Internet business is one of the most common thing people do these days.
Why? It is because getting a business online has become really easy and cheaper to execute.
However, this doesn’t mean that everyone can hop on to the online business playground easily with a low investment. If you are lacking knowledge and information in this field, you may end up spending much more than what you should have.
In this article, we are going to share with you the things you need and the steps to get your business online, with a mere RM500 initial capital which most grown-up can afford.
Step 1 (Cost: RM38) – Buy a Domain Name
First thing first, a domain name is like an identity and name for your online business. So go on and think of a good domain name and register it from as low as RM38/year for .com/.biz/.net/.org/.info.
Our Advice: Try not to use hypen in your domain name unless most of your desired domain names are unavailable and you are really desperate. Look for domain registrar which offer the same price ever year and not giving you a super low first year price and then shock you with a high price in renewal fee.
You can also try to include the keyword of your products in the domain, but do not need to force it out. Consult a SEO consultant or internet marketer if you need help in generating a domain name.
Step 2 (Cost: RM199~) – Buy a Web Hosting Plan
Now you have a name, you will need a space where you can upload all your website files and content into. Sign-up for the lowest or cheapest hosting plan will do for now, assuming you do not have much information or products to deliver. A 10GB diskspace, 100GB monthly data transfer, 64Mb memory shared hosting plan should be enough.
Try to take a local host, which mean the hosting provider is in the same country as you. This will ensure a faster website loading speed if your target market is from local.
If your target is not limited to the locals, you may consider to sign-up from an oversea hosting providers, as their prices tend to be cheaper.
Our Advice: Do not go ahead and choose the highest hosting plan because you were told by the salesperson of the hosting company. You are only wasting money on the extra. You never really know how much resources you need until you run your business online for a while, and you can always upgrade to a better plan later on.
Step 3 (Cost: RM30-RM60) – Register Your Business
No matter you are doing business online or offline, it is advisable that you register your business with SSM for legal purpose. You don’t really own a “business” until you register it, so go on and register your business in any SSM office.
For more information about the registration of business with SSM, kindly visit SSM website here.
Our Advice: The business name you register in SSM doesn’t really matter as you can always use a different name in your website or retail outlet. You can register using your full name at only RM30/year, which can help you to save even more.
Step 4 (Cost: FREE) – Design and Upload Your Website
Now that you have a proper domain name and hosting plan, you can now start to design and publish your website to get your business online. We recommend you to adopt HTML5 and CSS3 in your website as these are the latest standard and they provide better accessibility and browsers support. There’s some free html5 templates that you can download and use, so the design step can be costless if you don’t mind to spend your time on it.
Once you have done designing and coding your website, you can then use FTP to upload all the files to your hosting and your website is now LIVE!
Our Advice: Unless you have all the time in the world to spare, it’s highly recommended that you hire a freelancer or outsource the design work to a web design firm. Draft out the website plan with your designer, discuss the details and leave the job to them so you can focus on other aspects of the business.
Step 5 (Cost: RM150) – Advertise and Promote
Once you’ve done all the steps above, your website and internet business is now ready! Before that, make sure to proofread and double check every content and functions in your website. Ensure everything is in place and is able to work properly.
You’ve got your business online and now you need to let people know about it, so go advertise and promote your business like there’s no tomorrow! Telling your friends about it, share it on your Facebook ,Twitter, Instagram and other social media are all the free approaches that you can use.
Our Advice: If you are looking for a faster and better result, you can always engage in Google AdWords advertising service or Facebook Ads. If you have your own database on hand, mass email marketing method works pretty well too.
Allocate a small budget like RM150 and you will see traffic to your website eventually, as long as you’ve done it right.
Provided that you follow all the steps above, you will spend nothing more than RM500 in order to get your business online, or starting a completely new internet business.
If you need help in any of the steps above, kindly contact us and we’ll try our best to assist you in any way we can.
So what are you waiting for? Get your business online today!
Sanz Teoh
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