Simplified Email Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

Did you know that one of the best ways to build and establish relationship, trust and credibility with your target audience is by integrating email marketing strategy into your digital marketing mix? Besides this, it is also an online marketing system which will provide you with ample opportunities to demonstrate your expertise in a specific subject matter and ultimately make it easy to recommend and sell products and services to your subscribers.

 

I must tell you that you’ll be making a grievous mistake in your small business if you’re not building a mailing list of subscribers either as a webmaster, blogger, internet marketer, ebook author, online business owner or digital marketer.

 

So, in this guide on email marketing tips for small businesses, you’ll discover how to set up a successful campaign and have higher ROI (return on investment) more than what you should have gained using any other digital marketing strategies.

 

But first, you need to have a website of your own to be able to effectively build an email list of subscribers from scratch and have control over your list members. And with WordPress CMS blog platform, it’s now a breeze to build a website and integrate a sign up form on it to collect names and email addresses of your prospects.

 

Creating a blog on self-hosted WordPress blog is free but you’ve to buy web hosting from a company that supports WordPress hosting. If you’ve not gotten a web host yet, you can purchase website hosting services from HostGator because they are relatively cheap and reliable compared to other web hosting providers.

 

The best part is that you’ll get a free domain name registration offer from HostGator hosting company if you sign up with them as a first time customer from this link.   

 

Our next online marketing tool which you should have in your arsenal is an ESP (email service provider). ESP is the company that will provide you with an email marketing software or autoresponder to set up your web form and seamlessly organize your list building campaigns as you like it. ESPs are a dime a dozen on the World Wide Web but you’ve to be careful with the reputation of the company you sign up with.

 

However, in this tutorial, I’ll recommend GetResponse autoresponder because they are reliable, cheap and have excellent customer support. In addition, GetResponse 30-day free trial will allow you to learn the ropes of email marketing before you dive in with both feet.

 

GetResponse pricing is quite affordable and user friendly for any beginner or small business owner to get started and make money online. With as low as $15 per month, you can start email marketing campaigns in any niche market and be rest assured that you’re on the path of business growth.

 

Click here to learn about GetResponse pricing from their official website

 

Thirdly, you need a valuable lead magnet to entice your prospects and blog readers who will give you their email IDs in exchange for your free gift offer. You can create any type of content and give it away for free in the form of PDF ebook, audio, video, podcast, webinar, infographic, etc.

 

But you’ve to make sure it’s a valuable content that your subscribers are frantically seeking for and cannot be found elsewhere gratis. And the best way to create relevant content is to simply answer some of the questions your target audience is asking. You can make use of good keyword research tool and question and answer sites like Quora.com or AnswerThePublic.com to discover these questions to answer for your potential readers.

 

Don’t forget that you’ve to create series of email messages for every specific campaign you’re working on. This will include welcome email message and series of autoresponder content which will be delivered on predefined days to your subscribers at a date set apart by you.

 

Depending on your email marketing strategy and promotional tactics, your content should always be a mix of transactional, navigational and informational materials. Promotional emails have to tie in with the type of content you’ve delivered. But you should not send blatant promotions to your subscribers simply because you want to sell and make money at all cost.

 

Fourthly, create a blog, optimize your blog, publish blog posts regularly that target keyword phrases and set up opt-in mailing list form on a page on your blog.

 

With that said, let’s dive into my top 20 email marketing tips for small business to get you started right away.

 

Tip #1: Be an Avid Reader and Learner

 

As an email marketer and online business owner, constantly creating value in the marketplace is non-negotiable if you don’t want to continually record high unsubscribe rate from your mailing list. But even as an expert, you can never know enough. And for you to become a guru or thought leader in your industry, you’ve to continuously be a student of learning. As the saying goes, “Learning never ends.”

 

Personally, I’ve come to discover that the more you read and learn from others, the more you realize the little you know even when you think you’re an expert.

 

So, connecting and networking with who’s who in your industry will be a great asset to you in the long run and it will also allow you to gain insights on better ways and means to run and grow your online business by leaps and bounds.

 

You can sign up for email newsletters of some of these subject matter experts (SMEs) in your industry and observe how they professionally pre-sell, promote and close sales for their products or affiliate products.

 

Tip #2: Become an Expert or Thought Leader

 

Majority of aspiring internet entrepreneurs misses the mark when it comes to how to make money online. To be honest with you, online shoppers, information seekers or web surfers are very wary and they’re not comfortable at all when dealing with a mediocre in any niche market with regard to his product recommendation or content published on his blog.

 

Even if you’re not a subject matter expert at the beginning, you’ve to strive by all means to become one sooner or later. The fastest way to do this is to pick the brains of others as you grow your business as I explained in tip number one above. It will help you to build a mailing list fast and sell more products and services that you decide to promote to your subscribers.

 

A thought leader should have more than the basic business or job experience to solve problems and pain points of his target market. He must have sharp presence of mind and adaptable.  You’ve to be abreast of industry news, technologies, emerging trends, and the like.

 

Starting a blog on Blogger was an idea I picked up from an expert who built a blog on Blogspot and later sold it for thousands of dollars. And as digital marketing coach and trainer, I decided to use his strategy to start a free blog on Blogger with a custom domain name.

 

If I’m able to manage and grow this blog to make $1,000 per month online, it will become a case study to teach my coaching students who are on a tight budget but have at least $10 to buy a domain name to start a business. This is how to read, study, learn and possibly become a maven in your focus market.  

 

Tip #3: Hone Email Copywriting Skills

 

If you ask me, starting a successful email marketing campaign is a Herculean task and not just a child’s play. It involves a lot of steep learning curve, work load upfront, digital skills, subject matter expertise and consistency. Little wonder why a lot of online marketers fall by the way side and give up completely with email marketing systems.  

 

The best thing to do is to hone email copy writing skills to navigate and succeed with your list building campaigns. You should carefully craft every copy that delivers the goods without being overly sounding “salesy” or promotional.

 

Your landing pages and lead magnet page must emphasize on benefits over features with bullet points, clear CTA (call to action), money back guarantee, and so forth. There is a lot to learn when it comes to copywriting but you can hire a freelance copywriter if you like.

 

By simply following industry experts via their email newsletters, you can learn how to write great subject lines and preview text to get high open rates. Using text and images in your email copy with brevity can be of immense value as well.

 

Tip #4: Include Social Share Buttons on Your Blog

 

As a small business owner, email marketing is crucial to your growth. The fastest way to reach out to your target audience is through social media marketing. And if you own a blog especially WordPress blog, there is social media plugins you can install and activate to get social shares.

 

Using social share buttons on your blog is one of the best email marketing tips for small businesses which I’ve received during my blogging career. The other side of the equation is creating high quality content that will resonate with your target audience. I call these pieces as content worth sharing and linking to.

 

Tip #5: Use Storytelling to Build Your Mailing List

 

If you want to excel in your email marketing campaigns, the best antidote is to create high-impact content that tells your own stories and experiences as well as that of your customers. It doesn’t have to be a palatable story anyway. It could be mistakes you’ve made, sacrifices you made, lessons you learned, and so on.

 

Telling stories about your business move the potential customer through the buyer’s journey with conviction. I’ve used stories to sell products and services of every description. For example, I use HostGator website hosting to get online, build websites and create blogs.

 

What I did was to take my readers and digital marketing training students through my sign up process and show them my HostGator billing dashboard.

 

 

This singular action tripled the number of subscribers signing up for my list. All in all, email marketing tips for small businesses is really about being creative with ideas that will benefit you and your customers. What can you do differently that is unique and acceptable to your ideal audience?

 

 

How to Optimize Your Blog

You can read my previous blog posts on how to start a blog and make money part one and part two. In today’s guide, I’ll focus on WordPress blog customization and optimization.

 

First, you’ve to start off by logging into your WordPress dashboard and tweak 2 or more settings in your account.

 

Go to the domain URL you registered and log in. in the example below, you've to replace "YourDomainName" with the actual domain name you bought and the "TLD" with the extension or top level domain i.e. .com, .net, .org, .xyz, .co, etc.

 

http://YourDomainName.TLD/wp-admin

 

For example, I'll replace YourDomainName.TLD with my actual domain followed by its extension e.g.

 

https://hustlevim.com/wp-admin

 

This will take you to your WordPress (WP) blog account dashboard which is basically the backend of your blog website. You’ll be working from this environment a lot. So, you’ve to take note of a lot of details as we go along and optimize your blog.

 

After you’ve successfully signed in, the first task is to change and update your password if it was auto-generated when you installed WP on your domain name except you manually imputed the password yourself.

 

For you to do this, take a look at the left hand side of your dashboard and locate “Users” icon as shown in the image below.

 

Click on the “Users” icon in order to see its sub menu. Now, click on “Profile” sub menu and scroll to the bottom of the web page where there is “Account Management.”

 

 

While you're there, click on “Generate Password” and overwrite the auto-generated password with the password you can easily remember. After you’ve done that, simply click on the “Hide” button immediately beside it and click on the “Update Profile” button.

 

You may be logged out after you’ve effected this password change. If this is the case, you should log in again with your new password. But remember to keep your new password safe!

 

The next step is to go to your “Settings” menu and click on it.

 

 

The first item on the sub menu is the “General” settings. Click on it and update the “Site Title” and “Tagline.” Essentially, your website title should include your primary keyword while the tagline should include your secondary keyword.

 

 For example, success in life blog, it may be:

 

Site Title: Success in Life Blog (primary keyword: success in life)

Tagline: Personal Development (secondary keyword: personal development)

 

Your primary keyword is the target keyword phrase which you want your blog to be ranked and known for while your secondary keyword is the second best keyword that you are also pursuing to rank for concurrently.

 

You should and must take the time to settle for keyword with low to medium difficulty based on your research.

 

My rule of the thumb is to target a minimum monthly average search volume of one thousand for my primary keyword and secondary keyword respectively.

 

After updating your site title and tagline, go to the bottom of the page to save your changes.

 

Depending on your choice as a blogger, you may prefer your blog website URL to look like either of the two options below:

 •    https://hustlevim.com, or

•    https://www.hustlevim.com

 

If you prefer the former, you don’t have to do anything because that is how WordPress comes by default. But if you prefer the latter, you’ve to go to the section on your general settings tab immediately below the tagline and simply add the “www” to “WordPress Address (URL)” and “Site Address (URL)” without the quotes and save your changes.

 

Always remember to save your changes after making an update. Again, you may be logged out after you’ve done this. Log in back and continue with your customization and optimization tasks.

 

The third step is to click on the “Reading” settings as shown in the screenshot below. What I usually do is to edit some items here from the default setting to my own preference.

 

The default setting is like this:

 

But my blogs reading setting is usually like this:

 

 

I will reduce the number of blog posts to show on my home page to 5 while the syndication feeds to 5 and “Summary” for each post in a feed.

 

I don’t want any of my blog readers or followers to read my blog post in full from his or her feed outside of my blog. If it is set to “Summary,” he has to visit my blog to read the whole blog post. This will boost website traffic in the long run.

 

The fourth step is the “Permalinks” settings. This is where you’ve to optimize your blog the way you want every post or page URL to be indexed and displayed. You’ll see some blog URLs with day, month and year while some will use keyword in the title.

 

For blog SEO purpose, it is advisable to set your permalink to custom settings by making use of keyword URL.

 

To do this, click on “Permalinks” and make sure the radio button beside “Custom structure” is checked. After you’ve done that, simply type the code below and paste it in the field beside “Custom structure.”

 

/%postname%/

 

And you should have a permalinks custom structure like this.

 

This will overwrite the default permalinks after you’ve saved your changes.

 

The fifth step is to go to “Discussion” settings and locate the section that says, “Comment must be manually approved” and tick the check box there and adjust the “Comment moderation” to “1 or more links.”

 

You’ll now have something similar to this:

 

This will make sure bloggers or spammers don’t invade your blog with spam comments and links that will dilute the power of your blog in search engines. Every time a blogger includes a link in the comment section, you’ve to moderate and approve it before it can go live.

 

It will give you modicum of sanity in your blogging career.

 

This is how to optimize your blog on a very basic level. You can use this to start a blog and make money. However, there are other tasks you’ve to complete in respect of search engine optimization (SEO).

 

This includes:

• Meta description for your blog using WordPress SEO plugin like Yoast.
• Making use of category and tags.
• Doing internal linking.
• Using H1, H2 and H3 tags where necessary in headings and sub headings.
• Including “Alt text” in your uploaded images.
• Using responsive WordPress themes
• Mobile optimization
• Etc.

 As I progress with this side hustle website, I’ll explain some of these SEO topics one by one.

How to Start a Blog and Make Money Blogging Online –Part 2

In part one of how to create a blog and make money, I outlined steps to build a blog and also explained blogging basics which I usually follow when starting a blog. I’m starting off today’s blog article with the discussion of methods and strategies to find affiliate products and services to promote and sell on your website without breaking a sweat.

 

But before I dive into the details, you’ve to understand that writing and publishing high quality content consistently is the foundation of building a successful blog. People want to learn from experts and you’ve to strive to be one of them in your intended niche market on a consistent basis and not by fits and starts.

 

This is why you’ve to be an avid reader in your industry in order to be abreast of news and information of your target market. Being the “first to know” is the first criteria of becoming a successful blogger people want to listen to and follow.

 

With that said, let’s dive in!

 

Step #3: How to Find Affiliate Products to Promote and Sell

 

If you really want to make money online for the long haul, creating a blog that provides value in the marketplace is what will matter to you as a blogger in the first place. But if you don’t have your own digital product or service to sell immediately or digital skills to provide and get paid from your blog website, the next best option is to promote affiliate products and earn affiliate commissions when you close sales for vendors.

 

So, I can confidently say that affiliate marketing business is one of the best ways to monetize your blog as a beginner and earn money online without breaking a sweat.

 

Now, how do you get affiliate products or services to promote and sell on your own website?

 

The first step is to sign up with reputable affiliate networks which are related to your industry or niche market.  You can then browse through their marketplaces and use keyword and/or other search parameters via the search function to find specific affiliate products to sign up for.

 

Some of these reliable affiliate network programs are Impact.com, Amazon.com, CJ.com, Clickbank.com, MarketHealth.com, JVZoo.com, etc.

 

The second option is to use Google.com or any other search engine of your choice to research affiliate programs to promote. You can use your “niche keyword” plus “affiliate programs” to find the product you can promote and sell. You can see an example of how to use keyword to find affiliate products using Google.com from the image below.

 

You can use different keywords to replace the word “affiliate” if you are not getting the required results e.g. associate, referral, etc.

 

Thirdly, you can reach out to a merchant, vendor or product creator who has no affiliate program in place on a personal level to discuss how he can create one if possible for you to sign up with. Some merchants don’t know the benefits of having affiliate program until you enlighten them about it.

 

Fourthly, you can follow successful bloggers in your niche market to see what type of affiliate products they promote. Heavyweight bloggers who own sundry digital products on sale still join good affiliate programs that complement their products and services and promote them to earn affiliate commissions.

 

You can sign up for their email newsletters and track links to products, services, software, apps, etc, which they are promoting and are affiliate links. You can then find ways to join the same affiliate network programs if possible. This is the best way to find high-paying affiliate programs to join as quickly as possible and make money on the internet.

 

Step #4: Conduct Keyword Research

 

At this level, you should tentatively have 2 to 3 complementary affiliate products you can promote even if you’ve not signed up with them yet. Your task now is to research and find profitable long tail keyword phrases to target when you write blog posts or optimize your blog for SEO (search engine optimization).

 

You should not forget that majority of online shoppers make use of search engines like Google.com to research information about anything before they take the decision to buy. So, if you’re able to discover these search queries which they type into search engines and write SEO articles about them, you’ll hopefully rank on the SERP (search engine results page) for increased free targeted traffic.

 

There are keyword research tools to quickly use to perform this task and there are free and paid keyword tools on the World Wide Web. Google Keyword Planner tool is free to use but you won’t be able to know keyword difficulty of each of the search terms. Ahrefs.com and Semrush.com are paid keyword research tools which you can use to determine if a keyword is profitable or difficult to pursue or not.

 

Another way you can discover keywords to write about is to go to questions and answers sites like Quora.com and go through questions people in your target niche are asking. You’ll also find answers from experts to these questions to learn from. The interesting thing here is that you’ll discover key word variants which different people type to ask questions and find specific information.

 

As always the case, keyword variations are usually location based because people are familiar and use different search queries. In some climes, web surfers may use “associate” while in another clime, they will use “affiliate.”

 

Yet, another method to find different keywords to work with is to go to AnswerThePublic.com and type your search query there in the search field and hit the return button. You’ll discover different types of questions people are asking which are related to your topic from the returned results.

 

Step #5: Get a Domain Name and Web Hosting

 

This step is the simplest of them all. What you’ve to do here is to register a domain name and get web hosting from reliable company so that you can create a blog for free. You’re going to use self-hosted WordPress to build a website. WordPress.org is built as CMS (content management system) software which makes it easy for blogger like you and I to create a blog website without knowing anything about coding, HTML or CSS. 

 

You can sign up with HostGator web hosting because they support WordPress hosting which makes blog installation a breeze. In addition, they have excellent customer support in case you are stuck with about installing your blog on a domain name. HostGator provides unlimited disk space and bandwidth for your web hosting services in case you’ve enough files or data and avalanche of website visitors to handle.

If you’re concerned with your website security in this age of hacking, malware, etc, you should consider getting reliable website hosting that is cheap and experienced in the business at the same time.

 

 Click here to go to HostGator official website to sign up and get a free domain name

 

Step #6: Install WordPress on Your Domain Name

 

Everything is now set to go if you’re able to purchase web hosting from HostGator or any other website hosting company that supports WordPress hosting. You can use the Softaculous app to install WordPress on your domain name by following their on-screen instructions and prompts.  

 

If you’ve successfully installed your blog, you’ll receive a message to that effect. There is no problem if you’re not installed WordPress before or you’re not confident that you can install WordPress on your domain name. I’ve written a mini blogging guide to teach you how to install WordPress blog using Softaculous app for free. Click here to download the ebook and use it to complete the task in a minute.

 

In my next blogging tutorial, I’ll teach you how to optimize your blog for maximum impact when you want to rank for money keywords on the SERP. This step will make or break your online marketing campaigns if not done right. I encourage you to bookmark this website and make comments below to ignite the discussion.

How to Start a Blog and Make Money Blogging Online

 

If you ask me, I’ll tell you that blogging is one of the best ways to start a side hustle business, build wealth from the web and achieve financial freedom goals in record time. And all it takes to start a blog and make money is for you to register a domain name and get web hosting.

 

And the best part is that you don’t have to be tech savvy to create a blog website in any niche market of your choice if you make use of CMS (content management system) software like WordPress.org. The icing on the cake is that with less than $100 business startup costs, you can build your own business from the ground up.

 

So, in this blogging guide on how to start a blog and make money blogging online, you’ll discover that starting an online business is easier than you think. Few months ago, I started this side hustle blog as a case study to teach my digital marketing coaching students how to get started on the cheap.

 

My main business goal with this side business blog is to create a blog and make money investing only $10 to register a domain name and then use the free hosting service from Blogger.com to keep it visible on the World Wide Web. I decided to buy custom domain name for this side project for ease of branding instead of making use of the long sub domain from Blogspot.com.  

 

But let me make it abundantly clear that blogging using free website hosting is not the best way to make money online for the long term. With less than $100 to sign up for paid web hosting services  from HostGator for a whole year, you can build a blog website and grow it into a full-fledged online business even if you’re doing it on the side in a matter of months.

 

I’ll gladly recommend HostGator website hosting company for you to sign up with because I use them and I’m fully satisfied with their web hosting services. You can click here now to get web hosting from HostGator on the cheap along with an offer for a free domain name registration.

 

I want you to know that it’s not rocket science to start a blog and make money and anybody can do it. So, if you’re searching for information on how to make money online with little investment, you can make use of this business model which I’ll discuss here for you to get started in earnest.

 

Obviously, there are three ways to create a blog on the internet:

 

1. Using the totally free method by making use of free blogging platforms like Blogger.com, WordPress.com, Wix.com, etc,
2. Using the partially-free option by buying a domain name of your own and mapping it to a free hosting site like Blogger which will allow you to use a custom domain to be configured to their free hosting services, and
3. Getting paid hosting option like HostGator website hosting services which supports WordPress hosting and use it to start an online business and work from home or anywhere in the world.

 

In this blueprint, I’ll teach you how to start a blog and make money using method (3) above if you want to maximize your ROI (return on investment). But if you cannot invest about $100 to start your own business online right away, you can read my comprehensive blog post on how to start a blog with Blogger by making use of their free hosting services.

 

First and foremost, I want you to know that blogging for money is not a get rich quick scheme. It requires hard work, smart work, consistency, focus and determination to make your business blog to become profitable. And you cannot do this in a twinkle of an eye.

 

Secondly, you’ve to understand SEO (search engine optimization), keyword research, content marketing, social media networking, etc, inside out in order to maximize your efforts, time, energy and money invested in building a profitable blog.

 

Just to mention it so that you know what makes a successful blog; there are three pillars that make blogging effective, namely: content, audience and the connection. Your first step to become a successful blogger is to create high quality content on a regular basis to attract your target audience and build your brand and relationship with your readers.

 

The second step is to know and connect with your audience. Understanding your ideal reader, prospect, lead or customer is critical to your success. Also, you want to build affinity with your target audience so that it becomes easy for you to sell to them from time to time. 

 

You’ve to understand that blogging is very profitable because it can be used to increase targeted traffic to your blog website through search engines and entrench visitors’ engagement. In other words, a blog is an amazing tool to start your own business and make passive income online.

 

Be that as it may, let’s get started!

 

Without going into the history of blog evolution, I’ll outline the basic steps to start a blog and make money.

 

1. Choose a blog topic to write about.
2. Research the market for viability of your topic.
3. Find and confirm if there are existing affiliate products and services already selling in the marketplace.
4. Conduct keyword research.
5. Get a domain name and web hosting.
6. Install WordPress blog on your domain.
7. Optimize your blog.
8. Set up data analytics.
9. Regularly publish content on your blog.
10. Monetize your blog.
11. Promote your blog.
12. Build backlinks to your blog.
13. Measure, analyze and improve on your metrics.

 

I’ll go through each of the above blog creation steps to explain what it really takes to create a blog and make money blogging online.

 

Step #1: Choose a Blog Topic to Write About

 

The first task in creating a blog is to choose a topic to write about. You’ve to take the time to do this because it will make or mar your overall blogging efforts from the foundation. The reason is quite obvious.

 

Choosing a wrong topic means your interest will wane over time and your blog will become inactive as you may derelict or be overwhelmed in publishing content regularly. The blog topic you should go for is a subject you know a lot about or you’re good at, passionate about or have keen interest in learning it. It will keep you keyed up in the life of your blog even if you’ve not started making money from your blog.

 

You can look at a broad market and from there niche down to select a topic with relatively wide coverage. You can take a look at the example below so that you’ll understand how to choose a niche blog topic.

 

Health >> Weight loss >> Diet for weight loss >> Paleo or Primal diet for weight loss

 

As you can see from the simple diagram above, the broad market is health. The next narrower market is weight loss. Now, as a blogger, I may want to focus on specific diets for losing weight. And I’m not done yet. I want to laser target primal or paleo diet for weight loss. So, my weight loss blog will start of by creating content around natural foods or paleo diets.

 

Side note: While picking a specific niche topic is a good start to build a blog, you should register a domain name with a broad meaning so that you can easily expand and grow your blog without limitations in scope. Instead of buying a domain that includes the keyword of primal or paleo, you’ll get a domain that has “health” or “weight loss” in it.

 

As your business blog grows, you can discuss topics on exercises, fitness, wellness, and so on because the domain name you registered is not restrictive.

 

There are various topics or broad markets to evaluate including:

 

• Jobs and employment
• Computer and internet
• Travel and tour
• Make money online
• Work from home business
• Etc

 

Don’t forget that you’re tentatively picking this topic for further scrutiny. In step two of this blogging guide, you’ve to conduct market viability to vet the profitability of your blog topic. If it fails the test, you simply revert to step one to pick another blog topic to evaluate.  

 

Step $2: Research the Market for Viability of Your Topic

 

The truth is this. You may know a lot about a topic to start your blog but it will not be profitable for you to invest money, quality time and energy to pursue it because the people you wish to target are not willing and able to spend money in that niche.

 

Your focus audience may just be teenagers or youth looking for free downloads on the internet or anything similar. But your goal is essentially to continually create valuable content for your blog readers which you can monetize to make money online.

 

The simplest and best way to conduct market research is to look out for problems, pain points or challenges of people you hope to serve. You can do this by actively participating in niche forums and online communities related to your subject.

 

Or you can build an email list of subscribers and conduct survey or send questionnaires to your list members for first hand information about what their pain points are and/or their preferred solutions to address them.

 

You can also make use of questions and answers sites like Quora.com to complete this task. People go to Q&A sites to ask questions about what they want to learn, seek solution or answer to their pain points or the best way to achieve a goal. By making use of the search function on this website will unearth a lot of information to work with.

 

A simple keyword research will show different queries which will reveal search intent of each keyword by close scrutiny. Obviously, there are markets you don’t need any research to confirm their viability but they can be competitive. In such markets, you’ve to look out for soft landing spot to start from.

 

If the market has been adjudged profitable by you, your next step is to find affiliate products and services to monetize your blog with since this is going to be our primary blog monetization strategy. 

 

I can assure you that on this topic on how to start a blog and make money blogging online, I’ll not leave any stone unturned. You can bookmark this blog because I’m going to publish all the steps in parts for easy assimilation so that you don’t get overwhelmed.

 

Where to Register a Domain Name to Start an Online Business

Before I point you to where to register a domain name to start an online business successfully as soon as possible, it’s important you understand domain name registration basics so that you don’t make the mistakes which majority of aspiring internet entrepreneurs fall into.

 

The truth is that a good domain is the most valuable digital asset you can have and it’s easy to lose it too if you don’t know how to manage it successfully.

 

Are you in a hurry to read further but to ahead and register a domain name for your internet business? No problems!

 

 

 

 

Click here to go to NameCheap registrar where to register a domain name

 

My Earnings Disclosure: Please take note that some of the links in this content are affiliate links. And, at no extra cost to you, I may earn commission if you make a purchase following the links. But I only recommend products and services I’ve personally used or strongly believe will be relevant to you or your business success. As it were, any company I partner with compensates me which helps me and my team to continually write and publish high quality content for my readers free of charge.

 

What is a Domain Name?

 

A domain name is a website URL (universal resource locator) which represents an IP address on the World Wide Web. It could be a word, phrase, alphanumeric or numbers only that takes you to a specific website when you type it on your browser’s address bar or by following a hyperlink text where the URL is embedded.

 

For example, HustleVim.com is a domain name with the .com extension or TLD (top level domain). When you type it on your browser, it may take you to a landing page, content website or parked page depending on who the incumbent owner is as at the time you’re reading this blog post.

 

As a beginner or newbie, you should know that registering a domain which has a high value is really building a solid and strong foundation for your web business. This is why domain flipping business will continue to be a viable and booming business in the near and remote future.

 

You’ll discover that domain flippers or investors are constantly buying and selling domain names on the internet because a premium domain name can be used for branding and promotion with ease by startups or existing business that wants to upgrade.  

 

Characteristics of a Good Domain Name

 

Before you can classify a name as poor, good or best domain, you’ve to look at a lot of qualities it possesses. The qualities of a good domain name are many and I’ll outline it here for your perusal. But you’ve to understand that no one domain name can possess all of these characteristics of a good domain name.

 

In any case, a good domain should have most of these qualities:

 

• Short
• Memorable
• Passes the radio test
• Brandable
• Not prone to misspelling
• No trademark infringement
• Commercially viable
• Rich in target keyword
• No numbers, symbols, hyphen or dash
• Easy to remember, type and pronounce
• Marketable

 

A good domain name should be able to say something about the topic of your web business without necessarily explaining it to someone. Again, if you own https://hustlevim.com, any visitor to the website should favorably expect to read about side hustle business ideas, all things being equal.

 

The only exception to not register keyword domain is when you want to invest in a brandable domain name. In this case, the business goal of this type of domain is essentially for branding and to simplify online user experience in some way. But huge advertising budget has to be made available in order to be able to create brand awareness as quickly as possible.  

 

Domain Name Registration Tips

 

It’s quite simple and easy to register a domain name. All you’ve to do is to visit your preferred domain registrar and use their domain name availability checker to confirm if your desired name is taken or not. I can tell you most of the time that the name you want to register will not be available for registration especially if you’re hunting for the .com extension.

 

NameCheap.com always makes it easy to buy a domain name from their web site. Also, it will make possible suggestions as well for other domain name ideas you can run with. You can quickly evaluate it and decide if you’ve to buy a domain name suggested to you on the spot.

 

Click here to go to NameCheap official site and type your domain name idea into the search box. You’ve to wait for few seconds after clicking the search button to get the results. If it’s available, you’ll be given the opportunity to add it to your cart before checking out.

 

I’ll advise you to sign up with NameCheap now before you start checking for available domains so that you can quickly register your domain on the spot if it is available. At every point in time, one or two aspiring online entrepreneurs and domain investors are thinking and generating the same domain ideas as you and me are doing. And domain name registration is on first come, first served basis. So, don’t allow another smart online business owner or domain flipper to beat you to the game.

 

Even if you’re not building a website or creating a blog on your domain, you can reserve it for later use. Sometime ago, while I was planning to start web hosting reseller business, I went online to check for a domain name I have in mind. As luck would have it, it was available for hand registration.

 

But guess what happened? I vacillated to register it on the spot and the next time I checked it has been registered by someone else! You should not let this happen to you. I can actually inhibit your motivation to start an online business if you cannot find a choice name to brand with.

 

Types of Domain Names

 

These types of domain names depend on the way you want to classify them. Broadly, you’ve:

 

1. EMD (exact match domain)
2. Keyword domain with action word or phrase attached
3. Brandable domain name
4. Product or service domain name

 

Exact Match Domain (EMD)

 

EMD is a domain name that is registered with a target keyword in it “as is.” Registering “side hustle business” (i.e. SideHustleBusiness.com) in that order as a domain name is an example of EMD because it’s a searchable keyword phrase if you look it up with keyword research tool.

 

If you get a domain as EMD and you’re able to build a website or create a blog on it with high quality content, you’ll be miles ahead of the competition. And if you optimize your blog or website and target low-competitive keyword phrases, you can rank higher on the SERP (search engine results pages) over time.

 

Keyword Domain

 

This is a domain with the target search query plus a descriptive word or phrase attached to it. For instance, HustleVim.com has “hustle” as the target word with “vim” attached to it to get a domain in this niche market.

 

Since, EMD are hard to find and register these days, people are getting more creative by appending action word or phrase to search terms to get a domain. Although there may not be outright SEO benefits accruing to keyword domain, I believe it can help in conversion because prospects and leads will have an idea of what the purpose of the website is.

 

Brandable Domain

 

Brandable domain name is creative in nature and it can help in future growth and expansion. It could be invented, blended, playing on a letter/word in the domain, and the like. A good example of a brandable name is Google.com. This is not an English word but invented which has become a household name and synonymous with search engine on the World Wide Web today.

 

Also, a lot of brandables have become popular in some way. Let’s take Lyft.com domain name as an example. What the owners did was to replace letter “i” with letter “y” and you’ll still come up with the same pronunciation of “lift.” This can be seen as deliberate misspelling in order to come up with something that is unique and brandable.

 

Some domains owners do go to the extent of dropping a letter from English words e.g. Tumblr.com instead of Tumbler.com where the letter “e” is conspicuously missing. To be frank with you, getting these types of domain names is like searching for a needle in a haystack in today’s tech world.

 

Product or Service Domain Name

 

This type of a domain name refers to specific but generic product or service name. If you own HairShampoo.com, you’ll fall into this category. Product domain name should not be confused with EMD or keyword domain because there is a thin line of difference.  

 

A lot of domain investors scooped up lots of these domains in the early days of the internet and they use it as type-in traffic.

 

Domain Name Life Cycle

 

A domain name life cycle refers to the states a domain is assigned during its life time. As soon as a domain is registered and paid for, it enters an active status. This will, however, depends on the number of years it was paid for up to a maximum of 10 years on a row.

 

To break down the domain states, we have:

 

1. Active status
2. Renewal grace period
3. Redemption period
4. Pending delete
5. Deleted or expired  or available status

 

Active Status

 

A domain name is in active state when its period of registration or renewal has not expired. For instance, if I register a domain name for one year period on January 1, it is going to be active until the anniversary day of my first registration.

 

During this period, web services (both free and paid) being offered by the registrar which are related to this domain name should work properly without any encumbrance.  This includes URL forwarding, email forwarding, updating or changing domain name severs (DNS), and so on.

 

If you’ve a valuable domain name which you don’t want to lose for any reason, it’s always advisable to set your domain to auto-renew in your account with the registrar. As long as your checking account is funded, you’ll have no problem renewing your domain name since it will become automatic.

 

With your domain name in active status, you’ll be able to build a website or create a blog on it. Yes, just register a domain name and get web hosting and you’re good to start a blog and make money blogging online.

 

Renewal Grace Period

 

For some reasons best known to an incumbent domain owner, a domain name can lapse and enter into renewal grace period at some point in time. This is about 30 days or so (it depends on your registrar anyway) after the domain active status ceases because the owner eventually failed to renew it in order to bring it to an active state again. 

 

As it were, the incumbent domain owner can still renew it at the normal domain renewal price without paying any surcharge. This is the best time to renew and reclaim your digital asset if it is valuable to you without paying through the nose.

 

Redemption Period

 

Redemption period is a state of a domain name after the renewal grace period lapses. At this time, the current owner cannot get the domain back without paying restoration fees because the registrar must have requested the domain to be deleted from the registry.

 

For a domain name you should have renewed for only $10, you may end up paying as much as $120 to get it back via restoration. And most times, it’s a 50/50 chance of recovery because domain backorder services may also snap it up before your registrar does.

 

Pending Delete Status

 

Pending delete state is usually a 5 day period when the domain name is finally removed from the registry by deletion. What this means is that the name will become available for hand registration at the regular price.

 

But more often than not, a valuable domain name may have been backordered which will preclude it from dropping. A lot of these types of domain names go to auctions and closeout for buyers to pick up and purchase for a winning bid.

 

Where to Register a Domain Name

 

Domain registrars and their resellers are saddled with the responsibilities of registering and managing domain names in their custody. For you to be on the safe side, it’s advisable to sign up with ICANN accredited domain registrar.

 

Also, web hosting companies carry out the business of domain name registration as well. If you want to buy a domain name and purchase web hosting at the same time and place to start your own business online, you can get that from a reliable web host like HostGator. They will give you a free domain name of your choice when you sign up for their web hosting services.

 

Otherwise, you can go with domain registrar like NameCheap.com to purchase a domain name. This is how to check availability of a domain name.

 

First, click here to use the domain name search box on NameCheap’s website.

 

 

Then, go ahead and type in your domain name idea into the search field. This feature also doubles as domain name generator because it will suggest a lot of other domain name ideas to choose from in case your name is not available to register. 

 

You can go through the list of domains to see if any of the ideas appeal to you and buy it before someone else does.