How to Start an Online Business

I wanted to figure out how to start an online business many years before I was actually able to accomplish it. More than a decade ago, I set out to find a way to work at home, have my own business, set my own hours and be my own boss. I researched, read books, and spent countless hours searching the internet to figure out how to start an online business. I was hoping to find a way to start an online business about something I’m actually interested in.

So Many Scams!

Honestly, I cannot believe how difficult it was to find out how to start an online business! There were tons of scams, people offering to teach me how to work at home online if I was willing to pay them a ton of money for doing so. I fell for one of those scams, and wasted money and several months of my time pursuing something that had a zero chance of success.

How to Start an Online Business About Something You Love

Finally, in 2015, I found a company called Wealthy Affiliate. They teach Affiliate Marketing, which turned out to be the ideal online business for me. They provided the beginner training for free, and didn’t charge me for advanced training until I actually had my own website, knew what Affiliate Marketing was and how to do it, and was well on my way to earning money. And the best part is, they taught me how to start an online business about something I actually love!

How to Start an Online Business

Wealthy Affiliate breaks down their training to start an online business into four steps.

1) Choosing a niche (you pick the topic!)

2) Creating a website

3) Driving traffic to your website and

4) Earning Commissions

The First 5 Lessons are Absolutely FREE

The Free Starter Membership at Wealthy Affiliate includes all of Level 1 of their training. The Level 1 classes are:

Lesson 1: Getting Rolling
This training includes a welcome video from Kyle, one of the owners of Wealthy Affiliate who does all the training. He shows you how to set up your account, takes you an a walk-through of Wealthy Affiliate, describes the four steps to start your own business, and helps you set your goals. You can do this training for free HERE.

Lesson 2: Understanding How to Make Money Online
In this training, Kyle shows you how you make MONEY online. It includes a step-by-step video explaining the process, and help with creating your financial goals. You can do this training for free HERE.

Lesson 3: Choose a Niche
This is where Kyle helps you to choose the topic (or niche) for your website. It includes a step-by-step video explaining several points to consider when choosing your niche and how to choose one that will be profitable, and that you will love. You can do this training for free HERE.

Lesson 4: Building Your Own Niche Website
Kyle starts this training by saying, “Building a website ain’t scary – it’s fun!” LOL It includes Kyle’s, “Building Your Website in 30 Seconds” video, and teaches you how to choose what type of website you want, the website name and domain, and its design. He’ll also show you the many already-built-in features they do for you for your website. You can do this training for free HERE.

Lesson 5: Congratulations and Your Next Steps
At this point, you’ll be super excited because you will actually HAVE your own online business! You can do this training for free HERE.

By Completing These 5 Free Classes, You Will:

Learn how to immediately get “immersed” in the awesome community at Wealthy Affiliate
Discover the process of earning revenue online
Create and start working towards a list of new financial and non-financial goals
Gain instant access to over 590,000 niches
Choose your starting point niche for your business
Build your very own niche website
Be able to access the next steps in your journey to creating a successful online business

Wealthy Affiliate Premium Membership

Once you complete the 5 lessons contained in the free starter training, you’ll have the opportunity to upgrade to Wealthy Affiliate’s Premium Membership if you choose. The Premium Membership is $49 per month, or you can choose to pay annually to save money. This is where you get more advanced training and can take full advantage of everything Wealthy Affiliate has to offer.

Premium Membership Training Levels

The Premium Membership consists of 5 more levels, each containing 10-15 lessons.

Level 2: Building Your Own Traffic Producing Website

Level 3: Making Money!

Level 4: Mastering Social Engagement

Level 5: Achieving Maximum Success Through Content Creation

You Don’t Have to Figure This Out by Yourself

As you can see, Wealthy Affiliate teaches you absolutely everything you need to know to start an online business. It’s the business I hoped and wished for all those years ago, and I’ve been doing this full time since 2015 as a direct result of the training at Wealthy Affiliate.

The First 5 Classes are Free

There’s no time limit on the Free Starter Membership, which means you can complete the 5 free classes at your own pace. I can tell you from my own experience that by the time you complete these 5 classes, you’ll know whether this is the right online business for you. If it’s not, you can take what you’ve learned and keep searching for a better fit for you.

But if you’re like me, you’ll quickly see that what Wealthy Affiliate teaches can be used to successfully create an online business about absolutely any topic. I got excited…very quickly…when I started the training. I knew I had finally found a way to have my own online business!

What’s the Catch?

What most of the scammers online won’t tell you is that starting an online business takes work. You have to get real training and actually do the work. The classes at Wealthy Affiliate are easy to follow and each class contains as video, plus homework. I won’t lie, there were several times during my training that I had to watch those training videos more than once to get it! But I kept going, and I did every task they gave me. I listened to the instructor, gave the classes my full attention, took tons of notes, and did the work.

You won’t succeed if you don’t do the work.

There’s No Risk in Trying!

You can try Wealthy Affiliate for free, with no risk and no credit card required.

If you’re serious about starting an online business, I strongly encourage you to check out the training at Wealthy Affiliate. After 8+ years of working online full time, I’ve seen it all. Like I said in the beginning, there are so many scams out there and so many get-rich-quick promises. Don’t fall for any of it! Get real training that actually works. You’ll be so glad you did. Feel free to comment below with questions! Debra