Welcome to How2StartAWebsite.com. My name is Lee Floyd, and I have done extensive research to find the best, and least expensive, options to promote my products online without having to become a part-time programmer. As a small business owner of an importing business, I have gone the expensive route (professional web designer), the cheaper route (outsource to India), and the “Do It Yourself” route to start a website and an online presence for various products that I’ve imported. I searched online for an easy startup guide for a beginner to build a professional looking website but I didn’t find much, so I thought I’d share my notes and research on this website to make it easier for you. I’ll help you explore all the options and try to give you a step-by-step guide that will assist you in everything from choosing the best business entity for your business (if you’re just starting out) to building your brand and getting traffic to your new website. Here is a list of the 10 steps with plenty of details to guide you within each step.

1. Write a Business Plan – Before you start, you need to plan. A business plan will help you clearly define your goals & objectives and how you will accomplish them. You’ll better understand your industry, competitors, and the opportunities and challenges in the market that will help you form your strategy and timeline to reach your objectives. Click the link for details on writing your business plan.
2. Get Advice / Mentoring – A mentor that’s ‘been-there, done-that’ can give you valuable advise that could save you lots of time & money, not to mention headaches. Click here to find mentors in your area and what you should ask them.
3. Set Up Your Business – There are several steps required to set up a new online business depending on the business entity you choose. You’ll find valuable advise on each step below here.
4. Choose Your Product and How to Distribute It – If you don’t already have products or services you plan to market on your website, then you’ll find resources here to help you choose new products or services that can make you money as well as ways to distribute them without loading up your garage with product.
5. Analyze the Competition (10 Great Web Tools) – How well do you know your competition? You’ll find some great free & inexpensive tools to learn what your competitors are doing here.
6. Create Your Website – If you’ve completed steps 1 through 5, then you’re ready to learn how to start a website yourself. You may also choose to outsource it or have a professional create your website and we’ll give you some guidelines and resources to help with that as well.
7. Choose Accounting Software (w/Reviews) – You’ll need to keep track of all of your income and expenses and we review and recommend the best accounting software to help you get started with your new online business.
8. Get Traffic To Your Website – A key to the success of any website is the difficult task of getting the right prospects to visit your website. Learn simple things you can do to increase traffic on your website.
9. Convert Website Traffic to Sales – Once you get prospects visiting your website, you need to be able to retain their interest and convert that prospect to a sell, and potentially a return customer if you have a residual return product or service, or other products that might interest the customer. Learn how to accomplish that here.
10. Build Your Brand – Whether your building a brand for a new product / service, or branding your domain name as a place customers can visit and trust for good quality products /services, then we have some simple steps to help you accomplish building your brand here.