How to Make Your Online Business Grow

Starting a business online is one thing, but today I’d like to talk about how to make your online business grow. That is assuming you’ve already got an online business started, but if you haven’t, then don’t worry because I’m also going to tell you what you should do to get started right now.

It has never been easier than it is today to earn money from your own online biz. And it’s never been easier than it is today to actually grow your online business. We are living in an amazing time in terms of technology and the internet.

Once upon a time you’d be lucky to get a bricks and mortar business off the ground. Before the internet came along, business was harder. Nowadays we can launch a brand new business on the internet in record time.

Starting an Online Business Today is Extremely Affordable

Not only is it super easy to start your online business today, but it’s also way more affordable than ever before.

Depending on what your online business is, the earning potential can be huge.

Success can also depend on which methods you use to make your online business grow.

There are affiliate marketers and bloggers pulling in over $100,000 a month with their websites. We’d all like some of that action, wouldn’t we?

You Can Start an Online Business From Scratch for Less Than $50 a Month

Did you know you can start a real and profitable online business for around $50 a month? That’s incredible. And I’m going to tell you how you can do that later on toward the end of this post.

Right now though, I’m going to discuss how to grow your online business. There may be a couple of things you need to pay for, but of course, every business needs tools and services, and online businesses are no different.

If you’re wondering how to startup a business you can scroll to the last section of this page.

I’ll tell you how you can start up for about the cost of a cup of coffee per day.

Maybe you’ve already got an online business. Perhaps you’ve already got your website which you could say is the “hub” of your business.

You must also have a host for your website.

Let’s begin…

There Are So Many Ways to Make Your Online Business Grow

I’ll begin by saying it all comes down to traffic and conversions. Without traffic (visitors to your website) then you basically have an empty shop in the middle of a deserted town.

You need traffic for any type of business, offline or online.

McDonald’s wouldn’t be in business if it weren’t for “traffic”, which is people who are visiting the restaurant because they’re hungry.

I mentioned conversions.

Conversions Are Just As Important As How Much Traffic You’re Getting

That’s because conversions are just as important as traffic.

Maybe more important!

It’s no good having an awesome looking website if people who visit the site aren’t buying anything.

So, traffic and conversions is going to be the backbone of your business.

Ways to Grow Your Business Online

Let’s consider the many methods there are to grow your business.

• Content Creation
• Proper Keyword Research
• SEO – Search Engine Optimization (On-Page SEO)
• Social media
• YouTube
• Join and participate in forums
• Make your website mobile friendly
• Site Speed
• Choose a Simple WordPress Theme
• Google Analytics
• Calls to Action
• Good Quality Affiliate Programs
• Push Notifications
• Create Sales Funnels
• Build an Email List
• PPC (Paid Ads)

Create Helpful Content to Attract Visitors to Your Online Business

Perhaps the number one method to grow your business is to create helpful content. When you publish content online, the search engines get updated. Depending on a few things, such as keyword research and domain authority, your content will begin to rank in Google, Yahoo and Bing, to name but a few search engines.

Search Engine Optimization sounds scary to the beginner.

SEO is not so scary once you learn how to do it. After you’ve determined the keywords you want to create content around, how you optimize that content using those keywords is vital if you want better rankings in the search engines.

Optimizing the content on your website is called “On-Page Optimization”.

I recommend Yoast SEO for that. It’s an awesome WordPress plugin that makes page optimization a piece of cake.

The goal is to get your content to rank on the first page.

The ultimate goal is getting the very top spot in the search results and is something we all aspire to with every bit of content we create.

We won’t be able to rank in the very top spot every single time, you’d be an SEO wizard to manage that.

Consistency is Key When Creating Content

When you consistently publish new content based around keywords people are searching for, and your content is helpful, people come to your site and read or watch your content. This sends a signal to Google and other search engines that the content is useful. In return, the search engines reward you by ranking your content higher in the search results.

In a nutshell, creating more and more useful content on a consistent basis tells Google that you’re serious and your authority becomes stronger. Each piece of content you create makes your website (online business) a little bit stronger, so to speak.

Some content will do well, some content won’t. But zero content will definitely not be helpful in growing your business.

The Key Takeaway

Business owners who consistently update their websites will see more and more traffic as a result. If you had a shop in the center of a busy town then it would be hard not to make a profit. The same goes for a website.

Traffic will grow as a result of consistent action in terms of creating helpful content.

If you’re really serious about making your online business grow you have to understand the more content you create (and the faster you get it done), then the more your efforts will pay off (and faster, too.)

A Proper Keyword Research Tool is Essential for Ranking High

Another thing that is essential is proper keyword research before you start creating your content. You have to make sure people are searching your topics in the search engines.

Personally I use a tool called Jaaxy because of its simplicity and accuracy.

Jaaxy keyword tool gets me ranked more often than I’d ever hoped for.

Jaaxy is just my personal choice, but there are plenty of other keyword tools out there.

Drive Traffic to Your Website with Social Media

You can get free traffic to your website from social media if you do it the right way. It’s no good joining Facebook groups, Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms if you’re just planning on spamming them with links to your affiliate offer or with links to your website.

Nope.

You’ll annoy a lot of people on these social media platforms and at best you’ll get something like a spell in Facebook jail. This is where Facebook will block you from taking any more actions on Facebook groups for a period of time ranging from just a few hours to 30 days.

Be careful how you go about attracting visitors to your online business when using any type of social media.

I wrote a post here about how to get traffic from Facebook groups.

The key takeaway here is not to spam social media. Social media platforms are meant to be “social” and not business stuff.

They don’t like it when you try to take people away from their platforms to your own website.

It’s  understandable. If you had a bricks and mortar restaurant business, how would you like people coming in and dragging your diners out to go visit another restaurant instead?

Don’t Be a Spammer!

But…all that being said, there are proper ways to get traffic from social media that won’t get you in trouble.

Learn one or two methods of getting traffic from social media and go with it until you’ve mastered it.

Don’t try to cover every single social media channel there is because you’ll be overwhelmed and it’s a lot of work if you’re doing it all the right way.

Stick with a couple or three if you want to make your life easier.

It’s worth noting, you should definitely be building an audience on social media. A way to do this on Facebook is by creating a “Facebook Page” for your brand.

Focus on growing the page itself by sharing helpful content (from your own website and from others, too) on that page. Invite people to like the page, then they’ll see new content you add there.

Some people will inevitably visit your website through a link on your Facebook business page.

Groups on Facebook are similar to pages. Some groups have a zillion members in them and must be joined to be able to participate. You could also create a special group as well as a Facebook page. Groups on Facebook aren’t as useful today for traffic as they used to be. There are too many idiots spamming their scams in these groups. Use caution in these groups. Some are still good.

Social Media Platforms That are Great for Traffic

• Facebook (Your own profile, Your Facebook Page, Groups in your niche, Your own groups)
• Twitter (Add a link in your bio that goes to your website) post content daily here
• Instagram (You can only have one clickable link on Instagram, which goes in your bio, not on each individual image or video post)
• Pinterest
• YouTube – Create video content, after uploading it to your Youtube channel, embed the video on your site. It helps you rank.
• LinkedIn (it’s social media but more geared towards business professionals)

Add a Social Sharing Plugin to Your Web Pages

There are a plethora of WordPress plugins that are free or premium that you can add to your website. This gives your visitors the ability to “share” your blog post or other content to their own social media accounts.

Sharing is caring, as they say.

When someone shares your blog post to their social media, such as Facebook or Twitter, you are increasing the chances of more people seeing your content when they come from those links on social media to your website.

Some WordPress themes, such as Thrive Themes already have social sharing buttons already included. So it’s not always necessary to install a stand alone plugin on your site.

Start a YouTube Channel

YouTube videos you make can drive traffic to your website. Create helpful video content and insert a link to your website in the description below your video.

You’ll be surprised at how much traffic can be pulled in from your videos. Embed the videos on your website also for best results.

I recommend a little bit of proper training to show you how to grow a Youtube channel faster and get ranked on the first page of the search results. The name of this training is YT Supremacy by Chris Derenberger. It’s very well priced.

Get Visitors to Your Site from Forums in Your Niche

There are forums online for anything you can think of. One great example of a forum is the questions and answers forum known as Quora

As with social media, you can’t just join a forum in your niche and start spamming links to your website. Taking Quora as an example, it’s supposed to be a place where you can ask questions (about any topic it seems) and get people who are knowledgeable to answer. The best answers are “upvoted” and so will be more visible.

Yes, you can answer questions and even add a link to your site within your responses, but you must follow the proper procedure (etiquette) in order to do this. Overdoing it will be too obvious. Underdoing it will result in fewer visitors to your site.

A bit of balance is required just like any other forum. Don’t break the rules and you’ll be okay.

If, for example, I have a website all about pets, I’d join forums in that niche.

I’d post helpful content regarding topics about pets. (sometimes linking back to my website for even more details). I’d answer questions in Quora when I see pet related ones. This in turn will eventually get me “out” there and building up my authority and trust in that niche.

Make Sure Your Website is Mobile Friendly

More than 50% of traffic on the internet is now from mobile devices. That means smartphones and tablets.

That’s huge!

Make sure your website looks good on mobile devices.

You’ll need to make sure that your WordPress theme is mobile responsive (assuming you’re using WordPress, of course!)

I use and recommend Thrive Themes & Plugins. Not only are they mobile friendly, but they keep your site fast and functional.

Thrive focuses on “Conversion” optimization which basically means making nice looking sites that convert visitors into subscribers and buyers better through plugins that help with things like lead generation, quizzes, testimonials, and a whole shebangle of other goodies.

I’m a Thrive Themes Membership user.

This gives me access to all of Thrive’s Themes and Plugins. There are currently a total of 10 Themes and 10 Plugins the last time I looked.

You can, however, pick and choose individual themes or plugins without becoming a member.

The plugins do not require you to have one of their themes to make it work.

Google has a special page where you can plug in your url of choice to test its mobile compatibility.

Website Speed Counts More Than You Think

Did you know that if your website loads in at over 3 seconds, you’ll lose over 50% of your visitors?

People are impatient these days. Ensure your site is loading fast (on all devices). If you’re using WordPress, there are plugins to speed up your site speed. It’s also essential that your site hosting is good. Often times, shared hosting, such as that of hosting companies like Hostgator, Bluehost and many others that have cheap hosting packages will slow down your site.

Get dedicated hosting and look for SSD (Solid State Drive storage rather than old fashioned hard drive storage) if you want your site to load fast.

I’ve used WPX Hosting for about 3 years now, and I must say, I’m still extremely impressed.

Don’t install too many plugins on your WordPress site, as these can have a detrimental impact on speed.

Try any url you have on Google’s Page Speed Insights

Choose a Simple WordPress Theme for Your Website

People don’t come to websites to see flashy lights, animated gifs, bells and whistles. They come to your site for information. We often lose sight of this fact and get carried away trying to make our sites prettier.

The best converting sites are those that are simple with a clean layout, not too many colors, and not too many bells and whistles. Speaking of simplicity, when you add too many bells and whistles to your site, you’re shooting yourself in the foot anyway.

That’s because clean and simple site layouts load way faster. So there are two benefits to having a simple theme design. First there is the site speed issue and second is your visitors will have an easier time consuming the information they came for.

I recommend above all other themes, Thrive Themes, because they have gorgeous clean themes for your sites and plugins that work great to increase your conversions.

Learn to Use Google Analytics Properly

Google Analytics is quite scary when you don’t know how to use it. Get your Google Analytics linked to your website. It’s an essential tool to get to grips with if you want to analyze your website traffic. Google Analytics is free to use, it will help you a great deal once you learn how to use it. (Which reminds me, I’m no Google Analytics guru myself…ahermmm.)

Calls to Action

A call to action can be a button, or a link, or some instructions in text or in video prompting your visitors to take a specific action you want them to take. It could be to sign up for a newsletter via email. It could be to buy something through your affiliate link.

Make sure you have calls to action in easy to find places. One of the things I love about Thrive Themes is the easy to create call to action buttons. I can create buttons like the orange one below that link to anything I want, be it an affiliate product on another site, or another page on my own website. I love them. So easy to add.

[thrive_link color=’orange’ link=’https://beststayhomejobs.com/thrivethemes’ target=’_self’ size=’medium’ align=’full’]Click This Call to Action to Visit Thrive Themes[/thrive_link]

Speaking of calls to action, they’re not only buttons and links on your website. They can be links you post on social media, below your Youtube videos, on your Facebook page, etc.

Make sure you have clear calls to action wherever relevant.

Choose High Quality Affiliate Programs

Most online business owners, affiliate marketers, bloggers, and website owners go for decent affiliate programs and therefore make a good living promoting what they truly recommend.

Find the best affiliate programs in your niche. Go to Google and type in “YOUR NICHE” + “Affiliate programs”.

An easy example would be…

“Remote Control Drone Affiliate Programs”

This would obviously suit your business if you were in the remote control drone niche. Research carefully and don’t rush in to the first programs you discover. There’s a lot of them out there.

Push Notifications

Have you ever visited a website and seen a little popup that says “get notified when we publish content” or something similar?

These are push notifications. When a website published new content, a little notification will appear in your browser.

You can click on that notification and visit the site in question.

These notifications are a great way to get visitors back to your website, providing they’ve opted to be notified.

You can try PushAssist to enable push notifications on your own websites.

Some Tools Have to Be Paid For

If you’re serious about growing your business online, then you’ll know that investing in both yourself and tools and or services is one of the best things you can do to grow.

That being said, we don’t want to break the bank.

However, if you think in terms of “return on investment” (ROI) then you’ll also know that good tools to grow your business will pay for themselves at some point, and then some.

List Building & Email Marketing Will Help You Grow Your Online Business

Take email autoresponders, for example. Email marketing can take your online business to the next level. The purpose of list building is to retarget visitors who’ve already visited your site. If you’re not building an email list, get started as soon as you can.

You can get repeat visitors to your site through email marketing.

And you need an autoresponder such as Getresponse, Aweber or Convertkit to do that.

Which Autoresponder is Best for You?

I recommend all of them, for different reasons. Convertkit might not be for you if you’re on a very tight budget, but it is in my opinion worth the few extra pennies every month. I use Getresponse, Aweber and Convertkit, but on 5 different sites. That’s because I first started email marketing a few years ago with the Aweber.

Aweber is good but it’s pricier than Getresponse. When I started a new site, I tried Getresponse, and liked it a lot.

In time, when I eventually started another new website, I wanted to try Convertkit because I’d heard amazing things about it. And so I did, and I must say, it’s better than anything else I’ve tried. I wish I’d discovered it before using Getresponse and Aweber because then I’d be using it for all my sites.

(hint: it’s a pain in the bottom swapping email autoresponder services once you’ve already built a site and email list using one particular service. Hence I’m using all 3 autoresponders across five of my websites).

Here’s What I’d Do if I Had a Time Machine

If I had a time machine, I’d go back to the beginning of my first ever website and employ Convertkit from day 1.

The most affordable of these 3 autoresponders is Getresponse, so go with that if you’re hard up. If you’re not short on cash and you want the best one, go for Converkit. I wrote a blog post about how to build an email list using Instagram. The same process can be used with any traffic method.

Get started with your list building as quick as you can for faster business growth.

Create a Sales Funnel to Make Your Online Business Grow Quicker

I love sales funnels. They’re very profitable when done right. You’ll need tools like Convertri or Clickfunnels to help you do this. It can be done on the cheap by using your WordPress pages and an autoresponder if you know what you’re doing. Sales funnels done the right way can make you wealthier. Testing is always necessary to improve conversions.

A sales funnel works when you send visitors to a specific page which could be on your site or on a specially designed site such as Convertri or Clickfunnels. It’s here that the action begins. A Sales Funnel will automate the selling process for you. It’s completely hands off when it’s set up properly. Properly created funnels can 10X or more your revenues online.

Speaking of 10X profits, you should try this Webinar while it’s still available. There’s a lot of secret strategies covered to help you build sales funnels like a pro.

Scale Your Online Business Using PPC Advertising

PPC is Pay Per Click advertising. You may have heard of Google Ads, Bing Ads, Instagram Ads, Facebook Ads, and Youtube Ads, to name but a few. These methods can be a great way to grow your online business faster if you don’t want to wait for free methods to start paying off.

Solo Ads Are Also a Viable Paid Advertising Method

You can drive traffic from other people’s email lists using a method known as solo ads.

Be cautious that you use a good vendor. It’s always good to use a site like Udimi for best results.

Solo Ad vendors at Udimi are screened to ensure they’re not sending you dodgy bot clicks to your links.

You can get solo ad deals from 35 cents to 95 cents per click.

Proper Internet Marketing Training

If you haven’t yet got an online business up and running or if you’re struggling to grow a current one, then you should definitely consider learning how to do it all the right way.

There’s a community on the internet known as Wealthy Affiliate where you can get help with absolutely any aspect of starting and growing an online business.

Wealthy Affiliate was founded in 2005 by Kyle Loudon and Carson Lim and there are thousands of members who can share their experiences with you.

You can build and grow an online business in any niche you can imagine.

Included with your membership at Wealthy Affiliate are the following:

• WordPress Site Builder
• Web Hosting (for up to 25 websites you own)
• Keyword Research Tool (Jaaxy)
• Weekly Live Webclasses (Every Friday Evening)
• 24/7/365 Live Chat to get help right when you need it
• Classrooms with every online marketing topic covered
• A lucrative affiliate program
• Affiliate Program Search Platform
• Much more…

I should also mention that I’m an affiliate at Wealthy Affiliate and have been a member since mid 2015. I’ve accumulated a great deal of knowledge about internet markting, building websites and growing online businesses as a result.

I have some exclusive bonuses that I’m giving you for joining Wealthy Affiliate and going premium through my link below. There are 2 options upon joining. As a starter member you pay nothing.

Not a dime.

Everyone Starts at Wealthy Affiliate for Zero Dollars

You even get 2 websites with hosting and access to many premium features for the first 7 days. So there’s nothing to lose and everything to gain by joining up today and you’ll even have me in your corner to guide you through many of the pitfalls of growing your business online.

Wrapping Up

We’ve covered many methods to scale up your online business in this post today. Are you currently having a lot of success with any of these methods? Do you know of any other methods not covered here today?

Now you know how to make your online business grow, which methods are you going to focus on first? Comment below if you’d like to. Share this post using the social media buttons to the left. I’d appreciate it.

Many thanks, I’ll see you again next time.

Jim