelines.

One of the biggest advantages of affiliate marketing is the low startup costs. You don’t need to create your own products or invest in inventory, which can save you a lot of money upfront.

However, it is important to remember that building a successful affiliate marketing business still takes time and effort.

With the rise of affiliate marketing on TikTok, many people are seeing a negative connotation with affiliate marketing. This is simply because others are promoting anything and everything, just to make a quick buck.

And the problem, isn’t just immoral promotion of things they don’t actually believe in, but it’s this whole system (or funnel) where you pay $7 to watch a video, and then you’re all of a sudden a pro online marketer selling others’ products for thousands of dollars.

That isn’t really affiliate marketing. The original affiliate marketers are bloggers promoting products that go along with what their blog is about.

Online Membership Sites

Online membership sites offer ongoing goods or services to customers for a fee. Usually the fee is monthly, quarterly, or annually. This model can offer consistent and predictable revenue, but requires a strong understanding of customer retention and turnover. Basically, you want to make sure you provide ongoing value to your customers and continuously improve your offerings to keep them engaged. You’ll also need to develop a content marketing strategy to attract new members while also keeping your existing members interested and satisfied.

It’s important to choose a niche market (small, specialized market) and offer a unique selling proposition to attract and retain subscribers. Additionally, online memberships can help you build a community around your brand and establish strong relationships with your most loyal customers.

To start an online membership, you’ll need to identify your niche and create content or services that your target audience will be willing to pay for. This could include access to premium content like articles, videos, or podcasts, exclusive discounts on products, or personalized coaching or consulting services.

Overall, online memberships can be a highly effective way to monetize your content and build a strong community around your brand. By providing ongoing value to your customers and continuously improving your offerings, you can create a sustainable and profitable online business.

Related Article: How to Financially Be a Stay at Home Mom

Online Education Business

Launching online courses or coaching services requires expertise and passion. Choose a niche where you have a deep understanding, and tailor your content to provide genuine value. Utilize platforms or your website to host courses, and explore different formats like webinars or downloadable resources. Market your expertise effectively to attract and retain clients.

Can Blogging Be a Career?

Blogging is a versatile business model offering low entry barriers. Your focus should be on quality content creation and engagement.

Leverage blogging as a content marketing tool, enhancing your online presence and authority in your niche. You can build a full-time business or a side hustle. Blogging can bring more traffic to your website and your paid offers.

Related Article: How to Financially Be a Stay at Home Mom

Online Business for Stay at Home Moms

Remember, the success of your online business depends on a combination of strategic planning, genuine passion, and persistent effort. Nothing happens overnight.

Don’t get sucked into the idea that you’ll be making 10K your first month in business.

Continuously adapt to industry trends, engage with your audience, and refine your strategies to achieve sustainable growth. Best of luck with your online business journey! Learn more about me and how I got started online as a stay at home mom.