How to Create Your Online Business Website for Free or Very Cheap!

So here it is in a nutshell.... who am I? My name is Dr. Sarah Manongdo-Joya, and I am the webmaster of http://www.budgetweddingcenterpieces.com, http://www.saveafortuneonyourwedding.com, http://www.isavedafortuneonmywedding.com, and http://www.sarahjoya.com . Hmm, see a pattern here? It all started out when I co-authored the book "How to Buy Everything for Your Wedding on eBay ... and Save a Fortune!" during my own wedding planning in 2004.

After saving TONS of money by shopping eBay for my wedding, I kinda got sucked into the online wedding biz - it was so addicting! Now I run four websites, three of which make me money even in my sleep. My book continues to sell on amazon.com and has gotten tons of media coverage. I've appeared on live TV, and been interviewed on magazines and newspapers across the country. I've been asked before by friends and family how I got started with my website, so I will try to summarize it very easily here. And, aside from advertising, most of this stuff is FREE and can be done by anybody! I make great money as a doctor of optometry, but I love making money online too!

Your Product:

1. Know what you are good at or what you are passionate about. For example, do you like books? Sell books! Do you like weddings? Sell wedding stuff! Do you like to write? Write and sell your own e-books! I wrote my first e-book after visiting http://www.silentsalesmachine.com. That first e-book became my first published book by publisher McGraw-Hill!




2. Sell something you believe in, if it's something you make yourself, or something you use yourself. It can be an actual product (flowers, books, CD's), or a service (like petsitting, web design, wedding videography or photography, embroidery, etc).
   




3. If you are selling a product, find a good wholesaler who is willing to work with you: sending you samples of product, or even drop-shipping the product. Drop shipping means you take the order from the customer, take your cut, and place your order with the supplier, who ships the product IN YOUR NAME.
   




4. If you are purchasing and storing your product at home, dedicate a room or corner for your home business (for tax purposes). More on this later.




5. Customer testimonials drive business. Ask customers nicely for testimonials (text or photos or both) to help advertise your product.

How to Create Your Own Store Website (for almost free) :

1. Select a domain name that is catchy, not too long, and relevant to your business. For example, http://www.budgetweddingcenterpieces.com




2. Check availability for your website name on a website like http://www.godaddy.com/ or http://www.yahoo.com/. Minimal annual fees run around $10/year. Don't pay more than that! You will also get one free professional sounding email address, like sales@budgetweddingcenterpieces.com instead of yourname@hotmail.com .




3. You can set up this free email account to carbon copy to your primary email address so you won't miss out on any email inquries from potential customers.




4. You can also set up an automatic reply e.g. "Thank you for your email inquiry. We will respond to your message shortly. Please visit our website for more information." This feature is also helpful when you are away on vacation since you can set a vacation reply.




5. No experience in making a website? Sign up for a free hosting service like Google Sites http://sites.google.com/ where you can use pre-made templates. If you can type, you can make a website! You can also upload images on Google Sites. I use Google Sites because my website is more visible on the Google search engine, and there are no bothersome ads on your final page.
   




6. Set up your GoDaddy.com domain name so it will display your Google Sites webpage. This is called "domain masking" and "domain forwarding." So if someone types http://www.budgetweddingcenterpieces.com/ on their browser, my webpage pops up, and the header still says budgetweddingcenterpieces.com instead of sarah.manongdo.googlepages.com/budgetweddingcenterpieces.com (quite a mouthful!)




7. Sign up for a free PayPal account at http://www.paypal.com . PayPal offers tools such as payment buttons and shopping cart buttons, allowing you to accept secure online payments from anybody with an email address.




8. Sign up for a free StatCounter account at http://www.statcounter.com . There is a free tutorial on how to generate html code to provide you with a counter to place on your website. This counter will enable you to track WHERE your customers come from, how LONG they visited your website, and how OFTEN they return.




9. Sign up for a free account at http://www.123contactform.com . You can generate html to make a professional looking "Contact Us" form that you can design very easily.
   

Advertising your Website for Free or Very Cheap:

1. Sign up for a free account at http://www.vistaprint.com/, where you can easily get 250 business cards, 100 postcards, etc for FREE. Pay minimal shipping and handling. Give these away to friends, family, and local businesses.
   




2. Make a free Facebook page on http://www.facebook.com/ solely for your business. Here is mine as an example: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chicago/BudgetWeddingCenterpiecescom/108723057337




3. Consider signing up for Google AdWords campaign at http://adwords.google.com/ - only if you can afford around $50 a month for advertising.




4. Place your product or service on http://www.ebay.com/. You can advertise your website indirectly by emailing customers who purchase, or customers who contact you with questions. You can even get repeat customers this way! Plus when you get positive feedback, it boosts the image of you as a business entity.




5. Make a short video and post it for free on http://www.youtube.com/ . Tag your video with relevant buzz words for your business. Embed your youtube video onto your main website.
   

Have Fun and Get at It! Email me at sarah@sarahjoya.com for questions!