Follow in my footsteps to learn...

How to Start an Online Business

“How You Can Make A Full Time Income (And More) From A Website Without Having Any Technical Experience.”

Dear budding entrepreneur and future online money magnet (yes, that's you!),

	My name is Evan Carmichael and I've been an entrepreneur my whole life. After some soul searching while traveling I thought to myself: “There has to be an easier way to run a business!” I loved to travel and wanted to keep it up and build a business that didn't rely on me working so hard. It was time to turn my website into an online business that could support myself and my lifestyle. I now make my full time income online and hired staff so I only work when I want to.
	When my son, Hayden, was born I took the summer off, checked in on my team every now and then and was able to spend time at home to be with him. If you can't build something that can run without you then you haven't created a company, you've bought yourself a job. The success that I've had would not have been possible without the Internet. The Internet has opened up so many opportunities that never existed before and has created a new class of wealth.
	I'm just a normal guy who likes spending time with friends, watching and playing baseball, salsa dancing, DJing, and playing Rock Band. I'm not a programmer. I'm not a graphic designer. I never took a website design or HTML class. I just used a variety of tools to help cover all the things that I wasn't good at (which is a lot!). I wanted to share my story with you and give you some of the same tools to get started yourself.

If I can do it, you can do it… and you can do it faster because I'm going to lay out exactly how to get started. Are you ready? Let's get you started…

Step 1: Buy A Domain Name

You can't run an online business without having a website. The first step you need to take is to buy a domain name. The good news is domain names are very cheap but you need to act quickly before someone buys your name before you!

I recommend using GoDaddy to buy your domain name. They always have the best prices and provide live 24/7 support services to walk you through the process if you have any questions.

Buying and selling domains can be a very profitable business in itself. Here are some of the most profitable domains that have been sold recently:

• Sex.com: $14,000,000 in 2005
• Fund.com: $9,999,950 in 2008
• Porn.com: $9,500,000 in 2007
• Business.com: $7,500,000 in 1999
• Diamonds.com: $7,500,000 in 2006
• Beer.com: $7,000,000
• AsSeenOnTV.com: $5,000,000 in 2000
• Korea.com: $5,000,000 in 2000
• Casino.com: $5,500,000 in 2003
• SEO.com: $5,000,000

Ever hear of Kevin Ham? Well he's an online entrepreneur worth over $300 million dollars. His only business is buying domain names like Christianrock.com and Weddingcatering.com and he makes $70 million per year from them!.

Today it's very hard to get one or two word keyword domains so you might have to get more specific as to what you do. A few tips are to:

• Add geography to the domain if you're a local business – ie. TorontoDanceSalsa.com
• Make up a word that didn't exist before – ie. Flikr.com
• Use GoDaddy's suggestion tool – if the domain name you want is taken, they will suggest alternatives that are available

Because domain names are very cheap you should also consider purchasing the other extensions (.com, .org, .net, etc). Some people called “domain squatters” like to look for popular domain names and then buy up the other extensions which will force you to either buy the domain name from them at a higher price later on or have your users get confused if they go to the wrong site. Two of my friends who run websites in Canada bought a .ca domain name and not the .com and squatters bought up the .com version of the name and are now asking thousands of dollars for the rights to the name. For $9 a year it's worth buying the other extensions now while it's cheap!

I've also bought domain names for businesses that I want to start but am not ready to get going yet. It helps ensure that when I'm ready to go I have the domain name already and don't have to pay someone else an astronomical price to buy it from them.

The bottom line here is if you're thinking about getting started online you need to buy a domain name and you need to get it today before someone else buys it before you!

I've already mentioned that I recommend GoDaddy and regularly purchase domain names from them because they are cheap, reliable, and offer great service. They've been gracious enough to offer EvanCarmichael.com readers a coupon code so you can save even more money on your next purchase.

SPECIAL: EvanCarmichael.com readers get 10% off any domain name using the Coupon Code "cjcsave10"! *** Click Here To Get Started ***

Step 2: Set Up Hosting

Ok, you've picked your domain name – now you need to set up the hosting. The domain and the hosting are the basics that you need to set up any website. The good news is that if you purchased the .org, .net, .info, etc versions of your site then you just need to set up one hosting account and have the others just forward to your .com domain.

I recommend using HostGator for your hosting. They have a 99.9% uptime guarantee, will give you a 45 day money back guarantee, and have no contracts or hidden fees.

Hosting is a simple business and there isn't much strategy to picking a hosting company. The key things to look for are reliability and price.

Reliability – You want a hosting company that will make sure your website stays up. Some hosting companies are plagued with downtime and hacker attacks. If your website goes down it's not only bad for people who are trying to access your pages but it can also negatively impact how you rank in Google.

Price – Hey, we're all entrepreneurs and are always trying to find the best deal possible. There's nothing wrong with that!

I've already mentioned that I recommend HostGator to give you affordable and reliable hosting. Because of the number of people I've recommended to them who have become raving fans HostGator has made it even easier to get started by giving EvanCarmichael.com a coupon code as well.

SPECIAL: EvanCarmichael.com readers can get $9.94 off the purchase of any hosting package using the Coupon Code "evancar"! *** Click Here To Get Started ***

Step 3: Web Design

Hands up if you're not a website designer and don't want to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to get a designer to make your site for you?

You're not alone! Luckily there's TemplateMonster and WooThemes which solve the design problem for you. Both of these companies provide ready-made web layouts created by professional graphic designers for as little as $20. Talk about cost savings!

When I got started these companies didn't exist… but I also didn't have the expertise to do it myself or the budget to hire someone. I had to beg and barter with designers to help me get my site launched which was a painful experience!

Fortunately there are companies that make it easy for you. I recommend WooThemes for anyone who is setting up a blog with WordPress. Their themes are top notch and easy to install. If you're not using WordPress and are running a regular website then I would look at TemplateMonster. They have a wide selection to choose from and have options for businesses from almost every industry from restaurants to consultants to real estate to software.

SPECIAL: WooThemes is currently having a 2 for 1 special running! For every theme you buy you get another one absolutely free! *** Click Here To Get Started ***

That's it! You're now up and running! You have a domain name, a hosting account, and a professional design, all for under $100. When you consider how much it can cost to get a business started up or to buy a franchise you're looking at thousands upon thousands of dollars. You're ready to go for under $100! Hopefully you're beginning to see the power that running an online business can bring and how the economics are set up so money that comes in goes straight to your pocket!

Stay tuned for a future article on taking your website to the next level and building your online business. In the meantime you should consider signing up for my weekly newsletter. It's free and every week brings you ideas from famous entrepreneurs like Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey, and Bill Gates. It's also packed with tips on how to grow your business, increase sales, and build a company.

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Sincerely,

Evan Carmichael