Have you tried it all from MLM to Network Marketing to every pyramid scheme possible? Are you ready to find something that actually works long term? Let’s look at how to build an online business that is sustainable for years to come.
I am going to look at the affiliate marketing model for building a business. It is my favourite form of profiting off the world wide web, and this is how to build an online business you can be proud of.
How To Build An Online Business
Build A Website
if you want to succeed in affiliate marketing long term, you are going to have to roll up your sleeves and build out a website. Don’t worry it is not as difficult as people make it out to be, and if you enjoy being creative, then this may be just the business model you will enjoy pursuing.
Luckily with technology being what it is today, you can have your first website set up and ready to go in minutes. No longer do you have the learning curve of learning coding and spending hours setting your site up.
First, you will need to decide what you would like your website to be about.
You could pick anything in the world, but preferably pick a topic that you enjoy, otherwise, you won’t enjoy building out your website, and you will give up when you get bored.
Every topic in the world has something out there that is related to something that you can sell, so you could even have something as obscure as ‘my baseball card collection.’
Do Your Research
Once you have decided on what niche you would like to go into, you will need to do some research to find out what people worldwide are looking for within that niche.
I do all my research with this tool.
Type variations of keywords that relate to the site you want to start and see if anybody is searching for the terms you put in. You also need to make sure there are less than 100 competing sites out there for the same keyword.
If nobody is searching for the terms you put in or if there is too much competition, it might be a better idea to go into another niche.
Your main aim should be to help people to solve problems and questions that they might have regarding your chosen niche, and then maybe to gently recommend something that will help them with their particular problem.
Keyword research, as it is called, is the lifeblood of your business. You have to do this, or nobody will find your website and you won’t get any traffic unless you are willing to pay for it.
Read more about how to do keyword research here.
Write, Write and Write Some More
Once you have your niche and your keywords nailed, you need to be proactive and write. You need to try and post at least 4-6 times a week on your blog, especially in the beginning so that the search engines start to notice you.
In most cases, the search engines may only begin to take notice of a website once it has 30 or more high-quality articles on it.
I use this keyword tool before I even start to write so that I know what my readers are looking for and I can see what type of questions people are typing into the search boxes and then I can write an article to help them answer their questions.
If you are writing without targeting keywords, then you will be wasting your valuable time, as nobody is going to find you, and if they do it will be by pure chance.
Learn As You Earn
If you are following any sort of affiliate marketing training, make sure you do the things that will generate you an income as you go.
So many people get fixated on the training and never take any action to take them closer to their goals, and this is one of the reasons that they never get anywhere on how to build an online business for themselves.
Leverage Your Good Articles
Over time you will notice that some of your articles are visited a lot more than others, and if you find people are taking action like clicking on your links or making purchases, then you know you have a gem. You would do well to leverage this article by using some sort of paid advertising to drive more traffic to it for even bigger results.
I would not delve into paid advertising without some sound training on the subject, as you could lose a lot of money if you are not careful.
Keep Building
Once you have your website on the go, you need to keep at it and keep building out your content. The more you do this the more your business will grow and the more people will visit your website.
So many people make the mistake of putting a few articles up on a website and then leaving the website alone thinking that in time people will visit it and they will make sales.
This is not going to work, as the Search Engines like to index blogs and websites that are active and evolving. If you keep adding helpful content targeted towards keywords that people are typing into the search engines, you are going to be viewed by the search engines as an authority site, and your rankings will increase overtime getting you more and more organic visitors.
If you are getting a lot of traffic organically, you won’t have to spend so much on paid advertising.
So the more you write, the better your business will do. This is how to build an online business that is sustainable over time.
The best investment you can make in yourself is to learn how to build an online business and you can do it all with this platform.
Get The Training
If you want to get the best of everything you need to know to learn how to build an online business from the ground up, you might want to have a look at the platform that I have been using for the last four years.
If you need a boost to get your business off the ground, try Wealthy Affiliate for the best tools and training in the industry.
Thanks for enlightening me about things that must be given importance in setting up my own website.
I am new to this and frankly, I am not well learned with the process. I am planning to have cabinets as my niche or anything about house/office organisation. I havent’t checked yet the competition regarding this. Also, I need to research on knowledgeable materials regarding my niche so as not to disappoint any readers.
I wish you good luck on your upcoming blogs!
All the best with your new niche on cabinets and office/house organisation. I am sure you are going to do well with this one. You will definitely find some low competitions keywords here to use.
Online business is a superb way of making cool cash at the corner of your home When I say cool cash, it doesn’t mean you start to make money after a week, no. So, anyone promising online business as a get rich quick scheme is only not straight forward.
Keywords are very important in writing because it can make your writeup become popular and easily accessible on the search engines. Online business requires a lot of time, effort, patience and commitment in order to make it through.
Thanks for sharing this detailed review.
Thanks for stopping by Stella. As the title suggests, this is how to build a sustainable online business, not overnight, but one over time that pays you again and again in the future.
May I know if I can only blog 1-2 times a week but it is a really long article, will that compensate for 4-6 blogs a week?Also if the higher frequency of blogging will drive more traffic, do you have any suggestions of any other methods to drive traffic to the website as well? Really appreciate your kind advice on this area. Thank you!
I find when I blog more, I get more traffic and vice versa. If you can consistently produce at least one long article of over 1000 words to your blog each week, it will grow, although obviously a bit slower than posting more often. I have blogs I post to once each week and others even less, and they are still getting good traffic organically. It just takes time and patience if you are going slow.
Hello, thank you for your post.
You have well synthesized the problem of creating your own business online by creating a website being ranked on google search engines. I totally agree that good content articles make all the difference: for the number of clients and for the Google rankings.
I also experienced the Jaaxy Keyword Tool with like you say, it works very well. You stress that it’s better to write a key sentence (3 words or more) than just putting single keywords in the text. It is trough but not always easy to make harmonious sentences. But I know long tail keyword phrases are best.
As for the overall help of building an online business, I find a lot of help in the program WealthyAffiliate.
It is far easier to find long tail keyword phrases with less competition than short key phrases which are harder to rank for. Unless of course, your niche isn’t a competitive one.
You are right to say that Wealthy Affiliate is the way to go. That is where I learned most of the things I need to know about building an online business.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Hi Michel,
Great steps on how to build an online business that is sustainable! But do you think of the proliferation of the internet that has simplified the process of starting an online business will diminish the success of would-be entrepreneurs?
Further, besides affiliate marketing – the best online business model to make money online, what is the other best online business ideas to start for 2019 and that can be sustainable in the long-term?
Best wishes.
I think there is so much out there to sell, that the markets won’t get flooded, maybe only certain markets.
The other method to make money online is to sell your own products and build lists of subscribers. I believe many people are making an excellent living doing just this.
Hello Michel. I’m new to affiliate marketing (about 3 months) and your article helped me remember some crucial things i need to remember that will help me actually make a profit.
Firstly, you need a niche that you are interested about and if you find that out before starting, it will be a plus for your time.
Secondly, the fact that you need to publish posts regularly and with a low competition keyword is crucial because that will affect your rankings in the search engines.
Finally, you must find a pace of learning and blogging so as to learn new techniques and new ways to improve your website.
Wealthy Affiliate is a good place to start and if you have many questions, ask them as soon as possible (if they are not already answered) so that you don’t have something that bothers you and hold you back.
Have a nice day.
Thanks for the feedback, George. The awesome thing about Wealthy Affiliate is that you can Earn while you Learn, as you are continuously putting into practice what you are learning from them.