How To Set Up Your Online Business For Under $120

If you have a product that you want to sell, the internet is the best place to start. You can actually set up an online store for free with no investment and wait for customers to roll in. Here is how you can go about it.

Step no 1- Evaluate your product and the customer base you want for your products.

What are you trying to sell and whom do you want to sell it too? There are a range of niche markets and websites online that allow small business owners to sell their products for free. For example, Etsy allows their clients to list their handmade products and sell them for a minimal fee. The website will set up a payment process, a vacation mode and allow you to host as many as ten pages for your products. However, they only allow artisans and crafters to list their products at their website for sale. As a result, the main hosting platform is only for crafters and only customers who are interested in the crafting product will come to purchase. If you cant afford the fee, try free hosting sites like WordPress and Blogger which will also allow you to set up a payment gateway with the site for your store.

Step no 2- Link your products and your online business to social media pages

When you set up your online business, you do need to increase awareness about your product. Make sure that you link your online business to sites like Twitter, Facebook etc which are free. Tweet or update your Facebook page regularly to ensure that customers know about sales, discounts and new products that are released. Increased awareness means better traffic and much more business.

Step no 3- Start a mailing list

As soon as you have a few customers, make sure that you start a mailing list. Use Mailchimp has a free service by which they will automatically generate newsletters, discount flyers and brochures about your products as soon as they are ready for marketing.

Step no 4- Optional assets

There are a range of optional services that will require minor fees that you can include while setting up your online business. For example, you can use banners from Right Banners, a payment processor from Paypal, Shopping cart service from Ejunkie and special web hosting from Bluehost. These are paid services that are ideal if you don’t want to rely on the whims and fancies of a free service provider. Ideally, even with paid services, your total cost of setting up your business should come to $120 for the first year.