How to Start a Business at Home - Part 1

If you want to work at home you're most likely going to need to be online, have a website and be able to attract customers with your web presence. Simple, right? Actually, yes. However, this will be very time-consuming. I have consulted dozens of stay-at-home bloggers, retailers and re-sellers, and I can confidently say it is possible to pull significant income at home. Be warned, however, you're realistically going to need another source of income until things take off.

I'm about to give you the best advice you are going to get to begin a business online that will fill your pool with hundreds. If you don't have a pool, buy one on credit because my advice will have it paid off in no time. I've got a delicious cigar in my hand, so let's have some fun, alright?

Intro to Internet Marketing

1. What are you selling? Don't waste your time writing a business plan unless you have investors; however, do write down a plan of what you plan on selling.
2. Get a website. Host your website on Wordpress.com or, simply put, don't have one at all. It's free unless you want a custom domain name which is very inexpensive. Do get a domain name, but not until you read number 4.
3. Buy an inexpensive logo generator such as Summitsoft Logo Design Studio. You can use this for all of your online graphics.
4. Now let's get to online marketing. Let me tell you right now: It doesn't matter what you think you sell online; it matters what people are looking for. Here's my point; go to Google's Adword Tool and use the top box to type phrases (known as keywords) that you believe people will type to find your products and/or services online. You will see that Google will show you how high or low your competiton is for each keyword, as well as how many people search it each month. You ideally want low competition and high local searches. Use the best keyword in your domain name if feasible. However, you might as well go for a high competition keyword if you are going to do this.
5. Ensure you are signed into a Google email account when you are researching keywords because they will list helpful keyword suggestions at the bottom. If you want to niche your business geographically, add a state or city name to your keyword. For example, Google search for "New Jersey Marketing Company" and see whose ugly face pops up. 
6. Each page on your site needs to include at least three keywords into your content as much as possible. Include it in the header, image alt-tags, and throughout the content. This is so Google knows that this is what your site is about.
7. Now ensure you are listing a link to your page on as many local directories as possible. Google Maps, Facebook, Manta, Patch, Google+, etc. This is known as "external linking" and it is what tells Google you are reputable. Then find great external article submission sites. Here is a great list. Don't just list your link; tell Google what your link is about by embedding it in your chosen keywords, like this: South Jersey's Sexiest Man. This helps your SEO dramatically. 
8. If you're wondering why I talk about Google so much and not Bing, Ask.com, or any of the others, it is because Google is the market leader. If you want to win, follow the leader.

That's enough for now. I'll post Part 2 later, and get into some really good marketing stuff that will destroy your future competiton. If you have a question, shoot it below.

To your success!

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Matthew Steffen is the president of Imprinsic Marketing in Haddonfield, NJ. He was recently featured in Forbes as a Consultant who avoids the BS.