Cost of Starting an Online Business
If you are thinking about starting your own online business then the first thing you will have to plan out is your budget. It doesn't matter if you are going to run a simple blog or move your existing physical store to an ecommerce site. Create a budget and form a plan on how you are going to start making money. So what are the expenses that you need to include in your budget?
1. Domain Name
For the domain name, you want something short and catchy. I use GoDaddy to purchase my domains. If you can afford it, I also recommend buying your domain for several years in advance.
2. Hosting
This is something you don't want to go cheap with. You want 100% uptime and you want your site to load fast. If you are running a blog and don't expect many visitors to start, then go with a shared hosting plan at HostGator. You can always move up to a VPS or dedicated later. If you are running a complex site that will have a lot of processing, go dedicated right away.
3. Site Design
If you aren't a designer then pay someone to design the site for you. If you are starting a blog, then a WordPress theme should not set you back more than a couple hundred dollars. If you are creating an ecommerce site then you may have to spend more on custom programming. Shop around at a few different places to make sure the price is right before committing.
4. Writers
You've heard it before I'm sure but I'll say it again, Content is King. You want quality content and you want a lot of it so you are going to have to hire writers. This isn't just for your own site, but also if you plan on doing any article marketing then it's going to be tough to keep up with everything on your own.
5. Marketing
This could include Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or any other sort of advertising as well as a good email broadcaster. I use Aweber on all of my sites because they are reliable and fairly cheap.
Those are the five main costs that every online business should have as they try to get off the ground. Down the road you will want to look at purchases like a laptop to keep you up-to-date while you are traveling or if your Internet goes out at the home office. Once you grow bigger you will probably have lawyer and accountant costs as well.